China’s Neo-Kinship Society
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Outline
• 1) Epictetus: Roman philosophy of Empire
(conclusion)
• 2) The Fall of the Roman Empire
– Weakness of Roman law
• 3) China: The Rise and Fall and Rise Again of
the Chinese Empire
– Strength Confucian bureaucracy and its familybased philosophy
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Adapting to the loss of practical freedom
• Roman history and freedom
– 1) Struggle for practical freedom
– 2) Loss of practical freedom
– 3) Stoicism: we can still be (truly) free!
• True freedom is controlling your mind
• = Stoicism as philosophy of people who have
lost their practical freedom to control their
lives but still believe in freedom
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Stoic philosophy of empire
• Socrates: “virtue does not come from wealth,
but that wealth, and every other good thing
which men have, whether in public, or in
private, comes from virtue.”
• Stoic position: virtue is unrelated to wealth
– Virtue (mind) is in our power
– Wealth (body) is not in our power
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Comparing Epictetus with Socrates
• Socrates: Is something good because the gods
command it,
• or do the gods command it because it is good?
(Plato’s, Euthyphro)
• Conclusion: we human beings can know what is
good in itself
• Epictetus: we human beings cannot know what is
good (regarding external events). We should
believe that the Gods know what they are doing,
and accept events as they happen.
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Accept your role in life
• Plato on the next life lottery: Who chooses your
parents?
• Epictetus: “Remember that you are an actor in a play,
the character of which is determined by the
Playwright; if He wishes the play to be short, it is
short; if long, it is long; if He wishes you to play the
part of a beggar, remember to act even this role
adroitly; and so if your role be that of a cripple, an
official, or a layman. For this is your business, to play
admirably the role assigned you; but the selection of
that role is Another’s.” # 17
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China: Summary
• 1) Two approaches in China’s history: Familycentered Confucianism and Legalism
• 2) Compare China to other civilizations
– Rome, Egypt, Mesopotamia
• 3) What questions do these comparisons create?
– China’s long duration and its Confucian system
• 4) How explain this unique system?
– Geographical origins of China
– Social features of Chinese origins
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Two Approaches to Society
• “The Governor of She said to Confucius, ‘In
our village there is a man nicknamed ‘Straight
Body’. When his father stole a sheep, he gave
evidence against him.’ Confucius answered, ‘In
our village those who are straight are quite
different. Fathers cover up for their sons, and
sons cover up for their fathers. Straightness is
to be found in such behaviour.’” (Analects, XIII,
18)
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Conflict in China: Family or State?
• The Governor of She: the State, the Law is
primary
• Confucius (551-479 BCE) : the Family is
primary
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Legalism in the West
• Socrates’ discussion with the Laws
– “Are we not, first, your parents?”
• = Platonic resolution of the conflict of
Antigone
• > Further developed in Roman Cosmopolitan
law
• Expressed in Stoic obedience to divine Law
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Historical Expression of this
Conflict
• Confucius 551-479 BCE
• Period of Warring States: 481-222 BCE
• Qin dynasty unites China: 221 BCE
– Qin Shi Huangdi “The First Emperor” (See movie
“Hero”)
– Adopts Legalism; burns books of Confucius
• Han revolution 202 BCE
– Peasant leader: Liu Bang (died 195 BCE)
– > Han rulers adopt the philosophy of Confucius
• How long did the Qin (Chin) dynasty last?
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Duration of Roman Empire
• Roman Empire 27 BCE – 476 CE
• Urban proletariat abandons Rome
• Become voluntary serfs on large latifundia
– Serfdom: exchange portion of product, labor for
land
– Replacing slaves
• > Root of European feudalism
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Why did the Roman Empire fall?
• Practical
– Limits of expansion
– Slaves become expensive
– Army based on mercenary “barbarian” soldiers
• Intellectual
– Legal citizenship is empty, abstract
– “Christian otherworldliness”? (Gibbon)
• Other: see Spodek 197
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Empty Legality as a Cause of Fall?
