In the early years of the Republic of China, while Yuan Shikai destroyed the Republic of China and undermined the Republic, a retro trend of zunkong appeared in the ideological field, and the restoration and maintenance of feudal gang and ritualism were its central contents. Kang Youwei was the main representative of this trend of thought, and the Great Ceremony of the Venerable Temple of Zun Kong in September 1914 was a typical performance of this trend of thought.
Before the founding of the Republic of China, Kang Youwei published articles such as "On the Form of Republican Government" and "On Salvation", talking about the inadequacy of the republic to China's national conditions. After the founding of the Republic of China, he attacked the revolutionaries led by Sun Yat-sen, believing that China's crisis and chaos were caused by the revolutionaries. Preach that only by restoring the old system, the old order, and the old morality can we save China and save the crisis. He believes that only by respecting Confucius and Confucianism can we achieve "the people's hearts have a return, customs have a direction, morality is fixed, indoctrination is accurate, and then politics can be taken in the next step." Therefore, he regarded Zun Kong as a top priority, and went around calling for the restoration of Zun Kong and the reading of the Scriptures, and demanded that Confucianism be made the state religion.
In October 1912, the "Confucius Church" was established in Shanghai, with Kang Youwei as its president. Kang said in a telegram to the Confucius Church: "In the old days of Vietnam, when he was a servant of all nations, he lived alone and meditated, and he was deeply concerned that according to the Scriptures of the Troubled World, the Great Sect would fall to the ground, and it was the Protestant Church of Datong Taiping, and to the Open Hole Church of Penghu, it was played. Last summer, there was no change in the ancient world, the trick beans were abolished, the strings were recited, and the panic was deeply worried, and the people who sent the door of the grass preamble, Mai Menghua and Chen Huanzhang, ordered the meeting to be held in Shanghai. It can be seen that Kang Youwei is the behind-the-scenes command planner. The "Compendium for the Establishment of the Confucius Church" stipulates: "The purpose of the Association is to teach Confucius in Changming and to relieve the society", and "to take the study as the body and the relief of the society as the use." Imitate the rules of the white deer, and keep the promise of the land of the blue field. Worship Confucius to match God; Recite the scriptures to learn from the saints... He hopes to save people's hearts and maintain the fortunes of the country, the great, the teachings of Confucius, and the light of China." It is stipulated that the general association shall be located in Shanghai, and branches shall be set up in various counties in China, branches shall be set up in each city and township, and branches and branches shall also be set up in various ports in foreign countries. "Whoever sincerely believes in Confucianism, no matter what religion, what kind, or what country, must fill in the petition and be introduced by the introducer." The Ministry of Education is divided into the Ministry of Study and the Department of Promotion, which is responsible for preaching scripture, science, political science, and literature, and the tasks of the Department of Promotion are to "preach to the people", "worship the Holy Scriptures and read the Scriptures", "examine the etiquette and customs", and "love the people and love things". It is stipulated that the National Assembly shall be held once a year on three days before the anniversary of the birth of Confucius, and once a month, the General Assembly shall be held once a month.
In 1913, Kang Youwei and others successively founded the Magazine of the Church of Confucius, the Xingshi Bao, and the magazine of Intolerable. Many similar groups have also been set up in various places, such as the "Zongshenghui" in Shanxi, the "Kong Daohui" in Shandong, and so on. The followers of the Confucius Church, centered on Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Qingdao, Nanchang, Changsha and other cities, took the name and form of running "poetry clubs" and "Bible reading societies" to attract believers and expand their influence.
The Confucius Church vigorously attacked the democratic republic, denigrated the concept of freedom and equality, and slandered the revolution for causing social chaos. In the Magazine of the Confucius Church, there is an article signed by the whole Confucius Church entitled "Rebuke the Beijing Education Association for The Crime of Destroying Confucianism", which nakedly pointed out: "If there is progress in the reconstruction of the republican form of government in China today. However, the discipline was not established, and the central and local governments were implicitly divided into more than a dozen countries, and there was no unity. Rewards and punishments are reversed, and the arrogant and arrogant, the non-arrogant and unscrupulous, that is, the bait is bribed with wealth. And the husband who refuses to take orders from the soldiers is a traitor, and he turns a blind eye to no one. "Since the founding of the Republic, there has been no slightest progress in political affairs, and only its regression has been seen." Republicanism corrupts morality, and "the customs of the human heart are very beneficial." Ridicule is the norm, strange decay, incorruptibility, incorruptibility, black and white, chaos in name and truth, nothing in the world, and the whole world is attacking." The Confucian Church and the activities of respecting Kong in society were supported and praised by Yuan Shikai.
