Power and the People in Ancient China - Essay Example

Power and the People in Ancient China The ancient China has been described as one of the earliest and most advanced human civilizations. It is one of the few earliest civilizations to have developed the skill of writing. The people of China were not actively in power and there was no democracy. The Western society and the Chinese society had very contrasting worldview. The Chinese unlike the western society, were very superstitious, had very close connections to heaven and believed that the heaven had a kind of a universal overwhelming force. Leaders or the emperors were said to be chosen by heaven, of which was also regarded as a moral force. Any emperor, who practiced evil, faced the wrath of heaven in form of natural calamities and disasters. If the said emperor still continued with his immoral practices or did not heed the warnings of heaven, then heaven would appropriately withdraw his mandate. Revolution would thus emerge because of the breaking of social and political order. The leadership of the ancient China came to be greatly influenced by a man called Kong-Fuzi. Confucius as he came to be referred in the West was the main influence on which the Chinese people based their society. The generally believed norms derived from this man are that every person should accept the roles designed by the life processes, of which these roles and duties are geared towards others. The people are supposed to diligently obey and respect their heaven sent rulers, of which these rulers have a duty to be benevolent. This trend of obedience should be channeled down to children who are supposed to obey their parents; in general, all persons have a duty to honor their ancestors. Confucius also taught the need for rulers to set examples to their subjects, every person is required to be kind, and none should do to others, things that would not wish were done to oneself. Courtesy and moderation was also emphasized, with women required to submit to their fathers during their childhood, to their husband when married and to their male children once widowed. Women later came to be taught how to become industrious at the same time remaining submissive and exercising humility. Confucianism became the recognized and most dominant system of ethics that was closely followed and has sometimes regarded as a religion. Taoism was also developed and consequently became the chief religion of ancient Chinese with the main emphasis derived from the Tao meaning way (Gernet 65). Taoism had a major impact on the people as it urged them to just sit back and take no action. People were supposed to submit themselves and follow whichever way they were swayed like a stick in moving water. This withdrew power of governance from the people. The people had no right to choose their leaders or scrutinize their behaviors. Unlike in the west where the people were actively involved in the governance, the Chinese were supposed to obey without questioning the authority. The right to question or change leaders was left to heaven thus the people were passive participants in state issues. Authoritarianism started right from the family level. The father had an overwhelming authority over his wife and children. Marriages were pre-arranged by the respective parents with children having no say in the matter. Wealthy men are however known to have kept concubines. The society valued boys over girls with male heirs considered of great importance. Baby girls are reported to have been left outside to die or drowned. Women therefore had no right to leadership. Chinese leaders were predominantly male with women left to do the tedious farm work and other manual work. The life expectancy of the Chinese was short because of the manual labor. Leaders were tyrannical in nature and had the full authority to wage warfare. In the initial stages of the civilization, chariots were the commonly used warfare methodology. Later, cavalry began to dominate in the wars replacing the chariots. Rulers raised armies of infantry and peasants were required to enroll without question. Power was purely monarchical or revolutionary. The society was divided into four classes namely the class of scholars, peasants, artisans and merchants. The ancient times were mainly dominated by dynasties with each reign progressively adding a unique element to the respective society. The dynasties are believed to have derived their power through the mandate of heaven. The Qin and the Han Dynasties employed very different and unique methods of governance. The Han Dynasty had a humanistic approach to governance employing the Confucianism method. Confucianism method was very effective, this was based on the believe human beings had duty to accomplish and every individual must accept the allocated duty. The Qin Dynasty was more authoritarian and asserted the legality of its leaders. It used the legalism method of governance which called for strict and harsh punishment. The Han ruled China from 206 BC-220 AD using Confucianism. The first leader of the unified dynasty was Liu Bang. He was a peasant before he rose to power after a civil war had erupted, unlike the Qin Dynasty, the Han Dynasty abolished all forms of harsh punishments and strict laws that had no logical backing, to further illustrate its equality and humanistic nature, government officials were chosen on merit making it have competent and reliable officials. This was instrumental in its lasting so long. During this epoch, there were various advancement made like paper were made from wood pulp, silk was also a major advancement and became a dominant market commodity enabling the government to derive the much needed revenues. The rudders were also developed enabling trading activities to be more effective. Trading was very essential and the success of the empire largely depended on trade especially with westerners. Suspension bridges for accessing formerly inaccessible areas were also developed with herbal medicine and architecture of the Forbidden City also being advanced during this time. Emperor Han Wudi was very instrumental in strengthening, the ties of China with other areas, for example he used the silk road established to strengthen the ties with India and Middle East. To