Last year I wrote about A Taoist Christmas.  I like that post and re-wrote it for a submission to China Daily, which I think was not published by Christmas in China.   But I want to pick up on another China Daily article, which reported on a group of students who are resisting the apparent cultural imperialism of Christmas in China:

As Christmas draws near, ten philosophy and education PhD students from
China’s top universities jointly publicized a petition on the Internet, calling
on netizens, especially the young, to be less excited about the exotic holiday,
Shanghai-based Xmnext.com reported December 21, 2006.

This is the latest instance of public resistance to western culture and
lifestyles in China. In the online petition, titled "Out of Cultural Collective
Unconsciousness, Strengthen Chinese Cultural Dominance" and dated with
traditional Chinese Era Calendar, PhD students from China’s most authoritative
universities including Beida, Tsinghua and People’s University hope to "wake up
the Chinese people to resist western cultural invasion".

     This has already been widely commented upon, most notably by Granite Studio and Danwei.  I will not rehearse the critiques here but, rather, use this as a jumping off point for what a modern Confucian might make of Christmas.  We know, from last year’s post, that Taoists can find something good in the Christmas story; so, today, we can ask, might Confucians?

      I think the short answer is, yes; there is something good, and Confucian, about Christmas.  But first let’s recognize what Confucians would have trouble with.

     Like their Taoist brethren, Confucians would step back from the central religious assertion of the holiday: the celebration of an earthly manifestation of a transcendent heavenly God.  But I think Confucians would not immediately reject the possibility that such a God might exist (Taoists, I believe, would be harder to convince).  Although Confucius did not rely upon the invocation of a transcendent God in his moral reasoning, his famous "silence" on the question of Heaven and the after life leaves the door open a bit.  We might say that while he himself may not have believed in a Christian-like God, he would not have rejected out of hand those people who did so believe.  In this regard he might be a mirror opposite of Pascal (who started from a belief in God but then opened a rationalist engagement with the possibility of the non-existence of God in his famous wager).  Confucius would start with a non-belief in God, but be open to the possibility.

     In any event, I think we can safely say that, at the very least, Confucius would be skeptical of a God-made-man.

    But there is something else about the holiday that Confucius would find quite agreeable.   The story is, after all, about family.  The central iconic figure is the threesome of father and mother and child.  It is a tale of devotion of and to the family.  Joseph is a good father, complying with the law but striving, even in his modest circumstances, to provide for his wife and child.  Mary, of course, is the ideal mother.  And Jesus, even if we discount his divine status, is a son who takes very seriously his "father’s" command.  It is easy to see how the Christmas story can be understood as a reminder of the necessity of cultivating our closets loving relationships, especially those centering on our families, a cental Confucian idea.

     Confucius would also like the way we actually celebrate the holiday; well, some of it at least.  Family gatherings, for better or ill, are routine this time of year.  We gather together, exchange gifts as signs of love and respect, and find whatever light we can in the darkness of the solstice.  Of course, the overwrought materialism of the season would certainly turn off the Venerable Sage.  But a pared-down, family-centered ritualistic celebration seems just what the Master from Lu would want.

     So, as we come together and create the ritual bonds that define family life – perhaps with a bit less extravagance than might be usual – we can bask in the satisfied smile of Confucius.  Our family time would make him happy.

     Merry Christmas!