Influence Of The Ch In Ancient China
Formation of China
The Ch'in Ancient China had always been a collection of more or less independent states in the north of China. The Shang and the Chou dominated the political landscape as the most powerful of those states, but they did not exercise uniform rule over neighboring regions. When the Chou began to weaken around 500 BC, these independent states began to war among themselves over territory and influence. So chaotic was this period that the Chinese refer to it as The Warring States period, and it did not end until the whole of north China was unified under a single empire, the Ch'in dyansty. In Chinese history, the Ch'in are the great, evil dynasty, but Western historians often stand in awe of the Ch'in. They were repressive, …show more content…
autocratic, and frequently cruel, but they were also brilliant political theorists and reformers who historically brought about one of the most energetic periods of Chinese government. Their story, however, is a very brief one. For from the time the Ch'in unified China in 221 BC, to the time of their fall fifteen years later in 206 BC, not even a generation had passed. For all that, so massive was their accomplishment that our name for China is derived from the Ch'in.
he Ch'in were a small state in the western reaches of the Wei River. As with all states during the Warring States period, the Ch'in pursued an aggressive policy of territorial expansion. The Ch'in, however, had one great advantage: they had adopted a new style of government based on the principles of the Legalists. Ultimately based on Confucianism, Legalism held that human beings were fundamentally base and selfish and had to be strictly controlled through laws. These laws were effective only if punishments were severe and certain, so the Ch'in kingdom was frighteningly autocratic. But Legalist philosophy also demanded a strong central government, a strong military, a tightly controlled economy, and the strict regimentation of the citizens of the state. As a result, the Ch'in kingdom grew powerful and wealthy in a very short time.
Ch'in shih-huang-ti We traditionally date the start of the Ch'in dynasty to 256 BC, although the unification of China did not occur until 221 BC. By 256 BC, the Ch'in had become the most powerful state in China, and in 246 BC, the kingdom fell to a thirteen year old boy, Ch'eng. As a young man, he surrounded himself with brilliant Legalist ministers.
His most powerful and trusted advisor was Li Ssu, one of the foundational theorists of Legalism. Under their advice, in 232 BC, King Ch'eng, at the age of twenty-seven, began a vigorous campaign to unify and centralize all the northern kingdoms. The surrounding kingdoms were no match for the wealth and military power of the Ch'in, and by 221 BC, Ch'eng conquered all of the northern kingdoms. He assumed the title, Ch'in shih-huang-ti, or "The First Exalted Emperor of the Ch'in." Under his guidance, and the advice of Li Ssu, Ch'in shih-huang-ti created the form of government which served as the model for all future Chinese dynasties. First, the government was centralized around the emperor and his ministers. In order to facilitate that centralization, the Ch'in replaced the old, feudal system in which territory was controlled by more or less independent nobility with a strong, hierarchical bureaucracy. All the members of this bureaucracy, as well as the ministers of the state, would be appointed by the central government. In order to break the power of the aristocracy, he confiscated their lands and distributed them to the peasants. To facilitate the taxation process, government taxes were taken directly from the peasants rather than …show more content…
passing through the hands of the aristocracy. In order to cement the centralization of government, Ch'in shih-huang-ti embarked on an ambitious campaign of standardizing money and weights and measures. The Ch'in emperor also put the most severe of Legalist doctrines into practice as well. The laws of the unified empire were strict and harsh, particularly if you were in government. The penalty for any corruption at all among government servants was death. The Legalists also believed in centralization of thinking, fearful that any non-Legalist ways of thinking could lead to disruption and revolution. So all the other schools of philosophy were outlawed, especially Confucianism, and their books were burned and their teachers were executed. The Ch'in were also hard on commerce. Seeing it as a form of infection or parasitism, the Ch'in severely restricted trade and mercantilism, taxed the merchants heavily, and executed merchants for the most trivial offenses. The Ch'in, however, set their eyes on more than the administration of the northern territories. They turned south and steadily conquered the southern regions of China all the way to the Red River in north Vietnam. Their greatest enemy, however, was to the north. Called the Hsiung Nu, these nomadic, Hunnish people, had been making constant incursions into the northern territories all during the Chou period. The peoples north of China had originally developed as hunters and fishers, but when the region began to dry out and the forests receded, they turned to keeping flocks. As a result they learned horsemanship and began to wander nomadically; they also began to fight among themselves. This constant fighting made them highly skilled at fighting on horseback, and when they began to wander into the northern states of China, they made extremely formidable opponents for the infantry-based northern states. In response to these incursions, the northern kingdoms all during the Chou period built walls and fortifications along their northern borders. The Ch'in began a massive project of joining many of these walls and fortifications. Although the Ch'in did not build the "Great Wall" as historians used to claim (the Great Wall was built during the Ming dynasty), this fortification and building project during the Ch'in period was in itself truly amazing.
The Fall of the Ch'in Ch'in shih-huang-ti died in 210 BC at the age of forty-nine; the amazing thing about the empire he had founded is that it collapsed only four years after his death.
