Chapter 2. History of Political Thought

Chapter 2. History of Political Thought

Plan

1. Chinese political thought.

2. Hindu political thought.

3. Greek political thought.

4. Roman political thought.

5. Islamic political thought.

§ 1. Chinese political thought

Despite the long dominance of a Confucian orthodoxy, Chinese political thought rivals that of Europe in richness and diversity. For purposes of periodization, it may be divided in the following manner. During the Shang and Chou dynasties (c.1766 to 1122 BC, and from 1122 BC) that ruled the lower Yellow River basin, though there was as yet no political thought, a distinctive political tradition developed. From the beginning of the disintegration of the Chou dynasty (after 770 BC) into a collection of warring states down to the unification of those areas, which are still the core of ethnic China by the Ch'in dynasty (221 BC), a great efflore­scence of theorizing on government occurred.

          This was the 'hundred schools' period still referred to by contemporary Chinese as a model of free and lively discourse (thus Mao's saying: 'let a hundred flowers bloom, let a hundred schools of thought contend'). The most important of these schools were Confucianism, Legalism, and Taoism. After the short-lived Ch'in dynasty, China was ruled by a succession of dynasties (from 206 BC) more or less committed to Confucianism, though with some interludes in which Taoism and Bud­dhism for a time captured the fashion at court. This period may be referred to as that of official Confucianism, though this was a syncretic and evolving doctrine far removed from the views of its founder. Undergoing a philosophical refoundation during the eleventh and twelfth centuries (the neo-Confucian revival), Confu­cianism remained the creed of the empire until the extinction of the last dynasty (in 1911), though its influence lives on in China as well as in the East Asian cultural area.

The first texts in Chinese political thought were long associated with the Chou dynasty, though subsequent scholarship has established that some parts of them are later fabrications. These 'classics' are compilations of poems, historical and court records, and writings on divination, and it has been the traditional view that they incorporated the written remains of a golden age of civilization. The most cryptic and elusive sayings were invested with a heavy burden of meaning and generated lengthy commentaries accordingly. Of particular signi­ficance are two political traditions identified by these commentators. The first concerns 'the mandate of heaven', being the notion that the ruling house is entrusted with the governance of the empire provided its rule is virtuous and beneficent, but forfeits the right to rule if the ruler becomes corrupt or disasters afflict the population. The second concerns the exemplary moral behaviour of certain of the early sage rulers, one of whom passed over his own son in order to select a commoner of surpassing virtue to be his successor.

The first political thinker (leaving aside the legalist Kuan Tzu, d. 645 BC, whose writings are notoriously corrupt) was Confucius (K'ung Fu-tzu, 551-479 BC). Although the writing and transmission of other texts was attributed to him in ancient times, his views may most reliably be sought in the Analects. Later tradi­tions ascribed to him the status of a great official and even the possession of supernatural powers, but it is clear from contemporary evidence that he was a traveling scholar and teacher of very modest means who was never greatly successful in catching the ear of the powerful despite holding minor office for a period in his native state. Confucius's stated intention was to revive the rites, ceremonies and usages of the languishing Chou dynasty, but his proposals for dealing with the disorder and evil of his times contain notable innovations. The Confucian ideal is rule by moral example rather than by military supremacy or according to hereditary succession. The ruler should so order his person and household that all men shall wish to be his subjects, and no laws will be required to control their conduct. The advisers and officers of the ruler's government should be men of genuine merit ('gentlemen') as revealed by their learning and scholarly accom­plishments. Confucius believes that those adept at the scholarly arts will take 'benevolence' (the chief Confucian virtue) as the standard for their conduct and will accordingly work for the welfare of the common people whose labour is the only source of real wealth. Confucius makes no distinction between familial and political authority, regarding the society as an extension of the ruler's household and the well-ordered family as the foundation of the state.

In carrying on many of the aristocratic traditions and values of Chou civilization Confucius effected in them a considerable transformation. He accepted without question the need for social hierarchy and a division of labour (between peasantry and literati), but he thought most men capable of some improvement through learning and did not himself withhold instruction from those who presented even the meanest offering, provided they showed application. He emphasized the many duties of the ruler to his subjects, and of the men of learning to service for the state, and their obligation to offer advice based upon their knowledge of the requirements of benevolence even if this advice was unwelcome. And apart from   some   references   to   a (non-anthropomorphic) 'heaven' as the source of virtue and the arbiter of fate, the underpinnings of Confucius's theory are secular rather than spiritual, the correct observation of political rites and ceremonies being accorded something of a religious dimension.

