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Chapter 4 is devoted to the analysis of the terms junzi
(usually translated as "gentleman, superior man, lordling,"
etc.) and xiaoren (literally "small person," also "inferior man,
commoner"). These terms traditionally (i.e. also today by
traditional scholars!) have been taken to have wholly ethical
connotations, junzi meaning the morally superior man, a
concept created by Confucius-one of his subtlest innovations
in his broad scheme of "humanizing" the society of his times.
Similarly, xiaoren has been taken to mean the morally inferior
man, the one who put profit above justice and goodness etc.
Song neo-Confucianism reinforced this moralistic view. On the
other hand, some scholars, especially marxists,18 have given
the terms class meanings, junzi referring to the ruling,
exploiting class, and xiaoren referring to the exploited class.
(This is the distinction Zhao makes between ren and min, as
has been shown.)
For Zhao, xiaoren are not min or slaves, but belong to
the ren class. The xiaoren represent the opposition to the
restorationist junzi within the ren class. They are the stratum
of reformers which in the transitional Spring-and-Autumn
period had acquired a lot of strength, and included the new
emerging rich landowner class, individual peasants, handicraft
workers and merchants. They wanted to use revolutionary
methods to overthrow the old slave system based on the
jingtian system of landownership, and to establish the feudal
system based on private landownership.
Zhao does not limit his discussion of these terms to the
Lun-yu, but treats them historically, starting with the
occurrences in the Book of History and the Book of Odes.
From this material he concludes that in Western Zhou the
xiaoren were quite close to the min or slaves economically, in
that they participated in productive agricultural labor. Still
their political position was much higher; for instance, they had
the right to discuss politics and to take' part in warfare on the
same level as the junzi.
A spearhead or the Western Han Dynasty
S6
In the Spring-and-Autumn period the contradiction
between the junzi and the xiaoren became much sharper, as
reflected in the Lun-yu by Confucius' very hostile attitude
toward the xiaoren. The strengthening of the xiaoren is
parallelled by the weakening of the junzi, both economically
as privately owned land expanded at the cost of jingtian land,
and with the decay of the Western Zhou rites and
ceremonies-continually lamented by Confucius-as well as the
decline of morals among the junzi. In Lun-yu XIV,7 there is
mention of junzi who are not REN, and in XVII,23 mention
of those junzi who are rebellious. In this situation what the
restorationist Confucius attempted was a kind of moral
rearmament of the junzi as well as a beautification of the
concept junzi itself. Zhao cites a host of examples illustrating
this point.
He quotes, just to mention one example, Lun-yu XVI,8,
where it is said that a junzi fears three things: the mandate of
heaven, great men, and the words of the sage. On the other
hand the xiaoren takes an opposite attitude towards the same
three things. Zhao points out how one can say that these three
in many ways sum up the essence of the ideology of the
hereditary slaveowner aristocracy, and thus the opposition of
the xiaoren takes on great significance in terms of the struggle
between incipient feudalism and declining slavery (p. 116). . .
Some of Confucius' students belonged to the xiaoren,' Zi
Zhang, Fan Chi, Zi Gong, Zi Lu, Zai Wo and Ran Qiu (see
Chapters 12 and 13). Zhao also traces the links ideologically
between these students and later thinkers such as Mo-zi: One
particularly important difference between Confucius and
Mo-zi lies, says Zhao, in their respective attitudes toward
physical labor, which Confucius despised and Mo-zi honored.
Rich and Poor, Noble and
Humble in the Lun-yu
One of the important arguments used to support the
view of Confucius and his school as populist-as one that
democratically accepted any interested student provided he
brought a "token gift" of dried meat (Lun-yu VII,7)-is the
fact that many of his students are referred to as poor, and also
that Confucius himself refers to his own humble background.
With the gradual increase in privately owned land., which
gathered momentum in the Spring-and-Autumn period, the
jingtian-system of common ownership of land was being
eroded. The division between rich and poor grew as the
patriarchates had to disinherit "excess" sons. This is reflected
in the Lun-yu.
A number of the rich and poor persons mentioned in the
Lun-yu are discussed in Chapter V. Among the rich are Guan
Zhong and the head of the Ji clan who ruled the state of Lu
after having usurped the power of the Duke of Lu. Confucius
approved of Guan Zhong who got his wealth by what he
considered legitimate means, namely riches bestowed upon
him by Duke Huan and some land he expropriated from a
certain Bo Shi (see Lun-yu XIV,10). The head of the Ji clan,
however, represented the new feudal forces, and got rich by
collecting land taxes as well as by warfare. Thus he
strengthened the feudal mode of production. Confucius
disapproved strongly and was especially bitter that two of his
own students worked for Ji.