While the Legalist government of Ch'in shih-huang-ti was ruthlessly efficient in its control over the state and the bureaucracy, that ruthlessness proved to be its undoing. The emperor, who had hoped to found a dynasty lasting over ten thousand years, had alienated many people, particularly the landed aristocracy. The building projects of the Ch'in demanded forced labor and heavy taxation; people all throughout the empire were on the verge of revolt. Finally, the Ch'in had created a government that virtually ran without the emperor, who remained aloof from day to day governing. Upon Ch'in shih-huang-ti's death, the two most powerful administrators, Li Ssu and Chao Kao, covered up his death and took over the government. They installed a puppet emperor, but for the most part all Chinese government rested in their hands. Both Li Ssu and Chao Kao ruthlessly enforced penalties on lower administrators; because of this, regional administrators kept secret the revolts and uprisings in their territories for fear of punishment. Eventually, Chao Kao eliminated Li Ssu, and the territorial uprisings became so severe that they could no longer be kept secret. By that point, it was too late, and the dynasty that was to last ten thousand years disappeared only four years after its founder
died.
Legalism
Though they are largely considered the great Satans of Chinese history, the group of philosophers and administrators known as the Legalists represent a first in Chinese government: the application of a philosophical system to government. And despite their dismal failure and subsequent demonization throughout posterity, the philosophical and political innovations they practiced had a lasting effect on the nature of Chinese government.
The basic starting point for the early Confucianists (Confucius and Mencius) was that human beings were fundamentally good; every human was born with te , or "moral virtue." The third great Confucianist of antiquity, Hsün Tzu (fl. 298-238 B.C.), believed exactly the opposite, that all human beings were born fundamentally depraved, selfish, greedy, and lustful. However, this was not an entirely dark and pessimistic view of humanity, for Hsün Tzu believed that humans could be made good through acculturation and education (which is the basic view of society in Europe and America from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries: humans are fundamentally base and vulgar but can be taught to be good and refined). His pupil, Han Fei Tzu, began from the same starting point, but determined that humans are made good by state laws. The only way to check human selfishness and depravity was to establish laws that bountifully rewarded actions that benefit others and the state and ruthlessly punish all actions that harmed others or the state. For Confucius, power was something to be wielded for the benefit of the people, but for Han Fei, the benefit of the people lay in the ruthless control of individual selfishness. Since even the emperor cannot be counted on to behave in the interests of the people, that is, since even the emperor can be selfish, it is necessary that the laws be supreme over even the emperor. Ideally, if the laws are written well enough and enforced aggressively, there is no need of individual leadership, for the laws alone are sufficient to govern a state.
When the Ch'in gained imperial power after decades of civil war, they adopted the ideas of the Legalists as their political theory. In practice, under legalists such as Li Ssu (d. 208 B.C.) and Chao Kao, the Legalism of the Ch'in dynasty (221-207) involved a uniform totalitarianism. People were conscripted to labor for long periods of time on state projects, such as irrigation projects or the series of defensive walls in northern China which we know as the Great Wall; all disagreement with the government was made a capital crime; all alternative ways of thinking, which the Legalists saw as encouraging the natural fractiousness of humanity, were banned. The policies eventually led to the downfall of the dynasty itself after only fourteen years in power. Local peoples began to revolt and the government did nothing about it, for local officials feared to bring these revolts to the attention of the authorities since the reports themselves might be construed as a criticism of the government and so result in their executions. The emperor's court did not discover these revolts until it was far too late, and the Ch'in and the policies they pursued were discredited for the rest of Chinese history.
But it is not so easy to dismiss Legalism as this short, anomolous, unpleasant period of totalitarianism in Chinese history, for the Legalists established ways of doing government that would profoundly influence later governments. First, they adopted Mo Tzu's ideas about utilitarianism; the only occupations that people should be engaged in should be occupations that materially benefited others, particularly agriculture. Most of the Ch'in laws were attempts to move people from useless activities, such as scholarship or philosophy, to useful ones. This utilitarianism would survive as a dynamic strain of Chinese political theory up to and including the Maoist revolution. Second, the Legalists invented what we call "rule of law," that is, the notion that the law is supreme over every individual, including individual rulers. The law should rule rather than individuals, who have authority only to administer the law. Third, the Legalists adopted Mo Tzu's ideas of uniform standardization of law and culture. In order to be effective, the law has to be uniformly applied; no one is to be punished more or less severely because of their social standing. This notion of "equality before the law" would, with some changes, remain a central concept in theories of Chinese government. In their quest for uniform standards, the Ch'in undertook a project of standardizing Chinese culture: the writing system, the monetary system, weights and measures, and the philosophical systems (which they mainly accomplished by destroying rival schools of thought). This standardization profoundly affected the coherence of Chinese culture and the centralization of government; the attempt to standardize Chinese thought would lead in the early Han dynasty (202 B.C.-9 A.D.) to the fusion of the rival schools into one system of thought, the so-called Han Synthesis.