• Recall early reasons for State rule
– 1) Technological: irrigation
– 2) Defense
– 3) Exploitation (civilization trap)
• Greek and Roman republics:
– 4) Legal Rights to freedom (for some), based on
human-made law
• But with empire, legal rights become empty
– Rome hires barbarians to fight its wars
– Barbarians defeat Rome
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Long Duration of Chinese Empires
• Legalist Qin 221-202 BCE (19 yrs)
• Confucian Han 202 BCE to 220 CE (422 years)
– Period of disunity (361 years)
• Chinese empire reunited by Sui (581- )
– Minor interruptions (esp. 1916-49)
– over 1300 years!!
• = History of the Decline and Fall and Rise
Again of Chinese Empire
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Underlying Unity
• “It appeared that the Chinese Empire, like that
of Rome, had lost control of its original
homeland and divided forever.” Spodek 223
Cultural and ideological unity continues
• Persistence of Chinese-Han (Confucian)
bureaucracy: “Thus, below the surface of
foreign rule a powerful stratum of Chinese
elites remained in place.” (Spodek, 223)
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Basic Issues
• Why did the Confucian family system triumph
with the Han dynasty?
– Why was the Legalism of the Qin rejected?
• How explain enduring unity of Chinese state?
– Is this connected to the rejection of legalism?
– Is this connected to the Confucian family-centered
system of bureaucracy?
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Egypt and China: What do they have in
Common?
•
•
•
•
•
Long duration of Egyptian State
Explanation? Unity based on Nile, irrigation
Periods of feudal breakdown
China too is an irrigation state
Feudal breakdowns in China: 220-581; 1916-49
—1949: reunification under Communist State of Mao Zedong
• Major achievement of Sui dynasty: Grand Canal
– Linking Yellow (Huang He) and Yangzi Rivers
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Contrast with Mesopotamia
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•
•
•
Centralized Bureaucratic-legal state
Expansion outside irrigation system
> Assyrian rule by brute force – ultra legalism
Recall functions of early states
– Technological: maintain canals
– Force: defend and dominate
• China:
– 1) Expands beyond Yellow River > disunity
– 2) Reunification based on expanded irrigation
 Force (legalism) not so important
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Geographical Origin:
Not in the Flood Plains
• “China’s first settlements had avoided the
immediate flood plain of the Yellow River, one
of the most treacherous in the world. Its bed
filled with the silt from the mountains, the
Yellow River has jumped its course twenty-six
times in recorded history, wrecking untold
devastation.” Spodek, 93
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Geographical Origins of First Chinese
states
• “To the north, the top soil is a fine yellow
dust, called loess. Borne by winds from the
west, it is 250 feet deep to the north of
Chang’an, a region with little irrigation.
(Spodek 223)
• Simple hoe agriculture: wheat, millet, beans
and turnips (not rice)
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Why first states in the cold north?
• Loess deposits:
– Allow surpluses with primitive technology
– Civilization trap!!
• Irrigation system (by state)
– Provides technological assistance
– reinforces trap
• In warm, rice-growing south: mobility is
possible
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Social Origins of First Chinese States
• “The Xia, like the later Shang and Zhou, seems
to have been ruled by specific internal clans,
each with its own king. As in many cultures,
kingship and kinship were interrelated.”
Spodek, 93.
• “Specific” clans rule over other clans
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Pattern of growth of the state
• Warrior nomads of the north
– Periodic conquests, such as by the Mongols
• Border area Chinese kinship groups (clans) defend
themselves; develop military skills
• Conquer more interior peoples (clans)
 One specific ruling clan rules over other clans
 Contrast with origin of the state in the West
 The ruler arises from within the community (Gilgamesh)
 And so must destroy the kinship system
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Neo-Kinship Society
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•
•
•
•
One clan group rules others
Head of clan > king of society
Kinship + hierarchy
= Kinship system adapts to civilization
Kinship not replaced by legal unification
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Sharp class division under Shang
• City of Louyang: “to the north were the
dwellings and graves of the wealthy and
powerful, marked by ritual bronze vessels and
sacrificial victims; to the south were the
dwellings of the commoners and their burial
places in trash pits.” Spodek, 94
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Bronze Age Hierarchy
• See Shang dynasty bronze wine vessel, p. 94
• Bronze as metal of aristocracy
• = Bronze age society, like Mesopotamia
– But based on kinship hierarchies, not legal system
• Iron comes to peasantry late; powerful states
already established
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