The poor students of Confucius mostly belonged to the
slaveowner aristocracy, and with the decline of the jingtian
system, their family fortunes also waned. The important thing
to note is that these poor students still belonged to the Ten
class, and they hoped to regain their former dominance by
means of a restoration of the Western Zhou system. Some of
these students, as well as Confucius himself, did indeed gain
high offices. The distinction of rich and poor did not apply of
course to the min class, or slaves, as they were the property of
the slaveowners. Thus these terms did not refer to class
distinctions, but to the ups and downs of fortunes of members
of the ruling class.
The rich people often attacked in the Lun-yu are
typically xiaoren, or new emerging rich landowners. They
refuse to abide by the old ideology according to which
"wealth and rank depends on heaven." They went against
LI-the rituals and ceremonies and rules for proper behavior of
the Western Zhou-and openly sought wealth and political
power.
Confucius, from his restorationist point of view, did his
best to promote such ideology, and students like Yan Yuan
were praised for being content without wealth. On the other
hand, Confucius rebuked aristocrats who were too extrava-
gant, and advocated the way of the mean to harmonize the
contradiction between rich and poor within the ren class of
slaveowners.
Outline of Lun-yu xin-tan
The first part of Zhao's book, Chapters 1-5, deals with
questions concerning the economic situation and social
classes-in short, the nature of Chinese society in the
Spring-and-Autumn period. The treatment of these questions,
as indicated above, is based on a systematic and thorough
analysis of the Lun-yu, but also of other classical texts, such as
the Zuo Zbuan, the Books of Odes and History and others.
The role of Confucius and many of his disciples, as well as of
other historical figures mentioned in the Lun-yu is also
discussed. In Part 3 (Chapters 12 and 13) Zhao will return to
discuss specifically the most important of Confucius' students.
Part 2 (six chapters) is devoted to the examination of
certain important questions in Confucius' thinking. None of
these questions are treated in isolation from their social and
historical antecedents or their social and political conse-
quences. This treatment, combined with Zhao's brilliance in
detailed philological analysis, is what makes his book such a
model study in the History of Ideas.
57
Nature as Metaphor
First d i ~ u s s e d is knowledge of nature as found in the
Lun-yu. Noting from the outset that this is a very minor
concern of Confucius, Zhao examines more than fifty
passages, categorized as having some connection with
astronomy, physics/chemistry, zoology/botany, and agri-
cultural or industrial crafts. In four out of five instances
references to natural phenomena are simply used metaphori-
cally, to illustrate or "prove" some point in the sphere of
politics or ethics. Whatever knowledge can be found is quite
primitive knowledge of direct observation. Zhao compares this
state of affairs to the later period of Greek philosophy, and
adds that, since this attitude of disregarding natural
phenomena, except as they can be used as metaphors, became
a tradition of the Confucian school, its influence was
deep-going and long-lasting.
The primitive knowledge of nature found in the Lun-yu
can be traced back to the Western Zhou; it does not go beyond
the theological viewpoint. In this connection Zhao discusses
the concept of heaven (tian) which is basically the same as the
"god" or di of the Yin or Shang people. Thus also for
Confucius heaven is a conscious being, a god, that rules the
world, and is the ultimate source of religion and ethics.
"Knowing the decree of heaven" is therefore not studying the
laws of nature, but telling people to obey the mandate as
manifested through the patriarch (p. 196).
As the private schools developed in the Spring-and-
Autumn period to replace the official court scholars, court
edicts were no longer sufficient justification for this or that
doctrine. Instead analogies to nature were used to give
authority to one's teachings. This use of nature without really
studying nature led to what Zhao calls a kind of subjective
deductionism, where one deduces from oneself to others, from
inner to outer, and from human beings to nature. This method
became very dominant in the Confucian tradition. The use
Confucius made of the Odes helped to form this method. Zhao
cites a number of Lun-yu passages where Odes are quoted for
analogy but are otherwise out of context (e.g., 1,15 and 111,8).
