As the Han Empire grew there were an increasing number of provinces with an increasing population under imperial control. The need for administrators increased accordingly. Emperor Wu expanded the recruitment system by establishing an imperial college for training these administrators. The teachers of the college were experts in one of the aforementioned Chinese Classics. The number of students enrolled in the first year 124 BCE was only 50. By the end of the Former Han in 9 CE, there were up to 3000 students. By the end of Later Han in 220 ACE the enrollment was up 30,000, indicating the importance of the government exams in determining political potential.[0]
How did those Classics sneak in as the primary course of study for these future Chinese administrators? Why not scientific and practical courses on agriculture, metallurgy, and medicine? Why the emphasis only on these texts that were up to 500 years old? How did this make one qualified for government?
The answers have to do with the rise of Confucianism. After an initial flirting with Taoist thinking, the Han dynasty embraced Confucianism as the state religion. As we shall see again, the Taoists were too individual and independent to be associated with the huge hierarchy associated with the Empire. Remember that the Confucians were the ju, the educated military aristocracy, generally of the shih class. After the short reign of the First Emperor, they emerged from hiding to exert control, once again, on the expanded Chinese Empire.
Primary to the rise of Confucianism were the writings of Tung Chung-shu.
“Confucianism was revived as a philosophical force by the scholar Tung Chung-shu, who so impressed Emperor Wu that he pronounced Confucianism the ideological basis of the state, declared only professed Confucians to be eligible for state office, and made Confucianism the curriculum of the national university.”[1]
What was it about the writings that so impressed Emperor Wu?
Most importantly Tung Chung-shu incorporated the Yin-Yang theory of the I Ching into Confucianism in a patriarchal way that also pleased the state. In his famous ‘theory of correspondences’ he postulated that man, society and nature were connected in an intimate way. Heaven, Emperor, boss, father, and man were on the positive yang side; while Earth, peasants, mother, woman were on the negative yin side. Further the king connected the important triad of Heaven, humans, and Earth. This is illustrated by the ideogram for king, wang, which shows a single vertical line connecting three horizontal lines. This ‘natural’ order of things with man on top, with the entire universe revolving around the ruler explained philosophically by the Confucian Tung Chung-shu pleased the Emperor Wu of the Former Han dynasty. He rewarded the Confucians by making them the state religion in 136 BCE.
Tung Chung-shu endorsed the classical virtues propounded by Confucius and his early disciples, including filial piety, loyalty, rectitude, courtesy and compassion. In the section on Confucius we explored the virtues of jen, i.e. compassion, and yi, i.e. rectitude. Tung even harmonized the teachings of Mencius and Hsün-tzu, by insisting that while humans were naturally good (ala Mencius) that they needed to be molded by disciplined training and practice to develop this goodness, as per Hsün-tzu.[2] This is probably the underlying belief of the western justice system. While man is naturally good he is tempted and needs to be restrained by laws so that he doesn’t stray down the wrong path.
Tung Chung-shu believed that he was the interpreter of Confucius for his own time. To understand this Chinese concept let us start with the Chinese word for classic, Ching, as in I Ching, Tao Te Ching. The word Ching is related to the primary vertical weave. According to this metaphor this primary vertical weave needs to be given temporal context by a contemporary horizontal weave. The horizontal weave is woven across the classic vertical weave to complete the fabric for each individual time period. Hence the classics must be continually reinterpreted for the age. New life must be continually infused into the old classics by contemporary interpretations. Thus the thrust was not to understand what the old writings meant in their original context except to the extent that it enables understanding the meaning of the classics in the modern context.
As an example, the song-poems of the Hexagrams of the I Ching were written during the early Chou dynasty. These classic song-poems were considered the vertical weave, the ching, during the Spring and Autumn Era. They needed a contemporary context to have relevance. This horizontal weave was supplied by Confucian commentators of the day. By the Han dynasty the Confucian commentaries along with the Chou song-poems became the classic, the ching, which needed its own contemporary reinterpretation.
