Using a flashy mobile phone and enjoying the music of the Taiwanese pop
singer Jay Chow, short-haired and soft-spoken Gao Yuanxiang looks like a typical
contemporary Chinese college student.
But his field of study dates back more than 2,000 years Confucianism, an
ancient Chinese philosophy and an official ideology.
Even Gao, 24, who majored history as an undergraduate, admits Confucianism
can be boring sometimes. "But once you get into it, you find it's interesting
and meaningful to modern life," he said.
Gao's school, the Confucianism School at Qufu Normal University in Qufu of
East China's Shandong Province, is the hometown of Confucius, known in Chinese
as Kong Fuzi.
The university's historical and culture background makes it the natural place
for the first Confucianism study institute in China.
Gao's courses include reading and reciting Confucianism's "bibles" known as
Four Books and Five Classics. These books were once the basis for a required
course in China's universities.
"Some say Confucianism is irrelevant to modern society," Gao said. "But its
ideology still influences every Chinese. It's still deep in our blood and flesh.
Many people just don't always realize it."
Gao's enthusiasm for this ancient Chinese doctrine is just part of a rising
awareness in the study of Confucianism in China since the 1980s.
Today whenever the word "harmony" the core of Confucianism is emphasized by
the central government, its philosophy goes back to that of Kong Fuzi.
"It has become hot in recent years," Gao said. "My tutors have travelled
abroad for academic seminars many times a year, and others from overseas have
come here. Clearly, the research has a bright future."
Last month, Gao's teacher, Yang Chaoming, 44, hosted an international
conference on campus in honour of the 2,557th anniversary of Confucius' birth,
which was on September 28. The conference invited scholars, researchers and
believers from home and abroad to exchange their latest achievements and express
their points of view.
The study of Confucianism has mushroomed in recent years at other
universities, as well. Last year, the philosophy department at Renmin University
in Beijing launched its school of "guoxue" (literally, national studies),
referring to traditional Chinese thought and culture.
The study of Confucianism is a major part of that curriculum. The school
offers a six-year series of undergraduate and graduate courses and recruits 20
to 30 students a year.
