"Because Mencius’s constitutionalism existed purely in the realm of morality and psychology, it had no procedural outlet. There was no independent judiciary in Imperial China to declare an emperor “unconstitutional,” nor was there a ballot box to vote him out. Therefore, the only way the Mencian Constitution could actually be executed was through the devastating violence of a peasant uprising."
This is the fundamental burden of any constitution, including the Magna Carta, US Constitution, or even Papal Writ. The existence of ballot and judiciary are as conditional as the paper, only enforceable to the degree that there would be a revolt if it were ignored, and that the revolt could not be suppressed without destroying the state order it intended to preserve.
All systems of government are conditional, and subject to hacking.
Wow. You have once again distilled down a few thousand years into a perfect summation/explanation of the contract between ruler and ruled in China. Thanks much.
For most western governments, limits on authority were unwritten and mostly enforced by the church until the last 200 to 400 years, a twinkling of an eye by China's timeline. England still does not have a written constitution, one can well argue Magna Carta is mostly abandoned now that trial by jury is almost extinct. Of those 200 to 400 years where written constitutions were the norm, China had written constitutions under the KMT and then the CPC's respective governments totaling just over 100 years. IF you wan to know more, then note Paul Myron Wentworth Linebarger (~ - February 10, 1939) and his son Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger (July 11, 1913 – August 6, 1966) were advisors to the pre-KMT revolutionary efforts as well as the KMT government on Constitutional governance, the later went on to work developing manuals for the OSS and CIA on Psychological Warfare. Father and son have several books published on development government and nationhood about their time spent time advising figures like Sun Yat Sen and CKS.
Thank you for this fantastic historical context, I hadn't looked deeply into the influence of the Linebargers on the KMT's constitutional efforts or their subsequent CIA connections, that is a fascinating piece of history. I'm adding these to my reading list. Really appreciate you sharing this!
- In the quote 天视自我民视，天听自我民听, who is the 我? Presumably Mencius isn't talking for himself here; even in English "my people" suggests a claim to authority (cf. "let my people go!" coming from Moses's mouth, but on behalf of God). Is he putting his words into the mouth of an ancient sage king such as Wen of Zhou here?
- You mention the challenge indigenous Chinese philosophy faced from Buddhism and Daoism. Do you not count Daoism as natively Chinese?
Exactly, Mencius is not speaking for himself here. In this passage, Mencius is directly quoting from the Book of Documents (尚书, Shangshu). The words are attributed to King Wu of Zhou justifying his overthrow of the corrupt Shang dynasty. So, the "我" (my/our) belongs to the ancient sage king, not Mencius claiming authority over the people himself.
What I meant was that Confucianism, which served as the orthodox state philosophy, faced deep philosophical and metaphysical challenges from both imported Buddhism and indigenous Daoism during late Tang Dynasty, ~9th century. To reform, Confucian scholars eventually had to integrate elements from both traditions, which led to the birth of Neo-Confucianism.
Hi, upon reading your article, my first thought was... That 'the unwritten constitution of Mencius continues to silently govern the psychological relationship between the Chinese state and the populace' is obviously true symbolically. In what other ways (if any) it is true? Was Mencius the first to formulate an idea, that started to become dominant some eighteen centuries later? Did Mencius articulate a basic mechanism of social-historical dynamics, and contribute to the historical development by portraying it in moralistic terms? Did he articulate a sentiment that was already widespread here and there, now and then, and thus helped in its further promotion? Was he simply a relay in a long chain in the history of an idea? Reflecting on the matter, it looks like a mix of the above.
It is absolutely a mix of all those factors. There was actually a long history of treating the people as the foundation of a state in China; for example, the ancient 尚书 Shangshu states: 'The people are the root of a country; when the root is firm, the country is tranquil' 民惟邦本，本固邦宁. However, Mencius was the first to explicitly juxtapose the people with the ruler, famously claiming the people are supreme and the emperor is the least important.
In a way, ancient Chinese philosophers during the Warring States period were essentially lobbyists or policy sellers. Mencius was trying to 'sell' the idea to ambitious kings that without the people, there is no emperor. Furthermore, the constant oscillation between Zhi (order) and Luan (chaos) likely led him to formulate how this 'unwritten constitution' works. This cycle of order and chaos is the fundamental motif of Chinese history. Mencius simply drew a brilliant, moralistic explanation for that phenomenon. Centuries later, when Song Dynasty Neo-Confucians looked back at the long history of empires rising and falling, they found Mencius's theory to be the most historically plausible, which is why it became dominant.
Another excellent overview which explains the national consensus of political legitimacy stemming from the states ability to provide stability and prosperity as having originated in Mencius.
The account of how his works were censored and balderdash during the Ming is fascinating!
Consider me motivated to read Mencius (in translation alas). Some of his statements remind me very much of the roughly (within a century or so) cotemporaneous political theory of Plato, since the Republic is also greatly concerned with the relationship between the producers and the ruling leisure class, the distinction between the art of rule and banditry, etc.