Similarly Tung Chung-shu felt his role was to bring Confucianism into the context of the Han. This he did by relating filial piety to the Han imperial structure by equating the Emperor with the father of the Empire. Further he incorporated the yin yang theory of the I Ching into the patriarchal imperial world of the Han. He did not care about the feudal clan-oriented context of the Spring and Autumn Era. He did not care about the egalitarian Fertility cultures, which might have spawned the original equality of yin and yang. He only cared about matching the I Ching and Confucius to the patriarchal imperial context of the Han.
In a similar way, the author of this work hopes to bring ancient Chinese thought into a modern context. Thus while attempting to maintain the integrity of the vertical weave of Confucianism and Taoism; Taiji, yin/yang, the I Ching, and the Five element theory is important; more important is giving these philosophies a contemporary context. Less important is understanding the Chinese context of these classic ideas except in so much as they enable the understanding of the modern context. Hence what the Han Chinese thought about the wu-hsing theory is important only to the extent that it illuminates a modern meaning. The historian cares about what the Han peoples believed about the Tao Te Ching, while the sage cares only to the extent that a modern meaning can be invoked that will provide a modern tool for personal transformation.
Thus this work rather than focusing upon the inherently patriarchal orientation of the ju class to which Confucius and the Confucians belonged, rather than focusing upon the quest for physical immortality of the Taoist, rather than focusing upon the uniquely Chinese aspects of the I Ching, yin-yang, or the wu-hsing theories, rather than focusing upon any of these past contexts, this author chooses to focus on how these philosophies and theories translate into meaning in a twentieth century context, with its egalitarianism, psychology, and scientific background.
While on some levels the previous paragraphs represent a disclaimer for the historical gaps, distortions, and gross generalization in the current work, on a deeper level it identifies the true intent of the author. Education is not the real thrust, although it is a tool. Illumination and personal transformation are the real goals. If any of these metaphors and philosophies, Chinese or personal, can in any way assist the process of personal transformation, then the work is a success. If the Reader is only educated, then they only got a surface wound. Watch out. The illusion of life is reflected in historical illusion. An autistic child intently watches their fingers moving before their eyes.
While Tung Chung-shu’s imperial interpretations of Confucius and the I Ching were key to the approval of Emperor Wu, the Confucians had some key advantages.
First the Confucians, the ju class, had always been experts upon royal ritual and ceremony. Thus to validate the new Han dynasty they devised ceremonies and rituals to reinforce the royal prestige. They presumably based these ceremonies upon Chinese classics of the early Chou period, almost 1000 years old. According to modern scholarship, the Confucians probably fabricated these documents during the Han. Also the philosophy of Confucius, the man, stressed ritual and ceremony as an essential social glue. Thus these royal ceremonies increased royal prestige, furthered social stability, and were also based upon the philosophy of Confucius himself. A win-win situation for the imperial government, if not for women or the peasantry.
Second, and probably more importantly, the ju class had always been the literate class, specialists in calligraphy and numbers. As the literate class they were also the educated class. Because of the complexity of Chinese ideograms, only a fraction of a percent of the population was even able to read. The farmers, 90 % of the population had no need or time to read. This was still the situation in the first half of the 20th century in China.
Furthermore the Chinese written language was ideally suited to administer the multi-cultural polyglot included in China’s expanding geography. Remember that the ideograms are in no way phonetic and instead represent a concept. Thus any language with a similar or more primitive conceptual base could be easily sinofied, i.e. by translating its words into Chinese ideograms. This would in no way effect the pronunciation of the words. Thus literate officials could communicate with government administrators in letters when they couldn’t even understand each other’s language, just as scientists of every culture understand the same equations, regardless of local pronunciation.
