The Chinese Tradition - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

1 / 25
About This Presentation
Title:

The Chinese Tradition

Description:

Each character has its own pronunciation which varies from language to language ... The DPRK is a totalitarian state on the Stalinist model. ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

Number of Views:50
Avg rating:3.0/5.0
Slides: 26
Provided by: Cav4
Category:

less

Transcript and Presenter's Notes

Title: The Chinese Tradition


1
Session 5
  • The Chinese Tradition

2
Chinese Language
  • The Chinese writing system is not alphabetical.
    Each character has its own pronunciation which
    varies from language to language e.g. Mandarin,
    Cantonese.
  • Some Chinese words have established versions in
    the Latin alphabet which may be different from
    the now accepted pinyin.
  • Where I use the old ones, I will usually give the
    pinyin in brackets.

3
Chinese Scholarship
  • Before discussing power, you might like to think
    about a suggestion put to me that there is a
    basic difference between Chinese and Western
    ideas of scholarship.
  • In Western universities, scholarship is a search
    for knowledge which begins early in the scholars
    life. Everything is open to question teachers
    are merely guides. Existing knowledge may not be
    right.
  • In the Chinese tradition, you must first learn
    what has already been discovered. So the young
    scholar is not innovative. Only when you know
    everything that has been discovered so far, can
    you push the boundaries of existing knowledge.
  • Is this true? Does it tell us anything about the
    power of teachers of students and perhaps the
    power of the wise?

4
Beginnings
  • China has a very long history. It is often spoken
    of as a continuous history which is true in the
    sense that something identifiably Chinese has
    been around for a long time but it has changed
    radically. There are different Chinese
    traditions.
  • Just as Chinese have broad stereotypes about the
    West, so non-Chinese have broad stereotypes about
    China.
  • China should be compared with Europe or the
    Indian sub-continent, not just with one European
    country. Korea, Japan Vietnam adopted many
    aspects Chinese culture and civilisation.

5
Major Influences
  • The Chinese Classical tradition developed but the
    basic outlines were laid down fairly early.
  • The concept of a civil service based on education
    and merit was a Chinese invention. In Europe
    government positions were gained by patronage,
    purchase and bribery until quite recently.
  • However, the Chinese system was not always as
    effective in practice as in theory.
  • Western ideas began to influence Chinese
    intellectuals and others in the 1800s and the Kuo
    Min Tang was strongly influenced by Western
    theory although its practice was more
    traditional.
  • Marxism came from the West to China but was
    adapted by Mao Dze Dong and is now being adapted
    further.

6
Overseas Influence
  • China itself was influenced by Central Asian
    nomads and some dynasties were headed by
    non-Chinese e.g. Mongols.
  • Chinese culture spread to Korea, Japan and
    Vietnam and to a lesser extent into Southeast
    Asia, Confucian principles especially.
  • Chinese migrants to the Nan Yang strongly
    influenced most Southeast Asian countries. They
    tend to dominate business and have a cultural
    influence on major cities like Singapore.

7
The Classical Tradition
  • What is usually called the classical tradition or
    Confucianism is a court tradition which is
    heavily based on the ideas of Master Kong
    (Confucius) but modified by tradition.
  • Other contributors to this tradition are Mencius,
    the Tao and Buddhism.
  • These ideas are still very influential today both
    in China, in its neighbours and in the Chinese
    Diaspora.
  • We will consider how these ideas are being used
    outside China in places like Singapore and in the
    Asian values debate.
  • I want Chinese students to lead this debate.
    Later we will ask whether Marxism has really
    changed things.

8
Confucius
  • Confucius in the West would be called a
    philosopher or a sociologist. He was concerned
    with how society operates and how it should
    operate, not with religion.
  • Elements of Buddhism and the Tao Te Ching were
    added to Confucius teachings later but he was a
    practical, secular man.
  • Chinese students will now tell us what they think
    are Confucius most important ideas on power and
    legitimacy.

9
Confucianism
  • Hierarchy is a most important part of the
    tradition both in the family and at the
    government level. The Emperor is to his people as
    the father is to his family.
  • This has obvious implications for power.
  • But it is not all one way. Those at the top of
    the hierarchy are supposed to look after those
    further down.
  • Rulers are supposed to be just. A stock figure in
    Korean films is the Royal Detective who, just in
    time, rescues the fair maiden from the clutches
    of the wicked local governor who lusts after her.

10
Confucian Values
  • Shin (1999) provides a good summary. He says that
    Confucianism does not endorse either individual
    freedom or the human rights from which Western
    democracy emerged, nor its concept of the rule of
    law.
  • It emphasizes the rule of man, the supremacy of
    the group over the individual, the family over
    the community, discipline over freedom, duties
    over rights and personal wisdom over impersonal
    law.

11
Hierarchy
  • Social classes or occupations are ordered.
    Officials are high up on the list and merchants
    way down the bottom. Those who argue that
    Confucian values bring economic success must
    consider this.
  • People had to obey their superiors and, as Jenner
    points out in your reading, officials could not
    leave the ruler nor wives their husband. Power
    was administered through officials
  • Officials could remonstrate with a bad ruler and
    a really bad one could be overthrown but this was
    rebellion, not revolution. The system stayed.

12
Virtue
  • Your readings deal with the questions of virtue.
    The legalists argued that politics was not about
    morality but about maintaining the power of the
    state.
  • Mencius, however, thought that power should be
    exercised by virtuous men and saw morality as the
    basis of the state.
  • The great rulers saw it as their duty to maintain
    moral order but that meant their subjects had to
    respect them and obey them without question.
  • Do todays rulers follow that tradition by
    claiming moral rightness and demanding obedience?

