Confucianism and Reproduction

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Table of Contents

Abstract
Introduction
Literature Review
Purpose
Design
Results
Discussion
Works Cited

Abstract

The role given to reproduction in religious doctrines shows that reproduction is a natural process inherent in all humans. In that sense, analyzing all major religions, it can be seen that reproduction is promoted in every possible way. China in particular “has a long and rich cultural tradition” (Peng and Guo) as one of the earliest civilizations in which Confucian ideology dominated for centuries.

The impact of Confucianism and their concept of marriage as reproductive vehicle were overlaid with the introduction of the one-child policy which makes it difficult to assess the current impact of Confucianism on the reproduction rates in modern China.

The teachings of Confucianism are deeply rooted in Chinese culture and the desire to have at least one male child springs from this belief. The government’s view does not consider such gender preference stating that having one child would enable a family to own more consumer items, spending less on education, health and lifestyle improvement. Chinese culture still affects family planning in modern China, where the desire for at least one male child can be seen as an influence of Confucianism and as a natural prolongation of the family.

Nevertheless, it can be seen that in the modern world, the tendency to have big families became a prerogative of the less developed countries. In that sense, a new research on the effect of reproduction teachings of Confucianism on modern-day China is needed. In another sense, the question is would the reproductive behavior of Confucianism be the same if the policy of one-child was not introduced. This question is important as many factors such as higher level of women’s education, urbanization and increase in per capita income, occurred during the same period, and most likely have affected demographic behavior” (Dennis Tao Yang)

The socioeconomic changes occurred in China and there is a possibility that Confucianism does not have as much influence as in reproductive behavior prior to 1950s.

This paper evaluates the relation between Confucianism and reproduction rate in a modern setting, in an attempt to bypass Chinese one-child policy. The paper presents an extensive overview of the origins of the reproduction approach in Confucian teachings, outlining the ancestor’s cult. An overview of the literature that addressed the issue of Fertility and growth in China outlines the main points of controversy regarding birth control, and the factors assigned with it. Finally, the paper proposes a research design in order to assess the effect of Confucianism as a factor that shapes the reproductive behavior in China.

Introduction

The fertility riddle – the sacrament of birth has occupied people’s minds since the epoch of primitive state. The fertility and the reproduction stimulation of both humans and their means of existence (i.e. animals and plants) were probably the most important conscious actions of ancient people. It is natural that thus, the ancients sought the help from their might patrons.

For some nations, it was great gods, for others – numerous spirits, or powerful idolized ancestors. As it is known, the indicators of birth rate for different nations strongly vary. However, the national identity in itself does not define the level of birth rate, which is conditioned by the combined influence of many factors: physiological, matrimonial, social, economic, cultural, and finally religious.

For different nations, these factors are differently combined, operated in a varied direction, and have unequal relative weight, as a result of which they at times obtain rather specific ethnic aspects. All that leads to the fact that, at times for neighbor states birth rate indicators rather strongly differ.

East Asia is sharply distinguished among other Asian countries with sufficiently lower rates of population growth. First of all, it is caused by the fact that the two major countries of the region – China and Japan – have rather low population growth. As for Japan, its characteristic low gain is connected with the transition to a modern type of reproduction of the population, with low indicators of birth rate, death rate and a natural increase, which was ended in the fifties. China, on the other hand has undertaken huge efforts for slowing down the rates of the natural increase, using methods, that can be considered absolutely unacceptable for democratic countries, and apparently it has given its consequences.

The fundamental principle of the family laws in China – procreation planning, legislatively was assigned rather recently. Until the middle of the twentieth century, the birth rate of Chinese women was kept at a high level – 5.68, and in the period of 1980 – 2000 was decreased to a level of 1.75. Analyzing the matrimonial factors of birth rate, the issue of the influence of religion on reproductive behavior should be considered.

In that sense, it should be mentioned that the influence of the religious factor is not limited only to that representative of various religions have different forms of family and the unequal relation to deuterogamy. Confucianism although not a religion, plays a religious role in Chinese life and society. In the same measure as Protestantism in the West, Confucianism impregnates people’s model of behavior in China. Confucianism forms the basis of public and private life, defining in detail the behavior in all kinds of human mutual relations at all levels of social order – from family bonds to sporadic units, and in each sphere of the daily life and daily activities.

