Abstract
Could the Chinese philosopher Confucius have supported Donald Trump? On its face, the Republican political agenda has much in common with some perennial themes of the Confucian tradition, such as the stress on strong families, the promotion of personal responsibility, the preference for a relatively closed and homogeneous society, and the desire to trim government expenditures. Also, like the Confucians, Trump has at least paid lip service to the idea of a government based on an aristocracy of talent. However, Trump lacks the virtues that Confucius regarded as necessary in a leader. Most notably, Trump lacks the virtue associated with proper respect for the rituals and rules of decorum that Confucius regarded as the foundation of good governance and a harmonious society. This failing represents a moral defect that not only disqualifies Trump for office, but also, from a Confucian perspective, imperils the stability of the social order.
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Notes
- 1.
Pronounced like the name “Joe.”
- 2.
Confucius, Analects : With Selections from Traditional Commentaries, trans. Edward Slingerland (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 2003), Section 7.1, p. 64.
- 3.
Analects, Section 9.14, p. 91.
- 4.
Of course, the tricky problem is to define exactly what American cultural identity is.
- 5.
Ibid., Section 17.25, p. 211.
- 6.
Mengzi: With Selections from Traditional Commentaries, trans. Bryan W. Van Norden (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 2008), pp. 14–15.
- 7.
This boast was his response to a taunt from his opponent Marco Rubio, who had insinuated that Trump’s small hands might be a clue to the size of his penis. Trump is reportedly very sensitive about the size of his hands. In Vanity Fair last year, Graydon Carter recalls Trump’s extremely childish response to Carter’s description of him in print as a “short-fingered vulgarian”: “To this day, I receive the occasional envelope from Trump. There is always a photo of him—generally a tear sheet from a magazine. On all of them he has circled his hand in gold Sharpie in a valiant effort to highlight the length of his fingers.” …
- 8.
Michael Anton [Publius Decius Mus], “The Flight 93 Election,” Claremont Review of Books, September 15, 2016, http://www.claremont.org/crb/basicpage/the-flight-93-election/.
- 9.
Whether this understanding of 天 (tiān) extends back to Confucius is a matter of controversy, but it’s certainly not something we can rule out.
- 10.
家, which here designates a school of thought, can also mean home or family. That the character for “family” can represent a group of thinkers bound together by the kinship of ideas perhaps indicates something about the centrality of family in Chinese culture, its place as the exemplary social institution.
- 11.
In Confucius’ day, 礼 was written 禮. The traditional 禮 became 礼 when the Chinese government introduced “simplified” Chinese in the 1950s. In Taiwan and many Chinese diasporic communities, the traditional characters are still preferred. Today, the word礼 most often refers simply to good manners or etiquette.
- 12.
Adam B. Seligman, Robert P. Weller, Michael J. Puett, and Bennett Simon, Ritual and Its Consequences: An Essay on the Limits of Sincerity (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), p. 121.
- 13.
Trump’s address to the Republican National Convention, July 21, 2016.
- 14.
Analects, Section 3.12, p. 22.
- 15.
Ibid., Section 12.1, p. 125.
- 16.
Herbert Fingarette, Confucius: The Secular as Sacred (New York: Harper & Row, 1972), p. 9.
- 17.
Consider Analects 9.3, p. 87.
- 18.
Ibid., p. 6.
- 19.
In contrast to Xunzi’s rather dim view of human nature, his near contemporary Mengzi held that human nature contained the seeds of goodness in the form of innately pro-social inclinations and sentiments such as sympathy, which, if properly cultivated, could be nurtured into mature virtue. It’s likely that there’s some truth to both views, as recent developments in evolutionary psychology have shown how evolution could have fostered competing tendencies toward both selfishness and social cooperation.
- 20.
Paul Waldman, “Trump’s response to terrorism is both weak and barbaric,” Washington Post, June 29, 2016, https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2016/06/29/trumps-response-to-terrorism-is-both-weak-and-barbaric/.
- 21.
Dan Merica, “Trump’s love of getting even comes to Washington,” CNN, May 30, 2017 http://edition.cnn.com/2017/03/31/politics/donald-trump-getting-even-washington/index.html.
