Jiang Qing

As such, Jiang claims that there are problems with New Confucianism. First, it overtly focuses on the ideas of individuality and self-cultivation, causing familial and social relations to collapse. In this respect, New Confucianism fails to recognize how traditional social institutions can help transform individuals into sages. Secondly, it excessively emphasizes the abstract metaphysical concepts. This makes New Confucians blind to practical social and political reality. Thirdly, New Confucians believe that through individuals’ self-cultivation of virtue, external social and political problems will be solved. Because of this, they do not comprehend the critical role of ritual and legal systems in alleviating sociopolitical problems. Finally, under the assumption that the human mind exists outside of space and time New Confucianism resorts to transcendentalism. This lack of attention to history causes New Confucians to be unaware of the sociopolitical reality. Moreover, it betrays the Confucian spirit, for Confucius held that human beings exist at a point in historical and social reality; it is vital that they be defined by socio-political relationships according to the rites. Among other things, the fact that New Confucians predominantly draw on Mind Confucianism has made them oblivious to the values of Political Confucianism, a strand in which Jiang uses as the basis for his alternative solution. Moreover, Jiang believes New Confucians have inappropriately blended Western ideas of science and liberal democracy that are neither compatible with Confucianism, nor the Chinese society.

Political Confucianism, as opposed to Mind Confucianism, concerns society and social relations. As it comes from the Han dynasty text Gongyang Zhuan, it reflects a version of Confucianism concerned with politics and governing. Also, whereas Mind Confucianism assumes that humans are innately good, Political Confucianism more cautiously employs institutional systems to condemn bad human behaviors and immoral politics, thereby nurturing individuals to become principled beings. Moreover, it pays attention to historical lessons and strives to find a rightful form of governance, as illustrated by the idea of wangdao. In deriving his solution, Jiang is hugely influenced by this concept. Moreover, Jiang rejects the Western concept of “equality,” an idea that propagates liberal democracy. From the Confucian point of view, people are unequal—as they differ in virtue, intelligence, knowledge, ability, etc. Hence, it is not plausible to give everyone equal rights without considering their standings. Also, while every individual should be bounded by the law, this does not mean that everyone should have equal legal rights or obligations.

Jiang Qing was born October 1, 1953 in Guiyang to a relatively affluent family. As a child, he had a passion for Chinese poetry and classical literature. The political situation at the time drove him to undertake studies of Marxism and human rights theories of the West during his university years. Later on, perplexed by China's political reality, he studied both eastern and western religion. Eventually, he studied New Confucianism, which on the one hand advocates the mind philosophy and self-cultivation, and on the other hand tries to fit Confucian ideologies into the framework of Western liberal democracy. Given his deep appreciation and knowledge of the classics, especially the Gongyang Zhuan commentary, and the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, he was determined to find a solution for China's struggles. He believed that an embrace of Western ideas, especially democratic politics, liberty, and equality, is not suitable for China's development. This brought about his criticism of the New Confucianism, and his plan for China, which involved drawing on its own long-standing metaphysical moral and political values, as well as national identity, all of which are fundamentally different from Western ideologies. He also founded the Yangming Academy (zh:阳明精舍), a Confucian-based educational institution in 1996.