(Translated by Sherwin Lu, including all quotations from classics except for those from The Book of Lord Shang (《商君书》), which are taken from its whole text translation by J. J. -L. Duyvendak)

III. An Interdependent Human Community

Based on the Unity of Land and Kinship Relations

It puzzled Western diplomats first that China had not made herself a suzerain though it was the sole superpower in the East-Asian world before the 19th century. They could not find any other explanations except that the Chinese had extended the patriarchal clan system to cover international relationships, which means that China treated those smaller states on her borders as brothers and used her moral strength, not military force, to back up her diplomacy.

Later, contemporary Chinese scholars also noticed this historical fact. Mr. Zhuo-yun Xu (许倬云) the historian points out: While Western culture is inherently antiforeign, the Chinese one is universally compatible with others. Therefore, the presence of her cultural identity is sufficient to hold together a multi-ethnic community from falling out. In ancient Roman Empire, only the upper classes knew the Latin language while the illiterate commoners spoke their own local ethnic languages. The absence of a unified written language resulted in the lack of a moral-cultural vehicle favorable to identification with the greater community. Among other differences between the East and the West, China, being small peasant-oriented economically, was easily expandable and yet less likely to be torn apart; whereas the colossal Roman enterprise, being centered round cities, could easily fall apart once cracks appeared and break into mutually independent local economic communities.

What Mr. Xu failed to point out is that the unique development pattern of the Chinese civilization was based on a unique political theory of her own, that is, to build up a coherently integrated community on the unity of land with kinship relations, to be realized through policies of equal work opportunities and free marriages between different ethnic groups. This is a new pattern of civilization, not like the one founded on robbing others through the use of violence.

Facing the reality of American troops repeating the same practice in Iraq and other places as that of the ancient Roman legions – plundering the local resources while posing as the world policeman, one cannot but look for a new world order able to lead to mutual co-operation and prosperity of the world community. It should not any more be based on the deeply-rooted Western tradition of violence and plundering, but on equal work right and free marriages crossing ethnic and nation-state border lines towards a unity of land and kinship relations all over the globe.

Anecdotes of Zhou Dynasty discusses how to unify the world from a practical point of view. Its sixth chapter On Military Principles (《逸周书•武称解第六》) stresses that the winner of a war should pardon the captives and take care of the local people’s livelihood: “Pardon the captivated enemy troops, forgive their offences, appease its people and fill their grain bags – this is called ‘differentiation ‘ in military actions.” It also stresses the importance of adopting the principle of equality in treating the people of a defeated state, while disarming the enemy troops, after winning a war: “On defeating the enemy, issue calls for officials to prevent pillaging or committing violence to people; not to lower people’s ranks, nor to take over their land or property, but to have them pacify their kin so that all the people will naturally yield – this is called ‘appeasement’ in military actions. When all under heaven are pacified, then stop military actions, destroy fortifications, and start cultural and educational services so as to win good will in all four directions and embrace the whole world – this is called ‘peace and order’ after military actions.”

In the following chapter, the same book discusses civil measures for running the affairs on the new territory and pointedly objects to taking over the civil affairs of the defeated state by military personnel. Among all the civil policies ranging from administrative to educational, the most important ones are equal work right, free marriages, no institutionalized deprivation, and, above all, no enslavement in any forms. “To achieve peace and secure the victory, good civil administration is the key: posting notices everywhere to reassure the public, having all weapons turned in, relieving the needy to prevent them from moving elsewhere; keeping local officials, both civil and military, at their original posts, and all their subordinates as well; turning all unused official properties to public use for relieving the poor, the sick and the disabled, ensuring equality in land distribution and taxation; allowing officials to wear their original costumes matching their ranks to relieve their grief and humiliation; taking care of orphans and widows so that they are all happy with the favor, finding for each orphan boy an in-law family with the same clan name, taking note of their location and having him adopted as their heir; no conscriptions of youngsters below fifteen years of age, seeing that all grown-ups get married, and educating them to be honest and upright so that all feel cherished as if by parents.

