Confucius idol

Yu Dan’s Confucius from the Heart has sold ten million copies and turned its author into a superstar.Yu tells Cecilia Wu and Toby Skinner about taking Confucius to the masses

She’s been called everything from the ‘beauty professor’ to an ‘academic Super Girl’ by her critics, but no one can argue with the infl uence that Yu Dan has had in the recent resurgence of interest in Confucianism.

Confucius from the Heart, which interprets Confucius’s Analects in relation to modern life, has sold over ten million copies, becoming the most read book in China since Mao’s Little Red Book.

Yu, a professor at Beijing Normal University and also author of a book on another ancient philosopher, Zhuangzi, is now probably China’s most famous modern scholar – and the recent release of an English translation of Confucius from the Heart (Macmillan reportedly paid a record 100,000GBP for the rights) has only heightened her stardom.

Part of its appeal lies in how Yu relates Confucian ideas to modern issues – reducing stress, maintaining friendships and achieving your dreams – in a simple blend of philosophy meets self-help. This approach has drawn scorn from other scholars of Confucius.

Daniel A Bell, a Tsinghua University professor and author of China’s New Confucianism, described Yu’s book as a ‘feel-good, apolitical version’ of the philosophy, while the Shanghai Daily sniffed: ‘Her knowledge is over-simplified, yet she boldly appears as a great scholar.’

The fast-talking and ebullient Yu, who looks younger than her 44 years, is unapologetic. ‘I can only look at Confucius from the point of view of a modern person,’ she tells Time Out.

‘The book is my personal interpretation, hence “from the heart”. I want to popularise Confucius; not to have it as something elitist, which only older male scholars are interested in.’

Certainly, she doesn’t fit the typical scholar mold – she’s a Jay Chou fan, has performed Peking opera and is, according to her Wikipedia entry, ‘unofficially known as the chieftain of the fun-seeking club of the School of Media and Arts at Beijing Normal’.

Part of the criticism of Confucius from the Heart lies in Yu being selective of Confucius’s teachings. While she draws on classic Confucian ideas such as filial piety and respect for elders, she ignores, for example, his views on women, which is that they should always obey fathers, husbands or eldest sons.

Men should also divorce wives who weren’t moral, diligent, well-spoken and modest. ‘I’m not arguing that we should follow the Analects absolutely,’ says Yu.

‘Many Confucian ideas, such as those that discriminate against women, are behind the times. What I’ve done is take ideas on how to be a honourable person and how to be a harmonious part of society, and related them to the world today in a way that’s useful to normal people.’

The book is based on a series of programmes on Confucius that Yu presented on CCTV10’s Lecture Room, which became a huge hit. Yu did her PhD on the mass media, and has consulted for a number of media companies, including News Corp.

From her slick presentation alone, it’s clear that she knows a thing or two about getting a message across to the public.

‘Being on TV, and having people see that a younger woman could be so into Confucius, was a very important tool for me,’ she says.

Yu’s timing was also spot on. It was in September 2005, a year or so before her lecture series, that the Government officially welcomed Confucius back into Chinese culture, hosting a lavish birthday party with 3,000 guests at his hometown of Qufu in Shandong province.

The philosopher – whose ideas had dominated spiritual thought in China for over 2,000 years – was resurrected after a period out in the cold when Mao dismissed Confucius’s ‘feudal mentality’ and banned teachings of the philosopher.

‘Confucius had become a kind of familiar stranger,’ says Yu. ‘A lot of normal people knew of him but weren’t familiar with his ideas. It was time for a new kind of Confucianism for the 21st century.’

Confucius from the Heart is available at The Bookworm for 160RMB.