Classical Confucian Political Thought

A New Interpretation

Loubna El Amine

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781400873944
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Political Philosophy

The intellectual legacy of Confucianism has loomed large in efforts to understand China's past, present, and future. While Confucian ethics has been thoroughly explored, the question remains: what exactlyis Confucian political thought? Classical Confucian Political Thought returns to the classical texts of the Confucian tradition to answer this vital question. Showing how Confucian ethics and politics diverge, Loubna El Amine argues that Confucian political thought is not a direct application of Confucian moral philosophy. Instead, contrary to the conventional view that Confucian rule aims to instill virtue in all members of society, El Amine demonstrates that its main aim is to promote political order.El Amine analyzes key aspects of the Confucian political vision, including the relationship between the ruler and the people, the typology of rulers, and the role of ministers and government officials. She also looks at Confucianism's account of the mechanisms through which society is to be regulated, from welfare policies to rituals. She explains that the Confucian conception of the political leaves space open for the rule of those who are not virtuous if these rulers establish and maintain political order. She also contends that Confucians defend the duty to take part in government based on the benefits that such participation can bring to society. Classical Confucian Political Thought brings a new understanding to Confucian political theory by illustrating that it is not chiefly idealistic and centered on virtue, but rather realistic and driven by political concerns.

CHAPTER 1

Ruler and Ruled

How should we describe the relationship between ruler and ruled in Confucian political thought? How is it best to understand the aims of Confucian government? The literature on early Confucianism largely involves two related sets of claims pertaining to these questions. On the one hand, it is argued, as I mentioned in the prologue, that Confucian government aims at the development of virtue in the populace. On the other hand, the concern with the people’s well-being, physical and moral, is also used to argue for (proto-) democratic tendencies in early Confucianism. One large, interpretive problem burdens both sets of claims: the portrayal of the common people. Indeed, this portrayal suggests both that they are unlikely to become virtuous and that their role in choosing the ruler, or in having him removed from the throne, does not properly indicate consent.

This chapter sets the stage for the overarching thesis of the book by showing how the interpretive difficulties with the claims just mentioned can be solved by replacing the language of virtue and the language of democracy with the language of political order. What is meant by political order here, as will become clearer in what follows, is a simple idea: the administration of people who live together in a given territory for the sake of security and cooperation. I argue therefore, with Heiner Roetz, that “in general, the Confucians legitimize political rule as a precondition of a safe, peaceful, and civilized living together of men.”¹ This explains why, as I argue in the third part of this chapter, they countenance, even at points approve of, hegemons.

A concern with political order is usually recognized of Xunzi,² but it is precisely because of this recognition that commentators set him apart from his predecessors, Confucius and Mencius, who are thought to be concerned only with virtue in government. Although there is no denying the differences in the thought of the three Confucian thinkers, my aim in this chapter, and the book more generally, is to emphasize the similarities.³

The chapter proceeds as follows: I show, in the first section, that the qualities expected of the common people are not full-fledged Confucian virtues, but qualities pertaining to orderliness. I contend that the low level of expectations from the common people arises from viewing them as a “mass,” as part of a perspective on politics that focuses on social groups, rather than on distinct individuals. In the second section, I show that the significance of the common people is not so much in choosing or removing a ruler, but in signaling the ruler’s ability to maintain order. They so signal not by expressing individualized opinions, but by their physical movement, again as a “mass,” away from, or in the direction of, the ruler. In the last part of the chapter, I turn to the Confucian discussion of hegemons, and I show that, contrary to received wisdom, the Confucians countenance hegemons because of the latter’s ability to maintain political order.

The Virtue Argument

On the reading of early Confucianism presented in the prologue, in which Confucian politics is read through the lens of Confucian ethics, the aim of Confucian government is, as Hsiao Kung-chuan puts it, to make the common people “noble and virtuous in character and deed.” In other words, its end is “transformation through teaching.”⁴ Schwartz draws a comparison between the Confucians and Plato and Aristotle, arguing that, like the early Greeks, Confucius views the political community as an ethical society aimed at promoting morality.⁵ This explains, according to him, why it is the virtuous who are supposed to rule, and why providing for the welfare of the common people, a theme I will return to in the next chapter, is important: they can be hindered by adverse circumstances from achieving moral education.⁶ Schwartz cites Mencius on this: “Nowadays, the means laid down for the people are sufficient neither for the care of parents nor for the support of wife and children. In good years life is always hard, while in bad years there is no way of escaping death. Thus simply to survive takes more energy than the people have. What time can they spare for learning about rites and [rightness] (yi 義)?”⁷

The thought that Confucians view political life as geared toward promoting virtue in the common people appears to be the logical continuation of their emphasis on virtue, and the idea that all persons are equally capable of becoming virtuous: told that he was being spied on with the purpose of seeing whether he was the same as everyone else, Mencius retorts, “In what way should I be different from other people? Even [sage kings] Yao and Shun were the same as anyone else.”⁸ Xunzi also believes that any person can become a Yu, Yu being the third sage king of antiquity, since, according to him, it is possible for all men to understand and to be able to practice ren, rightness, and regulations (fa 法).⁹