Richard Hooker
Selections from The Analects
Jen XII.22: Fan-ch'ih asked about jen. 1 The Master said, "It is to love all men." He asked about knowledge. "It is to know all men." Fan ch'ih did not immediately understand these answers. The Master said, "Employ the upright and put aside all the crooked; in this way, the crooked can be made to be upright." VII.29: The Master said, "Is humaneness a thing remote? I wish to be humane, and behold! humaneness is at hand." VI.28: Tzu-kung said, "Suppose I put the case of a man who extensively confers benefits on the people, and is able to assist everyone, what would you say about him? Might he be called perfectly humane?" The Master said, "Why speak only of humaneness in connection with him? Must he not have the qualities of a sage? . . . Now the man of perfect humaneness, wishing to be established himself, seeks also to establish others; wishing to be enlarged himself, he seeks also to enlarge others. To be able to judge of others by what is nearby in ourselves, that is what we might call the art of humaneness." XV.23: Tzu-kung asked, saying, "Is there one world which may serve as a rule of practice for all one's life?" The Master said, "Is not reciprocity such a word? What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others." XIV.36: Someone said, "What do you say concerning the principle that injury should be recompensed with kindness?" The Master said, "With what then will you recompense kindness? Recompense injury with justice, and recompense kindness with kindness." VII.15: The Master said, "With coarse rice to eat, with water to drink, and my bended arm for a pillow; I still have joy in the midst of these things. Riches and honors acquired by inhumanity are to me as a floating cloud." IV.25: The Master said, "Virtue is not left to stand alone. He who practices it will have neighbors." XV.8: The Master said, "The determined scholar and the man of virtue will not seek to live at the expense of humanity. They will even sacrifice their lives to preserve their humanity." VII.6: The Master said, "Let the will be set on the path of duty. Let every attainment in what is good be firmly grasped. Let perfect virtue be accorded with. Let relaxation and enjoyment be found in the polite arts."
The Superior Man 2 (chün-tzu) XX.3: The Master said, "Without recognizing the ordinances of Heaven, it is impossible to be a superior man (chün tzu)." XV.17: The Master said, "The superior man in everything considers righteousness to be essential. He performs it according to the rules of propriety (li ). He brings it forth in humility. He completes it with sincerity. This is indeed a superior man." XV.31: The Master said, "The object of the superior man is truth, not food. . . . The superior man is anxious lest he should not get truth; he is not anxious lest poverty should come upon him." IV.16: The Master said, "The mind of the superior man is conversant with virtue; the mind of the base man is conversant with gain." IV.5: The Master said, "Riches and honors are what men desire. If they cannot be obtained in the proper way, they should not be held. Poverty and baseness are what men dislike. If they cannot be avoided in the proper way, they should not be avoided. . . . The superior man does not, even for the space of a single meal, act contrary to virtue. In moments of haste, he cleaves to it. In seasons of danger, he cleaves to it." XV.20: The Master said, "What the superior man seeks, is in himself. What the mean man seeks, is in others." XII.4: Ssu-ma Niu asked about the superior man. The Master said, "The superior man has neither anxiety nor fear." "Being without anxiety or fear!" said Ssu-ma, "does this constitute what we call the superior man?" The Master said, "When internal examination discovers nothing wrong, what is there to be anxious about, what is there to fear?" XIV.24: The Master said, "The progress of the superior man is upwards; the progress of the mean man is downwards." XVI.8: Confucius said, "There are three things of which the superior man stand in awe. He stands in awe of the ordinances of Heaven. He stands in awe of great men. He stands in awe of the words of the sages. The mean man does not know the ordinances of Heaven, and consequently does not stand in awe of them. He is disrespectful to great men. He makes sport of the words of the sages." XIV.29: The Master said, "The superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions." XV.18: The Master said, "The superior man is distressed by his want of ability. He is not distressed by men not knowing of him." XV.21: The Master said, "The superior man is dignified, but does not wrangle. He is sociable, but not partisan." XVII.24: Tzu-kung asked, "Has the superior man his hatreds also?" The Master said, "He has his hatreds. He hates those who proclaim the evil of others. He hates the man who, being in a low station, slanders his superiors. He hates those who have valor merely, and are unobservant of propriety (li ). He hates those who are forward and determined, and, at the same time, of contracted understanding." XVI.10: Confucius said, "The superior man has nine things which are subjects with him of thoughtful consideration. In regard to the use of his eyes, he is anxious to see clearly. In regard to the use of his ears, he is anxious to hear distinctly. In regard to his countenance, he is anxious that it should be benign. In regard to his speech, he is anxious that it should be sincere. In regard to his doing of business, he is anxious that it should be reverently careful. In regard to what he doubts about, he is anxious to question others. When he is angry, he thinks of the difficulties his anger may involve him in. When he sees gain to be got, he thinks of righteousness." XIX.9: Tzu-hsia3 said, "The superior man undergoes three changes. Looked at from a distance, he appears stern; when approached, he is mild; when he is heard to speak, his language is firm and decided." XV.36: The superior man is correctly firm, and not merely firm.
Li (Rites 4) III.3: The Master said, "If a man be without the virtues proper to humanity,5 what has he to do with the rites of propriety?6 If a man be without the virtues of humanity, what has he to do with music?" VIII.2: The Master said, "Respectfulness, without the rules of propriety,7 becomes laborious bustle; carefulness, without the rules of propriety, becomes timidity; boldness, without the rules of propriety, becomes insubordination; straightforwardness, without the rules of propriety, becomes rudeness." III.4: Lin Fang asked what was the first thing to be attended to in ceremonies. The Master said, "A great question, indeed! In festive ceremonies, it is better to be sparing than extravagant. In the ceremonies of mourning, it is better that there be deep sorrow than a minute attention to the observances." III.26: The Master said, "High station filled without indulgent generosity; ceremonies performed without reverence; mourning conducted without sorrow-wherewith should I contemplate such ways?" XI.1: The Master said, "The men of former times, in the matters of ceremonies and music,8 were rustics, it is said, while the men of these latter times, in ceremonies and music, are accomplished gentlemen. If I have occasion to use those things, I follow the men of former times." III.17: Tzu Kung wished to do away with the offering of a sheep connected with the inauguration of the first day of each month. The Master said, "Tzu Kung, you love the sheep; I love the ceremony."
