Condensed Translation from Chinese by Sherwin Lu (陆寿筠)
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is a sixth excerpt translated from the author’s book in Chinese 《中国拯救世界—应对人类危机的中国文化》(China Saves the World – Chinese culture being the solution to current human crises,Chap 6, Section 2). As different cultures should and can draw on and complement each other, no one should pose as the superior entitled to force others to follow them in managing their own society and life. China proper has been physically conquered several times in history by border tribes less advanced in culture but she always emerged again as an even greater nation in both geological and cultural senses after the conquerors assimilated the culture of the conquered. Ancient Chinese sages always taught the people in the spirit of fraternal unity between all peoples under heaven instead of seeking domination and hegemony over others. This is the spirit the world is in dire need of at present.
THE TEXT
Democracy: Notorious in History
Democracy as a political institution has had a history of 2500 years, but was considered as a bad thing in the first 2300 years and never as a good thing until 100 years ago. (王绍光：《民主四讲》，生活·读书·新知三联书店，2008，P. 2。) As a matter of fact, in ancient Greece, where democracy originated, many a great man was persecuted under that institution.
Take for instance Themistocles (527~460 bc), the victorious Athenian navy commander in the Persian War. As a shrewd strategist, he was well aware that only by weakening their rival Sparta’s Peloponnesian League could Athens keep her own allies together under her control, and the weapon he resorted to for this purpose was “democracy”. He worked hard hawking it among Sparta’s allies, saying that Athens would support them against Sparta if they adopt Athenian-style political democracy, but his preaching was not well received. And, as a sincere believer in all people’s sovereignty, he pushed at home for raising the status of the fourth class, ie., the urban proletarians, for their support in the Persian War. But, ironically, this turned out to be disasterous for him: He was first expelled out of Athens in 471 bc by his political opponents headed by Aristides, and then pursued by an arrest warrant from the Athenian government on Sparta’s demand. Being driven to the wall, he had to take refuge in Persia, which, even more ironically, had been defeated by Athenian navy under his command only a few years before.
Two years after his death, Athens entered 30 years of so-called golden age under the rule of the super rich statesman Pericles, which was built on the wealth extorted from its “allies”. Its prosperity was proved to be fragile, however, by the 27-year long Peloponnesian War, which ended in its defeat by Sparta in 404 bc, followed by the end of political democracy in Athens. Actually, the defeat was brought upon itself by the practice of democracy: Just after destroying Spartan navy off Asian Minor in 406 bc, six Athenian navy generals were executed by their political opponents because they had failed to rescue their own marines from a natural storm and Socrates also paid his life seven years later for, among other allegations, having opposed this verdict.
In a word, ancient Greece, where democracy has originated, gave it such a bad reputation that not until early 19th century did the Americans gingerly picked it up again, but not so courageously as Themistocles. In the English-Chinese dictionary edited by the missionary W. H. Medhurst (1796~1857)and published in1847, the word “democracy” was defined as “government and administration by everyone, disorderly management by the many with the lowly playing politics (back trans. from Chinese)”.
The craze for democracy was started as late as the last century, especially after the end of the cold war, which has led all good-hearted people out of senses. Democracy is now supposed to bring about world peace, to eradicate corruption and let ordinary people prosper. In a word, only democracy can save all nations. But as a matter of fact, it cannot bring about clean politics, nor peace, nor prosperity, as early modern democracy was almost synonymous with corruption.
China’s Examination System Helps Beat Corruption in Western Democracies
Here we are not going to talk about corruption in those Asian and Latin American countries who have adopted democracy and made all the liberal-minded intellectuals gnash their teeth with rage. We will just cite the modern “models” for democracy, the Great Britain and the U.S., the kind of democracy advocated by such famous political thinkers as Locke, Rousseau, and Thomas Jefferson.
Let us start with the 1689 British “Glorious Revolution”, which did not amount to a political revolution but a compromise between the bourgeoisie and the feudal aristocrats (Engels: Socialism: Utopian and Scientific, Introduction to 1892 English edition), which did not terminate the practice of conferring official positions by the king. By continuing this practice, the aristocratic landlords could attend to the economic interests of financial and industrial capitalists in exchange for benefits in the form of fat official salaries or through briberies. For instances, the first British prime minister Robert Walpole controlled most of the rotten boroughs by paying secret commissions and conferred nominal government positions to his son, making it possible for him to pay for his extravagant life in Paris with public money; and a parliament member named Grenville could have the position of Lord Privy Seal’s secretary reserved for a 4-year old relative of his. That is why Benjamin Franklin, a founding father of U.S.A., on visiting Britain, commented on its official circles, “Absolute corruption is prevalent among people of all classes, who are totally depraved and corrupted from head to foot.” (Back trans. from a quote in Chinese in杭行：《经济发展拒绝腐败》，原载2008年12月27日《解放日报》。) This echoes with what Marx had said: “Capital, ever since it emerges in the world, has been dripping with blood and dirt in all its pores from head to foot.” (Back trans. from Chinese.)