Confucians later developed this theory in strikingly different ways. Mencius (Meng Tzu, r.372-289 BC), a scholar very influential in his day, whose works came to be second in authority only to those of his master in later times, chose to dwell on the Confucian view of the sources of virtue. In a theory likened to western moral intuitionism Mencius held that the 'original heart' of each man (itself a reflection of the cosmic order) contained the embryonic stirrings of the four virtues, the development of which depended upon a favourable environment, and particularly an appropriate education. He was sharply critical of the reliance upon force by the overlords of the time, calling for kingly government in the interests of the people and going so far as to justify tyrannicide. Hsun Tzu (c.298-238 BC), who was an official as well as a teacher, advanced an opposed interpretation of the Confucian inheritance. He saw appetite as the most salient aspect of human nature ('things few, desires many'), though he also affirmed the universal human capacity for learning and culture. Of a Hobbesian turn of mind (he was also insistent upon the need for clear and consistent naming as the only foundation for proper reasoning) and writing at a time of almost incessant warfare, he looked to the civilization and its rites and ceremonies as the only source of order. Men must learn virtue there from, the members of each generation requiring an arduous schooling lest they remain mere creatures of appetite. For the oversight of such a task a kingly government dominated by Confucian advisers was crucial. Whereas Men­cius was of a mystical turn of mind Hsun Tzu was a rationalist. 'Heaven' he reduced to the workings of nature, and declared that a nature was indifferent to human strivings men were themselves the makers of their fate.

Legalism (or the 'school of method'), the chief rival of Confucianism, did not stem from the writings of a single theorist, but is rather an amalgam of diverse elements given a philosophical gloss by the last great Legalist theorist, Han Fei Tzu (c.280-233 BC). The earliest Legalists (setting aside Kuan Tzu, d. 645 BC) were ShangYang (d. 338 BC) and Shen Pu-hai (c. 400-337 BC). The former succeeded by his policies in raising the most westerly of the warring states, Ch'in, to a pinnacle of efficiency and power, thus laying the foundation for the unification of China under Ch'in aegis in the following century. Shang Yang's intention was to organize the state as an efficient instrument of war. Hereditary office holders were to be replaced by able administrators who would take the will of the prince as law, and agriculture and handicrafts were to be encouraged at the expense of merchant activity and idle consump­tion. Contending doctrines were to be rooted out in favour of the common people taking the magistrates as their teachers, and the popu­lation was to be organized such that each group was responsible for the conduct of its members. A contemporary of Shang Yang, Shen Pu-hai served for some years as chancellor of the small state of Han. Although his writings now exist only as fragments it is clear that he devoted much attention to administrative technique and the methods of rule. His recommendations to the ruler advise an approach to his duties, which has much in common with the Taoist culti­vation of non-attachment as the path to sagehood. The ruler is as the hub of a wheel, unmoving while the ministers and officials, the spokes, are in unceasing rotation. His will is crucial if government is to be possible yet he remains the master of the situation by refraining from indicating his preferences in advance of his decision and avoiding involvement in the framing of actual policy.

These and other elements are drawn together in the writings of Han Fei Tzu, along with Hsun Tzu perhaps the most rewarding of Chinese political theorists for the western reader. Han Fei Tzu, having studied under Hsun Tzu in his youth, takes over something of the latter's estimate of human nature and its malleability though he severs it from the Confucian belief in benevolence. He advances the view that the standards of the state will prevail, as only these will produce order. In developing in a sophisticated and philosophical manner the original Legalist notion that the state should be organized such that the will of the prince should be the law, Han Fei Tzu touches on a problem found much later in western thinking of this genre. The administration of the state should be as ordered, as predictable, and as free from personal caprice as possible - 'the law no more makes exceptions for men of high station than the plumb line bends to accommodate a crooked place in the wood' - thus establishing constraints which would also apply to the ruler.

The political theory of Taoism (not to be confused with the religion of that name which developed later) is the most difficult to eluci­date. The earliest chapters of the writings attributed to Chuang Tzu (written about the fourth century BC) advise the aspiring sage to withdraw from the world. Man's strivings are all in vain in an indifferent universe; the wise man therefore cultivates simplicity and uselessness and comes to comprehend thereby the absurdity of human existence. In the writings ascribed to Lao Tzu (which were written by about the middle of the third century BC) this advice can also be found, as can a poetic and subtle elaboration of its metaphysical basis. The too or 'way' (a term used by the Confucians, but in a different sense) is all encompassing, and being potentially without limit is beyond human comprehension. It is also 'unkind' as its movement proceeds unchecked by and uncon­scious of the activity of man. Accordingly the sage finds enlightenment in inaction. But in an argument reminiscent of the advice of some Legalist writers to the ruler (and here it should be noted that later commentators found a philosophical affinity between Taoism and Legalism) Lao Tzu also maintains that it is precisely the Taoist sage, with the calmness of mind that comes from a lack of attachment to the transient things of the human world, who would make the ideal ruler. He then elaborates a vision of rural simplicity in which the old practices are followed and the clever are prevented from playing any role, inaction being also the supreme political wisdom.

