In this important and hugely ambitious book, one of the world’s leading political scientists working on China demonstrates how Western views of China are flawed because the long tradition of Western scholarship studying China views China from the Western philosophical and intellectual perspective rather than viewing China on its own terms through the lens of China’s own long-established and reputable philosophical and intellectual tradition. Providing a deep analysis of Western scholarship on China, including work from Leibniz to Marx to Weber and then to Wittfogel, and a thorough account of the evolution of China’s own thinking about governance as expressed in the practices of successive Chinese dynasties, the book goes on to examine how the current Chinese body politic fits with and is the natural outcome of China’s own long, well-thought-through and well-practiced intellectual consideration of what the nature of civilized governance should be. By focusing on philosophical and intellectual approaches rather than on theoretical or methodological ones, the book shows how the huge and increasing disconnect between non-Chinese views of China and Chinese ones has come about.
List of Figures
List of Tables
Preface and Acknowledgments
PART ONE
“Oriental Despotism”
1 “Oriental Despotism” and Its Problems in China Studies
2 “Oriental Despotism” and Its Origins: Europe and Imperial China
3 “Oriental Despotism” From the Ancient Greeks to the Enlightenment
4 “Oriental Despotism” Since the 19th Century
PART TWO
The Chinese Body Politic: Its Formation and Evolution
5 Secularism and Political Order
6 “Social Natural Law”
7 The Emperorship
8 Institutional Differentiation and “Internal Pluralism”
9 Imperial Politics and Its Constraints
10 Meritocracy and State–Society Connections
11 Education, Social Distinction, and Equality
12 Meritocratic Institutions and Their Evolution
13 Inequality, Representation, and Responsibilities
14 Bureaucrats and “Civil Society”
PART THREE
Modern Transformation
15 Modern Revolution and Political Power
16 Nationalism, Sovereignty, and Modern Party Power
17 “Organizational Emperorship”
PART FOUR
Contemporary Institutions
18 Structuring Politics
19 The “New” Paradigm
20 Bringing Back the Power of Supervision
21 Party–Society Linkages
22 A “Party in Society”
23 Society and Interest Representation
24 A Theory of Moral Loyalty
25 The Chinese State and Western State Products
26 Political Reforms: Grand Discourse and Little Truth
27 Forms of Political Reform
PART FIVE
The Future of the Chinese Body Politic
28 A Tocquevillian Dilemma
29 Scenarios of Political Change
Bibliography
Index
Biography
Yongnian Zheng is Professor and Director of the Institute for International Affairs, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, China.