Yüeh (Music) III.23: The Master instructing the Grand music master of Lu said, "How to play music may be known. At the commencement of the piece, all the parts should sound together. As it proceeds, they should be in harmony, severally distinct and flowing without a break, and thus on to the conclusion." IX.14: The Master said, "I returned from Wei to Lu, and then the music was reformed, and the pieces in the Imperial songs and Praise songs found all their proper place."
Learning and Teaching IX.4: There were four things from which the Master was entirely free. He had no foregone conclusions, no arbitrary predeterminations, no obstinacy, and no egotism. XVII.2: The Master said, "By nature, men are nearly alike; by practice, they get to be wide apart." XVI.9: Confucius said, "Those who are born with the possession of knowledge are the highest class of men. Those who learn, and so readily get possession of knowledge, are the next. Those who are dull and stupid, and yet compass the learning are another class next to these. As to those who are dull and stupid and yet do not learn—they are the lowest of the people." VII.8: The Master said, "I do not open up the truth to one who is not eager to get knowledge, nor help out any one who is not anxious to explain himself. When I have presented one corner of a subject to any one, and he cannot from it learn the other three, I do not repeat my lesson." IV.9: The Master said, "A scholar, whose mind is set on truth, and who is ashamed of bad clothes and bad food, is not fit to be discoursed with." VIII.12: The Master said, "It is not easy to find a man who has learned for three years without coming to be good." XII.15: The Master said, "By extensively studying all learning, and keeping himself under the restraint of the rules of propriety, one may thus likewise not err from what is right." IX.18: The Master said, "The course of learning may be compared to what may happen in raising a mound. If there want but one basket of earth to complete the work, and I stop, the stopping is my own work. It may be compared to throwing down the earth on the level ground. Though but one basketful is thrown at a time, the advancing with it is my own going forward." XIV.47: A youth of the village of Ch'üeh was employed by Kung to carry the messages between him and his visitors. Someone asked about him, saying, "I suppose he has made great progress." The Master said, "I observe that he is fond of occupying the seat of a full-grown man; I observe that he walks shoulder to shoulder with his elders. He is not one who is seeking to make progress in learning. He wishes quickly to become a man." XIV.25: The Master said, "In ancient times, men learned with a view to their own improvement. Nowadays, men learn with a view to the approbation of others." XV.29: The Master said, "To have faults and not to reform them—this, indeed, should be pronounced having faults." IX.28: The Master said, "The wise are free from perplexities; the virtuous from anxiety; and the bold from fear."
Government II.7: Tzu-kung asked about government. The Master said, "The requisites of government are that there be sufficiency of food, sufficiency of military equipment, and the confidence of the people in their ruler." Tzu Kung said, "If it cannot be helped, and one of these must be dispensed with, which of the three should be foregone first?" "The military equipment," said the Master. Tzu Kung again asked, "If it cannot be helped and one of the remaining two must be dispensed with, which of them should be foregone?" The Master answered, "Part with the food. From of old, death has been the lot of humanity; but if the people have no faith in their rulers, there is no standing for the state." XII.14: Tzu-chang asked about government. The Master said, "The art of governing is to keep its affairs before the mind without weariness, and to practice these affairs with undeviating consistency." XII.19: Chi K'ang-tzu asked Confucius about government, saying, "What do you say to killing unprincipled people for the sake of principled people?" Confucius replied, "Sir, in carrying on your government, why should you use killing at all? Let your evinced desires be for what is good, and the people will be good. The relation between superiors (chün-tzu) and inferiors is like that between the wind and the grass. The grass must bend, when the wind blows across it." XIII.6: The Master said, "When a prince's personal conduct is correct, his government is effective without the issuing of orders. If his personal conduct is not correct, he may issue orders, but they will not be followed." VII.10: The Master said to Yen Yuen, "When called to office, undertake its duties; when not so called, then lie retired . . . Tzu-lu said, "If you had the conduct of the armies of a great state, whom would you have to act with you?" The Master said, "I would not have him to act with me, who will unarmed attack a tiger, or cross a river without a boat, dying without any regret. My associate must be the man who proceeds to action full of caution, who is fond of adjusting his plans, and then carries them into execution." XIV.23: Tzu-lu asked how a sovereign should be served. The Master said, "Do not impose on him, and, moreover, withstand him to his face." III.18: The Master said, "The full observance of the rules of propriety9 in serving one's prince is accounted by people to be flattery." XI.23: "What is called a great minister,10 is one who serves his prince according to what is right, and when he finds he cannot do so, retires." XIV.1: Hsien asked what was shameful. The Master said, "When good government prevails in a state, to be thinking only of one's salary. When bad government prevails, to be thinking, in the same way, only of one's salary. That is what is shameful." IX.13: "When a country is well governed, poverty and mean condition are things to be ashamed of. When a country is poorly governed, riches and honor are things to be ashamed of." XIV.20: The Master was speaking about the unprincipled actions of the duke Ling of Wei, when K'ang Tzu said, "Since he is of such a character, how is it he does not lose his throne?" Kung Fu-Tzu said, "Chung-shu Yu has the superintendence of his guests and strangers; the litanist, T'uo, has the management of his ancestral temple; and Wang-sun Chia has the direction of the army and forces: with such officers as these, how should he lose his throne?"