Apart from these three major schools others deserve mention. Mo Tzu (c.479-390 BC), in his time a great rival of Confucius, was the founder of a military order devoted to count­ering aggressive warfare. Arguing that the Confucians in encouraging filial piety founded their political philosophy upon partiality, which was the root cause of all conflict, he developed a theory based on universal and equal regard (or love) for all men. He was also critical of Confucius for wasting time and resources on elaborate ceremonies and mourning rites, maintaining instead that every policy adopted by the state should be directly addressed to the needs of the common people. How he expected to identify and make effect such policies is not clear from his extant writings. On the one hand he put forward a populist epistemology - what is true can be seen, in part, from what the people believe - but, on the other, he was also a strict advocate of the notion of identification with the superior' to ensure that all in the state were obedient to a single direction. Later followers of Mo Tzu, who constituted themselves into a quasi-religious sect, developed a system of logic not inferior to that of the Greeks, but Mo Tzu's influence thereafter declined and his writings were neglected until recent times. China in this period was also host to the 'school of names', a diverse collection of sophists and logicians who debated problems of existence, relativity, cau­sation and other such philosophical issues (Hui Shih, c.380-305 BC, stating Zeno's paradox of motion, and Kung-sun Lung writing at the same time on the problem of particulars and universals). Although they did have some impact on political thought, several of their number also holding political office, their role cannot be compared to that of the Sophists of classical Greece. The sophistication of Chinese writing on the politics and strategy of the warfare that was endemic at the time should also be noted. The treatise traditionally ascribed to Sun Tzu (perhaps to be identified with Sun Pin, who lived in the fourth century BC, or his putative ancestor Sun Wu, of the preceding century), apart from being a masterwork of strategy, explicitly develops the connection between politics and war and contains a chapter on the techniques of subversion worthy of the twentieth century. Finally, numerous metaphysical schools (including the yin-yang, and five element schools) flourished, though their impact on political thought was not as yet direct.

When Ch'in unified ethnic China in 221 BC its rulers did so under the banner of Legalism. The short and oppressive reign of the house of Ch'in (the emperor advised by, among others, Li Ssu, fellow student with Han Fei Tzu of Hsun Tzu) laid the foundation for the bad press Legalism has enjoyed in China ever since, though in recent times Mao Zedong sought to improve the reputation of the school by comparing the exploits of the Ch'in emperor with his own achievements. When the Han dynasty (a name to become eponymous with the Chinese people) chose to proclaim (in 141 BC) a single school as that to be identified with the empire they chose Confucianism; but this was a Confucianism transformed almost beyond recognition by the syncretic approach of the ' school's proponents, and the practical exigencies of ruling a vast and populous domain.

The Han Confucians, of whom Tung Chung-shu (c. 179-104 BC) was the most influential, tried to amalgamate Confucian political and moral philosophy with the meta­physical and cosmological speculation of the yin-yang and five elements schools, and the exponents of the divination notions found in the Book of Changes (I Ching). Tung Chung-shu conceived of the universe as an organic entity in which yin (representative of all that is dark, submissive, female) yang (representative of ill that is bright, aggressive, male) and derivatively the five elements (water, fire, wood, metal, earth) are in constant movement according to a pre-determined order. This movement produces the seasons, life, and man. Individual is both the noblest of living beings and also a microcosm of the universe; his nature (which is the source of the virtues, including benevolence) is admixed with feeling or emotions just as in the universe yang intermingles with yin. To develop his nature (for few can do this unaided) and thereby cause benevolence to become manifest emotion regulated, man needs culture, which is the responsibility of the kingly ruler to provide. Thus Tung Chung-shu has grafted certain Confucian political and ethical notions upon an entirely different metaphysics. His theory contains other elements, including a philosophy of history in which dynasties succeed one another according both to the mandate of heaven and also to a predetermined cycle of colours and cardinal positions; he also advanced the view that portents and natural disasters were an indication that the ruler had acted such that the correct order and pattern had been violated, a transgression for which sacrifices and amends would be required. Han Confucianism was also eclectic in its incorpor­ation of many Legalist practices in the adminis­tration of the empire. These were often openly acknowledged, as in the 'Discourses on Salt and Iron' (81 BC) which is the record of a dialogue between the Legalist-inclined defenders of the government's record particularly on military and administrative spending, and their critics who make consistent appeal to the Confucian value of frugality and the importance to the state of ethical standards rather than the costly machinery of bureaucratic compulsion. This lively and readable work is reminiscent of nothing so much as a contemporary argument between socialists and free marketeers. Worthy of note also in this period is the appearance of the first great Chinese history, written by Ssu-ma Ch'ien (c. 145-90 BC).

