China’s Neo-Kinship Society

1. China’s Neo-Kinship Society

2. 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 family-based philosophy

3. 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

4. The world is in good order • “In piety towards the gods, I would have you know, the chief element is this, to have right opinions about them, as existing and as administering the universe well and justly—and to have set yourself to obey them and to submit to everything that happens, and to follow it voluntarily, in the belief that it is being fulfilled by the highest intelligence.” #31

5. 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.

6. Is Socrates a Model Stoic? • See Epictetus #53: • “Well, O Crito, if so it is pleasing to the gods, so let it be.” • “Anytus and Meletus can kill me, but they cannot hurt me.” • Was Socrates really a Stoic? • 1) Did he teach that external material goods and the good of the body were not in our control? • 2) Did he teach that our fate is determined by God? (recall NDE of Er)

7. 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 not wealth (body)

8. 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

9. China: Summary • 1) Two approaches in China’s history: Family-centered 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

10. 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)

11. Conflict in China: Family or State? • The Governor of She: the State, the Law is primary • Confucius (551-479 BCE): the Family is primary

12. 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

13. 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?

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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

18. 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)

19. 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?

20. 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

22. Contrast with Mesopotamia • 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

23. 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

24. 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)

25. 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

26. 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

27. 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

28. 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

29. Neo-Kinship Society • One clan group rules others • Head of clan > king of society • Kinship + hierarchy • = Kinship system adapts to civilization • Kinship not replaced by legal unification

30. 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