The disappearing philosopher

Sometimes our fate and history really are etched in stone or cast in bronze but they still can be deleted or altered.
Here is a recent article about the Chinese government installing and then removing a statue of Confucius. And this is a related article.
A lot more than pigeons and playful children rest on statuary in public places. Who and what we commemorate in parks, town squares, etc. says a lot about who we are and what we value. Sometimes those values can change over time. Witness the fervor over Confederate notables memorialized in some Southern US public spaces. I visited Germany a few years after reunification and noted that the massive Communist statuary honoring Stalin and Lenin in the former East Germany had been covered up with large wooden crates, their being simply too large or costly to move.
Confucianism continues to be a strong philosophical influence in some parts of the world. Confucius talked a lot about relationship and the responsibilities groups owed each other, such as the young owing respect to their elders. Confucius' target audience was rulers, whom he wanted to teach how to be just to those they ruled. Not many in his own time listened but his "Analects" are still read and revered today. Likewise his disciple Mencius bequeathed "The Doctrine and the Mean" for our edification.
Anyway, Confucius the philosopher had his teaching moment, a brief time of public acclamation and prominent display, only to be ushered away again by the Powers That Be, into a secluded garden corner. Such corners are prime real estate, too, ... for thinking.