Volume COMPARATIVE 2013 COMPARATIVE STUDIES of CHINA and THE WEST < I > STUDIES Winter of CHINA and THE WEST ᇗ༎໛ߌйࢨခࣶ

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Tu Weiming Roger T. Ames & Henry Rosemont, Jr.  The Ecological Turn in New Confucian Humanism  On Translation & Interpretation in Comparative Studies

Gu Zhengkun Jean Bessiere A Comparative Study of Chinese and Western Fables of China. Frontier Fables, Fables of Radical   Values and Their Origins Exoticism

Gao Peiyi John G. Blair & Jerusha McCormack :  4VSÁXSVMIRXIHSVIQTPS]QIRXSVMIRXIH#  Comparing China and the West: Remedies for Cultural Amnesia ݛࡅᇗ༎໛ߌйࢨྀ߾࡭ࣂ

GENERAL EDITORS Prof. Gu Zhengkun, Prof. & Dean of Institute of World Literature, Peking University Prof. John G. Blair, Prof. Emeritus, University of Geneva KRSHVWREULQJWRJHWKHULQWHUHVWHGVFKRODUVIURPWKH¿HOGVRIOLWHUDWXUHKLVWRU\OLQJXLVWLFV EXECUTIVE EDITORS Prof. Jerusha McCormack, Emeritus, University College Dublin Prof. Ma Shikui, Minzu University of China Prof. Zhang Zheng, Beijing Normal University

Comparative Studies of China and the West is an international peer- reviewed journal, published and distributed by T he International Association for Comparative Studies of China and the West (IACSCW; www. chinaandthewest.org ).

ISSN 2009-6097(Print) ISSN 2009-6100(Online)

ADDRESSES: 79 Waterloo Road, Dublin 4, Ireland. Tel 66 00 592 http://www.chinaandthewest.org Institute of World Literature, School of Foreign Languages, Peking University, 5 Yiheyuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100871, China Tel: 86-10-62754610 +WWSVÀSNXHGXFQHQOLVWSKS"FDWLG 

Copyright© The International Association for Comparative Studies of China and the West (IACSCW) +WWSVÀSNXHGXFQHQOLVWSKS"FDWLG  All rights reserved. No reprinting or reproduction is allowed without the per- mission in writing from the IACSCW . Volume COMPARATIVE 2013 < I > STUDIES Winter of CHINA and THE WEST 中西文化比较研究

Published by the International Association for Comparative Studies of China and the West Dublin & Beijing

出版者：国际中西文化比较协会 都柏林·北京 ᇗ༎໛ߌйࢨခࣶ

GENERAL EDITORS Prof. Gu Zhengkun, Prof. & Dean of Institute of World Literature, Peking University [email protected] Prof. John G. Blair, Prof. Emeritus, University of Geneva [email protected]

EDITORIAL BOARD Prof. Tu Wei-ming, Harvard University/Peking University Prof. Roger T. Ames, University of Hawaii Prof. Jean Bessiere, Paris III Prof. Tang Yijie, Peking University Prof. Yue Daiyun, Peking University Prof. Riccardo Pozzo, Università di Verona Prof. Gao Peiyi, Tsinghua University

EXECUTIVE EDITORS Prof. Jerusha McCormack, Emeritus, University College Dublin [email protected] Prof. Ma Shikui, Minzu University of China [email protected] Prof. Zhang Zheng, Beijing Normal University [email protected] Introduction to IACSCW

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The International Association for Comparative Studies of China and the West (IACSCW) was founded in 2010. Headquartered both at 79 Waterloo Road, Dublin 4, Ireland, and at the Institute of World Literature, Peking University, its primary goal is to promote comparative studies by helping practitioners to learn from each other. The IACSCW is currently co-presided by Professors Gu Zhengkun (China) and John G. Blair (USA). Professor Tu Weiming (Harvard/Peking University) is IACSCW’s honorary president. The IACSCW Executive Vice President is Dr. Gao Peiyi, distinguished research fellow for Urbanization and Education at Tsinghua University. Its Vice Presidents are Professor Wang Yuechuan from Peking University and Professor Hans-Christian Günther from Freiburg University. The IACSCW has also a list of distinguished scholars as its honorary advisors, including Professor Roger T. Ames, Professor Jean Bessiere (Paris III), Prof. Tang Yijie, Professor Yue Daiyun, and Professor Riccardo Pozzo (Università di Verona), etc.

IACSCW provides a forum for those trained in a variety of traditional disciplines. It KRSHVWREULQJWRJHWKHULQWHUHVWHGVFKRODUVIURPWKH¿HOGVRIOLWHUDWXUHKLVWRU\OLQJXLVWLFV translation, philosophy, economics, political science, ecology, art and music, . . . the list goes on and on.

What they share is a sense that comparing China and the West is important not just to their individual careers but to the collective intellectual enterprise of everyone who is working to help these civilizations understand and communicate with each other. That complex and elusive process requires rethinking the past as well as the present, clarifying small issues as well as large ones.

In both China and the West intellectuals have a long history as advisors and counselors to those in power. In particular, they create the cultural understandings that underpin all serious attempts at dialogue across civilizational lines. Right now these matters have become a matter of great importance because the global response to the impending ecological crisis will be decided primarily in and by China and the West. Acting in concert, they have the potential to assure a viable future for humankind. Acting separately in pursuit of “business as usual,” they would doom all hopes for a reasonable life for everyone on earth. The responsibility is large; IACSCW will take steps in the positive direction.

ADDRESSES: +WWSVÀSNXHGXFQHQOLVWSKS"FDWLG  79 Waterloo Road, Dublin 4, Ireland. Tel 66 00 592 http://www.chinaandthewest.org Institute of World Literature, School of Foreign Languages, Peking University, 5 Yiheyuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100871, China Tel: 86-10-62754610 +WWSVÀSNXHGXFQHQOLVWSKS"FDWLG  COMPARATIVE STUDIES OF CHINA AND THE WEST ᇗ༎໛ߌйࢨခࣶ Volume 1 Winter 2013

Contents

Confucianism and the World Tu Wei-ming The Ecological Turn in New Confucian Humanism: Implications for China and the World 001 Tang Yijie Confucianism & Constructive Postmodernism 010

Chinese and Western Values Gu Zhengkun A Comparative Study of Chinese and Western Values and Their Origins: Family – Nation – World 016

Culture and Translation Roger T. Ames & Henry Rosemont, Jr. On Translation & Interpretation in Comparative Studies--- With Special Reference to Classical Chinese 025

Culture and Identity John G. Blair & Jerusha McCormack Comparing China and the West: Remedies for Cultural Amnesia 033 Wang Yuechuan Building up Cultural Strategy of China as a Great Power

through Cultural Innovation 040

Society and Economics Gao Peiyi Profit-oriented or Employment-oriented? A New Topic for the Comparative Studies of Chinese and Western Economic Cultures 049 Frank Jacob Social Organization, Secrecy, and Rebellion – Secret Societies in China and Ireland 053

Comparative Literature Jean Bessiere Fables of China. Frontier Fables, Fables of Radical Exoticism: Segalen, Michaux, Butor 058 King-Kok Cheung Two Forms of Solitude: Tao Qian’s Reclusive Ideal and Emerson’s Transcendentalist Vision 062 Li Yongyi Fictions of Nature in Wallace Stevens and Wang Wei 075

Recent Publications in China-West Comparative Studies 015; 061 Tu Weiming The Ecological Turn in New Confucian Humanism

The Ecological Turn in New Confucian Humanism: Implications for China and the World

By Tu Wei-ming Harvard University/Peking University

Today virtually all axial-age civilizations are going thinkers articulated this idea of unity in a distinctive through their own distinctive forms of transformation in way. response to the multiple challenges of modernity.1 One of the most crucial questions they face is what wisdom Qian Mu (1895-1990) of Taiwan characterized the they can offer to reorient the human developmental unity as a mutuality between the human heart-mind and trajectory of the modern world in light of the growing the Way of Heaven.3 Tang Junyi (1909-1978) of Hong environmental crisis. Kong emphasized “immanent transcendence”: we can apprehend the Mandate of Heaven by understanding China and the Confucian tradition face an our heart-and-mind; thus, the transcendence of especially significant challenge given the size of Heaven is immanent in the communal and critical self- China’s population and the scale of her current efforts consciousness of human beings as a whole.4 Similarly, at modernization. A radical rethinking of Confucian Feng Youlan (1895-1990) of Beijing rejected his humanism began in the late nineteenth and early previous commitment to the Marxist notion of struggle twentieth centuries, when China was engulfed in an and stressed the value of harmony not only in the human unprecedented radical social disintegration as the result world, but also in the relationship between humans and of foreign invasion and domestic dissension. In the nature.5 Since all three thinkers articulated their final late twentieth century, this reformulation continued positions toward the end of their lives, the unity of in the “New Confucian movement” led by concerned Heaven, Earth, and Humanity sums up the wisdom of intellectuals, some of whom left mainland China these elders in the Sinic world. I would like to suggest for Taiwan and Hong Kong when communism was that this New Confucian idea of cosmic unity marks an established as the ruling ideology in the People’s ecological turn of profound importance for China and Republic in 1949. the world.

In the last twenty-five years, three leading New An Ecological Turn Confucian thinkers in Taiwan, mainland China, and Hong Kong independently concluded that the most Qian Mu called this new realization a major significant contribution the Confucian tradition can offer breakthrough in his thinking. When his wife and students the global community is the idea of the “unity of Heaven raised doubts about the novelty of his insight - the idea and Humanity” (tianrenheyi), a unity that Confucians of unity between Heaven and Humanity is centuries old - believe also embraces Earth. I have described this Qian already in his nineties, emphatically responded that vision as an anthropocosmic worldview, in which the his understanding was not a reiteration of conventional human is embedded in the cosmic order, rather than wisdom, but a personal enlightenment, thoroughly an anthropocentric worldview, in which the human is original and totally novel.6 His fascination with the idea alienated, either by choice or by default, from the natural of mutuality between the human heart-and-mind and world.2 By identifying the comprehensive unity of the Way of Heaven, and his assertion that this idea is Heaven, Earth, and Humanity as a critical contribution a unique Chinese contribution to the world, attracted to the modern world, these three key figures in New the attention of several leading intellectuals in cultural Confucian thought signaled the movement toward China.7 both retrieval and reappropriation of Confucian ideas. Speaking as public intellectuals concerned about the Tang Junyi, on the other hand, presented his direction of the modem world, each of the three key view from a comparative civilizational perspective.

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He contrasted Confucian self-cultivation with Greek, The great man regards Heaven and Earth and the myriad Christian, and Buddhist spiritual exercises, and things as one body. He regards the world as one family and concluded that Confucianism’s commitment to the the country as one person. As to those who make a cleavage world combined with its profound reverence for Heaven between objects and distinguish between self and others, offered a unique contribution to human flourishing in they are small men. That the great man can regard Heaven, the modern world. The Confucian worldview, rooted in Earth, and the myriad things as one body is not because he earth, body, family, and community, is not “adjustment deliberately wants to do so, but because it is natural to the to the world,” 8 submission to the status quo, or passive humane nature of his mind that he do so. 12 acceptance of the physical, biological, social, and political constraints of the human condition. Rather, it is dictated by an ethic of responsibility informed by By emphasizing the “humane nature of the mind” a transcendent vision. We do not become “spiritual” as the reason that the great person can embody the by departing from or transcending above our earth, universe in his sensitivity, Wang made the ontological body, family, and community, but by working through assertion that the ability to strike a sympathetic them. Indeed, our daily life is not merely secular but a resonance with Heaven, Earth, and the myriad things is a response to a cosmological decree. Since the Mandate of Heaven that enjoins us to take part in the great enterprise of cosmic transformation is implicit in our nature, we To demonstrate that this is indeed the case, he are Heaven’s partners. In Tang’s graphic description, the offered a series of concrete examples: ultimate goal of being human is to enable the “Heavenly virtue” ( tiande ) to flow through us. His project of When we see a child about to fall into the well, we reconstructing the secular humanist spirit is, therefore, cannot help a feeling of alarm and commiseration. This shows predicated on an anthropocosmic vision. 9 that our humanity ( ren ಭ ) forms one body with the child. It may be objected that the child belongs to the same species. Feng Youlan’s radical reversal of his earlier Again, when we observe the pitiful cries and frightened position is an implicit critique of Mao Zedong’s thoughts appearances of birds and animals about to be slaughtered, on struggle and the human capacity to conquer nature. we cannot help feeling an "inability to bear" their suffering. His return to the philosophy of harmony of Zhang Zai This shows that our humanity forms one body with birds (1020-1077) signaled a departure from his Marxist and animals. It may be objected that birds and animals are phase and a representation of Confucian ideas he had sentient beings as we are. But when we see plants broken and destroyed, we cannot help a feeling of pity. This shows that People’s Republic of China. The opening lines in Zhang our humanity forms one body with plants. It may be said that Zai’s “Western Inscription” state: plants are living things as we are. Yet even when we see tiles Heaven is my father and Earth is my mother, and even and stones shattered and crushed, we cannot help a feeling of regret. This shows that our humanity forms one body with tiles 13 Therefore that which fills the universe I regard as my and stones. body and that which directs the universe I consider as my nature. These examples clearly indicate that “forming one All people are my brothers and sisters, and all things are body” entails not the romantic ideal of unity, but rather my companions.” 10 a highly differentiated understanding of interconnected- ness. The “Western Inscription” can be regarded as a core Neo-Confucian text in articulating the Neo-Confucian thinkers like Wang deeply anthropocosmic vision of the unity of Heaven, Earth, and Humanity. Accordingly, Feng characterizes the highest stage of human self-realization as the embodiment of the positions may seem to be a matter of personal style. Yet “spirit of Heaven and Earth.” 11 all three were obviously convinced that their cherished tradition had a message for the emerging global village; A significant aspect of Qian, Tang, and Feng’s they delivered it in the most appropriate way they ecological turn was their effort to retrieve the spiritual knew. Their use of a prophetic voice suggests that their resources of the classical and Neo-Confucian heritages. Confucian message was addressed not only to a Chinese In the sixteenth century, for example, Wang Yangming audience but also to the human community as a whole. (1472-1529) offered in his “Inquiry on the Great They did not wish merely to honor their ancestors but Learning” an elegant interpretation of Confucian also to show that they cared for the well-being of future thought, one with rich implications for modern generations. ecological thinking:

2 Tu Weiming The Ecological Turn in New Confucian Humanism

Were they even conscious of the ecological carefully integrated program of personal self-cultivation, harmonized family life, and well-ordered states. At of the twentieth century, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and even the heart of this vision is a sense that “home” implies mainland China were all marching toward Western- not only the human community, but also the natural style forms of social organization. Modernization was world and the larger cosmos. Speaking directly to the the most powerful ideology in China. By challenging above passage, Wm. Theodore de Bary has observed, China’s traditional agriculture-based economy, family- “Chinese and Confucian culture, traditionally, was centered social structure, and paternalist government, about settled communities living on the land, nourishing industrialization seemed to seal the fate of Confucianism themselves and the land. It is this natural, organic as no longer relevant to the vital concerns of the process that Confucian self-cultivation draws upon for contemporary world. 14 Perhaps Qian, Tang, and Feng all its analogies and metaphors.” 16 He noted that the were nostalgic for the kind of “universal brotherhood” farmer-poet Wendell Berry made the Confucian point: or “unity of all things” that Max Weber and others have “[H]ome and family are central, and we cannot hope to supposed must disappear in a disenchanted modern do anything about the environment that does not first world. However, while traces of romantic longing can establish the home - not just the self and family - as the be seen in their writings, all three discovered a new home base for our efforts.” De Bary concluded that: vitality in the Confucian tradition. In order to appreciate properly what these men accomplished, it will be useful If we have to live in a much larger world, because to recall the broad historical context in which they ecological problems can only be managed on a global scale, worked. the infrastructure between home locality and state (national or international) is also vital. But without home, we have nothing Holistic Confucian Humanism for the infrastructure, much less the superstructure, to rest on. ಭ This is the message of Wendell Berry; and also the lesson of Prior to the impact of the modern West, Confucian Confucian and Chinese history.” 17 humanism largely defined political ideology, social ethics, and family values in East Asia. Since the East Asian educated elite were all well versed in the The human in this worldview is an active Confucian classics, what the three contemporary thinkers participant in the cosmic process with the responsibility advocated as a unique Confucian contribution to the of care for the environment. Thus in the classical period human community was, in fact, a spiritual orientation of Confucianism we see a holistic humanism expressed once widely shared in China, Vietnam, Korea, and in the Great learning . Furthermore, environmental Japan. The famous “eight steps” in the first chapter of concerns implicit in the Great Learning are explicitly the Great Learning provide a glimpse of what Confucian articulated in other core Confucian texts. A statement in humanism purported to be: the Doctrine of the Mean succinctly captures the essence of this cosmological thinking: The ancients who wished to illuminate their “illuminating Only those who are the most sincere [authentic, true, to govern their states, they first regulated their families. and real] can fully realize their own nature. If they can fully Wishing to regulate their families, they first cultivated their realize their own nature, they can fully realize human nature. If personal lives. Wishing to cultivate their personal lives, they they can fully realize human nature, they can fully realize the first rectified their hearts and minds. Wishing to rectify their nature of things. If they can fully realize the nature of things, hearts and minds, they first authenticated their intentions. they can take part in the transforming and nourishing process of Heaven and Earth. If they can take part in the transforming and nourishing process of Heaven and Earth, they can form a trinity with Heaven and Earth. 18 when intentions are authentic are hearts and minds rectified; Obviously, this idea of the interrelation of Heaven, only when hearts and minds are rectified are personal lives Earth, and humans was precisely what the three thinkers had in mind in stressing the centrality of the precept cultivated; only when personal lives are cultivated are families of “the unity of Heaven and Humanity,” although for regulated; only when families are regulated are states governed; more than a century this idea had been regarded as an only when states are governed is there peace all under Heaven. archaic irrelevance in cultural China. The excitement Therefore, from the Son of Heaven to the common people, all, of rediscovering this central Confucian precept was a 15 without exception, must take self-cultivation as the root. poignant reminder of how much had been lost and how difficult it was to retrieve the elements of the tradition This holistic vision of a peaceful world rests on a

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Critical Voices for an Ecological Turn: New respected and preserved through restraint. Confucians and the Earth Charter However, neither Xiong nor Liang was able to Both from within the Confucian tradition sustain an argument in favor of a nonanthropocentric, not and from without, critical voices have emerged to to mention eco-friendly, ethic. The modernist trajectory criticize the Enlightenment vision of secularization, was so powerful that Confucian humanism was rationalization, and development at any cost. Even at profoundly reconfigured toward a secular humanism. the height of the May Fourth Movement’s obsession The rules of the game determining the relevance of with Westernization as modernization, some of the most Confucianism to China’s modern transformation were original New Confucians had begun to question the changed so remarkably that most attempts to present a individualistic worldview and utilitarian ethics implicit Confucian idea for its own sake were ignored outside in the Enlightenment project. Two key examples are a small coterie of ivory-tower academicians. Thus the Xiong Shili (1883-1968), who elaborated a naturalistic goals of modernization and economic development philosophy of vitalism, and Liang Shuming (1893-1988), overrode broader humanistic and communitarian who called for restraint and moderation in using natural concerns. resources. As Amartya Sen and others have argued, however, Xiong Shili reconfigured Confucian metaphysics it is now clear that the modernization process, used through a critical analysis of the basic motifs of the Consciousness-Only school of Buddhism. He insisted 21 Instead, there that the Confucian idea of the “great transformation” is a broader understanding emerging that development (dahua ) is predicated on the participation of the human must include not only economic indicators but in cosmic processes, rather than the imposition of consider human well-being, environmental protection, human will on nature. He further observed that as a and spiritual growth as well. To this end, there is a continuously evolving species, human beings are not growing awareness in the world community of the created apart from nature, but emerge as an integral part need to develop a more comprehensive global ethic for of the primordial forces of production and reproduction. sustainable development. 22 This coalesced in the “Earth The vitality that engenders human creativity is the same Charter” that was developed over the last years since energy that gives rise to mountains, rivers, and the whole the United Nations Earth Summit was held in Rio in of the planet. There is consanguinity between humans, 1992. 23 An international committee spent three years Heaven, Earth, and the myriad things of nature. Since his drafting the charter before its formal release by the naturalistic vitalism is based on the Book of Change and Earth Charter Commission at a meeting in Paris in 2000. some Neo-Confucian writings, the ethic of forming one Hundreds of consultations were held with organizations body with nature looms large in his moral idealism. 19 and individuals throughout the world to ensure that it would be an inclusive people’s charter. The charter sets Liang Shuming characterized the Confucian ethos forth principles of ecological integrity, social justice, as a balance between detachment from and aggression democracy, nonviolence, and peace. toward nature. Although he conceded that China had to The Earth Charter enjoins us to “respect Earth for the sake of national survival, he prophesized that and life in all its diversity,” “care for the community in the long run the Indian spirit of renunciation would of life with understanding, compassion, and love,” prevail. 20 While Liang merely hinted at the possibility and “secure Earth’s bounty and beauty for present and of alternative visions of human development, his future generations.” 24 As the charter puts it, “humanity inquiry generated a strong current in reevaluating and is part of a vast evolving universe. Earth, our home, is revitalizing Confucianism at a time when Westernization alive with a unique community of life.” For Confucians, dominated the Chinese intellectual scene. the “community of life” is expressed as consanguinity between the earth and ourselves, because we have The distinctive contributions of these two thinkers evolved from the same vital energy that makes stones, are critical to the ecological turn of later Confucianism, plants, and animals integral parts of the cosmos. We live Xiong highlights the naturalistic vitalism of the tradition with reverence and a sense of awe for the fecundity and from its classical expression in the Book of Change to its creativity of nature as we open our eyes to what is near Neo-Confucian articulation in the notion of the fecundity at hand. of life ( sheng-skeng ). Liang maintains that long-term human survival depends on the practice of moderation, When measured against these principles of a a hallmark of Confucian cultivation in attaining balance, global ethic for sustainability, a narrowly conceived harmony, and equilibrium. Thus Xiong and Liang modernization process such as China’s is inadequate. observe that the vitality of natural processes must be This critique is an important external counterpoint to

4 Tu Weiming The Ecological Turn in New Confucian Humanism

modernization within an Enlightenment framework.

If China’s modernist project had followed the The idea of the unity of Heaven and humanity democratic ideal of building a society that is “just, implies four inseparable dimensions of the human participatory, sustainable, and peaceful,” 25 as formulated condition: self, community, nature, and Heaven. The full in the Earth Charter, it could have had a salutary effect distinctiveness of each enhances, rather than impedes, a on China’s overall conception of development. A harmonious integration of the others. Self as a center of counterfactual exercise is in order. Surely the global relationships establishes its identity by interacting with issues mentioned in the Earth Charter are far from being community variously understood, from the family to the resolved in the modern West, but had they been put on global village and beyond. A sustainable harmonious the national agenda for discussion in China, the Chinese relationship between the human species and nature is intellectual ethos could have been much more congenial not merely an abstract ideal, but a concrete guide for to the culture of peace and environmental ethics. After practical living. Mutual responsiveness between the all, “eradicating poverty as an ethical, social, and human heart-and-mind and the Way of Heaven is the environmental imperative” 26 and promoting human salient features constitute the substance of the New and Confucian ideals. Although “upholding the right Confucian ecological vision. of all, without discrimination, to a natural and social environment supportive of human dignity, bodily health, Fruitful Interaction between Self and and spiritual well-being” 27 may appear to be a lofty goal, Community it is compatible with the Chinese notion of realizing the whole person. Furthermore, “affirming gender equality Since the community as home must extend to and equity as prerequisites to sustainable development” the “global village” and beyond, the self in fruitful and “ensuring universal access to education, health care, interaction with community must transcend not only and economic opportunity” 28 are clearly recognized egoism and parochialism, but also nationalism and modern Chinese aspirations. The traditional Confucian anthropocentrism. In practical ethical terms, self- sense of economic equality, social conscience, and cultivation is crucial to the viability of this holistic political responsibility could have been relevant to and humanist vision. Specifically, it involves a process of continuous self-transcendence, always keeping important matters. The cost of the secularization of sight of one’s solid ground in earth, body, family, and Confucian humanism was high. The single-minded community. Through self-cultivation, the human heart- and-mind “expands in concentric circles that begin with oneself and spread from there to include successively to wealth and power. As China completely turned her one’s family, one’s face-to-face community, one’s nation, back on her indigenous resources for self-realization, she 29 embarked on a course of action detrimental to her soul and her long-term self-interest. In shifting the center of one’s empathic concern Confucian Humanism as an Anthropocosmic The move from family to community prevents nepotism. Vision The move from community to nation overcomes parochialism, and the move to all humanity counters Qian, Tang, and Feng saw the potential for chauvinistic nationalism. 30 While “[t]he project Confucian humanism to occupy a new niche in of becoming fully human involves transcending, comparative civilizational studies. As a partner in sequentially, egoism, nepotism, parochialism, the dialogue among civilizations, what message can ethnocentrism, and chauvinist nationalism,” it cannot Confucians deliver to other religious communities and 31 If we stop at secular humanism, our arrogant self-sufficiency will Confucian humanism informed by the anthropocosmic undermine our cosmic connectivity and constrain us in an anthropocentric predicament. Specifically, can the Confucian self-cultivation philosophy inspire a new constellation of family A Sustainable Harmonious Relationship values, social ethics, political principles, and ecological between the Human Species and Nature consciousness that will help cultural China develop a sense of responsibility for the global community, both The problem with secular humanism is its self- imposed limitation. Under its influence, our obsession with power and mastery over the environment — to the resources and broaden the Enlightenment project’s scope exclusion of the spiritual and the natural realms — has

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made us blind to ecological concerns. 32 The “humanism that professes the unity of man and Heaven” is neither secular nor anthropocentric. While it An ecological focus is a necessary corrective to fully acknowledges that we are embedded in earth, body, the modernist discourse that has reduced the Confucian family, and community, it never denies that we are in worldview to a limited and limiting secular humanism. tune with the cosmic order. To infuse our earthly, bodily, Confucianism, appropriated by the modernist mindset, familial, and communal existence with a transcendent has been misused as a justification for authoritarian polity. Only by fully incorporating the religious and a basic Confucian practice. In traditional China, under naturalist dimensions into New Confucianism can the the influence of Confucian thought, Daoist ritual, and Confucian worldview avoid the danger of legitimating folk belief, the imperial court, the capital city, literary social engineering, instrumental rationality, linear progression, economic development, and technocratic private houses were designed according to the “wind management at the expense of a holistic, anthropocosmic and water” ( fengshui ) principles. While these principles, vision. Indeed, the best way for the Confucians to attain based on geomancy, can supposedly be manipulated to the new is to reanimate the old, so that the digression to enhance one’s fortune, they align human designs with secular humanism, under the influence of the modern the environment by enhancing intimacy with nature. West, is not a permanent diversion. Similarly, Chinese medicine as healing rather than curing and the mental and physical exercises such as the Mutual Responsiveness between the Human ritual dance of the great ultimate ( taijiquan ) and various Heart-and-Mind and the Way of Heaven forms of breathing disciplines ( qigong ) are also based on the mutual responsiveness between nature and humanity. In the appeal of scientists at the Global Forum Conference in Moscow in 1990 religious and spiritual Self-Knowledge and Cultivation to Complete leaders were challenged to envision the human-Earth the Triad relationship in a new light: Confucians believe that Heaven confers our human As scientists, many of us have had profound experiences nature and that the Way of Heaven is accessible through of awe and reverence before the universe. We understand that self-knowledge. They also believe that to understand what is regarded as sacred is more likely to be treated with care the Mandate of Heaven we must continuously cultivate and respect. Our planetary home should be so regarded. Efforts ourselves. This is completing the triad of Heaven, to safeguard and cherish the environment need to be infused Earth, and humans. Nature, as an unending process of with a vision of the sacred. 33 transformation rather than a static presence, is a source Obviously, the ecological question compels all of inspiration for us to understand Heaven’s dynamism. religious traditions to reexamine their presuppositions in Book of Change symbolizes. regard to the earth. It is not enough that one’s spiritual Heaven’s vitality and creativity is incessant: Heaven tradition makes limited adjustments to accommodate the always proceeds vigorously. The lesson for humans is ecological dimension. The need is for none other than the obvious: we emulate the constancy and sustainability sacralization of nature. This may require a fundamental of Heaven’s vitality and creativity by participating in human flourishing through “ceaseless effort of self- restructuring of basic theology by requiring the sanctity 35 of the earth as a given. Implicit in the scientists’ appeal strengthening.” The sense of “awe and reverence before is the necessity of a new theology, adding nature as a the universe” is prompted by our aspiration to respond to factor that must enter into, and transform, the traditional the ultimate reality that makes our lives purposeful and understandings of the relationship between God and meaningful. From either a creationist or an evolutionist human beings. perspective, we are indebted to “Heaven, Earth, and the myriad things” for our existence. To repay this debt we For the New Confucians, the critical issue is to cultivate ourselves so as to attain our full humaneness underscore the spiritual dimension of the harmony amidst the wonder of existence. with nature. As Wing-tsit Chan notes in his celebrated Source Book in Chinese Philosophy , “If one word could Mencius succinctly articulated this human characterize the entire history of Chinese philosophy, attitude toward Heaven as self-knowledge, service, and that word would be humanism — not the humanism steadfastness of purpose: that denies or slights a Supreme Power, but one that When a man has given full realization lo his heart, he professes the unity of man and Heaven. In this sense, humanism has dominated Chinese thought from the will understand his own nature. A man who knows his own dawn of its history.” 34 nature will know Heaven. By retaining his heart and nurturing his nature he is serving Heaven. Whether he is going to die

6 Tu Weiming The Ecological Turn in New Confucian Humanism

young or to live to a ripe old age makes no difference to his has generated a new dynamism unprecedented in steadfastness of purpose. It is through awaiting whatever is to as those who are politically concerned, socially proper destiny. 36 engaged, culturally informed, religiously sensitive, and ecologically conscientious, they are readily visible and audible on the political scene. 38 Indeed, public Self-realization, in an ultimate sense, depends intellectuals in academia, government, mass media, on knowing and serving Heaven. The mutuality of business, and society are articulating a variety of the human heart-and-mind and the Way of Heaven ecological and spiritual messages relevant to China’s is mediated by cultivating a harmonious relationship quest to join the modern world. The New Confucians with nature. Through such cultivation, humans form a triad with Heaven and Earth and thus fully realize their the underlying value, or the all-embracing conception” 39 potential as cosmological as well as anthropological that can serve as a standard of inspiration for all beings. This sense of mutuality achieved through concerned citizens of the nation. However, they are completion of the triad, precludes the imposition of the strategically positioned to generate new discussions on human will on Heaven and transforms the human desire the ecological way “as macrocosm, overarching unity, to conquer nature. and ultimate process”; indeed, as a necessary reference for “the human enterprise in its fullest dimensions, Sustaining the Ecological Turn: The Role of 40 the Public Intellectual Given the current political climate in China, poverty, unemployment, and social disintegration as religion is a particularly delicate matter. Whether religion three serious threats to the solidarity of the human will play an active role in shaping China’s development community. Globalization intensifies and enhances strategy is not yet clear. The possibility of a sound the felt need for rootedness in primordial ties. Our environmental ethic depends heavily on the ability of community, compressed into a “village”, far from being Chinese intellectuals to transcend a narrow nationalism integrated, blatantly exhibits differentiation and outright informed by secular humanism and their willingness to discrimination. 37 For developing societies such as China take religion seriously in considering human integrity to appreciate the environmental movements of the developed world, the contradiction between ecological and national security as a way of outlawing superstition, and developmental imperatives will have to be resolved. as in the case of the Falungong, has not been effective The ecological advocacy of elegant simplicity is not in dealing with the outpouring of religious sentiments persuasive if one considers development, in the basic throughout the country. Its technocratic approach material sense, a necessary condition for survival. to religious issues merely reflects an increasingly Only if China comes to feel a responsibility not just for unworkable instrumental rationality. Religion as a nation-building but for nature itself can China become vibrant social force is widely recognized by public a constructive partner on global environmental issues. intellectuals in government, academia, business, and the She could be encouraged to do so if the developed world, especially the United States, demonstrates moral how religious and ecological discourses will converge leadership. Without encouragement and reciprocal in China, tolerance of religion often entails sensitivity respect from developed countries, it is unlikely that he to ecology. When public intellectuals in China begin to will independently embark on such a path. Fortunately, appreciate the profound religious implications of the mutually beneficial dialogues on religion and ecology ecological turn and the importance of retrieving and between China and the United States have already reappropriating indigenous spiritual resources to develop begun. an environmental ethic, they will be ready to take part in a dialogue among civilizations concerning religion and The ecological turn, as an alternative vision, ecology. is particularly significant in this regard. To make it sustainable and, eventually, consequential in formulating In a broader context, for religious and spiritual policies, the need for public-spiritedness among leaders to play a significant global role in articulating intellectuals is urgent. The emergence of a public space a shared approach to environmental degradation, they in cultural China provides a glimmer of hope. Although must assume the responsibility of public intellectuals full-fledged civil societies in the Chinese cultural themselves. As the Millennium Conference at the universe are found only in Taiwan and Hong Kong, the United Nations in September of 2000 clearly showed, horizontal communication among public intellectuals unless religious and spiritual leaders can rise above in several sectors of society in the People’s Republic their communities of faith to address global issues as public intellectuals, their messages will be misread,

7 Comparative Studies of China and the West Vol. 1 2013 distorted, or ignored. China is particularly suspicious of widely accepted as the legitimate way to provide access the intentions of religious and spiritual leaders if they to justice for all, the ideal of “inclusive participation in are exclusively concerned about the well-being of their decision making” 45 is no longer unimaginable. own communities. Yet the time is ripe for spiritual and religious leaders outside China to engage Chinese public New Confucians fully acknowledge that in intellectuals in mutually informative and inspirational their march toward modernization in the cause of conversations on religion and ecology. nation-building, their primary language has been so fundamentally reconstructed that it is no longer The New Confucian ecological turn clearly shows a language of faith, but a language of instrumental that a sustainable human-Earth relationship will depend rationality, economic efficiency, political expediency, on the creation of harmonious societies and benevolent and social engineering. They are now recovering governments through the self-cultivation of all members from that mistake. Their reanimated anthropocosmic of the human community. At the same time, Confucians vision may inspire a new worldview and a new ethic. insist that being attuned to the changing patterns in This ecological turn has great significance for China’s nature is essential for harmonizing human relationships, spiritual self-definition, for it urges the nation to formulating family ethics, and establishing a responsive rediscover its soul. It also has profound implications for and responsible government. As Mary Evelyn Tucker the sustainable future of the global community. notes: “The whole Confucian triad of heaven, earth, and humans rests on a seamless yet dynamic intersection Acknowledgments between each of these realms. Without harmony with nature and its myriad changes, human society and I am indebted to Rosanne Hall, Lucia Huntington, government is threatened.” 41 Since each person’s self- Ron Suteski, and Mary Evelyn Tucker for searching cultivation is essential for social and political order, criticisms of and editorial suggestions on earlier drafts the public intellectual is not an elitist, but an active of this essay. participant in the daily affairs of his or her society. The Confucian idea of the concerned scholar may benefit from the wisdom of a philosopher, the insight of a 1 prophet, the faith of a priest, the compassion of a monk, For a contemporary discussion on the axial-age civilizations, see or the understanding of a guru, but it is the responsibility Shmuel N. Eisenstadt, ed., The Origins and Diversity of Axial Age Civilizations. Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, 1986. of the public intellectual that is the most appropriate to 2 See Tu Wei-ming, “Embodying the Universe: A Note on Confucian the embodiment of this idea. The Confucians remind Self-realization,” World & I (August 1989): pp.475-485. us that, in order to foster a wholesome worldview and 3 Qian Mu’s last essay, “Zhongguo wenhua dui renlei weilai keyou a healthy ecological ethic, we need to combine our di gongxian” (The Possible Contribution of Chinese Culture to the aspiration for a harmonious relationship with nature with United our concerted effort to build a just society. News in Taiwan (September26, 1990). It was reprinted, with a lengthy commentary by his widow, Hu Meiqi, Zhongguo Wenhua (Chinese Public intellectuals in China should impress upon Culture) 4 (August 1991): pp.93-96. the political leadership that it is in an advantageous 4 For an elaborate discussion on this, see Tang Junyi, Shengming cunzai position to “promote a culture of tolerance, nonviolence, yu xinling jingjie (Life Existence and the Spiritual Realms). Taipei: and peace,” 42 as recommended by the Earth Charter. Xuesheng Book Co., 1977, pp. 872-888. 5 Feng Youlan, Zhongguo xiandai zhexueshi (History of Modern They should recognize that since the Chinese people Chinese Philosophy). Guangzhou: Guangdong People’s Publishers, are well disposed to Mahayana Buddhism and religious 1999, pp. 251-254. Daoism as well as inclusive Confucian humanism, they 6 See Hu Meiqi’s commentary in Zhongguo Wenhua. can appreciate the value of the coexistence of Heaven, 7 For example, Ji Xianlin of Peking University, Li Shengzi of the Earth, and the myriad things and can “treat all living Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Cai Shangsi of Fudan University, Ɋ 43 beings with respect and consideration” as an expression and a number of other senior scholars all enthusiastically responded of their humanity. Furthermore, as an increasing number Zhonghua Wenhua of public intellectuals in the academic community have (Chinese Culture) 10 (August 1994): pp.218-219. already forcefully articulated their ecological concerns, 8 Max Weber, The Religion of China: Confucianism and Taoism, trans. they should be encouraged to “integrate into formal Hans H. Gerth. Glencoe, III.: Free Press, 1951, p. 235. 9 education and life-long learning the knowledge, values, Tang Junyi, Shengming cuizai yu xinling jingjie , pp. 833-930. 10 Chang Tsai (Zhang Zai), “The Western Inscription,” in Wing-tsit and skills needed for a sustainable way of life.” 44 Many Chan, trans., A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy . Princeton, N.J.: liberal-minded public intellectuals have openly suggested Princeton University Press, 1963, p. 497. that the major challenge in Chinese political culture is 11 11. Feng Youlan, “Xin yuanren” (New Origins of Humanity) in democratization at all levels, which must begin with Zhenyuan liushu (Six Books of Feng Youlan in the 1930s and 1940s). greater transparency and accountability in governance at Shanghai: Eastern Chinese Normal University Press, 1996, vol. II, pp. the top. As the rule of law, rather than the rule by law, is 626-649.

8 Tu Weiming The Ecological Turn in New Confucian Humanism

12 Wang Yangming “Inquiry on the Great Learning,” in Wing-tsit the National People’s Congress, he plays a pivotal role in formulating Chan, trans., A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy , pp.659. national policies and encourages nongovernmental agencies in raising 13 Ibid., 659-660. Since Wang Yangming wished to demonstrate that environmental concerns. For a retrospective look at his own career, see the mind of the small man can form one body with all things as well, Qu Geping, Mengxiang yu qidai: Zhongguo huanjing baohu de guoqu he used “he” rather than “we” in the text. yu weilai (Dreams and Anticipations: The Past and Future of China’s 14 Joseph Levenson, Confucian China and its Modem Fate: A Trilogy Environmental Protection). Beijing: China Environmental Science Berkeley: University of California Press, 1968. Press, 2000. 15 The “Text” of The Great Learning . Although I have made a few 39 Wm, Theodore de Bary, Neo-Confucian Orthodoxy and the Learning changes in my translation, it basically follows Wing-tsit Chan’s of the Mind-and-Heart. New York: Columbia University Press, 1981, version. See Wing-tsit Chan trans., A Source Book in Chinese p. 216. Philosophy , p.86. 40 Ibid. It should be noted that although de Bary’s main concern here 16 Wm. Theodore de Bary, “’Think Globally, Act Locally,’ and the is the Way in the “learning of the mind-and-heart,” the ecological Contested Ground Between,” in Confucianism and Ecology: The implications are self-evident. Interrelation of Heaven, Earth, and Humans , ed. Mary Evelyn Tucker 41 Mary Evelyn Tucker, “The Emerging Alliance of Religion and and John Berthrong. Cambridge, Mass.: Center for the Study of World Ecology,” in Chase, ed., Doors of Understanding, p. 120. Religions, Harvard Divinity School, 1998, p. 32. 42 The Earth Charter. 17 Ibid., pp. 32-33. 43 Ibid. 18 Zhongyong (Doctrine of the Mean), XXII. See Tu Wei-ming, 44 Ibid, Currently more than a hundred programs (including Centrality and Commonality: An Essay on Confucian Religiousness. departments and research centers) focusing on the environment have Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, 1989, 77. This been developed in China’s institutes of higher learning. While the translation is slightly different from Wing-tsit Chan’s version, cited in majority of these programs are primarily concerned with technical the book. engineering issues, quite a few of them have integrated subjects in the 19 Xiong Shili, Xin Weishilun (New Theory on Consciousness-Only), social sciences and the humanities in their multidisciplinary approaches reprint. Taipei: Guangwen Publishers, 1962, vol. I, chap. 4, pp. 49-92. to environmental protection. 20 Liang Shuming, Dongxi wenhua jiqi zhexue (Eastern and Western 45 Ibid. Cultures and their Philosophies), reprint. Taipei: Wenxue Publishers, 1979, pp. 200-201. 21 Amartya Sen, Development as Freedom. New York: Knopf, 1999. About the author: 22 See Hans Küng and Karl-Josef Kuschel, eds., A Global Ethic: The Declaration of the Parliament of the World’s Religions. New York: Tu Wei-ming, IACSCW Honorary President, is Director of Continuum, 1993. Institute for Advanced Humanistic Studies at Peking University 23 The Earth Charter, http://www.earthcharter.org. 24 Ibid. and Research Professor at Harvard University. He has taught 25 Ibid. Chinese intellectual history at Princeton University (1967-71) 26 Ibid. and University of California at Berkeley (1971-81). He has 27 Ibid. been on the Harvard faculty since 1981, and was Director of 28 Ibid. the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, 29 Huston Smith, The World’s Religions. San Francisco: Director of the Harvard-Yenching Institute from 1996 to 2008. HarperSanFrancisco, 1991, p. 182. 30 Ibid. 31 Ibid., pp. 186-187. Professor Tu Wei-ming is the primary proponent of the “Third 32 See Thomas Berry, The Dream of the Earth. San Francisco: Sierra Epoch of Confucian Humanism”. He is the author of numerous Club Books, 1990 and Brian Swimme, The Universe Story. From the publications in Chinese and English, including: Neo-Confucian Primordial Flaring Forth to the Ecozoic Era - A Celebration of the Thought in Action: Wang Yang-ming’s Youth; Centrality and Unfolding of the Cosmos. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1994. Commonality, An Essay on Confucian Religiousness; Humanity 33 Quoted in Mary Evelyn Tucker, “The Emerging Alliance of Religion and Ecology,” in Steven L. Chase, ed., Doors of Understanding: and Self-Cultivation; Confucian Thought: Selfhood as Creative Conversations on Global Spirituality in Honor of Ewert Cousins. Transformation; Way, Learning, and Politics: Essays on the Quincy, Ɋ.: Franciscan Press, 1997, p.111. Confucian Intellectual. 34 Wing-tsit Chan, trans., A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy, p. 3. was published in Chinese in 2001. 35 The Book of Change, 36 Mencius, VIIA:1. See D. C. Lau, trans., Mencius. Harmondsworth, 37 Tu Wei-ming, “Global Community as Lived Reality: Exploring Social Resources for Development,” in Social Policy & Social Progress, Special Issue on the Social Summit, Copenhagen, March 6-12, 1995. New York: United Nations, 1996, pp. 47-48. 38 The case of Qu Geping merits special attention. Since the Stockholm Conference on the Environment in 1972, he has been instrumental in developing an infrastructure within the governmental system for dealing with environmental protection in China. As chairman of the Environmental Protection and Resource Conservation Committee of

9 Comparative Studies of China and the West Vol. 1 2013

Confucianism & Constructive Postmodernism

By Tang Yijie Peking University

I. What Kind of Age Are We in Now? With the growth of industrialization, a “free market economy” has promoted the huge increase of human From a world perspective, our current age wealth, and people have won great material benefit can possibly be seen as the transition from modern from it. But there is no denying that it has also caused capitalist society beginning with the first, 18 th -century, serious polarization between rich and poor (including Enlightenment toward a postmodern society of a “second tensions country-to-country, ethnic group-to-ethnic enlightenment.” From a China perspective, our age will group, and class-to-class within a country). If the “free be seen as a crucial moment for realizing great national market economy” continues to grow like a rapacious revival in the context of globalization. All in all, for monster, without effective supervision, control or human society, this age represents a precious opportunity restraint, sooner or later it will cause economic crisis and to enter a totally new era. social disturbance. The global financial crisis that first appeared in the USA in 2008 was still ongoing when the Since the 18 th -century Age of Enlightenment, debt crisis began to sweep Europe in 2011. According to Western capitalism has a history of almost 300 years, Professor Paul Kennedy of Yale University, liberalism during which period the Western world achieved freed people from the shackles of the pre-market- dazzling “modernization.” But now, “modernized economy age, but it has also put people in danger of society” is suffering from more and more intractable 1 problems. Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) proposed that reason should be the watchword of the Enlightenment, Another Enlightenment watchword, “liberation of but these days “reason” faces its own problems. the individual,” originally targeted religious superstition Originally, “reason” contained two related aspects: and vulgar ignorance, encouraging people to be fully “instrumental reason” and “value reason,” both aspects aware of their own strength so as to fully deploy their with an extremely important role in advancing human “free” creativity. Today, however, this notion has become an instrument for the domination of others, a tool that omnipotent” “instrumental reason” outshines humanistic imperialist countries in particular use to support their “value reason,” and the latter has become marginalized. own hegemony and impose their own value systems As a result, everything becomes an “instrument”: people on other countries and peoples, pushing a universalist become instruments for others and the natural world has doctrine. 2 The distorted development of today’s capitalist become an instrument to be used by human beings as society has resulted in people no longer in pursuit of “reason,” but indulging themselves in the lust for power and worship of money. Consequently, all groups The normal and harmonious relation between of people live in pain and mental conflict: ordinary man and nature has been severely harmed by man’s people struggle to survive harsh conditions; intellectuals unrestrained exploitation, destruction and waste of experience constant guilt because of their inability natural resources. In turn, man’s own survival is to end social chaos, their inability to win people’s threatened by deteriorating natural conditions such as trust. Politicians exist in a state of self-deception; depletion of the ozone layer, poisoned oceans, polluted entrepreneurs wrestle to figure their way around environment and unbalanced eco-environment. Although mutually contradictory rules and systems. Regardless of the Kyoto Protocol for limiting air pollution was signed rank or identity it seems that the happy life to which all in Kyoto, Japan, as early as in December 1997, certain aspire is out of reach and happiness eludes all. But this developed countries in the capitalist world set various is not a problem caused by any individual: rather, it is an obstacles on its path. One example is Canada’s recent unavoidable pain for a society in the throes of a major announcement of its intention to withdraw from the transitional period. Therefore, it is incumbent on each Protocol. This illustrates that the “reason” advocated by and every one of us to work hard for the coming of a the Enlightenment is being changed by some Western new age. leaders into a “non-rational” and utilitarian “tool.”