The epistemology of the Lun-yu
As Zhao sees it, Confucius was a reactionary who
wanted to restore the Western Zhou slave system which was
falling apart, he despised physical labor, he would not take
nature as an object of study, but merely used natural
phenomena as analogies to politics and ethics, and thus created
a kind of anthropomorphic logic of analogy which distorted
natural laws. The foundation of such a logic or method lies in
the Confucian idealism of taking the objective world and its
laws to be attainable by introspection. With regard to the
question of the origin of knowledge, Confucius was an
apriorist.
The locus classicus for Confucian epistemology is
Lun-yu XVI,9, which iIi W. T. Chan's translation reads:
Confucius said, "Those who are born with knowledge are
the highest type of people. Those who learn through study
are the next. Those who learn through hard work are still
the next. Those who work hard and still do not learn are
really the lowest type. ,,19
About this passage Zhao says that Confucius holds that only
people of the ren class have the qualifications to enable them
to attain knowledge. Min or slaves cannot learn even if they
apply themselves to the utmost. Concerning the origin of
knowledge, members of the ren class fall into three different
categories, those who are born with innate, heaven-bestowed
knowledge, those whose knowledge comes from study, and
those who obtain knowledge through hard work. These
differences reflect a grade system within the class of reno Still,
these differences are of a relative nature; all ren can obtain
knowledge. Thus we get the later Confucian theory about the
transforming power of education.
The differences between ren and min, however, are of an
absolute nature. As regards the first grade of ren, those born
with knowledge,20 and the min who never can obtain
knowledge, this theory is pure idealist apriorism. On the other
hand, with the two grades of ren, who obtain knowledge by
studying, the case seems to involve an element of empiricism
as opposed to apriorism. In the 1962-edition of his book, Zhao
indeed admitted this element of empiricism, and concluded
there was a dualism in Confucian epistemology, which he
linked with the ambiguous stand of what hethen perceived of
as a reform faction within the slaveowner aristocracy. This
empiricism, which was a progressive element, was later
developed by Mo-zi and Xun-zi, but the apriorist element
which stemmed from the stand of the diehard reactionary core
of slaveowners, was further developed by Zi Si and Meng-zi
(1962, p. 109). However, in the 1974-edition, when Zhao does
not give Confucius such an ambiguous position, but regards
the slave owning class as homogeneously reactionary, he only
allows this empiricist element in Confucius' epistemology to
be a superficial impression, which in reality is not opposed to
the apriorist elements. To me, the 1962 interpretation is much
more convincing!
Most of this Chapter 7 is devoted to the detailed analysis
of terms of epistemological interest. Concentrating on xue
"study, learn," xi usually "practice," zhi "knowledge," and
neng "skill, ability," Zhao includes a large number of related
terms used in the Lun-yu. What he finds fairly consistently is
that the epistemological activities referred to by these terms,
are always controlled and limited by LI ("ritual, ceremonies,"
etc.).
In Chapter 8 Zhao examines the terms liang duan and yi
duan of Lun-yu IX,7 and II,16, respectively. He concludes a
philological analysis by determining that the two terms are
really identical, and that they are instances of dialectical
58
thinking in ancient China. Liang duan or yi duan refers to the
contradictory aspects of any thing, process or concept. Zhao
compares this both with Hegel's dialectical logic and the
famous contradictions of Kant's pure reason. The fact that
these terms appear in the Lun-yu is no indication Confucius
accepted dialectical thinking; on the contrary he wanted to
refute the adherents of such thinking. Further, the appearance
of these terms shows the fundamental eclecticism of
Confucian thought. Confucius' basic goal was to barmonize
contradictions, not to affirm their existence. That harmony
and the mean or the middle way represent the core of
Confucianism.
In another model History of Ideas-study (Chapter 9),
Zhao traces the development of the character variously read as
sbuo and yue, the former meaning "say" and "explain" and
the latter meaning "pleased." Summing up his findings, Zhao
points out that the development process of this term is one
from knowledge to emotion, from verb to noun in
grammatical terms, from perception to reason in epistemology,
or from concrete to abstract.
