ABSTRACT
The ethical dimension of Chinese Communism and of the thought of Mao Zedong is partly shaped by the logic of Chinese reconstruction. In order to act as normative inspiration for individuals collectively engaged on building a new China it has needed to have both a continuity and a discontinuity with the Confucian past. That there will be discontinuity is of course guaranteed by the fact that we are after all dealing with Marxist morality, even if Maoism diverges markedly in some respects from Soviet and other Western interpretations of the tradition. It has a different class basis from the old ethic.