“When governed with leniency, who would refuse to obey? Obedience without resentment means dutiful support for the king even if he is having a hard time. When the hard time is over, the king will have them trained in military skills. Then, the dead would wish to come alive again and the living to live on as they do now. When people feel they are not deserted, they will not desert the place either where they have been living. When the governing and the governed are in harmony, no enemies are undefeatable. While the higher-ranking people are enjoying the beauty of jadeware in their big houses, the common folks all over the territory, old and young, farm contentedly on the land. They look up to the troops as if to their parents. Thus all under heaven across the four seas are unified in peace at once.” (Anecdotes of Zhou Dynasty • On Civil Management (Chap 7), 《逸周书•允文解第七》.)

The principle of unity of land and kinship relations was later discussed in another classic The Yellow Emperor’s Four Canons. Its author holds that one should be very discreet when making decisions about conquering another state and that, when disarming a state which deserves to be punished and conquered, one should not plunder the country, that is, that one should take it over without taking liberties. There was no clear demarcation line between inter-state law and intra-state law in classical Chinese political thought, which means that the principle of justice should never be limited within the borders of one state.

The chapter State Order (《黄帝四经•国次 》) says: “If wars are waged against those who deserve punishment and death, their state should be smashed to pieces at one blow. To annex it without taking the credit is to recognize the work of Heaven…. If you, on taking over other people’s state, repair its city walls, occupy its palaces and temples, let yourself be charmed by their bell-and-drum music, reap benefits from their material wealth, and make their daughters your wives, this is going against the Dao, which will ruin your own state. So, only saintly people will follow the ultimate Dao of Heaven and do things properly. The Way of Heaven and Earth requires three accomplishments only. If one goes beyond these, one would be in danger. So, saintly people, on taking over others’ land, will destroy its city walls and burn their musical bells and drums; scatter their wealth and disperse their descendants; and divide their land among worthy people. These are accomplishments by Heaven. If they remain unharmed, no disaster will fall.”

The chapter The Upright King (《黄帝四经•君正》) lists and explains the policies for running a new territory, which include the establishment of an all-society supervision system:

“An upright king running a newly-annexed state follows the local customs in the first year, and in the second year selects local people with virtue to fill official positions. In the third year, people reap the benefits from his reign and get plenty. In the forth year the king begins to issue decrees, and to govern with law in the fifth year. In the sixth year, people begin to show awe and deference. And in the seventh year, it is safe to go to battles against an enemy.

“By following the local customs in the first year, the king gets to know the public’s notions of right and wrong, good and evil. Promoting virtuous persons in the second year will encourage all others to make efforts and emulate them. In the third year, people are already affluent because the king has waived taxes from the very beginning. In the fourth year he can start issuing decrees, In the fifth year, evil acts will be punished by law and people dare not take any chances. From the sixth year on, the king enjoys respect from the public. With people’s support behind him, he can go out for battles and win against any strong enemies in the seventh year.

“To follow local customs means to have regard for people’s wishes. To promote virtuous persons means to cherish and encourage them. To help people gain benefits means to lift the ban on opening up wasteland and abolish mountain pass taxes. To issue decrees means to group families in fives and tens, select worthy persons to manage them and discriminate the unworthy ones from others, making each person responsible for preventing all group members from violating the law. To govern with law means to punish criminals without leniency. Finally, It’s safe to go to battles because people will risk their lives for the state.”

Laozi regarded the unification of all states as a natural process and objected to forcing it high-handedly. He said that big powers should stay in a humble, non-assertive position like the female. He presented the classical Chinese principle of unity of land and kinship relations in vivid metaphorical terms as follows:

“A big power should stay in a humble position like the lower stream of a river, where all small rivers join in. The feminine often overcomes the masculine with non-assertiveness. To be non-assertive is to be humble. Being humble, a big power can win the trust of small states; Being humble, a small state can win the good will of a big power. Therefore, being humble can either win the acceptance of a big state or submission of a small one. A big power’s acceptance of submission means the obligation and honor to protect more people from hunger and suffering, while a small state’s being accepted means to hand over its population to be taken good care of. For both to be satisfied, the big power, especially, had better stay humble. ” (Dao De Jing•Chap. 61,《道德经•第六十一章》.)

