Symposium puts China in spotlight

First lecture focuses on Confucian philosophy

A look at Confucian philosophy and the Chinese world view opened the 17th annual Flathead Valley Community College Honors Symposium Lecture Series on Thursday night.

Scott Wheeler, retired from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and now teaching at FVCC, painted the historical backdrop to "China's Place in the World," the theme of this year's six-week symposium.

China's people and leaders have held a remarkably consistent world view over the past 2,000 years, although Wheeler told the full-house crowd he could make an argument for 4,000 years.

That world view was centered in what was to become known as Confucianism and The Great Tradition, he said, in which the first duty of rulers is to be an example of sound ethical conduct to the people. Wisdom, righteousness, courage, altruism and, above all, love or "human-heartedness' define the virtuous ruler and the superior man. A knowledge of classic Chinese writings and the ability to reason from them were a prerequisite to civil service.

In China, the Mandate of Heaven is conferred not by a god, but when a leader is accepted by the people.

For example, that altruism was played out, Wheeler said, in the military's rush to blast a channel through debris when the May 2008 earthquake in Sichuan Province tumbled a mountain into a river. Government action averted disastrous flooding threats to millions of people.

Chinese tradition holds no creation myth, no belief in God or an ultimate cause to the natural world. Rather, there is a process that governs the cosmos and every part belongs and interacts in the order, Wheeler explained. In China, religion has always been more of a private family practice, tolerated by the government as long as it stays within the family.

During the Shang Dynasty, transitions of power flowed without fundamental disruption to Chinese society. The smooth changes lent a stability to an art tradition that culminated in a complex and sophisticated body of art.

Warrior rulers eventually replaced Confucian rulers, but still used the Confucian philosophy to reinforce their rule. Other philosophies and religions - Taoism, Buddhism and more - worked their way into China, Wheeler said, but Confucian thinking still guides the culture and fires the government's underlying goal of making a better place for its people even today.

The next event at the symposium is March 5 featuring Professor Steven Levine of the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center at the University of Montana on "Chinese Foreign Policy - China Shakes the World"and Bob Brown, director of the newly designated Confucius Institute at the Mansfield Center.

Other lectures in the series are:

March 12: Brig. Gen. Russ Howard, retired, Mansfield Center, "China's Strategic Relations - Short Arms/Slow Legs."

March 19: Terry Weidner, Mansfield Center, "China's Economy - The Good, the Bad and the Ugly."

March 26: Major Kwok Chiu of the United States Military Academy at West Point, "Communist China - The Cultural Revolution."

April 2: Eric Pei, FVCC Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence, visiting professor from Liaoning University in Shenyang, China - "China Today."

All lectures are free to the public and begin at 7 p.m. in the FVCC Arts and Technology Building large community meeting room in Kalispell.

Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com