Published on February 16, 2020.
Continuing from the previous chapter, this essay discusses why Li Zongwu’s “Thick-Black Theory” came to be highly regarded in Chinese society and why, in recent years, it has revived as a kind of business bible.
Referring to Lin Yutang’s and Bo Yang’s praise of Li Zongwu, the May Fourth Movement’s slogan of “Down with the Confucian Shop,” and criticism of Confucian thought, it examines the Chinese reality of “maximum desire and minimum morality” and the art of survival in a society where “only swindlers are genuine.”

2020-02-16
There are already no Chinese left who wonder how this society full of lies might be changed.
Only those who cannot escape from China remain.
The following is a continuation of the previous chapter.
The evaluation of Li’s Thick-Black Theory is quite high.
For example, Lin Yutang, a world-renowned giant of Chinese literature, praised Li Zongwu as a true “sage.”
Another famous cultural figure, Bo Yang, like Lin Yutang, praised Li, the founder of this school of thought, as a sage surpassing Confucius.
Then why did Thick-Black Theory become a boom in Chinese society in place of The Analects?
By the latter half of the nineteenth century, it gradually became known among cultural figures that the root cause of China’s misfortunes lay in Confucian thought.
In fact, in 1905, even the imperial examination system was abolished by the Qing government.
Even after the Republic of China era began, the perception spread that “everything bad is Confucius’s fault.”
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 among intellectuals.
It was probably against this historical background that Thick-Black Theory came to be highly regarded and became a quiet boom.
Then why, in recent years, has the Thick-Black Theory boom reignited, and moreover as a business bible?
As for the Chinese reality of “maximum desire and minimum morality,” not only independent scholars but even national leaders have begun to speak of it.
Thick-Black Theory is not merely an anti-traditional or anti-cultural paradox.
In China, this thick-black view of history has come to be widely recognized, and it has also been proven and felt in reality that the Chinese have increasingly evolved into people with thicker faces and darker hearts.
There are already no Chinese left who wonder how this society full of lies might be changed.
Only those who cannot escape from China remain.
How should one survive in a society where “only swindlers are genuine,” by using the art of getting ahead through shamelessness and black-heartedness?
Thick-Black Theory became a boom precisely as a bible for getting ahead in life.