History of the World/History of the World (Bureau Development, Inc.)(1992).BIN/dp/0477/04770.txt

Text File | 1992-10-12 | 15KB | 248 lines

$Unique_ID{how04770}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{World Civilizations: The Classical Period In World History
Philosophical Remedies For The Prolonged Crisis Of The Later Zhou}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Stearns, Peter N.;Adas, Michael;Schwartz, Stuart B.}
$Affiliation{}
$Subject{confucius
shi
power
rulers
political
social
china
kingdoms
laozi
superior}
$Date{1992}
$Log{}
Title:       World Civilizations: The Classical Period In World History
Book:        Chapter 5: Unification And The Consolidation Of Civilization In China
Author:      Stearns, Peter N.;Adas, Michael;Schwartz, Stuart B.
Date:        1992

Philosophical Remedies For The Prolonged Crisis Of The Later Zhou

     The protracted warfare that raged throughout China after the Zhou rulers
were reduced to powerless figureheads proved a major setback for both the
emerging shi elite and the ordinary people. Military skills and physical
prowess were valued over the literary and ceremonial aptitudes of the shi.
Local lords, whose kingdoms were constantly threatened by their neighbors,
tended to concentrate all power in their own hands and put little stock in the
council of men who stayed behind in the palace while they risked their lives
on the field of battle. The military leaders who wore trousers - which were
widely adopted following the example of the horse-riding northern nomads -
were contemptuous of the scholars who wore robes and gowns. In most kingdoms
the power of the old aristocratic families was strengthened, often at the
expense of the shi who were reduced to little more than clerks and fawning
courtiers of the local strongmen. Rituals were neglected, and court etiquette,
which had been so prized in the Early Zhou era, was replaced by the rough
manners of nomadic invaders. Many shi found themselves without political
positions and were forced to eke out a living as village school teachers and
local scribes.

     With rulers concentrating on the very survival of their kingdoms,
resources were consumed by expenditures on warfare. Public works, including
dikes, canals, and regional granaries, were neglected and some fell into ruin.
Marauding armies confiscated or destroyed crops on which the peasantry
depended for its livelihood. Hard-pressed rulers taxed the farmers leavily and
conscripted them to transport military supplies and, increasingly, to fight in
the incessant wars of the Late Zhou period. Armies spread disease and
destruction throughout China. The severity of the suffering caused by natural
calamities was increased many times by the breakdown of public works and
social support systems.

     Perhaps because most of the kingdoms depended on outside areas for their
supply of at least some vital materials, such as iron, horses, or salt, trade
continued to increase despite political fragmentation and social disruption.
The introduction of copper money and the growing acceptance of private
property did much to advance the fortunes of the Chinese merchant class. By
the end of the Zhou era, traders were growing wealthy as the suppliers of
courts, armies, and town populations and as major investors in land ownership,
which became widespread as the control of feudal vassals over villages and
croplands broke down. The rulers of some kingdoms turned the lucrative task of
taxing the peasantry over to prominent merchant families. Wealth and political
connections brought these big traders considerable power. A legendary merchant
named Zu Kung, for example, was said in the course of a single business trip
to have saved one kingdom from destruction, strengthened two others, and
caused the decline and fall of two more. As trade and artisan production
increased, towns, particularly walled administrative centers, grew in size. By
the last centuries of the Zhou period, China could boast of several urban
centers with hundreds of thousands of people. For many centuries to come no
other civilization could support cities of this size.

