Classical Approaches to World Building in China (3rd to 7th centuries)

  • Confucianism
    • Derived from Confucius (main teacher) and Mencius (main inerpreter of Confucius)
    • Emphasizes the value of hierarchy; what keeps order is if people understand their relationship to others in terms of inferiority/superiority
      • Good hierarchies are ones where both people in the relationship owe something to each other (parent-child, teacher-student)
      • Connects to rulers: the ruler owes his population good behavior and good rule, and if the ruler is not a good ruler, then the people should rebel
    • Wants to go back to a “Golden Age” where hierarchies were clear
  • Daoism/Taoism
    • Derived from Laozi and Zhuangzi
    • Skeptical of hierarchies and praises harmony, equality, etc.
      • “Do nothing and nothing will come undone”
    • Wants to go back to a Godlen Age where nature prevails
  • Legalism
    • Derived from Qin Shi Huang Di (First Emperor of China 259-210 BCE)
    • The only way for a ruler to rule is to be feared
    • Does away with the notion of a Golden Age and emphasizes strict rule
    • Connects with Confucianism in the sense of hierarchies and Taoism in the sense of distrust of scholars
  • Issues with this analysis of these three schools
    • Three schools of thought are considered as rivals rather than allies
    • Quintessentially Chinese traditions (such as Buddhism) are not present
    • Confucianism is thought to both support and contradict capitalism and other modern ideologies
    • Issue arises because China is thought of as relatively “changeless” when, in fact, multiple rulers controlled different Chinas at different times
  • China is thought of as changeless because of its persistence to old cultural traditions; both criticized and praised for its stability