Confucian thought and China’s moral crisis

Abstract

Mainland Chinese society is in a moral crisis. A general lack of concern and sympathy for fellow citizens has become normal social behavior in a country where substandard food products are marketed for profit and injured individuals on the street are ignored by fellow pedestrians. Such phenomena are often ascribed to China’s recent economic development, which has proven too rapid for society’s moral and spiritual growth. This paper argues that there is a more fundamental reason for such problems, and that is the traditional Confucian ethical system. Confucian ethics provides ample wisdom to guide our actions in the context of specific social roles and relationships. It is conspicuously silent, however, in matters dealing with complete strangers and the anonymous public at large. The result is that the Confucian ethical system allows for serious lapses in public morality and social responsibility while permitting the individual to still be considered a very moral agent in all his fixed social roles.