The dominance of Confucianism in China (a typical example of vested interests resisting social change)

Author: Liu Xuyi
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-05-01
Features: Since the Western Han Emperor Wu abolished the Hundred Schools of Thought and upheld Confucianism in isolation, the Chinese imperial court has increasingly relied on, valued, and supported Confucian scholars, expanding the Confucian class. Confucian scholars, through the study, teaching, and interpretation of Confucianism, vigorously defended imperial power, expanded and reinforced it, and sanctified it. Gradually, both the imperial court and the Confucian class derived increasingly profound vested interests from Confucianism. To protect and expand their vested interests, starting from the Western Han Dynasty, the imperial court and the Confucian class cooperated to suppress and persecute other doctrines and social groups (such as merchants, technologists, and wandering knights), keeping Chinese society in a state of small-scale peasant economy maintained by imperial power and patriarchal systems. This social stratification model, where the vested interests of all components of the ruling class are aligned, made the ruling class's vested interests a very powerful force resisting social change. This is the reason why Confucianism has ruled China for over two thousand years and also a very important reason why Chinese society has struggled to achieve industrialization and modernization.