Word: sagely
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...DEAF COMPOSER from the 1800s and a sage from 25 centuries ago seem strangely inoffensive targets for the Chinese, even on the verge of a New Cultural Revolution. After all, both Beethoven and Confucius are subjects for personal interpretation, reflection and appreciation, and, of course, both are dead. So for China-watchers, most of whom are reluctant to accept the ends, the means of China's Hell-for-the-Revolution-of-it policy grew more confusing with the recent attacks on the sage and the composer. The enemies of the often-paranoid Chinese have never been more elusive...
...ruling class. His greatest disappointment was his own failure to gain high office and from it, implement his "Way," but he passed on his theories of governing and Goodness through his disciples. Three centuries after his death, Confucius was no longer a moral teacher, but a legendary sage, "The Master"--a status he never sought--and his teachings were finally intertwined with state policy, even though morality...
...some aspects of Communist rule are reminiscent of these Confucianist ideas. Mao Tse-tung studied the Confucian classics for six years as a youth and never entirely escaped their influence. In his four-volume Selected Works, no less than 22% of his references to other writers are to the sage or his disciples-just short of the 24% devoted to Front-Runner Joseph Stalin...
Remaking Man. At the root of Mao's rejection of the sage is Confucius' belief: "By nature men are pretty much alike." He was convinced that human nature remained unchanged from tune to tune and society to society, only being affected by education. The Communist goal is to remake man in a new proletarian image...
...transform the nature of man. He wants to replace the Confucian habits of tranquillity, obedience and fatalism with a new Promethean man of struggle and combativeness. For him, Confucius continues to be a symbol of everything in China that represents hierarchy, stagnation and complacency. For that reason, the sage cannot be permitted to sleep in peace...