China: the middle way of the middle kingdom PDF
Preview China: the middle way of the middle kingdom
world political theories World Political Theories aims to change the way we think about non- Western political ideas. Each book in the series looks at a particular region or country, and how thinking about politics has developed there. In doing so, the books ask how universal political theory actually is, and to what extent place makes a difference. Through looking at the historical development of political thinking, the books provide important context for understanding contemporary politics, whilst introducing fresh ideas and challenges to conventional political theory. titles already published Patrick Chabal, Africa: The Politics of Suffering and Smiling Shahrough Akhavi, The Middle East: The Politics of the Sacred and Secular forthcoming titles Gurpreet Mahajan, India: Cross-Cultural Conversations about the author Tongdong Bai is a professor at Fudan University in Shanghai. He holds a BS degree (nuclear physics) and an MA degree (philosophy of science) from Peking University, and a PhD degree (philosophy) from Boston University. He was an associate professor of philosophy at Xavier University in Cincinnati. His most recent books are: A New Mission of an Old State: Classical Confucian Political Philosophy in a Contemporary and Comparative Context and Tension of Reality: Einstein, Bohr, and Pauli in the EPR Debates (both in Chinese). His research is focused on the contem- porary relevance of traditional Chinese political philosophy. china The political philosophy of the Middle Kingdom tongdong bai Zed Books london & new york China: The Political Philosophy of the Middle Kingdom was first published in 2012 by Zed Books Ltd, 7 Cynthia Street, London n1 9jf, uk and Room 400, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, ny 10010, usa www.zedbooks.co.uk Copyright © Tongdong Bai 2012. The right of Tongdong Bai to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 Designed and typeset in Monotype Joanna by illuminati, Grosmont Cover designed by Lucy Morton @ illuminati Index by John Barker All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of Zed Books Ltd. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data available isbn 978 1 78032 077 9 eb Contents acknowledgements vii introduction 1 1 Modernity before its time: the historical context of ‘classical’ Chinese political thought 16 2 The middle way of Confucianism: humanity as the new social glue 28 3 The middle way of Confucianism: an equality-based mobile hierarchy 60 4 Daoism: return to an age of innocence 82 5 The Legalists: builders of modern bureaucracy and institutions 113 6 Later developments: the middle way 156 conclusion The contemporary relevance of traditional Chinese political philosophy 176 notes 183 references 195 index 201 Acknowledgements I would like to thank Zed Books for publishing this fascinating series of world political theories and for asking me to write this short book on traditional Chinese political philosophy. I am particularly grateful to my editor, Ken Barlow, for his kind support, patience and helpful comments. Many people have been instrumental in the formation of my outlook on traditional Chinese political philosophy; they are too numerous to thank here. However, special thanks are due to Daniel Bell, for his never-ending support for my work, for offering me his insights on many political issues, and for his comments on an earlier draft of this book. Some of the material in this book is based on previously published work (Bai 2011 and Bai 2009b; the latter in turn being based on articles, including Bai 2008a, 2008b, 2008c, 2009a and 2009c). The English (and revised) version of Bai 2009b is now being considered for publication as well. I thank all the journals and presses that have published my works for their support. I have already expressed gratitude to those who offered criticisms of these works, so will not repeat these acknowledgements here. viii china The research for this book was supported by the Program for Professor of Special Appointment (Eastern Scholar) at Shanghai In- stitutions of Higher Learning, the ‘New Century Excellent Talents in University’ grant, Shanghai Educational Development Foundation (Shuguang Project), the ‘Pujiang Talents’ grant from the Shanghai government, the Shanghai Philosophy and Social Sciences Projects, and by research grants from Fudan University (the Guanghua pro- gram, 985 Project 2011rwxkzd009, 985 Project 2011rwxkzd010 and others). I am grateful for their support. Introduction Message from China China is rising, but both Chinese and non-Chinese are wondering what message this rise offers. What do the Chinese want from the world? What can they give to the world? Many of those non-Chinese who perceive China’s rise as a threat and those Chinese who hold grievances over the wrongs that the Western and Japanese colonial powers inflicted upon China in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries believe that the Chinese want to revive the country’s power and then take revenge for those wrongs. If this is the case, the world will be in a big trouble. Others believe that the rise of China may offer alternatives to the received economic and political models, which have been shown to be increasingly problematic.1 Therefore the message of the rise of China has become an issue that haunts not only academic researchers but also concerned citizens the world over. This book is intended to address these concerns by examining the traditional political thought of China. Before I explain how the book sets out to address these concerns, let me make clear what this book is not. It does not answer directly empirical questions such as
The list of books you might like