10 Tang Yijie Confucianism & Constructive Postmodernism II. The Rise of Two Trends of Thought in “to care about others” and “to respect differences” (in China in the 1990s a postmodern society). In their opinion, when people use their personal “freedom” in ways that diminish In the 1990s, there emerged in China’s ideological the community, they are bound to weaken their own and cultural circles two ideological trends opposing the “freedom.” Therefore, it is necessary to reject an concept of “monism.” One trend is “postmodernism,” an abstract concept of freedom in favor of a profound idea originating in the West and aiming to deconstruct and responsible freedom by bringing in the notions “modernity.” In the early 1980s, “postmodernism” had of responsibility and duty and by revealing the inner already come to China, but it made little impact at the relation between freedom and duty. In the West, time: by the 1990s however, Chinese scholars were constructive postmodernism is a tiny branch stream with suddenly showing it great interest. Another trend is very little influence, but in China it has attracted the the “ Guoxue tide”—the ardent pursuit of revitalizing attention of a group of scholars who are passionate for traditional Chinese culture. In truth, in the 1980s, national revival. China’s thinkers had advocated greater emphasis on traditional Chinese culture, but it did not coalesce into a Karl Theodor Jaspers wrote in The Origin and surge tide until in the 1990s when Guoxue rose quietly Goal of History : in Peking University. What does the rise of these two Until today mankind has lived by what happened during the Axial Period, by what was thought and created In the 1960s, to save human society and cancel out modernity’s concomitant negative impact, the since then it has been the case that recollections and re- its early period, postmodernism was “deconstructive awakenings of the potentialities of the Axial Period— postmodernism,” posited as a way of dealing with renaissances—afford a spiritual impetus. Return to this problems produced in the course modern society’s beginning is the ever-recurrent event in China, India and development. The aim was to deconstruct modernity, the West. 4 to oppose monism and advocate pluralism, to shatter all authority and to cast the “authoritativeness” and In the West, constructive postmodernism is a tiny “dominant nature” of modernity into the shade. But, postmodernism of the deconstructive kind produced has attracted the attention of a group of scholars who neither positive standpoints, nor any designs for a new are passionate for national revival. This is exemplified age. in the “ Guoxue tide” in the late 1990s, when China was experiencing a process of national rejuvenation, and At the turn of the 21st century, “constructive for this the support of a revitalized national culture was postmodernism,” a concept based on process philosophy, essential. proposed integrating the positive elements of the first Enlightenment with postmodernism and thus called for a In my opinion, it is precisely because traditional “second enlightenment.” Chinese culture ( Guoxue ) has had over a century of impact from Western culture that Chinese scholars have For instance, according to Alfred North had the chance for reflecting on our own traditional Whitehead’s process philosophy, “man” should not culture. We have gradually come to realize what of be taken as the center of everything. Rather, “Man our culture should be promoted, what abandoned and and nature should be regarded as a closely related what absorbed. For over one hundred years, Chinese living community.” 3 According to John B. Cobb, a scholars have been trying to absorb and digest “Western major founder of process philosophy, Constructive learning,” and this most certainly laid the foundation for postmodernism takes a critical attitude towards the transformation of Guoxue in the traditional sense to deconstructive postmodernism…we have introduced its modern counterpart. The new or modern Guoxue must ecologicalism into postmodernism. In a postmodern be a spiritually significant power for China’s revival age, man and man will co-exist harmoniously, as will as well as for the “peace and development” of human man and nature. It is an age which will retain something society. It will help China to realize “modernization” in positive of modernity while transcending dualism, an all-round way, and also to avoid the predicament that anthropocentrism and male chauvinism, an age that aims Western society currently experiences. to build a postmodern society for the common good. In other words, the new Guoxue should stick to According to process philosophy, if the rallying the principle of Fanben Kaixin . Only through Fanben cry of the first Enlightenment was “to free the self,” (return to the source) are we able to Kaixin (open up new then the second enlightenment’s watchword should be territory). Fanben requires of us a deep understanding

11 Comparative Studies of China and the West Vol. 1 2013

of Guoxue ’s essence and insists on the mainstay nature of our own culture, whereas Kaixin requires of us a no getting away from the fact that the long prevalence of systematic understanding of the new problems facing the “man-nature dichotomy” mindset made nature a vic- China and human society, problems in need of urgent tim. 5 Fortunately, the “unity of Man and Heaven” way resolution. The two aspects are inseparable: only by of thinking offers us a feasible way towards tackling the digging deeper into the true essence of Guoxue can we destruction of the natural world. open up new territory at the appropriate time. Only by squarely addressing the problems of human society can As early as 2,500 years ago, Confucius was exhort- we better promote and update the essence of Guoxue , so ing people to both “know heaven” and “fear heaven.” Guoxue will once The first admonition requires us to learn more about more be ignited by the Fanben Kaixin principle and nature and thus consciously use it to improve the welfare contribute to human society. of human beings. The second requires us to hold nature What are the prospects of these two trends of Zhu Xi, another great thinker of ancient China, “Heaven is inseparable from man and man from heaven.” What he is telling us is that, after heaven gives birth to man, man answer these questions, we must fully investigate the and heaven have formed an inseparable relation, one that possibility of integrating the two. requires man to embody the laws of heaven and to be responsible for it. III. In the New Historical Period of Chinese Revival and in the Context of Globalization, As we have seen, in dealing with the relation be- Traditional Chinese Culture May Well Make tween man and nature, traditional Chinese philosophy an Epochal Contribution to Human Society. takes a road similar to that of constructive postmodern- ism. As Léon Vandermeersch put it, “Western humanism China is in the process of national revival, and this that brought the world such a perfect thought as the con- must have the support of revitalized national culture. cept of human rights now faces many challenges from However, in this globalized age, the revitalization of our modern society that as yet it has been unable to answer. traditional culture requires us not only to address our Why, then, not give some consideration as to whether own social problems but world problems also. It follows Confucian thinking might indicate a way forward for the that while developing our traditional culture we must world, for example: respect for nature as proposed in the keep in mind that it belongs to both China and the world ‘unity of man and heaven’ concept; and the philanthropic at large. It requires us not only to pay close attention to the actual development of our own culture but also bring to bear the essence of Confucian teaching on cur- to incipient tendencies in Western culture. Here the au- rent world problems, to examine them afresh from a new thor would like to offer a possible trend for discussion, perspective.” 6 namely: Could a combination of Guoxue and construc- ⽬ tive postmodernism—the former traditional Chinese Why does Vandermeersch put Western thought on learning and the latter of Western origin and still in the human rights together with the three concepts from Chi- bud—have something to offer to the healthy and rational rights are very important to us, because man should not be deprived of the right of freedom, and social progress i. “Man and Nature as a Closely Related can only be realized with “freedom of thought,” “freedom Living Community” and “Unity of Man and of speech,” “freedom of belief,” “freedom of move- Heaven” ment,” etc. However, the question of how to protect human rights is often subject to interference by external According to John B. Cobber, “Today we recog- forces, to removal even. This has been the case in China nize that man is a part of nature and that we live an eco- and overseas. Some Western thinkers and politicians logical community.” This idea, although coming directly widen the concept of human rights to the extent that from Whitehead, is very similar to a traditional Chinese there are no limits and that man can destroy nature at notion—the unity of Man and Heaven, Heaven implying will. Hence Vandermeersch asserts that there should be the laws of nature. As a core traditional Chinese value, some constraints on man’s rights over nature, and to do it is a mode of thinking that differs from the “man-nature dichotomy” idea that long prevailed in the West. the concept of their unity. In 1992, 1,575 famous scientists from around the According to Christian belief, God created the world signed and published a document named “World world in its complete form and man can do nothing Scientists’ Warning to Humanity.” Its first line read: further to it. However, in Vandermeersch’s opinion, “Human beings and the natural world are on a collision

12 Tang Yijie Confucianism & Constructive Postmodernism

once God created a complete world, the rest was man’s which all living communities get due attention and con- problem and for man to address. Just as André Gide, the cern” can be fully displayed. “Respect for differences” French writer, said, “God proposes and man disposes.” can be taken as a different way of expressing the Confu- The Confucian view that “all men are brothers” is linked cian proposition “the Ways move in parallel and do not to another traditional Chinese idea, namely “world out- interfere with each other.” look.” This considers that man’s loftiest ideal is “the world being One” (or the world is in Great Harmony). Different ideological and cultural traditions often As is written in The Great Learning , it is important to have different features. Fortunately, such differences cultivate one’s moral character, to take good care of can be meaningful to human society to some extent and 9 one’s family, to run the State well and thence make the are by no means necessarily at odds. For example, to whole world peaceful and harmonious. For any country allow that the concept of “democracy” proposed by the or nation, it is important to consider not just its own in- - terests, but “peace in the world” (i.e. common interests ditions, is not to deny traditional Chinese thinking such of mankind), which, in my opinion, should be an intrin- as Minben (people as the root) as also having positive sic meaning of “human rights.” In other words Western meaning in specific social conditions too. Nor do we thinking on human rights would do well to look into the deny the “universal value” of our traditional thoughts traditional thought and culture of other nations (such as such as “Do not do to others what you do not want done China) for valuable elements that could supplement and to yourself.” Only by acknowledging that every ideo- enrich its own approach, and thereby set human society logical and cultural tradition has its positive effect on on a more reasonable path. human society can different countries and nations co- exist and co-prosper. Absorbing and digesting the strong ii. Constructive Postmodernism, a Second points of different cultural systems as a means to achiev- Enlightenment and Confucian “Renxue” ing real comprehension of them is an essential path for (Learning of Goodness) the development of culture. Just as Bertrand Russell said, “Many times in the past has it been proved that ex- According to constructive postmodernism, if the changes between different civilizations made milestones 10 watchword of the first Enlightenment was “liberty of in the development of human civilizations.” We should the individual,” then those of the second should be “care remember that as human beings, we face common prob- about others” and “respect for differences.” 7 The former lems. We may adopt different ways to tackle those prob- can be described as ren (goodness), a core value of the lems but we often come to the same end via different Confucian school. The starting point and basis of ren is routes. Therefore, “respect others” and “the Ways move “love of family,” but according to Confucius we should in parallel and do not interfere with each other” have not only extend ren to family members but beyond the equivalent value to us. family too. Similarly, as taught by Mencius, an impor- tant successor of Confucius, “Apart from taking good iii. Defining “Human” and Examining “Hu- care of the elderly and children of one’s own kin, one man Rights” from the Standpoint of “Li” ⽬ — should extend concern for the elderly and children of a Traditional Chinese Concept other families.” He also asserted that love for family was a prerequisite for loving others, and loving others a pre- The human rights concept is a very important one requisite for loving all creatures. for modern society. But each ideological and cultural tradition should discuss deeply how to have the concept Mencius’ thought is also in line with the “care play a positive role in building a healthy and rational about others” line proposed by constructive postmodern- society. As written in Thinking Through Confucius , co- ism. According to constructive postmodernism scholars, authored by David Hall and Roger Ames, two well- their philosophy is to try to “construct a postmodern known American philosophers, world where all living communities get due attention and concern” on the basis of “retaining some positive “What we need to do is not only study Chinese factors of modernity” (mainly valuable concepts such as traditions but also to use them as a cultural resource to “freedom,” “democracy,” “human rights,” as proposed enrich and restructure our own. The Confucian school by Western thinkers on the basis of what they call “rea- defined ‘man’ from a societal perspective. Can we son”). 8 This can be regarded as a more comprehensive use it to modify and strengthen the Western mode of description of “care about others.” In the development of human society, culture always undergoes a process of society built on li (rites, courtesy, ceremony, etc.) to help accumulation, inheritance and creation. A postmodern society must retain the positive factors of modernity 11 such as “freedom,” “democracy,” “human rights,” before This paragraph discusses three issues: One, that

13 Comparative Studies of China and the West Vol. 1 2013 the West should not stop at studying China’s thinking older; a ruler is benevolent and his subjects are loyal.” and culture, but go on to apply those things so as to “enrich and restructure” its own; Two, the necessity of That is to say, according to the Confucian school, the moral relation between people should be a relation a societal perspective in traditional Chinese culture; of rights and corresponding obligations rather than one- Three, that China’s li contains elements that could well be valuable if brought into the Western concept of China’s li was created precisely in order to balance human rights. the rights and obligations of those social relations. Therefore, in my opinion, is it possible to call pre- In my opinion, the three issues raised by Hall and modern China a society under “rule of li Ames are for treating the condition of some of Western of course, is an ideal of the Confucian school. philosophical concepts being “insufficiently rooted.” It is precisely because of the great importance attached From this one could envisage, in establishing to man’s right of liberty in modern society (since the a “convention on human rights” also establishing a first Enlightenment) that human society has developed “convention on obligations” at the same time, so as to by leaps and bounds. The right of liberty is a great keep a balance between rights and obligations. This creative force. That said, the misuse of right of liberty would accord with what Hall and Ames believed a by an individual, a country or a nation can, in certain possible role for li : “enriching and restructuring” the circumstances, constitute a threat to, suppression or Western concept of human rights. One might envisage violation of the rights of other individuals, countries or a “convention of obligations” to protect and strengthen a “convention on human rights.” According to John B. Cobb, “Traditional Chinese ideology is very attractive it from the isolated angle of ‘the individual’” because to constructive postmodernism, but we should not just “humans” have to live and grow up in various relations return to it. Instead, our postmodernism should renew starting with the moment of birth. It is much like what itself by serious scientific means and by adjusting Karl Marx said in Theses on Feuerbach , “the essence of itself to the changing society. The pre-modern tradition man is no abstraction inherent in each single individual. should absorb the positive factors of the Enlightenment In reality, it is the ensemble of social relations.” 12 such as concern for and respect of individual rights before it can contribute something to the postmodern How then are we to handle the complex “social society.” 13 This paragraph has great significance for study of our ideology and culture. Traditional or pre- placed on li in dealing with these relations. Although modern Chinese culture needed to absorb rather than li was a conceptual thing, it did have a restricting exclude all valuable fruits achieved by modern society power on man’s behavior. As written in The Analects of since the Enlightenment, such as freedom, democracy, Confucius : “In practicing the rules of li, harmony is to human rights, concepts that embody “concern and be prized.” The most important role of li is to promote respect for individual rights.” In addition, we must work social harmony as a normalizing power over society. As hard to put into practice those positive concepts before written in the Book of Rites , “…rulers use li to protect we can successfully align traditional or pre-modern morality and laws to prevent people from committing Chinese culture with postmodernism and promote the crimes.” Rulers created li for preventing moral norms transformation from modern to postmodern society. being ruined and made laws for keeping social order. As written in “Explaining Government” by Jia Yi of It is good to note that some Chinese scholars have the Former Han Dynasty, “ Li is put into practice before had extensive contact and satisfactory cooperation with people do something wrong whereas law is executed Western scholars of constructive postmodernism. The after people do bad things. The role of law is visible representative figures of constructive postmodernism whereas the role of li is invisible and hard to perceive.” have also realized the value of traditional Chinese Another reason that li is greatly valued in our tradition culture to their research and are absorbing nutrition from is, as advocated by the Confucian school, the importance it. Similarly, some Chinese scholars have noticed the of reciprocal relationships among people. As written in the Books of Rites , helping human society out of predicament and are paying close attention to the development of this thought . If an organic synthesis between the widely influential “Guoxue tide” and constructive postmodernism can be achieved, then pioneered deeply in Chinese society brothers are kind to each other; a husband is responsible and developed further, China could perhaps proceed to wife and wife obedient to husband; the older children smoothly to completing the mission of its own “first are kind to younger siblings and the younger respect the enlightenment,” realize modernization, and then rather

14 Tang Yijie Confucianism & Constructive Postmodernism

rapidly enter a postmodern society marked by a “second August 2005. enlightenment.” If this does come to pass, the fruits 12 Complete Works of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels , Vol.3, p. 5. 13 achieved in China’s current cultural revival will be of For the Common Welfare: an Interview with John B. Cobb” (interviewed by Wang Xiaohua). Social Sciences Weekly . Shanghai, June 13, 2002. In this paper, the author explores the possibility of communication and integration of Western and Chinese About the author: cultures. Whether this possibility can become reality hinges mainly on how China’s Guoxue can adapt to Tang Yijie, IACSCW Honorary advisor, is professor at Peking healthy social development and whether constructive University and director of the Institute of Chinese Philosophy postmodernism, currently a minor branch of thinking in the West, can become more mainstream and win and Culture. He is the chief editor of the ongoing national widespread acceptance. The author stresses that this project, the “Complete Works of Confucianism”. He gradu- paper is simply a theoretical foray—a try-out—and ated from the Department of Philosophy of Peking University would welcome any comments. in 1951 and received an honorary doctorate from McMaster University of Canada in 1990. As an expert of Confucian- ism, Taoism and metaphysics of the Wei and Jin Dynasties, he played a leading role in a number of national and international 1 Paul Kennedy, “The Form of Capitalism Will Change to Some academic institutions, and has been a guest professor at several Extent.” Reference News ( Cankaoxiaoxi ), March 16, 2009. 2 “Universalism: Some Western scholars and politicians believe that universities in China and abroad. He is the author of a remark- only the values preached by Western empires have “universal value” able number of works on Chinese philosophy and culture. His and that the ideas and cultures of all other nations have no “universal recent academic interest extends to economic globalization, value” to present-day human society except as museum exhibits. cultural diversity, global ethic and related cultural issues. Therefore, we must distinguish the issue of “universalism” from that of “universal value.” On this, please refer to the “General Preface” written by Tang Yijie for Zhongguo Ruxue Shi . Beijing: Peking University Press, 2011. 3 According to the paper “Whitehead’s Process Philosophy,” “Process philosophy takes environment, resources and human beings as a closely related living community.” Social Sciences Weekly , Shanghai, August 15, 2002. Even the Stoics of Ancient Greece believed “man is part of nature.” (Translator’s back translation due to lack of the original German Edition of Annotated Poems of Mao Ze- English version of the relevant quotation) 4 dong (H.-C.Günther & Gu Zhengkun ) Has Just Karl Theodor Jaspers, The Origin and Goal of History . trans. by Wei Been Published in Germany Chuxiong, et al. Beijing: Huaxia Publishing House, June 1999, p. 14. 5 Bertrand Russell, A History of Western Philosophy . trans. by Ma Yuande, Beijing: The Commercial Press, August 1988. On page 91 of In time for the 120th anniversary of the birth of Chairman Mao Zedong a new translation of his po- completed or nearly completed the dualism of spirit and material that ems in German appeared (Bautz: Nordhausen 2013, began from Plato and was developed by Christian philosophy for Poetry, Music and Art, vol. 2). In cooperation with Gu religion related reason… According to Descartes’ system, the spiritual Zhengkun, H.-C. Günther, the German scholar, tried world and the material world are two parallel and independent worlds and the study of one may not involve the other.” to render Mao’s poems in a poetic way so that the 6 Léon Vandermeersch, “The Significance of Ruzang (Confucian reader might appreciate the poetic quality of the work Collection) in the World.” Guangming Daily , August 31, 2009. in another language. Günther has a wide experience 7 Wang Zhihe, “Postmodernism Calls for a Second Enlightenment,” in verse translation from various languages. The text World Culture Forum . February, 2007. is based on the most recent English version by Gu 8 “For the Common Welfare: an Interview with John B. Cobb” Zhengkun. Beside a preface by the translator it also (interviewed by Wang Xiaohua), Social Sciences Weekly . Shanghai, June 13, 2002. contains Gu Zhengkun’s long introduction to Mao’s 9 According to the section “Supreme Harmony” of Correcting poetry in German translation. The extensive commen- Ignorance by Zhang Zai, “Everything has its opposite and the opposite tary too enlarges on the detailed commentary by Prof. must move against the thing. When the opposite moves against the Gu. Thus the book provides by far the most complete and most amply commented version of Mao’s poems end must be harmony. ” 10 available today in any foreign language. “Comparison between Chinese and Western Cultures,” in Bertrand Russell’s A Free Man’s Worship . Beijing: Time Literature and Art Press, April 1988. The Chinese translation is slightly changed. 11 Thinking Through Confucius . Beijing: Peking University Press,

15 Comparative Studies of China and the West Vol. 1 2013

A Comparative Study of Chinese and Western Values and Their Origins: Family – Nation – World By Gu Zhengkun Prof. & Dean of Institute of World Literature, Peking University

Abstract: This paper maintains that all cultures are legitimate, yet at certain levels, different cultures have corresponding degrees of superiority or inferiority. There are therefore at least eleven criteria to judge whether a culture is superior or not. The paper further maintains that, arising in direct response to their different geographic HQYLURQPHQWVWKHGLIIHUHQWVRFLDOVWUXFWXUHVLQ&KLQDDQGWKH:HVWKDYHDÀHVKDQGEORRGFRUUHVSRQGHQFHZLWK&KLQHVH and Western cultural structures. The author discovers through his studies that the family-like social structure is one of the key factors to explain the traditional Chinese culture, while the interest-group social structure is another key factor to explain the traditional dominant Western culture. The family-like social structure, according to the author, is relatively more acceptable compared with other social structures. The paper tries to prove the point by 1) comparing Chinese and Western values such as obligations and freedom; 2) comparing Chinese and Western political and economic despotism and 3) comparing family-nation vs. state-nation and examination vs. democracy. The paper ends up concluding that human culture’s highest pursuit is to awaken mankind to realize that we all human beings, as modern genetic research has increasingly convinced us, are actually members of one family. That being the case, the use of the family-oriented values in constructing the future world is inevitably a better choice.

Keywords: family-like society; interest- group society;values;worldism

1.Cultures: Superiority or Inferiority? as regard to apparatus, it is also quite obvious that the technology of electronic computer far excels that of the All cultures are legitimate, yet at certain levels, ancient abacus. different cultures have different advantages and disadvantages that relatively indicate corresponding 2.The Criteria to Judge Whether a Culture degrees of superiority or inferiority. Culture mainly Is Advanced or Not consists of its value, lifestyle, language and writing system, religion, art, political system, knowledge, and technology, etc. But the core of a culture lies in It should be noted that I choose the terms “advanced” its values, especially the moral values. Some scholars to mean relatively superior, and “backward” to mean have argued that there is not much difference between relatively inferior. “Backward” here does not mean bad culture and civilization, yet most scholars tend to believe or something completely negative. The second place that they are different. Although it is a complicated job winner is “backward” compared with the champion, but to define the differences, the main distinction, as the the second place is not so bad. There are many criteria to majority of scholars would believe, is this: the concept judge whether a culture is advanced or not. Here, eleven of culture is more often used to refer to the spiritual points are listed, emphasizing the spiritual aspects. The achievements, while the concept of civilization the material aspects belong to the category of civilization. material achievements of human beings. The criteria to judge whether a civilization is advanced can also be listed, but is omitted here. The eleven criteria All cultures are legitimate and should be respected. are: But the same kind of legitimacy does not mean the same degree of excellence. Some aspects of a culture can never 1) to see whether a culture can cultivate and edify be judged superior or inferior. For example, as far as the quality of kindness in its people. A culture which people’s aesthetic interest is concerned, it is hard to tell makes its people tricky (in terms of calculation), mean whether the taste for the painting of Leonardo da Vinci and bellicose is not a good culture; while a culture which or for that of Qi Baishi is artistically better. But relatively renders its people righteous, honest, serene and modest speaking, many other aspects of a culture or a culture as is surely a good culture. The indicators may include the a whole can be judged superior or inferior. For example, crime rate and the number of prisoners. The higher the as regards value, it is quite evident that the advocacy crime rate is, the lower the quality of the culture is, and it for a spirit of altruism is superior to that of egoism. Or, is more backward. The lower the crime rate is, the higher

16 Gu Zhengkun A Comparative Study of Chinese and Western Values and Their Origins

the quality of the culture is, and it is more advanced. A is backward while the latter is advanced. culture may suffer high crime rate either because its law enforcement organization is too harsh and inhumane, 11) to see whether the science and technology of a or its public are self-seeking, showing too strong a culture contributes to the peaceful development or lead disposition to committing crimes. Both conclusions to the confrontation of human society. The former is suggest that the culture is relatively low in quality. advanced while the latter is backward.

2) to see whether a culture attaches importance to 3.The Correspondence between Geographic man of great craft or man of great virtue. The backward Environment and Social Structure: China culture merely attaches importance to men of great craft and West but neglects men of great virtue; while the advanced culture attaches importance to both. As long as the earth furnishes the basic conditions for life, subsistence and culture, coming together in part HQYLURQPHQWVWKHGLIIHUHQWVRFLDOVWUXFWXUHVLQ&KLQDDQGWKH:HVWKDYHDÀHVKDQGEORRGFRUUHVSRQGHQFHZLWK&KLQHVH 3)to see whether a culture stresses justice or or in entirety, these conditions will interact with and benefit. The culture which merely stresses benefit but influence each other. They will regulate, adapt to, and overlooks justice is backward; while the culture which reorganize each other, promoting the phenomenon of evolution. Thus, culture and civilization are produced and developed. As regards the driving force for cultural 4) to see the complexity of the laws of a culture. development, I have summarized nine factors, which are The culture is backward when its law system is omitted in this article. Here, I only want to introduce one excessively complex and pays too much attention to of them: the factor of geographic environment. benefit; the culture with a law system of moderate complexity is just fine; while the culture whose law It is an old viewpoint that the geographic system is simple and pays enough attention to virtues is environment exerts influence upon the culture of man. advanced. Since the explanations of this view are extremely complicated, here I will not cite them point by point. I 5) to see whether the martial spirit of a culture is will only mention my new insights into the matter. strong and whether the corresponding military industry is highly developed. The culture with strong martial To merely emphasize that geographic environments spirit is backward, while the culture with weak martial spirit is advanced. The culture which worships military is to decide how geographic environments influence force is backward, while the culture which esteems civil human culture in specific conditions. First, among the cultivation is advanced. many factors of geographic environments, I see three of them — terrain, climate, and natural resources — 6) to see whether a culture emphasizes freedom as the primordial factors which are most essential for or obligation to others. The culture which emphasizes the development of human culture. Second, according freedom but ignores obligation is backward; while the to my research, the influence of environments can be culture which emphasizes obligation as well as freedom classified into two categories: vertical and horizontal. is advanced. Generally speaking, human culture as a whole is more 7) to see whether a culture emphasizes egoism horizontal because it exerts strong impact in certain or altruism. The former is backward while the latter phases of historical development. But viewed from the advanced. A culture that encourages people to be strict overall or vertical phases of historical development, with themselves is more acceptable than a culture that the influence is gradually decreasing. That is to say, encourages people to be strict with others. The former is relatively advanced while the latter is backward. development of time. The earlier the time is traced back toward antiquity, the stronger the influence of 8) to see whether a culture prefers peace or war. environments is found. The later the time comes toward The former is advanced while the latter is backward. modern and contemporary periods, the weaker the influence of environments is found. Of course, the 9) to see whether a culture emphasizes benevolence ever-decreasing influence of the environment does not or truthfulness. The culture which emphasizes both mean it will totally disappear eventually. Rather, it just benevolence and truthfulness is advanced, while the means the degree of the influence is decreasing with culture which emphasizes truthfulness to the detriment a general tendency. Third, more specifically speaking, of benevolence is backward. in the representative birthplaces of both Chinese and Western cultures (like the Central China area, cradle 10) to see whether a culture emphasizes the force of traditional Chinese culture and the Mediterranean of great mobs or the authority of great sages. The former area, cradle of ancient Greco-Roman culture), different

17 Comparative Studies of China and the West Vol. 1 2013 geographic environments have brought about different also, among all the social structures of human beings, the social structures and cultural styles. The terrain, climate, family-like social structure is the greatest and most ideal. and natural resource in Central China area inevitably encourage and promote the agricultural mode of primitive society as communist society is that it is almost production and the family-like social structure. And the unexceptionally structured in the way of a family. terrain, climate, and natural resources in Greco-Roman culture — the representative ancestor of modern Western 5.The Family-Like Social Structure: the cultures — have unavoidably encouraged and promoted Most Crucial Factor to Explain Whether a the commercial mode of production and the related social Culture Is Advanced or Backward structure of interest-groups (military groups, economic groups and political groups.) Of all human relations, kinship is the most intimate. Therefore, in the kinship-based family, there is the most 4.The Family-Like Social Structure: the reasonable and natural human relation. Although there Greatest and Most Ideal Social Structure for are also unavoidable conflicts for benefit, the intimacy, Human Beings the love and the devotion between family members are undoubtedly unrivaled by any other human relation. Arising in direct response to their different Therefore, the values generated within a family are the geographic environments, the different social structures most natural, reasonable, moral, virtuous and also most ideal. A logical inference is that the family-like social with Chinese and Western cultural structures. Therefore, the family-like social structure is one of the key factors system. Therefore, we can say that the value system to explain the traditional mainstream Chinese culture, derived from the family-like social structure is the most and the interest-group (military-group) social structure ideal value system, and it is the highest pursuit and is also one of the key factors to explain the traditional ultimate destination of human kind. Such an ideal is dominant western culture. In other words, the family-like more commonly put as “a world family” or “as intimate social structure in China has a complex and pervasive as a family”. connection with traditional Chinese philosophy, politics, economics, ethics, aesthetics, law, architecture, medicine, Righteousness and justice can also be achieved to sport, etiquette, and even military affairs. For instance, some degree in other kind of human relation. But it is the doctrines of Confucianism and Daoism are the only in the family-like social structure that the maximum necessary outcome of the family-like social structure degree of righteousness and justice could be obtained, in China. This holds true even for some doctrines that because in light of morality and obligation, every entered China from outside, like Buddhism (especially member in the family-like society should recognize the Mahayana branch). The reason why it is widely other members as his relatives or his family members. accepted in traditional Chinese society is that its doctrines In normal cases, the distribution of benefits among profoundly conform to the family-like social structure relatives or family members is fair. Moreover, the highest and the cultural structure of China. Likewise, the interest- authority within a family structure is always held by group social structure in the West also has a complex and the parents, the oldest, or the most prestigious. In most pervasive connection with Western philosophy, politics, cases, compared with other members in the family or the economics, ethics, aesthetics, law, architecture, medicine, members in other social structure, they show a greater sport, etiquette, and even military affairs. For instance, degree of impartiality in dividing property, distributing the doctrine of rationalism and the admiration for science power, or mediating conflict between family or clan and technology are the necessary choice of the Western members. interest-group social structure. This holds true even for some foreign doctrines, like Christianity, which has its It should be noted that with the sophistication origin in the Middle East. The reason why it is widely of social situations, when the rights and benefits are accepted in traditional Western society is also that its being distributed within the ever-expanding family-like interest-group social structure and the cultural structure However, as long as the members acknowledge of the West. themselves to belong to the same big family, the advanced values originated from family relationship can There is also another viewpoint on which I radically be spread and further developed in the society. It is only differ from other scholars. Although many scholars have within the family-like social structure that there is the discussed to varying degrees about the matter of the highest possibility to appear such results as harmony, family-like social structure in China, they often see it as obedience, rapprochement, collaboration, loyalty, peace, a backward social structure and criticize it negatively. I gentility, accommodation, auspiciousness, reconciliation, see quite the opposite. According to me, the traditional and moderation. family-like social structure in ancient China is an extremely great social structure in the ancient world. And The traditional Chinese society is a typical family- 18 Gu Zhengkun A Comparative Study of Chinese and Western Values and Their Origins

structured society, so it necessarily gives birth to the family members, such as parents, brothers and sisters, unparalleled value system which comprises such virtues naturally evolves or sublimates into the love between as benevolence, righteousness, politeness, wisdom, the members of the whole society. Thus, it is natural for honesty, mildness, kindness, humility, frugality, Confucius to appeals the social members to “love the moderation, loyalty, filial piety, incorruptibility, sense populace extensively and stick closely to the principle of of shamefulness, and courage. This value system is not benevolence”. solely established by Confucius. It is the crystallization of various strategies employed by the family-like society We now turn to the value system esteemed in of China when it is faced up with such problems as the interest-group social structure in the West. The dividing benefits, distributing power, and mediating Western world has been dominated by four most important moral values, or the four cardinal virtues like “Wisdom”(Prudence), “Courage (or Fortitude)”, On the contrary, the interest-group social structure “Temperance”, and “Justice”. The Christian Church in the Western world has its characteristics and later added “faith”, “hope”, and “charity”, expanding limitations. In a society controlled by different interest the system into “Seven Cardinal Virtues”. Taking any of groups and governed by the majority (democracy), these virtues alone, each of them is good. However, when justice is determined only by the strength of interest they are compared with the traditional values in China groups. The most powerful (militarily, politically and as is mentioned above, we have to admit that the values in China are better. For example, in the West, wisdom In the interest-group social structure, different interest and courage are always regarded as the most important groups will invariably stress their different interests, virtues, thus being prioritized; while in the Chinese culture, the most important values are benevolence and common solution is to acquire ruling status by means of justice. As is mentioned earlier, compared with wisdom war or election, and then make law to promote or at least and courage -- the most important moral standard in the West, the values of benevolence and love in China when the necessary cultural consequence when interests groups they are extended from family to the whole society are undoubtedly a better moral pursuit for human beings. Of course, the Western virtue of wisdom is also important, inevitable for such social structure to give birth to the but it is desirable only under the guideline of the good value system which attaches great emphasis to bravery, will. Besides, courage, without proper restriction, is intelligence, abstinence, righteousness, cautiousness, not desirable. In China, foolhardiness is even derided. freedom, democracy, self-reliance, and individualism. In the Daoist doctrine of China, the quality of bravery is dismissed. Laozi has alleged that those who are It should be admitted that when taken alone, the excessively rash and reckless always end up miserable. In two great value systems – of China and West-- are both his opinion, “courage, when extended over a reasonable reasonable and nice, because they are both the strategic degree, induces death” . Of course, the quality of courage values the two societies produce in response to their is not altogether excluded from the traditional values of concrete environments. However, if we compare them China. It is one of the five qualities in Confucianism, point by point, there is a difference between good and that is, loyalty, filial piety, incorruptibility, sense of bad. Above all, among all the value items, the two shamefulness, and courage. But courage is only desirable societies have different emphasis. In the Chinese family- when it is based on justice. It should be noted that unlike like society, benevolence (or love) is taken as the top the Westerners who put courage first or second among priority and all the other values are governed under it. the Four Cardinal Virtues, in Confucianism, courage is The original meaning of benevolence is: 1) a person and 2) the love. So benevolence means a person and values in the Christian Church — faith, hope and charity his love. Hence the proverbs like “The widespread — are good as well, but unfortunately they are by and love is benevolence” , “A benevolent man loves his large not fully emphasized. The “charity” is very similar fellow men” , and “Benevolence is in man”. Therefore, to Chinese “benevolence”, but it never seems to take “benevolence as a basis” is actually “people-oriented” the dominance in the Western world. There was even a and “love-based”. This is the real idea of Chinese period when the value of charity was criticized by some humanism. Benevolence, as the supreme guideline to conservative Western scholars and it shocks the Chinese govern a country is without doubt the most humanitarian mind to hear them say that alms-giving or charitable principle. It is undoubtedly the most reasonable and ideal conduct simply encourage laziness in society. principle no matter whether the rulers can thoroughly stick to it or not. It is precisely because the Chinese Likewise, in China, altruism is pervasively nation is structured like a big family that this principle can be accentuated in the political system of China. The comes second. When this kind of other-centered principle family is the miniature of the nation; while the nation is is compared with the self-centered individualism in the the expansion of the family. Therefore, the love between West, it is without doubt superior. Although, at some 19 Comparative Studies of China and the West Vol. 1 2013

early stages of China’s reform, in order to conform to And as Rousseau asserts that the reality in human life the opening-up policy and especially to establish the is confined by freedom. If freedom is only emphasized socialist market economy, some people in the academia without stating the relevant conditions, it becomes an of China have taken great pains to propagate the Western empty, meaningless and misleading slogan. By relevant conditions I mean certain aspects: For example, how can traditional Marxists. Their proposal is understandable a society protect its citizens under various circumstances, and acceptable, since it is strategic in that particular and how can it ensure the people’s well-being and period of time. However, if a conscientious intellectual provide the basic needs for their survival. If a person really takes the self-centered moral value as superior to constantly faces the risk of unemployment, the risk of illness without being able to afford the hospital; or if a Chinese people should degenerate into a baser species. person is of average intelligence but is deprived of all The traditional Chinese values advocate a world family, opportunities for a better education; or if a person with peace, and conciliation. According to the moral standard, a big family cannot afford an apartment to live in. So the strong should be restrained a little bit and the weak even though he or she has freedom to curse and swear in be helped a little bit; the aggression should be inhibited the streets, to criticize the authorities in the media, what and war opposed. On the contrary, in traditional Western values, competition is advocated; the principle of more important than freedom. Of course, some aspects of natural selection and survival of the fittest is profusely freedom in association with other values, such as many propagated; and bellicosity has become common. If we initiatives regarding human rights in modern Western compared the two systems of values, it goes without society, are worth learning from. saying that that the traditional Chinese culture at this level is relatively superior. Traditional Western values take freedom as an end in itself: an abstract individual sort of freedom, Thus, the traditional Chinese value system while Chinese traditional values emphasize more on — despite some elements in it that call for further obligations in one’s everyday life. Obligations and refinement and improvement in the new era — is freedom do not totally contradict each other, but it is up to now the world’s most advanced value system. very difficult to get them balanced in reality. In other Therefore, to some extent, we may conclude that as far words, man must take on duties and responsibilities, but as its general orientation is concerned, the moral and would rather prefer to indulge in carefree life without value system from the traditional Chinese society is any obligations. Rousseau’s proposition is too loose now the most ideal value pursuit and destination for all and we can simply understand that man is actually not mankind. As is mentioned above, the reason why Marx “born free”. In my opinion, even before people are born 0XWXDO,QÀXHQFH they are unable to choose their place and time of birth, that it is almost unexceptionally structured in the way and they are destined to be un-free. If he is born in an of a family. In such a social structure, members of a big family produce food together, manage the work together, chance of being lucky all his life, whereas if he is born and consume the goods together, without possessing in a poor and common family, it is likely that hunger and any personal property. The only drawback is that the misery will go with him all his life. In rural China, when communist society in the primitive stage, due to its low a child is born, he or she is almost destined to become a productivity, is unable to yield ample material wealth. farmer; only a small percentage of the rural population Reasoned in this way, when a society has the enough may be offered the opportunity not to become a peasant. capacity to produce ample material wealth and make the And a man born in America or the developing countries wealth circulate, mankind should reconsider returning to will obviously share different opportunities, better or family-like communism. That is also a social style of a worse, in his career. Thus, it is useless to talk about world family and universal prosperity. freedom without any specification. People are not born free; they are born without freedom, but are burdened 6. Case Study: Comparing Chinese and Western Values on Obligations and Freedom obligations to adjust themselves to the environment they are born into. They are born with necessary obligations The emphasis of Western value system gradually imposed by the environment and they must carry out came to the concept of freedom. Almost everyone in them in their life. For instance, they have to support their the West is familiar with Rousseau’s dramatic line: parents, obey the elders, care for the young and the old, “Human beings are born free, but everywhere they are in chains.” After Rousseau put forward this concept in and they must become so self-reliant as to be able to his renowned The Social Contract , thousands of scholars contribute to their own brothers and sisters’ livelihoods, cited it without proper analysis. Freedom in today’s world has almost become a sacred creed. The pursuit the essential obligations to be their ubiquitous shackles of freedom itself as an ideal is of course a good thing. and always want to indulge in a carefree lifestyle without However, people tend to forget that ideal is just an ideal. any responsibilities. In fact, they think of freedom as 20 Gu Zhengkun A Comparative Study of Chinese and Western Values and Their Origins

