Making China Modern Essay

In Chapter eight of The Religion of China Confucianism and Taoism, Max Webber makes a comparison of the eastern philosophy of Confucianism with the western worship of Puritanism. He makes the connection amid the how Confucianism has shaped China historically from an individuals personal goals to its economic and commercial conditions.Webber starting line describes the rationalization of a religion using two different yard-sticks, one is the degree to which the religion has divested itself of misrepresentation the other is the degree to which it has systematically unified the relation between theology and the creation and therewith its proclaim ethical relationship to the world. Webber denotes that in western Protestant rationalism, magic has been eradicated entirely and was sometimes still viewed as devilish, cutting off all trust in magical superstitions and manipulations.However, in the Confucian ethics, the meaning of magic was left untouched. All natural scientific knowle dge was lacking due to a ca-ca and elemental forces. It also vested interest in the income opportunities of prebendal office. Webber states that Confucianism and Puritanism both take different stands against the world, Puritanism believed in a God where as Confucianism did not believe in a supra-mundane God, both in time met tensions with the worlds irrationalities. This all constituted in the development of China and its people.The Confucian ethic is to reduce tensions in the world to an absolute minimum. All human nature was disposed to be ethically good and as such, was to be indifferent from one another, capable of unlimited perfection. There was a lack of nerves with unlimited intentness and slowness to reacting especially in the intellectual sphere.China taught as a form of philosophical-literary education, learning from grey classics and therefore it lacked insufficient educational such as economic provisions. It endeavored to remove all tensions from humanity and hence l eft no leverage for influencing conduct through inner forces freed of tradition and convention.Wealth was the main success measurement in the Confucian mentality, as a means to keep face. It has been recorded in the oldest documents of Chinese political economy where balance of trade and the usefulness of wealth were emphasized. It came to a point where storeowners would shoot the breeze for every penny, however despite this lust for wealth, no economic mentality of capitalism was created. The Chinese lacked a system for commercial correspondence and the numerous technical inventions were little used for economic purposes.It is Webbers intention that even though China was capable of assimilating capitalism, the varied conditions and circumstances, most notably the Confucian teachings, had hindered it. The difference between Puritan and Confucian rationalism was that Puritans had enthusiasm, which the Confucians lacked. It is this rationalism that allowed the typical Puritan to inv est his income as capital in rational capitalistic enterprise out of an asceticist compulsion to save. Webber believes that these attitudes have effected Chinas capitalist development negatively.