Institutional corruption was rampant not only in political life but in economic and military circles as well. Adam Smith in his The Wealth of Nations exposed how the East India Company used public office for fat private gains by intercepting and making false reports on company profits.
Political corruption in the U.S. has been no less serious than in Britain. History showed that noble integrity of early squires was not secured by the democratic institutions. Shortly after the birth of U.S.A., two senators, two representatives and a supreme court judge were revealed to have been involved in a land purchase scandal.
Actually the rule by squires in earlier times itself was already a form of corruption because it excluded common people from holding government positions. And the political spoils system since 1820s has failed to restrain or rather led to even more scandalous corruptions. The period 1820s - 1883 witnessed the highest incidence rate of corruption committed by public officials. State and local officials used their power to fill their own coffers while private interest groups could easily buy favors from officials. It became a common practice after the Civil War to buy government posts with money. Congressmen could reward their political supporters with hundreds of official positions in their hands. And the public, being used to such acts, did not even show disgust against the corrupt government. Morrison and Commager, two historians, thus described the period: The decay of moral integrity has spread throughout all aspects of American social life. People can see that in state and metropolitan governments, in commerce, finance and transportation, and even in the professions. (周琪: 《美国的政治腐败和反腐败》, （《美国研究》，2004, Vol. 3.)
It was only after China’s Examination System was introduced and a modern civil service system established in the above two countries that large-scale institutional corruption was stopped. In this sense, China’s system has saved Western democracy.
Respectively in 1870 and 1883, Britain and the U.S. established the civil service system which began to recruit civil servants through open and competing examinations so as to place the political process on a moral basis and prevent corruption brought about by the spoils system. After that, civil servants could play a neutral role, not motivated by partisan interests, nor affected by regime change so that they became moral supporters of the rule of law.
This positive result of adopting China’s Examination System has been recognized by an increasing number of Western scholars. Will Durant（1885~1981年）compared the contribution made by the Examination System to world civilization to those of China’s “Four Great Inventions [Compass, Gunpowder, Papermaking, and Printing]”, saying that, theoretically, this system can best reconcile aristocratic and plebian politics – everybody can have access to official positions but only those who are capable can actually take them -- and, in fact, it has much benefited China in the past one thousand and more years since its adoption. (The Story of Civilization, back trans. from a Chinese version: 威尔·杜兰：《世界文明史》, Vo1，台北幼狮文化出版社，1978，P. 196.) Prof. John Chaffee of Binghamton University, U.S.A., also points out that China’s Examination System plays a role beyond her boundaries, that is of great significance to the world’s history. Its adoption outside schools as a key method for selecting and grading service staff originated in China, not the West. Chinese “elite politics” has offered a powerful model for the Enlightenment philosophers and helped forge the modern Western society, （The Thorny Gates of Learning in Sung China：A Social History of Examinations, preface to the Chinese version, back trans.from贾志扬：《宋代科举》，台北东大图书公司，1995，P. 3.）
Actually, China’s examination system was first introduced into the West as early as 1569 by a Portuguese missionary named Cruz in his published China travel notes. And in 1583, the Spanish missionary Gonzales de Mendoza(1540－1617) systematically introduced the contents and methods of the system in his The history of the great and mighty kingdom of China and the situation thereof, which was later translated into many languages, thus spreading the idea extensively in Europe and America.
Later in 18th century Enlightenment, outstanding thinkers like Voltaire and Rousseau praised China’s examination system with admiration, followed by appeals in Britain for adopting the system. In 19th century, a British scholar called Karl Friedrich August Gützlaff wrote in his book China Opened that the examination system opened opportunities for everybody and made it possible to select the most brilliant young people to be govrnment officials (邓嗣禹：《中国科举制在西方的影响》，in《中外关系史译丛》, Issue 4，上海译文出版社，1988.) According to statistics, books published from 1570 to 1870 in Britain recommending this system amounted to over 70. Then, the British government sent envoys to Beijing in 1793, 1816 and several more times in later years to make field surveys about the system, thus laying the foundation for later establishment of the civil service system.
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