an escape from one’s obligations for the world. True, farming society emphasized on the necessity of the freedom is a kind of enjoyment, but it is conditional, and equal-field system. As a result, the superficial political conditions are always limitations. It is – I would rather despotism, instead, often contributed to the relative say --- the very limitations that give the true meaning to democratization in the distribution of economic wealth. freedom. Only when we understand this point, can we Thus a very peculiar pattern emerges: China and the West understand why the ancient Chinese had a set of rituals developed dual political and economic yoke structures to regulate their behavior. Each individual’s obligations of autocracy and democracy. The symbiosis of autocracy and duties were systematically regulated. All this sort of and democracy is reversed in China and the West, yet things are carefully prescribed in the Chinese li ( rites , in both cases autocracy and democracy complement or the norms of social conduct). People’s exercise of freedom can be carried out only in accordance with the protection, and co-existence. regulations set up in li ; it is under such a condition that In the contemporary Western political field, Western literary works, poetry in particular, singing the though there are still powers of interest groups (such praises of shaking off the yoke of freedom, are very as power of political parties) that have hereditary much like a naughty and perverted child who desperately tendencies, the personal power is now basically non- tries to obtain everything they like such as toys and hereditary because political campaigns break the food. Yet, only modest obligations and modest freedom likelihood of the hereditary form. However, in the are desirable; indulgence in freedom will harm others contemporary Western economic field, the individual and lead to one’s self-destruction. Even the beasts and economic autocracy and sanctity of private property are birds of the jungle know that they have to care for their still strengthened. The protection of private property combined with unrestricted free economic competition from going to extremes, for extremes are dangerous. If a has led to an economy controlled by a few very natural, society over-emphasizes the obligations, it will become despotic bosses (such as those who can hire and fire too rigid and harsh—intentionally or unintentionally— anybody anytime at will). And thus every employee feels the basic human rights will be deprived of in one way increasingly insecure about the way the world is heading. or another. This is where we should stop to ponder and something we should take into consideration. Therefore, which is the more important issue to be dealt with: the economic monopoly or the freedom of 7.Chinese and Western Political and Economic Despotism: Coaxial Reverse critical problem to be tackled. However, people tend to 0XWXDO,QÀXHQFH ignore the existing economic monopoly, and instead only think of the freedom of economic competition. In other Democratic tendencies in the construction words, the freedom of economic competition covers up of Western political power systems, whether in the a key problem: the economic monopoly. During the last past or at present, are undeniable; yet people tend to three decades, when Chinese scholars who specialized overlook a key problem, that is, the tendency of political in the study of economics frequently talked about the democratization has not brought the same degree of advantages of Western economic liberalism, they hardly democratization in the possession of economic wealth; mentioned the despotic nature of Western property on the contrary, the emphasis on the sanctity of private ownership behind the veil of economic liberalism. The property, strengthens individual economic dictatorship in so-called free economic competition does not mean the distribution and possession of economic wealth. This real freedom. To give an allusion: It is like ordering has stirred Western society into a very peculiar situation: within the framework of democracy is now embedded winner is to survive, the loser dies. This is called survival an economic dictatorship. The symbiosis of dictatorship of the fittest, and it seems very fair and free in nature. and democracy is a yoke structure of complementariness, However, people easily overlook the fact that Spartacus is considered to be a slave and is forced to risk killing and co-existence. The superficial political democracy his opponent is itself a great injustice. Letting a man ensures economic despotism rising to a critical value. fight against a beast is cruel and unjust. Likewise, we The democratic nature of economic competition is a have the rich and the poor compete with one another cover-up for the tyranny of economic property. on the fighting ground of economic competition. It seems to be a fair match, but from the very start it is Likewise, in traditional China and even modern very unequal because the key problem is that how much China, we just see the opposite of the problem. For start-up capital the poor can afford to participate in thousands of years, the Chinese government has that competition. And this is the well-cooked theory of authoritarian tendencies on the surface, but this tendency free competition that the Western scholars born out of of political despotism did not bring about the same a privileged and rich class have thought up for us, an degree of economic monopoly in the possession of economic wealth. On the contrary, the family-like form that justifies the great injustices at the root of all 21 Comparative Studies of China and the West Vol. 1 2013 the fighting. Though there indeed are some individual equality in turn makes people prone to a mentality of economic geniuses who succeed in winning a very large self-righteousness. And this self-righteous attitude under certain conditions will weaken the cohesive force of the government, and make the government utterly lack not the norm. In this kind of economic competition, most cohesion in times of peace. members of the society stand a slim chance of wining Second, in times of crisis, will show the same competition. high degree of national unity like a big family does. And this will result in a strong nationalism. To prevent 8. Comparison and Contrast: Family- such a messy situation, this form of government needs Nation vs. State-Nation; Examination vs. to strengthen its cohesion, to become stronger and Democracy legitimate. Moreover, since the government subordinates to the family characteristics, in order to prevent an over- While I take notice of the fact that the dominating concentration of feudal power, the society must self- mode of the farming culture of China inevitably restrains regulate itself by the strong moral ethics among its commerce and emphasizes agriculture, and sets great family members (the people). Hence the idea that “since store by peaceful values – living and working in peace the people are the foundation of the nation, if the people and contentment – I also take notice of the fact that the live and work in peace and contentment, the nation will dominating mode of the trade and business culture in the West inevitably suppresses agriculture and emphasizes of intellectuals. This is in accord with Mencius’ idea of commerce, and puts an emphasis on aggressive values, government for the people ( ≁ ᵜ minben ). The idea of advocating military forces and plundering others. In an government for the people in this respect is a Chinese- agricultural-based society, living and working in peace style democracy. It is not organized and implemented by and contentment, will inevitably develop small families competitive elections but by relying on the higher degree into big families, big families into extended families, of virtues on the part of the ruling group. The persons of and then into the establishment of a country, and later the ruling group must go through a very strict imperial into ᇦ ഭ , family-nation, which will inevitably have examination to test the capabilities as well as the moral ᑞ its corresponding political systems and governments. quality of all the candidates. Every citizen of the country Similarly, regular mobility and commercial risk will has the right to take part in the fair examination. Only inevitably lead to the disintegration of the primitive those who are both morally intelligently perfect can ≁ ѫ family-tribes, and then it will be replaced by interest enjoy the power at the imperial court. One may call this factions, and at last will foster bigger interest factions, Chinese-style democracy “a government mainly ruled by ≁ and leads to the formation of a country, the 䛖 ഭ virtue” ( ᗧѫ᭯փ dezhu zhengti ). ѫ ˄bangguo˅, nation-state, which will inevitably have its ≁ ѫ corresponding political systems and governments. The traditional political system in the West is a nation-state system armed with religion (God) and laws. The family-nation political system embodies the It is quite different from the traditional Chinese political values of clans or tribes. This form of government is system based on family values. The political system ≁ incompatible with the Western government based on of the nation state is the embodiment of the values put ѫ political party system. Confucius once said: “Gentlemen forward by its various interest groups. In this form of unite the masses without forming a clique (Party) to government, different interest groups reconcile with one pursue selfish interests” , hinting that villains form a another to govern the nation. As time goes on, the values clique to pursue selfish interests without uniting the of individualism (individual-orientedness) will gradually form a set of rules and regulations, guiding and protecting ≁ѫ political system in ancient China. the interests of the individuals, this is called the “law”. Hence the traditional Western political system can also In a large family, members will be nurtured by the be called nation-state that rules by law. The individual- values of Ren ( ӱ benevolence) and Ai ( ⡡ love) as the oriented values under different circumstances will show guiding principles of behavior. As time goes on, their different characteristics: in the nation state system, large behavior gradually evolves into a set of ethics and rituals family structures have long been disintegrated. The sense known as the rites. Thus the traditional political system of family has been weakened, and the members of the 䘋༛ in China is a family-nation system guided by ethics society no longer possess a strong sense of belonging and rites. The family-oriented values under different to family. Thus, each member now emphasizes his or circumstances will show two characteristics: First, since her autonomy and independency. When this goes to the every member of the society will universally identify themselves with one family and they share ancient selfish attitude will again rationalize the competition genetic relationships, under the government of family- among the different people. And at last, it becomes nation system guided by ethnics and rites, naturally, they legalized. Legalization requires a sound set of regulations will have a strong sense of equality. Too much sense of to ensure the fairness in competition. Thus, the nation 22 Gu Zhengkun A Comparative Study of Chinese and Western Values and Their Origins

state is forced to govern by law, rather than by virtue. was the realization of the Confucian value that “The one Meanwhile, the universal competition, in particular the who is both morally and intelligently superior should be commercial competition, builds up intense interpersonal relation between individuals in the society. The loss of family-oriented values that all members of the society are 9.Human Culture’s Highest Pursuit (the relatives leads the Westerners to invite the introduction Highest Form of Culture) and Realization of religion as a substitute for the loss of family-based ethics in order to relieve the tensions coming from the The famous British scholar, Arnold Toynbee had a idea of “brotherhood” is a religious technique to form legacy of the Chinese civilization. He predicted that an artificial bond among the members of any group in China would be the core to integrate all of the mankind the nation state’s society. To a certain extent, it regulates in the future. He once said: “the unity of the world is a interpersonal relationships. Therefore, it is an inevitable way to avoid human beings’ committing mass-suicide. choice for Westerners to appeal to Christianity. To a And now the nation that gets prepared well in this respect certain extent, individual-oriented values inevitably is China since it has cultivated its unique way of thinking form interest groups or factionalism, and encourage the for more than two thousand years.” Again he argued that: formation of various parties. The competition among “China has maintained a unity for almost two thousand individuals reflects the competition between different years and thus is qualified for the leader of the future groups and parties. This sort of competition will cause decentralization of power by contracts. Decentralization unifying the whole world in the future.” He thus further ≁ ᵜ by contract aims at protecting various interest groups alleges that “in the future it is China rather than European (including royal interests), while it also limits the royal countries that will possibly unify the world.” He also power. The conflict of interests within the government stated that we need not feel surprised that “Nobel prize plays a crucial role in bridging the interests among winners have suggested that if mankind is to survive it different nations. The ruling party is in fact not all of the must go back 25 centuries in time to tap the wisdom of people but just some people, or majority of the people at Confucius.” ᇦ ഭ the best, that is ᑞ (bang, a clique, a party, or parties and groups). The leader of a political party or group could be Toynbee’s viewpoint is undoubtedly very the leader, president of a government if the party comes important. And I would further note that the origin of the into power. The Chinese word ≁ ѫ (minzhu ), meant to be the translation for the English term “democracy”, is a of the Chinese civilization is actually closely related to mistranslation of the foreign term. Since in Chinese, ≁ the family-like social structure of the ancient Chinese. 䛖 ഭ ᗧѫ᭯փ (min ) means all of the people, ѫ means to rule or to be In accordance with what has been said earlier, a series ˄ ˅ the leader/master. ≁ ѫ thus means “the people are the of values born out of the social structure of the large ruler” or “ruling by all the people”; it does not correctly Chinese family are destined to play an important part in mean that the head of the majorities or a certain party pursuing the highest form of culture in the future. having won the election in the West is to be the ruler (president, for example). To rule by all of the people ( ≁ All humanity should be members of one family. ѫ ) in Chinese sounds very attractive, and few realize And modern genetic research has increasingly convinced that it is self-contradictory both in logic and Chinese us that human beings actually are members of one wording. The people are in no way to be a ruler. The genetic family. If all humanity should be members of ruler has to be just one single person or a small group of one family, the use of the family-oriented values in the people. The people or the majority of the people usually society are inevitable a good choice. Contemporary are the ruled. Thus the Chinese term ≁ѫ is as ridiculous Chinese should embrace the ancient Chinese notion of as saying that “the ruled is the ruler”. In contrast, the cosmopolitanism, the so-called worldism. The Chinese family-like government in ancient China had an emperor should combine the concept of the descendants of the from one family, but its officials in thousands were Yan and Huang Emperors, with the story of Adam and ӱ ⡡ mostly from common people through fair examinations; Eve, and human genes in the modern science to expand there even was a prime minister who had been a beggar the traditional Chinese view of the all the Chinese nation before he went through the imperial exam and turned being members of a family to the view of all human out a doctor ( 䘋༛ ). I am inclined to think this way of beings being members of a family. through strict examinations designed to test the moral At least for now, the world should replace the quality and wisdom of each candidate is superior to fractional culture of interest groups with the concept of Western democracy which as is known, is mainly carried tian xia yi jia , the world is a family. And going back to out by voting results coming from various interest parties the ancient family-like society and the family-oriented or groups. The Chinese Imperial Examination System values refresh our understanding of Marx’s ideas on of selecting officials from the common people was primitive communist society. Moreover, communist performed for about 1300 years in China. The system values and the primitive family-oriented values are 23 Comparative Studies of China and the West Vol. 1 2013

closely related each other. And the traditional Chinese value system provides the most valuable experiences Laozi, Dao De Jing , trans. Gu Zhengkun. Beijing: Peking University and serves for human beings returning to the excellent Press, 1995. social structure and value system. This excellent social Liu, Baonan, An Annotation to the Confucian Analects . Beijing: structure and value system can be summarized in three Zhonghua Book Company, 1990. words: family—nation—world. Lu, Xun, Miscellaneous Essays from Qiejie Pavilions: Second Series . Beijing: People’s Literature Publishing House, 1973.  ݪყ {ݪӌ৛ࠪiჸ֩|ĻѸρᆵ໔ಭh {૜ሸi৞੕|ಭᆈρಮh 3 Lu, Xun, A Complete Anthology of China’s New Literature: Novel ,ᅫ|Ļuಭᆈಮ၁  ౜౜ແվh Second Series . Shanghai: Shanghai Literature & Art Publishing House്م׃ᇗႦi}  ၣಭແЯh  ၣಮແЯh  ၣρແЯ Lu, Xun, A Madman’s Diary . Beijing: People’s Literature Publishing  .၊|Ļٟρᇡؿ౜ಭh House, 1918׃ઊნ࿘ؿ} .ᄽೲh Mencius, Meng Zi . Beijng:Beijing Yanshan Press, 1995ەఆ്ೠᅫĪĻႯჇ׃ሸূ}

ᇙgཱུg৿gԉgႯh  Rousseau, Jean Jacques, The Social Contract . Amsterdam: Marc- 1663. Also, the ruling of Stitchill baron court in 1698, forbidding the Michel Rey, 1762. giving of alms or house-room by any in the barony except to “those Sun, Xidan, Annotations to the Rites . rev. Wang Xingxian, Beijing: allenarly that shall be listed.” (Cited in: Gunn, 1905, p.135) Zhonghua Book Company, 2007  Ь ( uሸᄆĻऴሸᯗؿҊᆢ ಝؿҊ֜hv!|܌ઊნ ໗਺}  g Ё୩vܭ഑ඈ ໼ሸᆵ۫|!u૾ເЁЯ  Я}  While selfishness has always been severely attacked by the mainstream of traditional Chinese ideologies, it seems often defended Toynbee, Arnold; Daisaku, Ikeda, Forcast the 21st Century . Beijing: in one way or another in the West as more positive. Naturally if one is International Cultural Publishing Company, 1985, p. 280: over-egocentric, one has to be estranged from other people. In the end,  As is known, the idea of “laissez-faire” and the sense of competition ฀฀ based on selfish greediness was highly justified and popularized by Adam Smith, the great Scottish philosopher and economist. See Adam ฀ Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776, VI, ii: 456).  Toynbee/Daisaku,Choose Life. A Dialogue . ed. Richard L. Gage, London: Oxford University Press, 1976. usually considered to begin from 598 AD in the Sui Dynasty till the end Zhao Yafeng, Deutsche Philosophen . Beijing: Foreign Languages of the Qing Dynasty in 1905 with a history of 1307 years. Press, 2008.  lj䇪䈝 Ь ᆀᕐNJĀᆀ༿ᴠ˖ԅ㘼Ոࡉᆖ˗ᆖ㘼ՈࡉԅDŽā Zhu, Xi, An Annotation to the Confucian Analects . Jinan: Qilu 17 Toynbee, Arnold, Daisaku, Ikeda [1985], Looking Ahead the 21st Publishing House, 1992 Century , p. 277 1992 18 ibid.: 278. 19 Zi, Si, Doctrine of the Mean . Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 2006. see Canberra Times , 24, January, 1988. 006 Works Cited About the author: Smith, Adam, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the wealth of Nations , 1776. Bury, John Bagnell, A History of Freedom of Thought . Changchun: Gu Zhengkun, IACSCW co-president for China, is Professor Jilin People’s Press, 1999, p.9. of Comparative Culture and Translation at Peking University, Ban, Gu, Han Shu . Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 2007. director of PKU Institute of World Literature, President of Shakespeare Association of China. He is the author and Canberra Times , Canberra, Australia, 24, January, 1988. translator of about 50 books. Among them the best known are A Confucius, Confucian Analects . Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 2007 Companion to Masterpieces in World poetry (1990), Lao Tzu: Gu, Zhengkun, A Comparative Study of Chinese and Western Cultures . The Book of Tao and Teh (in English, 1993), China and West: Beijing: Peking University Press, 2004 Comparative Poetics and Translatology (2003), Linguistic Culturology (2004) and A Comparative Study of Chinese and Gunn, Clement B., Records of the Baron Court of Stitchill , Edinburgh: Western Cultures (2007) . He has published more than 150 Scottish History Society, 1905. articles either in English or in Chinese. He has been engaged Han, Yu, “Yuan Dao”, in An Annotated Anthology of Han Changli . Shanghai: Shanghai Chinese Classics Publishing House, 1988. in the comparative study of Chinese and Western cultures for more than 40 years and taught the course “A Comparative Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, Vorlesungen über die Philosophie der Study of Chinese and Western Cultures” at Peking University Geschichte , XYZ, 1837. for 18 years running, advancing many startling ideas in the Kong Yinda, Shang Shu . Beijing : Zhonghua Book Company, 1999. 24 Henry Rosemont, Junior & Roger T. Ames On Translation & Interpretation in Comparative Studies On Translation & Interpretation in Comparative Studies ——With Special Reference to Classical Chinese By Roger T. Ames

University of Hawaii  ݪყ {ݪӌ৛ࠪiჸ֩|ĻѸρᆵ໔ಭh {૜ሸi৞੕|ಭᆈρಮh Henry Rosemont, Jr. ᅫ|Ļuಭᆈಮ၁  ౜౜ແվh്م׃ᇗႦi}  Brown University ၣಭແЯh  ၣಮແЯh  ၣρແЯ  ၊|Ļٟρᇡؿ౜ಭh׃ઊნ࿘ؿ} The Italian statement Traduttore, traditore is different views about the nature of the differences ᄽೲhەఆ്ೠᅫĪĻႯჇ׃ሸূ} unusual in that it serves as its own proof. Not even between the two languages, and in our opinion it is thus ᇙgཱུg৿gԉgႯh  in other Indo-European languages can the succinct incumbent upon all translators to inform their readers of expressiveness of the sentence come through well: what they believe the nature of the languages to be. In “translators are traducers” is probably the best that can addition, we believe it important for translators to proffer be done in English, but it is nowhere as clear in meaning their basic notions of the nature of human languages  Ь uሸᄆĻऴሸᯗؿҊᆢ ಝؿҊ֜hv as the original, nor as straightforward. in general: a behaviorist view differs significantly!|܌ઊნ ໗਺}  g Ё୩vܭ഑ඈ ໼ሸᆵ۫|!u૾ເЁЯ  Я}  from a generativist one, both of them from a structural It is our opinion this little example is not an approach, and all three from a deconstructionist isolated curiosity. Very few sentences in any language orientation toward languages. We begin with a brief can be precisely rendered in any other, in part due to the fact that if our sole concern is with truth conditions there Chinese, warning readers at the outset that our views are  are many different ways to express exactly the same fact not uncontroversial; there are translators whose work ฀฀ even in a single language (“John broke the window; the we respect who would disagree with our philosophical window was broken by John; what John broke was the ฀ approach to matters of translation (and, as we shall also window; what John did was break the window; it was argue, interpretation). the window that John broke; what was broken by John  was the window; what John did to the window was break It is essential first to point out some differences it; it was the window that was broken by John;” and so between speech and writing that we believe are on). Which of the varied ways of expressing a singular important and must always be kept in mind when  lj䇪䈝 Ь ᆀᕐNJĀᆀ༿ᴠ˖ԅ㘼Ոࡉᆖ˗ᆖ㘼ՈࡉԅDŽā fact a writer or speaker employs will depend on context and intent, and translators must thus be sensitive to both the obvious fact that all cultures have spoken languages, but relatively few – until very recently – have had a target language. Unfortunately, neither context nor intent writing system. Not unrelatedly, there is a sense in which are often clear, and hence translators cannot but engage to speak and understand the language of our birth simply to admit it or not (we will have more to say on this point by being exposed to it; we do not have to be taught our below). native tongue unless we have an impediment of some sort. Reading and writing, on the other hand, are not Semantic issues in translation are in all probability natural; we must learn to master different senses (visual even more numerous than syntactic ones. Even within and tactile as opposed to aural and oral) and we must the same family of languages we seldom find precise be taught that mastery. Without specific and detailed equivalents for individual lexical items between the instruction we remain illiterate. object and target languages (Although sharing similar roots, modern English and German nevertheless differ in Moreover, we believe all human languages share their epistemological vocabulary, for example, with the many features at an abstract – but substantive – level, kennen/wissen distinction in German having no English most importantly syntactic structures, that constrain the counterpart). way words may be strung together while yet enabling speakers to be able to creatively express their thoughts. Both syntactic and semantic problems loom We are thus in the generativist camp of linguists, and an especially large when the languages under consideration example may illustrate wherein our views are grounded. are as different as the classical Chinese language of roughly the sixth to the second centuries BCE and Let us take a sentence such as: modern English. Different translators may well have

25 Comparative Studies of China and the West Vol. 1 2013

The boy walked up the hill. written and edited. The Book of Poetry obviously was a recording of sounds, and phonetic loan words are found Now if we are asked to add the adverb slowly to early on in the written record. And perhaps one or two the sentence, there are seven positions in which we might of the disciples of Confucius did place a verbatim quote place it: at the beginning or end of the sentence, or in any from the Master into the text that has come down to us. But it remains that wenyan should not be seen as fundamentally a transcription of speech. Originally the But not all of these placements will retain the classical language had a number of syllabic consonantal grammaticality of the sentence: endings which are no longer present in the modern language, but even then the number of homonyms was 1) Slowly the boy walked up the hill high, with anywhere from two to seven different graphs 2) The slowly boy walked up the hill – with different meanings – pronounced identically. No 3) The boy slowly walked up the hill one will understand a passage from a classical text unless 4) The boy walked slowly up the hill they have read it earlier and can contextualize it. Thus the 5) The boy walked up slowly the hill language of the classical texts was fundamentally like the 6) The boy walked up the slowly hill good little boy: primarily to be seen and not heard. 7) The boy walked up the hill slowly A moment’s reflection on the nature of written English will suggest that it, too, has a visual component Sentences 1, 3, 4 and 7 are grammatical, but 2, 5 above and beyond its being a pronunciation indicator. We must all be pleased that G.B. Shaw’s demand for a purely phonetic alphabet for the spelling of English has never (The short answer is that grammatical structures -- (noun phrase, verb phrase, prepositional phrase -- must that his made-up word ghoti maintain their integrity, and the offending sentences (enouGH, wOmen, attenTIon), but English spelling ӱ violate it, whereas in 1, 3, 4, and 7 the adverb is placed often provides semantic no less than – and often more ᗳ ᆍ ᗧ ؑ ੋᆀ ⸕ ሿ before, after, or between those phrase structures). than – phonetic information. If we know what “nation” Ӫ 㗙 䃐 ⽬ Moreover, it is necessary to note that writing is not means, for example, we can make a good guess about solely – and at times, not even mainly – a transcription of speech. No indirect discourse is speech transcribed, across it because of the orthographic parallels between nor are newspaper headlines, many advertisements, the terms. Yet they are pronounced differently. The and much else. This feature of language is particularly same may be said for a whole host of common words important with respect to classical Chinese, especially in English: photograph/ photography ; anxious/anxiety , Confucianism, because of the ubiquity, in the Analects , child/children , and so forth. of  ᆀ ᴠ We also believe that classical Chinese differs from feature of all natural (spoken) languages is their capacity all other languages in another, philosophically important, to unambiguously express grammatical relations; without way that other translators have neglected or ignored. It this feature of languages the slowly example above is more an event-based than a “thing”-based language, would be inexplicable. But classical Chinese does not more akin to Hebrew than to most members of the Indo- European language groupings. We have argued for this relations are not unambiguously expressed. claim elsewhere, and will not rehearse it herein, save to An equally important reason for not seeing make the related claim that the nature of early Chinese classical Chinese as a transcription of speech is phonetic. There is very little direct evidence to suggest language. There is little by way of substance ontology that basic verbal communication took place through – “ being ” – to be found in early Chinese thought, but this medium. Nor could there be such, in our view, much in the way of events, processes – “ becoming .” because the extraordinarily large number of homonyms Many English nouns can be “verbed,” to be sure, but in the language makes it virtually uninterpretable by in classical Chinese, virtually every graph can function ear alone (without the use of binomes). A great many as noun and verb, and usually as an adjective or adverb semantically unrelated lexical items have exactly the as well, which is no more than to say that apart from same phonological realization to be understood aurally, context the grammatical function of a Chinese term even when tonal distinctions are taken into account. cannot be ascertained. The resultant linguistic dynamism of classical Chinese will thus only be captured at all This is not to suggest a complete disconnect well in English if verbs take pride of place in translation. between the spoken and written Chinese languages at Thus instead of “Zizhang asked about government” for ᆀᕥ୿᭯ the various times that the classical texts were being , we make it “Zizhang asked about governing effectively.”

26 Henry Rosemont, Junior & Roger T. Ames On Translation & Interpretation in Comparative Studies

There are several implications of our several views distinction between the public and the private realms of on the unique nature of the classical Chinese language that go beyond issues of translation. If they can be sustained, for example, it will follow that the written These are serious questions, for it would be very difficult to think of moral issues apart from the related well the grammatical patterns of the spoken language concepts here placed in italics. But none of those terms of the time; our guess would be that the use of binomes has a lexical equivalent in classical Chinese, nor for the has a very long history, even though both graphs in any other terms necessary to engage in moral discourse in uttered binomial expression would seldom be transcribed contemporary English: together. Another implication is that it would be folly to replace the Chinese written graphs with an alphabetic liberty, right/wrong, rational, objective/subjective , system more geared to representing sounds, for the even ought. number of distinct sounds in modern Chinese is relatively small, and there is no easy way to represent the tonal But rather than attribute simple-mindedness or extreme naïveté to Confucius, we might posit that he of relatively little moment, for many sounds have over has a different vocabulary for describing, analyzing and thirty different graphs associated with them even when evaluating human conduct, conceptually grounded in the tones are taken into account: yi has 41, for example, different presuppositions about the world and the place shi has 32, zhi 31, and so on. of human beings in it than have been standard in Western thought for many centuries. The 15+ English terms Still a third implication of our views on the listed above constitute what we call a “concept-cluster,” contrasting nature of English and classical Chinese centered on the concept moral . Early Confucian writings may be generalized for all translation work: it is not deployed a different concept-cluster for describing, possible to translate a text from one language to another analyzing and evaluating human conduct, centered on without an interpretation of it. In our own case we link the concept of ӱ ren , and including such concepts as the de-emphasis on nouns in classical Chinese with ᗳ xin , ᆍ xiao , ᗧ de , ؑ xin , ੋᆀ junzi , ⸕ zhi , ሿ the absence of the concept of substance or essence in Ӫ xiaoren , 㗙 yi , 䃐 cheng , and ⽬ li , plus a few others. classical Chinese thought. In the same way, if events All of these terms are polysemous in English, and hence are linguistically center stage, then relational persons when translating them we must not look solely at each rather than individual selves will make up the dramatis Chinese graph in isolation, but rather see it in relation personae in ethics. Aesthetic expressiveness (not alone in literature) may place a higher value on nuance and or easily into the concept-cluster for morals , but they do ambiguity than on precision. mesh with each other, a meshing which all translators should be sensitive to while engaged in their work. Turning now to issues of semantics facing  ᆀ ᴠ translators, it has long been lamented that many terms of Our notion of concept-clusters, and the importance import in one language have no close lexical equivalent of the notion for translation, can be seen more clearly by in others, necessitating the use of lengthier locutions in considering other examples. In Chaucerian England the the target language that can either multiply or eliminate concept-cluster employed in the description, analysis and a nuance or ambiguity intended in the original. Here it evaluation of human conduct centered in honour, which becomes clear that interpretation affects translation right was discussed using terms like villein , shent , liegeful , from the beginning. sake , varlet , boon , soke , sooth , chivalric , gentil , and sinne . Some of these terms are still vaguely familiar to In classical Chinese, to take an important English speakers, but their meanings have shifted, ( gentil / philosophical illustration, there is no single lexical gentle, sinne /sin), or we use them without knowing what equivalent for the English word “moral.” Most translators they mean (sake), still others we skip over quickly when from the Chinese have not attended to this fact – or reading Robin Hood or King Arthur (varlet, boon), and stretched some graph or another to make it come out as still others have no meaning at all for us ( soke , shent ). “moral ” in parts of the translation – and the consequence has been that most Western philosophers have refused to We find another concept-cluster in ancient take Chinese thinkers seriously as philosophers , for if, Greece, wherein moral philosophy dealt largely with say, Confucius was indeed concerned with morals, why the cultivation of virtues ( aretai ), especially in the doesn’t he take up problems of choice philosophy of Aristotle, who used related terms in his negative golden rule perhaps, where are moral principles account like eidos , dike , logos , akrasia , phronesis , to be found in the Analects eudemonia , agathos , nous , psuche , eros , and related unaware of the issues surrounding freedom in moral terms. ᆀᕥ୿᭯ dilemmas arise when principles In ancient India the concept-cluster employed in

27 Comparative Studies of China and the West Vol. 1 2013

the several strands of Hindu thought and in Buddhism point has been that, without sufficient concern for the revolved around the concept of dharma, and included parameter of the interpretive context set by concept- varna , moksha , samadhi , samsara , skhandas , nirvana , clusters, translators in the process of introducing dukkha , bodhi, (an)atman , yog , and of course karma . Confucianism into the Western academy have willy-nilly ᕥ 䲶 ⓚ overwritten its key philosophical vocabulary and terms of What all of these examples illustrate, we believe art with the values of an Abrahamic religiousness not its – and they could be multiplied tenfold -- is that the own, thereby reducing Confucianism in the eyes of many idea of concept-clusters is a great aid to translating to a necessarily anemic, second-rate form of Christianity. and understanding texts written against conceptual Witness the standard formula of translations: tian ཙ backgrounds that differ from our own, and can is “Heaven,” li ⿞ is “ritual,” yi 㗙 is “righteousness,” provide a means of giving the “other” their otherness dao 䚃 is “the Way,” ren ӱ is “benevolence,” de ᗧ is without making them either wholly other, or, equally “virtue,” xiao ᆍ li ⨶ is “principle,” and mischievous, more simple-minded versions of ourselves. so on. In sum, such a vocabulary cluster conjures forth a pre-established, single-ordered and divinely sanctioned The careful reader will probably have noted that we cosmos guided by the hand of a righteous God that ought have used “term” and “concept” almost interchangeably to inspire human faith and compliance. herein. Of course the two morphemes have different meanings, but it is fundamental to our position as There have been subsequent efforts by some philosopher-translators that a concept not be imputed scholars to rescue an uprooted and transplanted to the authors and editors of foreign texts unless there Confucianism from this Christian soil. But the result has is a specific lexical entry denoting that concept in the often been to reconstruct its ideas and values through text itself. To do otherwise – assuming Confucius had the prism of an Orientalism that would ostensibly the concept of “morals” in anything like the sense that save the integrity of Confucianism by dismissing its contemporary speakers of English do – is to either rob profoundly religious dimensions, and in so doing, reduce the Master of his distinctiveness, or make him appear it to a kind of secular humanism. Or perhaps worse, in simple-minded, guaranteeing that the translators will not interpreting Confucianism’s inclusive and provisional capture well the lessons he has to teach us today. approach to philosophical understanding as unstructured and indeterminate, reduce its holistic sensibilities to But that is not the end of it. It is methodologically mysticism and the occult. dangerous to assume that writers in foreign languages had ideas just like us when they don’t have words just The consequence, then, of this overtly Christianized like us to express them. What purely textual evidence and then Orientalized reading of the Confucian could be adduced to suggest that Confucius had the vocabulary has located the study of this tradition within Western seats of higher learning in religion and area Did the author(s) of the Daodejing have a concept of studies departments rather than as a proper part of the “freedom philosophy curriculum, and has relegated translations of of the Bhagavad-Gita had a concept of ӱ ren the Confucian texts to the new age and suspect “Eastern Religions” corners of our bookstores. Philosophers have drawn linguistic and epistemological swords on this issue for some time. To In attempting to provide a more nuanced some, our position will seem to be “unfair to babies,” explanation of these same Confucian terms, the twentieth making the point that we are willing to attribute concepts century Confucian scholar Qian Mu 䥒 ぶ is adamant to infants before they have the words to express them. that this vocabulary expressing the unique and complex And it must be allowed that at times it is legitimate to Confucianism vision of a moral life simply has no assume that a single concept might indeed have been counterpart in other languages. Qian Mu’s point in held by the author of a text if the translation runs more making this claim is not to argue for cultural purism and coherently. But it is the idea of concept-clusters that can incommensurability; on the contrary, he would allow stop the morphemes of other languages from becoming that with sufficient exposition, the Confucian world can be “appreciated” in important degree by those from insistence on pointing out the lack of a lexical equivalent without. Qian Mu’s claim is on behalf of the uniqueness for “morals” in classical Chinese lies in the fact that and the value of a tradition that has defined its terms none of the other terms associated with “morals” in of art through the lived experience of its people over contemporary English will be found in the texts either. millennia, and anticipates the real difficulty we must face in attempting to capture its complex and organically It has been this problem of translation as related vocabulary in other languages without substantial interpretation and the importance of thinking in terms of concept-clusters that has driven our happy collaboration in retranslating the Chinese classics. Our starting Some earnest interpreters of this Confucian

28 Henry Rosemont, Junior & Roger T. Ames On Translation & Interpretation in Comparative Studies

tradition who are as committed to the enduring value deformation. Indeed, universalism is closely associated of Confucian philosophy as Qian Mu was, disagree with “the transcendental pretense” described above fundamentally with his claims about the difficulty of as a fallacy pervasive in the pre-Darwinian Western translation. The erudite scholar Zhang Longxi ᕥ 䲶 ⓚ , philosophical narrative that is immediately aligned for example, states with confidence that while we will with what John Dewey has called “the philosophical never find strict identify among cultures, we can find fallacy.” After all, we can only “essentialize” (rather than “equivalency:” analogize) if we are predisposed to believe there are such things as “essences,” a way of thinking about things that ཙ Linguistic and cultural differences between China did not recommend itself to the formative thinkers of ⿞ 㗙 and the West are obvious, that is, in the etymological classical China. Essentialism itself arises from familiar 䚃 ӱ ᗧ sense of “standing in the way” ( ob viam ) like obstacles, classical Greek assumptions about ontology as “the ᆍ ⨶ and it is the task of translation to clear the way for science of being,” and from the application of strict understanding and communication by discovering identity as the principle of individuation. It is this notion equivalent formulations underneath the changing surface of “essences” that grounds Platonic idealism and the of differences. Aristotelian doctrine of species ( eidos ) as natural kinds.

What makes the formulation of such equivalents Again, Zhang’s claim about peoples and cultures possible is an acknowledged sameness in thinking among being “equal” in their ability to think is intended to be cultures: inclusive and liberating and respectful, and while such assurances might be so for some, such an assertion is Against such an overemphasis on difference and anything but innocuous. Why would we assume to allow cultural uniqueness . . . I would like to argue for the basic that other traditions have culturally specific modalities translatability of languages and cultures. . . . Only when of thinking is to claim that such traditions do not know we acknowledge different peoples and nations as equal in how to think, unless we ourselves believe that in fact their ability to think, to express, to communicate, and to there is only one way of thinking, and that this way of create values, we may then rid ourselves of ethnocentric thinking—that is, our biases . . . The uncritical assumption that other cultures must think the same way as we do is for us the very definition of We would insist that respect for interpretive essentialism and ethnocentrism. We would argue that it is context is integral to the project of translation, and would precisely the recognition and appreciation of the degree contest the resistance among such scholars to sanction of difference obtaining among cultures in living and the thick cultural generalizations being made by Qian thinking that properly motivates cultural translation in the Mu that we believe are necessary if we are to respect the rich differences that obtain among traditions and if we arguing that there are culturally contingent modalities are to avoid as best we can an impoverishing cultural of thinking can be pluralistic rather than relativistic, and reductionism. We would argue that the canopy of an can be accommodating rather than condescending. At the ӱ always emerging cultural vocabulary is itself rooted very least, if comparative studies are to provide us with in and grows out of a deep and relatively stable soil of the mutual enrichment that they promise, we must strive unannounced assumptions sedimented over generations with imagination to take other cultures on their own into the language, the customs, and the life forms of a terms and appreciate fully the differences that obtain living tradition. And further, we would argue that to fail among them. It is to this end that we have suggested 䥒 ぶ to acknowledge the fundamental character of cultural above that different cultures have fundamentally different difference as an erstwhile safeguard against the sins concept-clusters and ways of thinking about becoming of either “essentialism” or “relativism” is not itself consummate as a human being. innocent. Indeed, ironically, this antagonism to cultural generalizations leads to the uncritical essentializing of And acknowledging what Alfred North Whitehead one’s own contingent cultural assumptions and to the has described as “the perils of abstraction,” we would insinuating of them into one’s interpretations of the ways argue that the kind of rich aesthetic harmony achieved of thinking and living of other traditions. when we are able to find the proper balance between concreteness and abstraction, between unique detail and What separates we self-confessed cultural pluralists a productive coherence, requires that we exercise our (rather than “purists”) from Zhang are what we take to be imagination in identifying and respecting the differences several troubling implications of his basic assumptions among cultures; without the possibilities made available about how the translation between and among cultural to us by these protean differences, we are left with a traditions is to be carried out. To begin with, one might lifeless and insipid sameness. argue that the bugbear of “essentialism” that properly worries Zhang is itself, like any strict philosophical Thirdly, much of Zhang’s exasperation seems to notion of “universalism,” largely a culturally specific arise from interpreters such as Arthur Wright and Jacque

29 Comparative Studies of China and the West Vol. 1 2013

Gernet (and us too) who in allowing for “fundamentally preoccupied by abstractions—a tradition that assumes distinct ways of thinking and speaking” would claim its interpretation of the human experience is more noble (using Zhang’s language) that the difference between the and spiritual than one that pursues practical wisdom and Chinese and Western cultures is “the ability, or lack of it, the alternative spiritual and religiousness sensibilities to express abstract ideas.” For Zhang, those who would produced therefrom. allow for alternative modalities of thinking that place a different degree of emphasis on the functional value At the end of the day, the irony is that Zhang is of abstraction are guilty of a clear debasement of the affirming for Confucian philosophy precisely the long- Chinese language and culture: lived and hobbling fallacy that many twentieth and twenty-first century Western philosophers have been The Chinese language, as seen in this formulation, struggling to put to rest within our own narrative. As players in the internal critique raging within Western objects, a language bogged down in matter and unable to philosophy today, contemporary philosophers are rise above the ground of materiality and literality toward attempting to reverse the gravity of theoretical ascent, any spiritual height. The judgment is thus not on Chinese and to reinstate what had been left behind. Indeed, translation of particular foreign words and concepts, but the recent compensatory turn in Western philosophy on the very nature and ability of the Chinese language as toward applied ethics, virtue ethics, particularism, care a whole. ethics, pragmatic ethics, and so on, not to mention fresh attention being paid to somaticity and the emotions, Here on our reading of Zhang, he is buying into two is directed at rehabilitating the wholeness of the lived dualistic assumptions common to a tradition grounded in experience and at reestablishing an appropriate balance Greek ontology. First, in disallowing “distinct ways of between the abstract and the concrete by reinstating the thinking and speaking” he is locating cultural differences singular value of practical wisdom. in the “content” and “objects” of thought rather than in its subjective instrument, as though thinking and But we are not done. Fourthly, Zhang Longxi is what is thought about are somehow distinct, and that eliding an important distinction we might borrow from some definition of the human “mind” is not only an Saussure between langue (language) and parole (speech), ᮷ inclusive universal, but is also what is most distinctively between the evolved, theoretical and conceptual structure 䀰 and most valuably human. The implication of this of a language system that is shaped by an aggregating distinction is that modes of thinking are essentially intelligence over millennia and that makes speech separable from the content of thinking by virtue of some possible, and the application of any natural language in pre-cultural faculties of the human mind and some a the individual utterances we make. We pluralists need priori categories that structure it. Such mind/body and this distinction to galvanize our claim that the Chinese theory/praxis dualism has never been a distraction in a language has not developed and does not have available Chinese correlative yin-yang cosmology in which mind/ to it either a concept or a term that can be used to capture body (shenxin 䓛 ᗳ ) and theory/praxis ( zhixing ⸕ the Abrahamic notion of “God,” while at the same time 㹼 ) have been taken to be collaborative, coterminous, allowing us to insist that the same Chinese language has and mutually entailing aspects of experience. Indeed, all of the semantic and syntactic resources necessary to the continuity and wholeness of experience is defined give a fair account of such an idea. What we are saying in terms of “forming” and “functioning” ( tiyong 億 about this absence in the langue of the Chinese language ⭘ biantong 䆺 䙊 )— is precisely what Qian Mu is quite properly saying about cosmological assumptions that preclude any strictly the want of a Western vocabulary to adequately speak dualistic categories. Confucianism: you cannot say “ li ⿞ ” in English or German although you can say lots about it. A corollary assumption implicit in Zhang’s critique, again itself profoundly dualistic, is that the theoretical Finally, Zhang in disqualifying our claim of and spiritual idealities entertained by this essentialized disparity in the relative value that different cultures conception of mind are superior to practical efficacy invest in abstract conceptualizations inadvertently saves in our everyday experience, and that entertaining Confucianism from what we would take to be an entirely these abstractions elevates us closer to the mind of appropriate critique. It precludes what we would accept God. Such abstraction as the work of intellection is as a salutary criticism of the limits of Confucianism made by many scholars late and soon, Western and experience, providing us with a quality of knowledge Chinese alike, the philosopher Bertrand Russell and uncontaminated by the changing world whence these the sociologist Jin Yaoji 䠁㘰ส (Ambrose King) being abstractions arise, and from a Confucian perspective, to prominent among them. In these pages we want to join which they perhaps ought to owe their allegiance. Indeed these scholars in advocating for a revitalized Confucian Zhang is endorsing the superiority and the arrogance of a moral philosophy adequate to the complexities of the modern world that complements its traditional emphasis

30 Henry Rosemont, Junior & Roger T. Ames On Translation & Interpretation in Comparative Studies

upon family feeling as both the entry point and the philosophical vocabulary and set parameters on their substance of moral competence with a more robust meanings. Are these generic assumptions essential and framework of regulative ideals directed at preempting the all too frequent misuse of intimate relationships that we can venture to make cultural comparisons without a gives rise to nepotism, cronyism, and other forms of hermeneutical sensibility that guards against the perils social and political corruption. Just as intimacy needs of cultural reductionism. A failure of interpreters to the restraining complement of integrity, concrete family be self-conscious and to take fair account of their own feelings require the guiding complement of some form of Gadamarian “prejudices” with the excuse that they are more general ideals. relying on some “objective” lexicon that, were the truth be known, is itself heavily colored with cultural biases, This same argument against Zhang Longxi in is to betray their readers not once, but twice. Just as favor of articulating an interpretive context might each generation selects and carries over earlier thinkers be summarized this way. We would contend that to reshape them in their own image, each generation the only thing more dangerous than striving to reconfigures the classical canons of world philosophy make the responsible cultural generalizations that to its own needs. We too are inescapably people of a provide interpretive context is failing to make them. time and place. This self-consciousness is not to distort Generalizations do not have to preclude appreciating the Chinese philosophical tradition, but to endorse its the richness and complexity of always evolving cultural fundamental premises. traditions; in fact, it is generalizations that locate and inform specific cultural details and provide otherwise sketchy historical developments with the thickness of their content. There is no alternative in making cultural 1 Some of the material in this essay is taken from the introduction comparisons to an open, hermeneutical approach that is and appendices to our The Analects of Confucius; A Philosophical Translation . New York: Ballantine Books, 1998. ready to modify always provisional generalizations with 2 the new information that additional detail yields as it is We specify these dates because there is no general agreement on when and/or where to use the term “classical” as opposed to “archaic,” interpreted within the grid of generalizations. or “ancient” when referring to the language in which the classical texts were written, often referred to by the Chinese as “literary Chinese”: ᮷ Recently, and specifically in reference to the 䀰 wen yan ). classical Chinese language, the distinguished sinologist 3 Christoph Harbsmeier – who disagrees with our position – has written Angus Graham concludes that in reporting on the a lengthy essay outlining the several views prevalent among sinologists eventful flow of qi cosmology, “the sentence structure on the nature of the Chinese language(s). The essay is in Volume 7, of Classical Chinese places us in a world of process Part 1, of Science and Civilisation in China , by Joseph Needham and Christoph Harbsmeier. Cambridge UK: Cambridge University Press, 1998. 4 we have consistently advocated a holistic, narrative For a more complete analysis of these points see Henry Rosemont, Jr. 䓛 ᗳ ⸕ understanding as being more revealing of underlying & Huston Smith, Is There a Universal Grammar of Religion & LaSalle, IL: Open Court Publishing Co., 2008, especially the second 㹼 cultural assumptions than merely an atemporal and chapter. essentializing analytical approach. 5 See, for example, Bernhard Karlgren, Grammata Serica . Taipei: Ch’eng-Wen Publishing Co., 1966 (reprint). 億 How can we address this gap between our 6 On the importance of the term “aesthetic” as we employ it for ⭘ 䆺 䙊 understanding Chinese thought, See David L. Hall and Roger T. Ames, Wittgenstein is insightful in suggesting that “the limits of Thinking Through Confucius . Albany NY: State University of New ⿞ our language are the limits of our world,” then perhaps York Press, 1987. we need more language. By developing a nuanced 7 Jerry Dennerline, Qian Mu and the World of Seven Mansions . New understanding of a classical Greek vocabulary— logos , Haven: Yale University Press,1988, p. 9. 8 nous , phusis , kosmos , eidos , alethea , and so on—we Zhang Longxi , “Translating Cultures: China and the West.” Chinese are able to get behind Descartes and in degree, read Thought in a Global Context: A Dialogue Between Chinese and classical Greek texts on their own terms, and in a more Western Philosophical Approaches . Edited by Karl-Heinz Pohl. Leiden: Brill, 1999, p. 43. sophisticated way. By generating and appropriating a 9 Zhang Longxi (1999), p. 46. glossary of key philosophical terms around which the 10 In making its case for the importance of difference to an achieved Chinese texts are woven, we will be better able to locate harmony, the Zuo Commentary to the Spring and Autumn Annals Duke these seminal texts in their own intellectual landscape. Zhao 20 uses the examples of cooking, music, and an evolving cultural genealogy: 䠁㘰ส Philosophical interpreters must sensitize the The Marquis of Qi had returned from the hunt, and was student of Chinese philosophy to the ambient uncommon being attended by Master Yan at the Chuan pavilion when Ju of assumptions reflected in concept clusters that have Liangqiu galloped up to them. The Marquis said, “Only Ju is in made the Chinese philosophical narrative so different from our own. It is these assumptions that inform the “All that Ju does is agree with you.” said Master Yan.

