Confucius in Tiananmen Square

In recent correspondence, a friend offered some China news and a reflection about it:

They just erected a 30 foot bronze statue of Confucius in Tiananmen Square, facing the Mao Memorial.

One of the rallying cries of the May 4^th Movement in 1919 was "Down with Confucius, Inc.!" a theme that has reverberated through the Cultural Revolution. Now that Confucius, Inc. has been dismantled, it is apparently safe to honor Confucius, Teacher.

In that I have been studying China's dynastic history, my friend's reflection brought to mind the transformation in the beginning of the Han dynasty.  The Han looked back resentfully at the short-lived Qin dynasty that preceded it, it's cold "legalist" philosophy, its Procrustean, often cruel prescriptions for societal order. Early in its evolution, the ruthless Qin had rejected and summarily cast out Confucian thought from the life of the court, scholarship, the army, and society. Then the Han, in turn, threw out the philistines and philosophy of the Qin, and restored anew Confucian philosophy, albeit a more pragmatic, more authoritarian, and nonexclusive version of it. To this day, the Han is revered for how well it reflected much of the best of Chinese culture and identity.

In a place and time when symbols and gestures imply so much--China, today--do I reach too far to see parallel implications in a statue of Confucius in Tiananmen Square? If the 20th century offered the Chinese people too much the experience of the Qin, might the 21st offer them more their proud identity and experience as "sons of Han"?