- 22.
Xunzi Books 17–32: A Translation & Study of the Complete Works, trans. John Knoblock (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1994), p. 55.
- 23.
Analects, Section 14.41, p. 171.
- 24.
Ibid., Section 15.5, p. 175.
- 25.
Ibid., Section 1.5, p. 2.
- 26.
David Morgan, “Trump vows ‘phenomenal’ tax plan, offers no details,” Reuters, February 9, 2017, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usatrump-taxes/trump-vows-phenomenal-tax-announcement-offers-no-details-idUSKBN15O2AY.
- 27.
Eugene Scott, “Trump: Infrastructure plan largely completed, coming in 2–3 weeks,” CNN, May 1, 2017, http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/01/politics/donald-trump-infrastructure-plan/index.html.
- 28.
Analects, Section 14.20, p. 162.
- 29.
Ibid., Section 14.27, p. 165.
- 30.
Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump, 2:59 PM–5 Jun 2017.
- 31.
Analects, Section 12.11, p. 130.
- 32.
Hunter Walker and Colin Campbell, “Fox News moderator confronts Trump: How can we trust you after 4 bankruptcies?” Business Insider, August 6, 2015, http://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-i-have-never-gone-bankrupt-2015-8.
- 33.
Bradford Richardson, “Trump: I’m very greedy,” The Hill, January 20, 2016, http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/gop-primaries/265335-trump-im-very-greedy.
- 34.
Analects, Section 4.5, p. 31.
- 35.
Pronounced duh, with a rising tone, as in “Duh! Thank you, Captain Obvious.”
- 36.
Ibid., Section 2.1, p. 8.
- 37.
Ibid., Section 12.19, p. 134.
- 38.
Ibid., Section 12.18, p. 133.
- 39.
Ibid., Section 4.16, p. 35.
- 40.
Ibid., Section 9.18. p. 94 (Some translate the last word of this sentence as “sex,” rather than “female beauty.”)
- 41.
Thanks are owed to Angel Jarimillo, Kevin Corn, and especially Jonathan Evans, whose comments and suggestions helped to make this a better chapter than it would have been otherwise.
References
Anton, Michael [Publius Decius Mus]. “The Flight 93 Election.” Claremont Review of Books, 2016, September 15. http://www.claremont.org/crb/basicpage/the-flight-93-election/.
Confucius. Analects: With Selections from Traditional Commentaries. Translated by Edward Slingerland. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 2003.
Fingarette, Herbert. Confucius: The Secular as Sacred. New York: Harper & Row, 1972.
Mengzi. Mengzi: With Selections from Traditional Commentaries. Translated by Bryan W. Van Norden. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 2008.
Merica, Dan. “Trump’s Love of Getting Even Comes to Washington.” CNN, 2017, May 30. http://edition.cnn.com/2017/03/31/politics/donald-trump-getting-even-washington/index.html.
Richardson, Bradford. “Trump: I’m Very Greedy.” The Hill, January 20, 2016. http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/gop-primaries/265335-trump-im-very-greedy.
Seligman, Adam B., Robert P. Weller, Michael J. Puett, and Bennett Simon. Ritual and Its Consequences: An Essay on the Limits of Sincerity. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.
Trump, Donald J. @realDonaldTrump, 2:59 PM–5 June, 2017.
Waldman, Paul. “Trump’s Response to Terrorism Is Both Weak and Barbaric,” Washington Post, June 29, 2016. https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2016/06/29/trumps-response-to-terrorism-is-both-weak-and-barbaric/?utm_term=.6dbef64578ec.
Walker, Hunter, and Colin Campbell. “Fox News Moderator Confronts Trump: How Can We Trust You After 4 Bankruptcies?” Business Insider, August 6, 2015. http://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-i-have-never-gone-bankrupt-2015-8.
Xunzi. Xunzi Books 17–32: A Translation & Study of the Complete Works. Translated by John Knoblock. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1994.
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Dunn, G.A. (2018). The Strongman, the Small Man, and the Gentleman: Confucius and Donald Trump. In: Jaramillo Torres, A., Sable, M. (eds) Trump and Political Philosophy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74445-2_6
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