Throughout the history of China, an important role was assigned to the Confucian thesis that the whole Celestial is only a uniform big family. On the one hand, such broad interpretation of the concept of family had the definite purpose to present all the society in the form of a group of relatives sealed together by the same indissoluble bonds as members of a family. On the other hand, this analogy as much as to say justified the hierarchy and authoritativeness of the family system in China. In that sense, the family cult in China caused its huge attractive force. The system of Confucian principles influenced the family and marriage ratio in China.

The specificity of Confucian China was that family usually started neither from marriage, nor from coupling together. On the contrary, from the family, at the will of the family, and for the needs of the family marriages were contracted. The family was considered primary, and eternal.

Family interests are rooted deeply in the history of China. The ancestors interested in the prosperity of the family, attentively observed its prosperity. Marriage was a sporadic issue, individual, and entirely subordinated to families requirements. According to the ancestors’ cult, caring about the deceased and exact fulfillment of all obligatory rituals to their honor was the main duty of the descendants, first of all heads of the family, and heads of the clan.

As a matter of fact, in the opinion of a devout Confucian, it is the necessity of fulfilling this sacred duty that justified coming of people into this world and all their existence on the earth. If the main task of the living is caring about pleasing the deceased, it is quite natural, that all of the family system, and all forms of its organization should be focused so that better cope with this main and honorable issue.

That is why it was considered that, the first duty of any head of a family and a carrier of the cult of ancestors serving as an intermediary between the dead ancestors and their living descendants, is in no way allowing the fading of the family and accordingly not to draw the anger of the dead. To die sterile, and not to bring into the world a son, who would continue the cult of ancestors is the most awful misfortune, not only for a separate person and his family, but also for all the society.

In such approach to the functions of reproduction in Confucian China, many researchers witness a major influence on the reproduction rate that resulted in the enormous growth of the population in China and consequently implementing the one-child policy. Researchers differ in their views on the influencing factors on population growth, and fertility control, prior to family planning policies.

In (Wang, Lee, and Campbell 1995; Lee and Campbell 1997; Lee and Wang), the general conclusion opposes the widespread belief that historically the Chinese did not control their reproduction and wanted as many children, sons in particular, as possible. On the other hand, in (Tang, 1995), the author argues that the absence of birth control which results in population growth is related the cause to the principles lying within the teachings of Confucianism.

Literature Review

Tang (1995) stated that the critical influence of Confucianism on fertility was of a cultural nature, where educated people had greater knowledge of Confucianism, and at the same time “official-degree-holding” was an indicator of such education. In that matter, the major conclusion is that high fertility level was related to higher ranks, rather than with poverty, illiteracy, and low rank.(Tang 278)

On the other hand, in Wolf (2008), the author referred to the studies of Malthus to whom China was known as “one of the most fertile, best cultivated, most industrious, and most populous countries in the world,”(Wolf and Engelen 345), and at the same time “Surveys conducted in the 1930s and archival studies of genealogies indicated that despite early and universal marriage, Chinese fertility was not as high as Malthus appears to have imagined, largely because of late weaning, poor nutrition, and female infanticide.” (Wolf and Engelen 347)

Wolf argues with Lee and Wang, whose view on fertility ranks China next to Britain and USA, stating that “Whereas European couples practiced moral restraint [that is, they did not marry if they did not have the means to support a family]but little marital restraint, Chinese couples practiced no moral restraint but considerable marital restraint. “(Wolf and Engelen 347) Wolf’s conclusion was that contrary to Lee and Wang, there is no evidence for deliberate birth control in China, where marital fertility was lower than in Europe, but not as low to make birth control the most likely explanation. (Wolf and Engelen 369)

The origins of Wolf’s criticism can be seen in Campbell and Lee (2005), who assume that there might have been a classic fertility control after reaching a targeted number of children. The conclusion made is based on an examination of the Qing imperial lineage as a sample target, and in that sense, Campbell did not emphasize that all the population practice birth control, and if they did the reasons remain unknown.

In the view of differences of data collected by different researches, the timeline distinctions as a factor might be omitted as was found by Liu (1985), where his “findings argue that Chinese reproductive behavior did not change markedly until the introduction of family planning in the 1950s”. (Tang 282)

In Zhao(2002), the author refers to the findings of both Wang and Lee, and Wolf, stating that the latter misinterpreted the results of the Wang and Lee’s findings. In that sense, Zhao remains faithful to the findings of Wang and Lee, arguing that “given the available evidence it would be unwise to suppose that the Chinese made every effort to maximize the number of their children and never wanted to practice deliberate fertility control.”(ZHAO 756-57)

Interpreting the results of the debate related to the topic of this paper, the influences stated by Tang should be examined. The question that should be asked is that giving a great importance for reproduction, was birth control falling within the teachings of Confucianism, if not, how the reasons for implementing birth control correspond to that “when the Chinese people regarded marriage as simply a way of reproduction rather than the enjoyment of sexual relations, the birth rates consequently increased.” (Tang)

Was the reproduction, as an influence of Confucianism implied a certain number of children after which birth control was taken, then if that was so comparing to other countries, why how did China reach such high birth rates. In that sense, the implication of the review is that there is no established theoretical framework to analyze the relationship between the high fertility and Confucianism.

