An Analysis of the Factors Influencing Superstition among Some Officials

In recent years, incidents of superstitious behavior among officials have frequently appeared in the press. Examples include the incident where an airplane blocked a road at the gate of the Gaoyi County Party Committee compound in Hebei, the renaming of “Luoma Lake” in Suqian, Jiangsu, the “evil-dispelling sword” incident at a court in Changchun, and the “Daihu Bridge” incident in Tai’an, Shandong. These absurd superstitious incidents all reflect the various ugly postures of corrupt officials in our country, indicating that some leading cadres have relaxed their ideological cultivation, become spiritually empty, and lost their faith. More importantly, they have corrupted the Party’s work style, government conduct, and social atmosphere, becoming a spiritual hotbed for corruption.

近年来，官员迷信事件屡见报端。如河北高邑县委大院门口飞机堵路事件，江苏宿迁“骆马湖”更名事件，长春某法院辟邪宝剑事件，山东泰安“岱湖桥”事件……这些荒诞的迷信事件无不折射出我国贪官的种种丑态，反映了个别领导干部放松思想修养，精神空虚，信仰缺失，更重要的是败坏了党风、政风和社会风气，成为腐败的精神温床。

The Main Reasons for Superstition among Some Officials

部分官员迷信的主要原因

The factors influencing superstition among some officials are very complex, involving many fields such as politics, economy, society, and culture. From a logical progression perspective, there are three main reasons for officials’ “superstition”: first, the deep-rooted negative influence of several thousand years of traditional Chinese culture; second, a crisis of faith; and third, the fear of losing vested interests. These three points, from the aspects of historical and cultural origins, real-world background, and personal interests, directly affect their worldview and code of conduct. Faced with historical debates, cultural inheritance, value anomie, and gains and losses of personal interests, some officials fall into an idealist worldview, lack scientific spirit, misplace cultural traditions, and step into the erroneous zone of superstition.

部分官员迷信的影响因素非常复杂，涉及到政治、经济、社会、文化等诸多领域。从逻辑递进关系上考虑，官员“迷信”的主要原因有三点：一是几千年中国传统文化根深蒂固的消极影响，二是信仰危机，三是担心失去既得利益的恐惧。这三点，从历史文化渊源、现实背景和个人利益三个方面直接影响着他们的世界观和行为准则，而部分官员面对历史的争论、文化的传承、价值的失范和个人利益的得失，陷入了唯心主义世界观，科学精神缺失，文化传统错位，步入迷信的误区。

1. The Complex Evolution and Influence of Traditional Chinese Culture

1、中国传统文化的复杂衍化及影响

Looking back over several thousand years of Chinese civilization and cultural history, essence and dross coexist, as do rationality and superstition. For example, the *Book of Changes* [1]1 The *Book of Changes* (Yijing or Zhouyi) is an ancient Chinese divination text and one of the foundational classics of Chinese philosophy, often associated with cosmology and moral insight., hailed as “the foremost of the classics and the source of the Great Way,” is understood by few people in terms of the distinction or connection between its mysterious predictions and divination, fortune-telling, and drawing lots. Meanwhile, terms and related activities such as astrology, dream interpretation, geomancy (feng shui), seeking oracles, physiognomy, character analysis, selecting auspicious days, and talismanic charms are widely circulated among the people, settling into secular life and people’s psychology, with profound and far-reaching influence.

回溯中国几千年文明史和文化史，精华与糟粕共存，理性与迷信同在。例如，被誉为“群经之首，大道之源”的《周易》，没有多少人能够说得清它那玄妙的预测、占卜与算卦、抽签有怎样的区别抑或联系，而占星、占梦、风水、求签、看相、测字、择吉、符咒……这些术语和相关活动在民间广为流传，在世俗生活和人们心理中沉淀，影响深刻深远。

Superstition is directly related to certain cultural phenomena, which in turn are closely linked to economic development. In the process of developing a market economy, some local officials have placed excessive emphasis on GDP growth, neglecting the emergence or resurgence of abnormal cultural phenomena during economic development. For instance, various localities have used culture as a stage to drive tourism and develop the economy. Guided by this thinking, they excavate cultural resources, bringing out bodhisattvas, immortals, and even ghosts and monsters to shape local “characteristic” culture. Under the banner of economic development, the essence and dross of traditional Chinese culture are being rediscovered and packaged on a large scale. While traditional culture is being promoted and developed, it is inevitable that dregs resurface, inappropriately promoting superstition to varying degrees.