Thus the literate Chinese had a major and insurmountable advantage over the illiterate Chinese in terms of government position. No matter what province they came from they could communicate with officials from any other province in writing. However if they couldn’t write, they would only be able to communicate to the officials from their own local language group. So no matter how good someone’s ideas, if they couldn’t communicate and had to rely on translators, they would be paralyzed when it came to communication from the large distances that the Chinese Empire entailed. Not being literate in Han China would be akin to not having a computer in the modern business world, not being able to speak English and hope to participate in national government.
One last aspect of the literate shih, the ju, was that they and their ancestors had administered and ruled for centuries. They were trained to rule, while the peasantry had been raised to farm. Hence in the brief period of Ch’in rule, less than 20 years, these family tendencies would not have been extinguished. We are not suggesting that the ability to rule and administer is inherited as much as we are suggesting that these abilities are culturally transmitted along family lines through training.
Indeed it is probable that the First Emperor employed the pliant shih, i.e. those not advocating revolt, to administer his huge empire. As with every large operation, the administrators provide a vital continuity through the myriad changes of leadership. Hence while the First Emperor disrupted the feudal system with its hereditary privileges it is likely that his administrators were chosen from the shih class primarily because of their literacy combined with the attendant need for universality in communication throughout the far-flung Chinese Empire.
So while Tung Chung-shu’s patriarchal reinterpretation of Confucius played a big role in the ascendancy of Confucianism, it could easily be argued that it was inevitable that the literate Confucians, the ju of the shih class, would ascend to important government positions, if simply because of the universality of the Chinese written language. Remember too that written Chinese had just been purified of its regional variations by the First Emperor and so was even more universal than before.
Let us add to these advantages the politically active philosophy of Confucius himself. Writing and working in the Spring and Autumn Era, Confucius never advocated the overthrow of the aristocracy. He only wanted to improve the workings of government, not change its form. Further he focused great attention upon the importance of the ruler himself. Thus his philosophy was perfectly suited to the Imperial military aristocracy of the Han dynasty.
With all of these subsidiary tendencies in mind, after the founding of the university a curriculum was quickly set based upon what have become called the Confucian classics.
“In 124 BCE a national university was founded corresponding to the classics. Soon the classics became the required texts in all education, and eventually government officials were selected through an examination on them. Confucianism had achieved supremacy. By virtue of this supremacy, Confucianism dominated Chinese ethics, education, government and certain aspects of religion for about 2,000 years.”[3]
We will see that the ideas of Confucius are only a small part of the Confucian classics and that his ideas were of secondary importance to the ju agenda.
While Confucius’ idea of merit determining leadership had become the norm during the Ch’in, the Confucians stepped in during the Han to determine what merit was. They determined that merit was based upon one’s ability to assimilate Chinese culture via the Confucian Classics from their school. What was this classical education advocated by the Ju school, upon which the exams were based, upon which leadership was based? What were the implications?
In proceeding a little deeper, the Ju school had always stressed a classical and cultural education, mainly for the nobility. Confucius had extended this education to the populace. Thus when the ju achieved ascendancy under the Han, they still stressed a cultural education in addition to ceremonial education. Because of the prestige of Tung Chung-shu and his reverence for Confucius, this cultural education included his teachings.
His teachings included an emphasis upon the idea that leadership be based upon ability rather than heredity. This aspect of Confucius had already been implemented by the Ch’in and was merely continued by the Han. Lest one consider that the rulers of Ch’in as humanitarian reformers, let it be pointed out that the idea of leadership based upon merit was a superior social technology.
The Ch’in were the strongest because they didn’t tolerate incompetence and rewarded merit. Those cultures, which tolerated incompetence and held onto hereditary privilege in spite of performance were not fit and perished in battle against the more organized Ch’in. Thus as the population pressures grew, those cultures which adapted to the new cultural conditions were able to compete, while those that held onto the past couldn’t. The strict discipline of the military Ch’in and the need for real performance propelled them to the pinnacle of Chinese politics. Thus the merit system of the Ch’in might have been inspired by the humanitarianism of Confucius but had practical benefits, which bore immediate fruit.
