Originally published on February 16, 2020.
Based on Kō Bun’yū’s work, this article discusses why Li Zongwu’s “Thick Black Theory” came to be highly regarded in Chinese society and why it has recently reemerged as a business bible.
Through criticism of Confucius, the May Fourth Movement, the slogan “Down with the Confucian Shop,” and the reality of a Chinese society described as having “the highest desire and the lowest morality,” it shows how “Thick Black Theory” was accepted not as a means to change a society filled with lies, but as a practical guide for surviving in it with shamelessness and black-hearted cunning.

February 16, 2020
There are already no Chinese left who wonder how this society filled with lies can be changed.
Only those who cannot escape from China remain.
The following is the continuation of the previous chapter.
The evaluation of Li’s “Thick Black Theory” is quite high.
For example, Lin Yutang, the world-famous giant of Chinese literature, praised Li Zongwu as a true “sage.”
Another renowned cultural figure, Bo Yang, like Lin Yutang, praised Li, the founder of this school of thought, as a sage greater than Confucius.
Then why did “Thick Black Theory” become a boom in Chinese society in place of The Analects?
In the latter half of the 19th century, cultural figures gradually came to know that the root cause of China’s misfortune lay in Confucian thought.
In fact, in 1905, even the imperial examination system was abolished by the Qing government.
Even after the era of the Republic began, the recognition spread that “everything bad is the fault of Confucius.”
For example, in the May Fourth Movement of 1919, in addition to the slogans of “science” and “democracy,” the slogan “Down with the Confucian Shop” was raised by intellectuals.
It was probably against this historical background that “Thick Black Theory” came to be highly valued and became a quiet boom.
Then why, in recent years, has the boom in “Thick Black Theory” revived, and moreover as a business bible?
Regarding the reality of the Chinese as having “the highest desire and the lowest morality,” not only private scholars but even national leaders have begun to speak.
“Thick Black Theory” is not merely a paradox of anti-tradition and anti-culture.
In China, this thick-black view of history has come to be widely recognized.
It has also been demonstrated and felt in reality that the Chinese are evolving by becoming increasingly thick-skinned and black-hearted.
There are already no Chinese left who wonder how this society filled with lies can be changed.
Only those who cannot escape from China remain.
The question is how one can survive in a society where “only swindlers are real,” through the art of living shamelessly and black-heartedly.
“Thick Black Theory” became a boom precisely as a bible for worldly survival.