The Rule of Confucianism in China: A Typical Example of Special Interests Resisting Social Change

Author: Liu Xuyi
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-05-31
Features: Since the Western Han Emperor Wu abolished the Hundred Schools of Thought and upheld Confucianism in isolation, the Chinese imperial family has increasingly relied on, valued, and supported Confucian scholars, expanding their ranks. Confucian scholars, through studying, teaching, and interpreting Confucianism, vigorously defended imperial power, expanded and reinforced it, and sanctified it. Gradually, both the imperial family and the Confucian scholar class derived increasingly profound vested interests from Confucianism. To protect and expand their vested interests, starting from the Western Han Dynasty, the imperial family and the Confucian scholar 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 ruled China for over two thousand years and also a very important reason why Chinese society struggled to achieve industrialization and modernization.