Chinese President Hu Jintao says more money needs to be spent on education because that is how to "foster a highly ethical nation." In a brief article in today's People's Daily, he pushes the "Eight Honors and Disgraces," a series of - yes, eight - slogans that exhort people to do the right thing, such as: "Be disciplined and law-abiding; not chaotic and lawless." As I have mentioned before, the "Eight Honors and Disgraces," is a combination of old socialist moralizing and even older Confucian rectitude. Except that it is an ersatz Confucianism.
While it is true that Confucius believed that education must instill moral character, he also believed that education, in the sense of book-learning and memorization, was insufficient, in an of itself, to achieve moral person-hood. What is also required is daily performance of social duties. It is not enough to recite a slogan. A moral person must, every day, live up to his or her commitments in action. Words not backed by action are insincere.
It would seem, then, that, instead of pushing anodyne slogans, Hu could demonstrate his Confucian credentials by actually responding to the intensification of official corruption (warning: big pdf, which may not be available to everyone) within the Party and bureaucracy that he leads. I am willing to assume that he is personally honest, but the crushing venality of his regime undermines his exhortations to live a moral life: thousands and thousands of cadres are abusing their public offices for private gain. Everyone knows this. It is a key problem of the regime and must be fixed before anyone is going to listen to the happy talk,
Actions, as Confucius reminds us, speak louder than words.
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