If one contrasts the above principle with the following fact, as an example from the West, that from 1870s through 1930s the Australian government tried to assimilate the aborigines by stealing their children, one cannot help marveling at the highly advanced nature of classical Chinese political thought. If we compare the Chinese civilization to a highly developed multicellular organism, then the Western civilization is still at the phase of “unicellular organisms” prolonging their life by incessantly splitting into more cells, which are not able to integrate into a more complicated whole. It seems that this civilization can never transcend the fixed gulfs between nation-states in its development. This characteristic of the West was already discussed earlier on by William S. Ferguson, ex-president of American Historical Association and expert in the history of Hellenization, in his book Greek Imperialism published early last century. He said in the preface: “my thesis is this: The city-states of Greece were unicellular organisms with remarkable insides, and they were incapable of growth except by subdivision. They might reproduce their kind, indefinitely, but the cells, new and old, could not combine to form a strong nation.”

The capitalist mode of production has seemingly enabled the Western civilization to break through the thick walls of the city-states, but not those of the nations. When the modern nation-states were rising in the West and expanding their power all over the world, military conquests and plundering of other nations, genocides of aborigines and racial segregation were the usual scenario.  Up until this very moment when this sentence is being typed, the Americans have been fortifying the walls on their Mexican border. The whole Western world has been instinctively panic-stricken by the large-scale immigration from poor countries. Equal work right is beyond imagination in their culture, although cries for equality and fraternity have always been resounding across the heavens, perhaps even deafening the ears of their God!

Many people know about the brutal genocide that happened in 1994 between the Hutu and the Tutsi peoples in Africa resulting in half a million deaths of the latter, i.e., 75% of its population, within 100 days. But few people would expect to be told that the two groups were originally one people speaking the same language, working for living on an equal status and marrying freely among the whole population until European colonists came and “created” the division using the “scientific” scheme of their civilization: in 1933 the Belgians classified the locals into two races by measuring and differentiating the lengths of their noses, the colors of their eyes and the circumferences of their skulls, then issued to each of them an identity card showing their races so artificially determined, and designated the longer-nosed Tutsis as the “superior” and dominating race, thus sowing the seeds for later hostilities and genocides.

Now Westerners want to repeat the same “civilized” acts in China: After the Chinese themselves, using a scheme from the textbooks of the former Soviet Union, classified her population into 56 ethnic groups each with their different characteristics, Westerners have been alleging that it is a violation of “human rights” for the Chinese government to move people to the sparsely populated western part of her own territory – here the concepts of “civilization” and ”barbarism” have been outrageously perverted!

It is time now to recognize the greatness and magnificence of the Chinese civilization. Classical Chinese political institutions were not simply “feudalistic”, ”despotic”, or “backward”, though it tended to be withdrawn and conservative after Confucianism gained dominance. As early as the Qin dynasty, ten thousand families were permanently moved from Guanzhong Plain (in today’s Shaanxi Province) to Sichuan Basin, bringing with them more advanced farming and living skills to a vast wild area. And during the last two dynasties of Ming and Qing, the central governments appointed officials to replace local tribal chiefs and introduced more developed farming culture into her southwestern regions. In the thousands of years between these events, generations after generations of the Chinese in the central plains, through equal working relations and free marriages, have come to assimilate the Ba and Qiang peoples in the Western hilly areas, many other nomadic tribes on the northern and northwestern prairies, and also Jews who are known to be the hardest to assimilate. Thus the influence of the Chinese civilization has been spreading in all directions. Though this process was abruptly cut short in the 19th century by invasions from the West, no force can really stop the cultural influence of the Chinese civilization from spreading all over the globe.

To develop a coherently integrated human community through the unity of land and kinship relations has been a dream of the Chinese people for thousands of years. Let us light up the hope for its realization in this era of economic globalization. It will show the way towards a new world without political hegemony and economic exploitation.