Zhao claims that in the Lun-yu there are a number of
passages where commentators have mistakenly read yue
"pleased," when it really should be sbuo. In these cases sbuo
has a technical epistemological meaning of "comprehend." In
this way Zhao reinterprets Lun-yu VI,10 where the meaning
concerns Ran Qiu's "comprehending" the Confucian teaching
or dao, and not his being "pleased" with it. The same goes for
Yan Hui in XI,3. The climax of Zhao's reinterpretations
regards 1,1 where W. T. Chan has "Is it not a pleasure to learn
and to or practice from time to time what has been
learned?" 1 Again Zhao reads sbuo and not yue, and points
out that this passage clearly deals with epistemology in that.
both xue and xi-epistemological terms in Lun-yu-appear in
the same sentence. A translation according to Zhao's
intentions-without getting all the nuances he suggests in his
interpretation of these three terms-would perhaps run
something like this: "To study and then regularly to practice
it, would that not lead to comprehension (on a higher level)?"
Zhao next traces the further development of sbuo as an
epistemological or logical concept in later philosophers such as
Mo-zi, Zhuang-zi, Xun-zi and the Mo-jing (the dialectical
chapters of the M o-zi text).
Confucius' Hatred for the Clever Talkers
Zhao has repeatedly pointed out that Confucius' main
concern-his restorationist politics and ethics-colors every-
thing he says. Both his epistemology and his methodology are
merely "handmaidens" of his politics. An important
illustration of this in the Lun-yu is the relatively frequent
outbursts against "glib talkers," "sharp tongues," etc. This is
an emotional reaction to mostly reformist debaters whose
arguments Confucius cannot answer, and so he resorts to
More important, however, is the fact that he
perceives arguments and discussions on a par with modern, and
in his view, decadent music, as serious threats to the old order
and to his own restorationist efforts.
An important term in this connection is ning, which in
Lun-yu is used as a term of abuse. The interesting point about
this term is that in other texts it has a positive value. It is only
beginning with Lun-yu that it acquires negative value, almost
an opposite to REN. Still it refers to such qualities as
skill in debate, quick-wittedness, etc. Zhao points to other
terms in Lun-yu with a similar meaning and which also are
used as terms of abuse by Confucius. Zhao sees the term ning
as referring to a logical way of arguing that arose in the
Spring-and-Autumn period with the decline of LI and the old
music. The people using this new method belonged to the
xiaoren; they rejected the Confucian type of education which
stressed reading the ancient texts. And they rejected the
theory of the "rectification of names" (zbeng ming) which was
an important part of Confucian idealist apriorism
(Chapter 10).
REN and LI in the Lun-yu
Throughout his book, Zhao emphasizes the important
function of LI in the Lun-yu. LI has a restraining or
controlling influence in various activities, such as study and
the attainment of knowledge. A very central point of dispute
among students of the Lun-yu is which is the more important
or dominant concept: LI or REN. Those who want to place
Confucius within the "humanist" tradition-most Western
scholars and also most Chinese, including such people as Feng
Yu-lan-give priority to REN. A key passage in this
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controversy is Lun-yu XII,1 where both terms occur. In this
passage the student Yan Yuan asks about REN. The answer is
the famous phrase ke ji fU Ll wei REN, which without
<;omparison must have been the most quoted phrase in China
during the campaign to criticize Lin Biao and Confucius. The
meaning of the terms ke ji and fu Ll is hotly debated, but
basically there are two rather different interpretations of both
expressions. Ke ji can be taken as "to subdue one's self"
(Legge's translation following Zhu Xi; W. T. Chan has a similar
rendering, as has Bodde in translating Feng Yu-lan). Or it may
be interpreted as meaning "to be able to by oneself" (which is
Zhao's interpretation, and also how Waley understood the
phrase). Fu LI can mean, in Legge's words again, "to return to
propriety" (similarly Chan and Feng; Waley has "submit to
ritual"), or "to restore the rites," where "the rites" or LI
refers specifically to the regulations of the Western Zhou slave
system; this is how fu Ll is understood by most analysts in
China today, and this is Zhao's interpretation.
It is interesting to note, as an aside, that in most of the
articles discussing this passage in China during the past few
years the phrase ke ji has been understood in the first sense
above, as "subduing one's self" which is the interpretation of
59
the Song dynasty idealist Zhu Xi. Then the same writers of
course reject Zhu Xi's interpretation of the next phrase fu LI,
and instead take it as referring to the restoration of the Zhou
system of slavery. 22 Such an inconsistency clearly must be due
to lack of the kind of thorough scholarship that we find in
Zhao's work.