Hence the Han, inheritors of the Ch’in administrative system continued to reward merit. They quickly realized that merit had to include literacy to administer their far-flung empire. Of necessity they introduced an educational system designed to promote cultural literacy based upon the Chinese classics determined by the Ju, the Confucians. Because of real needs, they introduced state exams to determine cultural and leadership ability. The Han and the dynasties that followed chose their administrators and bureaucrats based upon their ability to take these state exams rather than upon blood heredity. Hence Confucius got one part of his dream, the idea that leaders be chosen for ability rather than for bloodline. The political technology of leadership based upon merit proved to be an incredibly powerful aspect of imperial Chinese culture for thousands of years. This technology only reached the west with the advent of democratic processes a few hundred years ago and has also proved to be a powerful tool for us too.
There were 13 Confucian classics that were the basis of the Chinese education and the content of the state tests. Most were originally written during the Chou dynasty, although some are given attributions of up to 1000 years earlier. Because of the book burnings of the Ch’in dynasty, most of these classics have been rewritten and edited by scholars of the Han dynasty.[4] This Han rewrite gave the classic works a more modern context, while reinforcing Imperial policy.
The Chinese Word Ching means classic. Hence we can speak of Ju ching, Buddhist ching, or Taoist ching. We have already spoken about the Taoist ching, the Tao te Ching. It is a very important Chinese concept, which we see again in the Chinese response to Buddhism. In the present context we are examining the Ju Ching. What were the Confucian classics, the Ju ching?
Initially there were nine Ju ching. By the 1200s this had been expanded to 13. To get their flavor we will enumerate them. The first, the I Ching, classic of Changes, is a book of divination, which we have examined. The second, the ‘Document Classic’ contains speeches and documents from the Chou dynasty. The third, the “Poetry classic” contains poetry and songs from the Chou. These are all fairly historical, written during the Western Chou. The fourth is called ‘Chou ritual classic’. The fifth, ‘Classic of Etiquette’; the sixth, ‘Classic of Rites’. These last three are presented as historical works associated with the way the early Chou dynasty worked. We remember from our previous discussion that the last three classics were all Han fabrications, designed to create new rituals for the Han which had the prestige of the early Chou behind them.
The seventh, ‘the Spring and Autumn Annals’, is also about the historical Chou around where Confucius lived on a year-to-year level between 722-481 BCE. It also contains assimilation and analysis in a commentary in addition to dry facts. The eighth and ninth contain more commentary upon the ‘Spring and Autumn Annals’. The tenth, the Analects, are the sayings of Confucius collected by first and second generation disciples of Confucius. This is the single most important source of knowledge about historical Confucius. Like Socrates and Jesus, Confucius himself wrote very little, himself. His personal impact was so great, however, that his followers wrote down his sayings. The eleventh, the ‘Classic of Filial Piety’, is a treatise exalting filial piety as the highest virtue. This was written a few hundred years after Confucius. The twelfth was the ‘Classic Dictionary’. The thirteenth was the conversations of Mencius, a follower of Confucius, written by his disciples.[5]
The point of the enumeration is to show the nature of the Ju Ching. There is extensive history, but it is only Chou dynasty history. There is ritual, poetry, and documents, which are also Chou. There is the philosophy of Confucius and Mencius. There is even Chou divination. But there is no science, no analysis, not even any history after the Chou. The Ju Ching are totally backwards looking. We can see why the Chinese culture fixated upon the philosophies of the Chou.
The bright young people, mainly men, with their ambitious parents would study the Ju Ching in order to rise above their station. The content of the Ju Ching was secondary to the political potentials. It is similar in the United States with our college entrance exams, the SAT and ACT tests. The content of these tests is inconsequential. They do not test for creativity or originality. But the tests are a key part of the entrance process. Hence students study how to take the SAT, not for knowledge or understanding, but for practical considerations only. Hence with generations upon generations of youth studying the Ju Ching in order to achieve upward mobility, with generations upon generations of youth having these backwards looking Ching as the standard for political success, eventually Chinese thought became rigid.