13
Twentieth Century
  • From the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1911 to the
    triumph of the Communist Party in 1949, China
    experimented with Western ideas about freedom,
    democracy and socialism mixed with rule by
    traditional warlords.
  • This experiment continued in Taiwan and appeared
    in Hong Kong at the very end of the authoritarian
    British colonial rule.
  • It also influenced Chinese communities abroad.

14
Communism
  • As we have noted, Marxism is part of the Western
    tradition but it does not tolerate democracy and
    sees individual freedom as a threat. The
    dictatorship of the proletariat tends to become
    the dictatorship of the Party.
  • China should not have become Communist according
    to classic Marxist theory but Mao adapted that to
    suit his purpose. Mao was a ruthless power
    seeker.
  • Chinese Communism has broken with many of the old
    traditions but how much? There is a clash between
    theory practice. Is the practice closer to
    Chinese traditions than the theory?
  • How is political and economic power exercised
    today? What is the role of the Communist Party?

15
China Today
  • In theory, the CCP rules China in accordance with
    Marxist/Leninist/Maoist thought and politically
    the Party does in fact rule. All power to the
    Soviets!
  • Economic power is another question. We see the
    emergence of new capitalists, encouraged by the
    government. Capitalist-roaders are no longer to
    be condemned.
  • To what extent does the CCP elect an Emperor who
    rules as in the past and how much collective
    leadership is there? Where does real power lie?

16
Taiwan
  • Taiwan presents a problem for China because it
    is, for all practical purposes, an independent
    state which has developed or is developing - a
    Chinese version of a Western democracy.
  • Chinese claims on Taiwan would seem to have
    nothing to do with Marxism but go back to
    imperial claims over territory.
  • It is a delicate situation where real power
    confronts claimed power. The reading from Shin on
    Korea makes some comments on Taiwan.

17
Hong Kong
  • The concept of a Special Autonomous Region was
    used to solve the immediate problems of Hong
    Kongs return to China.
  • It is clearly a model that could be used for
    Taiwan but Taiwan may not accept it.
  • The SAR can be seen as a variation on federalism
    which gives considerable control of domestic
    affairs to Hong Kong and allows greater freedom
    than in China.
  • The British introduced embryonic democratic
    institutions when it was clear they could no
    longer rule and there is some support for these.

18
Korea
  • Traditional Korean institutions were heavily
    influenced by China and Confucian values are
    strong today in the ROK.
  • The DPRK is a totalitarian state on the Stalinist
    model. Korea was once called the Hermit Kingdom
    and this part still is. Power is exercised by the
    Dear Leader.
  • The ROK is a Western style democracy in form but
    with much economic power exercised by the
    chaebols and with a strong sense of hierarchy.
  • The reading from Shin shows how authoritarian
    attitudes remain in the ROK and in Taiwan.

19
Japan
  • Japan has also been influenced by Confucianism
    although it has also developed its own traditions
    both ancient and modern.
  • Traditionally, the Emperor was divine and had
    total power but, in fact, real power was for many
    centuries exercised by the Shogun and by feudal
    lords (daimyo).
  • Today, Japan is a democracy but with its own
    features where factionalism and hierarchy are
    important.
  • Japan seems to be undergoing important social
    and political changes at present.

20
Vietnam
  • I have not dealt with Vietnam for reasons of
    space but it is a country strongly influenced by
    Confucian traditions followed by French ideas
    followed by Communism.
  • It seems to be making the kind of changes that
    China is making but is perhaps a bit behind China
    in the pace of change.
  • The collapse of the USSR had a profound effect on
    China and Vietnam.

21
The Diaspora
  • The Chinese diaspora in Southeast Asia has had a
    profound economic and, in some cases political,
    influence in SEA.
  • The Chinese concentrated in cities and came to
    dominate business in most of them. Singapore,
    Penang, Ipoh and Malacca became virtually Chinese
    cities in a Malay countryside.
  • The Chinese have been assimilated fairly well in
    Thailand and the Philippines, dominate a
    multiracial Singapore, are rich and discriminated
    against in Indonesia, and make up almost half the
    population of Malaysia. Saigon is Chinese.

22
Asian Values
  • Foreign commentators have attributed the economic
    success of overseas Chinese to Asian or
    Confucian values. Lee Kuan Yew accepted this
    view but built on it to begin the Asian Values
    debate.
  • He argued against the European Enlightenment view
    that there were universal values and said that
    Asians had their own value systems which differed
    from those of Europeans but were equally valid.
  • His critics accuse him of using Asian Values as a
    smokescreen for authoritarian rule.

23
Asian Values (2)
  • Confucian values imply a different basis for the
    exercise of power than the modern Western
    democratic tradition although they may not be
    that different from the traditional Western one.
  • Emphasis on the duties and obligations of the
    individual to the community contrast with the
    rights of the citizen and the idea of a social
    contract. Authority is respected, not challenged.
  • Power is something to be exercised by those
    higher in the hierarchy and should be based on
    personal wisdom rather than arbitrary rules. The
    value put on education is also relevant.

24
Practical Implications
  • Any outsider who wants to work in China or with
    Chinese in Southeast Asia needs to understand
    Confucian notions of power and how they shape
    behaviour.
  • On the international level, non-Chinese cannot
    assume that China shares their assumptions about
    how power should be exercised legitimately.
  • The case of Taiwan is interesting because Chinas
    claim is based on traditional notions of
    submission to the Emperor which run contrary to
    the Marxist principles espoused by the PRC?

25
Discussion
  • What is the basis for power in a Confucian based
    society?
  • How can you reconcile the claim that Confucian
    values have led to the economic success of the
    Asian Tigers with the Confucian view that the
    scholar is high on the social scale and the
    merchant is at the bottom?
  • What is the relative importance of Marx and
    Confucius in contemporary China?
Write a Comment
User Comments (0)
About PowerShow.com