For a time during the early centuries AD much intellectual interest was focused upon Taoism, but thereafter Buddhism began to exert a major attraction upon the Chinese intellect, reaching the height of its philosophi­cal, religious, and political influence during the T'ang dynasty (AD 618-906). It was to counter what some then saw as a foreign creed, as well as to confront the philosophical issues (and particularly the problem of existence) rose in Buddhist metaphysics, that a body of scholars began what has come to be known as the neo-Confucian revival. Beginning in the Sung dynasty (960-1279) the influence of neo-Confucianism spread, even despite the Mongol invasions, so that by the beginning of the Ming dynasty (13 68-1644) it became the philosophi­cal orthodoxy. By this time the Chinese system of government rested upon the regular selection of a bureaucracy through examinations in the Confucian arts and writings, and the extensive use of printing had widely disseminated the works of Confucius and his latter-day inter­preters throughout the empire (and to Korea, Japan and the private man and those of the state are at variance, and that the ruler should exercise perfect liberty in the use of the 'two handles' (rewards and punishments) to ensure that the standards of their students were as much administrators and men of affairs as scholars, and their arguments often had practical implications for government policy, and sometimes painful consequences for themselves.

Although neo-Confucianism was a broad movement embracing many varieties of argument, Chu Hsi (1130-1200) came to be acknowledged by the fourteenth century as its leading exponent. The metaphysical foun­dation of Chu Hsi's political philosophy resem­bles that of western neo-Platonism. Every existent thing is the material instantiation of a particular and inflexible principle or standard: the universe is therefore composed of that which is 'in shapes' or matter (ch'i), and that which is 'above shapes' or principle (li). The summation of all the principles in the universe is the Supreme Ultimate (t'ai chi), and as Chu Hsi's philosophy is (following Han Confucianism) a philosophy of organism so the Supreme Ultimate is immanent in each thing. The principle of a thing is, as in Platonism, perfect, but in being clothed in material form the possibility of imperfection and thus evil arises. In order to avoid evil and move towards the perfection that is their unique principle, men (and particularly the scholar-literati) must pursue mental cultivation, endeavouring to understand principles, and thereby their sum­mation, by 'the investigation of things'. Here Chu Hsi had in mind not so much an empirical investigation of the material world as a leap of intuitive insight akin to the 'sudden enlighten­ment' of Ch'an (Zen) Buddhism, except of course that what was to be apprehended was the pattern of an existent cosmic order rather than its fundamental unreality. New force was given to the Confucian direction to 'rectify oneself and restore the rites'. Having sought the Supreme Ultimate in himself the scholar had an overriding duty to reform the human world according to the principles of which he now had knowledge. Far from Confucianism being, as in Max Weber's view, a comfortable and confor­mist creed, it imposed a heavy twofold burden or sense of predicament upon its exponents.

Chu Hsi's ideas were sufficiently dominant to be described as orthodoxy, but other scholars did develop contrary interpretations of the Confucian tradition, most notably Wang Yang-ming (1472-1529) who maintained the identity of the mind and the principle of things (li). Thereafter Confucianism had its critics, and philological inquiry undermined some of the traditional views as to the composition of the early texts, but it remained a living force down to the end of the nineteenth century. The great radical and moving spirit of the 1898 reform movement, K'angYu-wei (1858-1927), based his policies (which if implemented would have destroyed much of the traditional structure of the empire) on his interpretation of Confucius as a reformer, and a thoroughgoing re-evaluation of Confucius was only initiated during the intellectual ferment that accom­panied the May Fourth Movement of 1919.

Modern Chinese political thought reflected the influences of almost every variety of western political theory that found its way into transla­tion. The doctrine of nationalism, conforming in some respects to the Chinese view of their identity, had many adherents, including Sun Yat-sen (1866-1925). But even Chinese Marx­ism (see mao zedong) continued to incorpo­rate many Confucian preoccupations.