Still under the Mogul empire of the 1900s the Ju Ching with their attendant exams were still the norm in China. It has worked for a thousands years in China, why not a few more. However with the introduction of Western technology, the forward-looking Chinese realized that the Ju style education needed to be reformed. This was the reaction to Confucianism that motivated both the pseudo-democratic China of the early 20th century as well as the communist China of the last half of the 20th century. The Chinese always motivated by scholasticism and hard work, have shifted easily and are now the dominant ethnic population in many graduate departments, especially the technical ones.
Confucius although contained in the Ju Ching did not originate them nor advocate their study. He did advocate study of culture as a way of brain exercise, He also advocated a scientific method. But it was the Ju school of the Han dynasty, which rigidified the Chinese administration and the state exams in the study of their Ching. Luckily Confucius egalitarianism was contained in their Ching. This first transformed the Chinese hereditary based society. Second it encouraged education. Finally it gave the tools to suddenly give up the Ju Ching in favor of modern techniques of science and scholarship. Confucius’ teachings transcended the Ju school of which he was a part.
Why were these particular books chosen as Chinese Classics?
The Northern Chinese of the Yellow River had the longest written tradition back to the Shang of the 2nd millennium. The succeeding Chou dynasty furthered this literary tradition by accumulating documents and song-poems as well as writing their own Book of Changes. Thus during the long Chou dynasty these books had always been treasured and considered informal classics. Thus it was somewhat inevitable that they be included in the early Chinese curriculum.
While the ascendancy of the ju of the shih class was relatively inevitable because of their literacy, it was probably through the personal magnetism of Tung Chung-shu that the concepts of Confucius and his follower Mencius became included in the educational curriculum of these early Chinese administrators.
Conscious that the training of these youths had to do with government decisions, it was inevitable that only those philosophies, which were politically safe and inspire respect for the government would be propagated. Hence any literature, which encouraged rebellion or lack of respect for government would not be included. This could be a possible reason why neither the Chuang Tzu nor the Lao Tzu were included in the classic Chinese curriculum. These Taoist texts emphasized personal responsibility rather than government service.
While the Ju were aristocratic at heart, they were also worshippers of Chinese culture. While Confucius extended their philosophy to the masses, he also retained the Ju emphasis upon the culture. Hence while the manifestation of Confucius’ ideas, turned China into a more egalitarian society with leadership based upon talent, the Ju school focus upon Chinese culture bound all of China under a common cultural roof. The bright Chinese peasants while studying for power would also be studying Chinese culture simultaneously. The melding influence of this combination shouldn’t be underestimated. While Europe and the Middle East had much smaller geography with much smaller populations, they have still not united under a common government or a common culture. The Chinese with almost a third of the people on the planet have been connected in a common culture and government almost continuously since the Han dynasty 2000 years ago. They have had invaders who have been assimilated into the Chinese culture, at least twice, the Mongols and the Moguls. Although China was feudalized again at the beginning of the 20th century, it is now one culture again. This homogenization of Chinese culture must in part be attributed to the state exams, which simultaneously introduced the student to Chinese culture and gave him the potential for upward mobility.
Let us briefly look at what happened to the first classic, the I Ching, the ‘Classic of Changes’, during the Han. Remember that the I Ching probably began as a divination tool, based upon the 64 combinations of two trigrams. According to tradition song-poems for these hexagrams and their individual lines were first written at the transition between the Shang and Chou dynasties by Wên Wang and the Duke of Chou. The I Ching is the foundation of yin-yang theory and inspired both Confucius and Taoism. According to traditional attribution, Confucius wrote a commentary on it during his lifetime.
