Confucianism - Criticism

Criticism

For many years since the era of Confucius, various critiques of Confucianism have arisen, including Laozi's philosophy and Mozi's critique. Lu Xun also criticised Confucianism heavily for shaping Chinese people into the condition they had reached by the late Qing Dynasty: his criticisms are well portrayed in two of his works, A Madman's Diary and The True Story of Ah Q.

In modern times, waves of critique along with vilification against Confucianism arose. The Taiping Rebellion, May Fourth Movement and Cultural Revolution are some upsurges of those waves in China. Taiping rebels described many sages in Confucianism as well as gods in Taoism and Buddhism as mere legends. Marxists during the Cultural Revolution described Confucius as the general representative of the class of slave owners. Numerous opinions and interpretations of Confucianism (of which many are actually opposed by Confucianism) were invented.

In South Korea, there has been long criticism to Confucianism. Many Koreans believe Confucianism has not contributed to the modernization of Korea. For example, South Korean writer Kim-kyong-li wrote a criticism named "Must Kill Confucius, This Nation will be Solved" (공자가 죽어야 나라가 산다, gongjaga jug-eoya nalaga sanda). The writer said that filial relationships are one-side and blind. He writes that if these circumstance continue, social problems will continue to be caused by society and the government forcing Confucian filial obligations onto families.