Chinese elites reversed their assessment of Confucianism across the twentieth century

Evidence

In the early twentieth century Chinese intellectuals, independently paralleling Weber, identified Confucianism as the source of Chinese backwardness. In the late twentieth century, Chinese political leaders, paralleling Western social scientists, celebrate Confucianism as the source of Chinese progress. — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 288

Categorization

• CANDY: The same doctrine flipped from ‘cause of backwardness’ to ‘cause of progress’ within a century is a compact, quotable reversal.
• XREF: Echoes the book’s running theme of civilizations rehabilitating their own traditions as Western models fail.