Abstract
The Confucian Great Unity (datong) of ruler-Confucians-people is a sacred power similar to the God-King-Nation unity in Western Christian culture, and today it is undergoing its own secularization. This chapter considers each part of the Great Unity in its process of weakening: the Communist Party is transforming from charismatic to technocratic authority; Chinese intellectuals are increasingly functioning as mere professionals; and the common people strike out on their own in a brave new world of individualism. The result is that the ideal of Great Unity is beginning to decline, and it is uncertain if Confucianism can survive this deflation of its highest ideal.
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Møllgaard, E.J. (2018). Decline of the Great Unity. In: The Confucian Political Imagination. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74899-3_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74899-3_7
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