31 Comparative Studies of China and the West Vol. 1 2013

University of California Press, 2003, Margaret Walker (editor), Mother Time . Lanham,MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2000, Virginia asked the Marquis. Held, The Ethics of Care . Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006, “There is indeed.” replied Master Yan. “Harmony is like and the works mentioned in Joan C. Tronto, “Care Ethics: Moving making congee. One uses water, fire, vinegar, sauce, salt, and plum Forward.” Hypatia , Volume 14, Number 1 Winter (1999), among to cook fish and meat, and burns firewood and stalks as fuel for the others. Similarly, there is also an attempt to reinstate the fundamental cooking process. The cook blends these ingredients harmoniously to importance of context in recent work in Pragmatist ethics: for example Todd Lekan, Making Morality: Pragmatist Reconstruction in Ethical and where it is too concentrated, he dilutes it with water. When you Theory . Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 2003 and Steven partake of this congee, Sir, it lifts your spirits. Fesmire, John Dewey and Moral Imagination: Pragmatism in Ethics . The relationship between ruler and minister is another Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2003. For moral particularism, case in point. Where the ruler considers something right and yet there see Brad Hooker and Margaret Little (editors), Moral Particularism . is something wrong about it, the minister should point out what is Oxford UK: Oxford University Press, 2000. Most recently Richard wrong as a way of achieving what is right. Where the ruler considers Shusterman in Body Consciousness: A Philosophy of Mindfulness and something wrong and yet there is something right about it, the minister Somaesthetics . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008 and should point out what is right as a way of setting aside what is wrong. Practicing Philosophy: Pragmatism and the Philosophical Life . New In such a way governing will be equitable without violating ritual York: Routledge, 1997, and in many of his other books has argued for propriety and the common people will not be contentious. Thus the an educated and elegant somaticity as integral to the cultivation of the Book of Songs says: consummate life. Robert C. Solomon over a distinguished career led There is indeed harmoniously blended congee; the discipline in arguing for and promoting literacy in the philosophy of GHVSLWHPDQ\GLIIHUHQFHVHDFKZD\RIOLIHVHHNVZD\VRIKHOSLQJLWVSHRSOHÀRXULVK:KHQ\RXQJSHRSOHFDQVHHWKHLU The kitchen has already been cautioned to bring out a balanced and the emotions. even taste. 14 We are “borrowing” this distinction from Saussure because we do IXWXUHGHVSLWHWRGD\¶V²DQGWRPRUURZ¶V²GLI¿FXOWFRQGLWLRQV not want to endorse the kind of structuralism that would allow for any And those above and below will be free of contention. severe separation between langue and parole , instead siding with the sentiments of Mikhail Bakhtin who would see these two dimensions of the five notes to lift their spirits and to achieve success in their language as mutually shaping and evolving in their always dialectical governing. Music functions similarly to flavoring. There is one field relationship. Utterances gradually change the structure of language, of sound; the two kinds of music: martial and civil; the three kinds of songs: airs of the states, odes, and hymns; the four quarters from makes possible. which materials are gathered for making instruments; the five note 15 Angus Graham, Studies in Chinese Philosophy and Philosophical pentatonic scale; the six pitch pipes; the seven sounds, the winds of Literature . Albany NY: State University of New York Press, 1990, p. the eight directions, and the nine ballads—all of which complement 408. each other. There are the distinctions between clear and turbid, small and great, short and long, quick and slow, plaintive and joyous, hard About the authors: and soft, delayed and rapid, high and low, beginning and ending, and intimate and distant—all of which augment each other. You listen Roger T. Ames, IACSCW honorary advisor, is Professor of to these, Sir, and it lifts your spirits, which in turn enables you to Philosophy and Head of Asian Studies Development Program excel harmoniously. Hence the Book of Songs says, “There are no at University of Hawaii, chief editor for the journal Eastern imperfections in the sound of excellence.” and Western Philosophy . Canadian by origin, he has been Now Ju is not acting in this way. Whatever you say is right, educated in the USA, Japan, Taiwan and England with his Ju also says is right; whatever you say is wrong, Ju also says is wrong. doctorate coming from SOAS in London. For many years keep playing the same note on your lutes, who would want to listen to he has spearheaded an effort to rethink Chinese Studies in the West based on taking China on its own terms. His books, They were drinking wine and enjoying themselves when the frequently with collaborators like Henry Rosemont, Jr, or the Marquis observed, “If from ancient times there had been no death, what late David Hall, include comparative philosophical studies and new translations of classical texts. “If from ancient times there had been no death,” ventured Master Yan, “there would be the joy of the ancients, and what would Henry Rosemont, Jr. is currently George B. and Willam Reeves Distinguished Professor of the Liberal Arts at St. this territory, then came the Jice clan, followed by Youfeng Boling, the Mary’s College of Maryland. He has taught the Analects in classes, seminars, workshops and institutes both in the had been no death, there would be the joy of the Shuangjiu clan, and I United States and China over the course of 40 years. He is 11 Zhang Longxi (1999), p. 44. Actually, in Ames and Rosemont (1998) the author of A Chinese Mirror (1991), The Forthcoming pp. 39-43 and Appendix II, an argument is made that the written literary Radical Confucianism (1998), The Chinese Classic of Family language is uniquely abstract in the sense that semantic overload Reverence: A Philosophical Translation of the Xiaojing (2009), contributes to a kind of productive vagueness requiring disambiguation A Reader’s Companion to the Confucian Analects (2013) and on the part of the reader. more than fifty articles in scholarly journals and anthologies. 12 Zhang Longxi (1999), p. 45. He is the editor of the Monograph Series for the Society for 13 For examples of care ethics, see the work of Carol Gilligan, In a Asian and Comparative Philosophy and the editor of Frontiers Different Voice . Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1982, of Philosophy in China (FPC). Nel Noddings, Caring . Second edition. Berkeley and Los Angeles:

32 John G. Blair & Jerusha McCormack Comparing China and the West: Remedies for Cultural Amnesia

Comparing China and the West: Remedies for Cultural Amnesia

By John G. Blair, Prof. Emeritus, University of Geneva Jerusha McCormack , Emeritus University College Dublin

Abstract: Amnesia can affect cultures as well as individuals with a disease condition that involves loss of memory, a sense of where one belongs. Its effects on cultures are devastating, particularly at the present time when the climate crisis threatens to end conditions on earth favorable to human life. Only extensive cooperation between China and the West might save humanity as a whole. To promote this process, we want to show how China and the West can study each other in a spirit of mutual understanding and acceptance. Comparative civilization studies explore these two civilizations as they develop along their largely separate trajectories over three thousand years or more. Everyone starts out with an ethnocentric view of the world as centered on their kind. But an educated view understands that, GHVSLWHPDQ\GLIIHUHQFHVHDFKZD\RIOLIHVHHNVZD\VRIKHOSLQJLWVSHRSOHÀRXULVK:KHQ\RXQJSHRSOHFDQVHHWKHLU role as building on the past achievements of their ancestors, they have a much better chance to contribute to a shared IXWXUHGHVSLWHWRGD\¶V²DQGWRPRUURZ¶V²GLI¿FXOWFRQGLWLRQV Keywords: cultural amnesia; ethnocentrism; comparative culture studies; climate crisis

Cultural amnesia prevails in both China and the life was strenuously rejected a “feudal.” In more recent West, though for different reasons in each case. Amnesia time, elements of tradition have been reanimated but in a is a medical condition of forgetting, in which one’s selective way that suited the purposes of those in power. personal history and hence one’s sense of a place in the world is lost, usually through some sort of trauma or by In the cases of both China and the West young degeneration as under Alzheimer’s Disease. Cultural people growing up today have little sense of the amnesia takes place when present-day people lose track traditions behind them and many see no particular reason of their multiple connections with what came before why they should acquire such knowledge. This is the them. condition we call cultural amnesia . Without appropriate remedies this disease condition threatens the survival In cultural perspective, trauma is not at all of our world as we know it. The shortsightedness that necessary, as we can see by examining the evolution goes with cultural amnesia invites people to think that of Western cultures in recent years. The slow acid of the present and the immediate future are the only time modernity processes has eaten away at the foundations frames that count. But in somber fact the very success of of cultural memory to the extent that many if not most the human enterprise up to now threatens the possibility young people in the Western world today no longer think of our children and grandchildren to experience it important to know much about where their way of reasonable conditions for life on earth. The human race life came from. They often resist studying the Western now amounts to 7,000,000 individuals and counting. Our heritage either because they think that their personal collective industrial processes are poisoning the earth variant of it subsumes all the rest or because they think and destroying the conditions that our lives depend on. the past is over and done with. They are wrong on both Recovering a sense of where we humans are coming counts, as they will learn to their sorrow if they persist. from is one indispensable step toward motivating collaborative action to salvage our collective chances for In China the situation is different, given the a future. 2 profound revolutions and radical shifts of policy that have impinged on growing up in China in the last As a result, comparisons involving China and the decades. Some observers a decade ago thought they West have a particular relevance now. No one in the could discern five experiential generations in the PRC West has escaped some awareness that China is now since 1949. 1 If so, they may now need to add a sixth or – and will continue to be – a major factor in the world even seventh to make sense of the younger generations of the 21 st century. In addition, the Chinese world is so who are still in school or in their young adulthood. In the different that not even the most benighted Westerner can pretend that Western notions suffice as a basis for

33 Comparative Studies of China and the West Vol. 1 2013 understanding what goes on there. On the other side, China has been studying the West attentively for some time now, learning how wealth can be created but not learning enough about how to avoid the major problems that all too often accompany Western-style modernity processes. 3 A teacher’s work against cultural amnesia may never end, but sometimes a fresh approach offers fresh hope. The strategy introduced here was developed in China for students with good English and a felt need to understand the Western world. It is now spreading slowly to Western countries where the motivation for studying China is growing noticeably. 4 Traditional US map of the world For students to begin to understand a distant world requires that they be able to compare it with what they already know by experience. That means learning to Note the major differences in the two maps given look at their own way of life as if from the outside – above. They illustrate how American and Chinese comparatively – and historically – to understand where it children literally do grow up with different world- views in their minds. No two-dimensional map can ethnocentrism capture the global fact that there is no center on earth, see themselves and their own kind as central. distortions it introduces: two-thirds of the map area is Ethnocentrism is the universal human tendency to given over to the Northern Hemisphere and Greenland, see one’s own kind at the center of things. In order for here depicted as larger than South America is in fact comparative studies to begin, we need to move beyond one-eighth its size. Happily the more recent map used it. Our approach starts by comparing maps of the world in most US schools, following the so-called Gall-Peters 5 from different parts of the world. In each case, the nation Projection, is less skewed. involved places itself in the center of things. School children then grow up internalizing the world map they Since all humans believe themselves to be at see on the classroom walls. They soon forget that maps the center of the world, the only viable premise for are maps, i.e., cultural artifacts. They come to believe encouraging dialogue across the distances is to formulate that the world looks like their map. Example: it is hard a kind of cultural Golden Rule. We ask others to take to get Americans to believe that Mexico is notably larger our culture seriously by offering to take theirs with equal than Alaska because their traditional Mercator projection seriousness. That opens the way to what at least initially maps disproportionately exaggerate all land areas closer must be non-judgmental studies of very different ways to the poles. of life. Occasionally observers express reservations about exposing students to a pluralistic view of the world precisely because it acknowledges there to be more than one legitimate way for a civilization to be organized. They ask: at the end of such an exposure will students went to school many years ago in the USA, he met in That seemed remarkable to him because that beverage was forbidden in his house. He hastened to report these new facts to his mother. She, a doctor’s daughter and a conscientious parent (as she remained till her death in 2010 at age 102), remained inflexibly convinced that Coca-Cola was not good for children. So he was still not allowed Coca-Cola. What he had earlier thought to be Standard Chinese map of the world a rule of the world turned out to be a rule of his house. It was Blair’s first encounter with what we now call

34 John G. Blair & Jerusha McCormack Comparing China and the West: Remedies for Cultural Amnesia

primary perceptions focus on cultural differences in kind. comparative culture studies . The rules of home remained Changes over time are acknowledged by dividing each domain into “traditional” and “modern” segments. In as such: no longer universal principles but home rules – order to avoid imposing ethnocentrically Western ideas our family’s way of living. Similarly, in comparative culture studies, but as the process of seriously calling traditional beliefs recognizing the legitimacy of others does not change th who one is or where one comes from. With rare as gaining momentum as of the 16 century, but in China the parallel process begins only in the second half of the exceptions, humans continue all their lives to see the th world through the lenses they acquired in the process 19 century. In each case the core traditions that began of growing up in their home culture. But awareness of to be challenged were radically different to begin with. cultural difference opens the door to respecting the fact Small wonder that “modernity” turns out to imply quite that others look at the world differently. The enemy is different characteristics in these two culture worlds. not ethnocentrism, a human universal, but the unthinking Thus approaching two major and long-lived ethnocentrism that would deny legitimacy to any other civilizations encourages a focus on their most basic and way of life. enduring orientations, different as they may be. Though Some may seek to escape ethnocentrism by it is hazardous to focus on a single image to epitomize a adopting a “cosmopolitan” view of the world, one that whole civilization, here are two images that call attention seems to be anchored in no particular culture. This goal to some characteristics that play a large part in Western may seem plausible within Western presumptions that and Chinese Civilizations, both traditional and modern. would like to see in “rationality” a timeless and placeless tool for discovering universal truths. On critical inspection, however, this orientation turns out to be only a more sophisticated form of Western ethnocentrism. We believe it makes better sense to acknowledge cultural differences as primary. Difference can then become a basis for dialogue and accommodation once both sides give up claims to universality.

The proposed assault on cultural amnesia , by means of a comparative culture course, combines elements from Western Civilization studies and Chinese studies. Its fundamental intellectual approach is drawn from anthropology. It also draws inspiration from World Ming Dynasty Symbol History as practiced in the Western world, 6 though it focuses not on the world as a whole but on two major civilizations. In our experience, it is actually easier to study two civilizations rather than just one, because attention automatically goes to those elements that help compare and contrast these two. Although one can never cover all aspects of either term of the comparison, it helps to acknowledge also that no culture study can ever be complete. Civilizations are always more complex than anything we can ever say about them. This comparative course at least allows us to call attention to that illuminates both of them.

The sourcebook we have prepared for this use is entitled WCwCC: Western Civilization with Chinese Two Greek Wrestlers in Agon Comparisons , now in its third edition from Fudan University Press. The course materials consist of short excerpts, mostly from major thinkers from the last 3000 years or so, arranged not chronologically but images are not comparable because they are so radically thematically according to cultural domains (such as different. Indeed that is part of the point. These two health, family, governance, worldview). In this way, the

35 Comparative Studies of China and the West Vol. 1 2013

culture worlds have always functioned very differently only if a person brings to the question a mentality that in the ways they organize life for their people. Each has has been sufficiently conditioned by modern Western followed its own trajectory. science to think in terms of atoms and molecules. To the The Western image calls attention to two for the way things are constantly changing. Left to itself, individuals in confrontation. Westerners tend to identify water never stands still but keeps on moving, always themselves as distinct from the others around them, seeking a lower level. Yet it has the power to wear away as individuals who achieve selfhood by distinguishing stone, thereby illustrating how yin, which initially yields themselves from others. As a result, when individuals to yang , tends, paradoxically, be stronger in the long run. interact, some form of contest often results. The Greek word was agon [contest], a competition between To go one step further into a Chinese view of individuals formally defined as equals. The winner the world, one needs an additional concept, qi . Qi is recognized as the “best” – until the next contest. is vital energy that animates everything that exists, As such, agon constitutes a modus operandi actively even mountains and oceans that Westerners typically underpinning many Western practices, then and now: not see as inanimate .7 Yin and yang are the two modes of just sports, but also intellectual debate, politics, law, and expression of qi . Human health, to the Chinese consists market economies. “Competition,” after all, is simply a in the free-flowing movement of qi through all parts modern word for agon. of the human body along invisible channels known as meridians . Thus, each civilization views human bodies On the Chinese side, by way of contrast, this Ming very differently. Dynasty textile image implies symmetry and balance, implying overall stability and harmony. This harmony depends on the subordination of individuals to the is on symmetry and good order. What is represented in this image, formally speaking, is a cloud, one imaged in a way that asserts its harmonious internal proportions. As a symbolic image of a world-order, it is cultural, not religious, because the Chinese world does not involve transcendence in any Western sense. At the center of this Chinese image is a taiji symbol that represents a dynamic alternating dominance between two principles, yin (dark) and yang (light). These are complementary opposites central to a vast totalizing system of correspondences that has served, for more than 2000 years, to situate everything likely to occur in the Chinese world. As the alternation of yin and yang might suggest, “reality” – to Chinese minds – is always changing, quite the opposite of the Western emphasis, which seeks to

As this all too brief sketch suggests, our comparative approach uses each civilization to highlight the central presumptions of the other, implicitly acknowledging each one’s legitimacy. Calling inherited for anyone who grows up with only a single cultural surround. It is especially difficult for Westerners because this civilization has claimed for so long that its postulates are universal. In the West, this presumption lies behind both science and religion. The Bible’s God is explicitly the creator of all that is, the One God . Similarly, the “Laws of Nature” as pursued by scientists Modern Acupuncture Man are understood to be “laws” precisely because they are deemed to apply universally, not just within the domain of Western Civilization. As one science student asked:

“In China, water is still H 2

36 John G. Blair & Jerusha McCormack Comparing China and the West: Remedies for Cultural Amnesia

the differences – contextualized in their different worlds has long based its approach to life on asserting “univer- sal” truths regardless of others’ preferences. The Chinese worldview, on the other hand, has long placed great em- phasis on survival and continuity. As a result, China has been recognizably itself for longer than any other civi- lization on earth today. On the basis of past experience, one must predict that will still be the case in a century or two. As far as the West is concerned, the jury on its long- term viability is still out.

The space limits applying to this article do not al- low us to give a wider range of comparative examples, so we have selected these few that exemplify the broader tendencies we find. Nonetheless readers may well feel the need to see in brief how traditional Chinese concepts fare today. Because Chinese culture functions in its own distinctive ways, the New and the Old may appear strangely mixed up to Western eyes because “reality” is perceived so differently.

China’s newest orientation is also its oldest. Under Deng Xiaoping’s reforms, underway for a quarter of a century now, China has returned to its longest-standing criterion for measuring good government – prosperity. All the great thinkers in the Chinese tradition, though they differed on how to achieve prosperity, have agreed on this criterion. Our earliest textual example comes Vesalius’ Man, 1543 from Guan Zhong in the 6 th century BCE, 9 even before his reforms on the grounds that nothing could be ac- complished if China remained poor, as it had under Mao In traditional Chinese medicine, blockage in the Zedong’s leadership. Among other misjudgments, Mao qi as vital energy constitutes disease. The body encouraged population growth to “make China strong.” image that fits with this concept has no muscles, no The population doubled between 1949 and 1979, seri- implicit means of self-assertion. Instead the body is the ously diluting most of the gains made possible by strenu- 10 ous revolutionary effort. Western body image emphasis on muscles focuses at- tention on the individual as an agent that undertakes ac- But “prosperity” is a thoroughly pragmatic value. tions. Setting this representative man in the framework It has no specific content but implies responding suc- of Roman ruins prolongs the Western emphasis on mus- cessfully to whatever present conditions exist. In long- culature that dates back to classical Greek statues. But term perspective China’s present involvement with mar- also the background hints at how Vesalius’ precise ob- ket economics represents not a conversion to a Western servation and dissections promise to improve on Galen model but a Chinese-style adaptation to the conditions of and his Roman civilization, which, by the 16th century, now. This is one reason why we ourselves do not foresee survived only in ruins. These illustrations suggest why a Western-style “democratic” future for China. When these two medical traditions remain radically disjoint, despite recent efforts to combine them. successfully with a centralized model of governance – In comparative perspective, neither the Western one which once again is paying off in terms of prosper- nor the Chinese view of the body – or of water – is right ity. Recent economic historians have shown that only as th or wrong. Indeed it would seem silly to suggest that a of the late 18 century did China fail to keep up with its way of life that has proved viable for thousands of years standing as the most successful economy in the world. st for millions of humans could possibly be dismissed as From this perspective, the 21 century is beginning to merely right or wrong . Nor is it certain that one or the look like a return to what Chinese nationalists perceive other of these approaches is inherently superior. 8 It is as “normal.”

37 Comparative Studies of China and the West Vol. 1 2013

Paying attention to the continuities in Chinese decry how the Peoples’ Republic persists in denying the civilization throws into perspective our own, Western, “human rights [political-civic]” of its citizens. As far as ц expectations of how civilizations develop. Once Western public discourse is concerned, a dialogue of the deaf has - prevailed for many years. tive study of China, some reassessment of their home ways might reasonably emerge. They are likely to dis- This stalemate might not be necessary if people cover that – from a Chinese distance – science and reli- took the time to read the actual document, to understand gion seem much less at odds than is commonly believed. how it has been received differently in China and the Both presume a scenario with a beginning and an end, which a traditional Chinese narrative typically does not. then can one analyze dispassionately the functioning of The Christian story begins with Genesis and ends with the different political systems, and the pressures felt by Apocalypse . The science narrative differs primarily in leaders on both sides. Big Bang and the Heat Death of the Universe . By contrast, the dominant Chi- What does Western Civilization look like to Chi- nese worldview makes no claim to understand distant events either before us or after us. 11 The focus is on the say this comparative course helps them understand that - behind the flotsam and jetsam of Western popular cul- matic and strategic concern that may override the claims ture that washes across Chinese life today, the West does of legalities or abstract principles. have some values that were invisible to them earlier. They admire and respect the Western skill of critical The core of Chinese values remains much closer to thinking, for instance. Perhaps more important, many of home, to families and to the larger socio-political hierar- these students have said they now see a reason to take chies that family relations reenact on a small scale. The their own heritage more seriously. name of the central value is xiao ᆍ , traditionally trans- lated as ¿OLDOSLHW\ . A better translation might be familial One student engaged us in the following dialogue: loyalty , because the central notion turns on the duty of subordination to elders and superiors, within the family “It seems that you in the West have many political and beyond. parties.” “Yes, At least two and in some countries more.” Imagine a mother who calls a neighbor and friend “We here only have one Party.” to say that she needs help moving some heavy furniture; “Yes, we know.” she asks if the friend’s teenage son might be available to “But you have only one god, whereas we have many.” help. An American mother would be likely to respond: “True.” “I’ll ask him”; a Chinese mother: “I’ll send him over.” In this tiny contrastive episode are embedded a host of “It looks like everybody lives with ones and twos. But cultural assumptions about parents and children, about somehow they got applied neighbors and the interactions among all of the above. differently.” To remedy cultural amnesia, our job as comparatists is ੮㿲ѻᵜˈަᖰᰐェ˗੮≲ѻᵛˈަᶕ ᰐ→DŽᰐェᰐ→ˈ䀰ѻᰐҏ to identify such culturally resonant instances and then to So if both civilizations seem to involve Ones and unpack them as fully as we can. Twos, they remain free to differ about what they see as most basic. This students had caught the non-judgmental In this hypothetical situation, the Western mother spirit of this comparative process, acknowledging that, automatically respects her son’s right to an indepen- while each civilization has its sacred principles, neither dent response, but in China the son would typically not is necessarily sacrosanct. Studying comparatively even be consulted. Lurking here are contentious issues thus allows students to distance themselves from their concerning “human rights.” Anyone who wants to take own civilization in such a way as to repossess it – as such issues seriously would be well advised to reread the a valuable resource in its own right. For both Western 1948 UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which and Chinese students, it is exactly this distancing that is composed of some 30 articles. The first two-thirds highlights the richness of their own inheritance – and concentrate on Western-style human rights with a politi- that, by this means, counters the universal tendency cal and legal orientation, derived from Enlightenment toward cultural amnesia induced by what we call concerns. The last third emphasize social and economic “modernity.” rights (food, employment, education). In international discussions, whenever human rights come up, China consistently focuses attention on the latter, proclaiming 1 how much they have improved “human rights [socio- See John G. Blair and Jerusha H. McCormack, Western Civilization economic]” for Chinese people. Meanwhile Westerners with Chinese Comparisons , third edition (Shanghai: Fudan University

38 John G. Blair & Jerusha McCormack Comparing China and the West: Remedies for Cultural Amnesia

Press, 2010), 178-182. In later references, this text is referred to as Immigrants learn to attend to cultures and comparisons. There WCwCC. In Chinese, one of the words for “generation” is shi ( ц ), are many invisible rules one is liable to violate unknowingly. which signifies 30, implying thirty years between each generation. His current work in comparative culture studies is rooted To identify five generations in half a century or so, then, becomes a measure of extremely rapid social and cultural change. Now that in this life experience. John Blair has lectured widely in “generations” are experientially so much shorter, misunderstandings Europe, the USA, and China, with occasional appearances in disruptive to family harmony may easily result. Africa. He began focusing comparative attention on China 2 The best science in the world foresees a “tipping point” beyond which after his first teaching assignment there in 1988. His recent no human effort can reverse the decline in human livability on earth. publications (jointly with Professor Jerusha McCormack) No one knows quite when this point will be reached – if we do nothing include Comparing Civilizations: China & the West (2012) and but continue in our present practices – but most probably sometime before 2030 Western Civilization with Chinese Comparisons (2010). 3 From a Chinese point of view, Western cultures often tend to produce ill-disciplined children, destructively individualistic mindsets, chaotic political and economic management, enabled by short-sighted self- seeking factions at every level of decision making. Jerusha Hull McCormack, IACSCW secretary and treasurer, 4 So far in the West we have offered courses of this type in the USA was born in the USA where she attended Wellesley College. and Ireland. The prospects have improved with the publication in There she concentrated her studies on philosophy, art history 2013 of an American edition of our sourcebook entitled Comparing Civilizations: China and the West (New York: Global Scholarly and English literature. After receiving her MA and PhD at Publications), 604 pages plus 1680 pages in PDF on CD-ROM. Brandeis University in 1973, she taught English, American 5 The new type of world map, using a “Robinson Projection,” has been and Anglo-Irish literature at University College, Dublin for promoted by the National Geographic Society and by now is the map 30 years. Later, influenced by John G. Blair, she turned her on the wall in most American schools when children begin to become attention to China. While teaching at Beijing Foreign Studies aware of a wider world. 6 University of China, Professor McCormack helped develop ᆍ In China, traditionally, “world history” means non-Chinese history, an entirely new course for advanced students of English ¿OLDOSLHW\ not at all what is intended here. 7 In fact the Chinese tradition never distinguished between animate entitled “Western Civilization with Chinese Comparisons” in and inanimate , whereas from the Greeks on such differentiation has collaboration with Professor John Blair. Teaching the course seemed basic to Western minds. together helped them to enhance its content, now published by 8 It is true that in recent years the majority of medical treatments the Fudan University Press under the same title (WCwCC): delivered in China have been inspired by Western-style training, but traditional Chinese medicine remains superior for helping humans live third edition, 2010. with chronic conditions which cannot be cured but must be lived with. 9 See WCwCC 10 In world perspective, China does not get as much credit as it deserves. The one-child policy, for example, has contributed greatly to holding down the rise in the world population. Without this policy there would likely be nearly half a billion more human beings than the 7 billion there are now. 11 In the words of Zhuangzi: ੮㿲ѻᵜˈަᖰᰐェ˗੮≲ѻᵛˈަᶕ ᰐ→DŽᰐェᰐ→ˈ䀰ѻᰐҏ that it is beyond description.] Zhuangzi , Library of Chinese Classics, Hunan People’s Publishing House, vol. 2, 1999, chapter 25, edited and translated by Wang Rongpei.

About the authors:

John G. Blair is currently the IACSCW co-president for the West. He comes to comparative culture studies from thirty years of university teaching in European English Departments where he published several books and numerous scholarly Anglo-Irish literature and culture.

He got his Ph.D of English & American Literature in Brown University before transferring his life and career to Europe.

39 Comparative Studies of China and the West Vol. 1 2013

Building up Cultural Strategy of China as a Great Power

through Cultural Innovation By Wang Yuechuan Peking University

Abstract: The more China’s rise matters in the world, the more Chinese culture matters in international cultural discourse. Chinese culture is not only part of the East, but it is becoming part of the world. Thinkers in each era have their own cultural standpoints and their own cultural identities. Interaction of the thinkers prompts the recognition of WKHJUHDWSRZHUV¶FXOWXUDOLGHQWLW\7KLVSDSHUZLOOLOOXVWUDWHWKHVLJQL¿FDQFHRIFXOWXUDOLQQRYDWLRQWRWKHGHYHORSPHQW of a strong culture from six aspects.

Keywords: cultural innovation; cultural power; cultural cycle of Chinese characters; core culture; cultural lead- ership

The globalization of Western culture indicates the al Cycle of America. Some countries of the South China withering of the richness of human multiculturalism. Sea have begun to follow the United States; therefore, only through the restoration and reconstruction of the systems, science and technology, the globalization of Cultural Cycle of Chinese Characteristics can we solve the above aspects will and should be achieved, since it is the guarantee for human progress. However, as to - cultural forms, aesthetic sensibility, artistic spirit, and - religion, they should maintain their own characteristics, tries such as Vietnam, India and the Philippines; instead, without which the ecosystem of human spirit would these countries have become close to American culture suffer a major fracture and dislocation of ontology. and distant from China, encouraging confrontations as Those looking inward and lamenting that the earth is - a global village do not notice that human beings have tural soft power, and the establishment of the country’s entered into the space civilization with interstellar cultural strategy and national discourse is extremely ur- communication, and Chinese culture should make a gent. difference in the new century. Chinese culture should rise through overall innovation, and China should make It is not difficult to see that military crackdowns, efforts to integrate elite culture with folk culture, and economic competition and cultural battles have taken bring together the masters in the fields of ideology, on a new trend, and the cultural innovation of China as ≹ ෾ culture and art, to introduce them to the world, making a rising power is quite urgent. At present, the cultural 俆ቄ the country a cultural superpower valued by the world. battle has already begun. In the new century, the United This means Chinese culture not only belongs to China’, States adjusts its strategy to promote its culture in Asia, but also belongs to the world. Therefore, Chinese culture and puts forward the plan to return to Asia, and claims should go out and meet the world in the new century. to be dominated by the United States. I Cultural Power and Reconstruction of the Cultural Cycle of Chinese The United States, a nation with a 300-year history, Characteristics has dominated the political, military and cultural direc- China’s crisis in the East China Sea and South it turned the 60 countries after World War II, into more China Sea seemingly attribute to the intervention from than 200 countries. Second, it marginalized European the West, which has made the disputes on territory and modernism and earlier Asian modernism with post-mod- resources more complicated, but the deeper reason lies ernism, and gradually formed the hegemonic discourse in the death of the Cultural Cycle of Chinese Character- around the world. Post-colonialism, following the post- istics. In the past half century, anti-China trends in East modernism, no longer involves territories conquest and Asia have been very serious, and the Cultural Cycle of slavery, but language, mind and money. America urges Chinese Characteristics has been replaced by the Cultur- the world to follow it on the post-colonial road.

40 Wang Yuechuan Building up Cultural Strategy of China as a Great Power through Cultural Innovation

In fact, there are many types and patterns of world tion and reconstruction of the Cultural Cycle of Chinese f China as a Great Power modernization, including not only Western moderniza- Characteristics can help to solve these problems. tion, but also China’s modernization. China’s modernity cannot be a replica of the West’s and it proves that Chi- Chinese characteristics’ diminishing in East Asia na’s values, religious views, and institution are all rooted in its long history and culture. China’s rise is rewriting America part of the American cultural cycle. If we do human history and the country is no longer a marginal- not restore the Cultural Cycle of Chinese Characteristics, ized one, but a country engaged in the changing of the the South China Sea problem can only be solved through world. A great power image is made up of four aspects: a war. If we could reconstruct the Cultural Cycle of Chi- economic, political, military and cultural. China’s eco- nese Characteristics, people in the region could therefore nomic image is bright; its political image is winning the be humanized and the war could be avoided as well. trust of more and more countries; and its military image When China began to realize about the importance of is also on the rise; but its cultural image is at a disadvan- soft power and announced that 100 Confucius institutes WKHJUHDWSRZHUV¶FXOWXUDOLGHQWLW\7KLVSDSHUZLOOLOOXVWUDWHWKHVLJQL¿FDQFHRIFXOWXUDOLQQRYDWLRQWRWKHGHYHORSPHQW tage. were about to be founded all over the world 10 years ago, South Korea opened the Sejong Institute and Japan Now what we need to think about is whether it is opened the Japanese-learning center in sequence. What good for all humankind to follow the Western cultural is more, India has always been working hard on expand- mode, whether Eastern cultures can put forward their own cultural spirit, whether Eastern innovative culture is becoming a new cultural element in human civilization, In my opinion, in the new century, if China still and whether China should rethink what it means to be holds its cultural inferiority and cultural defeatism in- Chinese after a century of anti-China sentiments. With stead of its cultural confidence, we will never find the the threats of terrorism, separatism, racism, fundamental- core values. I have visited more than 50 countries, and ism, imperialism and unilateralism, can Chinese culture never found any of them has set a foreign language as offer the world a new option and a harmonious, peaceful a must in the examination for entering college, gradu- dead, and China is pressed by English culture and neigh- boring countries’ cultures. In this case, can China revive in no country have put forward such slogans as “down with ancient Greece and down with the Roman”, “down with Socrates or down with Plato”, but some Chinese Margaret Thatcher once said, “In my opinion, the did it—“down with Confucianism”. The core values of harmony of Chinese civilization has not entered into the the Chinese nation, of course, cannot be obtained from world vision, but become an illegitimate, marginalized others, just like our race, our yellow face, dark eyes, black hair, which cannot be obtained from genes of other actions have been conducted in the western discourse for 65 years. The United States, the so-called world’s look for new ones. In my opinion, the enlightenment of leader, asked the Korean peninsula to stop using Chinese brilliant virtues, the innovation of people, and the pur- language in 1945, and now even the name of the capital suit of ultimate goodness will surely become a precious of South Korea Seoul ( ≹ ෾ ), which means “Chinese resource and element of the Chinese nation's core val- City”, has been replaced with the word “ 俆ቄ ” (translit- eration). Japan abolished Chinese characters, took anti- China spirit anywhere. China actions and departed from Asia for Europe. It does not recognize itself as an Asian country but claims that II Cultural Strategy for Resolving it has to neighbor another Asian power, namely China. Fundamentalism Vietnam has also abolished Chinese characters; Singa- pore also has a tendency to prefer English to Chinese; A strong culture must have its own core values. anti-China phenomenon is serious in Taiwan. China’s The globalization of Christianity leads to the stronger crisis in the East China Sea and South China Sea seem- American fundamentalist tendencies, which has become ingly can be attributed to the intervention from the West, a big issue today. Fundamentalists believe that when the which made the disputes on territory and resources more authority is challenged, they should stick to the authority complicated, but the deeper reason lies in the disappear- of the original beliefs, resolutely against challenges and ance of the Cultural Cycle of Chinese Characteristics. In compromises, and even use political and military means the past half century, anti-China trends in East Asia tend to further show their toughness. Clearly fundamentalism to be very serious, and the Cultural Cycle of Chinese is strongly conservative, exclusive and confrontational. Characteristics has been replaced by the Cultural Cycle In other words, fundamentalists think “I’m right and of America. Some countries around the South China you are wrong; I am of a clan and you are wandering; Sea follow the United States; therefore, only the restora- my belief is of universal value but yours is of regional

41 Comparative Studies of China and the West Vol. 1 2013

value.” But the United States came across another scholars in humanities, to the cultural strategy. So far fundamentalism with stronger resistance—Islam. For 10 the region is almost an exclusive domain of domestic years, wars and disasters are ongoing. Anti-terrorism has social science, lacking the voice of the humanists. The led to more terrorism. A considerable portion of the US separation of humanities from national culture is not GDP is put in the war across the world. For ten years, normal. The cultural problem is not only an academic human has suffered from the confrontation between one, but also an influential political one. In this case, Christian fundamentalism of America and Islamic introducing a cultural and political perspective, and fundamentalism. expanding humanities into the cultural strategy not only help to strengthen the reasonability of the research on The trend of fundamentalism is on the rise in the cultural strategy, but also, more importantly, rebuild the world, and Obama tends to carry out imperialism. At relationship between culture and the academy, between this dangerous moment, we can neither choose narrow politics and the nation, and provide a new academic nationalism, nor follow the Western road. We can only focus for cultural research. focus on China, a country advocating tolerance and the doctrine of the Mean. Besides, we should absorb the In the era of globalization, cultural strategy refers virtues of cultures across the world, be creative and build to the competition strategy between cultures. The word a powerful China through culture. Rooting in the East “strategy” can only be holistic and forward-looking. means that the reconstruction of a cultural power identity Although the decline or Renaissance of Chinese culture is closely related to the Chinese Cultural Renaissance, may have no direct impact on our current life, and we and that the innovation of Chinese culture is not might even be pilloried as alarmist, a reflection of the only an important symbol of comprehensive national past of the culture and an overall plan on its future strength, but also the basic guarantee of the harmonious should be an inescapable responsibility of Chinese and balanced development of the world’s natural and intellectuals. The more China’s rise matters in the spiritual ecology. world civilization, the more Chinese culture matters in the international cultural discourse. Chinese culture is Over the years, tolerance, patience, doctrine of the not only part of the East’s, but is becoming part of the Mean, and esteeming harmony in Chinese culture barely world’s. had their own sound heard in the world, and China has been marginalized. There are 3.6 billion Christians, 1.4 Military war is replaced by culture war. In the billion Islamic believers, 900 million Hindus, and 460 future culture war, the view toward culture should be upgraded from tactical to strategic. China should attach China is being marginalized. American scholar Samuel greater importance to the overall national cultural strategy in China’s rise. As economy takes off, only when is between Christian civilization and Islamic civilization, the cultural Renaissance, the output and widespread of Chinese culture have an impact on the world can China civilization and Confucian civilization. The U.S.-China truly realize the peaceful rise. Reviewing the history, conflict has begun. The South China Sea was claimed → ˄ ˅ to be the high sea by Americans, so was the East China image output, which led to many dangers China is Sea. The countries around the South China Sea, such as facing now, such as the American culture’s invasion, Vietnam, the Philippines, and countries around the East the utilitarianism of the society, and the negative China Sea, such as Japan, South Korea, and even more effects of economic imperialism. In European cultural marginalized countries such as India and other countries Renaissance, Germany and France are more active in cultural expansion. Leadership is struggled for within the East Asian cultural circle. Japanese cartoons have We might as well say the voice of the Eastern culture becomes very important with the globalization essence, is a kind of cultural invasion; Dae Jang Geum and homogeneity of the world, with the spread of the shows the South Korean government’s efforts to justify financial crisis and economic crisis in the West. The their culture and to struggle for leadership in the East output of Chinese culture will help make China’s modern Asian culture cycle. experience the experience of the world, and China’s cultural globalization will help form a new world order, Thinkers in each era have their own cultural which can not only optimize the global allocation positions, and form their own cultural identities. of resources but also replace the previous discourse Interaction of the thinkers prompts the recognition structure. of a great power’s cultural identity. Rooting in the Eastern culture and paying attention to cultural output The neglect of the cultural strategy reflects and innovation is the cultural strategy for the rise of the indifference of Chinese intellectuals, especially China in the new century, and also ensures its cultural

42 Wang Yuechuan Building up Cultural Strategy of China as a Great Power through Cultural Innovation

security. This means that China no longer chases the the remolding of people, and the pursuit of ultimate Western trend in the new century, but becomes part of goodness. Virtue is the core of Chinese culture throughout the history, which is included in Beijing the charm of the dialogue between East and West, and spirits today. Saving a man’s life is a small virtue; it shows the harmony of Chinese culture, spreading the saving people’s life several times a year is a middle innovative and positive spirit of new Chinese culture. virtue; saving people’s life throughout one’s life is a The East-West dialogue will replace Western hegemony, great virtue. Today many people lack virtue since they and harmonious coexistence of human will replace any no longer help others. Clearly, enlightenment means to transfer small virtues into great virtues. Good virtue is born in nature. We should wash away the dust on the The spirit of harmony and peace of the East can mind every day. According to an old saying, if you can curb the jungle law of the West and the harm brought one day renovate yourself, do so from day to day and let by it. Nowadays, wars and terrorism happen across the there be daily renovation. It is crucial to keep the daily world; human culture faces unilateralism and hegemony; renovation. human spirit appears empty and faces the loss of survival significance; the world is under the threat of 3.2 China Emphasizing the Innovation of geopolitical of war and nuclear war. In this situation, People’s Personality we need to think about the future of human beings. As a big country in the East, we should ponder how to To reach the aim of self-enlightenment and innovate and continuously output Chinese culture. China enlightenment of others, Ancient Chinese asked for should think about human’s future from the point of all advice from both the learned and those who were not human beings. Cultural innovation should become the learned. Confucius was very modest, saying that we should ask about everything and learn from others. The of Eastern culture will surely put an end to the Western book Shuo Wen Jie Zi (which means “explanation of Chinese characters”) written by Duan Yucai, had some explanation of the word “innovation”. In my view, Rooting in the east means that the reconstruction innovation is the development based on the traditional of a cultural power identity is closely related to Chinese spirit. It is not to completely negate the tradition. cultural Renaissance, and that the innovation of Chinese German philosopher Heidegger absorbed a lot of culture is not only an important symbol of national spiritual elements from ancient Greek studying on the comprehensive strength, but also the basic guarantee contemporary existential philosophy, and he modernized of the harmonious and balanced development of the many ancient Greek vocabulary and thoughts. Thus, world. The cultural cycle of Chinese characteristics innovation is not anti-tradition, but it helps to enhance needs to be rebuilt. Under the confrontation of the people’s inner beauty. Islamic fundamentalism and Christian fundamentalism, only the voice of China being heard can help ensure the 3.3 Chinese Spirit Attaching Great Importance happiness of human beings. to the Word “ → ”˄literally means “stop” ˅

III Core Value of Chinese Culture is not Like two sides of the same coin, on the one hand, Nihilism it means “stop sliding into corruption”, and “rein in”; on the other hand, it means “do not stop pursuing until one Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism culture reaches the ultimate goodness”, which means “so long are three dimensions of Chinese ideology and culture. life exists, the struggle never rests”. The word “stop” Confucianism emphasizes harmony and its purpose is to emphasizes persevering pursuit—Qu Yuan, Zhu Geliang, govern a country; Taoists believe that man is an integral Yue Fei, Wen Tianxiang, and Wang Guowei were part of nature and should pursue natural inaction, and convincing examples. the aim of Taoism is to govern the self; Buddhism emphasizes compassion, and its main purpose is to 3.4 Three Reasons for Cultural Nihilism in the govern the mind and desires, including greediness, May 4th Movement utilitarianism, even hegemony. These three doctrines have long been marginalized in history, but now should We need to reflect on three reasons for cultural have their voice heard. nihilism in the May 4th Movement launched by Peking University: overthrow of Confucians, total 3.1 Chinese Spirit Emphasizing the Virtue Westernization, and abolition of Chinese characters.

