Confucius - or Kongzi, which means Master Kong - was not born to power, but his idiosyncrasies and ideas made him the Zelig of the Chinese classics.

To Confucius, harmony was consensus, not conformity. It required loyal opposition.

Fact-checking can wreak havoc on Chinese political mythology.

Although Shanghai is on the sea, it long lacked the prosperity that Hong Kong enjoyed, so while Hong Kong became known for its exotic ocean creatures, Shanghai built its diet around more commonplace river and sea fish.

By 1979, Chinese people were poorer, on average, than North Koreans. I mean, your average per-capita income in China that year was one third of sub-Saharan Africa's.

China no longer has an ideology that makes any sense to them, but what they do have is great pride in the Chinese nation.