rethinking wentworth.

Last year, after being awarded the Wentworth grant from my university, I traveled to China for an independent study of The Analects of Confucius. I wanted to understand how his teachings had influenced China's culture, people, and society. I was intrigued that the Confucian teachings could survive the rise of Legalism, the book burning campaigns of the Chin Dynasty, the Mongol invasion and rise of the Yuan Dynasty, the moral erosion of the Tang and Ming dynasties, the Opium wars of the 1800s, and the Cultural revolution. Moreover, I was dumbfounded that his philosophy of maintaining a strong moral construct to benefit the whole of society could remain ingrained in a people that endured such intense and prolonged suffering. How could the Confucian concept of ren (仁）--to love someone--be transmitted through 2,558 years of wars, epidemics, famines, political discord, and communism? I still haven't figured it out.

However, due to naivety and ignorance, I neglected to recognize the unpleasant consequences of this patriarchal philosophy.

Before I continue, it is important to note that I do not align myself with 21st century feminist ideals. Unfortunately, I believe the current feminist movement is mutating women into alienating, bigoted femi-nazis bent on destructing the male population. Thus, my criticism arises from a humanitarian stand-point, not a feminist's.

The Confucian teachings promote filial piety as the foundation for a fair and loving society. Confucius believed that filial piety was the spring board for kindness, good governance, humaneness, education, and a strict moral structure. In strict contrast to Legalism, Confucianism dictates all human are innately good--always capable of kindness and love. I truly believe Confucius was the Superior Man he always spoke of--one who only discriminated between good and evil.

Unfortunately, Confucianism bled into Neo-Confucianism: a sick deformation of the original philosophy used to subordinate woman. Girls became possessions--their worth determined by the number of sons they bore, the size of their "golden lilies", and how well they obeyed orders. They were a mouth to feed--a burden to bear--worthless things. Even "Confucius said: "Girls and inferior men are hard to raise. If you get familiar with them, they lose their humility; if you are distant, they resent it [17:25]." Once raised, "marrying a daughter (was) like throwing out a cup of water*." Women led horrible existences--trapped in shells of sadness. Their greatest hope of happiness was to adhere to this belief: when a girl, obey your father; when married, obey your husband; when widowed, obey your son. These beliefs led parents to commit infanticide, men to take concubines, and society to be visually blind to horrific humanitarian abuses.

But why?

Scholar Xiao Ma has said: "Women always have been fighting for a way out of the Confucian shadows." So how does Confucianism apply to women of the past and present? This is the question I should have asked a year ago. I now understand that trouble broods when societies are studied on a holistic scale. So, I am re-thinking and redefining my past Wentworth studies and my current understanding of this prominent Asian philosophy. After all, "Confucius said: "Reviewing what you have learned and learning anew, you are fit to be a teacher [2:11]."

*Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, by Lisa See