The Great Learning says that the way of Great First, in the May 4th Movement, some professors Learning lies in the enlightenment of brilliant virtues, from Peking University exaggerated the slogan “down

43 Comparative Studies of China and the West Vol. 1 2013

with Confucianism” put forward by a scholar surnamed said, “I am opposed to the cultural inferiority, defeatism Wu from Sichuan province. In October 1966, Red Guards and not being confident. I think the rise of China will of Peking University went to Qufu, Shandong. They happen in 30 years.” Now, 30 years have passed, China’s called an assembly, held demonstrations, overturned the GDP has risen to the second in the world from the 76 th . tombstone, burned the plaque written “A teacher is an example for all”, and dug up Confucius’ tomb in a cruel and inhuman manner. Tsinghua University’s Red Guards Chinese cultural spirit can no longer be nihilism, arrived in Qufu in November 1966, and dug up the and the core value of Chinese cultural spirit must be tombs of Confucius’ 70 generations. After that, Korea, a small nation with a population 48 million, declared that: Confucius belongs to Korea, and then it claimed that IV Chinese Language Crisis Prevents Laozi, Xi Shi, and Jiang Taigong all belong to Korea, and China from Becoming a Cultural Power even the Mid-Autumn Festival and Dragon Boat Festival are festivals originating from Korea. This, of course, Recently, a survey by the Social Survey Center of should be attributed to Korean nationalism. Eight years China Youth Daily through minyi.net.cn and sina.cn.com ago President Hu Jintao announced the establishment of shows that 83.6% of respondents believe that Chinese 100 Confucius institutes around the world. The Office people’s Chinese proficiency has deteriorated. 69.1% of Chinese Language Council International announced: of them would like to see the promotion of Chinese In 2011, there were over 400 Confucius institutes, traditional culture and classics, and 50.6% of them including more than 300 Confucius classrooms around think that the Chinese language proficiency should be the world. The number may reach 1,000 in five years. considered in personnel recruitment. This survey shows, If China fails to find a typical cultural code, the West in a sense, that saying the Chinese language is in crisis is will lose the recognition of China’s cultural identity and not an exaggeration cultural value which distinguish the differences between them. Historically, four written languages of the five world’s early civilizations, namely, Egyptian hieroglyphs, Second, the idea of “Westernization” or “total cuneiform writing of Mesopotamia, American Mayan, modernization” put forward by Dr. Hu Shi from and Indian Sanskrit, successively disappeared and are Peking University is misunderstood. No less than one now represented only in history museums. Although doctor told me that China’s being colonized is absolute Sanskrit is still studied by scholars, it cannot any longer be widely used as Chineseis. Chinese characters, the colony Hong Kong is rich, and as the former Portuguese “oriental magic square”, have enjoyed a long life, which colony Macau is rich. But I want to ask, is Vietnam has disrupted the story of the tower of Babel since God cannot stop Chinese people building such a tower when their language remains united. It continues to show an st we should abandon “total Westernization”, and adhere increasing vitality in the 21 century. to the “half-Westernization”: science and technology integration, paralleled systems, cultural dialogue, and The so-called “cultural circle of Chinese characteristics” is a Chinese-centered discourse system modernization. and a cultural region in which the Chinese language The third is the abolition of Chinese characters, developed similar sign systems. Chinese characters and which was proposed by Qian Xuantong, a professor Chinese culture spread to Korea, Japan, Vietnam, and of Peking University. If we had abolished the Chinese other countries in Southeast Asia, connecting the culture characters, the mobile phones, computers, publications, between China and its surrounding countries. Although newspapers and books would be in alphabets and the most of these countries later created their own languages ancient Chinese literature and culture would lose its meaning for us. After one hundred years of cultural the Chinese language still exist. nihilism, in addition to total Westernization, Chinese seem to understand only two persons: Zhao Benshan The East China Sea and the South China Sea and Xiao Shenyang. Peking University professor Wang crises indicate that the “cultural circle of Chinese Xuan terminated the abolition of Chinese characters. characteristics” is losing its efficacy. Domestically, In the early 1980s, when Ji Xianlin said, “Fortune due to the intensive Westernization over the years, as changes”, some major newspapers criticized him and a well as the national education system and talent policy, professor publicly said in an article that the once staunch the importance of English has been unprecedentedly rationalist who had been in Germany for 10 years turned exaggerated and increasingly consolidated. Additionally, into a fortune teller. I asked Prof. Ji why he said that. He the exaggeration of the public voice and the persistent

44 Wang Yuechuan Building up Cultural Strategy of China as a Great Power through Cultural Innovation

overheating of the “overseas study fever” make English sense. With such a poor logic, they can even hardly write a crucial part of the contemporary Chinese education, affecting the insights of the intelligentsia and educational or appreciate calligraphy. circles in general. Nowadays, students of different majors all consider English a top priority and spend one Furthermore, there was a so-called “Theory on third of their time on the examination-oriented study. Abolishing Chinese Characters” during the ideological What’s worse, postgraduates and doctoral students spend trend of Chinese cultural nihilism in the 20 th century, more time on English learning than on their specialized which has led to a result that the Chinese language is no courses, which leads to the decrease of their academic longer a divine presence but has come to seem an evil performance. one. In fact, Chinese characters came into being with a divine glory. It is said that during the Huangdi period, The obvious “English over Chinese” situation Cangjie began to write on the basis of the markings of is still being hyped and English is still being birds and animals. According to Huai Nan Zi , when overemphasized, which leads to a lot of talented Cangjie began to write, grains fell from heaven and professional personnel being rejected from corresponding ghosts cried in the evening. This was probably because circles just because of their poor English. It is said that our ancestors were awed to the mysterious unity of spirit Chinese, asecond-class one in China. Children begin the unique creation of Characters. to learn English in kindergarten. When they grow up, they have to learn English for the college entrance Entering China’s grand unified period, Chinese examination, civil service examinations, job applications, characters served for the governors. The power of and professional evaluations. Moreover, even the bus characters makes ideas immortal, following virtue attendants also have to speak some English; and some and good deeds. It is only the written language that is prestigious universities even advocate all professors giving lectures in English. The promotion tests in China, also written language that can bring about ideological so to speak, all take English, rather than Chinese, as the accusation which might be fatal. measurement for selection. Therefore, English seems to be the “new eight-part essay” in China’s examinations, What’s worse, influenced by the Western culture, playing the role of a “new imperial examination”. the voice of overall Westernization was higher in the 20 th century. Under these circumstances, Qian Xuantong I have no objection to English learning since declared that “Chinese characters are difficult to learning another language is indeed very important identify and hard to write, which makes it an obstacle to know about the world. However, the study of the to the popularity of education as well as the spread native language and foreign language should be done of knowledge”. He believed that “replacing Chinese in balance. Taking English as the only measurement of characters with alphabetic writing is the solution to solve entrance examinations will bring untold troubles. The the problem while simplifying current Chinese characters can treat the symptom” and “the solution is the essential in our native language, a neglect of professional quality, thing at present”. Therefore, Chinese characters, which and a trend toward Westernization in the contemporary have helped record Confucianism and Taoism “should educational system. Studying the humanities and the be abolished”. Chen Duxiu held that “Chinese characters science of art in this way can only result in talent cannot express new things or new theories and they are shortages and mother-tongue inferiority. After all, the source of those decadent ideologies and, therefore, English should only be the secondary measurement of a should be abolished”. Lu Xun also believed that “the nation’s education, while the native language and majors Chinese language is a powerful tool for obscurantism… should be of priority. and the ‘tuberculosis’ in China’s toiling masses”, so that “Chinese characters and Chinese people are extremely Chinese language crises are not only embodied in antagonistic” 1. According to the above-mentioned the higher education system, but also in our daily life. views, it seemed that Chinese characters were already People have suffered character amnesia in the age of out of date and should be replaced by an alphabetic computers. The randomness and individuality of Internet language. Chinese characters, in this way, fell from language and micro-blog language make Chinese the peak of divinity to the abyss of being outdated and language less standard and more vulgar. Nowadays, evil. The simplification of Chinese characters started some people like to speak pidgin or Chinglish. Besides, in the register of post-colonialism, so, in the 1980s, as a result of the marginalization of the classical people considered Chinese characters not suitable for Chinese, the heritage of traditional culture is neglected. the information era, simply because they were hard to Therefore, many students make lots of errors in writing, input into computers. However, this viewpoint was later sometimes their Chinese expression even doesn’t make proved to be wrong when Professor Wang Xuan invented

45 Comparative Studies of China and the West Vol. 1 2013 computerized Chinese characters. tive effects on our whole society, such as utilitarianism, McDonaldization, and economic imperialism. As to the As a matter of fact, the Japanese were the first revival of European culture, Germany and France are who came up with the idea of abolishing Chinese more active in cultural expansion. As far as I can see, characters. In December 1866, Baron Mitsu Mayejima China’s cultural soft power needs to be improved; thus presented “On Abolishing Chinese characters” to the proposal of cultural power building is a good cultural Japanese general Tokugawa, saying that “the reason for strategy proposed urgently. I spent nearly half a year China, a vast country with a large population, being so studying on how many works were translated into Chi- nese from English, French, German, Italian, and Russian is their hieroglyphic and their neglect of universalized from 1900s to 2000s. The answer is more than 100680 education; abolishing Chinese characters does not mean works. After that, I did another research on how many to abolish all Chinese characters, but just record them works have been translated from Chinese into Western in katakana … not abolishing Chinese characters would languages in the 20 th country. And the answer is only steal Yamato spirit because of the influential Chinese about 800, which is the same as that of the GAPP (Gen- spirit.” ฀It can be seen that Japan has already connected eral Administration of Press and Publication). How dan- national spirit with the use of written language. However, if we advocate abolishing Chinese characters about the Western world, while they know too little along with Japanese, it will do great harm to China. about us. In these days, “China Threat”, “China Col- lapse” and Yellow Peril” linger in our ears. How comes The Chinese pattern of thought is the essence of Chinese and the epitome of Chinese culture. This means we do not try to make a dialogue with the Western world we need to think about China’s reality and future in our based on equality. China is now trapped in multiple pas- ฀ native language. I am not denying the English pattern sive crises. of thought; on the contrary, I think it is important to introduce Western thoughts into China in this globalized Western powers are changing the world into a world. Nowadays, under the shadow of terrorism, “global village” through globalization, while China’s separatism, racialism, fundamentalism, hegemonism, rise limits their powers. The core of China’s cultural and unilateralism, the former glorious sino-sphere strategy in the new century should be exportation of exists now in name only and has already been besieged Chinese culture. We should pay attention to our national by Western cultures and the cultures of surrounding image in the context of internationalization based on the countries. Can China make “re-sinicization” a revival of cask principle— no matter how tall the cask may be, it is the shortest board, not the longest one, determines how much water the cask can hold. In other words, all cul- Fortunately, “Chinese fever” in the Western world tures have to deal with the same problem related to their has increased these days, especially in the United States. external images. A nation’s image is composed of dif- Quite a lot of American students choose Chinese as their ferent aspects in which its international image is always major. And the TCFL (Teaching Chinese as a Foreign determined by the most disadvantaged one. Language) centers in China’s universities are crowded with the foreign students. The culture situation of East Asia is amid mounting tensions and has become an area full of instability and As far as I am concerned, the Chinese language crisis, in nature, is the oriental cultural crisis, which warns that during the material modernization, one per- is a result of Western cultural hegemony. Therefore, cent of the population has mental diseases, one percent resolving Chinese language crisis is the prerequisite for has AIDs, and one percent commits suicide. People’s introducing oriental culture, and the only way for China spiritual and cultural ecology is faced up with serious to become a cultural power. Only by rebuilding the sino- problems, including loquacious cultures, fragile lives, sphere in the process of “re-sinicization”, can we build void values, and vulgar spirit. Therefore, China should Chinese people’s awareness of and confidence in the learn a lesson and persist in its spiritual modernization Chinese language and can bring world culture to a really even, amidst its material modernization. equal conversational table. Modern European cultural strategy, named cultural V Cultural Strategies of Great Powers and law of the jungle, includes three kinds of competition: Cultural Hegemony competition between individuals, competition between groups, and competition between nations. Over half a In the modern world, countries compete for cul- century, the post-modern cultural strategy of America tural hegemony, which drives China into multiple crises. is spreading three American cultural products through- American culture and fast-food culture bring many nega- out the world, namely, blockbusters, potato chips, and

46 Wang Yuechuan Building up Cultural Strategy of China as a Great Power through Cultural Innovation

computer chips. The blockbusters control our vision en- image. Cafferty, the host of the Voice of America, once tertainment; potato chips control our stomach; and com- insulted China, saying that the country was a mean puter chips, our creativity and cultural security. and inferior nation. France posted a huge poster of handcuffs and foot chains on the Eiffel Tower before It is very dangerous for “Three-Harmony Culture” 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, saying that China was of family harmony, society harmony and international a state of dictatorship. In a Korean commercial poster, harmony, as the core of Chinese culture, to be long ab- the image of Chairman Mao on the Tian’anmen Square sent from the international cultural strategies. Therefore, was transformed into a wolf. The circulation of a this “Three-Harmony Culture” should be one of the im- Japanese book An Introduction to China, reaching two- portant supplements to the Western cultural strategy. And thirds of its population, contains a large number of China’s cultural strategy might be correction of Western malicious comics defaming China’s one-child policy, unilateralism and hegemonism. election system, pension system, medical system and even education. All these prevent Westerners from Over the past decades, China’s four great inven- treating China’s prosperity objectively and rationally. ฀ tions have been frequently challenged. In 1966, Korea Margaret Thatcher was even worse. Three years ago, found a Buddhist scripture, to deny China as the inven- she said something we will never forget: “China will tor of the block printing accordingly. A Korean woman never become a superpower, because they do not have Ph.D in France found a movable-type printed book, an international theory to propel their power and impair Point, published in 1377, and then denied the fact that Bi western countries. Although China’s economy grows Sheng was the inventor of movable type print. India de- fast, it will only be a big country of production. For the nied Cai Lun’s invention of paper making, believing that output of spiritual and cultural innovation, China is just Indians were the first to make paper 374 years earlier a tiny country that is not worthy of our attention.” ฀ than China. A Japanese archaeologist perjured himself for 28 years, extending Japanese history from 30,000 China has already risen in the estimation of the years into 700,000. We have to be alertly aware that our World Bank. Some people think rich countries are great cultural heritages have being seriously encroached. powers since they believe the men of wealth are the ones of high position. However, in my opinion, they are Let’s take a look at the problems China has en- totally different. As a matter of fact, in history China countered: in 1985, a Japanese scholar from Tokyo Uni- began to collapse right after it enjoyed its richest period. versity put forward that China should be a great power Innovation, national spirit, and cultural confidence are in the world in 20 years and there was one way to stop essential for a country to move from being rich to being its progress—the independence of Hong Kong, Taiwan, a great power. Tibet, Inner Mongolia, Korea, North China and South China, through which China will be divided into several Cultural innovation becomes increasingly parts. It was described in On Seven Countries , a book important. If we start from scratch without our cultural that Li Denghui has published in Taiwan. You may think heritage, we could never catch up with the world. We it cannot happen, but look at USSR, the former second can make cultural exportation and innovation based on largest country in the world. It disintegrated into five our great and harmonious culture. I believe the Chinese countries. Putin, president of Russia has announced that concept of harmony cherished by Chinese people Russia is no longer in the list of the great powers, be- from generations to generations can be shared by all cause its GDP only account one seventh of China’s. world from nuclear war. VI Cultural Innovation and the Anti- demonization of China’s Image An internal obstacle of cultural innovation is China’s cultural defeatism. Externally, China’s cultural With these terms such as “Yellow Peril”, image is presented as blurry, and sometimes even “China Threat Theory”, and “China Collapse Theory”, very dangerous. To be short, the biggest problem of China’s culture image is being demonized. During the China’s culture is the inner emptiness and the external cultural cold war, some Western countries intentionally vacillation. Cultural innovation needs the cultivation misinterpreted and calumniated the rise and development of China. Deng Xiaoping’s idea of “keeping a low namely, inner coordination and solidarity, and external vitality. The new civilization will be a post-traditional US military into “hiding the claws and teeth in order era, in which the essence of traditional culture, such as to find an opportunity to counter-attack”. They also translated China’s dragon into “Chinese Dinosaur”, or the world. And China’s cultural innovation will come “Chinese Lizard”. If we don’t work on our culture, we into a new era. The development of the space civilization and the advancement of the cultural worldview will

47 Comparative Studies of China and the West Vol. 1 2013 provide a healthy environment for China’s culture, The rise of China does not mean that China is including its innovation of systems, categories, art, and becoming similar to the Western world, but that it will literature. China’s literary criticism should be a window contribute its own experience and wisdom to the world. 3UR¿WRULHQWHGRU(PSO WRULHQWHG" of cultural innovation. The greatest mission in our age is A wise leadership group should have the courage and to construct the spirit of the Chinese culture and art, as vision to adjust the world’s cultural progress and fight well as to rebuild China’s image. against the “China Collapse Theory” and “China Threat As a rising great power, we are obliged to doors; we call for peaceful coexistence, but we do not introduce the Chinese culture to the world, in order to attempt to accomplish nothing. After all, as I have said, avoid cultural wars caused by the escalation of cultural culture is the key to the world competition and harmony is the only way of human development. domestic and international academia and shift the “total Westernization” of the 20 th century to the “interaction (Translated byWang Nina and Hu Wenxiao) between East and West”.

China’s sustainable cultural exportation is crucial to our cultural security. On the academic frontier 1 Essays from a Semi-concession (Qie Jie Ting Za Wen) by Lu Xun. 2 we have witnessed important thought transitions in Li Qing, History of Japanese Sinology , Volume I. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Languages Education Press, 2002,106. contemporary China, from clarifying the relationship 3 between multinational capital operation and cultural Phoenix Weekly , 2006 (16). hegemony, to resolving the spiritual secularization in the digital time; from clarifying the fact that US-globalism About the author: role China plays in Asia culturally. We cannot let Wang Yuechuan, IACSCW Vice President, is professor and hedonism and consumerism corrupt our national spirit. doctoral supervisor in the Department of Chinese Language A tide of “return to the classics” is rising in the and Literature at Peking University. He has been a visiting contemporary world. Chinese scholars should attach professor at Kanazawa University, and an adjunct professor at importance to both innovation and the heritage of classics, achieving spiritual modernization in the process of material modernization. China’s modernization Professor Wang serves as the vice-chairman of the Society of should go beyond the national height to an international Chinese and Foreign Literary Theory, the General-secretary height based on independent innovation in the culture of the China National Aesthetics Society Higher Education import and export, sharing valuable Chinese thought Institution Committee, and is a member of the China Writers with all humankind. In the new century, China’s cultural Association, China Calligraphers Association, and a researcher innovation should also conform to the following rules: at the Chinese Cultural Academy of Classical Learning. He re-recognizing Eastern culture, returning to the classics, has been dedicated to teaching and studying literature and being innovative, and carrying forward Chinese Culture. aesthetics, literary theory, Western literary theory, and modern Only in this way can China move towards an ecological cultural studies and criticism. and innovative culture.

According to the forecast of Goldman Sachs, an American investment bank, China will exceed the United States and become the largest economy of the world no later than 2027. American scholars begin to realize that Western countries are not the only power in the 21th century; China, on its way to being a great power, will attach more importance to the values inherited from its ancient civilization and create a modernized new model—the Chinese Model. Culture is the key to the world competition and harmony is the only way of human development. The world culture is now at the turning point when China should abandon its ossified elements and promote its spirit of ecological culture, thus making our own contribution to the happiness of all human beings.

48 Gao Peiyi Profit-oriented or Employment-oriented?

3UR¿WRULHQWHGRU(PSO oymen WRULHQWHG" ——A New Topic for the Comparative Studies of Chinese

and Western Economic Cultures By Gao Peiyi Tsinghua University

I Origin of the Issue After China’s reform and opening to the outside world in the early 1980s, Chinese economists applied After a comparative study on the histories of Western theories and introduced the profit-oriented economies, economics, economic thought and economic principle in their works, but their emphasis on profit differs from that of their Western counterparts, and differ greatly in the economic development mode, in the concern for people’s wellbeing and the problem of spite of the fact that they share almost the same view employment was not completely blotted out. Therefore, on the nature of “Economic Man”. That is to say, China a really far-sighted Chinese economist should stick to has focused on the well-being of its people, while the the notion of return to the employment-oriented mode -- West on the accumulation of wealth, which accounts the true essence of Chinese economic culture for the crucial difference between them. In other words, Chinese economic culture is employment-oriented, while In fact, even some Western economists have gradually discarded extreme profit-orientation and begun to move slightly in the direction of employment- Western economic culture is almost self-evident. We will orientation, especially after the financial crisis, which broke out in America in 2008 and later spread throughout reading the works of some Western economists like The the world. This change has been drawing increasing Wealth of Nations (Adam Smith) 1, The General Theory attention, and nowadays the problem of employment of Employment, Interest and Money (John Maynard occupies a more important position in macroeconomic Keynes) 2or Economics (Paul Anthony Samuelson) 3. control systems. Although the problem of employment is mentioned in these books, it serves only as a footnote to the concern According to Prof. Shen Liantao, Chief Consultant with the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) and former Chairman of Hong Kong Securities and However, things will be different when it comes to Futures Commission (SFC), the next war will not be the employment-orientation of Chinese economic culture. triggered by trade or currency, but by employment 4. Up to now, the Chinese mainland has not witnessed the And in 2012, American economist Martin Feldstein birth of its own economics, and not a single authoritative emphasized that the election results would depend book under the title of Chinese Economics by native significantly on the economy’s performance and the Chinese scholars has been published. Therefore, it seems unemployment rate 5. Therefore the author of this paper there is no point in talking about Chinese economic insists that it is imperative that employment-oriented culture, let alone its employment-oriented focus. but also in the West. It is true that China does not have an economics attributed to itself, or even a masterpiece entitled For the above reasons, we are now raising the Chinese Economics by its native scholars, but its question of profit-oriented or employment-oriented, economic activities date back 5,000 years and its which is a key issue for the comparative studies of economic thoughts about 3,000 years, and therefore it Chinese and Western economic cultures. The vital is not devoid of valuable resources or profound ideas. If a comprehensive review is given to China’s history of economic culture, its employment-oriented nature will oriented mode persists, the sustainable development of reveal itself. In this sense, this employment-orientation human society is impossible.

49 Comparative Studies of China and the West Vol. 1 2013

In addition, although the replacement of profit- General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money , orientation by employment-orientation seems inexorable, there is still a long way to go, and the biggest obstacles the code of conduct for enterprises. will be rigid systems and pressure from vested interest groups. After he put forward in his book the three “magic keys” to the solution of employment problems Finally, quite a few questions remain unanswered: -- stimulating demand, increasing government expenditures, and the policy of inflation, the whole society fell under the control of profit maximization. But in the long run, they cannot solve the problem fundamentally, and they lead to the double crisis of stagflation instead. According to my research, Keynes’ employment theory is in fact the nationalization, orientation and the principle of profit maximization, which laid a trap beyond redemption for the solution to paper. the employment problem. ,,3UR¿WRULHQWDWLRQDQG.H\QHVLDQ7UDSV Driven by profit-orientation, we have all been inescapably caught in a Keynesian trap. Due to this trap, 3UR¿WRULHQWDWLRQ the enterprise management models, economic theories, and the systems of politics, economy, education, science Profit-orientation refers to principle of modern and technology and news media are all designed to center and basis. It originates in greedy human nature, and serves as the code of conduct for the entrepreneurs It is true that these institutions and people get their in the age of modern capitalist economies. Everyone, due share in this process, but the problem of employment once entering the capital market, will abide by this is doomed from the very beginning. Employment hence universal principle automatically. The essence of this becomes the biggest social and economic problem in the present day capitalist economy, and is hit hardest due to failures in the operation of market economy. In its essence, profit originates from the value created by labor on the earth driven by capital. If “nature In the opinion of Michael Spence, American is the mother of wealth and the father of labor” (William economist and co-winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Petty), I will maintain that capital is nothing but the economics, “The fundamental structural changes in “midwife” of wealth. The “labor” here refers to the global economy indicate that we are faced with three necessary labor in the broad sense, including manual changes in employment….And first, we need to create labor, mental labor, physical labor, spiritual labor, and enough job opportunities for the young people about to the labor of entrepreneurs, engineers and scientists. enter the labor market. Obviously, many developed and developing countries have failed to do so.” 7 In the market, profit exists in the form of money and is calculated in the form of price. It is the soul Since the formation of profits is related to of capital, the dynamics of entrepreneurs, and the employment as well as to the consumption of energy monetized economic basis upon which human society and a variety of other resources, extreme profit- depends for its existence and development in a certain orientation has not only resulted in the deterioration of stage. the employment environment, but also posed a threat to the living conditions of the working class and the very Quantitatively speaking, it is the surplus left existence of human society. after subtracting the cost from the gross investment. Profit maximization means the maximum profit with More unfortunately, it is not only the entrepreneurs minimum labor. In Keynes’ words, “the principle of and capitalists but the whole society who are pursuing the maximum profit, and the government’s pursuit of That is to say, the employment size that entrepreneurs GDP growth and an individual’s thirst for money are 6 -- And this is the root cause of the problem. and money supremacy have already broken the legal and moral defense of man’s self-discipline, and are 2.2 Keynesian Traps ruining the natural and social ecosystems upon which humankind depends for living. Before John Maynard Keynes published his The 50 Gao Peiyi Profit-oriented or Employment-oriented? III Employment-orientation and reasonable kernel of truths in them. Employment-oriented Theory The existing theories and policies concerning 3.1 Employment-orientation Profit-orientation is a mode of economic culture, to the transformation to the mode of employment- with employment as the sole standard, motive, center orientation. And therefore a brand-new employment and basis of human society. It is not only the ultimate theory must be established. This new theory should show goal of an ideal society originated in the essential nature respect for the former achievements and be operable in of human beings, but also the natural historical process practice. of returning from the hypothesis of economic man to the “complete” ( gestalt ) man -- the trinity of economic Based on these principles, I now attempt to man, social man and ecological man. The principle of propose a new theory framework for employment, the employment-orientation has its interior logic as well as major points of which are listed as follows: its exterior realistic feasibility. Firstly, the philosophical basis of employment- It must be pointed out that this mode does not oriented theory is Marx’s Labor Philosophy, which holds that labor produces not only value and wealth, but 10 ,,3UR¿WRULHQWDWLRQDQG.H\QHVLDQ7UDSV orientation does not eliminate that of employment. There also human beings themselves . In a world with highly developed productive forces and overwhelming material 3UR¿WRULHQWDWLRQ orientation has played an important and irreplaceable wealth, in the process of producing and improving man, role in the development of social productivity and the progress of civilization. The material wealth and to becoming the first priority in one’s life. As a result, achievement in science and technology attributed employment, as a specific state of labor in its broad to modern capitalist system characterized by profit- sense in the process of socialization, ought not to be any orientation since 1700s has exceeded the total in all of longer related only to wages which man depends on for earlier history. a living. Instead, it should become a basic approach, by which man can bring his working talent into full play But when it comes to moral cultivation, almost no and thereby realize the value of life. progress has been made. Thus we can say that it has been led astray and has gone too far. According to the research Secondly, its legal foundation is the theory of of Jacques-Yves Cousteau, an oceanographer,“in the 100 natural rights. Employment, like food, clothing and years of the 20 th century, mankind caused more damage shelter, is one of man’s basic survival needs, one of the to the earth than they had ever done before.” 8 And that’s fundamental human rights. At the same time, he that why experts from the Worldwatch Institute warn that the will not work shall not eat. If a person with adequate international community must unite to reverse the course of the crisis, or they will be caught in a vicious cycle and one, we can say that his right of employment is violated, face the danger of environmental degradation and social and the government should be responsible for it. disintegration. 9 After investigating into the relationship between As the old thinking goes, “When things reach output and unemployment in China, Professor Sun their extreme, they turn back.” Then what is the way Yongjun from Dongbei University of Finance and Economics, proposed a macro policy goal in the name of employment-orientation. This theory does not mean a of “employment maximization,” and emphasized that complete negation of all the political, economic, social, the Government should fully consider and accept this 11 notion . It is a direct challenge against profit-oriented mode and worth our full attention. Meanwhile, if a a critical inheriting and evaluating of them in order to correct the distortions and put things in the right order. to be employed without a just cause, he will be blamed for being immoral and dishonorable. 3.2 The Theory of Employment-orientation Thirdly, this theory holds that the hypothesis of The fundamental transformation from profit- acting man is the “complete” ( gestalt ) man, the trinity of orientation to employment-orientation is not only economic man, social man and ecological man, whose necessary but also essential. This change will not take behavior is not attributed to a self-centered economic place automatically, but requires effort from every one animal, nor to the creatures subject to the ecological of us. A task of top priority in my mind is to firmly environment. According to the employment-oriented theory, the rights and duties of employment have the new paths in employment theory while absorbing the trinity of economic man, social man and ecological man 51 Comparative Studies of China and the West Vol. 1 2013 not only as their source, but also as their end. organizing resources, can bring about numerous job opportunities in the process of being transformed into Fourthly, this theory has a law of capital employ- economic resources. Some new “sunrise industries”, ment ratio as its fundamental principle, which focuses on including ecological industries, health industries and the employment size corresponding to per unit of capital. especially cultural industries, can greatly expand the On a micro level, the capital employment ratio functions employment space. As UNESCO Director-General through enterprise behaviors, and regulate the rational Irina Bokova pointed out, “Culture has a rich source of flow of labor force between enterprises/ On a macro income generation and job creation, especially in the level, it functions through the operation of the general 12 The capital employment ratio law has an essential pre- (Translated by Ma Shikui) WKDWWKHKLVWRU\RIVXFKVRFLHWLHVLQ&KLQDDQG,UHODQGKDGEHHQLQÀXHQFHGE\WUDQVQDWLRQDOIDFWRUVOHDGLQJWRPDLQ cut-throat competition, and also without unreasonable administrative monopoly or abnormal monopoly. This 1 Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nation . Trans.Yang Chingnien, Taiyuan: means that a new evaluation index system has to be es- ShanxiPeople’s Publishing House, 2011. 2 John Maynard Keynes, General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money. Trans.Xu Yünan. Beijing: The Commercial Press, 1957. 3 Paul Anthony Samuelson, Economics .Trans.Xiao Chen. Beijing: The Fifthly, the basic distribution principle in this the- Commercial Press, 2011. ory is one that depends on labor capital investment and 4 Shen Liantao, “Introspection of the Market”, Caijing , 2013(3), 41. 5 the corresponding returns on it. Labor capital is in fact Martin Feldstein, “ Presidential Economics”. China Focus , 2012 (6), 84. the capitalization of the cost for the reproduction of la- 6 John Maynard Keynes, General Theory of Employment Interest and bor force. According to the employment-oriented theory, Money. Trans. Gan Qiang & Wang Junbo. Changchun: Jilin Literature the price of labor, or the salary, is the return on the labor and History Press, 2010, 19. capital investment. Besides his salary, a worker is also 7 Michael Spence, “The Global Jobs Challenge”. Caijing , 2011(2),71. 8 th Leften Stavros Stavrianos, A Global History (7 ed.). Beijing: Beijing University Press, 2005,18. 9 Ibid. Finally, the concept of employment in this theory is 10 Wang Jiangsong, Philosophy of Labor . Beijing: People’s Publishing a macro one, in a broad sense. Employment is in fact the House, 2012. crucial factor upon which human society depends for its 11 Sun Yungjun, Research on the Relationship of Chinese Unemployment survival, and an essential means by which an individual and Output . Changchun: Dongbei University of Finance and Economics Press, 2012, 140. can realize his value. 12 UNESCO Calls for Attention to Cultural Industries. Reference News (Cankaoxiaoxi), May 17, 2013, 8. At present, many people have misunderstood the concept of “ ቡъ ”˄jiu ye ˅, and often confuse it with - About the author: ing a job ”can be rendered into the “ ቡъ ”˄jiu ye ˅ˈ but the latter obviously has a wider range of implica- Dr. Gao Peiyi, IACSCW Executive Vice President, is tions. distinguished research fellow and co-director for the Urbanization and Industrialization Research Institute of Therefore, the concept of “ ቡъ ” ˄jiu ye ˅ has Tsinghua University. both the broad sense and a narrow sense in the discus- sion here. Narrowly speaking, it is synonymous with After completing his doctor’s degree at Peking University in employment. More broadly speaking, it also takes into 1990, Gao served as a researcher at the State Price Control consideration of self-employment, free employment, tak- Bureau, and later as a professor and the director for Korean ing on volunteer work, starting one’s own business and Studies Institute at Shandong University. Dr. Gao is the so on. first to put forward a clear theoretical framework for the All in all, if a person works and is paid legally, and comparative study of Urbanization in China and the West, thus realizes his value and makes his own contribution and has thereby laid a solid foundation for the budding to the society, all his labor, work, business and activities discipline of Urbanization Development Studies. His most belong to the category of employment. Then most important works in this area include A Comparative Study probably, the real trouble will not lie in the lack of job of Urbanization in China and the West (1991; 2004); An opportunities, but in that of candidates for the large Introduction to Urbanization Development Studies (2009); number of vacancies. Principles of Urbanization Development Studies (2009); Population Urbanization (2011) ; Urbanization and Urban- A wide variety of resources, such as social Rural Relationship (2011). resources, cultural resources, spiritual resources and

52 Frank Jacob Social Organization, Secrecy, and Rebellion – Secret Societies in China and Ireland Social Organization, Secrecy, and Rebellion – Secret Societies in China and Ireland

By Frank Jacob Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg Abstract: The following article will compare secret societies in China and Ireland of the 18 th and 19 th century with regard to their genesis, their secrecy and their revolutionary potential. By a comparative analysis it will be shown, WKDWWKHKLVWRU\RIVXFKVRFLHWLHVLQ&KLQDDQG,UHODQGKDGEHHQLQÀXHQFHGE\WUDQVQDWLRQDOIDFWRUVOHDGLQJWRPDLQ similarities in their national histories.

Keywords: secret societies; Triad societies; United Irishmen; Chinese history; Irish history

1.Introduction and a detailed analysis will show the similar aspects of their genesis, their reasons for secrecy as well as their There are still many people around the globe, revolutionary potential for the course of history. 7 The who believe that secret societies are responsible for the ideas or political identities as well as the validations of course of history. 1 For historians it is not a simple task, the societies changed through the ages, but even if the to analyze the history of secret societies. Despite this, Triads became a more criminal society, their history recent studies confirm, that these societies constitute shows, that a comparative perspective is reasonable and a global phenomenon, whose manifestations are will help to overcome a Euro-centric view of history. 8 comparable in many different points. Especially in China, many such societies existed and next to Bruce The following article will compare secret societies Lee or Fu Manchu, these groups are among the most in Ireland and China to show, that the reasons for their known Chinese stereotypes in the United States or foundation are mainly the same. They were not founded Europe. 2 The Chinese secret societies have a long and to rule from behind the curtain, but were social answers complex history and there is almost no revolutionary to existing problems in the single countries. In a second event in the long history of China, for which no secret step, it should be asked, why the societies became ቡъ˄ ˅ society had been responsible. 3 In general the term secret secret. In the most cases, this decision was not made society “designates associations whose policies are by the leaders of the societies themselves. They just ቡъ˄ ˅ˈ characterized by a particular kind of religious, political, reacted to existing problems or to forceful prosecution. and social dissent from the established order” 4 and could Finally their revolutionary potential during the course be used for many organizations in different countries and of the national histories of China and Ireland shall be time periods. There are a lot of similarities between these researched to show, which real influence the societies ቡъ ˄ ˅ secret societies, no matter if they existed in Europe or were able to carry out. Due to the temporal limitation China; especially the Triad lodges were compared to the of those presentations, I only chose a two-sided lodges of the Freemasons by European visitors to China comparison, which could be broadened by the addition during the 19th century. Their organizational structure, of more societies like the Freemasons, the Illuminati, their oaths, their rules and secret signs reminded the the Carbonari or African or American secret societies as Europeans, who traveled to China, of the Masonic well. lodges of Europe. 5 2.Genesis In contrast to these early visitors Jean Chesneaux denied a comparability of secret societies in China and Secret societies are usually performing a task: the Europe. 6 His thesis underlined a European-centered promise of deliverance and a better world, a replacement theory, due to which Asian and European developments for family ties, mutual help, proto-democratic structures, were not comparable. But secret societies in China, as and a better chance for survival, the ensuring of identity, in other countries, have had their origin sometimes in resistance and upheaval against social inequity, patriotic political circumstances, and sometimes in the desire to motives, and the protection of villages or social groups maintain a craft, propagate a doctrine, or to advance as well as against governmental suppression. But they some object of philanthropy. The political aims of secret could serve criminal aims, too. 9

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Especially in China secret societies were a form be abolished and propagated a new concept of peace.18 of social organization and some kind of non-elitist Their aim was “the greatest happiness of the greatest answer to the challenge of a mobile, commercial, and number on this Island” 19 competitive order of an early modern period. 10 As a of Belfast, another branch was founded in Dublin. 20 At consequence, the societies of the 18 th and 19 th century the first instance, the society was founded as a public were no new phenomenon, but developed from older organization of religious tolerance, which asked for a forms of mutual help in Chinese rural society. They peaceful change of the Irish situation. continued by introducing oaths, signs and secrecy to secure the more political task of Ming loyalty. 11 The new society was not seen then as dangerous, In foreign Chinese communities the secret societies but the French Revolution had just begun to spread answered the need of young men to protect their its ideas over Europe and did not simply influence the identity by organizing people from the same cultural aims of the United Irishmen. 21 With the outbreak of origin. 12 Finally there were some areas in China in the the English-French War, Ireland became a strategic 19th century, where one was not able to find even one backdoor for a possible French invasion. The chance village without a secret society. Around the 1850s there for military support from France transformed a national were two big systems or labels of secret societies: the matter into an international one. 22 The United Irishmen White Lotus in the north and the Triads in the south. 13 were prohibited and became a secret society; it then In contrast to the Triad societies, which had their rule in combined its forces with the still existing societies of the the 18th century, the White Lotus was a more religious Defenders. This underlines the fact that secret societies movement, which became a label for secret societies were not secret from its origin onwards, a fact that raises as a consequence of an upheaval of the White Lotus in the question of the roots of secrecy in a secret society. Shandong in 1622. In general, there were several small secret societies, which were loosely included under one 3.Secrecy of these two labels or brands. 14 Rituals and secrecy are mostly important factors The end of the Ming dynasty in 1644 laid the in the histories of secret societies, because these points ground for a new political aim and Ming loyalists in were responsible for the image of exclusivity which Taiwan founded the first Triad (ti-hui) society, which produced an interest in the different groups. In China by spread over all of China during the following decades. their oaths and secret signs, the Triad societies became Its members were recruited from all social levels and especially attractive for new aspiring members. 23 But over time the accessibility of the societies grew to a why did the societies need such secrecy and why did more universal phase of recruitment. Regardless of the original social groups begin to transform into secret the fact, that the societies shared the same origin, their organizational structure remained decentralized. The dangerous and were forbidden. A hierarchical order, regional groups just had a loose connection, which was which was an expression of a “social choreography” 24 , underlined by shared traditions. All in all, the societies a recruitment, which followed the lines of friendships or blood relationships, and strict secrecy were adapted 25 by the historical developments leading to the end of the to save the members of the individual organizations. Ming dynasty. 15 Similar aspects were responsible for the Between 1664 and 1668, the first punishments for a history of Irish secret societies in the 18th century. membership in a brotherhood were released by the Qing government, which feared the growing Ming loyalism Since 1695 in Ireland the Catholic community of the regional groups. Due to this development, more was ruled by a Protestant pro-English minority and the and more groups transformed themselves into secret Penal Laws restricted the life of the inhabitants of those societies, of which more and more were discovered and Catholic communities. The situation of the Catholics punished as of the 1720s. 26 became worse and worse in the 18th century, when they were restricted from carrying weapons as well In 1792, after the rebellion of Lin Shuangwen as having to send their children to foreign countries on Taiwan in 1787/88, the first law against the secret for their education. 16 As a consequence the number societies was announced. Till 1811, there followed more of secret societies in the agricultural areas increased laws, which dealt with the same problem and defined and the Defenders were founded to protect the interest severe punishments. 27 The increasing severity of the of the Catholic population. 17 In 1791 a new society, punishments led to a higher level of secrecy and more the Society of the United Irishmen, was founded and secret signs, hand signals etc. were introduced by the marked the beginning of a new Irish independent Triad leaders, who asked for an abolishment of the movement. The members of the United Irishmen asked Manchu rule. The rituals of initiation were now taking for political reforms and tried to unite Catholics and place at night, to protect the members, who were needed 28 to carry out the oath ritual. Due to the fact of the laws

