The Chinese Tradition

1
Session 5

• The Chinese Tradition

2
Chinese Language

• The Chinese writing system is not alphabetical.
  Each character has its own pronunciation which
  varies from language to language e.g. Mandarin,
  Cantonese.
• Some Chinese words have established versions in
  the Latin alphabet which may be different from
  the now accepted pinyin.
• Where I use the old ones, I will usually give the
  pinyin in brackets.

3
Chinese Scholarship

• Before discussing power, you might like to think
  about a suggestion put to me that there is a
  basic difference between Chinese and Western
  ideas of scholarship.
• In Western universities, scholarship is a search
  for knowledge which begins early in the scholars
  life. Everything is open to question teachers
  are merely guides. Existing knowledge may not be
  right.
• In the Chinese tradition, you must first learn
  what has already been discovered. So the young
  scholar is not innovative. Only when you know
  everything that has been discovered so far, can
  you push the boundaries of existing knowledge.
• Is this true? Does it tell us anything about the
  power of teachers of students and perhaps the
  power of the wise?

4
Beginnings

• China has a very long history. It is often spoken
  of as a continuous history which is true in the
  sense that something identifiably Chinese has
  been around for a long time but it has changed
  radically. There are different Chinese
  traditions.
• Just as Chinese have broad stereotypes about the
  West, so non-Chinese have broad stereotypes about
  China.
• China should be compared with Europe or the
  Indian sub-continent, not just with one European
  country. Korea, Japan Vietnam adopted many
  aspects Chinese culture and civilisation.

5
Major Influences

• The Chinese Classical tradition developed but the
  basic outlines were laid down fairly early.
• The concept of a civil service based on education
  and merit was a Chinese invention. In Europe
  government positions were gained by patronage,
  purchase and bribery until quite recently.
• However, the Chinese system was not always as
  effective in practice as in theory.
• Western ideas began to influence Chinese
  intellectuals and others in the 1800s and the Kuo
  Min Tang was strongly influenced by Western
  theory although its practice was more
  traditional.
• Marxism came from the West to China but was
  adapted by Mao Dze Dong and is now being adapted
  further.

6
Overseas Influence

• China itself was influenced by Central Asian
  nomads and some dynasties were headed by
  non-Chinese e.g. Mongols.
• Chinese culture spread to Korea, Japan and
  Vietnam and to a lesser extent into Southeast
  Asia, Confucian principles especially.
• Chinese migrants to the Nan Yang strongly
  influenced most Southeast Asian countries. They
  tend to dominate business and have a cultural
  influence on major cities like Singapore.

7
The Classical Tradition

• What is usually called the classical tradition or
  Confucianism is a court tradition which is
  heavily based on the ideas of Master Kong
  (Confucius) but modified by tradition.
• Other contributors to this tradition are Mencius,
  the Tao and Buddhism.
• These ideas are still very influential today both
  in China, in its neighbours and in the Chinese
  Diaspora.
• We will consider how these ideas are being used
  outside China in places like Singapore and in the
  Asian values debate.
• I want Chinese students to lead this debate.
  Later we will ask whether Marxism has really
  changed things.

8
Confucius

• Confucius in the West would be called a
  philosopher or a sociologist. He was concerned
  with how society operates and how it should
  operate, not with religion.
• Elements of Buddhism and the Tao Te Ching were
  added to Confucius teachings later but he was a
  practical, secular man.
• Chinese students will now tell us what they think
  are Confucius most important ideas on power and
  legitimacy.

9
Confucianism

• Hierarchy is a most important part of the
  tradition both in the family and at the
  government level. The Emperor is to his people as
  the father is to his family.
• This has obvious implications for power.
• But it is not all one way. Those at the top of
  the hierarchy are supposed to look after those
  further down.
• Rulers are supposed to be just. A stock figure in
  Korean films is the Royal Detective who, just in
  time, rescues the fair maiden from the clutches
  of the wicked local governor who lusts after her.

10
Confucian Values

• Shin (1999) provides a good summary. He says that
  Confucianism does not endorse either individual
  freedom or the human rights from which Western
  democracy emerged, nor its concept of the rule of
  law.
• It emphasizes the rule of man, the supremacy of
  the group over the individual, the family over
  the community, discipline over freedom, duties
  over rights and personal wisdom over impersonal
  law.

11
Hierarchy

• Social classes or occupations are ordered.
  Officials are high up on the list and merchants
  way down the bottom. Those who argue that
  Confucian values bring economic success must
  consider this.
• People had to obey their superiors and, as Jenner
  points out in your reading, officials could not
  leave the ruler nor wives their husband. Power
  was administered through officials
• Officials could remonstrate with a bad ruler and
  a really bad one could be overthrown but this was
  rebellion, not revolution. The system stayed.

12
Virtue

• Your readings deal with the questions of virtue.
  The legalists argued that politics was not about
  morality but about maintaining the power of the
  state.
• Mencius, however, thought that power should be
  exercised by virtuous men and saw morality as the
  basis of the state.
• The great rulers saw it as their duty to maintain
  moral order but that meant their subjects had to
  respect them and obey them without question.
• Do todays rulers follow that tradition by
  claiming moral rightness and demanding obedience?

13
Twentieth Century

• From the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1911 to the
  triumph of the Communist Party in 1949, China
  experimented with Western ideas about freedom,
  democracy and socialism mixed with rule by
  traditional warlords.
• This experiment continued in Taiwan and appeared
  in Hong Kong at the very end of the authoritarian
  British colonial rule.
• It also influenced Chinese communities abroad.

