Summary

Abstract

During the last decade or so there has been a shift in evaluating Communist China from a more Soviet influenced view to a “taking-China-much-more-serious” one. China seems to follow her own line again in contrast to Soviet Russian models of the recent past. The question raised in this paper aims therefore at defining something like a common Chinese pattern of change which involves decline of past traditions together with the development of new ones. In order to show this, three outstanding examples of Confucianist reactions to the new situation are described from about 1860 down to 1920, followed by an attempt at systematizing certain common features of a Chinese culture model which would serve the purpose of holding China together in the face of sweeping changes.