II.“The Misconceptions”——the Way in which We Understand China

As one of the world's oldest nations,China upholds the most basic common values of mankind.

Maybe it is by nature that on the one hand,we always deem ourselves as unique,and on the other hand,we tend to change others in our own way.For those countries which we are not so familiar with,this kind of paranoia in our human nature will affect us more strongly.

In fact,China is not so special.Compared with other countries in the world,there are no differences that are hard to understand about China.We say that China is a highly complicated country,but which country is not complicated and full of changes and contradictions? Being such a giant country like China,which country is not composed of a variety of scenes? In the US,even on the small Manhattan Island in New York,people can see different scenes in the north and south of the Central Park.But foreign tourists usually just take a picture of Time Square or the Statue of Liberty,and then go back to tell their friends: this is America.

Many people told me that before they came to China,they often imagined that all Chinese people wore the same uniforms and hairstyles.The whole country was like a sophisticated and huge machine,and each person worked in it silently like a small gear.I told them,that was not China,instead,that was the“Ocean State”described by George Orwell.In China,some people believe that every American household places a gun in their bedrooms.That is not America.That is in Hollywood movies.These ridiculous imaginations come from our human nature,under which we are likely to imagine the world that is different from us and show our bigoted self-identity.

Constantly,I want to tell those foreigners who are interested in China that it is not right to study China by regarding her as an“object”,as with those naturalists who are doing research on animals or plants.It is true that China is an“object”,but the differences between her and the“subject”are not as strong as approved by the naturalists.While talking about the differences of China,let's also take a look at the similarities between China and other countries.

As one of the world's oldest nations,China upholds the most basic common values of mankind.For thousands of years,Chinese people have advocated hard-working,modesty,dedication and a sense of social responsibility.Chinese people believe that everyone should fight with himself first against excessive desire and at the same time work hard to pursue personal success.Then,he should make a contribution to the family,the society and the whole world.The Chinese are in favor of the saying that“cultivate individual moral character,run the family in unison,manage the nation in order,and peace will prevail throughout the universe.”

Are these Chinese values special? No.It resembles the puritan values of the eastern coast of North America in the 17^th century and the creed of the Central European Germanic families; even the Utah Mormons in America also share similar ideas.We like to distinguish all kinds of civilizations in order to find differences,but we often ignore most of the common grounds of human civilizations.This may lead to a lack of communication and understanding between us.

People often ask how the Chinese people ensure the realization of all the good qualities shared by mankind since they don't believe in any religion.First of all,I want to clarify a misunderstanding: the Chinese people do have their religious belief.For thousands of years,religion has been a part of everyday life for many Chinese people.It is still the case today.In my hometown Sichuan Province,in some of the special days of each month,you can see hundreds of aged people spend two days to climb Mount Emei,a sacred shrine of Buddhism.They go hand in hand from the foot of the mountain to the top,with an elevation of 3000 meters,in order to worship in the temples at the mountain top.While climbing the extremely steep mountain,these simple,pious and free believers murmur the prayer of Buddhism.The long line slowly moves forward and they almost never stop to take a rest.Their belief is so strong that most young climbers cannot compete with them.In many places of China,you can see the existence of religion and the huge power it generated in Chinese people.One third of the territory in Western China is even considered a religious society in the traditional sense.

Some people believe that the decades of communist influence have shaped the status of religion in China.It is not right.Chinese people have long learned secularism.In Chinese history,there is a long and general existence of Taoism,Buddhism,Islam and Christian sects in the society.Even many Chinese emperors are religious believers.But they would not use religious principles to govern the country.As what happened to Europe,there were combats between religious forces and political powers in Chinese history.When religion interfered with politics,the Chinese emperors would take an uncompromising stance to exclude religion from politics,even if the emperor himself may be a believer.In Song Dynasty (1000 AD),the Chinese developed a more comprehensive and rational system of philosophy and political system of governance; the principle of secularism has not been challenged since then.A few hundred years later,the European Enlightenment thinkers had warmly praised the Chinese rational way of dealing with the religious and secular political relations.Today,the secularism is a political principle universally pursued by the western society.

Of course,there are still many Chinese people who are not religious believers.In fact,most Han people do not believe in a specific religion,but not being religious doesn't necessarily mean that they don't have faith.Chinese people generally believe in“heaven”. It is somewhat similar to what Hegel calls“absolute spirit”of things.3000 years ago,the Chinese people established the ethics based on some kind of a priori will.The ethics sometimes manifests as religious organizations,doctrines and rituals.But more often,it is rooted in the Chinese people's education,customs,proverbs and philosophy.For thousands of years,though there is not a dominant religion in China,the Chinese people still live a good spiritual life with moral integrity,dignity and self-discipline,just the same with other old nations in the world.

However,the Chinese people today are reconsidering their own values profoundly.Many people worry about the moral indifference in the era of rapid economic development and individual pursuit of wealth.Many discussions on the relationship between individual rights and social contribution have become the focus on the media and Internet.The western industrialization process has shown that the more rapidly the economy develops,the stronger social frustration and moral emptiness may be.However,those values and basic spirit shared by the human society will eventually rebound.In the western world,it is the revival of the religious and traditional values.But now the Chinese way of rebound remains unknown.

Another disputed issue is China's political system.China adopted a political system which is very different from most western countries.In this regard,western public opinion simply classified it as democracy or autocracy.Thus they had also reached a clear conclusion that it is impossible for autocracy to achieve sustained economic and social success.Under the autocratic rule,the short-time success must be evil.They regard the evil and successful autocracy as the greatest threat to the western democratic life and world peace.