14
Communism

• As we have noted, Marxism is part of the Western
  tradition but it does not tolerate democracy and
  sees individual freedom as a threat. The
  dictatorship of the proletariat tends to become
  the dictatorship of the Party.
• China should not have become Communist according
  to classic Marxist theory but Mao adapted that to
  suit his purpose. Mao was a ruthless power
  seeker.
• Chinese Communism has broken with many of the old
  traditions but how much? There is a clash between
  theory practice. Is the practice closer to
  Chinese traditions than the theory?
• How is political and economic power exercised
  today? What is the role of the Communist Party?

15
China Today

• In theory, the CCP rules China in accordance with
  Marxist/Leninist/Maoist thought and politically
  the Party does in fact rule. All power to the
  Soviets!
• Economic power is another question. We see the
  emergence of new capitalists, encouraged by the
  government. Capitalist-roaders are no longer to
  be condemned.
• To what extent does the CCP elect an Emperor who
  rules as in the past and how much collective
  leadership is there? Where does real power lie?

16
Taiwan

• Taiwan presents a problem for China because it
  is, for all practical purposes, an independent
  state which has developed or is developing - a
  Chinese version of a Western democracy.
• Chinese claims on Taiwan would seem to have
  nothing to do with Marxism but go back to
  imperial claims over territory.
• It is a delicate situation where real power
  confronts claimed power. The reading from Shin on
  Korea makes some comments on Taiwan.

17
Hong Kong

• The concept of a Special Autonomous Region was
  used to solve the immediate problems of Hong
  Kongs return to China.
• It is clearly a model that could be used for
  Taiwan but Taiwan may not accept it.
• The SAR can be seen as a variation on federalism
  which gives considerable control of domestic
  affairs to Hong Kong and allows greater freedom
  than in China.
• The British introduced embryonic democratic
  institutions when it was clear they could no
  longer rule and there is some support for these.

18
Korea

• Traditional Korean institutions were heavily
  influenced by China and Confucian values are
  strong today in the ROK.
• The DPRK is a totalitarian state on the Stalinist
  model. Korea was once called the Hermit Kingdom
  and this part still is. Power is exercised by the
  Dear Leader.
• The ROK is a Western style democracy in form but
  with much economic power exercised by the
  chaebols and with a strong sense of hierarchy.
• The reading from Shin shows how authoritarian
  attitudes remain in the ROK and in Taiwan.

19
Japan

• Japan has also been influenced by Confucianism
  although it has also developed its own traditions
  both ancient and modern.
• Traditionally, the Emperor was divine and had
  total power but, in fact, real power was for many
  centuries exercised by the Shogun and by feudal
  lords (daimyo).
• Today, Japan is a democracy but with its own
  features where factionalism and hierarchy are
  important.
• Japan seems to be undergoing important social
  and political changes at present.

20
Vietnam

• I have not dealt with Vietnam for reasons of
  space but it is a country strongly influenced by
  Confucian traditions followed by French ideas
  followed by Communism.
• It seems to be making the kind of changes that
  China is making but is perhaps a bit behind China
  in the pace of change.
• The collapse of the USSR had a profound effect on
  China and Vietnam.

21
The Diaspora

• The Chinese diaspora in Southeast Asia has had a
  profound economic and, in some cases political,
  influence in SEA.
• The Chinese concentrated in cities and came to
  dominate business in most of them. Singapore,
  Penang, Ipoh and Malacca became virtually Chinese
  cities in a Malay countryside.
• The Chinese have been assimilated fairly well in
  Thailand and the Philippines, dominate a
  multiracial Singapore, are rich and discriminated
  against in Indonesia, and make up almost half the
  population of Malaysia. Saigon is Chinese.

22
Asian Values

• Foreign commentators have attributed the economic
  success of overseas Chinese to Asian or
  Confucian values. Lee Kuan Yew accepted this
  view but built on it to begin the Asian Values
  debate.
• He argued against the European Enlightenment view
  that there were universal values and said that
  Asians had their own value systems which differed
  from those of Europeans but were equally valid.
• His critics accuse him of using Asian Values as a
  smokescreen for authoritarian rule.

23
Asian Values (2)

• Confucian values imply a different basis for the
  exercise of power than the modern Western
  democratic tradition although they may not be
  that different from the traditional Western one.
• Emphasis on the duties and obligations of the
  individual to the community contrast with the
  rights of the citizen and the idea of a social
  contract. Authority is respected, not challenged.
• Power is something to be exercised by those
  higher in the hierarchy and should be based on
  personal wisdom rather than arbitrary rules. The
  value put on education is also relevant.

24
Practical Implications

• Any outsider who wants to work in China or with
  Chinese in Southeast Asia needs to understand
  Confucian notions of power and how they shape
  behaviour.
• On the international level, non-Chinese cannot
  assume that China shares their assumptions about
  how power should be exercised legitimately.
• The case of Taiwan is interesting because Chinas
  claim is based on traditional notions of
  submission to the Emperor which run contrary to
  the Marxist principles espoused by the PRC?

25
Discussion

• What is the basis for power in a Confucian based
  society?
• How can you reconcile the claim that Confucian
  values have led to the economic success of the
  Asian Tigers with the Confucian view that the
  scholar is high on the social scale and the
  merchant is at the bottom?
• What is the relative importance of Marx and
  Confucius in contemporary China?