THE PLAIN people of Beijing had only just gotten used to the eight-metre statue of the venerable ancient sage Confucius near Tiananmen Square when, as quickly as it arrived, it was gone.
Confucius’s disappearance at a time of political austerity has prompted online mutterings about ideological reasons for the sudden move – so swift that even security guards reportedly missed it.
The bronze statue has been moved from its top location at an entrance to the National Museum, near the Forbidden City. Some believe it is because Confucius is not popular enough among the populace. People.com.cn reported in January 70 per cent of those in an online poll were against the idea of the Confucius statue.
A worker posted on the official microblog of the Southern Metropolis Dailyon sina.com that the statue had been moved for repairs and may be brought back later. No official comment was available.
Mao’s Communists denounced Confucius and his teachings as counter-revolutionary, while his Red Guards smashed any evidence that Confucius ever lived during the Cultural Revolution (1966-76).
The erection of the statue in January was seen as a sign that the scholar, statesman and educator, who lived more than 2,500 years ago, had been rehabilitated.
In recent years, partially to try and deal with the problems of an increasingly materialist society, the Communist leadership has set aside ideology and turned to Confucius for inspiration.
President Hu Jintao relies heavily on the teachings of Confucius when he urges people to learn a “socialist sense of honour and shame” as a way of combating the eight “disgraces” creeping into society.
There were reports out-of-towners were coming to see the statue and revering it in a way that is positively counter-revolutionary. A photograph in the Global Timesshowed several tourists bowing down before it.
Since the Mao era, the Communist Party has sought to avoid the cult of personality taking hold.
Confucius lived from 551-479 BC and his philosophy dominated Chinese society for centuries, advocating ideas of achieving harmony through self-refinement.
The Analects of Confucius stresses harmony and obedience without any reference to God and such values sit easily with Marxism-Leninism. Or so it seemed until now.