A Report From Ch'üfu

Andrew Higgins reports on the "revival of interest in Confucius and other aspects of what Mao Zedong vilified as China's noxious feudal past" — Ancient wisdom of Confucius reverberates in modern China. "Confucianism, an elaborate system of moral philosophy and political theory, has always been a two-edged sword, both deeply conservative and potentially subversive," says the author. "Confucius prized hierarchy and order, but he also believed that virtue, not wealth or power, should decide who governs: 'If a ruler departs from benevolence, how can he be worthy of that name?'"

I visited the town they now spell "Qufu" in 1998, simply because it was halfway between Peking and Shanghai. Without quite knowing why at the time, I paid homage before Confucius' Tomb.