"Because Mencius’s constitutionalism existed purely in the realm of morality and psychology, it had no procedural outlet. There was no independent judiciary in Imperial China to declare an emperor “unconstitutional,” nor was there a ballot box to vote him out. Therefore, the only way the Mencian Constitution could actually be executed was through the devastating violence of a peasant uprising."
This is the fundamental burden of any constitution, including the Magna Carta, US Constitution, or even Papal Writ. The existence of ballot and judiciary are as conditional as the paper, only enforceable to the degree that there would be a revolt if it were ignored, and that the revolt could not be suppressed without destroying the state order it intended to preserve.
All systems of government are conditional, and subject to hacking.
Wow. You have once again distilled down a few thousand years into a perfect summation/explanation of the contract between ruler and ruled in China. Thanks much.
For most western governments, limits on authority were unwritten and mostly enforced by the church until the last 200 to 400 years, a twinkling of an eye by China's timeline. England still does not have a written constitution, one can well argue Magna Carta is mostly abandoned now that trial by jury is almost extinct. Of those 200 to 400 years where written constitutions were the norm, China had written constitutions under the KMT and then the CPC's respective governments totaling just over 100 years. IF you wan to know more, then note Paul Myron Wentworth Linebarger (~ - February 10, 1939) and his son Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger (July 11, 1913 – August 6, 1966) were advisors to the pre-KMT revolutionary efforts as well as the KMT government on Constitutional governance, the later went on to work developing manuals for the OSS and CIA on Psychological Warfare. Father and son have several books published on development government and nationhood about their time spent time advising figures like Sun Yat Sen and CKS.
Thank you for this fantastic historical context, I hadn't looked deeply into the influence of the Linebargers on the KMT's constitutional efforts or their subsequent CIA connections, that is a fascinating piece of history. I'm adding these to my reading list. Really appreciate you sharing this!
Very interesting, thankyou. Two questions:
- In the quote 天视自我民视，天听自我民听, who is the 我? Presumably Mencius isn't talking for himself here; even in English "my people" suggests a claim to authority (cf. "let my people go!" coming from Moses's mouth, but on behalf of God). Is he putting his words into the mouth of an ancient sage king such as Wen of Zhou here?
- You mention the challenge indigenous Chinese philosophy faced from Buddhism and Daoism. Do you not count Daoism as natively Chinese?
Exactly, Mencius is not speaking for himself here. In this passage, Mencius is directly quoting from the Book of Documents (尚书, Shangshu). The words are attributed to King Wu of Zhou justifying his overthrow of the corrupt Shang dynasty. So, the "我" (my/our) belongs to the ancient sage king, not Mencius claiming authority over the people himself.
What I meant was that Confucianism, which served as the orthodox state philosophy, faced deep philosophical and metaphysical challenges from both imported Buddhism and indigenous Daoism during late Tang Dynasty, ~9th century. To reform, Confucian scholars eventually had to integrate elements from both traditions, which led to the birth of Neo-Confucianism.
古文言文：自 me, 我 I
Hi, upon reading your article, my first thought was... That 'the unwritten constitution of Mencius continues to silently govern the psychological relationship between the Chinese state and the populace' is obviously true symbolically. In what other ways (if any) it is true? Was Mencius the first to formulate an idea, that started to become dominant some eighteen centuries later? Did Mencius articulate a basic mechanism of social-historical dynamics, and contribute to the historical development by portraying it in moralistic terms? Did he articulate a sentiment that was already widespread here and there, now and then, and thus helped in its further promotion? Was he simply a relay in a long chain in the history of an idea? Reflecting on the matter, it looks like a mix of the above.
It is absolutely a mix of all those factors. There was actually a long history of treating the people as the foundation of a state in China; for example, the ancient 尚书 Shangshu states: 'The people are the root of a country; when the root is firm, the country is tranquil' 民惟邦本，本固邦宁. However, Mencius was the first to explicitly juxtapose the people with the ruler, famously claiming the people are supreme and the emperor is the least important.
In a way, ancient Chinese philosophers during the Warring States period were essentially lobbyists or policy sellers. Mencius was trying to 'sell' the idea to ambitious kings that without the people, there is no emperor. Furthermore, the constant oscillation between Zhi (order) and Luan (chaos) likely led him to formulate how this 'unwritten constitution' works. This cycle of order and chaos is the fundamental motif of Chinese history. Mencius simply drew a brilliant, moralistic explanation for that phenomenon. Centuries later, when Song Dynasty Neo-Confucians looked back at the long history of empires rising and falling, they found Mencius's theory to be the most historically plausible, which is why it became dominant.
Another excellent overview which explains the national consensus of political legitimacy stemming from the states ability to provide stability and prosperity as having originated in Mencius.
The account of how his works were censored and balderdash during the Ming is fascinating!
Consider me motivated to read Mencius (in translation alas). Some of his statements remind me very much of the roughly (within a century or so) cotemporaneous political theory of Plato, since the Republic is also greatly concerned with the relationship between the producers and the ruling leisure class, the distinction between the art of rule and banditry, etc.