🚀 go-pugleaf

: 	Right, right.  I did not mean to present it as a monolithic
: ideology.  In practice, however, the Confucian emphasis on social order and
: education is too often translated into authority and thought-control --
: the State Confucianism to which you refer.  I think it might be better
: to recast the "check the excesses of the Emperor" to something like
: "advance the interests of the bureacracy against those of the court."
: The former sounds too much like democratic control of legitimate authority,
: which it is not.

There was a remark I read somewhere that Confucianism was preferred by 
the bureaucracy and Legalism was preferred by the court.  The compromise
result was State Confucianism.  I think it's very unfortunate that the
Confucian emphasis on education was given a Legalist bend.  However I
don't think the academies preparing candidates for the state examinations
are a good example of Confucian learning.  I think the neo-Confucianists
such as Chu Hsi of Sung and Wang Yang-ming of the Ming are much closer to
that ideal.  

In practice, the Confucians could only advance the bureaucracy's interest
against those of the court.  But the Confucian ideal of the Emperor is
wu-wei (inactivity),  or "Reign, not rule" to use a modern Japnaese motto.
It seems to me that the state ownership of iron and salt production is more
typical of Leaglist thinking.  I think there are proto-socialist tendencies
in Confucianism, but they are more of a communitarian nature (i.e. the well-
field system). Mencius was quite the economic populist, forever advocating
tax-cuts.    He would probably believe that it's morally corrupting for the
state to get involved in running big bussiness.


David