The Cultural Revolution in a Confucian School: Radical Conservative Movement of Grassroots Confucianism in Contemporary China

Zeng Yukun

Dujing, literally meaning “reading” (du) “classics” (jing), is a grassroots Confucian education movement in contemporary Chinese societies. Originating in Taiwan in 1994, this movement has mobilized hundreds of thousands of youths to read Confucian classics aloud without regard for understanding, with the hope that repetitive recitation will eventually lead to eternal wisdom (dao). In its most intensive forms, seen in Mainland China, students read for eight hours a day for years and are often urged by parents (usually mothers) to drop out of legally mandatory mainstream schooling.

This talk explores dujing as a radical movement following a grassroots articulation of the New Confucian principle of autonomy, rather than a cultural revival determined by PRC's cultural nationalist policy. Attending a dramatic moral accident in the movement, this talk traces the pattern of cultivation, discipline, and alienation between students and teachers in the movement. Following a dujing student's emic comparison of the movement as "Cultural Revolution," it sheds light on 1) the potential and dilemma in Confucian moral idealism, 2) grassroots society in contemporary China, and 3) the pattern of radical moralization that crosses different political cultures in Chinese history.