China: Democracy, or Confucianism? by Xujun Eberlein (www.xujuneberlein.com) 徐軍,旅美專欄作家 Last October, when the CCP held its 17th congress, CNN reported the event with the headline "China rules out copying Western democracy." My first reaction to this headline was, So what? That spontaneous reaction might have been an unconscious consequence of my reading Political Confucianism by Jiang Qing (蔣慶), a cont共享會議室emporary Confucian in China. In this book, Jiang Qing draws a blueprint for China’s political future based on Confucianism. It is the first such conception since the 1919 May 4th movement that denounced the traditional Chinese ideology as a feudal relic and began the age-old country’s modernization efforts. 往年十月,當中共十七年夜召開之際,american有線新聞網(CNN)對這次會議進行了報道,其所用標題為“中國不考慮效仿東方平易近主”。我對這個標題的第一反應是:既然不考慮效仿東方平易近主,那還有什么政治途講座場地徑可供選擇呢?這種下意識的反應,能夠與我曾經讀過蔣慶的《政治儒學》一書有關。蔣慶是中國當代儒家學者,他在這本書里,為中國未來的政治發展標的目的勾畫了一幅藍圖,這一藍圖即是中國今后的政治體制必須樹立在孔教政治上。這是自“五四”運動以來初次倡導傳統的政管理念,而“五四”運動曾將中國傳統的政管理念作為封建遺毒打垮,從此開始了陳舊中國的現代化盡力。 It seems typical of American thinking to regard either a republic or parliamentary democracy as absolutely the only right model for all countries. For a political system to succeed, however, it needs to be rooted in the particular country’s cultural history. Throughout thousands of years, Ch1對1教學ina has never lacked great thinkers, political or philosophical. Which poses an interesting 舞蹈場地question: why does China need to adopt a Western model for its political system, be it Marxist communism or capitalist democracy? american人總是認為對于任何國家來說,共和制平易近主政體或議會制平易近主政體是絕對獨一正確的形式,這就是american人對待政治問題最典範的思維方法。可是,一個國家對一種政治體制的選擇要想獲得勝利,這種政治體制就必須植根于這一國家獨特的歷史文明傳統。幾千年來,無論在政治方面還是在哲學方面,中國都不缺少偉年夜的思惟家。這就引出一個饒風趣味的話題:為什么中國必須采用東方的形式來作為其政治體制呢?無論這種東方的形式是馬克思的共產主義還是資本主義的平易近主政治。 But it is true that China hasn’t had a great folk thinker like Confucius for quite some time. Especially in the communist regime, th家教ere has been no soil for such a thinker to grow. This frozen ground seems to have begun thawing lately. Jiang Qing’s Confucian orthodox thoughts, at least, have not been subjecte共享會議室d to suppression yet. 不過,中國已經好久沒有出現過像孔子一樣偉年夜的平易近間思惟家了。特別是在共產主義體制下,最基礎就不成能有產生這種思惟家的泥土。不過,這種逝世氣沉沉的禁錮局勢比來開始發生松動,最起碼蔣慶正統的儒家思惟還沒有遭到當局的壓制舞蹈場地。 Among the contemporary Chinese scholars actively seeking solutions for their country’s future, …