COMMUNIST CONFUCIUS - 大同

"大道之行也　天下為公　選賢與能　講信修睦　故人不獨親其親　不獨子其子　使老有所終　壯有所用　幼有所長　矜寡孤獨廢疾者　皆有所養　男有分　女有歸　貨惡其棄於地也　不必藏於己　力惡其不出於身也　不必為己　是故謀閉而不興　盜竊亂賊而不作　故外戶而不閉　是謂大同"
(from: http://zh.wikisource.org/zh-hant/%E7%A6%AE%E8%A8%98/%E7%A6%AE%E9%81%8B, 禮記大同篇)

When the Great Dao (Tao, perfect order) prevails, the world is like a Commonwealth State shared by all ... This is the ideal world – a perfect world of equality, fraternity, harmony, welfare, and justice. This is the world called “Da-Tong (Dah-Torng)”.
(immigrant-styled translation from: http://www.cd.org.tw/english/download/Dao/Documents/6%E7%A6%AE%E9%81%8B%E5%A4%A7%E5%90%8C%E7%AF%87_%E7%99%BD%E8%A9%B1%E8%A8%BB_The%20World%20of%20Da-Tong.pdf)

The first few lines of the text - 大同篇 of Confucius's 禮記 - could be seen almost everywhere with Taiwan ROC patriotism. From the engravings in front of Sun Yat-sen's statue in the Sun Yat-sen Memorial, to the words on your 100NT bill, to the placard on the San Francisco Chinatown gate, to the Datong electronics company - Confucian ideological influence is profound.

The basic idea of 大同 is of equality and - simply - perfection. Call it what you want to - democracy, true freedom, tyranny, or impossibility - you cannot deny that 大同 would be classless with all social enslavement broken. Holding on to the true meaning of communism, 大同 is very much communist indeed.

Furthermore, we could compare 大同 with the 小康 society explained contrastingly right after 大同:
"今大道既隱　天下為家　各親其親　各子其子　貨力為己　大人世及以為禮　域郭溝池以為固　禮義以為紀　以正君臣　以篤父子　以睦兄弟　以和夫婦　以設製度 　以立田裡　以賢勇知　以功為己　故謀用是作　而兵由此起　禹　湯　文　武　成王　周公　由此其選也　此六君子者　未有不謹於禮者也　以著其義　以考其信 　著有過　刑仁講讓　示民有常　如有不由此者　在埶者去　眾以為殃　是謂小康"
(from: http://zh.wikisource.org/zh-hant/%E7%A6%AE%E8%A8%98/%E7%A6%AE%E9%81%8B, 禮記大同篇)

You can find the translation for this somewhere. But this is essentially the same as Confucius's prior explanation of 大同, except that private interests are before unity and that social bindings are more than present. This is capitalism.

Yes, 禮記 is missing all the cool class analysis as in dialectical materialism, so not much could be learned about capitalism itself from reading Confucius. However, one would have to admit Confucius was quite ahead of his time.

(to be continued)