History 105: The Rise Of China

Kristelle Cagbabanua
Professor Daly
History 105: The Rise of the West
8/8/14
Why Not China? The various innovations and advances many humans encountered, emerged in large cities and civilizations. The largest civilizations began in the Near East, India, and China. However, none of these civilizations were capable of rising to the top like how Europe and the New World were able to. For centuries, China transformed and developed the world with its many great inventions and discoveries. China has been the longest civilization to ever exist on earth because of its many inventions, but how come those inventions did not help China transform like how the West did? How come China became the world’s largest economy only now in the twenty-first
century? As Professor Daly mentions in his book, The Rise of Western Power: A Comparative History of Western Civilization, China was not able to develop rapidly and advance the way the rest of the world was able to because of Confucianism. China’s Confucianism emphasized “harmony, stability, and community mindedness rather than innovation and critical thinking” (Daley, 15). The civilization’s absence of civil law made China remain modest while everyone else advanced and established into the modern world. Confucianism gave rise from the thoughts of the early Chinese philosopher, Confucius. Just like many other traveling philosophers and politicians of succeeding centuries, Confucius came from a class of society which struggled, but still full of nobility. He was an educationalist, “a transmitter and not a creator, a believer in and lover of antiquity” (Feng, 46). He made teaching a profession and made culture and education popular. His influence and accomplishments were “similar in many ways to those of the Greek Sophists… [and] to that of Socrates in the West” (Feng, 49). Confucius’s principles and philosophies officially became a sanction and established into a system called Confucianism after the Qin Dynasty (221-206 B.C.) (Feng, 60). Emperor Wu (156-87 B.C.) enforced Confucianism and it became the dominant ethical and philosophical system of China from then on forward. Confucianism was one of the reasons why China is history’s longest-enduring society.
Even though its dominant position declined during the collapse of the Later Han Dynasty in the early third century, Confucianism always makes its way back and influences the way of life for the Chinese people (Taylor and Arbuckle, 350). The philosophy’s core value is humanistic. It laid out people’s practical principles of life. It taught people that they were able to find the way independently in amenity of oneself, family, society, and the whole universe. Cultural conformity and “harmony” was what held the civilization together. “Community of mutual respect, concern, and trust” (Taylor and Arbuckle, 347) is the heart of this doctrine. This way of thinking helped Chinese people have good communications and relationships with each other. They shared many ideas and thoughts and learned different things from one another. Being able to communicate and respect each other was what helped them discover and invent new technologies. However, Chinese artisans began to lack on their crafts for inventions after the Northern Song era. They started to focus their talents more on literacy than just
craftwork. Although Confucianism helped China flourish, at the same time it also slows the society down from growing. Of course, Confucianism had its advantages and disadvantages for China. Yes, Confucianism was a great philosophy and contribution for the Chinese people, but it held back the civilization from advancing into its full potential. Chinese inventions transformed and advanced the world, but not China itself. Professor Daly stated in his book, “The main focus of these efforts was the civil service examination” when talking about how the Chinese concentrated more on literary endeavors (11). The Chinese people became so absorbed in literacy that they were not able to be creative and use their talents elsewhere. Many spent years studying and memorizing Confucian classics which contains 431,286 characters. They were encouraged to demonstrate skills in poetry, calligraphy, and literary writings and not many brilliant men were appreciated for studying mathematics, astronomy, and law (11). The best students, based on the education system, were the ones that the emperor chose for being in charge of administration. Arguments were presented to the ruler instead of law courts and problems were “solved” by what satisfies them, rather than lucid evidence. China’s cultural influence resulted in a lack of innovation, creative thinking, and civil law, which was its major downfall. China’s culture was definitely far different from the West. Their culture was not as open to other cultures like the West was. China is the only civilization where Western thoughts had no influence at all, until modern times. It is also a large region where the West had never had control over. It was the place where the compass originated, but how come there was not a lot of people who traveled outside of China? It was because of cultural influence of course. In the 1500-1800, thousands of Europeans traveled and explored China for businesses, missionary work, scientific, and cultural pursuits (Daly, 277). On the other hand, there were only about two or three hundred Chinese people who traveled to European lands and it was usually Rome or Naples. In the Chinese culture, males have always been the dominant sex. Although everywhere else in the world had the same perspective of male inferiority, at least the West acknowledged women and gave them more freedom. During the Middle Ages, the West was able to advance because there were more women scholars, philosophers, writers, and scientists gradually increasing. While in China and the Middle East, the numbers were low and really scarce. Confucianism emphasized education and learning for numerous males. Their education for men was associated with an examination system that was very important to their culture and arrangement of officials. Thus, this type of system was one of the most premodern universalistic achievement (Rozman, 18). Confucianism, as mentioned earlier in this essay, had declined during the premodern era but was still able to last to today. Unlike capitalism, communism, and militarism, where the goal is national power and prosperity, Confucianism was established at a time with “no vision of the modern world” (Rozman, 14). China was not the only civilization that used the philosophical system of Confucianism. Many civilizations in East Asia adapted to Confucianism, especially Japan and Korea. However, as East Asian societies struggled to save their sovereignty, the only way to endure was to incorporate components of universalism. China and the other East Asian states were struggling in the modern world. Therefore from the late 1950s onwards, East Asian societies began to change and gradually tried to catch up with the West (Jacques, 67). China especially, had the most rapid growth in the east. Once the dynasties in China collapsed and the examination system was abolished, imperial Confucianism finally ended. China adapted a Communist system by taking Western economic approaches but not Western political methods. With this type of government, China was finally able to rise to the top and even surpass the economic position of the West. It took so long for China to catch up with the modern world because of its culture and principles of Confucianism.
Confucianism is to blame for China’s weakness for all these centuries and not being able to exceed the West, until now of course. It was difficult for China to just change their economic system and be a part of modernization because their culture has thrived for the longest time. China finally gave up Confucianism in able to survive in the modern world and it has not been regretted ever since. China is now one of the highest economy of the world, beating many Western civilizations. If China converted its economic system a long time ago and gave up on Confucianism principles, then it would have been able to rise and dominate with the
West.

Work Cited
Daly, Jonathan W. The Rise of Western Power a Comparative History of Western Civilization.
London: Bloomsbury, 2014. Print.
Feng, Youlan. "Confucius and the Rise of Confucianism.” A History of Chinese Philosophy. Trans. Derk Bodde. 2nd ed. Vol. 1. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1952. N. 43-75. Print.
Jacques, Martin. When China Rules the World: The End of the Western World and the Birth of a
New Global Order. New York: Penguin, 2009. Print.
Rozman, Gilbert. “Can Confucianism Survive in an Age of Universalism and Globalization?”
Pacific Affairs, Vol. 75. No. 1. 2002. 11-37. Web.
Taylor, Rodney and Arbuckle, Gary. “Confucianism.” The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 54.
Association for Asian Studies. 1995. 347-354. Web.