There has been a remarkable rehabilitation of Confucianism in modern China. During the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, Mao Zedong denounced the belief system as a vestige of “feudal” culture, yet Confucian ideas – particularly as condensed in the pithy prose of Dizigui – are now back with a vengeance. Chinese parents, alarmed by the pace of change and loss of traditional values, have seized on it as a way of giving today’s “generation of infamously spoiled single children” a moral compass. Corporate bosses have adopted it as a business code. Even the Communist Party, gratified by the emphasis on obedience and deference, has embraced it. It has been criticized as a “repudiation of modern educational values like creativity and scepticism”. As someone on Sina Weibo (China’s Twitter) put it after hearing the New Year’s Day reading in Beijing: “Dizigui is effective, but only for training slaves.” (Rachel Lu, TeaLeafNation.com, Washington)

Confucionism was never a religion. It was a sort of training philosophy for civil servants in the sprawling Chinese Empire centuries ago. So effective was it that Emperors came and went, but the Empire worked like clockwork, at least until the 15th Century. I am no expert, but it is probably true that it stressed efficiency and obedience over initiative and thinking for yourself. Ideal for the Great Party of the People then. By the way, the Empire fell apart because of corruption. Watch this space.