However,in the real world,there isn't a direct line between Chinese and western political systems.Actually,China shares the same political ethics with the other countries,such as democracy,protection and respect for individuals and the constraint of power.Perhaps the Chinese don't have a clear and written rule of law tradition (mainly in the area of civil law),but they definitely have a long history of the ethics mentioned above.As early as 3000 years ago,the Chinese had established a political ethics on the relationship between political power and the common people and it has been largely spread until now.In the long imperial era,the Chinese emperors were neither the kind of military“tyrant”in the late Roman Empire,nor the absolute monarch insisting on“I am the state”like Louis XIV did.In the childhood of a Chinese emperor,the first thing he needed to learn was to constrain his power and treat the ruled with reverence.The Confucian ministers were in charge of their education.In the political life,these ministers shared power with the emperor and sometimes there were struggles similar to those between the monarch and the aristocrats in European history.The ordinary civilians were actually quite free.They often abided by the orders of the local family,rather than of the distant emperor who exercised the omnipresent repression.By taking a rigorous and fair examination,it was possible for the civilians to join the ruling class.Whether the ruler or the ruled,they all believed that the ruler couldn't do whatever he wanted and he must be responsible for the ruled.If the ruler could not be responsible for the ruled,the“heaven”would choose another person who was more responsible and capable.This is more undeniable than the supreme imperial power.

We describe in detail the political ethics of ancient Chinese empire to serve the purpose of illustrating the fact that the simple division of“democracy”and“autocracy”just caters to the definition of“us”and“them”,but it ignores the actual complexity of political issues.In Dante's Divine Comedy,there are only two people in the bottom of hell: one is Judas who betrayed Jesus; the other is Brutus who betrayed Caesar.The sin of Judas is understandable,but why did Dante put Brutus there? Caesar is now considered the first dictator of the Roman Empire.Actually,it is Caesar who changed Rome from a“Republic”to an“Empire”. But today westerners still like Caesar because he ended the quarrel and strife in a“Republic”and led Rome to a gorgeous pinnacle in the western ancient history.Strictly speaking,Napoleon is also a dictator.Under the rule of Napoleon,France was a military despotic country.But Napoleon succeeded in spreading“democracy”throughout Europe.Queen Elizabeth I of England is probably one of the most charming and kindest female monarchs in history,but she was still an autocratic monarch,thus making her rule evil to some extent.

If we abandon the argument about“us”and“them”,we will find that the political development in China is the same with that in the western world.It is not a static choice of“democracy”or“autocracy”; instead,it is a continuous process of changes,setbacks and improvements.It is our common political ideals to have every person protected and respected in the political life and establish a political order that is favorable to the overall social progress.But today,human beings are still struggling for the ideals.The US had established a democratic system in the 18th century,but it still took about 100 years to abolish slavery.In the 20th century,many people were still fighting for fairness,freedom and peace.Today,in the second decade of the 21st century,the Americans are still fighting; otherwise there wouldn't be so many people flooding onto streets for the movement of“Occupation of Wall Street”in 150 cities.

In the aspect of constant self-denial and change,China's politics is the same with that of the US.Chinese people's struggle is even more difficult and circuitous.At the end of the 19th century,in the face of European colonialism,the ancient Chinese political system broke down in the war with the west and soon lost its legitimacy.After the fall of Qing Dynasty,a series of chaos,disruption and war followed,including the two world wars.The Chinese began to explore modern political models in a difficult environment.In that process,“democracy”was the most resounding slogan.But the problem to solve in China was not to introduce the never-known democracy to a tyranny,but to establish a political system in line with the requirements of modern industrial society.The system was aimed at turning farmers who were at the rim of the central imperial power in the agricultural age to industrial workers and residents in cities.The system needed to meet their new political needs and endow them with corresponding political rights.

In the early stages,China chose the path of a radical democracy.The early history of PRC is different from the western impression today.For example,in the most radical period of“Cultural Revolution”,there wasn't the Orwellian Tyranny as the westerners imagine.Instead,there was disordered street democracy under which any one of the ordinary students,farmers or citizens could rush to the home of the principal,mayor or minister for protest.The elite were overthrown and most of the rebel“Revolution Organization”institutions were elected.Private property was reverted to the collective and implemented in the name of“the broad masses of the people”. For a very long time,all the“rebels”across the country were not moaning under the dictatorial oppression,but acclaiming in the rampant freedom and“proletarian democracy”. Until they felt hungry,they began to detest the economic recession brought about by social disorder and turned to support reform led by Deng Xiaoping.

Westerners understand Chinese politics in a rigid framework.Frankly speaking,this is a kind of misconception about“others”. If westerners were willing to understand Chinese politics in the way of understanding their own,then they could see complexities,changes,motivations,risks and hopes in it like the Chinese do.Today,Chinese politics still encounters many problems and lags behind the western counterparts.But Chinese people are still yearning for democracy,good governance and political progress like they did in history.They see themselves in a harsh way and eagerly pursue reform and improvement.All these cannot simply be concluded in a democracy-autocracy dichotomy.What the Chinese want is actually the same with the westerners and the Africans.We can truly understand other countries only by bearing the mankind's common destiny and mission in mind,rather than taking a different stand of“us”or“them”and talking about the imperfections of political reality.