But it's disappearance is more ominous, more dispiriting. For it now appears the hard-line Maoist faction in China's leadership is still a notable force exerting influence on the Chinese Communist Party. If it is not powerful enough to blunt the progressive direction of China's economic and societal agenda, it is powerful enough--or has the potential to be disruptive enough--to halt such a public embrace of this singular symbol of what the Communist and Cultural Revolutions had stood so single-mindedly against: the institutionalized Confucian values and behavior system that formed the foundation for imperial China.
In a post to this website last January, "Confucius in Tiananmen Square," I offered this introduction to the appearance of the statue:
In recent correspondence, a friend offered some China news and a reflection about it:Apparently not, or at least not so prominently, so boldly representing his "rehabilitated," resurgent self-confidence--his very presence in that place heralding the eclipse of Mao. More than the old-guard Maoist veterans could bear, no doubt. But this does not mean that the advancing national program to reclaim and teach Confucian values and identity is imperiled. Reporting has indicated that across venues and levels, the program is embraced and supported by the broader Chinese leadership. Let's hope that is true. And in 2012, there is scheduled a broad-based changing of the guard among the oldest, senior-most leadership of the government and military, offering further basis for hopefulness. The announced ascendency of Xi Jinping to succeed Hu Jintao as General Secretary and President marks the rise of yet another, even younger generation of more pragmatic, progressive leaders in China--and they will likely be replacing a number of the older, hard-line Maoist. At least, that appears likely.
"They just erected a 30 foot bronze statue of Confucius inTiananmen Square,facing the Mao Memorial. One of the rallying cries of the May 4th 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."
So, it is not unreasonable to expect that in a few years the statue of the old sage may again make his appearance at Tiananmen Square. But next time, we can hope it will be more open, more triumphant--that the leadership and people may feel safer, more empowered, to stand there with him, acknowledging that Confucius appropriately, perhaps necessarily, occupies a place as close to the heart of Chinese identity as anyone else.
At this time, China needs such symbols of identity, character, values and discipline as its leadership and people engage the considerable challenges to be faced in their global economic and societal ambitions. But in the short term, it is not at all clear what, if anything, will publicly follow from the statue's disappearance. Not surprising, perhaps, I've seen nothing in China Daily about it all yet. But the following article from the New York Times.com shares what they know about the statue's disappearance, and reports what they've heard about why it likely happened and what it means. From the NYT:
BEIJING — ...The sudden disappearance of Confucius, which took place under cover of darkness early Thursday morning, has stoked outrage among the philosopher's descendants, glee among devoted Maoists and much conjecture among analysts who seek to decipher the intricacies of the Chinese leadership's decisions. Although there were some reports that the statue had been moved to a less prominent location within the newly expanded National Museum, those who had a hand in bringing Confucius to the ceremonial heart of the capital were of little help Friday. Tian Shanting, a spokesman for the museum, which had unveiled the statue with great fanfare, said he had no idea what had happened. The sculptor, Wu Weishan, declined to comment, as did city officials who have jurisdiction over Tiananmen Square...
The statue's arrival in January at the museum entrance, cater-corner from the iconic portrait of Mao Zedong, set off a maelstrom of speculation, with many scholars describing it as a seismic step in the Communist Party's rehabilitation of Confucianism. In his day, Mao condemned that system of philosophical thought as backward and feudal; during the decade of the Cultural Revolution, Red Guards were encouraged to deface Confucian temples and statues. The scholar's ancestral home was destroyed, and bodies of long-dead descendants were exhumed and publicly displayed.
But that was then. Eager to fill the vacuum left by the fading of Maoist ideology, the party in recent years has been championing Confucianism as a national code of conduct, with special emphasis on tenets like ethical behavior, respect for the elderly, social harmony and obedience to authority. Since 2004, the government has opened more than 300 Confucius Institutes around the world to promote the country's "soft power."
Some academics say that placing a mammoth paean to Confucius a stone's throw from Mao's mausoleum may have gone too far. Chen Lai, a Confucian studies expert at Tsinghua University, suggested that those in the influential Central Party School who opposed the statue's placement near the square had been quietly agitating against it...Unrepentant Maoists celebrated the move on Friday. "The witch doctor who has been poisoning people for thousands of years with his slave-master spiritual narcotic has finally been kicked out of Tiananmen Square!" one writer, using the name Jiangxi Li Jianjun, wrote on the Web site Maoflag.net.
For those who have been heartened by the government's embrace of Confucian values, news of the statue's removal was devastating. Guo Qijia, a professor at Beijing Normal University who helps run the China Confucius Institute, said that only Confucian teachings could rescue China from what he described as a moral crisis.
--"Confucius Statue Vanishes Near Tiananmen Square," by Andrew Jacobs, The New York Times.com (4.22.11)
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