Confucianism is often thought to be a…

Confucianism is often thought to be a conservative philosophy, stressing tradition, veneration of a past golden age, obedience to superiors, careful attention to the performance of ritual, disdain for material things, commerce, the remaking of nature, and a preference for relatively frozen social hierarchies.

Much commentary on contemporary Korea focuses on the alleged authoritarian, antidemocratic character of this Confucian legacy.

Yet a one-sided emphasis on these aspects would never explain the extraordinary commercial bustle of South Korea, the materialism and conspicuous consumption of new elites, or the determined struggles for democratization put up by Korean workers and students.

On the other hand, the assumption that North Korean communism broke completely with the past would blind one to continuing Confucian legacies there: its family-based politics, the succession to rule of the leader's son, and the extraordinary veneration of Kim II Sung.