The Last Confucianist

'In morals as well as in politics, Chiang claimed to be a Confucianist'. Some Westerners have gone so far as to call him the last of the Confucianists. Nothing can be farther from the truth. He was seen by Harold Isaacs in 'No Peace For Asia', as one whose 'motivations are in terms of himself'. Ideas he must borrow ... He used communism, Anglo-Saxon democracy, Christianity, European fascism. Chiang embraced some of the tenets of Christianity but none of its basic concepts. He knew little charity and mercy and less about the sanctity of the individual or the equality of man. He spoke of Christ but burnt offerings to the dead; he spoke of democracy, but practiced Confucian doctrine of the 'princely man', the 'Superior Man'. His faith was that of a filial piety and he believed that a sonc should obey his father, a younger brother an elder brother, and a subject the ruler. He was the ruler.