Confucius goes green(2)

Grand plans

The ICEA has drawn up an eight-year plan of action. Its goals include educating people about the "Confucian approach to environmental issues" through temples and academies and cooperating with the cultural and propaganda authorities to deliver 100 lectures on the subject, according to the ARC website.

They plan to develop Beijing's Haidian district, home to universities including Peking University and Tsinghua University as well as the Summer Palace, into a "Confucian Ecological Town," though it didn't specify what that term means.

They plan to develop a network of 500 Confucian centers around the world by 2015, which "will serve as models of a simpler way of life, treading more gently on the Earth."

Part of the plan is to address the "environmental impact on Deng Feng, a major Confucian destination that receives 8 million visitors a year."

Feng Zhe, director of the Sihai Confucius Academy in Beijing and also deputy secretary of the ICEA, has talked about his idea of a "Confucian cultural ecological town" on several occasions.

In ancient times, people related by blood lived together, forming the foundation of Chinese society which emphasized filial piety, harmony among neighbors, and where everybody knew their place in society. In the Confucian town that Feng envisions, people would live according to Confucian thought and every aspect of people's lives would reflect Confucian concepts, from architecture and city planning to clothing and economy, according to an article on the academy's blog.

Feng said the Confucian Town aims to use Confucian teachings to guide people's behavior, their way of interacting with each other and to foster a traditional way of life. He said it's probably different from the term "ecology" as understood by environmentalists.

Man over nature

Sam Crane, a professor at Williams College in the US who teaches Chinese politics and ancient Chinese philosophy, acknowledges that there is a certain environmental concern in The Analects and an interest in maintaining a kind of balance among various natural elements.

But the philosophy is, at its core, anthropocentrist, meaning it puts Man above nature. Human relationships remain at the center of Confucianism, he said.

"I think Tu and others are correct in arguing that a modern application of Confucianism would bring with it a certain concern for the extreme environmental degradation that rapid industrialization has brought to China and other parts of the world," said Crane in an e-mail to the Global Times. But Confucianism takes something like a "conservationist" approach to the environment, namely, it must be preserved and cared for in order to promote human development, he added.

Feng Yongfeng, an environmentalist and founder of Beijing-based NGO Green Beagle, doesn't hide his doubts about using Confucianism or Taoism to fix the environment, calling it "pure nonsense."