Hoary roots in the chinese past have been cited to account for particular habit or turn of mind to day but also for their exact opposites. China'slowness to mod-ernize had been attributed to the confucian heritage but so has the alacrity with which Hong Kong .Taiwan and Singapore have used capitalist methods to develop mod-ernize industrial economies. Is it the case,as some argue ,that different strains of Confucianism are involved, one predisposing its carriers to capitalism,the other against it? Yet tonargue in this way is still to leave unanswered the question of way one stain should emerge and not the other.