Zhao's 4o-page discussion of Lun-yu XII,! (Chapter 11)
is full of interesting insights; he analyzes ke ji fu Ll character
by character, and draws on a wealth of commentaries
especially from Qing dynasty scholars. An important
difference between the 1962 and 1974 editions concerns the
interpretation of, and significance of, the term ji "self." In
1962 he pointed out that the development of ji started from a
term used mostly by the ancient kings and nobles, and then
came-with the development of new economic categories due
to the rise of the private land ownership system-to be a term
for "individual," and thus was a reflection linguistically of the
emerging feudal relations of production (1962, p. 170). It is
on this basis that Brunhild Staier translates ke ji as "being
able to develop one's own self." 3 As fu LI clearly represented
the demands of the restorationists, the whole phrase contains
contradictory demands, which again reflects the ambiguous
position of Confucius, as Zhao perceived it in 1962, belonging
to a reformist faction of the slaveowning aristocracy. REN
thereby becomes an attempt at harmonizing the contradictions
of this ambiguous position (1962, p. 200).
In 1974-with a different historical position assigned to
Confucius-the emphasis on ji "self" is seen more as a
reflection of the strong subjectivist and idealist tendency in
Confucius, which was also witnessed in his epistemology
(p.309).
The key term LI, according to Zhao, refers to the
Western Zhou slave system; more specifically, as used in
Lun-yu, it means on the one hand the classical texts used to
educate the members of the ren class, and on the other hand
refers to the method used by Confucius of distinguishing
between right and wrong.
In the Spring-and-Autumn period the fundamental
contradiction was the one between the remnant superstructure
of the Western Zhou slave system and the new emerging feudal
relations of production. The decline of LI and music was the
necessary result of the development of the economy towards
private ownership of land, and it only shows that LI had
become shackles hampering the progress of history. This
contradiction was also reflected within the Confucian school,
with some students doing their best to preserve LI, and others
going against LI (p. 321).
Thus fu Ll-"restoring or reviving LI"-meant reviving
the rule of the slaveowner aristocracy with its grade system; it
meant at the same time the control or restriction on the
development of ji or the individual; it meant the restriction
economically of individual, private ownership of land; and it
meant the strengthening of the class oppression of the slaves or
min.
Zhao traces the development of the term REN and holds
that it followed the appearance of new interhuman
relationships with the decline of the clan system and the
jingtian system. For Confucius REN held second place to LI.
In XII,1 we have seen that the restoration of LI was the
content of REN. Zhao also cites Lun-yu III,3 and XV,32 to
show the priority of LI. The latter of these two passages is
rejected by Waley as a later addition partly because it does give
priority to LI over REN! 24 The priority of LI also holds with
regard to other virtues than REN, as shown in VII,2.
Part of this Chapter 11 is a polemic with Feng Yu-Ian's
interpretation of REN as "love for all people." To accept
Zhao's conclusion that Feng is wrong in attributing this idea to
Confucius is easier than to follow all his arguments, especially
the arguments against the possibility of an abstract concept
"man." It seems to me that Zhao here gets entangled in that
quagmire of philosophy called the Nominalist Controversy.
The t u d e n t ~ of Confucius
In Part III Zhao has added two long chapters in the
1974-edition dealing altogether with 12 of Confucius'
students. Half are found to reyresent a xiaoren type of
opposition within the school (Zi Gong, Zai Wo, Ran Qiu, Zi
Lu, Zi Zhang and Fan Chi). The other half are loyal
restorationists, though with differences among themselves
(Yan Yuan, Min Zi-qian, Zi You, Zi Xia, Zeng Shen and You
Ruo).
Conclusion
In this review I have mentioned only what I take to be
the most important of the results of Zhao Jibin's new
researches into the Lun-yu. At every step, Zhao carefully
documents his conclusions. His marxian view of history is
combined with excellent philological insights, and his use of
earlier Chinese scholars, especially of the Qing dynasty, places
him in a long scholarly tradition. He critically makes use of
what is good and discards what is bad.
Those students and teachers of Chinese history and
history of philosophy who are not marxists-presumably most
in the West-may have doubts as to the value for them of a
marxist work which takes the time of Confucius to be the
period of transItton from slavery to feudalism, and
furthermore regards Confucius as a champion of restoration of
slave society. Although I am sure Zhao would not agree with
this, I think a non-marxist can regard this historical framework
more like a working-hypothesis than as a claim to definitely
established historical fact. The reason this may be said can be
found in the differences between the 1962 edition and the
current 1974 edition. Zhao has changed part of his
"framework" or his working-hypothesis, namely the social
position of Confucius. This has required a number of other
revisions, but basically, his conclusions and interpretations are
unchanged.