54 Frank Jacob Social Organization, Secrecy, and Rebellion – Secret Societies in China and Ireland

against membership, the new Triad members became societies and its members, addressed their anger as well criminals at the instant of their oath. This makes it easy, as their proto-nationalism against the Manchu rulers, and to determine the reason for a stronger level of secrecy, the traditional societies that transformed into a liberation the prosecution by the government. This fact was movement in the 19th century, that was able to gain the responsible for a heightening of secrecy in Ireland as support of the masses. 37 In times of social confrontation well. this phenomenon was not unusual, due to a realignment of status, the revolutionaries sought for support from The Defenders were founded to protect the non-members as well. Despite the fact, that the Triad interests of the Catholic population in the agricultural societies became the most important assemblage of regions of Ireland. Due to their aims, it had to be kept anti-Manchu forces, striving for an overthrow of the secret, because the Protestant government prosecuted Qing and a restoration of the Ming dynasty, the Triads its members. The members of the Defenders were anti- alone were not able to win the fight against the actual English agitators, but became criminal as well, because government. 38 the organization, which had been founded following the example of the Spanish Garduña, started raids The same was essential for the later revolutionary against Protestant land owners and their families. They movement, which was not able to abolish the Qing rule claimed the Irish land to be an Irish possession and were on their own. As a result of that, they were willing to use strongly connected to the Irish agricultural areas.29 The an already existing tool of rebellion, the secret societies, organizational structure followed Masonic examples, which were able to activate and recruit the masses. In which means they were organized like the Triads, in co-operation with the traditional forces of rebellion, the local groups which were decentralized, just sharing republican movement was able to succeed and to achieve the same traditions. 30 In contrast to the Defenders, the change of 1911. 39 The revolutionary movement of the United Irishmen were not originally founded as a Sun Yat-sen adapted the organizational structure of the secret society and “their design was not systematically Triad societies and combined their forces, because both 31 . At the wanted to overcome the Manchu rule. Due to this, Sun beginning neither a republic nor a revolution was part co-operated with the Southern secret societies and used of the discussions with regard to the foundation of the the traditions of the societies as predecessors to his society. 32 Its members met and discussed in public about revolutionary movement. He had to do this, but it is clear a possible more tolerant future of Ireland. that the secret societies acted as powerful supporters for Sun’s own ideas, because he did not want to return to Starting in 1792, the government had held trials a monarchy, but wanted to create a modern nation, the against the members of the United Irishmen and as a Republic of China. 40 Despite the fact that these societies consequence of the war between England and France had a high potential for revolution, on their own they in 1794 and 1795 the English government put more were not successful. This was particularly true in the pressure on the United Irishmen. 33 In May 1794 the case of Ireland. United Irishmen were prohibited and they then built secret lodges, to prepare the members for an open The harsh reaction of the government cleared the rebellion, which hopefully would be supported by the French. 34 The public society became a secret one and the the United Irishmen and the Defenders, there was a shift of the independent movement into a civil war between the Defenders was the result and the United Irishmen the government and the society of Ireland. The universal became a Catholic-dominated mass organization. From republicanism of the United Irishmen became displaced 1795 till 1797 the number of members multiplied and in by a Catholic nationalism led by the Defenders. 41 The 1798 the Irish secret societies were a major part of the membership structure changed from a regional to a rebellion, which was intended to abolish the Protestant national one. On May 23, 1798 the rebellion broke rule of the pro-English minority. 35 It was not just Ireland, out in South Ireland (Wexford), but was struck down or China, secret societies have always had revolutionary by the governmental troops. In the north, the rebellion potential, but in these two countries in particular, this was a failure as well. It was obvious that the plan for potential broke out in a decisive way. rebellion had been a failure, because the rebels were poorly equipped and their actions had no organization. 42 4.Revolutionary Potential Following the fast defeat, the leading United Irishmen were imprisoned and around 500 of them were sentenced The potential for revolution could be a consequence to death. The defeat of the rebel forces marked the end of natural catastrophes or times of hardship. We can of an enlightened proposal for an Irish national state, and trace a revolutionary potential for many cases in the 18th Ireland became even more closely tied to the English and 19th century, but in China and Ireland this potential government. 43 36 is visible from the outset. In China it were the Triad

55 Comparative Studies of China and the West Vol. 1 2013

A French supportive army was defeated as well, in Early and Mid-Qing China . The Formation of a Tradition. Stanford : because the revolutionary forces had been beaten already Stanford University Press, 1996, p. 1. 3 and the troops from France were not able to establish Kingsley Bolton and Christopher Hutton, eds., Triad Societies . some kind of bridgehead, a fact that lead to their fast Western Accounts of the History, Sociology and Linguistics of Chinese Secret Societies , Vol. I, Selected Writings . London: Routledge, 2000, surrender against the pro-English forces. The rebellion ix; John Lust, “Secret Societies, Popular Movements, and the 1911 of 1798 was one of the most significant events in the 44 Revolution”, in Jean Chesneaux, ed., Popular Movements and Secret tortured history of Ireland, but due to its failure, it was Societies in China 1840-1950 .Stanford: Stanford University Press, not able to change the disadvantaged position of the 1972, pp. 165-200, especially p. 165. 4 Jean Chesneaux, “Secret Societies in China’s Historical Evolution”, been a decisive factor of Irish history in the following in Jean Chesneaux, ed., Popular Movements and Secret Societies in decades and centuries until today. China 1840-1950 .Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1972, pp. 1-21, especially p. 3. 5.Conclusion 5 Frederic Henry Balfour, “Secret societies and their political Triad All in all the comparison of the Chinese secret Societies . Western Accounts of the History, Sociology and Linguistics societies and the Irish ones has shown that there are of Chinese Secret Societies, Vol. I, Selected WritingsLondon: many similarities between both cases. The groups Routledge, 2000, pp. 289-306, especially p. 292; Jean DeBernardi, “Epilogue: Ritual Process Reconsidered”, in David Ownby, Mary developed from regional groups of social help Somers Heidhues, eds., “ Secret Societies ” Reconsidered. Perspectives or protection, which became secret as a result of on the Social History of Modern South China and Southeast Asia . governmental prosecution. The secrecy was needed to Armonk/London: M. E. Sharpe, 1993, pp. 212-233, especially p. 212; protect the members and their aims. Even if there had Charles Gützlaff, “On the secret Triad Society of China (1846)”, in been some criminal activities by several members, most Kingsley Bolton and Christopher Hutton, eds., Triad Societies. Western of the societies sought a better political future. While Accounts of the History, Sociology and Linguistics of Chinese Secret the Triad societies wanted to abolish the Manchu rule Societies , Vol. I, Selected Writings . London: Routledge, 2000, pp. 93- of China, the United Irishmen wanted to overcome 101, especially p. 96; John Kesson, The Cross and the Dragon or, religious conflicts to create a united Ireland no longer The Fortunes of Christianity in China: with Notices of the Christian dominated by the British. Missions and Missionaries, and some Account of the Chinese Secret Societies. London : Smith, Elder and Co., 1854, pp. 265-271. 6 J ean Chesneaux, Secret Societies in China . In the Nineteenth and The revolutionary potential was visible for both Twentieth Centuries.Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1971, cases and the secret societies had been the bearers of p. 188. unrest as well as a dangerous factor in several national 7 Jonathan Unger, “The Making and Breaking of the Chinese Secret histories. The members were ready for rebellion and in Societies Unger”, Journal of contemporary Asia 5 , no. 1 (1975). pp. times of unrest, they were the leaders of it. Consequently, 89-98, especially p. 89. the comparison has shown that the secret societies of 8 For the meaning of political identities see Charles Tilly, “Political China and Europe are comparable and that the history Identities”, in Michael P. Hannagan, Leslie Page Moch and Wayne te Brake, eds., Challenging Authority . The Historical Study of history of these organizations was influenced by Contentious Politics, Social Movements, Protest, and Contention , Vol.7. Minneapolis/London: University of Minnesota Press, 1998, pp. on the different social groups in countries around the 3-16, especially p. 7. 9 Peter Kuhfus, “Rot und Schwarz – Einige Beobachtungen zu globe. Männerbund.Aspekten der Geheimgesellschaften Chinas”, Ethnologica 15, no. 1 (1990). pp. 135-142, especially p. 136. A more complex and more detailed comparison 10 DeBernardi, Epilogue, p. 212; David Ownby, “Introduction: Secret with societies, which existed in Europe, Asia and the Societies Reconsidered”, in David Ownby, Mary Somers Heidhues, Americas, is able to underline this thesis and put an end eds., “ Secret Societies ” Reconsidered . Perspectives on the Social to the mistaken claim that secret societies in China and History of Modern South China and Southeast Asia. Armonk /London: Europe are not comparable. As a global phenomenon, M. E. Sharpe, 1993, pp. 3-33, especially p. 5. the roots, memberships, activities and traditional views 11 Ownby, Brotherhoods , pp. 31-33. of many secret societies are equal consequences of trans- 12 Ibid. p.4. 13 Chesneaux, Secret Societies (1972), p. 5; C. A. Curwen, “Taiping in the same manner. Relations with Secret Societies and with Other Rebels”, in Jean Chesneaux, ed., Popular Movements and Secret Societies in China 1840-1950 . Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1972, pp. 65-84, especially p. 65. 14 Ivan Light, “Mak Lau Fong: The Sociology of Secret Societies: 1 John Morris Roberts, The Mythology of the Secret Societies .London: A Study of Chinese Secret Societies in Singapore and Peninsular Secker & Warburg, 1972, p. 1. Malaysia (Book Review)”, Contemporary Sociology 12, no. 4 (1983) . 2 Serge Hutin, Les Société Secrètes en Chine .Paris: Éditions Robert pp. 402-403; Barend Ter Haar, The White Lotus Teachings in Chinese Laffont, 1976, p. 9; David Ownby, Brotherhoods and Secret Societies Religious History . Leiden: Brill, Leiden, 1992, p. 227-228.

56 Frank Jacob Social Organization, Secrecy, and Rebellion – Secret Societies in China and Ireland

15 Thoralf Klein, Geschichte Chinas. Von 1800 bis zur Gegenwart . Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1972, pp. 23-28, especially p. 28. Paderborn: Ferdinand Schöningh, 2007, p. 143; Light, Sociology , 38 Michael P. Hannagan, Leslie Page Moch and Wayne te Brake, eds., p. 403; Frederic Jr. Wakeman, “The Secret Societies of Kwangtung, Challenging Authority . The Historical Study of Contentious Politics, 1800-1856”, in Jean Chesneaux, ed., Popular Movements and Secret Social Movements, Protest, and Contention , Vol.7. Minneapolis/ Societies in China 1840-1950 . Stanford: Stanford University Press, London: University of Minnesota Press, 1998, xxii; Boris Novikov, 1972, pp. 29- 47, especially p. 29-30. “The Anti-Manchu Propaganda of the Triads, ca. 1800-1860”, in Jean 16 Rosamond Jacob, The Rise of the United Irishmen 1791-1794 . Chesneaux, ed., Popular Movements and Secret Societies in China London: George G. Harrap & Co.Ltd., 1937, p.14; Kai Wehmeier, 1840-1950 . Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1972, pp. 49-63, Geheimbünde in Irland 1760-1870 . Hamburg: Verlag Dr.Kovaç, 2008, especially pp. 49-52. p. 14. 39 Lilia Borokh, “Notes on the Early Role of Secret Societies in Sun 17 Jacob, Rise, p. 211; Wehmeier, Geheimbünde , p. 42; Kevin Whelan, Yat-sen’s Republican Movement”, in Jean Chesneaux, ed., Popular Fellowship of Freedom . The United Irishmen and 1798 . Cork: Cork Movements and Secret Societies in China 1840-1950 . Stanford: University Press, 1998, p. 11. Stanford University Press, 1972, pp. 135-144; Chesneaux, Secret 18 Thomas Barlett, “Protestant nationalism in eighteenth-century Societies (1971), p. 190-191. Ireland”, in Michael O’Dea and Kevin Whelan, eds., Nations and 40 Borokh, Notes , p. 138-139.; John DeKome, “Sun Yat-Sen and nationalisms: France, Britain, Ireland and the eighteenth-century the Secret Societies”, Paciffic Affairs 7, no. 4 (1934). pp. 425-433, context, Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century, Vol. 335. especially pp. 426-432; Wakeman, Kwangtung, p. 46-47. Oxford: Voltaire Foundation, 1995, pp. 79-88, especially p. 87; Jacob, 41 Nancy J. Curtin, The United Irishmen. Popular Politics in Ulster and Rise , p. 32 and pp. 62-66; Paul Weber, On the Road to Rebellion. The Dublin, 1791-1798 . Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998, p. 4 and p. 32; United Irishmen and Hamburg 1796-1803 . Dublin: Four Courts Press, Wehmeier, Geheimbünde, p. 53. 1997, p. 15. 42 Ibid. pp. 47-53. 19 Anonymous, Application of Barruel’s Memoirs of Jacobinism, to the 43 Ibid. p. 54; Kevin Whelan, “United and disunited Irishmen: the Secret Societies of Ireland and Great Britain by the Translator of the discourse of sectarianism in the 1790s”, in Michael O’Dea and Kevin Work . London: E. Booker, 1798, p. 3. Whelan, eds., Nations and nationalisms: France, Britain, Ireland and 20 George D. Boyce, Nationalism in Ireland . London: Routledge, the eighteenth-century context, Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth 31995, p. 125; Jacob, Rise , pp. 67-72. Century Vol. 335. Oxford: Voltaire Foundation, 1995, pp. 231-247, 21 Weber, Rebellion , p. 15; Whelan, Fellowship , ix. especially p. 246-247. 22 Weber, Rebellion , p. 16; Whelan, Fellowship , p. 31. 44 Curtin, United Irishmen , p. 9. 23 Ownby, Brotherhoods , p. 2; Roberts, Mythology , p. 12; Wakeman, Kwangtung, p. 34. 24 Application of Barruel’s Memoirs of Jacobinism , p. 217. About the author: 25 DeBernardi, Epilogue, p. 219; Ownby, Brotherhoods, p. 38. 26 Robert J. Antony, “Brotherhoods, Secret Societies, and the Law in Dr. Frank Jacob is Assistant Professor for Modern History of Qing-Dynasty China”, ”, in David Ownby, Mary Somers Heidhues, University of Würzburg. He got his Ph.D in Japanese Studies eds., “ Secret Societies ” Reconsidered. Perspectives on the Social History of Modern South China and Southeast Asia . Armonk/London: from University of Erlangen-Nurnberg in 2012. From 2011 to M. E. Sharpe, 1993, pp. 190-211, especially pp. 192-196. October 2013, he was Editor of the Serial Comparative Studies 27 Ibid. pp.203-205. from a Global Perspective , and Editor of the Journal Global 28 William Milne, “Some account of a secret association in China, Humanities, Studies in Histories, Cultures and Societies . Since entitled the Triad Society”, in Kingsley Bolton and Christopher Hutton, Oct. 2013, he has been Assistant Professor for Modern History, eds., Triad Societies. Western Accounts of the History, Sociology and University of Wurzburg. He is a member of International Linguistics of Chinese Secret Societies , Vol. I, Selected Writings . London: Routledge, 2000, pp. 17-39, especially pp. 19-25. Association for Comparative Studies of China and the West, 29 Captain B.C. Pollard, The Secret Societies of Ireland . Their Rise and The Historical Society, and The Society for Military History. Progress . Kilkenny: The Irish Historical Press, 1998, pp. 1-13. His research interests and teaching areas cover modern 30 Application of Barruel’s Memoirs of Jacobinism , p. 4-5. Japanese history, Asian history since 1600, comparative 31 Alexander Knox, Essays on the Political Circumstances of Ireland, history, global history, history of secret societies, modern written during the Administration of Earl Camden .London: Anti- Jacobin Press, 1798, v. German history and transnational history. His publications 32 Wehmeier, Geheimbünde , p. 49. Dictators 33 Weber, Rebellion, p. 34. assert their Power and The Changing Nature of Power, Status 34 R. B. McDowell, “The Age of the United Irishmen: Revolution and and Hierarchies in Japan (1600-1877) and dozens of others. the Union, 1794-1800”, in T. W. Moody and W. E. Vaughan, eds., A New History of Ireland, Vol. 4, Eighteenth-Century Ireland 1691-1800 . Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986, pp. 339-373, especially p. 348. 35 Wehmeier, Geheimbünde , pp. 50-52. 36 Chesneaux, Secret Societies (1972), p. 5; Wolfgang Franke, Das Jahrhundert der chinesischen Revolution 1851-1949 . München/Wien: R. Oldenbourg Verlag, 21980, p. 20-21. 37 Chesneaux, Secret Societies (1972), p. 10; Guillaume Dunstheimer, “Some Religious Aspects of Secret Societies”, in Jean Chesneaux, ed., Popular Movements and Secret Societies in China 1840-1950 .

57 Comparative Studies of China and the West Vol. 1 2013

Fables of China. Frontier Fables, Fables of Radical Exoticism: Segalen, Michaux, Butor

By Jean Bessiere Paris III

Segalen, Michaux and Butor visited and wrote lifelike. So I feel obliged to conclude that these pictures about China. Three of their works are here commented as narrated both are and are not about what they depict. upon because they offer a paradoxical image of Their appearance lures us to imagine what their source China: although its reality is not denied, China can be must be. One must add, of course, that Segalen knows described as kind of absent object. This paradox cannot that source. be disassociated from the specific vision of Otherness which China imposes according to these Westerners. If I say that Un Barbare en Asie is among other Consequently, Segalen, Michaux and Butor do not things the account of travel in China, I must also say, construe cultural comparisons and refuse to focus upon following Michaux’s text literally, that this story tells cultural differences. essentially the way the Chinese tell stories, paint, sing, and symbolize. This remark echoes the text itself based Here three literary fables provide the occasion for on stories, poems, paintings, all of which agree on the some ideas about the recognition and use of frontiers: impossibility of translation. “A Chinese poem cannot be Victor Segalen’s Peintures (1916), Henri Michaux’s Un Barbare en Asie (1928), and Michel Butor’s Boomerang in the theater, that lifelike fleshiness of the Europeans. (1988). A Chinese poem points to things but what it points to is not the most important thing. They do not evoke vivid These fables show us ways of describing, of discerning, the other , particularly involving China suggest them. As Michaux himself says, one must deduce as seen from a Western perspective. They all involve from indirections the landscape and its atmosphere.” a paradox: to identify a country as foreign implies a [Un barbare en Asia , p 161] To tell the China story, in frontier but one which has already been crossed. a certain sense, amounts to telling no story, or, more precisely, to bring together the symbols that dictate those This paradox does not imply playing a game, deductions. Giving a realistic account of China, then, voluntarily or not, of misrepresentation. Inescapable boils down to offering the image of China — an image frontiers do not require harping on an obligatory which is actually missing from the text. Michaux, as the confrontation of cultural identities. Nothing is to barbarian in China, realizes that what he calls Chinese be gained by conventional accounts of reciprocal identity is simply an effect of representation, the indirect strangeness. These perspectives are banal commonplaces evocation of China in this book. In Un barbare en Asie , that tell us nothing about the uses of a frontier, once that China itself is recognized only in the image the observer line has been crossed. gives of it.

These three works make best sense when If I say that Boomerang is a voyage text, considered as fables , even though they do not explicitly particularly but not exclusively involving Asia, I must evoke that category of literature. Peintures evokes add that there can be no travel tales, nor descriptions imaginary Chinese paintings. Un Barbare en Asie of landscapes, nor explorations of exotic identities, recounts a voyage to Asia and in particular China. without quoting descriptions and tales which are already Boomerang brings together travel accounts, stories, available. Therefore, in Butor’s terms, this book is a kind and descriptions related to the Orient, among other of carnival. One must understand: every new piece of destinations. One calls them fables because an implicit writing about the foreign is bifocal: no new description argument emerges from their imaginative explorations of the foreign can be disassociated from pre-existing and travel accounts, one that becomes clear through the descriptions; but these two entities do not mutually play of intertextualities. condition or modify each other. Following a remark of Butor, the person who sees is simultaneously a seer and Concerning Peintures , I find that the pictures a voyeur. That means he perceives but also he exercises involved are imaginary yet nonetheless plausible and an overview of everything that has already been seen

58 Jean Bessiere Fables of China. Frontier Fables, Fables of Radical Exoticism

and already said. The eye can see only through this the other as foreign. The result is a special status for China and Asia in Peintures , Un Barbare en Asie , and repetitive, familiar yet different. The traveler who seeks Boomerang . Otherness in this writing is not contained by to see and to describe must always presume a similarity its subject; it grows away from what it seems to possess. that is already perceptible. Foreignness is read as objective in the very moment at which it escapes from all possessiveness by writing. This These three fables follow a single line: The foreign writing is always, therefore, performative. In Peintures – China – is available. It is the site on the basis of which this phenomenon emerges figuratively in the fluidity one can undertake to describe faithfully the images and of these imagined paintings. In Un barbare en Asie it the atmospheres of China. The foreign is in some sense shows up in the strangeness that accompanies the act of familiar because it allows a discourse of recognition. But voyaging. In Boomerang it is supported by the play of the evocation of this foreign which is familiar – and even intertextuality: writing that interchanges only with itself “known” as directly attested in the accounts of Segalen and with other manifestations of writing. There is one and Michaux – never stops implying the deconstruction additional consequence: this kind of writing knows itself of this spectacle, this appearance of familiarity. This is to be partial and subjected to a constant game of echoes. why Chinese realities call forth a bifocal text. Segalen It is none other than the regrouping and reiteration of the gives us, in Peintures , a way of allegorizing China but signs for China elaborated into whole volumes of writing. this allegory leads to no explicit characterization. Another way of putting it is that the frontier you This approach suggests at first an ethical portrait have passed over is an unchangeable one. To write about of Europeans (the French) in China, in the Orient. China is simultaneously to recognize its image as elusive By his stories, by his descriptions, the writer offers a and to acknowledge that writing can only construe a double perspective. He implies the recognition of the literary setting. Segalen, Michaux and Butor are all aware foreign in itself, for its own sake. Nonetheless he gives that they remain prisoners of this image that they use a literary setting to that recognition. In Peintures , this is to stand in for China, for the Orient. They are also fully accomplished by organizing the scenic imagination. In aware that to write thus is to refuse to give closure to this Un Barbare en Asie , it is accomplished by spectacularly image. Hence these French fables of China come across organizing the accounts of China. China is identifiable playing up China, the Orient, as enigmas. Here “enigma” only indirectly by its signs. In Boomerang , this double does not imply a mystery that calls for a solution but perspective is accomplished through the double vision refers to an image of the foreign which can only serve of a bifocal text. Such situations amount to presuming, as an emblem which nonetheless distances itself from in evoking the foreign, a site, a site of the other which that foreignness. All apparent referents turn out to be writing at once designs and discovers in itself. That’s the negative. This ploy is spelled out explicitly by Segalen in way writing designates the unalterable otherness of what Peintures: it denotes. Even the oldest and most classic of paintings in In other works, such as Butor’s Répertoires or the Empire of calligraphy and literature never permit Segalen’s Stèles , this site can be explicitly thematic. stopping which would amount to maintaining ignorance. This thematics is inextricably linked to the full-bodied But before showing its colors each one has already visibility of the foreign setting which, as the visitor produced it own gloss: the margins are covered up under finally realizes, excludes him. Because, to call this site an elegant style, by descriptions, commentaries, lyrical full-bodied is simply a way of specifying how thoroughly enthusiasms. It wraps itself in an envelope of words. this site is taken over by the power of writing and hence Thus these “paintings,” as promised in my dedication, are loses its otherness and richness as an alien place. One purely “literary” and imaginary as well. [ Peintures , p 11] can never imagine writing as embedded in a foreign setting. This Segalenian imaginary seems to mime a gesture of China giving us its paintings, already the gesture of a Quite the contrary, to recognize and situate the gloss. Painting, in this China, is recognizable from what foreign in an explicitly literary setting involves a is not painting. For a European to recognize Chinese conscious recognition of ambiguity. This recognition painting is once again to entertain a duality, and to give a engages that sort of literary practice that depends on a literary image – Peintures – that neither reveals nor hides breaking of communication. The writer who, knowing that painting. Similarly Michaux speaks of the interplay China, talks about China, is not addressing China. And of negative reference by evoking Chinese theatrical if China is taken to be the addressee it can only be as spectacle: “. . . The actor seems to represent something a hypothetical presence which cannot, in the fictional to himself, but then a sort of magnetism takes over made moment, be understood as present. The fables of from the desire to feel what is absent.” This boils down Segalen, Michaux and Butor all make clear that there to a kind of mimicry that excludes all mimesis. This can only be recognition of otherness in the labeling of Un barbare en

59 Comparative Studies of China and the West Vol. 1 2013

Asie underlying argumentation of the fables called Peintures , observer and by being referred back to him. Un barbare en Asie , and Boomerang , we might say that their evocations of China and the Orient are self- These notions - of the inflexible frontier and the deconstructing. But this deconstruction can be read as interplay of mimetic perspectives that grows out of indicating the anamorphosis (in the sense of distorting negative reference – carry with them in Peintures, Un reflexion) of the other , of that being who lives in the barbare en Asie , and Boomerang, an original lesson. irony of appearances. As fables of China and the Orient, However foreign to China and to the Orient these may these works show Western visitors at the moment of be, the writings of these Westerners, these French realizing that the representation, the portrait given fables, claim to follow the way the other – the Chinese of China, of the Orient, proposes the deformation of – goes. Segalen, in placing Peintures under the sign something that itself cannot be seen. Thus Segalen does of unreality, suggests that the writer (or the reader- not see Chinese paintings. Thus Michaux does not see the spectator) of these paintings can no longer remain fully object of Chinese drama, of Chinese poetry. Nonetheless himself. Michaux, in entitling his evocation of the Orient what Segalen and Michaux say about painting, about as Un barbare en Asie makes it explicit that he exists only, at least for the time of this voyage, through the perspectives that originate from the other. Butor works which cannot be seen do not forbid a kind of recognition. more subtly through the textual interplay between public and personal. In Boomerang he indicates that his life Thus we come to the final implication of these disappears from his own awareness because it takes place fables as paradox. The frontier cannot be modified. in otherness, in the signs and spectacles of the other. If But it does not exclude a shared symbolic game which there is no solution to this foreignness, if the frontier makes apparent a common language of reference. This remains unchangeable, and if, in literature, one can only emergence marks the radical exoticism which precludes mime the discourse and the spectacle of the other, therein any approach that is either universalist or comparative resides nonetheless a paradoxical transparency, that to otherness , to China or to the Orient. This emergence which emerges from the rehearsal and transcription of must be understood doubly: China and the Orient otherness . One can formulate it with some precision: it is make otherness manifest, but China and the Orient are not given to Segalen, to Michaux or to Butor to discover also manifest appearances, which are also those of the otherness , Chinese or Oriental, in any direct fashion. Western writer. The situation expresses itself in two That otherness in and of itself could only be the object movements, in a recognition of its actual form and also of some kind of dream state, as is suggested in Peintures . in a recognition of its play of self-referentiality, which So that otherness appears as a symbolic manifestation in its turn can only reflect the observer and point back that is for all three, Segalen, Michaux and Butor, a to him. These two movements allow us to recognize kind of game – a world-game that is at the same time that evidently China and the Western witness are at occidental and oriental. Hence, to recognize China or the the same time separated and yet linked by a reciprocal Orient is not so much to recognize cultural similarities strangeness. Speaking of Laozi, Michaux drew on such and differences that can be pinned down by Western an insight into the invisibility of the outsider. “. . . [Laozi] mediation, but more to recognize the symbolic game of lived among the lions and the lions did not realize that words, the mimicking that proclaims the impossibility of he was a human. They saw nothing foreign about him.” any mediation of otherness . [Un barbare en Asie , p 186.] Here resides the fable of In addition, Segalen, Michaux and Butor render of the frontier which is crossed yet nonetheless remains their spectacles of China and the Orient under the unchanged lies the paradox of a China, an Orient, that ironic banner of appearances. Such is the case even remain other yet which do not require of the Westerner when Segalen underlines about Chinese paintings their to identify that otherness, to systematically describe that literalness. Such is the case even when Michaux remarks difference. The lack of formulating these differences that in China “nothing is absolute, no principles, no a blocks any move into comparisons or contrasts. On priori presumptions.” [ Un barbare en Asie , p 166] Such the other hand, otherness is not lost: though the lions is the case even when Butor remarks more generally that may not identify the man as a man, the man knows the all perceptions and all expressions are bifocal. China and lions are lions. This lack of symmetry means that there the Orient blend in with that equivocal figure that they cannot be a good use of difference, and that recognizing give of themselves and that the traveler picks up and otherness — and this is the implication of the reference to lions — takes away any temptation to think of the projects his own singularity. His own singularity implies other – the Chinese — as committed to introspection or presenting himself as the person who transcribes freely to think of them as manifesting a thought-out identity. these spectacles and who recognizes the sovereignty and Such is radical exoticism. Such is the only game left authority of the other precisely because he is the one for the Western witness: because he cannot any longer who delivers these ironic appearances. To complete the impose his own identify, because he cannot enter into the

60 Jean Bessiere Fables of China. Frontier Fables, Fables of Radical Exoticism

comparing of identities, it is left to him to tell the secret to review and include multiple approaches led to a series of experiencing the Orient — there where I can never of theoretical publications. His very numerous publications be myself and I can watch, imagine or write only on deal with such topics and problems as myth, narrative, novel, the basis of evidence that comes from somewhere else. modernity, postcolonial literatures, multi-culturalism and The positive side of the equivocal frontier reemerges: identity. China, the Orient, only becomes a familiar site because there, between the native and the European, resides a transparency without reciprocity. The proof of the other only comes from something that is not me and by which I know that I cannot understand myself as other than I am. An Important Book in Comparative studies of In this happily equivocal understanding of China and the West: Divination and Prediction in frontiers, we move beyond the simplicity of pure thought Early China and Ancient Greece by Lisa Raphals that presupposes the recognition and comparison of Several books comparing ancient Greece and ancient differences. So much for thinking and comparing of cultures between universalism and relativism. China have been published in English over the Experiencing and writing about China and the Orient last dozen years, involving such authors/editors as grow out of a shared present: that of the other and that Geoffrey Lloyd and Nathan Sivin or Steven Shankman of the witness. This writing about China and the Orient makes sense in the extent to which it can make out of Lisa Raphals, who now in 2013 has gone beyond her this shared present its own representation. History only earlier books with Divination and Prediction in Early matters, as we know from Segalen, because its witnesses China and Ancient Greece from Cambridge University partake of that same present. The fables of Segalen, Press. This ambitious title is fully justified by her of Michaux, of Butor, are – one is obliged to repeat – meticulous multidisciplinary explorations of this vast literary fables. They make us think in the manner that literature has to justify itself in the West, in the way it can be responded to as writing. What we call literature we was a major preoccupation and indeed the human are supposed, by more or less common accord, to be able drive to invent ways to predict the future remains with to recognize as such. This recognition, particularly in us today. In order to situate this fresh examination any refusal of a symbolic or symbolist mode of literature of the evidence, Lisa Raphals necessarily reassesses — in that mode, literature manifests the enigma of self the trends in the relevant 20th-century scholarship, and of the other — identifies literature as inescapably sometimes political, sometimes more diffusely otherness . If literature contains cultural, that have affected received views of these or is seen as inescapably containing an otherness in time-honored practices. This depth of vision allows discourse, this is what the fables of Segalen, of Michaux her to explore multiple perspectives on such practices and of Butor recognize in China and in the Orient. What writing like this tries to show of China and the Orient, BCE. In China the Yijing and its predecessor the in this game of frontiers and otherness , can serve as one Zhouyi are the most resonant texts but the author way of characterizing Western writing and in particular shows how broadly the Chinese cultivated arts of divination. In Greece as well, there were multiple (Translated by J. G. Blair) avenues of approach to uncloaking the future. The range of scholarship concerning both civilizations is About the author: likely to succeed.

Jean Bessiere, IACSCW honorary advisor, is professor of general and comparative literature at the Sorbonne. He has also taught in many universities around the world (Stanford, McGill, UNAM, Casablanca, Buenos Aires). He served as vice- president and then president of the International Association of Comparative Literature (1997-2000). His research interests include francophone literatures and the paradigms of literary criticism. Jean Bessiere does not dissociate theoretical approaches from social and historical perspectives. His capacity

61 Comparative Studies of China and the West Vol. 1 2013 Two Forms of Solitude:

Tao Qian’s Reclusive Ideal and Emerson’s Transcendentalist Vision By King-Kok Cheung University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)

ӄḣݸ⭏Ր Abstract: This essay compares the reclusive ideal extolled by Chinese poet Tao Qian and the solitude that Ralph Waldo Emerson regards as a prerequisite to self-trust. The works of both Tao Qian and Emerson—forerunners of Chi- nese and American pastorals, respectively—seem to bear the imprint of Lao Zi’s Daodejing. Both express distaste for material aggrandizement and social conformity, for the social, economical, and political pressures that curtail indi- vidual spirit. Both worship a universal spirit, exalt intuition over didacticism, deem nature to be salubrious and edify- ing, and discern correspondences between ecological and moral well-being. Their differences are equally pronounced. The Chinese poet maintains he can only be true to his high-minded nature by removing himself to the countryside, se- cluded from world’s affairs; though mindful of familial duties, he is content to lead a quiet pastoral existence. The New England sage, who sees nature as ancillary to the divine spark within each mortal, asserts that an independent self that KDUNHQVWRLWVSURPSWLQJVFDQ¿QGQDWXUHDQGVROLWXGHDQ\ZKHUH1RWZLWKVWDQGLQJKLVDYHUVLRQWRVRFLHWDOGHPDQGVKH ᖂഝ⭠ት shoulders responsibility as a public intellectual who weighs in with a piece of his mind concerning pressing political is- WKLQJV¿QGWKHLUFRPPRQRULJLQ:HOLHLQWKHODSRI sues.

Keywords: Tao Qian/Tao Yuanming; Ralph Waldo Emerson; pastoral, nature; solitude

Although Tao Qian 䲦 ▌ (also known as Tao Yu- received knowledge can decode a universe replete with anming 䲦␺᰾ and Sire of the Five Willows ӄḣݸ⭏ , meaning. Although both of them are averse to public 365-427 CE) and Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) service and governmental interference, they respond in hail from different epochs and continents, the two argu- ably have inaugurated Chinese and American pastorals, and “returns” to the countryside, which he relishes as his respectively. Tao Qian, the preeminent “recluse” poet “natural” abode; Emerson, in contrast, never ceases to be of the Six Dynasties period, spearheaded the “Return a public intellectual who speaks out vehemently against Home to the Farm” tradition, while Emerson (along unjust policies. with his disciple Henry David Thoreau and Walt Whit- man) ushered in American Transcendentalism. Their Through an analysis of selected works by Tao considerable impact goes beyond national borders into Qian and Emerson, I demonstrate their common spiritual each other’s country. Tao Qian has inspired not only instincts and aesthetic predilections, their revelry in na- Tang and Song poets such as Li Po ᵾⲭ , Tu Fu ᶌ⭛ , ture and solitude, their divergent construal of selfhood, and Su Shi 㣿䖬 , but also American Beat writers of the 1950s and 1960s. 1 Emerson is venerated not only by American and European luminaries such as Thoreau, Qian’s reclusiveness and Emersonian Transcendentalism, Whitman, Thomas Carlyle, and Friedrich Nietzsche, but also by diasporic Chinese writers such as Gao Xingjian and Ha Jin. The reclusive ideal of Tao Qian and the tran- of ecological and ontological climate in their works. scendentalist worldview of Emerson converge in many The third contrasts their views concerning the relation- ways: both writers take for granted the equivalence of ship between self and nature. The fourth juxtaposes Tao ecological and moral landscape, of nature and existen- Qian’s quiescence with Emerson’s activism. The last tial solitude; both prefer independent living to social section illustrates the spiritual and stylistic resemblances conformity, wealth, or fame. But they differ markedly in in the two literati. their conceptions of “self” and “nature” and in their in- dividual visions of the relationship between self, nature, Daoist Impact on the Reclusive and and society. For Tao Qian, the self exists in harmony Transcendentalist Appreciation of Nature with nature, which can be found only in the countryside; for Emerson both humanity and nature partake of a di- Both Tao Qian and Emerson believe human beings vine intelligence, but only an open mind not clouded by should be nature-centered rather than society-centered. Their joint conviction in the human spirit’s intimate re- 62 King-Kok Cheung Two Forms of Solitude

lationship with nature seems rooted in Daoism. Tao Qian If so, Thoreau’s mentor is unlikely to have been unaware lived during a period marked by warfare and instability of its content. in the years between the collapse of the Han dynasty (220 - Not being a Sinologist myself, I refrain from nasties by the Sui Dynasty (589 CE). He espouses a sim- ple life close to nature and decries the pernicious effects one of the most elusive concepts in Transcendentalism, about an all-encompassing spirit that is the source of all wisdom and intuition, is highly reminiscent of The humility, gentleness, resignation, quiescence, and con- Book of Dao : “Tao is invisibly empty, / But its use is tentment. He says of himself in “The Life of the Sire of extremely plentiful. It is profound like the originator Five Willows” < ӄḣݸ⭏Ր >, his self-portrait: “Liv- of all things….I do not know where it comes from / It ing quietly in solitude and spare of speech, he covets seems to have appeared before the existence of God.” 11 not rank nor wealth.” 2 His Daoist bent is further evident Compare this with Emerson’s reflection on the primal in lines such as “The Dao has been lost…And people Intuition: everywhere are misers of their feelings” and “The life of man is like a shadow-play / Which must in the end Who is the Trustee [of self-trust]? The inquiry leads us return to nothingness,” and in his persistent association to that source, at once the essence of genius, of virtue, of nature with individualist freedom (as opposed to Con- and of life, which we call Spontaneity or Instinct. We 3 fucian emphasis on duty and hierarchy). As recorded in denote this primary wisdom as Intuition.... In that deep autobiographical “Five Poems on Returning to Dwell in force, the last fact behind which analysis cannot go, all KDUNHQVWRLWVSURPSWLQJVFDQ¿QGQDWXUHDQGVROLWXGHDQ\ZKHUH1RWZLWKVWDQGLQJKLVDYHUVLRQWRVRFLHWDOGHPDQGVKH the Country” < ᖂഝ⭠ት > Tao Qian considers the life WKLQJV¿QGWKHLUFRPPRQRULJLQ:HOLHLQWKHODSRI of affairs in the city to be a “net” or a “cage,” and the immense intelligence, which makes us receivers of its countryside to be his natural habitat: “Inadvertently I fell into the Dusty Net…Too long I was held within the truth and organs of its activity.…If we ask whence barred cage. / Now I am able to return again to Nature.” 4 this comes, if we seek to pry into the soul that causes, all philosophy is at fault. 12 Daoist philosophy seems to resonate with Emerson as well, but whether he has actually read The Book of 䲦 ▌ Dao is open to speculation. His familiarity with Hindu Emerson’s premise about a pervasive spirit that has 䲦␺᰾ ӄḣݸ⭏ and Confucian classics, however, has been documented no beginning and no end and that is at one with all things by Frederic Ives Carpenter and Arthur Christy. 5 Lyman is almost identical with Laozi’s evocation of Dao . Gu V. Cady further informs us that “Thoreau’s acquaintance Zhengkun, as English translator of The Book of Tao and with Oriental texts began with his residence in Teh , observes: “Daoism is systematically constructed Emerson’s home in 1841” and among the Oriental books with four integral parts: 1) Tao as the ontological being; in Emerson’s private collection were Joshua Marshman’s 2) Tao as the dialectic law; 3) Tao as the epistemological The Works of Confucius (1809) and David Collie’s The tool; 4) Tao as a practical guide to worldly affairs.” 13 Chinese Classical Work, commonly called the Four Emerson’s Intuition similarly has an ontological, Books (1828), the latter being also Confucian classics. 6 dialectic, epistemological, and practical dimensions. Emerson has obviously read French translations of Chinese texts as well. Christy indicates that the name of In particular, Laozi’s notions about the law of na- ᵾⲭ ᶌ⭛ the French Sinologist Jean Pierre Abel Rèmusat (1788- ture and about the paradox of “less is more” inform both 㣿䖬 1832) “was often on the tongues of the Concordians”; Tao Qian’s and Emerson’s writing. Both the Chinese Emerson even notes in his journal that Rèmusat’s poet and the American doyen prefer a simple life of wan- L’Invariable Milieu (1817) begins with “promising dering in the woods, removed from the din of the city 7 Although L’Invariable Milieu is also a translation of The Four Books , Rèmusat’s “Extrait “Peach Blossom Spring,” Tao Qian’s well-known fable, d’un memoire sur Lao Tseu,” which “dealt with parallels a fisherman who follows the course of a brook finds a of Daoism, Plato, and Pythagoras,” appeared in the Journal Asiatique of 1823 .8 Emerson, given his extensive natural spring. 14 By leaving his boat and walking through reading and his familiarity with Rèmusat’s other works, a small pass, he comes upon a village founded dynasties might have come across this article, pace Carpenter’s ago by refugees from wars, draft, taxation, economic assertion to the contrary: “Lao-tse [Emerson] had never rivalry, and political persecution. There are no potentates read.” 9 David T.Y. Chen, in “Thoreau and Daoism,” controlling the populace in this egalitarian community, suggests that another French translation of Daoist texts, where villagers make their living by farming and rais- G. Pauthier’s Memoire sur l’Origin et la Propagation ing cattle. After the fisherman returns to his prefecture de la Doctrien du Tao , published in 1831 by Libraire he informs the prefect of the unique village against the Orientale, was also available to the Concordians and that wishes of its inhabitants, but when the prefect dispatches Chen strongly suspects Thoreau to have read this book. 10

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- been cramped by noxious work or company, nature is cate the village again. Peach Blossom Spring, Tao Qian medicinal and restores their tone. The tradesman, the implies, exists only in the imagination. In the fable, the attorney comes out of the din and craft of the street, and ruling class is responsible for most of the ills of society; sees the sky and the woods, and is a man again.” 21 For magistrates often reek of toadyism, rapaciousness, and both Tao Qian and Emerson, it is through communion with nature that humankind can get in touch with the go in tandem) are deemed corrupting, unworthy of a po- sacred core of their beings. િ 䍛 ༛ et’s pursuit and detrimental to artistic integrity. Tao Qian himself resigned from the Jin court to become a farmer Correspondence between Topos and Ethos and lived in the countryside for twenty-two years before he died at sixty-three; he is known for his ascerbic re- This healing and restorative power of nature is fusal to “grovel to petty provincial functionaries for his more than physical. The two writers look to nature for livelihood ᡁኲ㜭Ѫӄᯇ㊣ˈᣈ㞠ґ䟼ሿݯ ”˷literally, existential, intellectual, and moral edification, as well 15 plants the template of carefree and glorious living. Tao Although Emerson never worked as a civil servant, Qian muses in “Spending the Ninth Day in Solitude” < he gave up his secure post as Unitarian minister in 1832 ҍᰕ䰢ት >: when he was scarcely thirty, “without any assurance that he [would] ever be employed again.” 16 After tour- Our lives are short and our ambitions many… ing Europe, he retired to a farm in the neighborhood of And while one can with wine exorcize all sorrows Concord. Like Tao Qian, he associates public life with Chrysanthemums know how to restrain declining years. How is it with me the thatch-cottage scholar, with nature. He looks askance at social conventions, Vainly watching how my time and fate decline?... religious creeds, and national laws: “ the wise know that 7KHVHFROGZHDWKHUÀRZHUVEORRPRIWKHPVHOYHVDORQH foolish legislation is a rope of sand, which perishes in I pull close my lapels and sing to myself at leisure, the twisting; that the State must follow, and not lead the character and progress of the citizen .” 17 In other words, Which somehow distantly awaken deep emotions. individuals must exercise innate virtues even if these run Even in retirement I do have many pleasure, 22 Even in my lassitude I still get things accomplished.