Kang Youwei vigorously attacked the democratic republic and advocated the retrospection of Zun Kong. He said in the "Discussion of the Heavenly Pairing of Confucius": "The present Republic of China is built, known as a republic, and the heart of the world is all undisciplined, and in the past, one person was arbitrary on the top, and now it is a billion trillion people who are indulging in the bottom." In the inscription of the "China Society Newspaper", he said: "Confucius said: Tang Wu Revolution, calling the heavens and responding to people." Revolution is the most common thing in China. The fate of the Revolution Dynasty can also be, so why take the fate of China for thousands of years and also revolutionize it? Nowadays, it is also the revolution of enlightenment, the revolution of discipline, the revolution of Taoism, the revolution of law observance, the revolution of etiquette, the revolution of the people's hearts, and the revolution of the soul of the country. The burning chamber, empty; Vast and confused, helpless, wandering soul space, wind and rain, thunder or earthquake, desperate is the dynasty, European service European calendar, in vain for the coffin horror of the instrument of marriage. My compatriots are so foolish that they are as far as Si Hu!" Kang Youwei was extremely dissatisfied with the abolition of the Heavenly Sacrifice Hole and the abolition of primary school bible reading since the Republic, and he attacked: "Since the Republic, the Hundred Gods have abolished the Worship, and even God has not repaid the book, Confucius stopped the sacrifice, the Temple of Heaven bowed to the grass, and the Temple of Literature was buried with hazelnut thorns... Whoops, China hasn't heard of any major changes in thousands of years. "There is a strange government, the whole country is terrified, it has been abolished, the primary school children do not know what to teach, and if they grow into unknown Judah, they will be Chinese or not, or will they be flood beasts!" Kang Youwei and his followers praised Confucianism as the crystallization of Thousands of years of Civilization in China, "All civilizations are related to Confucianism, and if Confucianism can be abandoned, then all civilizations will be destroyed, that is, all races will be destroyed." Preaching Confucianism is the "national soul" of China, and preaching that "want to immortalize China?" We must respect Confucius as the head of the church. "They revered Kong and Dingkong as state religions in order to resist the revolution and create public opinion for the restoration of the emperor.
In order to step up the restoration of the imperial system, Yuan Shikai also vigorously promoted the way of Confucius and Mencius. He praised: "Confucianism is to China as the air is to mankind", "The way of Confucius and Mencius, like the sun and the moon, the heavens, the rivers and the earth, the master of the trees and the worlds, is ancient and always new." He ordered the students to resume reading the Bible, stressing that "schools should worship the ancient sages as teachers, and it is advisable to honor Kong to end his foundation, and Shang Meng to his use." On September 28, 1914, he held the first ceremony of honoring Kong after the Xinhai Revolution.
The retro trend of zunkong in China has won the support and response of imperialism. In 1912, as soon as the Confucius Church was established, the representatives of imperialism in China of Britain, the United States, Germany, Japan, And Russia expressed their support. Li Jiabai, an American missionary, was actually one of the initiators of the Confucius Church. He listed the Confucius Church as a member of the International Confederation of Religious Affairs of Shangxian Church, and often spoke to the Confucius Church, advocating that Christianity and Confucianism "conspire for the pleasure of humanity." Johnston of England, Wei Lixian of Germany, and Timothy Lee of Britain vigorously advocated that Confucius was "the greatest achievement of the sacred group" and that China relied on Confucius to become "the most famous state of Dunhua". Imperialist elements such as GaiShaling in Tsarist Russia, Nagao He in Japan, and Goodenough in the United States all supported zunkong retro.
Imperialism's active support for China's Zunkong retro activities serves their reactionary political aims. On the one hand, they preached the cooperation between Christianity and Confucianism, and advocated the convergence of Eastern and Western cultures. Under the banner of "academic research," Tsarist Gaishaling has been engaged in cultural aggression in China for a long time. He believed that the Cultures of the East and the West converged and that the people were easy to rule. The imperialists preach that Confucianism is "the unique foundation of China", "the trust of the new destiny of the country", and "Confucianism may be abandoned, and those who do not conform to the Chinese nature will replace it". On the other hand, the imperialists use the Confucian way to paralyze the people's minds and resist the revolution. Johnston once explicitly said: "China's security is not internal and external, not by force, but by Confucianism... If we can rule the country with Confucianism, the revolution will not rise, and the people will have done their best in goodness.", Li Jiabai Daoming preached Confucianism and respected the two major advantages of Confucianism: "Confucianism reveres morality, ethics, and respects the state religion, then the people's morality is not in danger of falling, and at this time it is beneficial to the country." "Confucianism is a multi-spoken politics, contains a variety of important disciplines, and is respected as a state religion, which is especially enough to plant the foundation of political science, which is beneficial to the two countries." The imperialists vigorously oppose the bourgeois democratic revolutionary movement and the introduction of advanced ideas such as western natural human rights, evolutionary theory, and democratic republican programs to China.
The clamor of the Chinese and foreign opposition set off a retro countercurrent in the early years of the Republic of China, fueling Yuan Shikai's restoration of the imperial system, setting off a wave of restoration in Chinese history, and causing a bad impact on society. With the failure of Yuan Shikai's restoration of the imperial system and the rise of the new cultural movement, the retro trend of Zunkong was hit hard and gradually disappeared.