ABSTRACT
These conservatives, then, were not really taking chingt'ien as their literal concern. It represented the traditional Chinese culture to which Chinese owed commitment. And in fostering tradition thus, in the 'national essence', nonConfucian way, these defenders of the old were not remote from the modern point of view. When they used the chingt'ien-socialist argument to confound genuine radicals, they were talking the radicals' language. But in monarchical days, when centralizing officials like Wang An-shih preached ching-t'ien to the conservatives, they were talking the conservatives' language. Ching-t'ien then was a fable convenue. These old traditional conservatives might charge their foes with hypocrisy in invoking tradition, with seeking really antiConfucian ends under a mere guise of loyalty to Confucianism. Yet, no one would then deny that the ching-t'ien tradition was really being invoked.