While the I Ching was probably not written as early as tradition claims, it still preceded Confucius. The I Ching was probably written in the early Chou, while the commentary was probably written in the 3rd or 2nd century BCE[6], a few hundred years after Confucius died, by someone from the Ju school. This allows Confucians to claim the I Ching as their own. Confucian interpretation of the I Ching focuses upon the positive strong masculine yang and the negative weak feminine yin. The Ju school interpretation of the I Ching focuses upon traditional male/ female roles. Perhaps Tung Chung-shu, the famous Confucian of the 2nd century, wrote the commentary or at least influenced the interpretation. It was he that incorporated the Yin-Yang theory into Confucianism in a patriarchal way. Remember his famous theory of correspondences connected Heaven, king, man, and fathers as ‘natural’ leaders. This sexist role oriented commentary identifies the Ju school as worshippers of the Hierarchy.
Remember, however, that the yin-yang theory associated with the I Ching is traditional Chinese preceding both Confucianism or Taoism. Each school has interpreted these symbols in their unique way. While the Confucian school tends to claim the yin-yang theory as their own, the trigrams according to legendary history were introduced before the first dynasty by Fu Hsi, which gives them a Paleolithic origination. This makes sense. The yin and yang are polar opposites. They balance one another rather than one dominating the other. It is an inherently egalitarian system, although the Confucians interpreted them in a hierarchical fashion.
Similarly the Han dynasty used the fabricated, fourth Chinese classic, the Classic of Rituals, the Li-ching, to propagate their patriarchal views. While every other Chinese classic was most likely written during the Chou dynasty, the Li-ching was most probably written during the Han, while attributed to the Duke of Chou at the beginning of the Chou dynasty. Later it was broken into three classics, which deal with proper social behavior towards government, interpersonal behavior of the aristocracy, and ritual behavior. One very influential ritual behavior was directed towards women.
It was called ‘Thrice Following’. According to this etiquette, women were to first obey their fathers, then obey their husband, and finally to obey their sons. Thus a ‘good’ woman always had a family master that was clearly delineated by social forms. These forms were purportedly set up during the early Chou, over a thousand years ago. Further these forms, these rites and rituals, supposedly according to the great Confucius, were what had made China great. Hence the reasoning went, ‘Be a good woman and obey your three men. This will be good for Chinese culture, as a whole. If you don’t, it will undermine the very foundations of our patriarchal society. This would be very bad, especially for us patriarchs.’
This etiquette was very influential in Chinese culture and society all the way up until the Red Chinese government of the mid-20th century. While the Red Chinese government is trying to reeducate their people, old traditions die-hard. As we are about to pass into the 3rd millennium of the Common Era, the Chinese women are still supposed to be subservient to men and speak quietly. Hence Chinese culture, for all its strengths, is still one of the more sexist cultures in the world partly because of the rule of ‘Thrice Following’ introduced during the Han.
The stress on the ceremony in the Ju School and subsequently in Chinese culture has led to an interesting phenomenon. In the West, what the individual believes is of utmost importance while what he does is secondary. We place a high value on orthodoxy. In the Catholic church, no matter what horrendous things you’ve done, if you confess on your deathbed and convert to Catholicism, if necessary, you are saved. Still in evangelical Christianity, prevalent in the United States, one must only acknowledge that Jesus is the son of God in order to be saved. One’s behavior tends to be secondary to belief. Even in a court of law or in the earlier witch trials, confession and repentance, was of utmost importance, and would mitigate the consequences. Conversely if the criminal was unrepentant then his sentence would be more severe. Again behavior assumes a secondary role to belief or intent.
In China this is reversed. What someone believes is not as important, as what they do. Behavior is valued higher than belief. Orthopraxy is considered very important in China. With the diversity of religious expression in China, from the mystical other worldly Buddhists, the intellectual Confucians, to the shamanistic Taoists, belief was considered secondary to behavior. Whether the Ju emphasis upon ceremony led to this orthopraxy or whether it only accentuated a Chinese tendency that was already there, is secondary to the Chinese tendency to orthopraxy.
