The question of the nexus between Confucianism and socialism has puzzled Chinese academia for nearly a century. It stands as one of the major issues in modern Chinese political thought, spanning from the choice of a revolutionary path in the 1920s and the “criticize Lin Biao and Confucius” campaign of the Cultural Revolution to contemporary debates regarding “socialism with Chinese characteristics” (中国特色社会主义) and “cultural confidence” (文化自信). The article examines the relationship between Confucian ideology and Marxist theories of socialism.