Chinese History - A Revisit, a banned book in mainland China, critically reviews the Chinese History from her mythical foundation from Pangu to the present day of the CCP's rule.
The writer, Xiao Jianzheng gave an elaborate and at time repetitive account as to why human right, democracy, constitutionalism and the rule of law failed to develop in China even though there were several opportunities in the the 4 millennia of history.
Xiao gave generous credit to the Zhou Dynasty and the Spring and Autumn Period for allowing an atmosphere of relative freedom to the peoples then. I was surprise to learn that there were then many practices that requires the ruler to defer to the "Guo Ren" (arguably the closest concept is citizen as opposed to the general subject who have no political rights).
He was highly critical of Qin Shihuang, Han Wudi, the Yuan Mongol, the Ming's Zhu Yuanzhang and the Machu Qing for imposing a dictatorial, illiberal and oppressive regime.
He complaint that the Legal School of Thought for the largest part of Chinese history was the various dynasty ruling philosophy with the Confucianism co-opted to legitimize the heavenly mandate. The imposition of brutal penalty by killing indiscriminately the offender's family members simply by association or massacring the defeated soldiers or civilians after conquest was a constant feature of the Chinese history.
The respect for life and the mercy for the weak are absent in larger part of the Chinese history and are not regarded as virtue but seen as a weakness. There maybe literature recorded the suffering and poverty of the peoples but none were critical to scrutinize the rulers. None offered a rival ideology or political doctrine to challenge the status quo. All dynasty were established by and large by the concept of replacing the heavenly mandate except that of the racist Yuan Mongol.
Surprising he gave raft review of the Song even though the Song was regarded generally as the weakest of all dynasty in the Chinese history. Xiao's justification vest in the Song's founding philosophy in governing the country with civility and humanity and that in turn allows mercantilism and high culture to flourish as witnessed by the quantity of finished goods and literature, poem and painting unearthed.
With the end of Song at the end of the genocidal Yuan Mongol, it also ended the Chinese civilization which once honored self integrity, respect life, relative equality for the woman, merciful of the aged, orphan, widows and the sick, promote mercantilism and literature.
What became the subsequent Chinese civilization are best exemplified by the values promoted by the classical novels of the Three Kingdoms and the Water Margin. The violence committed by the various heroes against many innocent was not condemned. The practice of camaraderie akin to gansterism is worshiped and not despised. The conduct out of legal bound is not criticized but regarded as loyalty to the clans and the family. These negative values together with the authoritarianism inherited from the earlier authoritarian dynasty became the mainstream vices into the present generation.
Xiao also analyzed the structure of power of the government. The earlier dynasty divided the power between that of the ruler and the prime minister. However the Ming destroyed the prime ministerial office with the power soley vested in the ruler which was then usurped by the eunuch or empress without check and balance. The Qing continued with the practice without the prime minister.
Coming close to the modern era, Xiao was also critical of the conduct of Dr. Sun Yat Sen in the early years of the Republic for failing to deliver a constitutional China. Admittedly many of the Sun's shortcomings while known but is not widely published. Sun's dictatorial traits in managing the KMT came to be scrutinized and his political decision away from a federated China in early 1920s was heavily criticized.
Most interestingly, the May Fourth Movement was severely criticized. The movement whilst promote science and democracy was premised upon a sense of lawlessness and mass popularity.
Eventually the movement was stolen by the Communism to legitimate violence revolution as opposed to a constitutional change of government.
Toward the end of the book, it became very clear that Xiao viewed the failure of China to develop democracy, constitutionalism, human right and the rule of laws to the lack of faith in God unlike the Judeo-Christian civilization in the West.
He favor a multi-polar power structure to keep a healthy check and balance for the peoples welfare. No wonder the single polar ruling structure of CCP China bans the book.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Good review! The experiences of China is not unique. I cannot think of many empires in history that was not violent and oppressive. While the powers that are victorious writes history to cleanse itself and pile on the scorn to the vanquished.
Where I believe the book is important is that any nation and culture has a choice of what they revere and idealise.
The reason why humanism, liberalism and democracy took root in the western civilization came from the Renaissance reverence for classical Greece and Roman. Even in Greece, the reading of history was in favour of democratic and sophisticated Athens over the militaristic and authoritarian Sparta.
Roma was revered as a civil power (as opposed to imperial), code of law and technological prowess. No doubt Rome was as savage as any empire in war. But one exception is their strategy of co-opting the people they defeated. Chieftains who surrender are often given official positions to live out their lives in luxury in Rome while their people were given protection and status as vassels of Rome - and expected to fight for Rome. But of course those who resisted were massacred and enslaved.
So, here is one more reason why decendants of the Yellow Emperor to revere historical examples of good governance, justice, cultural richness and philosophies of compassion and equality. More Song Dynasty and less Qin. More Zhou and less Han.
What do you think is the prevailing reverance now??
Post a Comment