Confucian scholars such as Jiang Qing openly acknowledge that their interpretation of Confucianism most closely parallels socialist ideals: not the “actually existing socialism” in today’s China, but the socialist ideals defended by Karl Marx and others. This Confucian tradition aims to influence contemporary politics, but it also remains separate from state power and orthodoxy, always ready to point to the gap between ideals and reality.
儒家学者蒋庆等人公开承认其对儒家的解说最为贴近社会主义理想，亦即并非中国“现实存在的社会主义”，而是马克思等人所维护的社会主义理想。这一儒家传统志在影响当今政治，但是又分立于国家权力和正统，时刻准备指出理想与现实之间的差距。