The Venerable Sage keeps popping up in the strangest places:
Prisoners in central China's Hubei province have built a sculpture of Confucius, the famous ancient Chinese philosopher, and prison authorities say it can inspire and educate inmates.....
......
"To correct your mistakes people have to go through the bitterness of confession and thorough introspection. Bringing Confucian culture into the prison is a way of educating prisoners, " said prison chief Shen Kanglong.
For the last four years the prison has been using Confucian philosophy, together with instruction in law, to educate prisoners.
The wall of the prison is painted with Confucian sayings such as "learning without thinking leads to confusion; thinking without learning ends in danger" and "for every three people I meet along the road, there will be at least one I can learn from."
I wonder if that sculpture is the "standard image"?...
In any event, I think that instruction in Confucian thought could be helpful to prisoners trying to remake their lives. What can be better than the message of helping others - whether that be parents or children or friends? Of course, one hopes that the kind of instruction they receive is not simple, mindless repetition of exhortations to never disobey authority, which is one form of "Confucian education." After all, Confucius believed that ethical judgment must be cultivated from the inside out. We have to learn how to look into ourselves and engender the will to do good. Confucianism is not about conforming to externally created rules and regulations; it is about a personal moral understanding that shapes conscience-driven action.
The program in the Chinese prisons does not sound promising, however:
Freudian theories of psychoanalysis also play a role in rehabilitation in many Chinese prisons, where inmates are offered counseling and encouraged to express themselves.
At Dongling Prison in Shenyang, capital of northeast China's Liaoning Province, prisoners are encouraged to talk to counselors or hit punchbags in a room with padded walls.
After fighting with their demons, the exhausted prisoners are allowed to lie down on a king-sized bed in the psychotherapy room and relax against a backdrop of light music.
Freud and Confucius? Not sure that quite fits. Punching bags, padded walls and "fighting with their demons" doesn't strike me as a Confucian approach.
Ultimately, whatever good Confucian education might bring to inmates, what is more important is what happens when they get out of prison. If the societies into which they are cast offer powerful incentives to do the wrong thing (i.e. act upon the most selfish of motives and not care about others), then all the self-reflection in the world may not be enough. I know that Confucius believes that we are responsible for making a good world, and that we should strive to do just that, but if you are down and out, rubbing shoulders with the most violent and desperate criminals, you might need a bit of support to find your way back the path of virtue.
What, then, is the Chinese government (or the American government,for that matter) doing to provide job opportunities and a positive social context for people coming out of jail? If we are going to take Confucianism seriously, we have to take it all seriously:
Out wandering with the Master near Rain-Dance Altar, Fan Ch'ih said: "May I ask about exalting Integrity, reforming depravity, and unraveling delusion?
"A splendid question," replied the Master. "To serve first, and let the rewards follow as they will - is that not exalting Integrity? To attack evil itself, not the evil person - is that not reforming depravity? To endanger yourself and your family, all in a morning's rage - is that not delusion?"
Analects, 12.21
Comments