Lest we judge the west too harshly, let us point out that in the plurality of the United States that the emphasis on orthodoxy is passing out. On the other hand, in China, orthopraxy has led to the formation of the extremely patriarchal Communist state, where behavior must conform to the dictates of the state. Draw your own conclusions.
Let us summarize our findings. First about the third millennium BCE, we have the craft-oriented Neolithic culture. This peaceful culture was conquered and supplanted by the Bronze Age Shang dynasty. Then about 1000 BCE, the Chou dynasty overthrew the Shang. The emperor of the Chou exerted no real power. China broke into smaller states with nominal allegiance to the Chou. The Ju school flourished, which advocated a return to the ceremonies and traditions of the past to bring about the golden age that once existed. Confucius as part of the Ju school extended their aristocratic message to the populace advocating universal education and leadership based upon ability rather than heredity. The Ch’in dictatorship that replaced the chaotic Chou, was a law-based society based upon the theory of legalism, which destroyed the Chinese aristocracy, replacing it with a centralized bureaucracy. The Han dynasty that followed made the Ju school, along with their most famous member, Confucius, the state religion. Under the influence of the Ju Ching, classics, which included Confucius, Chinese government came to be based upon state exams, which stressed a common Chinese culture. This system of choosing leaders created a sense of being Chinese, which has melded this great population into one Empire that has lasted nearly continuously for 2000 years.
While Confucius’ ideas did not play a big part in Confucianism, his influence was enormous upon China. During his lifetime and shortly after, nothing big came. His individual students became administrators and presumably employed his concepts in their job. But individuals do not make a society as big as China. Almost three centuries after his death the Ch’in dictatorship united China under the philosophy of legalism, an offshoot of Confucianism. The Ch’in, abolished the aristocracy and began selecting administrators based upon merit. Pure Confucius. They also attempted to destroy the past, definitely anti-Confucianism, and burned all the books. Hence the Ch’in manifested Confucius’ political ideas, while rejecting the cultural concepts of Confucianism.
The Han dynasty took advantage of the unification of China already achieved by the Ch’in but extended their influence for four centuries, instead of 14 years. The way they accomplished this was by embracing Confucius’ ideas of state government that had been originated during the Ch’in. During the Chou governments leadership was primarily on a hereditary basis and thereby subject to the whims of genetic fate, as all hereditary governments are. As mentioned earlier the Han dynasty introduced state exams in order to separate out those of exceptional ability to help minister the state. The state exams, which were to remain part of the Chinese imperial bureaucracy of 2000 years was the Han extension of the Ch’in appointments based upon merit. Those in positions of authority were not appointed and replaced at the whim of the imperial government but were placed as a result of how well they did upon the state exam. The state exam in addition was not as arbitrary as appointment and also extended possibility to all classes, not only the ruling classes.
“In theory and very largely in practice the administration was controlled by ministers; and these ministers were selected, for the most part, not for their ancestry but for their personal qualities so that a man of very humble origin could and sometimes did rise to wield the paramount power over the entire Chinese empire.”
This system was so efficient that it allowed China to become a permanent empire. Each invader simply assumed the administration that was already in place and so was able to maintain control over the huge population and geography.
In terms of type of government system, it was unique in world history. It was not a democracy. It was not a monarchy in the European or Middle Eastern sense. It was not a dictatorship. Basically the success of the system was based upon the choosing of administrators through exam rather than through royal patronage. This system brought people from all classes of society into government leadership. This minimized corruption and inefficiency, while promoting participation. The populace was not able to vote upon leaders or upon any decision. However if a talented student studied hard enough, he might be able to assume a position of authority through his personal talents. This must have provided a huge incentive and sense of belonging to all classes of society.
