This story from Chinahush is just another example of how the Sage is forgotten in his homeland:

Yesterday morning, deputy director of the State Sports General
Administration, the International Olympic Committee Vice-Chairman Yu
Zaiqing participated in the National Political Consultative Conference,
in subsector sports discussion, when talked about players making
speeches after winning, thanking their parents, Yu Zaiqing said “Kids
have some words in their minds that could not express out, when players
talk after winning, honoring their parents and thanking their parents
are correct, but their hearts must have the country, must put the
country first, don’t just talk about parents and that’s it, I must
raise this point.” He stated that (we) must enhance the moral education
of the athletes.

"Put the country first" gets it exactly backwards from a Confucian point of view.  Here's Analects 12.11:

Duke
Ching asked Confucius about governing, and Confucius said: “Ruler a ruler,
minister a minister, father a father, son a son.

How splendid!” exclaimed the Duke.  “Truly, if the ruler isn’t a ruler, the
minister a minister, the father a father, and the son a son – then even if we
had grain, how could we survive to eat it?”
 
(12.11)

齊景公問政於孔子。孔子對曰:“君君,臣臣,父父,子子。”公曰:
"善哉!信如君不君,臣不臣,父不父,子不子,雖有粟,吾得而食諸?

What this is usually taken to mean is: each person must first focus on cultivating his or her closest loving relationships and, when that is done, a broader social and political stability will emerge naturally, without need of strict laws and harsh punishments.  A son must concentrate on being a son – i.e. fulfilling obligations to parents and family.  Similarly, a father must focus on being a father: "cherishing the young" as Confucius says elsewhere.  What is not said here is that a son should place the country or government or party first. 

What should a ruler do?  Mencius is helpful here.  A ruler should work to make sure people have sufficient livelihood and material security so that they can carry out their family duties.  The ruler should serve the people, he or she should facilitate a son being a son and a father being a father.  We see this in Chapter 1:

…Therefore, in securing the people's livelihood, an enlightened ruler ensures that they have enough to serve their parents and nurture their wives and children, that everyone has plenty to eat in good years and no one starves in bad  years.  If you do that, you'll be leading the people toward virtue and benevolence, so it will be easy for them to follow you. (1.7)

Again, nowhere does Mencius suggest that we should "put the country first."

It would seem that Vice-Chairman Yu should re-read the early texts…

Sam Crane Avatar

Published by

5 responses to “China’s State Sports General Administration is un-Confucian!”

  1. Jeremiah Avatar

    I saw this yesterday and wondered what you would make of it. Thanks for the post.

    Like

  2. woaizhongguo Avatar

    Thnaks for a great blog. I am not so sure I agree with you that the comments are necessarily un-Confucian. It is pretty clear that in saying ‘son must be son, ruler must be ruler’ the comments by Confucius are making reference to the five relationships. Since one of those relationships invovles the ruler/citizen, it is natural to understand that one of the things an individual must do is to play out his role as a citizen, and that his would involve mentioning country when talking about your Olympic medal(though, I agree, not necessarily putting country first). Indeed given the amount of funding put forth by the government of athletes in China, there is a certain amount of ingratitude in not mentioning those who have contributed to your success.

    Like

  3. Christopher Avatar
    Christopher

    Of course since the gov’t is training the athletes not out of some great sense of charity, but only for the purpose of bringing glory to the motherland, perhaps accomplishing that feat is enough thanks and the gov’t shouldn’t be too insulted about being thanked after the parents.
    There’s no question about where Confucius stands on this issue (at least with regards to sheep stealing): the relationship between children and parents takes priority over the relationship between the state and its people.

    Like

  4. woaizhongguo Avatar

    Again, I don’t doubt the for Confucius the parent-child relationship takes priority. And it is certainly overstating the case to say country must come first. But it seems a Confucian could still say it was unvirtuous of the athlete not to mention a sense of gratitude towards her country.

    Like

  5. Sam Avatar

    Sports, to my mind, is not an area that Confucians would worry about, especially in terms of how one balances obligations to family and state (where, as Christopher suggest, Confucians generally emphasize family). After all, a gentleman does not contend…

    Like

Leave a reply to Christopher Cancel reply