Sino Zeal

Confucian Ideology and Traditional Chinese Politics   In traditional Chinese politics, the autocracy was maintained by Confucian ideology, which preached filial piety. Filial piety promoted a hierarchy of loyalty and respect from younger to elder, and the emperor sat at the top of this system. Filial piety was stressed in official education, which prepared male citizens for the civil service examination. In order to become a bureaucrat and serve in the government, intense memorization and study of Confucian classics were necessary in order to succeed in exams and climb through the degree ranks to secure a bureaucratic position in the government. This process was time-consuming and meant those who spent their lives striving for excellence in the system did not wish to see it falter in any way. For those who did not do as well as they wished in exams, dissenting views would, of course, emerge towards the system, but those who did well nonetheless retained the status, power, and we...