迷信与一些文化现象有直接关系，这些文化现象又与经济发展紧密相关。在发展市场经济的过程中，一些地方官员过分注重GDP增长，忽视了经济发展过程中的非正常文化现象的出现或复苏。比如各地纷纷以文化搭台，带动旅游，发展经济。在这一思路引导下，挖掘文化资源，把菩萨、神仙甚至鬼魅都请出来，塑造地方的“特色”文化。中国传统文化的精华与糟粕在发展经济的大旗下，被大规模地重新发掘、包装，在传统文化发扬光大的同时，难免沉渣泛起，在不同程度上不恰当地宣传了迷信。

2. The Catalysis of “Unofficial Rules in Officialdom” and High Psychological Pressure

2、“官场潜规则”和高心理压力的催化

Superstition among some officials is directly related to a loss of faith and is also inextricably linked to the broader context of social transformation in our country. In the tide of the market economy, some people are tempted and corroded by power and money, believing in “money supremacy,” abandoning the pursuit of lofty ideals and adherence to noble morality, leading to a crisis of faith, spiritual emptiness, and a slide into depravity.

部分官员迷信与信仰缺失有直接关系，与我国社会变革的大背景也有着密不可分的联系。在市场经济大潮中，一部分人被权力、金钱所诱惑和腐蚀，信仰“金钱至上”，放弃了对崇高理想的追求和对高尚道德的坚守，导致出现信仰危机，精神空虚，走向堕落。

On the other hand, due to their responsibilities, leading cadres and civil servants must be accountable to both their superiors and, more importantly, to the people, resulting in significant work and psychological pressure. Some psychologists point out that they belong to a typical high-psychological-pressure group. Within this group, faced with unavoidable contradictions and pressures at work, they sometimes find it difficult to extricate themselves and find no spiritual outlet. Some then turn to believing in ghosts and gods, attempting to find a way to release themselves.

另一方面，由于职责要求，领导干部和公务员既要对上级负责，更要对老百姓负责，工作压力和心理压力都很大。有心理学家指出，他们属于典型的高心理压力群体。在这一群体中，面对工作中无法回避的矛盾与压力，有时难以解脱，精神上找不到出路，有些人就转而相信鬼神，试图为自己寻找一种释放的方式。

Unhealthy tendencies in the system for selecting and appointing personnel are an important cause of official superstition. In some localities and departments, the exchange of power and money suppresses healthy tendencies, and some officials feel they cannot control their own prospects and destiny. Unofficial rules in officialdom, such as “working well is not as good as boasting well,” and “if you don’t run [for office] or give gifts, you stay put; if you only run but don’t give gifts, you get a lateral transfer; if you both run and give gifts, you get promoted and appointed,” operate in a half-hidden, half-visible manner. Hinted at by these unhealthy tendencies, some officials develop a heavy sense of anxiety, confusion, and powerlessness, pinning their hopes for promotion on ghosts and gods, adopting an attitude of “better to believe they exist than not.”

选人用人制度上的不正之风，是造成官员迷信的重要原因之一。在有些地方和部门，权钱交易使得正气受到压抑，一些官员痛感不能把握自己的前途和命运。“干得好，不如吹得好”，“不跑不送，原地不动；只跑不送，平级调动；又跑又送，提拔重用”等官场潜规则忽明忽暗地起作用。在这些不正之风的暗示下，一些官员产生沉重的焦虑感、迷茫感和无力感，把升迁的希望寄托在“宁可信其有、不可信其无”的鬼神身上。

3. Worry and Fear of Losing Vested Interests

3、对失去既得利益的担忧和恐惧

There are two completely different interpretations of vested interests. First, there are normal, reasonable vested interests. Whether ordinary civil servants or leading cadres at all levels, their responsibilities bring them corresponding political power and economic benefits. Maintaining and protecting these legitimate and lawful vested interests should not require excessive concern, yet some officials constantly feel the threat of risk. Driven by this psychology, they hope for divine protection to shield them from harm or reduce it.

