APPENDIX III

COMMUNITY CONSCIOUSNESS IN THE ANCIENT CHINESE

GU WEIKANG

ANCIENT CHINESE CULTURE AND COMMUNITY CONSCIOUSNESS

            The ancient Chinese manifested a particularly strong com-munity consciousness -- regarding the monarch as superior to the common people, society as superior to the individual, the elders as superior to their juniors, and justice as superior their juniors, and justice as superior desire. Where did all these arise?

            The relations between community (society) and individual are the most essential relations in human society. Only by working out the relation between community (society) and individual can the relations between mankind and mature, person and person be comprehended. The real person is the social person, imbued with a social responsibility and restricted by society. In fact, no person is an unrestricted abstract individual, but specifically different cultural backgrounds and the historical traditions give the interests and personalities of community have different concrete formations and mocks of realization, that the interests and personalities of the community must be handled differently from those between the community and individual. In contrast to the Western tradition the ancient Chinese always tend to see themselves in the community. It is in terms of the community that the ancient Chinese grasp their personalities and interests. This is origin of the ancient Chinese community consciousness.

            The development ways of ancient Chinese civilization differed from the West. In the West Greece and Roman did not cross the threshed of an ancient civil society before the use of ironware, and before individual production by the family unit substituted for coo-perative production by the clan this meant exposing and criticizing the clan system, collapsing the primitive commune, and developing private ownership by the family. The reason why the West built a long and firm private tradition, why Western civil society took shape, why a ancient West social consciousness and the society by means of the flourishing artificial irrigation system of the bronze age.

            Building and using the artificial preserves enhance of the social organization and led ancient China from the clan system to civil society. Because the primitive clan system had evolved the patriarchal clan system and both were assimilated together, the worship of ancestors at the end of clan society transformed the concrete ancestral temple to a theoretical organizational ancestral temple system. The system of marrying outside the clan evolved so that persons with the same first name could not marry and that only persons of the same social estate could marry; the right of inheri-tance between men inside the clan changed to the primogeniture of the blood clan; the duty of members inside the clan to protect and support each other inside the clan changed to the duty of the clans to protect and support one another in terms of their social rela-tionship. From remote ages (in the shang, the Xia, the Zhou dyna-sties), in these reasons, mixed with the patriarchal clan system and the state system, there arouse state and the clan being the same structure. The most highly developed of its cultural features was the pyramidic patriarchal clan system. On this universal basis the features of Chinese civilization, its social consciousness and social psychology can be understood.

            In this cultural context, the concrete patterns of personality and the interests of community in the ancient Chinese tradition were the actual patterns of the clan and the state. This was reflected in the great respect had by the ancient Chinese for their ancestors, pa-triarch, monarch, superior and older generations. With regard to the blood relationships, in the patriarchal clan system the ancestor was not an individual who had an independent personality; rather ancestry was the symbol personality and interests of the clan in the past and at present. In such a spiritual network, "filial piety" went beyond ethics to turn into a political principle and the foundation of the state. "Loyalty" went beyond politics to become a principle of life and the foundation of cultivating a person’s moral character. The essence of both filial piety and loyalty was that the person take up directly the personality and interests of the community. In ancient China, this sense of filial piety and loyalty implied a tendency and tradition in which the individual was included into the community.

COMMUNITY CONSCIOUSNESS AND  MORAL DEVELOPMENT

            This strong community consciousness was dominant in the philosophy of life of ancient China. It exercised control over people’s words and deeds and became the soul of the traditional national culture.

            The Chinese looked upon the idealize personality of Confucius as the perfect model. Thus, for example, Yao, Shun, the emperor of Zhou dynasty, Confucius, etc., were called saints. The essence of sainthood us explained in ancient Chinese books through the doctrine of "saints inside and emperor outside" was that they must safeguard the realization of the personalities and interests of the clan and state. This was the essences of the Chinese theory of culture.

            In order to guide the ancient Chinese to live perfectly, the ideal personality as true, good and beautiful worked according to three value-tendencies: a) emphasizing the ancient in ancient times; b) bending one’s mind to the monarch and the ancestors in ancient China, the minister and the son represented their personality and the interest as individuals, but the monarch and the father represented the personality and interest of the community, the former being subordinated to the latter; and c) morality and justice, the cultural habit of looking forward consciously to a metaphysical goal. The Chinese criterion for judging what desires would be good for the state and clan? The criterion of the Chinese is common physical action if it reflects the doctrines and the righteousness of the spiritual quest. The above-mentioned subordination of individual concerns became the traditional model of one’s action.

            Regarding the status as superior to things, the ancient Chinese were specially concerned about the person’s status, reputation and intention, but underestimated consequences and practical results. An action is "perfectly justifiable" whose intention accords with the demands of three cardinal guides: ruler guides subject, father guides son, and husband guides wife; and the five constant virtues: benevo-lence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and fidelity as specified in the feudal ethical code. Persons can adhere to these norms even though the actual conditions and consequences of their actions are not in accord with the customs.

            Another person could be superior to oneself in economic, political or clan relations, for the Chinese lived in a patriarchal clan society, and were aware of being members of a community, but not as an independent individuals. So, the norm for individual action is not the needs of the individual, but those of community. From generation to generation, the Chinese have been persuaded the highest goal of a "perfectly impartial" and "selfless life on earth" that safeguard the community interests as safeguarding individual interests. Only by succeeding in others can one achieve success oneself. This tradi-tional psychology and social consciousness are appropriate in the Chinese tradition and are an important embodiment of the nation. But there are negative influences, for logically to regard another person as superior to oneself means a relative lack of individual inde-pendence, sense of self-respect and creativity.

            As regards justice as superior to desire, and morality as su-perior to ability, ancient China justice and morality were not only moral criteria for subjective action, but reflected and advanced the personality and interests of the community.

WESTERN AND EASTERN ELEMENTS IN FUTURE DEVELOPMENT

            As a cultural style and a cultural model, how should the stronger community consciousness and the doctrine of the relation between persons be evaluated?

            Chinese history bears different answers to this question. The Chinese today have two answers: a) In appraising the traditional relations between persons, it is one-sided either to affirm or to negate everything; one should affirm all positive factors and negate all negative factors. b) In appraising the relation between individuals and the community, the Chinese should learn the individual cons-ciousness of the Westerner, but the Westerner should learn the community consciousness of the Chinese.

            However, there is a great puzzle to be faced. How could one assure that the result of community consciousness would render a displayed person dutiful? Further, how could the Chinese assure that the result of learning the Westerner’s individual consciousness would be to become self-confident, assertive, self-respecting and creative, but not selfish egoism? If these problems cannot be resolved the above-mentioned intention can only be a good and honest fantasy.