Making Marx a Chinese: Marxism and Confucianism in modern China

Abstract

The paper considers the character of relationships between the Confucian tradition, the representation of the entire Chinese culture, and Marxist doctrine in the social, economic and political realms of modern China. At first glance, Marx’s doctrine is suggested to be something alien to the Chinese mind. Nevertheless, the study of the experts’ positions in Marxism and Confucianism, the analysis of the relationship between the two doctrines in the proposed perspective, allows us to identify a growing necessity in the modernization of Confucianism. The paper discusses and compares the main ideas of two scientific studies that relate to human conditions, as well as the corresponding economic and social structure. Taking it into consideration, we came to the conclusion that Marxism, having provoked a discussion and brought Confucianism out of stagnation, became a deliverer of the Chinese culture from the torturous conservative values. The consilience of the main intentions of these two doctrines, its full potential, which is still do be discovered, plays an important part. Such a synthesis provides the emergence and fruitfulness of the original strategy of the development of communism in China, which could be called “socialism with Chinese specifications”. Thus, we conclude that both doctrines, Confucianism as well as Marxism, are equally complementary elements to each other in the current intellectual life in modern China. At the same time, we cannot help noticing that some experts tend to overestimate the importance of one of the elements at the expense of the other, and such studies also require thorough analysis.