Emerson’s ruminations about solitude and nature, like Tao Qian’s reclusive ponderings, are grounded in The poet urges us to learn from chrysanthemums to “the presumed opposition between the realm of the col- live with gusto even in adversity, instead of bemoaning lective, the organized, and the worldly on the one hand, and the personal, the spontaneous, and the inward on living life to the brim each morn, implicitly in nature’s the other.” 18 Like Tao Qian, who discerns a certain kin- lap, one can catch intimations, if not of immortality, then at least of vibrant mortality. He sketches comparable more dear and connate [in the wilderness] than in streets scenario in “The Life of the Sire of Five Willows”: and villages.” 19 He sees exposure to nature as conducive 䈫ኡ⎧㓿 to solitude and selfhood: called himself by such a title…. His short coats of coarse To go into solitude, a man needs to retire as much fabric are patched and knotted, his reed cereal case and from his chamber as from society. I am not solitary gourd shell for liquid food are often empty: but he takes whilst I read and write, though nobody is with me. If a such at his ease… He quaffs at his beaker and chants his man would be alone, let him look at the stars. The rays poems to find happiness in his sublimating will. Isn’t that come from those heavenly worlds, will separate he a free, blissful subject of our legendary kings at the him and what he touches. … The stars awaken a certain dawn of the world, the One of Care-free Rule and the ,IWKLVLVQRWDSOHDVXUHZKHUHFRXOG,HYHU¿QGRQH"´ reverence, because though always present, they are 23 inaccessible. 20 Despite his meager means and threadbare The passage suggests that solitude is a sublime existence, this sire exults at being a free, blissful subject experience accessible to the human faculty in heedless of material abundance or worldly renown. nature’s presence. Just as Tao Qian credits his bucolic surrounding with insulating him from the “vulgar tone” Nature similarly provides Emerson with virtual of the city and allowing him to regain his intrinsic self, majesty: “Give me health and a day, and I will make the so Emerson lauds the restorative power of nature on pomp of emperors ridiculous. The dawn is my Assyria, ULJKWHRXVQHVVIRUWKH\VKDOOEH¿OOHG« the workaday soul: “To the body and mind which have the sun-set and moon-rise my Paphos.” 24 Regal pomp

64 King-Kok Cheung Two Forms of Solitude

and circumstances dwarf beside natural bounty. Roses conventional morality. “Peach Blossom Spring” situates offer Emerson a lesson congruent with the one the set by the idyllic utopia in a secluded niche away from corrupt chrysanthemums for the Chinese poet: Qian’s poetry similarly evinces a synergistic relay be- Man is timid and apologetic; he dares not say tween natural and ethical environment. couples ecologi- ‘I think,’ ‘I am,’ but quotes some saint or sage. He is cal asset with moral well being. In “Six Songs of Poor ashamed before the blade of grass or the blowing rose. Scholars” < િ 䍛 ༛ These roses under my window make no reference to life with “real pain,” in contrast to the rustic existence of former roses or to better ones; they are for what they poor scholars: are; they exist with God to-day…. But man postpones or remembers; he does not live in the present, but with A bed of straw was always warm enough, reverted eye laments the past, or, heedless or the riches And fresh-gathered yams were good enough for …ᡁኲ㜭Ѫӄᯇ㊣ˈᣈ㞠ґ䟼ሿݯ˷ that surround him, stands on tiptoe to foresee the future. breakfast He cannot be happy and strong until he too lives with Poverty and wealth will always war within us, 25 nature in the present, above time. But when the Tao prevails there are no anxious faces. ҍᰕ䰢ት Utmost moral power will crown the village entrance The blade of grass and the blowing rose instruct 28 by shining examples how to live with aplomb in the And purest chastity shine in the western gateway. present. Humankind too can bask in the moment, instead of comparing themselves with predecessors, submitting The poem, particularly the last two lines, exhibits themselves to ancient authority, regretting the past, a well-known Daoist paradox: “Flex to remain whole; / Bend to be straight; / Empty to be filled; / Be worn or fretting about the future. For both Tao Qian and Emerson, the riches that nature affords outweigh any and be renewed; / Seek less and have enough; / Seek more and be perplexed… / The self-effacing shines; / 7KHVHFROGZHDWKHUÀRZHUVEORRPRIWKHPVHOYHVDORQH The humble becomes distinguished; / The unpretentious an ecological boon, living in nature is conducive to self- 29 cultivation. are acclaimed.” Tao Qian intimates that “utmost moral power” resides in the lowliest abode and “purest Cultivating the self is certainly a common goal of chastity” emanates from the humblest quarter. Tucked away in remote mountains and hidden hamlets, Tao Tao Qian and Emerson, both of whom regard nature to be the perfect classroom for this discipline. Far from as- Qian’s locus amoenus is free not only of air pollution sociating nature with untrammeled wilderness, let alone with the Noble Savage, they are genteel dwellers in the and economic competition. The poet does not, however, countryside who cherish a life of farming or horticul- downplay the hardship of being indigent. Laments about bitter cold and gnawing hunger can be found in another ture and study. Tao Qian’s thatched hut is stocked with books; Emerson’s journal entries attest to his capacious canto of “Six Songs of Poor Scholars,” but the speaker library. The Chinese bard discloses that he is often so en- consoles himself by observing that “many ancient sages 30 26 grossed in his study that “he jovially forgets his meals.” He registers in “On Reading the Classic of the Hills and Seas” < 䈫ኡ⎧㓿 > that he looks forward to browsing Emerson, too, disparages worldly possession and dominion. The connection he draws between ecological as his reward after farm work: environment and ethical conduct also resembles a Daoist Ploughing is done and also I have sown— The time has come to return and read my books. … things. But the President has paid dear for his White House. It has commonly cost him all his peace, and I read at length the story of King Mu, the best of his manly attributes.” 31 His pronouncement, And let my gaze wander over pictures of hills and seas. which implies that architectural grandeur and political Thus with a glance I reach the ends of the Universe— clout are inversely proportional to inner peace and 27 ,IWKLVLVQRWDSOHDVXUHZKHUHFRXOG,HYHU¿QGRQH"´ personal integrity, may have been inspired by Christ’s Sermon on the Mount: It is worth noting, however, that the ineffable pleasure he derives from reading consists in his being Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom transported vicariously to “hills and seas,” that the of heaven felicity unleashed by texts is inseparable from his delight in nature. Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. Nature does more than provide a blueprint for right Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after living. It fosters, in the writing of both Tao Qian and ULJKWHRXVQHVVIRUWKH\VKDOOEH¿OOHG« Emerson, as ethic (whether grounded in Daoist or Tran- Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. scendentalist thinking) deeper than social propriety or (Mathew 5:2-8) 65 Comparative Studies of China and the West Vol. 1 2013

The prospect of the hungry about to be filled Tao Qian’s decision to insulate himself from the “vulgar matches exactly the Daoist notion: “Empty to be tone” so as to resume his natural bent and to engage in filled.” Unlike the Beatitudes, which promise delayed gratification in the kingdom of heaven, however, the Book of Tao We can thus draw many analogies between the here and now—an idea that accords with both Tao Qian transcendentalist notions of self-reliance in Emerson and the reclusive ideas concerning spiritual independence life for the sake of self-cultivation; Emerson considers “the reliance on Property, including the reliance on governments which protect it, [as] the want of self- poet reckons as obstacles to the Way of Dao what the reliance.” 32 New England sage remonstrates against as impediments ᖂ to self-trust—dogma, property, government, discontent ৫ᶕ䗎 Like Tao Qian, Emerson exalts nature as a stemming from regret about the past and anxiety about “discipline of the understanding in intellectual truths” the future. Both thinkers embrace the paradox of “less is and regards every “natural process [as] a version of more,” pitching natural living against material comfort, a moral sentence. The moral law lies at the centre of craven security, and obsequious existence. nature and radiates to the circumference.” Everything about a natural landscape can impart a valuable lesson: Divergent Ideas about Nature, Selfhood, and Solitude be doubted that this moral sentiment which thus scents With regard to the definition and interconnection the air, grows in the grain, and impregnates the waters of of nature, selfhood, and solitude, we find both striking the world, is caught by man and sinks into his soul. The coincidences and sharp divergences. Both sages not only stress the importance of nature and solitude but also amount of truth which it illustrates to him…. Who can regard studying nature and knowing oneself to be twin pursuits. But their ideas about nature and self veer from each other. Tao Qian sees nature as a haven from feudal to man from the azure sky, over whose unspotted deeps the winds forevermore drive flocks of stormy clouds, must remove themselves to the countryside to cultivate 33 their native temperament, even as humans are merely insignificant particles in the scheme of things, dissolv- Nature is a living text of moral truth; the laws of ing back into nature eventually. For Emerson, it is the human mind that must intuit the meaning of the external world and communicate its lessons. He anticipates Dar- win’s theory of evolution in designating homo sapiens as and untainted by the storm and stress of the world. the highest form to which nature aspires while proclaim- ing, against both Darwinian atheism and orthodox Uni- By far the greatest lesson instilled by Nature in tarianism, that “God is here within.” 37 Where Tao Qian Emerson is self-reliance: “Nature suffers nothing to envisions the self to be living in harmony with nature, remain in her kingdoms which cannot help itself. The Emerson bids the self-reliant individual to explicate the genesis and maturation of a planet, its poise and orbit, world, generating order out of chaos. The solitude that the bended tree recovering itself from the strong wind, Tao Qian savors can be found only in the countryside; the vital resources of every animal and vegetable, are the kind that Emerson extolls can be found anywhere by demonstrations of the self-sufficing and therefore self- the self-possessed. relying soul.” 34 all that concerns me, not what the people think.” 35 Like Tao Qian associates nature and solitude with the Tao Qian, he cautions against the pressure of society countryside, but not with a hermetic existence. His idea that induces one to kowtow to power, fame, or fortune: of solitude involves distancing oneself from hubs of “Society is a joint-stock company . . . in which the power and commerce, but it does not preclude the en- members agree, for the better security of his bread to joyment of family and friends. He reveals in “Retracing each shareholder, to surrender the liberty and culture of My Way Home” < ᖂ ৫ ᶕ 䗎 > that despite ending his the eater. The virtue in most request is conformity. Self- “intercourse with the world,” he continues to be “pleased reliance is its aversion.” Hence the oft-quoted corollary: with the feeling words of … kin and friends.” 38 His pas- “Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist. … toral poems describe the hard work of a farmer providing Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own for his kin: “I have never yet utterly failed my family / mind. Absolve you to yourself, and you shall have the Even though cold and hungry / they always had bran and suffrage of the world.” 36 Emerson would surely approve 39

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But he also celebrates the joys of being surrounded by setting for solitary communion and for learning in Na- children: “Now I hold hands with a train of nieces and nephews, / Parting the hazel growth we tread the untilled American Scholar” (1837), he opines in a later essay, wastes.” 40 Above all, he revels in drinking with neigh- also entitled “Nature” (1949), that nature is ubiquitous: bors and friends: “Fond of wine, he is too poor to resort to it often; knowing this, his kin and friends would invite If we consider how much we are nature’s, we him to bumpers.” 41 The poet is a “hermit” only in the Chinese sense of choosing to live in a rural area, but still or benefic force did not find us there also, and fashion within human earshot. What is of utmost importance to cities. Nature who made the mason, made the house. We him is the freedom to follow his heart’s desire, as cel- ebrated in “Retracing My Way Home: A Prose Poem” [ ᖂ disengaged air of natural objects, makes them enviable ৫ᶕ䗎 ]: to us chafed and irritable creatures with red faces, and we think we shall be as grand as they, if we camp out To be wealthy and to be high in rank are not what and eat roots; but let us be men instead of woodchucks, I wish; to be in the celestial city is not what I expect. and the oak and the elm shall gladly serve us, though we I may wish to go somewhere on a fair day alone, or to sit in chairs of ivory on carpets of silk. 46 weed and manure the soil… Or I may wish to rise on the eastern bank to halloo in easing my heart, or to compose In this piece nature and solitude are no longer poetry by the side of a limpid stream. In such wise, I confined to bucolic locales but is within reach may merge into Nature and come to my end, delighting everywhere, even in an ornate boudoir, for ivory and in the decree of heaven and doubting nought. 42 silk are also natural products. Nature even evaporates or cycles as “thought” in this essay: “Nature is the Whether fertilizing the soil, composing by a incarnation of a thought, and turns to a thought again, stream, or dissolving back into the earth, the poet here is as ice becomes water and gas.” Hence “every moment very much a part of the scenery. instructs, and every object: for wisdom is infused into every form.” 47 The alert mind can be illuminated by any Tao Qian and Emerson share a free spirit that external objects, including those found indoors or in wishes above all to be true to themselves and their in- cities. Nature in this later essay encompasses just about ward promptings. Like the Chinese poet, who refuses everything under the sun. to “grovel” for a living, Emerson refuses to ingratiate himself: “If you are noble, I will love you; if you are If Emerson defines nature much more broadly in not, I will not hurt you and myself by hypocritical at- his later work, his idea of solitude, which is increasingly tentions… But so may you give these friends pain. Yes, allied with self-reliance, becomes more and more a but I cannot sell my liberty and my power, to save their function of the inner self: “It is easy in the world to sensibility.” He values honesty and liberty far above tact. live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude He will harken to the voice of his mind and do “whatever to live after our own; but the great man is he who in inly rejoices [him] and the heart appoints.” 43 Neither Tao the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness Qian nor Emerson is willing to pay hypocritical attention the independence of solitude.” 48 Solitude is almost to those they dislike. Just as Tao Qian will rise spontane- synonymous with independence here. This solipsistic ously on the eastern bank and halloo to ease his heart, Emerson will do whatever his heart appoints. by popular opinions, must remain intact even when one is surrounded by a rabble. Nature for both men is the repository of knowledge Emerson thus goes much farther than Tao Qian and the first in importance of the influences upon the in his insistence on self-amplifying solitude. Unlike mind is that of nature. Every day, the sun; and after sun- the Chinese poet, who never shuns family and friends, set, Night and her stars. Ever the winds blow; ever the Emerson holds that the mental state essential for self- grass grows… The scholar is he of all men whom this reliance must preclude any extrinsic interference, spectacle most engages.” 44 He believes that nature and including that of one’s closest kin: the human soul are rooted in the same order, that a law ᖂ ৫ ᶕ 䗎 of nature is also a law of the human mind, so much so Your isolation must not be mechanical, but spiri- that “the ancient precept, ‘Know thyself,’ and the mod- tual, that is, must be elevation. At times the whole world ern precept, ‘Study nature,’ become at last one maxim.” 45 seems to be in conspiracy to importune you with em- phatic trifles. Friend, client, child … all knock at once It is not always easy, however, to nail down this at thy closet door… But keep thy state; come not into lay philosopher’s ideas owing to his contempt for consis- their confusion…. Say to them, ‘O father, O mother, O wife, O brother, O friend, I have lived with you after ap-

67 Comparative Studies of China and the West Vol. 1 2013 pearances hitherto. Henceforward I am the truth’s. Be it human intelligence. While individuals can learn from 5HQRXQFLQJP\FDSRIRI¿FH,ZLOOUHWXUQWRP\ROGKRPH known unto you that henceforward I obey no law less than the eternal law… I must be myself. I cannot break myself any longer for you, or you.” 49 Writing centuries after Tao Qian, Emerson has also incorporated scientific knowledge in his understanding Unlike Tao Qian, who remains mindful of his du- of the world, as the epigraph for the 1849 edition of ties to his family, Emerson contends that one must turn a Nature ޫ deaf ear to all immanent demands when the transcenden- ⵏ talist spirit beckons. The enjoinment to “keep thy state” A subtle chain of countless rings seems to pun on “state” of mind and a sovereign “state”: The next unto the farthest brings; an individual must hold his own mind supreme like that The eye reads omens where it goes, that of a sovereign who does not have to heed anyone And speaks all languages the rose; else. The next injunction, couched in biblical language, And, striving to be man, the worm to parents, sibling, and friend to leave the speaker alone Mounts through all the spires of form. 53 further elevates this sovereign into the role of the Son of God, for it echoes twelve-year-old Jesus’s response The chain at first glance resembles the Chain to his mother. The teen, unbeknownst to his parents, had of Being in Renaissance British literature. But upon stayed behind in the temple in Jerusalem. Upon being close examination, it looks not so much backward to rebuked, he reposted: “ the Elizabethan world picture as forward to Darwin’s (Luke evolutionary theory. Instead of depicting humankind 2:49). Just as Christ’s retort implies that his unique re- clambering up the ladder to the galaxy, “man” in this lationship with God supersedes his relationship with his Emersonian hierarchy is the highest order of beings earthly parents, so Emerson suggests that individuals toward which the worm inches upward. Furthermore, while natural objects such as the rose and the worm the God within. embody fundamental lessons, it is the human eye that divines these omens where it goes. Nature itself cannot Although both Tao Qian and Emerson envision deliver any message without the human intuition that Nature as a teacher that instructs individuals, they differ makes sense of external phenomena. in their ideas concerning the relationship between self and nature. As Tao Qian’s line about merging eventually Because Emerson sees human beings as endowed into nature suggests, the Chinese poet subscribes to the with godly intelligence, cultivation of the self takes on Daoist worldview in which “man is not separated from very different forms than those found in Confucian or nature either by intellectual discrimination or by emo- Daoist literature. In Confucian culture, self-cultivation tional response; he is one with nature, and lives with it in is often associated with self-control, self-restraint, even harmony.” 50 The poet thus quietly blends with nature, as self-abnegation, and with learning one’s place in a social and political hierarchy. Although Daoism gives often tiny specks overshadowed by grand landscapes. much freer reign to the individual spirit, this self, as one miniscule cog in the universal wheel, must not strive for In stark contrast to Tao Qian, who is content to lead a discrete existence. In the words of Joseph Levenson a self-effacing pastoral existence, Emerson sees nature and Franz Schurmann: as “thoroughly mediate,” subject to human orchestration: Nature is not merely observed, for observation im- It is meant to serve. It receives the dominion of plies separation of ego and object—a separation which, man as meekly as the ass on which the Saviour rode. It for the Daoists, isolates the self, thus condemning it to offers all its kingdoms to man as the raw material which the striving they hold vain and to the suffering they see he may mould into what is useful… One after another - his victorious thought comes up with and reduces all ture that banishes consciousness, a consciousness that in things, until the world becomes at last only a realized the last analysis is always and ominously of self. 54 will, —the double of the man. 51 This Daoist construal of self, which has found The last line, with its megalomaniac sense of its way into much of Tao Qian’s poetry, is anathema to nature as the realized will of humankind, would never Emerson. be uttered by Tao Qian or any traditional Chinese poet, not even the grandiloquent Li Bai or Su Shi. Emerson deems an enlightened person to be “the creator in the of the relation between self and nature are in some way 52 with ascendency over nature, which will remain encapsulated in the works of Tao Qian and Emerson. nebulous and inchoate till it is quickened by God-given William Acker’s translation of one of Tao Qian’s poems 68 King-Kok Cheung Two Forms of Solitude

5HQRXQFLQJP\FDSRIRI¿FH,ZLOOUHWXUQWRP\ROGKRPH star. Let us not fag in paltry works which serve our pot Never more entangled with love for high position. and bag alone. … Work rather for those interests which 62 I will nourish my REAL self under my gates and thatch the divinities honor and promote.” Deployed in the And by doing this be all the better known. 55 the forces of the elements and in the second to inspire The line rendered as “I will nourish my real humankind to harbor high principles, in common usage self” is at variance with the Chinese expression “ ޫ the phrase is often used as an exhortation to pursue lofty ⵏ ”—nurture natural disposition and cultivate truth— enterprises. ironically betraying the Western bias of the translator. In the Chinese idiom, nurturing disposition and cultivating Although both Tao Qian and Emerson view truth are cognate pursuits, so that the idea of a “self” knowing oneself and knowing nature as inextricably discrete from “truth” is notably absent. Tao Qian implies intertwined, the grand entelechy signaled by Emerson’s that living close to nature is conducive to improving starry metaphor differs from Tao Qian’s humble if one’s character precisely because it can be at one with occasionally epicurean pursuit. In place of the boundless the environment. By the same token, the line rendered as “be all the better known” really means “so honor your latent conviction, and it shall be the universal redounds on me.” What the poet desires is not worldly sense” and “Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that prestige but a sense of honor. Tao Qian may be echoing iron string,” Tao Qian describes himself as “spare of speech,” writing merely “to please himself and show his a saying in Analects : “Be not grieved that you are not 63 known, but seek to be worthy of being known.” 56 The bent.” distinction is important because elsewhere Tao Qian has lamented that “The Tao has been lost…And people Relationship between Self and Civil Society everywhere are misers of their feelings… And think of 57 The most noticeable difference between the two nothing save keeping their reputation.” Tao Qian is pastoral enthusiasts is their relationship to the world of unlikely to be equally guilty. A.R. Davis’s translation affairs. Tao Qian abstains completely from civil society of these lines—“I’ll cultivate truth ‘under a cross-beam 58 and ensconces himself in rural backwater. He goes so door’; / So may I make myself a name for goodness” — far as to change his name from Tao Yuanming to Tao though slightly awkward, is, in my opinion, closer to the Qian—Qian meaning “hiding” or “submerging”— original Chinese meaning. signifying his resolve to remove himself from the public Where solitude connotes pastoral reclusiveness eye and to avoid the tarnishing effects of society. and ascetic existence in Tao Qian’s poetry, it is linked Emerson, according to Christy, is nudged by his primarily to intellectual independence in Emerson’s friends to do the same: “[Amos Bronson] Alcott might writing. Self-cultivation amounts to developing complete have begged him to enter the ill-fated Fruitlands venture. trust in one’s intuition, to the degree of making light of Thoreau was considering Walden.” Both Fruitlands and the teachings of past saints and savants and being deaf Walden are reminiscent of the Utopian Peach Blossoms to the criticism of one’s peers. Instead of seeing humans Spring. Instead of imagining Emerson wavering between as dissolvable specks in the universe, Emerson contends Laozi and Confucius, Christy, citing his journal of 1843, that “a true man… is the center of things . Where he 59 fancies the New England sage staunchly aligning himself is, there is nature.” Nothing is grander than the self- with Confucius, “with Alcott and Thoreau as Chang reliant human soul, which even sets off “the poverty of 60 Tsoo and Kee Neih”: nature and fortune beside our native riches.” Because the mind is its own place for Emerson, solitude does Reform . Chang Tsoo and Kee Neih retired from not entail actual mountain retreat: “Think alone, and all places are friendly and sacred. The poets who have their displeasure at Confucius who remained in the lived in cities have been hermits still. Inspiration makes world. Confucius sighed and said, “ I cannot associate solitude anywhere.” 61 with birds and beasts. If I follow not man, whom shall I 64 The restive independence Emerson champions differs from Tao Qian’s pragmatic self-sufficiency. Emerson, despite his insistence on resolute Urging individuals to harken to their own callings without intellectual freedom, is scrupulously mindful of dreading public censure or hankering after popular Confucian duty to the state. Although he reproves a acclaim, he famously exhorts: “Hitch your wagon to controlling political organ ( “the State must follow, and the star.” He uses this sidereal axiom twice (once with a not lead the character and progress of the citizen ”), he different possessive) in Society and Solitude : “Now that continues to be a public intellectual after his resignation is the wisdom of a man, in every instance of his labor, to as Unitarian minister. hitch his wagon to a star, and see his chore done by the gods themselves.” And again: “Hitch your wagon to a 69 Comparative Studies of China and the West Vol. 1 2013

Emerson decrees that a true thinker must not retreat Emerson himself never retracts from his self- from a commonplace world but must assay to usher in a appointed mission as the world’s eye and heart, as the ᐢ䝹 brave new world: seer and conscience of his age; he continues to bring ኱ҍᴸҍᰕ his considerable talents to bear on flashpoint events of Let us affront and reprimand the smooth his time. Carl Bode observes that much as Emerson mediocrity and squalid contentment of the times, and “begrudged acting as a public man,” he spoke out against three major political issues during his prime: which is the upshot of all history, that there is a great the expulsion of the Cherokees from Georgia, the war responsible Thinker and Actor working wherever a man against Mexico, and slavery. 69 As the contributor to The works…. Every true man is a cause, a country, and an Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography puts it, “It age…. A man Caesar is born, and for ages after we have is no slight sign of the greatness of the thinker, that he a Roman Empire. Christ is born, and millions of minds can leave the amenities of the city and the quietudes of so grow and cleave to his genius…. An institution is the the forest to stand upon the anti-slavery platform. The lengthened shadow of one man…and all history resolves subordination of the pursuit of a thought to the love of a itself very easily into the biography of a few stout and duty thus manifested, may be accepted as the crowning earnest persons. 65 lesson in the life and works of Emerson.” 70 侞 As opposed to retiring from society, Emerson Nature, Spirit, and Writing 䞂 implores us to “affront and reprimand,” to remove obstacles to progress, to affirm the conviction that Having discussed the points of convergence and society has always been transformed by remarkable divergence in these two pillars of Chinese and American individuals such as Caesar and Christ, and therefore letters, I would like to turn to their metaphysics every human has the potential to become a vanguard. and aesthetics, which are no less informed by their Instead of succumbing to institutional constraints, a great reverence for nature. Despite a spiritual note that often leader can overhaul the institution itself. accompanies both of their compositions, and the many Daoist and biblical allusions in their respective writing, He further expounds on the social obligations of a neither writer devotes much thought, if at all, to life after seminal mind in “The American Scholar”: death. Their works, presented in limpid and unadorned 7KHELUGVÀ\IURPDQGEDFNWRWKHLUQHVWVHDUO\DQGODWH verse and prose free of abstruse allusions, seem natural There goes in the world a notion that the scholar growths from the soil of the old China and the New should be a recluse, a valetudinarian,--as unfit for any England. Instead of citing precedents and bowing to handiwork or public labor as a penknife for an axe…. Action is with the scholar subordinate, but it is essential. Without it he is not yet man. Without it thought can irreverence. never ripen into truth… Inaction is cowardice, but there can be no scholar without the heroic mind. The preamble The Chinese poet openly embraces the beliefs of thought, the transition through which it passes from of Dao as moral and eternal, but he steers clear of the unconscious to the conscious, is action. Only so Zhuangzi’s mysticism and occult folk practices much do I know, as I have lived. Instantly we know associated with Daoism, such as the search for elixir for whose words are loaded with life, and whose not. 66 immortality via alchemy. It is quite clear from his work that he does not give any credence to an afterlife. “To Thinking and living, according to Emerson, must be in the celestial city is not what I expect,” quoth he in “Retracing My Way Home.” He asked rhetorically, “To to cheer, to raise, and to guide men by showing them be born in the morning possessed of Love and Faith / 67 facts amidst appearances.” He must think for himself 71 The and forego the “pleasure of treading the old road, elegy below dispels any lingering doubt about human accepting the fashions, the education, and the religion of society,” he must bear the cross of being contrary, endure poverty and solitude, and “the state of virtual hostility Where there is life there also must be death… in which he seems to stand to society, and especially Success or failure he [the deceased] will not know again, to educated society.” He can only take as consolation Questions of right or wrong mean nothing to him now. the awareness that he is the repository of wisdom for In a thousand autumns—after ten thousand years, others, exercising the highest human functions: “He Who will know whether he had glory or disgrace? is the world’s eye. He is the world’s heart.” 68 As such, The only pity is while he was in the world the American scholar is obligated to communicate the 72 noblest thoughts and sentiments to the public. Of drinking wine he never got enough.

70 King-Kok Cheung Two Forms of Solitude

The sentiment is replicated in “Written on the citing literary authorities, and using esoteric references, Ninth Day of the Ninth Month of the Year I-yu” < ᐢ䝹 Tao Qian writes directly, using down-to-earth expres- ኱ҍᴸҍᰕ >: “From ancient times / there was none but sions and vignettes from country life. In the words of had to die, / Remembering this scorches my very heart. / - of his natural voice and immediate experience, thereby joy myself drinking my unstrained wine. / I do not know creating the personal lyricism which all major Chinese about a thousand years, / Rather let me make this morn- poets inherited and made their own.” 78 He was keenly ing last forever.” 73 Human life in these poems follow admired by Tang poets such as Meng Haoyan and Wang the natural rhythm of morning and evening. Though the Wei on account of "the freshness of his images, his thought of eventual nothingness sometimes gives rise to homespun but Heaven-aspiring morality, and his stead- melancholy, the poet uses this unpleasant fact to counsel fast love of rural life.” 79 against transient glory and to prompt his readers to make the most of their numbered days. Tao Qian’s correlation of rustic vista and moral high ground anticipates Emerson’s claim that “particular His recurrent advice is to drink before it is too late. natural facts are symbols of particular spiritual facts” and that “nature is the symbol of spirit.” 80 Indeed Emer- out by one of his several poems entitled “Drinking” < 侞 son’s ideas about the “Over-soul” or “the eternal One” 䞂 >: are almost indistinguishable from Laozi’s and Tao Qian’s delineations of the eternal Dao. Although the one-time I set up my cottage in the world of men, Unitarian preacher refers frequently to God in his work, Away from the hubbub of horses and carriages. his idea of divinity is much closer to the universal spirit Being asked how it could be thus, I reply, of Dao than to any Christian Godhead: “My heart stays apart, so secluded must be the spot.” In plucking chrysanthemums beneath the east hedge, Spirit…suggests the absolute. It is a perpetual effect. Of that ineffable essence which we call Spirit, I vacantly see the southern mountains afar; he that thinks most, will say least. We can foresee God The mountain aura hovereth fair morn and eve, in the coarse…but when we try to define and describe 7KHELUGVÀ\IURPDQGEDFNWRWKHLUQHVWVHDUO\DQGODWH himself, both language and thought desert us, and we are There is the pith of truth in all this sight; as helpless as fools and savages. That essence refuses to When I am about to say how, I forget my words. 74 be recorded in propositions, when man has worshipped him intellectually, the noblest ministry of nature is to The poem is deceptive in its simplicity. While the stand as the apparition of God. It is the organ through first two quatrains use concrete imagery and informal which the universal spirit speaks to the individual, and language to answer a simple question and evoke a strives to lead back the individual to it. 81 rustic scene, the last two lines bring the self-analysis to a philosophical (but not at all didactic) close. The Here and elsewhere Emerson posits almost enigmatic couplet invites at least two interpretations. In exactly the same Daoist paradox about ineffable truth: “the highest truth on [Intuition] remains unsaid; probably cannot be said; for all that we say is the far- too deep for articulation, like those mentioned in “The off remembering of the intuition”; “My words do not Book of Tao”: “The Tao that can be expressed in words carry its august sense; they fall short and cold.” 82 The / Is not the true and eternal Tao.” 75 The “pith of truth” transcendentalist’s assumptions about the Over-soul gleaned by the Chinese poet from his nature-watch recall Laozi’s concepts concerning the Tao. These two likewise surpasses language; his epiphany—possibly sets of beliefs have several common denominators: precipitated by alcohol—must be intuited rather than everything is interconnected; the Spirit is accessible verbalized. to all, whether or not people actively seek it; moral character and action evince that the human and divine “Drinking” is emblematic of Tao Qian’s disarm- spirit are aligned; through self-cultivation one can get ing and resonant style, which modulates easily from a closer to the universal spirit. descriptive to a philosophical register. He has indicated in his autobiographical sketch that he does not chase Like Tao Qian, Emerson is loath to dwell on the after fancy diction or obscure references, that he “takes afterlife: “Men ask concerning the immortality of the delight in books, but is not enmeshed in mere words.” 76 soul, the employments of heaven…and so forth… These On account of his transparency the bard was “slighted by questions which we lust to ask about the future…God his era’s critics and only fully appreciated by later gen- erations of readers.” 77 Unlike his contemporaries, who ‘decree of God,’ but in the nature of man, that a veil flaunt their learning by adhering to rigid conventions, shuts down on the facts of to-morrow.…By this veil

71 Comparative Studies of China and the West Vol. 1 2013 which curtains events it instructs the children of men of his parts in every moss and cobweb.” 88 live in to-day.” 83 Emerson, speaking putatively on behalf of God, dismisses interests in posthumous affairs as “low ᗀᏽ˄㕆˅˖lj䲦␺᰾䈇䘹NJ亥 curiosity” and urges his readers to channel their energy into the here and now: “work and live, work and live.” 84 recommending instead an original relationship with the universe. He poses a series of questions in Nature (1836): ᗀᏽ˄㕆˅˖lj䲦␺᰾䈇䘹NJ Stylistically, Emerson also mirrors Tao 亥  ˉ  Qian’s poetic immediacy, using figurative language Why should not we have a poetry and spontaneously to provide abstract ideas with welcome philosophy of insight and not of tradition, and a religion by revelation to us, and not the history of [our of Tao Qian’s “Drinking.” The Chinese poet does not miss stately conveyances, preferring natural resources. The “pith of truth” for him is embedded in the profuse invite us by the powers they supply…why should we mountain air that is available throughout the day, in grope among the dry bones of the past, or put the living the birds that go out with sunrise and return at sunset. Emerson likewise prefers living in sync with nature to The sun shines today also. There is more wool and modern luxuries: flax in the fields. There are new lands, new men, new thoughts. Let us demand our own works and laws and The civilized man has built a coach, but has lost worship. 89 the use of his feet. He is supported on crutches, but lacks This passage, in which Emerson bemoans how but he fails of the skill to tell the hour by the sun… veneration for past theories has sapped the creativity and it may be a question whether machinery does not of his contemporary generation, is also a stylistic tour de force. He obeys his own precept by seldom citing  energy, by a Christianity, entrenched in establishments other authorities to support his observations, confronting and forms, some vigor of wild virtue. 85 us instead with spectacular evidence from the teeming Had Emerson been Tao Qian’s coeval, he too the reader’s eye to the plenitude of the New World with would have chosen a secluded spot “away from the three crisp sentences before ending with a simple exhor- hubbub of horses and carriages,” learning to tell time, tation, rendered all the more persuasive by the preced- exercise muscles, cultivate wide virtue, and decipher ing imagery yoking classical antiquity with the macabre truth from natural surrounding. and conjoining personal intuition with cornucopia. The  American scholar believes that not books by our fore- Emerson envisions not only a moral symbiosis fathers but nature itself should provide individuals with between human and nature, but also a homological the raw material for philosophy and poetry. Each per- relation between microcosm and macrocosm, between son must learn to “detect and watch that gleam of light ᗀᏽ˄㕆˅˖lj䲦␺᰾䈇䘹NJˈ亥 ˉ the inmost and the outermost, so that an autonomous and which flashes across his mind from within, more than 㩗㔏ˈ 䲦␺᰾Ր ᗀᏽ˄㕆˅˖lj䲦␺᰾䈇䘹NJ honorable individual can readily cull moral lessons from the lustre of the firmament of bards and sages.” 90 He the external world: vouchsafes to mention other worthies of the past only to further illustrate his point: “the highest merit we ascribe The visible creation is the terminus or the to Moses, Plato and Milton is that they set at naught circumference of the invisible world. A life in harmony books and traditions, and spoke not what men, but what with Nature, the love of truth and virtue, will purge the they thought.” 91 These men are great precisely because eyes to understand her text. By degrees we may come they disregard their predecessors and contemporaries. to know the primitive sense of the permanent objects of nature, so that the world shall be to us an open book, and Like Tao Qian, Emerson communicates his 86 thoughts briskly and winsomely. “Self-Reliance” concludes thus: Convinced that “every appearance in nature ᗀᏽ˄㕆˅˖lj䲦␺᰾䈇䘹NJˈ亥 corresponds to some state of the mind, and that state of A political victory, a rise of rents, the recovery of the mind can only be described by presenting that natural your sick, or the return of your absent friend…raises ᗀᏽ˄㕆˅˖lj䲦␺᰾䈇䘹NJˈ亥 appearance as its picture,” Emerson is as adept as Tao your spirit, and you think good days are preparing for 87 ᆉ བྷ 䴘 Qian at drawing inspirations from everyday landscape. you. Do not believe it. Nothing can bring you peace but ljਔ䈇᮷㤡䈁䳶NJˋ In addition to tropes of the sun, rain, stars, blade of yourself. Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of grass, blowing rose, and the worm introduced earlier, he 92 principles. ᆉབྷ䴘 has forged piquant conceits in lines such as “the world lj ਔ 䈇 ᮷ 㤡 䈁 䳶NJ ˋ globes itself in a drop of dew.… God reappears with all These sentences display a fetching arc. Addressing

72 King-Kok Cheung Two Forms of Solitude

the readers, Emerson starts by taking the reader Returning to Dwell in the Country,” in William Acker, trans., T’ao the (addressed intimately in the second person) for a Hermit: Sixty Poems by T’ao Ch’ien . London: Thames and Hudson, pp. seductive rhetorical spin, via a lengthy sentence full 65, 56; Chinese original in ᗀᏽ˄㕆˅˖lj䲦␺᰾䈇䘹NJ亥 65, 28. of promising scenarios, till she arrives at the summary All English citations of Tao Qian are to Acker’s text unless otherwise stated. enjoinder: “Do not believe it.” He then ends with two 4 T’ao Ch’ien, “Five Poems on Returning to Dwell in the Country,” in anaphoric sentences, pounding his message home. The Acker, pp. 52-53; Chinese original in ᗀᏽ˄㕆˅˖lj䲦␺᰾䈇䘹NJ periodical structure and teasing suspense are comparable 亥  ˉ  to the turn of thought in Tao Qian’s “Drinking,” at once 5 See Frederic Ives Carpenter, Emerson and Asia . Cambridge: Harvard playful and soulful, proffering instruction and diversion University Press, 1930; Arthur Christy, The Orient In American in equal measure. The metaphysical observations and Transcendentalism: A Study Of Emerson, Thoreau, And Alcott . New stylistic maneuvers of these two masters seem part York: Columbia University Press, 1932. and parcel of their resolute individuality and their 6 Lyman V. Cady, “Thoreau’s Quotations from the Confucian Books enchantment with nature. in Walden ,” American Literature 33.1 (1961): p. 20. Cady makes a convincing case from textual evidence that Thoreau is also familiar Conclusion with G. Pauthier’s Les Livres sacrés de L’Orient (1841), a French translation of the Four Books. 7 Tao Qian and Emerson speak to us afresh in Christy, The Orient In American Transcendentalism , pp. 45, 317. 8 Ibid, p. 49. this materialist age riddled with social pressures and 9 Carpenter, Emerson and Asia , p. 235. ecological concerns. Though separated by millennia, the 10 David T.Y. Chen, “Thoreau and Daoism,” in C.D. Narasimhaiah, ed. two might be considered kindred spirits with singular Asian Response to American Literature . New York: Barnes and Noble, affinities: propensity for rustic living and seclusion; 1972, p. 409. disdain for establishment, gilded acquisition, and 11 Lao Tzu, “The Book of Tao,” Chapter 4, in Gu Zhengkun, trans. & indolent conformity; predilection for self-cultivation and annotated, The Book of Tao and Teh . Beijing: China Publishing Group recourse to nature for intellectual and moral guidance; Corp., 2013p. 11. adherence to a spirituality that pertains to the here and 12 Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Self-Reliance,” in Carl Bode and Malcolm now; preference for a plain style not laden with erudite Cowley, ed. The Portable Emerson (New York: Penguin, 1979), pp. allusions or external authorities. Because of their 149-150; all citations from Emerson are to The Portable Emerson divergent notions of selfhood, however, the two envisage unless otherwise stated . Emerson is also very much influenced by British poets (e.g. Wordsworth and Coleridge) whose works reflect the relationship between self and nature and between self Eastern philosophical currents. and society differently. Although both thinkers conceive 13 Gu Zhengkun, “Lao Zi and His Philosophical System: An their duty to mankind as being true to themselves, Introduction,” in Gu Zhengkun, trans. & annotated, The Book of Tao Tao Qian sees the self to be a relatively insignificant and Teh . Beijing: China Publishing Group Corp.,2013 p. 30. “shadow” subsumed by natural landscape (“Vast and 14 Tao Ch’ien, “Peach Blossom Spring,” in Cyril Birch, ed. Anthology majestic, mountains embrace your shadow”), whereas of Chinese Literature , V ol. 1: From Early Times to the Fourteenth Emerson underscores the importance of a unique human Century . New York: Grove Press, 1965, 167-168;Chinese original in spirit in radiating divine wisdom and transmitting a ᗀᏽ˄㕆˅˖lj䲦␺᰾䈇䘹NJˈ亥 136 ˉ 137. 15 higher ethic. Tao Qian can find solitude only in the Quoted in 㩗㔏ˈ < 䲦␺᰾Ր >, ᗀᏽ˄㕆˅˖lj䲦␺᰾䈇䘹NJ .Hong Kong: Joint Publishing Co., 1982, p. 2; my English translation. countryside; Emerson holds that where “a true man is 16 … there is nature.” Instead of retreating from society, he Carl Bode, “Introduction,” in The Portable Emerson . New York: Penguin, 1979, p. ix. continues to denounce benighted practices and policies. 17 Emerson, “Politics” (1844), in Ralph Waldo Emerson: Selected Still, the two aficionados of solitude share a profound Essays, Lectures, and Poems . New York: Random House, 2006, p. 254. belief in the intercourse of mindscape and landscape. 18 Leo Marx, “Pastoralism in America,” in Sacvan Bercovitch and They see the visible world as an “open book” awaiting to Myra Jehlen, ed. Ideology and Classic American Literature . New York: be apprehended by a soul attuned to its lessons, whether Cambridge University Press, 1986, p. 44. during a moment of heightened (if occasionally tipsy) 19 Emerson, Nature (1836), in Carl Bode and Malcolm Cowley, ed. The Portable Emerson, p. 11. 20 Ibid, p. 9. 21 T’ao Ch’ien, “Five Poems on Returning to Dwell in the Country,” in Acker, p. 52; Chinese original in ᗀᏽ˄㕆˅˖lj䲦␺᰾䈇䘹NJˈ亥 1 Jack Keruac’s “Running Through (Chinese Poem Song),” for 24; Emerson, Nature , p.14. 22 example, contains the lines “No body has respect / for the self T’ao Ch’ien, “Spending the Ninth Day in Solitude,” in Acker, pp. centered/Irresponsible wine invalid. / Everybody wants to be strapped/ 50-51; Chinese original in ᗀᏽ˄㕆˅˖lj䲦␺᰾䈇䘹NJˈ亥 22. 23 in a hopeless space suit where they can’t move. / I urge you, China Tao Yuanming, “The Life of the Sire of Five Willows,” in ᆉ བྷ 䴘 / go back to Li Po and Tao Yuan Ming.” http://archive.neopoet.com/ Sun Dayu, ed. & trans., ljਔ䈇᮷㤡䈁䳶NJˋ An Anthology of Ancient node/1075 (Sept 7, 2013). Chinese Poetry .Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education 2 Tao Yuanming, “The Life of the Sire of Five Willows,” in ᆉབྷ䴘 Sun Press, 1995, pp. 73, 75; Chinese original on pp. 72, 74. 24 Dayu, ed. & trans., lj ਔ 䈇 ᮷ 㤡 䈁 䳶NJ ˋ An Anthology of Ancient Ibid, pp. 14-15. 25 Chinese Poetry . Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Emerson, “Self-Reliance,” p.151. 26 Press, 1995, p. 73; Chinese original on p. 72. Tao Yuan-ming, “The Life of the Sire of Five Willows,” p. 72. 27 3 T’ao Ch’ien, “Six Poems Written while Drunk” and “Five Poems on T’ao Ch’ien, “On Reading the Classic of the Hills and Seas,” in 73 Comparative Studies of China and the West Vol. 1 2013

