Balanced Discourses? China’s Ancient and Modern Confucian Heritage Reflected in Historical and Contemporary Chinese Foreign Economic Policies

David A. Jones, Hanzhen Liu
(University of Warsaw, Warsaw, PL 02653, Poland)

Abstract: What is called “Confucianism” in its myriad of combinations and permutations has dominated China’s foreign economic policies across 2,500 years. It is enigmatic, has changed across time, gained then lost then regained popularity, and has left its hallmarks upon Chinese foreign economic policies from the Han to the Qing Dynasties and into the 20th and 21st centuries throughout the Ming Guo (Sun Yishen), Kuomingtang (Jiang Jieshi), Gongchantang [Mao Zedong], and Gaige Kaifang [Deng Xiaoping] periods. Some Original Confucian principles were spread during the 12-year trip of 100 diplomats under Zhang Qian (138-126 B.C.E.) from Kyoto, Japan to Venice, Italy across Central Asia and Eastern Europe during the Han Dynasty. Neo-Confucian principles were expanded during the seven vast naval explorations of the Chinese Muslim admiral Zhang He (1405-1433) during the Ming Dynasty. When Neo-Confucian behavior was criticized for amounting to Western appeasement in the aftermath of the Treaty of Versailles that gave Chinese territory to Japan in 1919, it made a robust return as “New Confucianism” in the 1920s and transformed into what is called “Contemporary New Confucianism” since the late 1950s, leaving its footprint on contemporary Chinese domestic and international management culture and management structure as “balanced discourses”, and particularly in 21st century China’s public administration where it is most visible in China’s current foreign economic policies.

Key words: China; Confucianism; Neo-Confucianism; New Confucianism; foreign policy; balanced discourses

JEL codes: B1, B2, B3, F5