A Chinese Political Sociology in Our Times (original) (raw)
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Chinese Political Thought: 1895-2021 (Autumn 2021, Stanford)
Everybody is talking about China now. The competition between China and the Western world is not only about economic growth, technological advancement, and military strength. What is ultimately at stake is a key theoretical question: Can China's political traditions and current practices (such as one-party meritocracy) offer a legitimate and desirable alternative to the ideal of liberal democracy? This course aims to approach this question through the lens of intellectual history and political theory. Attention is given to how Chinese thinkers since 1895 have conceived of China's place in the world, how they have used Western political ideas to transform China, how they have creatively transformed Chinese traditions to meet the challenge of modernity, and, most importantly, how they have advanced political ideals that claim to be able fix the problems in the West (such as imperialism and capitalism). We will also learn how Western thinkers are responding to the challenge from China. The first half of the course covers foundational texts in Chinese intellectual history from 1895 to the Maoist Era. The second half is about political thinking in contemporary China. No prior knowledge about China, Chinese, or political theory/philosophy is required.
The Edinburgh Companion to the History of Democracy, 2012
Both Western and Chinese analyst s often presume that democracy is unique to Western civilisation and alien to the Chinese. The roots of Western dynamism are, in turn, assumed to derive from the political complexity of Europe, whereas those of Chine se stagnation from political unity. However, as this chapter illustrates , China in fact experienced fluctualions between unification and division in history. Intense international competition in the classical era (770-221 BCE) gave rise to citizenship rights defined as stat e-society bargains over the means uf war. Although the development of Chinese citizenship was aborted by Q!n's successful unification of the Warring States system in 221 BCE, the classical legacy continued to live on in the rest of Chinese history, albeit in diminished forms. In subsequent eras of division, contending regimes would he compelled to make concessions to society. Even in eras of unification, formall y unchecked emperors were subject to Confucian doctrines developed in the classical period.
International Communication of Chinese Culture, 2020
The article studies the image of Guan Zhong, a historical figurehead from the Spring and Autumn period China, in East Asian Confucian discourse on humaneness (ren 仁, "benevolence") and related political questions. It traces the development of Confucian discourse on Guan Zhong from its beginnings in the Analects of Confucius and in the thought of his later disciple Mencius, to later discourses on humaneness in Chinese, Joseon Korean and Tokugawa Japanese Confucian thought. In so doing, it establishes a comparative perspective of how Guan Zhong's humaneness (or inhumanity) was interpreted in socio-political environments of individual East Asian countries, establishing a correlation between their interpretational tendencies and overall intellectual tendencies of local Confucianisms-as, for instance the philosophy of Practical Learning in Joseon Korea and Tokugawa Japan. Concurrently, the article also illuminates the special characteristics of the notion of humaneness which also gained its expression throughout East Asian Confucian ethical evaluations of Guan Zhong's political achievements. The article is an abridged translation of the Chapter 9 of Chun-chieh Huang's book Dongya Rujia Renxue Shilun 東亞儒家仁學史論 (Taipei: National Taiwan University Press, 2017, pp. 377-414). Chun-chieh Huang 黃俊傑-Huang Chun-chieh [Huang Junjie 黃俊傑] is the Distinguished Chair Professor of National Taiwan University and a member of Academia Europaea. Translated and abridged by Jan Vrhovski-Jan Vrhovski is a research fellow at University of Ljubljana, working on history of formal logic, philosophy and intellectual history of modern China.
Positions, 2012
In celebration of positions' twentieth anniversary, we propose to continue a discussion with Wang Hui, which originated thanks to the enterprise of this journal and the research activities that have pivoted around it. 1 Our previous trilateral exchanges were mainly focused on contemporary politics. 2 Here we offer preliminary remarks on Wang Hui's The Rise of Modern Chinese Thought, 3 an extensive work hailed internationally as a major historiographical and theoretical innovation. 4 We limit ourselves to speci c topics in the dense "General Introduction" ("Daolun"), a synthesis of the most relevant theoretical questions the author asked in the course of writing the four volumes of his monumental history of modern Chinese intellectuality. Wang Hui has entitled his introduction, which is readable as an autonomous text, "Empire or Nation-State?" for the foreign editions. 5 At its broadest, The Rise of Modern Chinese Thought focuses on the following question: positions : .