The Ch'in Ancient China had always been a collection of more or less independent states in the north of China. The Shang and the Chou dominated the political landscape as the most powerful of those states, but they did not exercise uniform rule over neighboring regions. When the Chou began to weaken around 500 BC, these independent states began to war among themselves over territory and influence. So chaotic was this period that the Chinese refer to it as The Warring States period, and it did not end until the whole of north China was unified under a single empire, the Ch'in dyansty. In Chinese history, the Ch'in are the great, evil dynasty, but Western historians often stand in awe of the Ch'in. They were repressive, …show more content…
autocratic, and frequently cruel, but they were also brilliant political theorists and reformers who historically brought about one of the most energetic periods of Chinese government. Their story, however, is a very brief one. For from the time the Ch'in unified China in 221 BC, to the time of their fall fifteen years later in 206 BC, not even a generation had passed. For all that, so massive was their accomplishment that our name for China is derived from the Ch'in.
he Ch'in were a small state in the western reaches of the Wei River. As with all states during the Warring States period, the Ch'in pursued an aggressive policy of territorial expansion. The Ch'in, however, had one great advantage: they had adopted a new style of government based on the principles of the Legalists. Ultimately based on Confucianism, Legalism held that human beings were fundamentally base and selfish and had to be strictly controlled through laws. These laws were effective only if punishments were severe and certain, so the Ch'in kingdom was frighteningly autocratic. But Legalist philosophy also demanded a strong central government, a strong military, a tightly controlled economy, and the strict regimentation of the citizens of the state. As a result, the Ch'in kingdom grew powerful and wealthy in a very short time.
Ch'in shih-huang-ti We traditionally date the start of the Ch'in dynasty to 256 BC, although the unification of China did not occur until 221 BC. By 256 BC, the Ch'in had become the most powerful state in China, and in 246 BC, the kingdom fell to a thirteen year old boy, Ch'eng. As a young man, he surrounded himself with brilliant Legalist ministers.
His most powerful and trusted advisor was Li Ssu, one of the foundational theorists of Legalism. Under their advice, in 232 BC, King Ch'eng, at the age of twenty-seven, began a vigorous campaign to unify and centralize all the northern kingdoms. The surrounding kingdoms were no match for the wealth and military power of the Ch'in, and by 221 BC, Ch'eng conquered all of the northern kingdoms. He assumed the title, Ch'in shih-huang-ti, or "The First Exalted Emperor of the Ch'in." Under his guidance, and the advice of Li Ssu, Ch'in shih-huang-ti created the form of government which served as the model for all future Chinese dynasties. First, the government was centralized around the emperor and his ministers. In order to facilitate that centralization, the Ch'in replaced the old, feudal system in which territory was controlled by more or less independent nobility with a strong, hierarchical bureaucracy. All the members of this bureaucracy, as well as the ministers of the state, would be appointed by the central government. In order to break the power of the aristocracy, he confiscated their lands and distributed them to the peasants. To facilitate the taxation process, government taxes were taken directly from the peasants rather than …show more content…
passing through the hands of the aristocracy. In order to cement the centralization of government, Ch'in shih-huang-ti embarked on an ambitious campaign of standardizing money and weights and measures. The Ch'in emperor also put the most severe of Legalist doctrines into practice as well. The laws of the unified empire were strict and harsh, particularly if you were in government. The penalty for any corruption at all among government servants was death. The Legalists also believed in centralization of thinking, fearful that any non-Legalist ways of thinking could lead to disruption and revolution. So all the other schools of philosophy were outlawed, especially Confucianism, and their books were burned and their teachers were executed. The Ch'in were also hard on commerce. Seeing it as a form of infection or parasitism, the Ch'in severely restricted trade and mercantilism, taxed the merchants heavily, and executed merchants for the most trivial offenses. The Ch'in, however, set their eyes on more than the administration of the northern territories. They turned south and steadily conquered the southern regions of China all the way to the Red River in north Vietnam. Their greatest enemy, however, was to the north. Called the Hsiung Nu, these nomadic, Hunnish people, had been making constant incursions into the northern territories all during the Chou period. The peoples north of China had originally developed as hunters and fishers, but when the region began to dry out and the forests receded, they turned to keeping flocks. As a result they learned horsemanship and began to wander nomadically; they also began to fight among themselves. This constant fighting made them highly skilled at fighting on horseback, and when they began to wander into the northern states of China, they made extremely formidable opponents for the infantry-based northern states. In response to these incursions, the northern kingdoms all during the Chou period built walls and fortifications along their northern borders. The Ch'in began a massive project of joining many of these walls and fortifications. Although the Ch'in did not build the "Great Wall" as historians used to claim (the Great Wall was built during the Ming dynasty), this fortification and building project during the Ch'in period was in itself truly amazing.
The Fall of the Ch'in Ch'in shih-huang-ti died in 210 BC at the age of forty-nine; the amazing thing about the empire he had founded is that it collapsed only four years after his death.
