Confucian Parentalism and the late Qing’s Modernization Dilemma: An Analysis through the Cases of Li Hongzhang and Yung Wing

While the overall failure of modernization during the late Qing is commonly ascribed to the imperial regime’s venality and foreign encroachment, this paper contends that Confucian Parentalism was the major fundamental factor that impeded China’s capacity to modernize socio-politically and technologically by creating a rigid and narrow-minded worldview that repelled Western influence and innovation. This paper examines how Confucian Parentalism, a socio-political “deep structure”³ that accentuated hierarchy, loyalty, obedience, harmony, stability, and continuity, molded China’s identity and destiny in the late Qing era. It analyzes three events from the lives of Li Hongzhang and Yung Wing, two influential figures who endeavored to reform China from different standpoints: Li as a conservative Confucian official who sought to modernize China within the confines of Confucian Parentalism, and Yung as a progressive Western-educated reformer who strove to westernize China by contesting Confucian Parentalism. It then compares China’s modernization attempt with Japan’s and proposes feasible reforms that can facilitate China to true sociopolitical modernization. It concludes that the Confucian Parentalism deep structure is hard to change and takes a gradual, natural process to evolve.