Confucius And The Restoration Of The Shi

     Threatened by the greatly enhanced power of the warrior overlords of
rival kingdoms and the rising wealth and influence of the mercantile class,
the aspiring shi scholar-bureaucrats found a champion in Kung Fuzi, or
Confucius as he has been known in the West. Confucius was born in the middle
of the 6th century B.C. into a poor shi family. Like many others, Confucius's
father had lost his place at the local court and the family had fallen on hard
times. As a consequence, young Confucius had to take jobs, such as accounting,
that were considered demeaning for a young man of his education and abilities.
He was apparently an outspoken and opinionated individual, who had a talent
for putting people off by the brutally frank expression of his views. He had
hoped for a high post in the state of Lu, near the Shandung Peninsula in the
present day, but having been passed over, he took to the road in search of the
ideal ruler. He never found his ideal and thus spent most of his life
traveling from one kingdom to another. But during his travels he met many
leaders and local shi, supported himself by teaching, and earned a growing
reputation for his learning and wisdom. Soon Confucius had attracted a
considerable following. Some traveled with him as loyal disciples; others
promoted his ideas at the courts of local rulers and compiled his sayings in
what would come to be known as the Analects - meaning "the collected sayings";
thus, "Confucius says."

     Though frustrated in his search for an ideal king to serve and unable to
test his ideas as an actual administrator and advisor, Confucius developed
ethical principles and a view of the proper ordering of society that would
shape Chinese civilization for the next 2000 years. He was not a religious
teacher like the Jewish prophets or the Buddha, but rather a social
philosopher. Ancestral veneration played a role, but his thinking was focused
on the earthly realm and the proper ways to arrange social relationships and
achieve good government. He was obsessed with the need for order and harmony.
He believed that these could come about only if Chinese rulers relied on the
advice of wise and educated men, who in Confucius's view could only be
recruited from among the shi.

     Confucius was convinced that a small minority of superior men were
destined by their talents and sense of duty to govern and set an example for
the common people. In a rather revolutionary bit of thinking, he argued that
these men (women were quite explicitly excluded) were superior not by virtue
of aristocratic birth but by virtue of their education and training. Superior
men in this view were made, not born, which meant that even a lowly peasant
could aspire to this exalted status. However, most of the superior men were
drawn from the elite classes, especially the old aristocracy and established
shi households.

     There was a strong ethical dimension to all of Confucian thought.
Confucius believed that superior men should be given the power to rule, not to
enrich or glorify themselves but to serve society as a whole; that the
interests and welfare of the common people must be paramount in the decisions
of good emperors and their advisors; and that in return for their concern and
protection, the common people should respect, support, and acknowledge the
superior status of their overlords. Social harmony depended on each person
accepting his or her allotted place and performing the tasks that his or her
social station required. Obedience and deference were owed to one's superiors
and elders, to males from females, and to teachers from students.

     Society according to Confucius was held together by personal ties of
loyalty and obedience. Five links were stressed: three family links (father
and son, elder brother and younger brother, husband and wife), one political
link (ruler and subject), and one social link (friend and friend). If these
links were faithfully honored, Confucius believed that only a minimum of
intervention by the state in the lives of its subjects would be necessary.

The Confucian Gentleman

     According to Confucius, the superior or educated man was a person of
courage who made decisions on his own and then defended them no matter how
strong the opposition. Shi in positions of power were to pay proper deference
to rulers, but not be afraid to criticize them for errors in judgment or
neglecting the welfare of their subjects. A superior man, which became
synonymous with membership in the shi class, was moderate in demeanor and
controlled his emotions. He presented a calm and composed "face" to rivals,
subordinates, and friends. He was well mannered and observant of proper
rituals and forms of address and behavior that varied depending on the social
status of the person with whom he was interacting. Above all, the shi
gentleman was a generalist rather than a specialist. He strove to be equally
accomplished at running a government department, directing the repair of
irrigation works, composing poetry, or painting the plum blossoms in his
garden. Power and status were accorded him as a moral exemplar, not for
specific tasks he performed. Confucius reckoned that with such men in charge
of China, war and social strife would be forever brought under control.

