Virtuous power: Ethics, Confucianism, and Psychological self-help in China

Abstract

This article examines a genre of psychological self-help in China that deploys Confucian ethics to address social, moral, and psychological distress. Within this genre, a branch of what is called “third force” self-help, which attempts to overcome an ambiguous “third state” between health and illness, advocates encourage individuals to cultivate a form of virtuous power that emanates from the heart, seen as the basis of cognition, virtue, and bodily sensation. The heart has the freedom to imagine and act but also constrains such freedom. It constitutes the moral core necessary for achieving equanimity, a state of equilibrium in which one is not shaken by external disturbances and spontaneous bodily reactions are regulated by high moral reflection. This third force self-help uses heart-based Confucian ethics not only to help individuals cope with socioeconomic changes, but also, I argue, to constrain direct opposition to the causes of those changes by translating structural inequalities into ethical and moral issues. I suggest that this virtuous power serves government interests. The emphasis on Confucian ethics humanizes market competition and biologizes individual and family responsibility for care, legitimizing both class stratification and the family as a provider of social welfare.

Utilizing the moral nobility of older Chinese women in governance: The uses of humility, empathy, and an ethics of care in moral clinics in Huzhou city

“…In this paper, we further examine how these “uncivilized” behaviors are to be corrected by moral doctors and nurses who employ a set of techniques ranging from Maoist “thought work,” traditional Chinese medicine and female‐centric communication skills as an “ethic of care.” We show that the emergence of moral clinics in Huzhou is similar to what J. Yang (, ) and Zhang () call therapeutic governance in China, through which the medical therapeutic ethos, techniques, and care are adopted in the process of governing society (J. Yang, ). In contrast to the Western emphasis of medical expertise, Chinese therapeutic governance often occurs without recourse to experts and always draws on social and cultural practices of healing, for which informal and non‐expertise psychological diagnosis are often conducted by government agencies, media, and even the public (J. Yang, ).…”

“…We show that the emergence of moral clinics in Huzhou is similar to what J. Yang (2017 and Zhang (2014) call therapeutic governance in China, through which the medical therapeutic ethos, techniques, and care are adopted in the process of governing society (J. .…”

“…Thus, virtue becomes the cohesive force of the soul itself (Foucault, , p. 304). This is a kind of “virtuous power through which one’s inner moral core anchored in the heart directs and regulates spontaneous bodily responses to circumstance” (Yang, , p. 183). In our case, the personal virtue of moral doctors becomes a technology of governing others.…”

“…Thus, as Yang finds, the emphasis on virtue in China adds a new dimension to biopower and therapeutic governance, whereby the heart as the basis of emotion, virtue, and bodily sensation becomes the linchpin uniting the psychological, the moral, and the political (, p. 195). In the case of moral doctors and nurses, affect operates in concert with reason (Richard & Rudnyckyj, , p. 74).…”

“…They are both the professional skills of effective leadership, emotional intelligence, and "active listening" skills, as well as what Gilligan would suggest are the skills mostly attributed to nurturers who exhibit care for and sensitivity to the needs of others (1982, p. 18).Their instruction style is at once affective, flexible, and performative (Yang, 2017, p. 182), and this therapeutic ethos makes this exercise of power appear as therapy and as such, has hegemonic tendencies (Yang, 2017, p. 189). That is, they serve government interests through what Yang calls virtuous power, which not only help[s] individuals cope with socioeconomic change, but also "constrain[s] direct opposition to the causes of those changes by translating structural inequalities into ethical and moral issues" (Yang, 2017).…”