While the Legalist government of Ch'in shih-huang-ti was ruthlessly efficient in its control over the state and the bureaucracy, that ruthlessness proved to be its undoing. The emperor, who had hoped to found a dynasty lasting over ten thousand years, had alienated many people, particularly the landed aristocracy. The building projects of the Ch'in demanded forced labor and heavy taxation; people all throughout the empire were on the verge of revolt. Finally, the Ch'in had created a government that virtually ran without the emperor, who remained aloof from day to day governing. Upon Ch'in shih-huang-ti's death, the two most powerful administrators, Li Ssu and Chao Kao, covered up his death and took over the government. They installed a puppet emperor, but for the most part all Chinese government rested in their hands. Both Li Ssu and Chao Kao ruthlessly enforced penalties on lower administrators; because of this, regional administrators kept secret the revolts and uprisings in their territories for fear of punishment. Eventually, Chao Kao eliminated Li Ssu, and the territorial uprisings became so severe that they could no longer be kept secret. By that point, it was too late, and the dynasty that was to last ten thousand years disappeared only four years after its founder
died.
Legalism
Though they are largely considered the great Satans of Chinese history, the group of philosophers and administrators known as the Legalists represent a first in Chinese government: the application of a philosophical system to government. And despite their dismal failure and subsequent demonization throughout posterity, the philosophical and political innovations they practiced had a lasting effect on the nature of Chinese government.
The basic starting point for the early Confucianists (Confucius and Mencius) was that human beings were fundamentally good; every human was born with te , or "moral virtue." The third great Confucianist of antiquity, Hsün Tzu (fl. 298-238 B.C.), believed exactly the opposite, that all human beings were born fundamentally depraved, selfish, greedy, and lustful. However, this was not an entirely dark and pessimistic view of humanity, for Hsün Tzu believed that humans could be made good through acculturation and education (which is the basic view of society in Europe and America from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries: humans are fundamentally base and vulgar but can be taught to be good and refined). His pupil, Han Fei Tzu, began from the same starting point, but determined that humans are made good by state laws. The only way to check human selfishness and depravity was to establish laws that bountifully rewarded actions that benefit others and the state and ruthlessly punish all actions that harmed others or the state. For Confucius, power was something to be wielded for the benefit of the people, but for Han Fei, the benefit of the people lay in the ruthless control of individual selfishness. Since even the emperor cannot be counted on to behave in the interests of the people, that is, since even the emperor can be selfish, it is necessary that the laws be supreme over even the emperor. Ideally, if the laws are written well enough and enforced aggressively, there is no need of individual leadership, for the laws alone are sufficient to govern a state.
When the Ch'in gained imperial power after decades of civil war, they adopted the ideas of the Legalists as their political theory. In practice, under legalists such as Li Ssu (d. 208 B.C.) and Chao Kao, the Legalism of the Ch'in dynasty (221-207) involved a uniform totalitarianism. People were conscripted to labor for long periods of time on state projects, such as irrigation projects or the series of defensive walls in northern China which we know as the Great Wall; all disagreement with the government was made a capital crime; all alternative ways of thinking, which the Legalists saw as encouraging the natural fractiousness of humanity, were banned. The policies eventually led to the downfall of the dynasty itself after only fourteen years in power. Local peoples began to revolt and the government did nothing about it, for local officials feared to bring these revolts to the attention of the authorities since the reports themselves might be construed as a criticism of the government and so result in their executions. The emperor's court did not discover these revolts until it was far too late, and the Ch'in and the policies they pursued were discredited for the rest of Chinese history.
But it is not so easy to dismiss Legalism as this short, anomolous, unpleasant period of totalitarianism in Chinese history, for the Legalists established ways of doing government that would profoundly influence later governments. First, they adopted Mo Tzu's ideas about utilitarianism; the only occupations that people should be engaged in should be occupations that materially benefited others, particularly agriculture. Most of the Ch'in laws were attempts to move people from useless activities, such as scholarship or philosophy, to useful ones. This utilitarianism would survive as a dynamic strain of Chinese political theory up to and including the Maoist revolution. Second, the Legalists invented what we call "rule of law," that is, the notion that the law is supreme over every individual, including individual rulers. The law should rule rather than individuals, who have authority only to administer the law. Third, the Legalists adopted Mo Tzu's ideas of uniform standardization of law and culture. In order to be effective, the law has to be uniformly applied; no one is to be punished more or less severely because of their social standing. This notion of "equality before the law" would, with some changes, remain a central concept in theories of Chinese government. In their quest for uniform standards, the Ch'in undertook a project of standardizing Chinese culture: the writing system, the monetary system, weights and measures, and the philosophical systems (which they mainly accomplished by destroying rival schools of thought). This standardization profoundly affected the coherence of Chinese culture and the centralization of government; the attempt to standardize Chinese thought would lead in the early Han dynasty (202 B.C.-9 A.D.) to the fusion of the rival schools into one system of thought, the so-called Han Synthesis.
