ABSTRACT
I N the communist version of Chinese history, ching-t'ienlost its Confucian significance. What is the significanceof the communist version for the general fate of Confucianism?
There is a theory abroad-partly sentimental (China is 'for ever China', the cliche has it) and partly sceptical of dynamic potential in Chinese society-that the Chinese communist is not really a new man. Part of a dominant bureaucracy in a centralized State committed to public works, and with a set of Classics to swear by, he plays a role, allegedly, that Confucianists played for centuries. One of the things that might seem to support this is the dedication of Confucianists and communists alike to the study of history. But the central concern of Marxist historical thinking, of course, is with lineal development through stages, while Confucian thinking was ordinarily concerned not with process but permanence, with the illustration of the fixed ideals of the Confucian moral universe. The communist idea of progress, like Liao P'ing's and K'ang Yu-wei's, is both a break with conventional Confucian conceptions and a means of explaining the break away.