The Heirs Of Confucius

     During his lifetime and after his death in the early 5th century B.C.,
Confucius had many disciples who both spread his teachings and debated over
their interpretation. The most important division arose between the followers
of Mencius (Meng Ko) and those of Xunzi, who lived in the 3d and 2d centuries
B.C. Mencius began with the assumption that humans were inclined to be good
and thus ought to be ruled in such a way that their goodness could develop to
the fullest extent. His thinking, which had a strong egalitarian strain,
stressed the consent of the common people as the basis for political power. It
provided the philosophical underpinnings for the longstanding Chinese notion
that the people had the right to rise up and overthrow incompetent or
oppressive rulers.

     Xunzi rejected the basic assumption on which Mencius's system rested.
Xunzi argued that humans were inclined to be lazy and evil. He concluded that
a strong, authoritarian government was necessary to curb their selfish desires
and capacity to harm each other. Xunzi believed that humans could be improved
through strong laws and education, but he had little sympathy with the notion
that the people were the ultimate source of political power. The ideas of both
thinkers and those of Confucius continued to influence intellectual discourse
in China for millennia. But in the short term, the views of Xunzi, bolstered
by the arguments of later political philosophers who were known as the
Legalists, would prove the most influential.

Daoist Alternatives

     A very different sort of cure for China's ills in the Late Zhou era was
offered by the recluse and philosopher Laozi (often called Lao Tsu in popular
Daoist texts). Laozi's life history has been obscured by fantastic legends
including those relating that his mother was pregnant with him for decades and
that when he was finally born he was an old man with a white beard. Whatever
his actual background, his ideas were very different from those of Confucius
and his disciples. Laozi had little use for government or absolute ethical
prescriptions in any form. As a solution for the sufferings brought on by
human greed and ambition, Laozi recommended a retreat from society and
civilization into nature. Through the contemplation of nature, he believed,
the individual could become attuned with the Dao, or the cosmic force and
source of all creation. Laozi stressed nonaction over political power and
self-examination over the mastery of others. He taught:

     It is wisdometo know others.
     It is enlightenment to know one's self.

     The conqueror of men is powerful.
     The master of himself is stronger.

     It is wealth to be content.
     It is willful to force one's way on others.

     Though much of Laozi's message concerned withdrawal from the world, he
could not resist giving a good deal of advice to those who remained in
society, particularly the rulers of China's many kingdoms. He chastised them
for enjoying war and the excessive pursuit of pleasure in their palaces while
the mass of the population went hungry. He wrote:

     When the court is arrayed in splendor,
     The fields are full of weeds,
     And the granaries are bare.

Laozi exhorted rulers and men of affairs to cultivate the virtues of patience,
selflessness, and concern for the welfare of all creatures. He argued that
these virtues were consistent with the nature of the Dao. Like Confucius he
believed that wise rulers and honest administrators made for happy and
peaceful kingdoms. But Laozi differed from Confucius in his views on how a
good ruler was made and what qualities he possessed. And where Confucius
viewed a strong state and sound society as the primary goals, Laozi saw them
as temporary concerns that were of little relevance to the wise man in search
of the hidden meanings of creation and human life.

Rival Schools And Political Power

     Like Confucius, Laozi had many disciples both in his own lifetime and in
later centuries. His poetic sayings were interpreted by these followers in
widely varying ways. Some held to his original stress on withdrawal from the
world, communion with nature, and meditation. Others mixed his ideas with
magic, eroticism, and a search for a concoction that would bring bodily
immortality to those who drank it. The meditative followers had the greatest
appeal to the shi elite and courtiers of later ages, who drew on Daoist ideas
to enhance their sensitivity to art and the natural world and to satisfy their
interest in questions regarding the supernatural. In contrast, the masses were
attracted by the magical solutions to everyday problems emphasized by
conjurers and con men with rather dubious claims to being Laozi's disciples.

     Though both Confucianism and Daoism would eventually be blended in the
composite ideology associated with civilized life in China, they had first to
survive an often violent challenge from another school of philosophers. The
Legalists, the thinkers of this alternative sshool, were the first to win the
patronage of a powerful ruler. That man was Shi Huangdi, who at the end of the
3d century B.C. became the first true emperor of China.