Purpose

Due to the difficulty to analyze the relation between Confucianism and reproduction rate prior to 1950, the purpose of this paper is to establish a contemporary setting to examine the relationship between Confucianism and reproduction rate. Another purpose was to examine the relationship between Confucianism and other influencing factors on reproduction rate such as social status, income and age.

Design

Confucianism in China as variable is not possible to control; therefore the chosen design is non-experimental correlational design. Where in correlation designs the setting will not control or altered. The selection of such design is preferable as the obtained results will imply to which degree the dependant and independent variables “tend to co-occur or are related to each other.” (Price)

Taking the findings of the Tang’s article which imply a direct connection between Confucianism and education, Confucianism Knowledge Instrument (CKI) would be designed to observe and measure the knowledge of Confucianism. Participants (N=2000) will consist of employees of companies located in China’s major cities. The directors of these companies will be contacted for a permission of employees’ participation. The choice of participants will be on a random basis from companies varying in size.

The total number of items on CKI was 24, which represented questions on Confucianism knowledge, as well as questions regarding personal data. An important question will be asked regarding the marital status as well as the preference for children’s number and gender, including existent children if any. In the case of children planning, the question should be answered in the context that the one-child policy was canceled. Under the sub-group of Confucianism knowledge, CKI contained 16 questions using Likert scale.

The Confucianism knowledge question should result in score with a particular rating which will act as the independent variable in the study. To check for validity, experts in Confucianism should be selected in order to review the questions implemented in the CKI and possible revisions which might be addressed in order for the test to represent knowledge of Confucianism. The CKI must represent questions of specific knowledge, that not only represent general information on Confucianism, but also particular knowledge of specifics. The dependent variable will consist of the number of children a participant wants to have in total.

Results

The established research questions should investigate the relationship between the independent and dependant variables. The correlation should be examined using two-way ANOVA to check if there is a significant main effect of Confucianism scores on the number of children. Additional statistical data would be collected for descriptive purposes regarding the other variables, such as age, income, gender, and etc.

Discussion

It can be assumed that there will be a statistically significant difference between the Confucianism rating and the number of children. The main point outlined in Tang 1995, was the cultural and educative influence of Confucianism on reproduction rate, stating that educated families were more reproductive. The research might reveal as an outcome the degree to which the one-child policy is an obstacle for having more children. For the purpose of omitting the influence of other factors, a preliminary research might be conducted to examine their influence on the dependant variable if the independent was taken out of the formula, e.g. the existent number of children on the desire for additional children. In general, the research might serve as an indicator of the influence of Confucianism on the reproduction of modern China.

Works Cited

Deliberate Fertility Control in Late Imperial China: Spacing and Stopping in the Qing Imperial Lineage. XXV International Population Conference. 2005. California Center for Population Research.

Chai, Chu, and Winberg Chai. Confucianism. Woodbury, N.Y.: Barron’s Educational Series, 1973.

Dennis Tao Yang, Dandan Chen. “Transformations in China’s Population Policies and Demographic Structure.” Pacific Economic Review 9.3 (2004): 269-90.

Peng, Xizhe, and Zhigang Guo. The Changing Population of China. Oxford, UK ; Malden, Mass., USA: Blackwell, 2000.

Price, Ian. “Non-Experimental Designs”. New England, 2000. Research Design. School of Psychology. Web.

Tang, Zongli. “Confucianism, Chinese Culture, and Reproductive Behavior.” Population & Environment 16.3 (1995): 269-84.

Wolf, Arthur P., and Theo Engelen. “Fertility and Fertility Control in Pre-Revolutionary China.” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 38.3 (2008): 345-75.

Yao, Xinzhong. An Introduction to Confucianism. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000.

ZHAO, ZHONGWEI. “Fertility Control in China’s Past.” POPULATION AND DEVELOPMENT REVIEW 28.4 (2002): 751–57.

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