As I apply Confucianism and Taoism to modern American and Chinese life, I am struck by a question: how liberal is China now?

    The question arises because both Confucianism and Taoism have to be accommodated, in the American setting, to the predominance of individual rights, the cornerstone of liberalism.  We cannot – perhaps should not – expect the inherent communitarianism of Confucianism, where an individual only has meaning in a social context and thus cannot really stand alone and claim distinct and unique "rights" outside of that social context, to operate in contemporary America.  To do so would be to consign Confucianism to irrelevance.  Instead, we need to find ways to compromise central Confucian concepts – Humanity, Duty, Ritual – with a general understanding of individual rights.  Some might say that such a compromise fundamentally destroys Confucianism.  I don’t think that is necessarily true.

     In any event, as I think through this question I am led to another: how liberal is China now?  Clearly, contemporary Chinese society is not built upon the kind of communitarianism that Confucianism traditionally assumed and reproduced.  Too much social and cultural change has happened in the past thirty years (or we could extend the analysis to the past century).  Too many Chinese people now understand themselves as possessing certain rights, which should not be violated by other individuals or, even, by the state.  This is an inevitable part of modernization, which detaches individuals from traditional collectivities and sends them into new social contexts where individualistic consciousness and experience are heightened.

     Of course, China is not as liberal as the United States: the legal system still does not allow for a stout defense of individual rights, especially against state interests.  But I think we can say that China is more liberal now than it was a hundred years ago.  I will not make any normative judgments here – i.e. that this is a good or bad thing – but just keep it to an empirical observation.  At this point, I am not saying that China should be more liberal than it is (though I am open to that argument), just that it has become more liberal than in the past.

      If anyone called me on this assertion and demanded more proof, I would probably turn toward popular culture first, where artistic creativity and individual expression are common place and increasingly popular.  I might also invoke the new law on land use rights, which does not go so far as to create a strong property rights regime, but is a step in that direction.  Notice how people have latched on to it all ready to defend personal property.

     If this is true, if China is more liberal now than in the past, it means that Confucianism in China today will look like Confucianism in the US.  Or, at the very least, a sort of convergence of Confucianisms is likely with accomodations being made between communitarianism and individualism in both places.  The trend will run, I would bet, in the individualistic direction.

    A more liberal China might also mean a more conducive environment for Taoist-influenced perspectives.  Taoism has always been more supportive of individualistic thinking and living.  In its rejection of heirarchy and distinctions, it recognizes the unique and equal standing of all things in Way.  All things move as one and the same, as Chuang Tzu says. 

    And that could  mean that a Taoist-inflected Confucianism might very well be the most fruitful and popular possibility in contemporary China. 

     One of the critiques of Yu Dan is that her reading of the Analects is overly influenced by Taoism.  But maybe that is precisely what makes sense in a more liberal China….