Week 2: Update

The following post is intended to be posted earlier.

This week I’ve dived into previous government documents about Confucianism, especially those during the 1980s (Open and Reform era). I noticed a peculiar, sudden increase in the government’s focus on Confucianism as the economic policy shifted from a socialist one to a more market-oriented version. I have dived deeper, and I think the cause for this increase in focus is strongly related to the government’s attempt to maintain a socialist governing body while also having a liberal market economy. Confucianism helped to foster this development.

In addition, I have found many interesting comments about Confucianism made by historians, particularly Prof. Taisu Zhang from Yale. He’s only published a few books, but they do a good job of describing how Confucianism works in ancient China. I dived deeper into Prof. Zhang and found out that his father is actually a famous Confucian scholar in China. The academic school that he belongs to, the Xin Rujia school, is apparently an important part of modern China’s Confucianism research. I will dive into their work next week, and I will keep you updated.