the one hand, profound belief in the Confucian principles and the ritualistic behavior this required served as a bulwark of support for the imperial court and government officials, and contributed enormously to the long survival of Chinese civilization.
On the other hand, the restrictive elements in the Confucian code of ethics that supported this ritualistic etiquette prevented the vast majority of Chinese from being able to think and act as individuals, stifled their ambitions, and greatly limited their options and their horizons.
China’s immense size, combined with its civilization that was more advanced than its local neighbors and its early isolation from Western nations, resulted in the Chinese looking upon their country as the center of the known world and their culture as superior to all others. This was to have a profoundly disastrous impact on the future of the country, as it led Chinese leaders to ignore the industrial revolution in Europe and the emergence of Western countries as military powers with aggressive colonial ambitions.
The World According to Lao Tzu
Although Lao Tzu (also known as the Old Master) is not as well known in the outside world as Confucius, he was one of the primary creators of China’s traditional culture—and according to some legends was a mentor to Confucius.
According to some scholars, Lao Tzu was born in 604 BC and died in 531 BC. He is credited with having written the Tao Te Ching (often translated as “The Way”), one of the most significant treatises in Chinese philosophy. This influential work discussed individual spirituality, interpersonal dynamics, political strategy, and numerous other topics. It expounded on the nature of human beings and the ideal relationships they should have with one another, their government, and with the cosmos at large.
One of his most influential teachings was that one should avoid explicit intentions and proactive initiatives—a prohibition that was to become so embedded in Chinese culture that it is still discernible.
Charles Lee, an authority on traditional and modern Chinese culture and author of the insightful book Cowboys and Dragons, writes that the teachings of Lao Tzu were and still are more relevant than those of Confucius. According to Lee, Confucian philosophy was followed by the ruling class while the philosophy taught by Lao Tzu and his successors became the ideology of the common people, among whom they lived.
While Lao Tzu was the founder of philosophical Taoism, there is another form of Taoism that centers on the worship of various gods from ancient Chinese folk religions. The highest of these is the Jade Emperor, who rules in Heaven over a myriad of lesser deities. In religious Taoism, these gods control most aspects of human life, including whom one will marry. As these deities can be at times fickle or capricious, people wanting success or good luck will offer them sacrifices.
Folk Tales And Proverbs
Along with Confucianism and Taoism, many Chinese people have found inspiration and moral instruction from old folk tales and sayings. Some of the folk tales are legends involving various Taoist deities, while some are mythical or even true stories about people from Chinese history. Examples would include the story of Hou Yi, the archer who shot down the nine suns, and his wife Chang’e, who flew to the moon; how Cao Chong weighed an elephant; how Zhuge Liang gathered 100,000 arrows; and how Yugong moved a mountain.
These old stories have often proven to be inspiration for Chinese proverbs, called chengyu (chung-yoo). Chengyu are written in classical Chinese and follow a strict four-character form. In many cases, they give such a pithy summation of a story’s moral that they are relatively meaningless unless one knows the story behind them. It is estimated that there are as many as 5,000 chengyu in the Chinese language, and many of these are commonly used in daily life.
As we shall see in the next section, since the 1949 Communist take-over, many of the traditional teachings within China have been de-emphasized or at times even ruthlessly suppressed. However, this has not been the case, by and large, of old folk tales or proverbs. Instead, the government has incorporated these into the education system and has used them as part of the youth’s moral education, at times reinterpreting them to suit their political agenda. Indeed, in a famous and often quoted speech, Chairman Mao retold the story of how Yugong moved a mountain to stress the need for perseverance, reinterpreting the story as an allegory of how China would overcome imperialism and feudalism.
Along with these old folk tales, a new folk hero emerged in the 1960s, and has been used to inculcate morality among the youth—Lei Feng. Lei Feng (1940-1962) was an army soldier who died in a traffic accident. Shortly after his death, he became the focus of an intense propaganda campaign within China, as an example of selfless sacrifice for the Chinese people. Photos of Lei Feng surfaced showing him helping others and doing good deeds. A diary also emerged, extolling Chairman Mao, expressing zeal for his country, and revealing his desire to fan the flames of revolution among his brethren. This all belies the real question of whether or not Lei Feng even existed— something even some Chinese scholars doubt.
Nevertheless, Lei Feng is held up as a moral example even now, and Lei Feng Day is celebrated by schoolchildren each year on March 5 with visits to old folk’s homes or to the local park to pick up litter.
The Wonder That Was China!
In the centuries following the lives of Confucius and Lao Tzu, China experienced remarkable periods of innovation and invention that would make it the most technologically advanced country in the world.
Randy Smith of Monterey Peninsula College has noted in his writings that one of the greatest secrets of history is the immense contribution ancient China made to world civilization. The list of inventions and discoveries of the early Chinese is astounding, and equally remarkable is that many of their breakthroughs in knowledge and technology did not reach the Western world—or occur there independently—until hundreds or even thousands of years later. For example, Smith notes that “modern” paper was invented in China in AD 105. In contrast, papermaking was not introduced in the West until the eighth century, and the first paper mill in Europe was not built until 1009.
Similarly, an early compass was invented in approximately AD 200 when a Chinese metal smith discovered that magnetized pieces of iron always aligned themselves in a north-south orientation when placed on pieces of wood floating in a bowl of water. This primitive compass was refined over the centuries and the first true compass is said to date from around AD 900. It was not until the fifteenth century that Europeans became aware of magnetism.
Other Chinese discoveries and inventions that better-educated Westerners are generally familiar with include silk, gunpowder, and rockets.
For well over three thousand years China also led the world in the treatment of various diseases and in preventive measures designed to ensure optimum health—some of which, particularly acupuncture and tai chi, are only now finding acceptance in the West.
Smith credits the development of agricultural technology for the extraordinary growth of civilization in China, listing such innovations as row cultivation, intensive hoeing, and the use of the seed drill as major factors. Here China also outpaced the West: the first seed drills did not appear in Europe until the sixteenth century AD, although in China they came into use in about 1500 BC.
The Eclipse of the Great Chinese Civilization
During most of the last millennium of Chinese civilization’s heyday, the cultures of European nations were in the throes of what came to be called the Dark Ages—a stagnant period when the fall of Rome and domination by the Christian church resulted in religious faith replacing reason and logic in the affairs of the state and people.
While there was no dark age in China, by the beginning of the fifteenth century the imperial government stopped promoting and rewarding innovation, in effect making it taboo. Emphasis was shifted from looking ahead to looking backward, and from invention and creativity to revering the past and maintaining the status quo. Creativity in China dried up, and its great civilization began a slow, steady decline. For the most part China’s creativity was not to flower again until modern times.
From the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries a series of invasions and incursions by newly industrialized Western nations caused upheaval in China, and then