对于既得利益有两种完全不同的解释。首先是正常的、合理的既得利益。无论是一般公务员，还是各级领导干部，职责带给他们相应的政治权力和经济利益。要维护和保障这些合理合法的既得利益，本来不必有太多的顾虑，但部分官员却时时感到风险的威胁。在这种心理支配下，他们希望有神灵佑护自己不受或少受损害。

More seriously, there is an inevitable causal relationship between corruption and superstition; corruption is the root of official superstition. For those corrupt officials, due to the constraints of Party discipline and state law and the increasing intensity of the state’s crackdown, security becomes another major need for them alongside obtaining illegal material benefits. Whether they can avoid being caught after corruption is a highly uncertain conjecture. Therefore, corrupt officials also have a strong superstitious motivation, hoping to harness mysterious forces for their own use to escape punishment.

更为严重的是，贪污腐败和迷信有着必然的因果关系，贪污腐败是官员迷信的根源。对于那些贪污腐败的官员来说，由于党纪国法的约束和国家的打击力度不断加大，安全就成了他们在获得非法物质利益同时的另一个主要需求。贪污腐败之后能否确保不被捉住，是一个不确定性很高的臆想，因此，贪污腐败官员也就有很强的迷信动机，希望那些神秘力量能为自己所用，使自己逃脱惩处。

Two Countermeasures to Address Official Superstition

解决官员迷信的两个对策

Solving the problem of official superstition requires both spiritual reconstruction and, more importantly, institutional reconstruction. It must proceed from two levels: strengthening ideological and moral construction and strengthening institutional construction.

解决官员迷信问题，要靠心灵重建，更要靠制度重建，需从加强思想道德建设和制度建设两个层面入手。

1. Strengthen Ideological and Moral Construction, Emphasize Both Restraint and Education, and Build an Ideological Great Wall against Corruption and Superstition

1、加强思想道德建设，约束与教育并重，筑起防腐败、破迷信的思想长城

“Restraint” means imposing strict disciplinary requirements on civil servants, especially Party member leading cadres. Based on Party discipline and state law, with clean governance and moral integrity as the standard, we must establish and improve restraint and management systems, and intensify the investigation and punishment of corruption cases. We must strike at both “rats” and “tigers” [2]2 “Tigers” and “rats” (or “flies”) are metaphors used in Chinese anti-corruption campaigns: “tigers” refer to high-ranking corrupt officials, while “rats” or “flies” refer to lower-level ones., showing no leniency or indulgence. At the same time, leading cadres who use feudal superstitious means to manipulate Party and government work and damage the image of the Party and government must also be seriously investigated and punished, so that more leading cadres and civil servants recognize the harm of superstition and stay away from its erosion.

“约束”就是要对公务员实行严格的纪律要求，特别是对党员领导干部，要以党纪国法为依据，以廉政守德为规范，建立健全约束和管理制度，加大对贪污腐败案件的调查和惩治力度，老鼠要打，老虎也要打，决不姑息和纵容。同时，对利用封建迷信手段操作党政工作、影响党和政府形象的领导干部，也必须严肃查处，使更多的领导干部和公务员认识迷信的危害，远离迷信的侵蚀。

“Education” means using large-scale, multi-form propaganda of the main theme [3]3 “Main theme” (zhuxuanlü) is a term in Chinese political discourse referring to the officially promoted positive, patriotic, and socialist messages in culture and propaganda. to enable Party member leading cadres to establish communist ideals, establish noble values and outlook on life, establish the moral quality of integrity, self-discipline, and law-abidingness, consciously resist the erosion of feudal superstitious ideas, and nip problems in the bud. At the same time, we must increase the intensity of cadre education and training, enhance the sense of responsibility and mission of cadre ideological and political education under the new situation, establish a long-term mechanism, adopt various forms, unify the quantitative requirement of “large-scale training” of cadres with the qualitative requirement of “substantially improving” cadre quality, and make ideological and moral construction, public servant awareness education, and cultivation of noble tastes important contents of cadre training, comprehensively improving the political quality, cultural quality, and moral cultivation of leading cadres and civil servants.