“The World Belongs to All” (天下为公) – China: Between Confucianism, Marxism and Democracy
Azja-Pacyfik, 2019
The teachings of Confucius-as a tradition of social ethics-have exerted a profound (and continuing) infl uence on China (and East Asia) for more than 2000 years. This paper will look closer into this tradition by focusing less on the ethical and more on the political role of Confucianism. As will be shown, though, the two cannot be neatly divided but form an inseparable whole respective of personal and social ethics with political relevance. Thus, in the following, Confucianism will be discussed as a tradition of political thought, fi rst regarding its major autochthonous concepts, such as "people-based thought", "humane rule", "harmony" or "the world shared by all alike", second and third, in relationship to Marxism and democracy. In this fi nal section, Michael Sandel's book: Democracy's Discontent will serve as a point of comparison for Chinese prerogatives in politics. Confucianism as a Tradition of Political Thought What was the pre-modern Confucian understanding of the state in China? And, as we in the West still scrutinize the ancient Greek and Roman scriptures for guidance in terms of political thought, what do the classical Chinese scriptures ("Five Classics", "Four Books" of Confucianism) say about the social order-as "public philosophy"? And what are the repercussions of these scriptures-till today? "The World Shared by All Alike" 30 From numerous passages in the Confucian classics, it is apparent that the early Chinese kings distinguished themselves by ruling for the welfare of the people. Thus, we read in the Book of Documents (Shujing 书经): "It was the lesson of our great ancestor: The people should be cherished, and not looked down upon. The people are the root of a country; if the root is fi rm, the country is at peace." 1 "Heaven and earth are the parent of all creatures. (…) And the great sovereign is the parent of the people." 2 "Heaven loves the people. (…) Heaven sees as my people see; Heaven hears as my people hear." 3 And this was the crucial point: The ruler who gained his mandate, the "Mandate of Heaven" (tian ming 天命), was to govern the kingdom according to the will of the people. 4 This tradition of political thought has been called "People-based Thought" (minben sixiang 民本思想). It takes its origin in the cited quotes from the Book of Documents and from the writings of Mencius (Mengzi 孟子, 4 th-3 rd c. BC) who was to become the main early advocate of a people-based thought. According to Mencius, the position of the people is the highest in the kingdom. Thus, he says: "The people are the most important element in a nation; the spirits of the land and grain are the next; the sovereign is the lightest." 5 This passage has even a revolutionary signifi cance (and hence it was banned now and then from the canonical scriptures by certain despotic rulers). And even other 1 皇祖有訓，民可近，不可下，民惟邦本，本固邦寧。Shujing, "Song of the Five Sons", Xiashu. Transl. J. Legge; Chinese Classics (with modifi cations): http://ctext.org/shang-shu/songs-of-the-fi ve-sons. 2 惟天地萬物父母 […] 元后作民父母。Shujing, Zhoushu, "Great Declaration" I: Transl. J. Legge; http://ctext.org/shang-shu/great-declaration-i. 3 惟天惠民 […] 天視自我民視，天聽自我民聽。Shujing, Zhoushu, "Great Declaration" II: Transl. J. Legge; http://ctext.org/shang-shu/great-declaration-ii. 4 In order to know the will of the people the emperor collected (among other measures) folksongs among the people. As a good rule was seen to manifest itself in a harmony of heavenly/celestial and social order, all unusual and, in particular, harmful natural phenomena (such as earthquakes, eclipses of the sun etc.) were taken as proof of the emperor's failure to govern adequately. The complex interactions between Confucianism, Daoism and Legalism (fajia 法家), particularly in the Han period, will be left out here for the sake of simplifying the thrust of the presentation. Especially regarding Legalism, it is often heard that premodern China was, politically speaking, Confucian only on the outside, marked by the "Realpolitik" thought of the Legalists, however, in the inside (wai ru nei fa 外儒内法). 5 民為貴，社稷次之，君為輕。Mencius, 7B.14. Transl. J. Legge, The Works of Mencius: http:// ctext.org/mengzi/jin-xin-ii.