ON GETTING A NEW ANGLE ON THINGS THROUGH SINOLOGY A SIMPLIFIED OVERVIEW

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ON GETTING A NEW ANGLE ON THINGS THROUGH
SINOLOGY A SIMPLIFIED OVERVIEW

• Diligently outlined
• for aspiring young students
• by their aging teacher
• CHRISTOPH HARBSMEIER

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GEOGRAPHY AND CULTURE

• The natural challenge posed by the need for flood
  control leading to the cultural response of
  complex efficient organisation.
• This pervasive ability to organise social life
  was generalised to include the organisation of
• great public works like the Long Wall etc etc
• complex technology,
• comprehensive systematic historiography,
• literature in systematic anthologies,
• knowledge in systematic encyclopaedias

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THE VERY NOTION OF CHINA

• Central Kingdom Zhong-guo is originally plural
  the central states.
• China is a pluralistic entity.
• Returning to ones state in China is like
  returning to Buskerud, not to Norway.
• There are dozens of ancient words for China, none
  of which refer to a state guo. See TLS

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THE VERY NOTION OF A CHINESE

• Apart from the Han there are said to be 56 major
  distinct ethnic groups. Han is only one.
• Some of these are intellectually and
  philosophically quite as advanced as the Han
  majority e.g. the Tibetans.
• The minorities have widely different cultures
  which have undergone Chinese domination and
  degrees of sinification.
• But in turn the minorities have influenced Han
  civilisation profoundly and pervasively.

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THE VERY NOTION OF CHINESE

• Well over a dozen words for the Chinese
  language today. TLS
• Hundreds of mutually incomprehensible dialects
  (really languages), the importance of which was
  slowly eroded through education and public media.
• Even within one dialect (language) many
  varieties are mutually incomprehensible.
• The script unites the languages into apparent
  dialects.

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THE VERY NOTION OF CHINESE FOOD

• Food has been important for Chinese feelings of
  identity at least as much as language or
  literature.
• Toufu many hundred years old, chopsticks over two
  thousand.
• Ancient (almost French) emphasis on the culinary
  aspect of life in China.
• Beautiful is primarily a culinary word in
  Chinese.

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THE VERY NOTION OF CHINESE CLOTHES

• Court dress as well as underwear can be studied
  throughout the ages.
• Archaeology shows that the Han people have had
  distinct dressing traditions for a very long
  time.
• Headwear as well as dress were crucial symbols of
  rank.

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THE VERY NOTION OF A FAMILY

• An extraordinarily detailed and articulated
  kinship terminology from the third century BC.
• A hugely greater current kinship terminology in
  modern Chinese.
• Ancient ancestor worship translates into modern
  familism.
• Patriarchal leadership remains the default norm
  of political organisation even in modern times.

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THE VERY NOTION OF A BUREAUCRACY

• Early development of an articulated detailed
  hierarchically organised bureaucracy.
• Statism as a crucial factor until modern times
  powerful force of patriotism.
• State capitalism remaining an immense force.
• The survival of Communist Party rule partly due
  to sustained continuation of bureaucratic
  efficiency.

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THE VERY NOTION OF AGRICULTURE

• Agriculture handbooks transmitted from ancient
  times (3rd cent. BC).
• Agricultural technology leading in the world
  until modern times.
• Modern capitalist deviations from the tradition
  put hugely increased strains on the environment.

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THE VERY NOTION OF AN EXAMINATION

• The examination system two thousand years old in
  China a factor for social mobility for few, and
  a motivation for study for many more.
• Priority for education as preparation for public
  examination a crucial feature of Chinese society
  until today.
• Endemic cultivation of study technique even
  today the valuation of intellectual capital,
  respect for learning.

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THE VERY NOTION OF THE ART OF WAR

• First handbooks on the art of war 2400 years ago
  art of war as an art of peace, of avoidance of
  war.
• The immense scale of bureaucratised warfare.
• The 36 Strategems immensely popular today
  strategic thinking endemic even in modern
  society.
• Mao Zedong basing his military strategy on the
  Chinese (not Japanese!) game of Go.

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THE VERY NOTION OF SCIENCE

• No general concept of science in China.
• Terrific development of a wide range of
  technologies in China, until the 15th century
  leading in the world in most important areas.
• Nonetheless, much weaker development of the
  theoretical sciences, expecially axiomatic
  sciences.
• Remarkable development of arithmetics and
  mathematical astronomy.

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THE VERY NOTION OF MEDICINE

• 2000-year-old tradition of professional medical
  literature.
• The empirical base so strong that traditional
  medicine continues to coexist, much appreciated
  by the disgruntled sick.
• Traditional Chinese medicine cultivated in a
  philosophical spirit, and as a way of life.
  (Qigong integrated.)

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THE VERY NOTION OF PHILOSOPHY

• Philosophy started in China the as in Greece,
  around the time of of Confucius.
• No notion of philosophy was terminologised until
  Westernisation.
• Moral philosophy and political philosophy were
  central.
• Systematic rationalism did develop in ancient
  China.
• Strong development of philosophical folklore or
  folk wisdom in China.

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THE VERY NOTION OF RELIGION

• No word for religion, until modern Westernising
  times.
• No state religion, only state Confucian cult.
• No serious requirements of orhodoxy, only the
  orthopraxy of maintaining appearances.
• No inquisition.
• Plenty of mysticism and mystically inspired
  millenarianism.
• Buddhist Chinese translations the largest body of
  translations in the pre-modern world.

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THE VERY NOTION OF LITERATURE

• No general concept of literature.
• Valuation of poetry, as music.
• What was anthologised changed radically with
  Westernisation.
• Drama late to develop, the novel late and
  episodic, and NOT part of any canon of canonical
  anthologised literature.
• A great tradition of literary criticism and
  commentary, especially of the novel.

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THE VERY NOTION OF ART

• No traditional NOTION of art or of the artist.
  But that of MAN OF LETTERS.
• Painting a branch of calligraphy.
• Terrific literature on the philosophy of
  calligraphy, on calligraphy as a way of life.
• For example the concept of a line.
• Artisan approach to religious art,
• but terrific exception for Zen Buddhist art which
  poses as expressive of spiritual genius.

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THE VERY NOTION OF MUSIC

• Classical writings on the social significance of
  music abound. See my collection of texts to be
  put on the Web.
• Music originally quintessentially linked to dance
  (and dancing always performance for others - no
  dancing with courting in Han China even until
  recently. That has changed emphatically.)

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THE VERY NOTION OF HISTORY

• Most sustained historiographic tradition in the
  world. The 25 Dynastic Histories 1000BC-1911AD.
• Histories not only narrative, but also
  systematically descriptive of institutions etc..
• No concept of history as historical development.
• No sustained problematisation of the reasons
  historical processes,
• except for the fascination exceptions to the
  rule, like the sustained problematisation of the
  fall of the Qin dynasty.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Brian Hook, The Cambridge Encyclopaedia of China,
  Cambridge CUP, 1982
• Handy, illustrated survey, beautifully produced,
  outdated, scanty bibliographic references.
• Brunhild Staiger et al., Das grosse China
  Lexikon. Geschichte, Geographie, Gesellschaft,
  Politik, Wirtschaft,? Bildung, Wissenschaft,
  Kultur, Wiesbaden Wissenschaftliche
  Buchgesellschaft, 2003
• Massive comprehensive handbook with rich
  bibliographies and many indices, mainly concerned
  with China from the 19th century onwards.