Confucius Censorship In Ancient China

    Emperor Qin inherited his power at the age of thirteen, and faced many adversities. China was split into several states fighting for control of land. Qin eventually unified China through his bloody victories. Many citizens were unfavorable of the emperor and Qin was determined to change this, no matter the lengths he would have to take. In order to secure a long rein, Qin eliminated anything and anyone who posed as a threat. He destroyed books containing poetry, philosophy and history other than historical records about Qin. He also exterminated scholars, philosophers, and anyone who opposed him. The only approved school of thought was legalism: follow the emperor's laws. All these precautions were taken so that his work wouldn’t revert back to the past.

“Qin Shi Huang was a fierce leader who was feared by his people.”(Source 1) Believing that knowledge about the past was dangerous, as were ideas that encouraged free and independent thinking, he banned the teaching of Confucius. He instead preferred what is known as legalism. Han Fei-tzu, a Legalist and the tutor of Shi Huangdi, wrote, "The ruler alone should possess the power, wielding it like lightning or like thunder." Qin Shi Huang ordered books and writing that did not support his ideas to be burned. Over 460 scholars were killed or enslaved for owning banned books. As religion played a big role in Ancient China the disrespecting of his subject’s beliefs, made him a forbidding

The Jewish poet Heinrich Heine once said, "Where books are burned, human beings are destined to be burned too." Did you know that the Chinese government uses “The Great Firewall” of China to monitor and prohibit any dissent against the Chinese government?(Mark Jacob and Stephan Benzkofer) These kind of actions are called acts of censorship and most of them are against the 1st amendment, law prohibiting that Congress can’t pass a law that establishes religion, or restricts the freedom of speech in America . Censorship is when a government or social group regulates the content in movies, books, and other types of media, and prohibits content they consider obscene or inappropriate. Another instance of censorship is when 20,000 books were burned in 1933 by the Germans in the beginning of the Nazi regime(Holocaust Encyclopedia). The grave incidents that happened on May 10, 1933 were a direct result of the German propaganda against anything Jewish and non-socialist.

Legalism is an ancient Chinese philosophy of administration that believes that humans are more inclined to do wrong than right because they are motivated entirely by self-interest. Shi Huangdi was the founder of the Qin dynasty. After conquering the seven kingdoms in ancient China, he halted the Warring States Period and took the throne as the first emperor of the unified Chinese nation. He ruled on the basis of Legalism. To prevent criticism of his rule, Shi Huangdi ordered that all books that seemed to be useless or against him be burned. This included all poetry from the Chou dynasty and all books written by Confucian scholars. The only books from previous eras that Shi Huangdi let off were the practical ones about medicine and farming. Focusing on the issue of media censorship, the current Chinese government governs in a similar way to the way Qin Shi Huangdi once governed. China still blocks and monitor citizens access to several social media services and shuts down media entertainment programs during government events. While some may see this as an extreme form of censorship, we must consider the fact that several other countries have similar policies in place.

Shi Huangdi would execute the scholars who thought poorly of him. Once he was told that scholars were talking behind his back, he had then ordered the arrest of over four hundred scholars and buried them (Qin Shi). Today in China, scholars would just get arrested. The level of intensity of these punishments are not as bad as they were during the Qin dynasty. Censorship, however, is heavily enforced. Even though the Chinese government is not as disciplinary when enforcing media censorship today, modern day China has taken great leaps to enforce media censorship.

In one instance in Qin China, certain books are censored from the public. These books are forcefully taken and burned immediately. The picture in Document 1 depicts the burning of many books

Censorship in China has gained much attention recently because of the conflict between Google and the Chinese government’s self-censorship policies. In fact, censorship has been practiced since ancient China and the intensity only increases by the years. Nowadays, the most notable measure of censorship is being done on the Internet. More and more restrictions have been put into actions by the Chinese government, which make the life of Chinese Internet users, the Chinese netizens, very inconvenient. With the intensity of censorship increasing and the censoring technology improving, Internet censorship has mainly negative effects on Chinese society.