Richard Hooker
Selections from The Analects
Jen XII.22: Fan-ch'ih asked about jen. 1 The Master said, "It is to love all men." He asked about knowledge. "It is to know all men." Fan ch'ih did not immediately understand these answers. The Master said, "Employ the upright and put aside all the crooked; in this way, the crooked can be made to be upright." VII.29: The Master said, "Is humaneness a thing remote? I wish to be humane, and behold! humaneness is at hand." VI.28: Tzu-kung said, "Suppose I put the case of a man who extensively confers benefits on the people, and is able to assist everyone, what would you say about him? Might he be called perfectly humane?" The Master said, "Why speak only of humaneness in connection with him? Must he not have the qualities of a sage? . . . Now the man of perfect humaneness, wishing to be established himself, seeks also to establish others; wishing to be enlarged himself, he seeks also to enlarge others. To be able to judge of others by what is nearby in ourselves, that is what we might call the art of humaneness." XV.23: Tzu-kung asked, saying, "Is there one world which may serve as a rule of practice for all one's life?" The Master said, "Is not reciprocity such a word? What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others." XIV.36: Someone said, "What do you say concerning the principle that injury should be recompensed with kindness?" The Master said, "With what then will you recompense kindness? Recompense injury with justice, and recompense kindness with kindness." VII.15: The Master said, "With coarse rice to eat, with water to drink, and my bended arm for a pillow; I still have joy in the midst of these things. Riches and honors acquired by inhumanity are to me as a floating cloud." IV.25: The Master said, "Virtue is not left to stand alone. He who practices it will have neighbors." XV.8: The Master said, "The determined scholar and the man of virtue will not seek to live at the expense of humanity. They will even sacrifice their lives to preserve their humanity." VII.6: The Master said, "Let the will be set on the path of duty. Let every attainment in what is good be firmly grasped. Let perfect virtue be accorded with. Let relaxation and enjoyment be found in the polite arts."
The Superior Man 2 (chün-tzu) XX.3: The Master said, "Without recognizing the ordinances of Heaven, it is impossible to be a superior man (chün tzu)." XV.17: The Master said, "The superior man in everything considers righteousness to be essential. He performs it according to the rules of propriety (li ). He brings it forth in humility. He completes it with sincerity. This is indeed a superior man." XV.31: The Master said, "The object of the superior man is truth, not food. . . . The superior man is anxious lest he should not get truth; he is not anxious lest poverty should come upon him." IV.16: The Master said, "The mind of the superior man is conversant with virtue; the mind of the base man is conversant with gain." IV.5: The Master said, "Riches and honors are what men desire. If they cannot be obtained in the proper way, they should not be held. Poverty and baseness are what men dislike. If they cannot be avoided in the proper way, they should not be avoided. . . . The superior man does not, even for the space of a single meal, act contrary to virtue. In moments of haste, he cleaves to it. In seasons of danger, he cleaves to it." XV.20: The Master said, "What the superior man seeks, is in himself. What the mean man seeks, is in others." XII.4: Ssu-ma Niu asked about the superior man. The Master said, "The superior man has neither anxiety nor fear." "Being without anxiety or fear!" said Ssu-ma, "does this constitute what we call the superior man?" The Master said, "When internal examination discovers nothing wrong, what is there to be anxious about, what is there to fear?" XIV.24: The Master said, "The progress of the superior man is upwards; the progress of the mean man is downwards." XVI.8: Confucius said, "There are three things of which the superior man stand in awe. He stands in awe of the ordinances of Heaven. He stands in awe of great men. He stands in awe of the words of the sages. The mean man does not know the ordinances of Heaven, and consequently does not stand in awe of them. He is disrespectful to great men. He makes sport of the words of the sages." XIV.29: The Master said, "The superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions." XV.18: The Master said, "The superior man is distressed by his want of ability. He is not distressed by men not knowing of him." XV.21: The Master said, "The superior man is dignified, but does not wrangle. He is sociable, but not partisan." XVII.24: Tzu-kung asked, "Has the superior man his hatreds also?" The Master said, "He has his hatreds. He hates those who proclaim the evil of others. He hates the man who, being in a low station, slanders his superiors. He hates those who have valor merely, and are unobservant of propriety (li ). He hates those who are forward and determined, and, at the same time, of contracted understanding." XVI.10: Confucius said, "The superior man has nine things which are subjects with him of thoughtful consideration. In regard to the use of his eyes, he is anxious to see clearly. In regard to the use of his ears, he is anxious to hear distinctly. In regard to his countenance, he is anxious that it should be benign. In regard to his speech, he is anxious that it should be sincere. In regard to his doing of business, he is anxious that it should be reverently careful. In regard to what he doubts about, he is anxious to question others. When he is angry, he thinks of the difficulties his anger may involve him in. When he sees gain to be got, he thinks of righteousness." XIX.9: Tzu-hsia3 said, "The superior man undergoes three changes. Looked at from a distance, he appears stern; when approached, he is mild; when he is heard to speak, his language is firm and decided." XV.36: The superior man is correctly firm, and not merely firm.
Li (Rites 4) III.3: The Master said, "If a man be without the virtues proper to humanity,5 what has he to do with the rites of propriety?6 If a man be without the virtues of humanity, what has he to do with music?" VIII.2: The Master said, "Respectfulness, without the rules of propriety,7 becomes laborious bustle; carefulness, without the rules of propriety, becomes timidity; boldness, without the rules of propriety, becomes insubordination; straightforwardness, without the rules of propriety, becomes rudeness." III.4: Lin Fang asked what was the first thing to be attended to in ceremonies. The Master said, "A great question, indeed! In festive ceremonies, it is better to be sparing than extravagant. In the ceremonies of mourning, it is better that there be deep sorrow than a minute attention to the observances." III.26: The Master said, "High station filled without indulgent generosity; ceremonies performed without reverence; mourning conducted without sorrow-wherewith should I contemplate such ways?" XI.1: The Master said, "The men of former times, in the matters of ceremonies and music,8 were rustics, it is said, while the men of these latter times, in ceremonies and music, are accomplished gentlemen. If I have occasion to use those things, I follow the men of former times." III.17: Tzu Kung wished to do away with the offering of a sheep connected with the inauguration of the first day of each month. The Master said, "Tzu Kung, you love the sheep; I love the ceremony."