While the exams were stacked for the aristocracy and the scholarly class, as they always are, there was at least the potential to succeed for someone of exceptional talent. Additionally while the exams were biased, at least they weeded out the aristocratic dead wood that was to plague European administration over a thousand years later. In the United States, the university exams are race and gender biased, but, except in unusual circumstances, one can’t buy a law degree or a doctorate. Although the wealthy has the deck stacked for their families, the individuals must still take advantage and cultivate their personal talents. Also there are ways available that the exceptional from poor families might still succeed. In a similar way was China’s administration chosen.
The teachings of Confucius included the concept of universal education. While, in theory, anyone could compete in the national exams, in practice only the children of the nobility had the training needed to even take the tests. The agricultural peasantry as a whole didn’t have the time or money to afford the education needed to compete in written exams. It wasn’t until the Communist revolution of the 2nd half of the 20th century that universal education became a reality in China. Hence the Chinese administrators were primarily chosen from the upper classes not the peasantry.
“Nevertheless and despite the fact that men of very humble social status sometimes skyrocketed in to eminence, it must be kept in mind that the Han civil service was not what we would consider democratic. Recruitment required literacy, and literacy was almost necessarily restricted to those few whose families were wealthy enough to hire tutors and have access to books, which were available only in expensive handwork copies on wooden slats or silk. The system also required that one be recommended by local authorities who were certainly not likely to recommend anyone not of good breeding- that is, anyone outside the small circle of great families that dominated every area.”[7]
We mentioned that while the First Emperor destroyed the feudal system ruled by the shih, that these same shih were chosen to run his Empire because they were literate. Thus while the feudal system had been destroyed, the same old families were by and large still in charge.
While the continuity was not broken, there was a social transformation of the shih class. During the Chou, they were the slave-owning military aristocracy, while during the Han they had become wealthy administrators.
“The outlook on life of this new class [of officials and bureaucrats during the Han] was quite different from that of the former slave-owning aristocracy. Instead of a fierce pride in noble lineage and a concern with warfare and ceremonial there was a typical petit bourgeois concern with material possessions and comforts of life.”[8]
However because literacy was the main quality that differentiated the shih administrators from the rest, they held onto literacy as their badge. They began to look down on any occupation, which didn’t include literacy and knowledge of the Classics. In this context, the illiterate craftsman were always considered lower class
“By the end of the [Han] dynasty there had come in to being a gulf between the intellectual aristocracy on the one hand and the unlettered craftsmen on the other which was to have profound influence on the character of later Chinese art.”[9]
This same snobbery extended to architecture, which was built by illiterate craftsman.
“The Chinese have never thought of architecture as a major art form. They looked upon it as utilitarian activity undertaken by artisans who were not the social equals of painters an calligraphers and therefore could never produce anything of real importance.”[10]
While the literati, the ju, cultivated calligraphy for writing, writing was also associated intimately with painting. Thus the talents of the ju always included painting as well as writing. Thus while painters were exalted it was only because of the connection with writing. Indeed in later centuries, when painters became specialized, i.e. disassociated with calligraphy, the literati ju class looked down on them too.
While the literati of any culture have tended to look down on the unlettered peasantry, in China this snobbery reached greater heights. The literati of China were the ruling class and so looked down upon everyone else as social inferiors. The ruling class of Europe, considered themselves the nobility and thus superior to the rest. The European nobility grouped the literati with architects, painters, musicians, and scientists. They wanted them to be part of their court but still considered them social inferiors although still giant steps above the agricultural peasantry.
[0]China to 1850, p. 73
[1]China
to 1850, p 69
[2]
China
to 1850, p 69
[3]EB,
Confucianism 6-238a
[4]EB:
Chinese Classics, p566 a
[5]EB:
Chinese Classics, p566 c
[6]EB:
Chinese Classics, p566 c
[7] China
to 1850, p. 65
[8] Chinese
Art, MacKenzie, 1961 p.10
[9]
The Arts of China by Michael Sullivan p
70
[10]Munsterberg,
1972 p96
Home Tao of China 7. 1st Millenium China Previous Next Comments