There also appears to be direct evidence in the Confucian texts for the view that Confucian government aims at the moral improvement of the common people. Consider, for example, Confucius’s response to the question put to him by Ji Kangzi, one of the heads of the Ji family of the state of Lu, about the best way to govern. Confucius says, “To govern (zheng 政) is to correct (zheng 正). If you set an example by being correct, who would dare to remain incorrect?”¹⁰ The same Ji Kangzi asks for Confucius’s advice about getting rid of thieves. Confucius answers, “If you yourself were not a man of desires, no one would steal even if stealing carried a reward.”¹¹ When asked by Ji Kangzi again about how to inculcate in the common people the virtues of reverence (jing 敬), of dutifulness (zhong 忠), and of enthusiasm (quan 勸), Confucius answers, “Rule over them with dignity and they will be reverent; treat them with kindness and they will do their best; raise the good and instruct those who are backward and they will be imbued with enthusiasm.”¹² When asked by Zilu about government, he responds, “Encourage the people to work hard by setting an example yourself.”¹³

All of these passages indicate that it is possible for the ruler, by providing for the people, setting himself as a model (of correctness and lack of desires), treating the people with dignity and kindness, and promoting the worthy, to encourage the people toward moral reform. But what is also clear, and no less significant, about these passages and other similar ones is that they reveal that the qualities expected of the common people are not the cardinal Confucian virtues of ren 仁, rightness (yi 義), and wisdom (zhi 智)¹⁴ that Confucius expects of himself and his disciples. In fact, I could only find two examples (in the Mencius) that associate the common people with one of these virtues.¹⁵

That high virtue is not expected of the common people should not actually be surprising if one considers Confucius’s view of the common people’s intellectual abilities, expressed in his statement that “the common people can be made to follow it [i.e., the Confucian Way], but they cannot be made to understand (zhi 知) it.”¹⁶ Similarly, Mencius says that the multitude (zhong 眾) do not realize (zhu 著) what it is they practice, do not examine (cha 察) what they repeatedly do, and do not understand (zhi 知) the path they follow all their lives.¹⁷ For Xunzi, the virtue of the common people merely consists in following custom, treasuring material possessions, and nurturing their lives.¹⁸

Even Hsiao admits that some people cannot actually be educated, and these “probably are not a minority,” hence the Confucians’ inevitable resort to punishment at times.¹⁹ For Yuri Pines, the reason why the Confucians’ concern for fulfilling people’s needs and reaching their hearts did not result in an institutionalized form of political participation from below (more on this in the next section) is due to the identification of commoners with petty men (xiaoren 小人).²⁰ He cites in this regard Mencius’s approval of the common saying: “There are those who use their minds and there are those who use their muscles. The former rule (zhi 治); the latter are ruled.”²¹

I suggest, based on the preceding, that people’s dispositions are indeed meant to be improved by Confucian government, but that such improvement does not amount to the full-fledged pursuit of virtuousness. Instead, it is more accurate to see the dispositions sought for the common people (to refrain from stealing, to work hard, and to be “correct”) as dispositions relating to orderliness, rather than virtuousness. The qualities expected of the common people can be elicited in statements that establish the effect virtuous rulership has on the former, and that reveal that there is in fact no expectation of a one-to-one correspondence between the virtue of the ruler and the qualities attained by the people. Thus Confucius argues, “When those above are given to the observance of the rites, the common people will be easy to command.”²² Infuriated by Fan Chi’s questions about growing crops, he answers, “When those above love the rites, none of the common people will dare to be irreverent (bujing 不敬); when they love what is right, none of the common people will dare to be insubordinate (bufu 不服); when they love trustworthiness, none of the common people will dare to be insincere (buyongqing 不用情). In this way, the common people from the four quarters will come with their children strapped to their backs. What need is there to talk about growing crops?”²³ Ritual propriety, rightness, and trustworthiness are thus matched with obedience and reverence, subordination, and sincerity, respectively. The latter set of qualities is also emphasized by Mencius and Xunzi. Thus Mencius contends that if the people are not provided for in times of plenty, then in times of need, when the ruler needs them to fight on his behalf, they could refuse to do so.²⁴ Xunzi says that the common people should be filial, respect their elders, be honest and diligent, and not dare to be indolent or haughty.²⁵

In short, the qualities expected of the common people are qualities like reverence, subordination, honesty, diligence, and correctness. There is no talk here of ren, rightness, or wisdom. What is at stake, then, in statements to the effect that the people should learn about rites and duties,²⁶ or that the ruler should teach (jiao 教) and instruct (hui 誨) them,²⁷ is not a full-blown moral education, but instruction in qualities favorable to an orderly society. One can even understand the idea of “reform” in Confucius’s famous statement that the goal of government should not be merely to keep people out of trouble, but also to encourage them to have a s...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Note on Translations and Transliterations
• Prologue
• Chapter 1. Ruler and Ruled
• Chapter 2. Rules and Regulations
• Chapter 3. A Harmonious Society
• Chapter 4. Rulers and Ministers
• Chapter 5. Political Involvement
• Chapter 6. Heaven in Politics
• Epilogue
• Bibliography
• Index