Yüeh (Music) III.23: The Master instructing the Grand music master of Lu said, "How to play music may be known. At the commencement of the piece, all the parts should sound together. As it proceeds, they should be in harmony, severally distinct and flowing without a break, and thus on to the conclusion." IX.14: The Master said, "I returned from Wei to Lu, and then the music was reformed, and the pieces in the Imperial songs and Praise songs found all their proper place."
Learning and Teaching IX.4: There were four things from which the Master was entirely free. He had no foregone conclusions, no arbitrary predeterminations, no obstinacy, and no egotism. XVII.2: The Master said, "By nature, men are nearly alike; by practice, they get to be wide apart." XVI.9: Confucius said, "Those who are born with the possession of knowledge are the highest class of men. Those who learn, and so readily get possession of knowledge, are the next. Those who are dull and stupid, and yet compass the learning are another class next to these. As to those who are dull and stupid and yet do not learn—they are the lowest of the people." VII.8: The Master said, "I do not open up the truth to one who is not eager to get knowledge, nor help out any one who is not anxious to explain himself. When I have presented one corner of a subject to any one, and he cannot from it learn the other three, I do not repeat my lesson." IV.9: The Master said, "A scholar, whose mind is set on truth, and who is ashamed of bad clothes and bad food, is not fit to be discoursed with." VIII.12: The Master said, "It is not easy to find a man who has learned for three years without coming to be good." XII.15: The Master said, "By extensively studying all learning, and keeping himself under the restraint of the rules of propriety, one may thus likewise not err from what is right." IX.18: The Master said, "The course of learning may be compared to what may happen in raising a mound. If there want but one basket of earth to complete the work, and I stop, the stopping is my own work. It may be compared to throwing down the earth on the level ground. Though but one basketful is thrown at a time, the advancing with it is my own going forward." XIV.47: A youth of the village of Ch'üeh was employed by Kung to carry the messages between him and his visitors. Someone asked about him, saying, "I suppose he has made great progress." The Master said, "I observe that he is fond of occupying the seat of a full-grown man; I observe that he walks shoulder to shoulder with his elders. He is not one who is seeking to make progress in learning. He wishes quickly to become a man." XIV.25: The Master said, "In ancient times, men learned with a view to their own improvement. Nowadays, men learn with a view to the approbation of others." XV.29: The Master said, "To have faults and not to reform them—this, indeed, should be pronounced having faults." IX.28: The Master said, "The wise are free from perplexities; the virtuous from anxiety; and the bold from fear."
Government II.7: Tzu-kung asked about government. The Master said, "The requisites of government are that there be sufficiency of food, sufficiency of military equipment, and the confidence of the people in their ruler." Tzu Kung said, "If it cannot be helped, and one of these must be dispensed with, which of the three should be foregone first?" "The military equipment," said the Master. Tzu Kung again asked, "If it cannot be helped and one of the remaining two must be dispensed with, which of them should be foregone?" The Master answered, "Part with the food. From of old, death has been the lot of humanity; but if the people have no faith in their rulers, there is no standing for the state." XII.14: Tzu-chang asked about government. The Master said, "The art of governing is to keep its affairs before the mind without weariness, and to practice these affairs with undeviating consistency." XII.19: Chi K'ang-tzu asked Confucius about government, saying, "What do you say to killing unprincipled people for the sake of principled people?" Confucius replied, "Sir, in carrying on your government, why should you use killing at all? Let your evinced desires be for what is good, and the people will be good. The relation between superiors (chün-tzu) and inferiors is like that between the wind and the grass. The grass must bend, when the wind blows across it." XIII.6: The Master said, "When a prince's personal conduct is correct, his government is effective without the issuing of orders. If his personal conduct is not correct, he may issue orders, but they will not be followed." VII.10: The Master said to Yen Yuen, "When called to office, undertake its duties; when not so called, then lie retired . . . Tzu-lu said, "If you had the conduct of the armies of a great state, whom would you have to act with you?" The Master said, "I would not have him to act with me, who will unarmed attack a tiger, or cross a river without a boat, dying without any regret. My associate must be the man who proceeds to action full of caution, who is fond of adjusting his plans, and then carries them into execution." XIV.23: Tzu-lu asked how a sovereign should be served. The Master said, "Do not impose on him, and, moreover, withstand him to his face." III.18: The Master said, "The full observance of the rules of propriety9 in serving one's prince is accounted by people to be flattery." XI.23: "What is called a great minister,10 is one who serves his prince according to what is right, and when he finds he cannot do so, retires." XIV.1: Hsien asked what was shameful. The Master said, "When good government prevails in a state, to be thinking only of one's salary. When bad government prevails, to be thinking, in the same way, only of one's salary. That is what is shameful." IX.13: "When a country is well governed, poverty and mean condition are things to be ashamed of. When a country is poorly governed, riches and honor are things to be ashamed of." XIV.20: The Master was speaking about the unprincipled actions of the duke Ling of Wei, when K'ang Tzu said, "Since he is of such a character, how is it he does not lose his throne?" Kung Fu-Tzu said, "Chung-shu Yu has the superintendence of his guests and strangers; the litanist, T'uo, has the management of his ancestral temple; and Wang-sun Chia has the direction of the army and forces: with such officers as these, how should he lose his throne?"