make sure the Dynasty had reliable trade route and trading rights, the knowledge of silkworms and paper was outlawed to the westerners. Consequently, the empire profited immensely from selling these commodities to the westerners and thus flourishing. The Dynasty was able to last for four hundred years before corrupt government officials initiated its downfall (Anderson 34). The Qin Dynasty on the other hand was less successful due to its use of legalism to govern China. Qin Shi Huangd was the first and only emperor to have ever ruled during the reign of the Dynasty (231 BC- 210 BC). He together with his administrators advocated for the use of harsh punishment for all those who broke the law or did not follow the law as stipulated by the government. The emperor justified his authority as a mandate from heaven; he was tyrannical and created a special army to guard his tomb in the afterlife. Confucianism was banned with scholars being persecuted and their books burned. However, some successes were witnessed during the twenty-five reign of the dynasty. The northern walls were advanced and connected to make what is now known as the Great Wall of China. With funds from the harshly taxed landowners, roads were also advanced with a monetary system being established during this time. The dynasty was centered on an individual rather than policies and this led to its collapse after the death of Qin Shi Huangdi the founding emperor. The Han was able to last longer than the Qin because the Han was less brutal thus there were less rebellions unlike in the Qin that experienced a civil war after only twenty five years of its existence. The Han was also more successful in terms of development especially with the invention of paper and silk, which opened massive trade activities with the western world. Emperor Wudi had successful established trade links with the west and the ability of the empire to successfully conceal the secrecy of how they had developed silk and paper was the most important in ensuring China grew immensely from, the hefty profit made from trade involving the two commodities. Acupuncture and herbal medicine were also greatly developed during the Han reign. Both dynasties employed very different school of thoughts in their governance with the Han employing Confucianism while the Qin used legalism. During the Qin reign, law-breaking incidences reduced drastically due to the harsh penalties while during the Han Dynasty there was a happier and a more satisfied community. The leaders of both Dynasties Han Wudi and Qin Shi Huangdi were instrumental in setting up future system of government that would last over two thousand years. It was during this time that major inventions, innovations and development were witnessed like silk, paper and the Great Wall of China. They made sure that the Chinese secrets to these developments were safely hidden from the western civilizations. This ensured there were constant merchants from all over the world for Chinese goods and thus there was a stable government to last generations. Each used a different school of thought to justify their monarchical system. Wudi used Confucianism to compel the people to accept their stature in society and endorse him as their leader without opposition; Qin Shi used the legal authority to assert his unquestionable authority. Future leaders adopted and merged both methods employed by Wudi and Qin Shi to create formidable governments. Tang Taizong (Li Shimin) has however overshadowed Wudi and Qin Shi, as many regard him as the emperor from which good governance can be derived from. Taizong was the second emperor of the Tang Dynasty and was considered very wise. Having observed the decline of other dynasties, he was sober minded in his governance. Unlike the other emperors, he assigned important duties and gave crucial positions to wise, capable and morally upright individuals. He was open to opinion and accepted wise counsel and ideas. He was greatly liked for reducing all kinds of taxes, accorded fair punishment an advocating for problem solving. He was also instrumental in carrying out a series of reforms in the authoritarian government and in streamlining the military. He had the interest of the people at heart and always compared himself with the masses, being economical shunning flamboyant lifestyle. He was also very hard working and had keen interest in looking for the best and most talented. The society was thus able to experience prosperity and thus he has been considered as the model empire (Shuter 89). The hardworking of the people and innovations spearheaded the long lasting of many Chinese dynasties. The attention given to the nature of man and focus on ways of improving human life was also essential in creating dynasties that lasted over two thousand years. This focus on the nature of people has greatly influenced the current society with one out of every twenty-two Chinese today being a member of the Communist Party and swearing to serve the people’s interests only. Deng Xiaoping’s reforms mainly revolve around opening the economic system to the rest of the world. China for a long time had a closed economy but Xiaoping’s reforms of 1978 changed this to an open economy. This has since been a source of stability and legitimacy for the government. Deng reforms changed the centralized economy to a decentralized form. This replaced central planning with market forces while at the same time doing away with state-run enterprises. These reforms closely resemble capitalism. Productivity was greatly boosted as the reform allowed businesses to pursue their own course after meeting set state standards. Businesses were also allowed to retain their profits. The change of policy to that of encouraging foreign trading and investing has greatly helped the Chinese government to draw from international business transactions generating massive revenues that in turn has given it great stability. China’s international influence is greatly expanding and it is not possible to change it. Works Cited Anderson, Dale. Ancient China. Chicago: Raintree, 2005. Print Gernet, Jacques. A history of Chinese Civilization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 999. Print Shuter, Jane. Ancient China. Chicago: Raintree, 2007. Print Read More