Acker, pp. 99-100; Chinese original in ᗀᏽ˄㕆˅˖lj䲦␺᰾䈇䘹NJˈ of Ralph Waldo Emerson, ed. Ralph Waldo Emerson and Waldo 亥 129. 28 T’ao Ch’en, “Six Songs of Poor Scholars,” in Acker, p. 132; Chinese 65 Emerson, “Self-Reliance,” pp. 147-148. original in ᗀᏽ˄㕆˅˖lj䲦␺᰾䈇䘹NJˈ亥 118. 66 Emerson, “The American Scholar,” p. 59. 29 Laozi, “ The Book of Tao ,” Chapter 22, in Gu Zhengkun, trans. & 67 Ibid, p. 62. annotated, The Book of Tao and Teh . Beijing: China Publishing Group 68 Ibid, p. 63. Corp.2013p. 58; my English translation. 69 Carl Bode, “Introduction,” p. xvi. 30 T’ao Ch’en, “Six Songs of Poor Scholars,” in Acker, p. 127. 70 The Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography: A Series of 31 Emerson, “Compensation,” p.169. Distinguished Memoirs of Distinguished Men, of All Ages and All 32 Emerson, “Self-Reliance,” p.163. Nations , Part 4. London: William Mackenzie, 1857, p. 245. 33 Emerson, “Nature” (1836), p. 29. 71 T’ao Ch’ien, “Six Songs of Poor Scholars,” in Acker, p. 130. 34 Emerson, “Self-Reliance,” p 153; the imagery of the “bended tree” 72 T’ao Ch’ien, “Three Songs Written in Imitation of Ancient Bears’ echoes the Daoist paradox “Bend to be straight” quoted earlier. Songs,” in Acker, pp. 101-102. WXDOSUHOLQJXLVWLFLQWXLWLRQRIQDWXUHKHLVSHUIHFWO\FRJQL]DQWWKDWVXFKDPHQWDOJUDVSLVLWVHOID¿FWLRQFUHDWHGE\WKH 35 Ibid, p. 143. 73 “Written on the Ninth Day of the Ninth Month of the Year I-yu,” in 36 Ibid, p. 141. Acker, pp. 121-22; Chinese original in ᗀᏽ˄㕆˅˖lj䲦␺᰾䈇䘹NJˈ 37 Ibid, p. 153. 亥 58. 38 Tao Yuanming, “Retracing My Way Home,” in Sun Dayu, p. 65; 74 Tao Yuanming, “Drinking,” in Sun Dayu, ed. & trans., An Anthology Chinese original on p. 62. of Ancient Chinese Poetry, p . 77; Chinese original on p. 76. 39 T’ao Ch’ien, “Seven Miscellaneous Poems,” in Acker, trans., p. 78; 75 Lao Tzu, “The Book of Tao,” in Gu Zhengkun, trans. & annotated, Chinese original in ᗀᏽ˄㕆˅˖lj䲦␺᰾䈇䘹NJˈ亥 111. The Book of Tao and Teh . Beijing: China Publishing Group Corp., 40 T’ao Ch’ien, “Five Poems on Returning to Dwell in the Country,” p. 2013, p. 3. 1DWXUHKXPDQFRQVFLRXVQHVVLPDJLQDWLRQWUDGLWLRQ¿FWLRQ 56; Chinese original in ᗀᏽ˄㕆˅˖lj䲦␺᰾䈇䘹NJˈ亥 28. 76 Tao Yuan-ming, “The Life of the Sire of Five Willows,” p. 73; 41 Tao Yuan-ming, “The Life of the Sire of Five Willows,” in Sun Chinese original on p. 72. Dayu, p. 73; Chinese original on p. 72. 77 Stuewe, “T’ao Ch’ien,” p. 2071. 42 Tao Yuanming, “Retracing My Way Home: A Prose Poem,” in Sun 78 David Hinton, “Introduction,” in The Selected Poems of T’ao Ch’ien , Dayu, p. 67; Chinese original on p. 62. trans. David Hinton. Port Townsend, WA: Copper Canyon Press, 1993, 43 Ibid, p. 155. p. 5. 44 Emerson, “The American Scholar,” p. 53. 79 Ibid, p. 2073. 45 Ibid, p. 54. 80 Emerson, Nature , p. 19. 46 Emerson, “Nature” (1949), in Collected Essays : Complete Original 81 Emerson, Nature , p. 41. Second Series . Rockville, Maryland: ARC Manor, 2007, p. 111. 82 Emerson, “Self-Reliance,” p. 152; “The Over-Soul,” p. 211. 47 Ibid, p. 117. 83 Emerson, “The Over-Soul,” pp. 219-220; my exclamation mark. 48 Emerson, “Self-Reliance,” p.143. 84 Ibid, p. 220. 49 Ibid, pp. 154-155. 85 Ibid, p. 162. 50 86 Joseph R. Levenson and Franz Schurmann, China: An Interpretive Nature (1836), p. 25. History: From the Beginnings to the Fall of Han . Berkeley: University 87 Ibid, p. 20. of California Press, 1971, p. 112. 88 Emerson, “Compensation,” p. 171. 7KXVZDWHUÀRZV 51 Emerson, Nature , p. 28. 89 Emerson, Nature (1836), p. 7. 52 Ibid, p. 43. 90 Emerson, “Self-Reliance,” p. 139. 53 Ibid, p. 7. 91 Ibid, pp.138-39. 54 Levenson and Schurmann, China , p. 112. 92 Ibid, p. 164. 55 T’ao Ch’ien, “Written in the Seventh Month of the Year Hsin-chou while Passing T’u-k’ou in the Night on my Way back to Chiang-ling :䘈⊏䲥ཌ㹼䙄ਓ ] in Acker, p. About the authorٷfor my vacation” [ 䗋с኱гᴸ䎤 111; Chinese original in A.R. Davis, Tao Yüan-ming: His Works and Their Meaning . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983, Vol. II, King-Kok Cheung received her Ph.D. from the University pp. 70-71. of California, Berkeley in 1984 and is now a professor in the 56 Analects , IV.14; in David Collie, trans., The Chinese Classical Work Commonly Called the Four Books. Malacca : Mission Press, 1828, p. department of English at UCLA. Her research interests include 14. American Ethnic Literatures, Asian American Literature, 57 T’ao Ch’ien, “Six Poems Written While Drunk,” in Acker, p. 65; Chinese and Chinese American Literature, Renaissance Chinese original in ᗀᏽ˄㕆˅˖lj䲦␺᰾䈇䘹NJˈ亥 65. British Literature (Shakespeare and Milton), World Literature 58 A.R. Davis, ed., Tao Yüan-ming: His Works and Their Meaning . (Comparative Odysseys and Comparative Heroic Traditions), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983, Vol. I, p. 83. gender studies. She is on the International Advisory Boards 59 Emerson, “Self-Reliance,” p. 147. 60 Ibid, p.154. of Feminist Studies in English Literature (Korea) and 61 Emerson, “Literary Ethics,” Essays and Lectures , p. 58. EuroAmerica (Taiwan). She is also an associate editor of 62 Emerson, Society and Solitude: Twelve Chapters (1862). Ann Arbor: Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society and a Guest University of Michigan, 2008, pp. 25, 27. Research Fellow at the Chinese American Literature Research 63 Emerson, “Self-Reliance,” pp. 138, 139; Tao Yuan-ming, “The Life Center, Beijing Foreign Studies University. of the Sire of Five Willows,” in Sun Dayu, p. 73. 64 Christy, The Orient In American Transcendentalism , p. 126; Journals

74 Li Yongyi Fictions of Nature in Wallace Stevens and Wang Wei

ᗀᏽ˄㕆˅˖lj䲦␺᰾䈇䘹NJˈ 亥 Fictions of Nature in Wallace Stevens ᗀᏽ˄㕆˅˖lj䲦␺᰾䈇䘹NJˈ亥 and Wang Wei

  By Li Yongyi Chongqing University

Abstract: Wallace Stevens’s vision of nature is characterized by a paradox: while he yearns to circumvent, with the aid of the imagination, the barriers of human consciousness and cultural tradition so as to “return” to a pre-concep- WXDOSUHOLQJXLVWLFLQWXLWLRQRIQDWXUHKHLVSHUIHFWO\FRJQL]DQWWKDWVXFKDPHQWDOJUDVSLVLWVHOID¿FWLRQFUHDWHGE\WKH human mind. In contrast, Wang Wei seems to always refrain from exploring the intellectual intricacies of the relation- ᗀᏽ˄㕆˅˖lj䲦␺᰾䈇䘹NJˈ 亥 ship between nature and human consciousness, resting content with his quasi-objective representations of the physical universe. Reading the two great poets alongside can illuminate differences between the conceptions of nature in the two cultural traditions they work with, and give us, by mutual mirroring, glimpses to subtleties in their poems that otherwise do not easily meet our eye. ᗀᏽ˄㕆˅˖lj䲦␺᰾䈇䘹NJˈ亥 Keywords: 1DWXUHKXPDQFRQVFLRXVQHVVLPDJLQDWLRQWUDGLWLRQ¿FWLRQ ᗀᏽ˄㕆˅˖lj䲦␺᰾䈇䘹NJˈ亥

An old man sits nature since we can never confront nature without the In the shadows of a pine tree mediation of our consciousness. In contrast, ancient In China. Chinese masters, adhering to the Taoist attitude of He sees larkspur, “forgetting” their egos and immersing their spirit in Blue and white, the ubiquitous circulation of Tao, the inactive yet all- powerful life force of the universe, seldom consciously At the edge of the shadow, attempted to interpret nature when composing poetry, Move in the wind. and thus found it not difficult to create what Stevens His beard moves in the wind. The pine tree moves in the wind. 7KXVZDWHUÀRZV nature appear so artless that the Chinese believed nature Over weeds. itself molded his poems. Unlike Stevens, Wang Wei seems to always refrain from exploring the intellectual The above is the first section of Stevens’s early intricacies of the relationship between nature and human 1 Though we cannot consciousness, resting content with his quasi-objective assert that he drew inspiration from Chinese poet Wang representations of the physical universe. Reading the two Wei (701-761CE), who wrote in one of his great poems, great poets alongside can illuminate differences between 䘈⊏䲥ཌ㹼䙄ਓ “bright moon incandescent in the pines, / crystalline the conceptions of nature in the two cultural traditionsٷ䗋с኱гᴸ䎤 stream slipping across rocks” 2, Stevens in this poem they work with, and give us, by mutual mirroring, almost captures the spirit of classical Chinese nature glimpses to subtleties in their poems that otherwise do poems. However, the word “thus” betrays his identity as not easily meet our eye. a Western poet, for it reveals a desire to impose human logic on nature, as if the sheer mental force of imagined 1.Nature and Human Consciousness causation could compel the water to move, even though ᗀᏽ˄㕆˅˖lj䲦␺᰾䈇䘹NJˈ亥 thematically Stevens seems to suggest here the necessity Even though Stevens does not view tradition in of diminishing human consciousness if we are to view a favorable light, his constant doubt of the authenticity nature in its pristine purity. Throughout his career, of nature as perceived by human beings is a typical Steven’s vision of nature is characterized by a paradox: Western stance. As early as Plato, the material existence while he yearns to circumvent, with the aid of the of nature was already questioned. The visible world was imagination, the barriers of human consciousness and reduced by Plato to a mere shadow of the world of Ideas. cultural tradition so as to “return” to a pre-conceptual, Throughout Western history, the mainstream tendency, pre-linguistic intuition of nature as it is, he is perfectly both in religion and in philosophy, has been to diminish, cognizant that such a mental grasp is itself a fiction even totally refuse to acknowledge, the validity of created by the human mind, that art inevitably invents sensual experience. Stevens’s skepticism shares with this

75 Comparative Studies of China and the West Vol. 1 2013 tradition a mistrust of the senses, but differs in that he, In “The Snow Man,” Stevens presents this state of in most cases, does not begrudge an actual existence to slumber succinctly: “One must have a mind of winter / nature. His emphasis is placed on the impossibility, given To regard the frost and boughs / Of the pine-trees crusted the restriction of a human perspective, of accurately with snow.” The “mind of winter” is void, passive, perceiving nature. Once we behold nature, it ceases to uncontaminated, free of emotion, ensuring that it will not be naked, but is seen as invested with human thoughts “think of any misery” when hearing “the sound of the and emotions. In this sense, the very act of perception wind”, remaining impervious to infiltrations of ethical becomes an act of invention. However convincingly it associations, and able to behold “[n]othing that is not there and the nothing that is.” Only when the beholder seems to have lost his ability to see and become “nothing Stevens is well aware that he is predestined to live himself” can he finally filter out everything added by in an “invented world” 3, but his craving for “things as human consciousness and see the original appearance of ĞnjQ\DWƗ they are” 4 often impels him to create some highly self- nature, even the ultimate nothingness behind it 9. Thus conscious myths. In “Nuances of a Theme by Williams,” to be privileged with a glimpse of nature as it is, the ĞnjQ\DWƗ he apostrophizes a star: beholder has to pay the price of turning himself into an Lend no part to any humanity that suffuses the title of the poem is “The Snow Man,” not “The You in its own light. Snowman.” A snow man after all is not a snowman, a Be not Chimera of morning, lifeless thing, but a human being hoping and striving Half-man, half-star. to enter the role of a snowman, a man who has a mind Be not an intelligence, of snow. As hinted by the space between “Snow” and Like a widow’s bird “Man,” the chasm between the two is unbridgeable. 5 Or an old horse . What Stevens calls for here is a neutral, almost non- human perspective. This Wang Wei unselfconsciously He longs to see a star that is simply and purely a achieved in his late poems. The first poet landscape star, not a symbol of light, or of wisdom, or a sign of painter of China, he introduced techniques of traditional religious significance. This ideal is better embodied in Chinese painting into his poetry. Ancient Chinese artists his late poem “Of Mere Being,” in which he envisions did not adopt perspective, which implies a human- a palm “beyond the last thought” and a gold-feathered centeredness. They often spent months even years in bird singing “without human meaning, without human some mountain and then produced a panoramic work feeling.” 6 But paradoxically, such crystalline beauty is that was intended to give an overall representation of the achieved only after laborious cerebration and conscious scenery. More significantly, human beings depicted in human intervention. their works rarely obtrude; they are like trees or stones, merging naturally into the landscapes. Stevens comes closer to a supreme fiction of nature in his less self-conscious moments. The opening To the Chinese mind, nature and humanity are section of “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” never polarities. Even though Taoism, the only half- successfully gives the reader an illusion of regarding metaphysical school of ancient China, worships Tao, nature itself: “Among twenty snowy mountains, / The the supreme creative force of the universe, it is believed only moving thing / Was the eye of the blackbird.” 7 To to be a material, though invisible, entity rather than a be at one with nature, as advocated in and evidenced by spiritual presence. Zhuangzi (3 rd century BCE), whose Stevens’s poetry, we have to momentarily suppress our philosophy has been the major inspiration for Chinese consciousness, that is, lull to sleep our emotions and landscape painting and nature poetry, advocates that intellectual faculties. Instead of humanizing nature, we we should regard ourselves as on equal footing, since need to integrate into nature by transforming ourselves Tao has no bias for the human species, with everything into a natural object, an empty site where phenomena else in the world. Furthermore, the process of logical unfold without human intervention, where nature reveals thinking brings with it an array of conceptual and value itself in crystal transparence. It is for this reason that distinctions that are essentially arbitrary and futile, images of sleep hold a unique place in Stevens’ poems. 10 having no counterparts in the natural world . Therefore, As J. Hillis Miller comments, “Sleep is the beginning, the wisest approach to nature is to forego the intellect, the radiant candor of pure mind without any content, that most cherished property of human beings. As mind as it is when it faces a bare unimagined reality or philosopher Shao Yong (1011-1077 CE) puts it, “To as it is when it has completed the work of decreation and observe things in terms of those things: this is to follow is ready ‘in an ever-changing, calmest unity’ to begin one’s nature [ xing ]. But to observe things in term of the imagining again.” 8 self: this is to follow one’s feelings [ qing ]. The nature is impartial and enlightened; the feelings are partial and

76 Li Yongyi Fictions of Nature in Wallace Stevens and Wang Wei

blind.” 11 Stevens.

In “Deer Park,” Wang Wei successfully effaces his 2.The Nature of Nature own presence from the scenery: “No one seen. Among empty mountains, / hints of drifting voices, faint, no There are moments when Stevens almost believes more. / Entering these deep woods, late sunlight / that he can arrive at a true communion with nature, but Flares on green moss again, and rises.” 12 A trap into his dominant fear is that the chasm between nature and which Western translators of this poem often fall is human consciousness is impassable. With the presence to supply an “I” in their renditions, but the original is of this opaque boundary, it is natural for him to suspect that nature may be hostile and so to suffer from a sense as it were, in perceiver-less perceptions. The word of insecurity. Once human beings realize that the world “empty” corresponds to kong in Chinese and ĞnjQ\DWƗ is not really anthropocentric, and that they have been in Sanskrit. Influenced by native Taoism, Chinese acting like “A Rabbit King of the Ghosts” 15 living intellectuals tend to regard ĞnjQ\DWƗ as a state of mind with delusions in a universe full of latent threats, they may well be overwhelmed by an inexorable fear. In a metaphysical summary of the nature of the universe. “Domination of Black,” Stevens writes: Wang Wei’s poem is empty in that it is devoid of any emotional response and intellectual engagement, Out of the window, as if everything has been recorded by an automatic I saw how the planets gathered camera. We seem to forget that it is a poem, a human Like the leaves themselves creation; what absorbs us is simply the scenery. Yet Turning in the wind. the choice of details and the structural control displays I saw how the night came, the ingenuity of a poet-painter. More importantly, the Came striding like the color of the heavy hemlocks. very effort at self-effacement reminds us of the reining I felt afraid. in of wandering thoughts that takes place in Taoist and 16 Buddhist meditations. And I remembered the cry of the peacocks .

At such moments, even if there is human presence, In this poem, the fear that springs from the it is hushed by, and absorbed into, a sense of cosmic indecipherability of nature is compounded with a unity: “It is dusk—heaven and earth vast silence, / sense of doom that even the gigantic universe itself mind all idleness a spacious river shares.” 13 In “Visiting will come to an end. Though in his middle career, Provision-Fragrance Monastery”, this freedom for Stevens largely suppressed this haunting fear and things to reveal themselves and the paradoxical power of concentrated on the human creative power, whatever stillness are given fuller expression: the external world was like, it obstinately re-emerged in his late poems. In “Auroras of Autumn,” he is again Provision-Fragrance beyond knowing, drawn into his accustomed turbulence. Absorbed in I travel miles into cloud-hidden peaks, the natural spectacle, he doubts that the power of the human imagination, however great, could confront, follow deserted trails past ancient trees. let alone incorporate, the immense universe. All the A bell sounds, lost in mountain depths. domestic warmth and comfort, all human attempts at Cragged rock swallows a creek’s murmur, building an illusory happy world, seen in this light, Sunlight’s color cold among pines. Here become insignificant and desperate, “a tragedy.” 17 He on lakeshores, water empty, dusk spare, cannot reconcile the two polarities; he has to invoke his Chan stillness masters poison dragons 14 . imagined “rabbi” to contrive “balance,” “the vital, the never-failing genius.” 18 The “I” in the poem serves to string together frames of landscapes, but never intrudes on the natural Ancient Chinese poets were immune to such scenes. The shifting focal points are always on the intellectual angst regarding nature. In Wang Wei’s things themselves, whose combinations, contrasts and case, nature was always a friendly presence, healing all changes are presented as the real “events” of the work. the wounds he had received in the human realm. The Even though Chan (the Chinese word for Zen) hints at catastrophic An-Shi Rebellion (755-763 CE), which a human religion and culture, it exercises its power as a almost cost Wang Wei his life 19 , never cast its shadow pervasive “stillness” that is hardly distinguishable from on his nature poems. In his eyes, while the human world the self-contained physical world. The human intellect, is full of vicissitudes, nature is a haven of stability, through abdication and inaction, achieves a sensuous repose and beauty. The cyclic change of nature for him enlightenment, dispensing with the logical imperatives is the very form of its eternity. In “Hearing an Oriole at and emotional self-resistances indispensable with the Palace,” he writes, “We wander life, no way back.

77 Comparative Studies of China and the West Vol. 1 2013

Even a simple / birdcall starts us dreaming of home nature, with his intellectual intensity and under the again.” 20 Even at this early stage in his life when the shadow of a long metaphysical tradition. It is interesting cursus honorum yet beckoned, he was already harboring to note that the poet in the above poem enjoys talking nostalgia for a simple life in woods. This divided mindset with “some old-timer,” maybe a farmer or woodcutter. is typical of ancient Chinese intellectuals. Despite the Though he may not share a Taoist-Buddhist belief with imperatives of socially oriented Confucianism to serve Wang Wei, the common bond with nature enables them among them to dismiss all worldly affairs as empty and vain, compared with the simple but essential pleasures 3.Nature and Art associated with nature. While they were conscientious, even religious in their zeal to help the prince achieve a If nature is felt as the ultimate haven for humanity, golden reign, a hermit’s dream always glistened in the any dichotomy between human perception of nature back of their minds. Wang Wei thus comforts a friend and nature itself is downplayed, and the subjectivity disillusioned with politics (“A Farewell”): of the artist seems to be taken over by a “common” consciousness that envelops both the natural setting and Off our horses, I offer you wine, the human presence in it. Art ceases to be a mirror held ask where you’re going. You say up to nature, but becomes, as it were, a manifestation your work has come to nothing, willed and filled by the very soul of nature. When you’ll settle at South Mountain. another great poet Su Shi (1037-1101 CE) praises Wang Wei’s painting and poetry as containing and illuminating Once you set out, questions end 21 each other, he is marveling at the ability of this 7th and white clouds keep on and on . century poet to know the “heart” of nature, and to reveal it equally extraordinarily in two art forms, in a way Nature, in its wordless eloquence, is the ultimate nature would have had itself revealed. A quintessential source of consolation and strength. short poem picked by Su Shi reads: “Bramble stream, white rocks jutting out. / Heaven cold, red leaves scarce. Having known the futilities and dangers of political / Up here where the mountain road ends, / sky stains careers, Wang Wei lived a secluded life in his late years. 24 It is amazing to see how He comments on his hermitage in an epistle: “In these Wang Wei manages, in a minimalist manner, to penetrate twilight years, I love tranquility / alone. Mind free of all to the peculiar spirit of a late-autumn landscape, ten thousand affairs, / self-regard free of all those grand especially its rich, fluid, mysterious palette and the schemes, / I return to my old forest, knowing empty.” expressive stillness of tactile diversity. To people asking about “the inner pattern behind failure and success,” he answers, “Fishing song carries into Like other ancient Chinese poets, however, Wang shoreline depths.” 22 Nature is the realm of freedom, Wei is as a rule not interested in meticulous accuracy where human definitions of failure and success do of detail when depicting nature; in order to capture not apply, where meanings we impose on our secular the essence of nature, he usually adopts as his way of aspirations evaporate. Fishermen in the Chinese literary representation an impressionistic juxtaposition of images tradition represent a detached wisdom, an enlightened of poetic intrigue. In “Whole-South Mountains,” he perception of the vanity of pursuits after wealth, power ambitiously aims to re-create the area in its entirety: and fame, a perfect sense of belonging in the natural world. Star mountains for a deep-sky capital, these Great-Origin peaks stretch to the far seas. In “Whole-South Mountain Hermitage,” Wang Wei Returned to white cloud, my gaze is whole; describes his carefree life: in azure haze, sight empties nonbeing utterly. Our star-lands orbit around this central peak, 6KHZDVWKHVLQJHUDUWL¿FHURIWKHZRUOG I cared enough for Way in middle age, valleys all shifting shadow and light. Here, so now I’m settled beside South Mountain. If I wanted human company for the night, Setting out alone in old age, emptiness I’d cross water, visit a woodcutter, no more 25 . knowing itself here in such splendor, I often hike up to where streams end, While he excludes, in his accustomed manner, gaze into a time newborn clouds rise. redundant emotional or intellectual engagement with the If I meet some old-timer in these woods, scenery, the excellent descriptive skills, as of painting and cinematography, convince us that the poem is not we laugh and talk, all return forgotten 23 . an objective description of the mountains, but an artistic invention of Wang Wei the poet-painter. This distinction Stevens could never feel so much at ease with

78 Li Yongyi Fictions of Nature in Wallace Stevens and Wang Wei

between art and nature certainly does not bother him. crumbling religion in providing a spiritual haven. In For him, art is part of nature. “Anecdotes of the Jar,” the human utensil, a symbol of art, even subdues the wilderness and “[takes] dominion In “Bamboo-Midst Cottage,” art (here music), everywhere.” 32 like bamboo and the moon, nothing alien or external, pulsates in a quiet yet lively microcosm: “Sitting alone For Stevens, an important function of art is that 26 in silent bamboo dark, / I play a qin , settle into breath it helps him to be reconciled with death. By rejecting chants. / In these forest depths no one knows, / this orthodox Christianity, Stevens also deprived himself moon come bathing me in light.” 27 If one’s life is in tune of the comfort of a promised heaven. The unsatisfied with the rhythms of nature, every object, every trivial human desire for immortality had tormented him for a detail, every uneventful moment, is transformed into long time before he found the solution in art. In “The ongoing drama by an acute sense of its beauty. Wang Rock” he suggests that, though death will obliterate Wei thus addresses a rock: “Dear stone, little platter our bodily existence, poetry as ambassador of human alongside cascading streamwater, / willow branches consciousness can resist the tyranny of time: are sweeping across my winecup again. / And if you say spring wind explains nothing, tell me why, / when These leaves are the poem, the icon and the man. 28 These are a cure of the ground and of themselves, This friendly banter crosses the boundary between the animate and the inanimate, just as the frontiers between In the predicate that there is nothing else. art, nature and life temporarily disappear in his poems They bud and bloom and bear fruit without change. at moments of intense perceptual involvement: “Faint 33 They are more than leaves that cover the barren rock . shadow, a house, and traces of rain. / In courtyard depths, the gate’s still closed / past noon. That lazy, I When a poet ceases to be, his poems transform gaze at moss until / its azure-green comes seeping into from subjective projections of his mind into objects of robes.” 29 In this empty trance, the moss seems to have contemplation; for the reader, they become purely part been summoned by the spell of the poet’s oblivion into of the external world, part of nature. The consciousness the interiority of human sensation, with its color, as in a of the poet is revived whenever a reader approaches painting, invading and occupying the motionless human his works and engages in a cross-time dialogue. In this way, Stevens seems assured, immortality is accessible to him. However, he forgets that the material on which For Stevens, art and nature are more in tension his poems are written or printed is subjected to change, than in harmony. As a way out of his obsession with the that many masterpieces have been lost simply because division between nature and the human mind, he devotes natural or social catastrophes destroyed the manuscripts himself to celebrating the creative power of human or books. beings. He is aware that “[he] cannot bring a world quite around,” and that “things as they are changed upon the Although Stevens worships the remedial powers of blue guitar” (“The Man with Blue Guitar”) 30 , but he the imagination for human spirituality, his conception of seems to believe that we at least can create another world this mental faculty, derived from his own understanding in works of art. In “The Idea of Order at Key West,” the of nature, differs considerably from the traditional fact that we cannot replicate nature in art is not taken as Orphic version of it. Orpheus in Greek mythology, as dismaying but encouraging: archetype of poets, was able to move animals, plants and even lifeless rocks, to turn the gloom of Hades into a It was her voice that made dreamland of art. In the history of Western esthetics, he The sky acutest at its vanishing. represents a human-centered, humanizing imagination, She measured to the hours its solitude. for which the visible world (nature) is merely the 6KHZDVWKHVLQJHUDUWL¿FHURIWKHZRUOG projection and embodiment of the invisible world In which she sang. And when she sang, the sea, (human consciousness). Stevens does not subscribe to Whatever self it had, became the self this assumption, claiming, “It is important to believe that That was her song, for she was the maker 31 . the visible is the equivalent of the invisible, and once we believe it, we have destroyed the Imagination, that is to Art acts as a constructive force that brings say, we have destroyed the false imagination, the false the chaotic fragments of the world, which are alien conception of the imagination as some incalculable vates and unmanageable, into unified wholes of order and within us, unhappy Rodomontade.” 34 For Stevens, the harmony, which are within human control. Thus art vates is the Orphic bard, always inclined to mold nature mollifies the human fear in a universe that is largely according to human will, but the true artistic imagination inexplicable to them, and can serve as a substitute for must overcome this humanizing tendency and strive

79 Comparative Studies of China and the West Vol. 1 2013 towards the abstract. Stevens reminds us that, when we think that we are beholding the moon, what we really see is but a mixture The first section of “Notes towards a Supreme of the images of the moon poets in the past have created. Fiction,” his masterpiece, is titled “It Must Be Abstract.” Only if we reject these images as trash can we see “the The word “abstract” comes from the Latin verb moon [come] up as the moon…in the empty sky” that abstrahere , which denotes “to drag away.” For Stevens, is not populated by ghosts of the past. He is tired of all “dragging away” means stripping human concepts and the second-hand experiences, the bulky interpretations perceptions of those historical, cultural and linguistic that have accumulated in thousands of years. As a poet sediments hidden therein. Before eliminating these imbued with modern spirit, he longs to break new ground for poetry and establish his own domain. In “a supreme fiction.” In this poem, human ancestor his masterpiece “Notes towards a Supreme Fiction,” Adam serves as the symbol of the false imagination, he expresses his fervent wish: “You must become an dubbed by Stevens “the father of Descartes,” the French ignorant man again / And see the sun again with an philosopher commonly hailed as the icon of rationalism. ignorant eye / And see it clearly in the idea of it.” 40 Owing to Adam’s inescapable presence, “[t]he first idea was not our own.” As Descartes builds his whole Yet Stevens cannot “become an ignorant man cogito , so Adam again”; he is too intellectual for that. Paradoxically, his erred in the very beginning by succumbing to human very urge for circumventing culture so as to return to centrism. Since the true imagination ought to be pre- nature is itself a product of culture. In it we can at least historical, pre-logical and even pre-linguistic, Adam’s trace the influences of three cultural factors. The first naming of things was already an act of distorting nature: is modern scientism. During Stevens’ lifetime, great “Phoebus was / A name for something that never could breakthroughs were achieved in the natural sciences, be named.” 35 As Robert Harrison argues, even before pushing their frontiers into the subatomic level. his disobedience to God’s edict, Adam had already The prestige of the humanities, in contrast, suffered committed an original sin, “not the sin of transgression serious blows, resulting in a crisis for these traditional by which he lost the garden but the sin of denomination disciplines. In order to prove their worthiness in a 36 To changed world, they also moved in the same direction, aiming at objectivity and precision venerated in science. Adam, to return to a stage where nature was not yet Husserl’s phenomenology, Russian Formalism and the treated as an extension of human concepts: “There was Linguistic Turn of the humanities all bore witness to a myth before the myth began, / Venerable and articulate this trend. Under such circumstances, it was no surprise and complete. // From this the poem springs.” 37 for Stevens to dream of grasping nature objectively and purely through the artistic imagination. Steinman 4.Nature and Tradition points out, after analyzing elements of Planck’s physics and Whitehead’s scientific philosophy, that Stevens’ Stevens realizes that apart from the limitation of personal bias, cultural heritage is also responsible for sciences 41 . our inaccurate perception of nature, as it is constantly molding our mentality. He suffers from an anxiety that Stevens’ concept of nature also grew out of the VDPVƗUD he cannot, as Emerson puts it, “enjoy an original relation American nation’s persistent myth-making. Harrison ĞnjQ\DWƗ to the universe.” 38 He is suffocated by the sense that believes that in disposition Stevens is most close to he is looking at nature through the eyes of the dead, Thoreau 42 . Similar to Stevens’ emphasis on a pre- and resents the tradition that weighs down on his free conceptual and pre-linguistic original state, Thoreau imagination. In “The Man on the Dump,” he implicitly regarded the morning as a symbol for the source of compares the literary tradition to a dump: spiritual awakening: “We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aids, but by an One feels the purifying change. One rejects The trash. us in our soundest sleep.” 43 For Thoreau, the morning is the moment when the soul reawakes and reestablishes That’s the moment when the moon creeps up living links with the world. Such a complex for priority To the bubbling of bassoons. That’s the time is deeply engrained in the American psyche. As Harold One looks at the elephant-colorings of tires. Bloom writes in The American Religion , “Americans regard priority as superiority, doubtless because we are Everything is shed; and the moon comes up as the moon the belated Western nation, the Evening Land of Western (All its images are in the dump) and you see culture.” 44 For this reason, American culture places As a man (not like an image of man), great value on internal awakening achieved in religious You see the moon rise in the empty sky 39 . or quasi-religious practices. They are attracted by the

80 Li Yongyi Fictions of Nature in Wallace Stevens and Wang Wei

prospect of retrieving a sense of priority, lost through symbolist or allegorical reading would fail to do justice their historical belatedness, by tapping the pre-history, to the unassuming narration of the work, as realistically, pre-universe existence of God. This space within their it is certainly legitimate for anyone to indulge in such mind, this pure realm transcending time, is inseparably temporary luxury of forgetful tranquility after a tiring connected in American culture to images of wilderness trip and surrounded by an alluring landscape, and as or nature. Stevens’ enterprise of pursuing art in a nature any laborious interpretation automatically violates the free of human consciousness is powered by the same “perennial form” of “idleness.” Similarly, when he is psychological dynamic that triggers Thoreau’s endeavor gazing out from a terrace, the poet suddenly glimpses to regenerate spirit by a hermit’s life in the woods. something lurking in the view: “In farewell on the terrace, we gaze / across boundless plains and rivers. / It Viewed in a larger cultural framework, Stevens’ hankering after something pure and absolute fits it never ends.” 46 The event is commonplace—saying nicely into the metaphysical tradition of the West. farewell to a friend, and the scene is ordinary—birds For millennia, it has been the dream of countless returning to their nests, but when they are juxtaposed, philosophers, poets and artists to arrive at the ultimate and when Wang Wei ends the poem with “it never ends,” Being that is absolute, eternal, independent of all the a picture of eternal tragedy emerges. Seen in this light, fluctuations of the physical world. Stevens is different human beings, with Sisyphean labors and Odyssean in this: he removes the religious and ethical accretions wanderings imposed on themselves, whatever pleasant from the dream, and affirms the inaccessibility of names they call them, are essentially exiles in nature, pure nature, assigning to poetry the role of mediating striving against the universal law of home-coming. But between passive, apathetic nature and human beings’ even without such philosophizing, the poem still stands passionate pursuit for absoluteness. With his imaginative as a moving farewell piece. richness and rational vigor, his poetry creates for us a distinctively Stevensian world, much more compressed, When he makes more explicit reference to Buddhist bare and dispassionate than the world in traditional doctrine, Wang Wei differs from his predecessors in his Western poetry. ability to dissolve it in his poems in a homely, effortless manner. His “Off-Hand Poem” is a best example: Compared with Stevens, Wang Wei’s position on tradition is more temperate. Even a subtle reader can I’m ancient, lazy about making poems. hardly detect in his nature poems any marked deviation There’s no company here but old age. from those anterior to his time. Yet he is an innovator I no doubt painted in some former life, both technically and thematically. Most poets before him roamed the delusion of words in another, in whose works nature features prominently took nature and habits linger. Unable to get free, as the inherent setting for human activities, echoing I somehow became known in the world, the tenet, embraced by all major schools of thought in China, of the mutual activation and mirroring between but my most fundamental name remains 47 nature and humanity. But they tend either to show an this mind still here beyond all knowing . emotional attachment to nature, like Tao Qian (352- 427 CE), or to be carried away by their eagerness to While recognizable Buddhist motifs of VDPVƗUD enlighten readers on Taoist-Buddhist truisms, like Xie (reincarnation) and ĞnjQ\DWƗ (emptiness) thread the poem, Lingyun (385-433 CE). Wang Wei, however, is both the witty, self-deriding tone and the colloquial language intense and detached; his insights rarely obtrude. Silent give this miniature narrative of incarnations a grace that parallels between natural scenery and states of mind, cannot be found in most literature inspired by that faith. and ingeniously orchestrated presentation inspired by Interestingly, although he suggests that his identity as a mountains and streams, help to convey his message. cycle of rebirths and fluctuating chances, Wang Wei In “Azure Creek,” after a meandering boat journey, leaves us with the impression that he is not ready to the poet arrives at his destination: “My mind’s perennial sever his affectionate ties with art or life, a revealing form is idleness, / and the same calm fills a river’s print of his native Confucianism. It is also owing to the my fishing line--and stay, stay.” 45 All of a sudden, as a devout Buddhist in his years of creative peak, seems illumined by lightning, yet all too naturally, as following never to relegate manifestations of nature, not even his the inevitable course of a river, we are overwhelmed by own representations of them, to the realm of emptiness a sense of perfect sympathy between the purpose of our as understood by orthodox Buddhism. Wang Wei silently existence and that of nature, the nostalgia and resolution revolutionized Chinese nature poetry. He opened a at the end of the poem pointing at once to the physical new vista for later poets, especially those drawn to Zen here and now, and to the metaphysical beyond. But any Buddhism. Yet those Zen poets are more self-conscious

81 Comparative Studies of China and the West Vol. 1 2013 because they like working Zen concepts into their works. 21 WW, p. 29. 22 With his disarming fictions of nature, Wang Wei replaced “In Reply to Vice-Magistrate Zhang,” in WW, p. 97. 23 WW, p. 90. for the Chinese the moon, to borrow Stevens’s metaphor, 24 with his own version of it. “In the Mountains,” in WW, p. 91. 25 WW, p.33. 26 Ch’in, a seven-stringed classical Chinese instrument. While Wang Wei’s serenity helps him, arguably, 27 WW, p. 49. come closer to a genuine communion with nature 28 WW, p. 13. and perfect his artistry in representation, it restricts 29 “The Way It Is,” in WW, p. 96. his imaginative power and intellectual sophistication. 30 Stevens, CP, p. 165. Stevens, on the other hand, fully exploits his own 31 Stevens, PEM, p. 98. imagination as he is dismayed at the dichotomy between 32 Stevens, CP, p. 76. nature and human consciousness, but can never quite 33 Stevens, PEM, p. 362. feel at ease with nature. Perhaps the “rabbi” whom 34 Wallace Stevens, The Necessary Angel: Essays on Reality and the Stevens calls upon to “contrive a whole”48 should be able Imagination. London: Faber, 1951, p. 61. 35 Stevens, PEM, p. 383. to combine the talent of the two artists and the strengths 36 of the two traditions, at once immersed in nature with R. P. Harrison, “Not Ideas about the Thing but the Thing Itself.” New Literary History Vol.30, no.3 (1999), p. 663. amiable humility and celebrating his creative energy 37 Stevens, PEM, p. 383. with confidence, keeping an intellectual awareness 38 R. W. Emerson, Selections from Ralph Waldo Emerson. Boston: without suppressing his/her instinctual responses to Houghton Mifflin Company, 1960, p. 21. nature. This is certainly too idealistic, but it is an ideal 39 Stevens, PEM, p. 163. woth striving for. 40 Stevens, PEM, p. 207. 41 Lisa Steinman, Made in America: Science, Technology and American Modernist Poets. New Haven: Yale UP, 1987, pp. 133-168. 42 Harrison, p. 663. 1 Wallace Stevens, The Palm at the End of the Mind [hereafter cited as 43 H. D. Thoreau, Walden and Civil Disobedience. New York: Norton, PEM. New York: Vintage Books, 1990, p. 15. 1966, p. 61. 2 Wang Wei, “Autumn Twilight, Dwelling among Mountains,” in 44 Harold Bloom, The American Religion. New York: Simon, 1992, p. David Hinton, trans., The Selected Poems of Wang Wei [hereafter cited 260. as WW] . New York: New Directions, 2006, p. 76. 45 WW, p. 85. 3 Wallace Stevens, The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens [hereafter 46 “Gazing out from the Upper Terrace, Farewell to Li,” in WW, p. 18. cited as CP]. New York: Knopf, 1954, p. 380. 47 WW, p. 100. 4 Stevens, CP, p. 424. 48 Stevens, CP, 420. 5 Stevens, PEM, p. 39. 6 Stevens, PEM, p. 398. 7 Stevens, PEM, p. 20. About the author: 8 J. H. Miller, Poets of Reality: Six Twentieth-Century Writers. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1965, p. 269. Li Yongyi is professor of English at Chongqing University. 9 Stevens, PEM, p. 54. 10 Chuang-Tzu, “Khi Wu Lun, or ‘The Adjustment of Controversies,” His major fields of inquiry include Anglo-American modernist in James Legge, trans. and ed., The Texts of Taoism: The Tao Te Ching, poetry, Roman poetry and classical Chinese poetry. He was the Writings of Chuang-Tzu, and the Thai-Shang, Tractate of Actions awarded a Loeb Classical Library Foundation grant in 2008 and Their Retributions. New York: Julian Press, 1959, pp. 224-245. and a Fulbright Visiting Scholarship in 2012. An active 11 Qtd. in Fung Yu-lan, A History of Chinese Philosophy, vol. 2. literary translator, he has rendered fourteen books into Chinese Princeton: Princeton UP, 1983, p. 467. 12 from English, French and Latin, of which Catullus’ Carmina WW, p. 40. 13 “On a Wall Tower at River-North City,” The Selected Poems of Wang signaled the first full presentation of the Roman poet in China. Wei, p. 4. 14 WW, p. 12. 15 Stevens, PEM, p. 150. 16 Stevens, PEM, p. 14. 17 Stevens, CP, p. 415. 18 Stevens, CP, p. 420. 19 The rebel army stormed the capital before many officials, including Wang Wei, could make their escape. They were either murdered or, like Wang Wei, served in the rebel regime under coercion. After the rebellion was quelled, Wang Wei was charged along with others for treason, but he was finally pardoned with the intervention of his brother, premier at that time, and extenuated by a poem written during rebel occupation that proved his loyalty to the Tang court. 20 WW, p. 10.

82 COMPARATIVE STUDIES of CHINA and THE WEST

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ᇗ ༎ ໛ ߌ й ࢨ The First International Conference ခ of Comparative Studies of China and ࣶ the West was held in Beijing

The First International Conference of Comparative Studies of China and the West was held at Peking University, from July 12 to 14, 2013. Prof. Gu Zhengkun chaired the opening session. In his congratulatory letter, Professor Wang Enge, President of Peking University, sent his warm congratulations. Professor Tu Weiming made an opening speech and Prof. John G. Blair expressed his welcome to the participants. The conference aimed mainly at promoting the dialogue and communication between the two civilizations.

The conference was organized by the International Association for Comparative Studies of China and the West (IACSCW), hosted by the Institute of World Literature, Peking University, and co-sponsored by the Shakespeare Society of China and Beijing Normal University. More than 150 scholars from

over 20 countries attended this event. The conference lasted three days and included seven keynote 2013 Volume < I > speeches and 12 panel sessions. The presentations covered a wide range of topics and multiple aspects of Chinese-Western comparative studies.

This conference was a great success and attracted a considerable attention of the media including   China Central Television (CCTV). Related reports on the conference are available on various websites, such as xinhuanet.com, Chinanews.com, Chinadaily.com.cn, news.xinmin.cn, npopss-cn. gov.cn, people.com.cn, sina.com.cn, epaper.gmw.cn, cqnews.net, jfdaily.com, guoxue.com and sohu. com. The next conference will be held in 2015 in Germany.  

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