Meeting Confucius today
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By Kim Ji-myung
I hope I am wrong. But we Koreans in general are very straightforward, open-minded, blunt and confident about what we believe. You may agree that Koreans have rapidly become more globalized and sophisticated.
But still, we lag behind in some areas, which is not commensurate with our economic performance. And between you and me, most Koreans have never heard of the phrase ``politically correct.”
For example, we usually believe that old women are ignorant because they are not well-educated. We think young adults lack the wisdom to make any decent decisions on serious matters, as their lives have not been long enough to accumulate sufficient experience.
Many think all blond Caucasians are rich and highly educated, while all dark-skinned people are from poorer countries and immigrant housewives of ``multicultural families” have inferior genes.
We often think handicapped people also have problems in their minds. We think any woman would make a good cook, although professional male chefs may do alright at restaurants.
A female lawyer from Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture expressed her embarrassment when South Koreans took her as a kitchen helper at a restaurant because of her Yanbian accent. Koreans are also excessively conscious about their appearances, largely because of their own culture of prejudice-based judgment.
Just a few years ago, I could not imagine Park Geun-hye would succeed in her challenge for the presidency. In most Korean minds, a woman’s place was inside the house, and her voice should not be heard over the house walls. A woman president? No way, especially when there had been no female president even in the United States.
Many people, including myself, thought these strong black-and-white stereotypes in the mind of Koreans were hard to erase. Many experts attributed this to Confucius
(551 BCE–479 BCE), as the philosopher-politician has dominated our mentality for the past several decades.
Exactly as in the case of other world-class religious and spiritual leaders in history, no one recorded Confucius’s teachings with a tape recorder or notebook when he was actually talking with his disciples. It took several centuries for his words of wisdom to become compiled into books.
In accepting the teachings of Confucius, and employing them at proper occasions, the Korean way of misunderstanding ― or intentional distortion ― worked. Confucius is a target of love and hate in Korea. His influence is deep and widespread in people’s minds and everyday lives.
Confucianism in Korea underwent four differing phases of assessment.
Phase 1 (1900-1930) was an era of despair and frustration about Confucianism. We tried to negate it. Joseon Kingdom was so weak and ignorant as to lose her sovereignty to Japan after a long period of blind pursuit of benevolence and righteousness as Confucius had taught.
Phase 2 up to 1980 was a period when Japanese culture prevailed, while academic attention focused on the study of Silhak (meaning practical learning), a Confucian social reform movement from 18th-century Joseon Kingdom. Korean identity was under serious threat from Japanese colonial rule.
Phase 3 was the period of Confucian modernity. Confucius probably would have been totally confused if he came to Korea during this stage, but Western scholars suddenly claimed that Confucian values were the "locomotives of development” for the four economically successful tigers of Asia.
Confucianism had been blamed as factors against national development of Korea. But during the Asian financial crisis in 1997, Confucianism was again criticized for its anti-democratic authoritarian values.
Phase 4 is the coolest period for Confucianism and very liberal assessment is allowed. Confucianism is now considered as part of our valuable national heritage. The Korean government and people alike try to make use of this heritage in all areas. Confucian tradition and values are believed to lie underneath all cultural creations.
The so-called cultural content industry has succeeded in creating lucrative original Korean products in a global cultural world. They are strongly supported by firm Confucian values such as loyalty to the king, love for family members, trust among friends, filial respect and honoring the old.
Studying the teachings of Confucius has become a nation-wide hobby in recent years. It is part of a wave of street humanities renaissance. Young and old, men and women, online and off-line, people enjoy diverse lectures and lessons on Confucian teachings.
In the land of Confucius, China, his ideas have also made a comeback. Led by the Chinese government, many Confucius Centers in the United States and throughout the world are actively propagating Chinese culture. Such political initiatives have already drawn some skepticism from academia across the world.
We know that the Confucius we understand is not the authentic Confucius. However, this is quite natural, as his words were interpreted by many followers in both China and later Korea. Confucius did not talk about rules and ethics, but his image is now a creation that has emerged through interpretations of his ideas.
We were astonished to learn that The Analects of Confucius is in its essence very similar to some of the teachings of Western philosophers. When he mentioned "learning,” he meant the study of the art of living, which eventually aims at finding oneself.
Doesn’t it sound very familiar when you hear you should study to find yourself? Hopefully all misunderstandings about Confucianism will be corrected to help remove all prejudices from our minds.
The writer is the chairwoman of the Korea Heritage Education Institute (K*Heritage). Her email address is Heritagekorea21@gmail.com.