The Han Dynasty of Ancient China was one of the most prominent and long lasting societies of the time. However, they were not untouched by the ravages of the world, and despite their Confucius roots, there was a war to be fought. The Salt and Iron debate is an example of how the Confucianism of the time affected the strategy of the war. Should the government stick to their principles, or protect their empire? When is the time to say “enough is enough”?

during the Zhou Dynasty, China was experiencing a great deal of political turmoil. A major part of this era was called the Period of the Warring States. It was a time when there were numerous wars that occurred due to the conflict that existed between seven states. (Watkins, 2013) These warring states were the Han, Wu, Zhao, Chu, Qi, Yan and Jin. According to Jerry H. Bentley and Herbert F. Ziegler of the book Traditions and Encounters, “This period forced some people to reflect on the nature of society, and the roles of humans beings within society.” The authors continued saying that it forced others to “identify principles that would restore political and social order.” (Bentley & Ziegler, 2011) The principles of Confucianism were established and followed in order to help the citizens of China to live and govern their communities more efficiently. Through Confucianism, Confucius helped legitimize China’s rule and bring about order in the mist of turmoil. The effects of Confucius’ principles are still seen and felt today in many aspects of modern day Chinese society. Veritably, there were points throughout Chinese history where Confucianism affected almost every aspect of life in China. Confucius has impacted the development of Chinese thought and culture in various ways from education to politics, to familial relationships.

China joined the global Internet age in 1994, and has been commercially available since 1995. Since then, Chinese Internet usage has seen explosive growth, doubling every six months, and the number of online users is only second to the US. The Internet age ushered in the information age with a new world of freedom and expression for the Chinese. However, soon after its inception, the Chinese government has reined in the free wheeling Internet users and has imposed new laws and restrictions to access and content on the Internet.

The Freedom of Speech is granted to every American citizen and has been since it was founded in 1776; however, not every nation grants that right. China, as a communist nation, retains most individual freedom rights from its citizens. Although in the Peoples Republic of China’s (PRC) 1982 constitution, people are guaranteed Freedom of Expression and Press; it is often violated by the current corrupt government. The government demands the news to be 80% positive and 20% negative, altering the facts n occasion. In contrast to that, America has recently become more involved with the pressing issue as well because of the involvement of Google. Thus it has shined the light on government censorship and corruption. China’s government corruption

In the United States, every child, teenager and adult uses Wikipedia, YouTube and Facebook, among numerous other sites, regularly. The internet is open and uncensored for the most part, other than parental controls. In China, most, if not all of those types of sites are or have been blocked. As in, you could not go to them, unless you found some way around the web filters and firewalls the Chinese government runs in their country. While China defends their practice of internet censorship, based on “protecting” the people, heavy internet censorship is a block to free speech and impedes economic and social development in the 21st century.

China is one of the most controlled countries in the world. The Chinese constitution states that the people of China have freedom of speech, of the press, and of demonstration. However, this article in the constitution also states that the Chinese government has the authority to censor anything in the country when freedom of speech or of press could potentially be harmful to the country. So, in China, you are free to speak, but only about what the government says is okay to talk about. Also, protesting in China is a very dangerous task, as shown in the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989. But, in August 2009, Chinese Internet users were able to “indefinitely postpone” the use of censorship software on all new computers in China, called the

Confucian culture, also known as Confucianism, was founded by Confucius during the Spring and Autumn Period, which was developed gradually after the Han Dynasty with benevolence as the core. Since the Han Dynasty, Confucianism was the official ideology and the basis of mainstream ideology in the vast majority of historical periods of China, and it also influenced many southeast Asian countries in history. After a variety of shocks, Confucianism was still the core values of China's social public, and represented the Chinese culture and national tradition in the world (Littlejohn, 2010). In the contemporary society, the Confucian culture in China increasingly spread, at the

When Western people think of Confucianism, they often think of it in a past sense- as something only relevant to ancient China that cannot be applied to modern day society. However, what these people fail to realize is that Confucianism’s roots have been so integrated into China’s society that the values have become a part of every day life. Without having to explicitly state that they are following specifics aspects of Confucianism, most Chinese people submit to them, often times unknowingly. However, Confucian values not only exist in the Chinese society, but also permeate into other areas of Chinese culture such as architecture and aspects of Feng-Shui.