China’s official Xinhua News Agency reports that a senior Chinese Communist Party official has reminded the increasingly religious ranks of the Party what they’re required to believe. From China party official warns members over religion (AP)

“Religious practice among Chinese Communist Party members is increasing and threatens its unity and national leadership, a top party official said in remarks reported Monday.

“Party members are required to be atheists and must not believe in religion or engage in religious practice, said Zhu Weiqun, a member of the party’s Central Committee [...]

“”Voices have appeared within the party calling for an end to the ban on religion, arguing in favor of the benefits of religion for party members and even claiming the ban on religion for party members is unconstitutional,” Zhu said.

“”In fact, our party’s principled stance regarding forbidding members from believing in religion has not changed one iota,” he said.”

A review of a Chinese article in which Confucian scholars apparently feel threatened by Chinese Christianity: “One would have to be deaf not to hear that warning shot across the bow of the growing Christian church in China. Having identified Confucius as a “cultural sage,” and his hometown temple as “the heartland center of Chinese civilization,” Wen raises the stakes to the highest level: Will the Christians seek to displace Confucius and Confucianism, and thus radically re-define Chinese civilization? What would happen to the government’s comprehensive call for “harmonious society”? With Communism effectively sidelined as a viable “state orthodoxy,” the call for some sort of revived Confucianism has become increasingly insistent. Simply naming its “soft-power” centers around the world “Confucius Institutes” indicates the government’s awareness that it must identify itself as the guardian of Chinese culture in order to retain ideological legitimacy.” Link: Confucianism and Christianity: Looming Confrontation?

Here’s a summary/review of a sociological study that makes some interesting observations about Chinese communities in the USA:
“In the process, they become part of the larger conservative-evangelical Christian sub-culture… Like their fellow non-Chinese believers, they decry the rapid moral degradation of American society and seek to bring their children up in a way that affirms traditional Christian values, which they also believe conform to the best in their Confucian Chinese heritage.

… “their becoming American does not mean giving up the Chinese identity. Instead, the church helps them to retain and reclaim Chinese cultural identity within American pluralism.”

“Political Confucianism” is the official ideology of choice in Mainland China, where some influential people are explicitly seeking to re-re-instate perennially useful Confucianism as China’s “state religion.” Here’s an explanation aimed at a Western audience by Wang Rui-Chang. For more introductory information, see “China: Dem0cracy, or Confucianism?”. There’s also “China repackaging Confucius” and “China unveils its ‘soft-power’ campaign: Canonize Confucius, no mention of Mao” as easy first introductions.

By coincidence, I also just today found this photo collection from the 1973-74 campaign to denounce Confucius.

We had more ancient Chinese philosophy for bedtime stories tonight – in DVD computer animated comic book form. Yeah, that’s right: a CG 孔子 on DVD. Jessica fell asleep sometime around, “If one can rectify one’s own self, what problems can there be in governing?”

By the way, “Confucius say” in Chinese is 孔子說. No doubt many of you have wondered about that ever since elementary school and that “Man who stands on toilet” joke. But it’s no joke to the PRC: New/neo-Confucianism is apparently the philosophy of choice on which the government wants to build China’s emergence… but I haven’t read any thing substantial about that yet.

Here’s two other tidbits from this evening’s enlightenment:

“If you repay an enemy with kindness, how will you repay someone who is kind to you? You should treat an enemy with decency and fairness, and you should repay kindness with kindness.”

“While your parents are living, do not travel far away. If you have no choice but to travel far away, let your parents know your whereabouts so that they won’t worry.”

Some day we’ll learn about this stuff for real.