Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Note on Spelling
- Map
- Prologue
- Introduction
- 1 The Lofty Classical Order
- 2 The Century of Humiliation
- 3 A New Beginning
- 4 Xi Jinping Has a Dream
- 5 The Eternal Party
- 6 An Alternative to the Party?
- 7 The Experience of History: From Supremacy to Shame
- 8 Foreign Policy under Mao and Deng:From Rebellion to Harmony
- 9 The New Nationalism
- 10 The Party on a Dead-End Street
- 11 The Third Way
- 12 The World of the Great Harmony
- Epilogue
- Acknowledgements
- Chronological overview of dynasties in China
- Chairmen and Party Secretaries of the People’s Republic of China
- Notes
- Illustration Credits
- Works Consulted
- Index of Persons
11 - The Third Way
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 November 2022
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Note on Spelling
- Map
- Prologue
- Introduction
- 1 The Lofty Classical Order
- 2 The Century of Humiliation
- 3 A New Beginning
- 4 Xi Jinping Has a Dream
- 5 The Eternal Party
- 6 An Alternative to the Party?
- 7 The Experience of History: From Supremacy to Shame
- 8 Foreign Policy under Mao and Deng:From Rebellion to Harmony
- 9 The New Nationalism
- 10 The Party on a Dead-End Street
- 11 The Third Way
- 12 The World of the Great Harmony
- Epilogue
- Acknowledgements
- Chronological overview of dynasties in China
- Chairmen and Party Secretaries of the People’s Republic of China
- Notes
- Illustration Credits
- Works Consulted
- Index of Persons
Summary
The Master said, ‘There was Shun: – He indeed was greatly wise! Shun loved to question others, and to study their words, though they might be shallow. He concealed what was bad in them and displayed what was good. He took hold of their two extremes, determined the Mean, and employed it in his government of the people.’
from The Doctrine of the Mean (Ch. 6)
Karl Marx believed that capitalism would succumb under the weight of its own contradictions. ‘Socialism with Chinese characteristics’ runs the risk of meeting the same fate, because its ‘contradictions’ at the beginning of the twenty-first century are as staggering as they are many: A capitalist economy led by a Leninist party; a Socialist state with greater income differences than most capitalist countries; an upcoming power whose defence budget grows at more than 10 percent annually, yet who promotes peace and harmony. Our Western mind is not equipped to make sense of these contrasts: We need a clear-cut explanation. The co-existence of different realities confuses us − all the more so when they reside in one and the same person. The Qian Long Emperor, a refined man of letters and patron of Buddhism, slaughtered nearly one million Dzungars in the middle of the eighteenth century. The no less refined poet, Mao Zedong, was responsible for the deaths of many more victims. And to give a recent example: How can Xi Jinping foster an almost blind reverence for Mao, while still wanting to modernize the country economically? As the Sinologist Orville Schell has said, ‘Modern China is best understood by those capable of embracing contradictions.’
Classical Chinese philosophy is fascinated by duality. Taoism teaches that the existence of opposites is a natural phenomenon: Yin is not worse than yang, but by keeping nature in balance they drive it forward in an eternal rhythm. Opposition to this duality, or wanting to ‘harmonise’ its antipodal character, is useless. The best thing one can do is to surrender to it; that is why, for the followers of Lao Zi, living a virtuous life means the casting aside of civilisation.
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- China and the BarbariansResisting the Western World Order, pp. 275 - 292Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2018