“教育”就是通过大规模、多形式的主旋律宣传，使党员领导干部确立共产主义理想，确立高尚的价值观和人生观，确立廉洁自律遵纪守法的道德品质，自觉抵制封建迷信思想的侵蚀，防微杜渐。同时，加大干部教育培训力度，增强新形势下干部思想政治教育的责任感和使命感，建立长效机制，采用多种形式，把“大规模培训”干部的数量要求与“大幅度提高”干部素质的质量要求统一起来，把思想道德建设、公仆意识教育、高尚情趣培养作为干部培训的重要内容，全面提高领导干部和公务员的政治素质、文化素质和道德修养。

2. Deepen the Reform of the Cadre Selection and Appointment System, Persist in Using Institutions to Manage Power, Affairs, and Personnel, and Put Power in the Cage of Institutions, Which Is the Key to Breaking Official Superstition

2、深化干部选拔任用制度改革，坚持用制度管权管事管人，把权力关进制度的笼子，是破除官员迷信的关键

The report of the 18th National Congress of the CPC [4]4 The 18th National Congress of the CPC was held in 2012, marking the beginning of Xi Jinping’s leadership and a major push for anti-corruption and institutional reform. proposed “improving the system for restricting and supervising the exercise of power” and “persisting in using institutions to manage power, affairs, and personnel.” This is not only the key to breaking official superstition but also the fundamental guarantee for rectifying Party and government conduct and consolidating the Party’s ruling position. Various corruption cases and incidents of official superstition in recent years have repeatedly proven that the lack of effective checks on power is dangerous and is the root cause of power abuse. Only by putting power in the “cage” of institutions and exposing ugliness to the sunlight of public supervision can it be truly possible to form a punishment mechanism that deters officials from daring to be corrupt and superstitious, a prevention mechanism that prevents them from being able to be corrupt and superstitious, and a guarantee mechanism that makes it difficult for them to be corrupt and superstitious.

党的十八大报告提出的“健全权力运行制约和监督体系”、“坚持用制度管权管事管人”，不仅是破除官员迷信的关键，更是端正党风政风、巩固党的执政地位的根本保障。近年来出现的各种腐败案件和官员迷信事件一再证明，缺乏对权力的有效制约是危险的，是导致权力滥用的根本原因。只有把权力关进制度的“笼子”，把丑恶暴露在群众监督的阳光下，才有可能真正形成官员不敢腐败迷信的惩戒机制，不能腐败迷信的防范机制，不易腐败迷信的保障机制。

Facing the formation of a new social opinion and ecological environment under new media conditions and increasingly complex and diverse social trends and behaviors, strengthening institutional construction first means deepening the reform of the cadre selection and appointment system, selecting people by institutions, and truly achieving openness, fairness, and justice in cadre selection and appointment. Second, it means deepening the construction of the anti-corruption and integrity system, establishing and improving the legal and institutional systems for combating corruption and evil, achieving the goal that “whoever reaches out will be caught,” and “whoever is caught will be punished.” Then corrupt officials will not need to consult ghosts and gods; they will know what to do to ensure their own safety, and superstition will lose its soil for survival.

面对新媒体条件下新的社会舆论生态环境的生成和越来越复杂多元的社会思潮与行为，加强制度建设首先是深化干部选拔任用制度改革，以制度选人，真正实现干部选拔任用的公开公平公正。其次是深化反腐倡廉制度建设，建立健全反腐反恶的法律体系和制度体系，做到“伸手必被捉”，“捉到必惩治”，腐败官员也就犯不着去问鬼神，知道为确保安全自己该怎么做，迷信也就失去了生存的土壤。

Online Editor: Jia Fei

网络编辑：嘉扉