Whether or not a reader of Zhao's book will accept his
identification of ren in Lun-yu with the class of slaveowners
and of min with the class of slaves, one cannot honestly
overlook his finding that there are systematic differences
between those referred to as ren and those referred to as min.
To take another example, any discussion of Confucius' view of
education that does not take into account Zhao's analysis of
Lun-yu XV,38, ought to be considered outdated, to say the
least.
25
These examples could easily be multiplied, especially as
regards the many specific passages in the Lun-yu for which
Zhao offers new and well-found interpretations. *
60
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Notes
1. For the May 4th Movement, see anti-Confucian articles in
Xin Qingnian (New Youth) by Yi Baisha, Chen Duxiu and Wu Yu;
Chow Tse-tung, The May Fourth Movement, Stanford University Press,
1967, esp. Chapter XII.
For the 1950s and 60s see esp. Zhexue Yanjiu (Philosophical
Studies) for the period; and Brunhild Staiger, Das Konfuzius-Bild im
Kommunistischen China, Schriften des Instituts fiir Asienkunde in
Hamburg, Otto Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden, 1969.
2. Concerning this point, it is worth noting that the "gang of
four" carried the idea of this struggle to absurdity, by using it to
characterize disputes in philosophy and politics right up to the present
time. See Wu Jiang, "The historical development of Legalist thought,"
Lisbi Yanjiu, No.6, 1976, for a very thorough refutation of this view.
In People's Daily for June 4, 1977, and also in Hong Qi, No.6,
1977, Wu Jiang has another long article criticizing the "gang of four"
and their view of Chinese history. Concerning the periodization
question, Wu Jiang claims that Mao in 1974 affirmed Guo Moruo's view
that the transition from slavery to feudalism should be placed at the
transition from the Spring-and-Autumn period to the period of the
Warring States, i.e., 475 B.C. This Wu takes to invalidate the idea of the
"gang of four" that the Warring States period was not yet feudalism,
but a period in which feudalism still struggled to overcome slavery, in
other words, a period of transition.
3. H. G. Creel, Confucius and tbe Chinese Way (New York:
Harper Torchbook, 1960). Published in 1949 under the title Confucius:
The Man and the Mytb.
4. The Analects of Confucius, translated and annotated by
Arthur Waley, Random House. First published by George Allen &
Unwin, Ltd. 1938.
5. Sources of Chinese Tradition, compiled by Wm. Theodore
deBary, Wing-tsit Chan and Burton Watson(New York: Columbia
University Press, 1960), esp. Chapter II.
6. Fung Yu-Ian, A History of Chinese Pbilosophy, translated
by Derk Bodde, Princeton 1952. Esp. Vol. I, Chapter IV.
7. A Sourcebook in Chinese Philosophy, translated and
compiled by Wing-tsit Chan, Princeton 1963, esp. Chapter II.
8. Wing-tsit Chan, Cbinese Pbilosophy 1949-1963: An
annotated bibliography of Mainland China Publications, Honolulu
1967. See also Chan's "Chinese Philosophy in Mainland China,
1949-1963," in Philosophy East and West, XIV, 1964.
9. This rendering into English is that of Moss Roberts.
10. Zhao is attacked by name in an article criticizing Tang
Ziaowen's misuse of the Liuxia Zhi- or the Robber Zhi-anecdote in the
Pi-Lin Pi-Kong campaign. See Ushi Yanjiu, No.6, 1977, p. 26-30. It
seems Tang Xiaowen was the name of a writing group which included
Zhao Jibin.
In a number of other articles Zhao J ibin is indirectly attacked as
"the professor" behind Tang Xiaowen. The most important of these
articles is one occurring in Ushi Yanjiu, No.1, 1978, and in People's
Daily for January 20, 1978, by Fu Sun entitled "Criticizing three
representative articles by Tang Xiaowen." Those articles are one on
Confucius' execution of Shaozheng Nao-the ideas of which can easily
be traced to Zhao Jibin's study; one on Liuxia Zhi, and one on
Confucius as "an educator of the whole people," which again is based
on Zhao's book on the Analects, to be reviewed here.
The article also contains what amounts to a complete character
assassination of Zhao Jibin connecting him with the fascist "vitalism"
philosophy of Chen Lifu, with anti-communism, etc.
11. It was available at least well into 1977. Presumably it isn't
available any more. See note 10.
12. Staiger, Das Konfuzius-Bild im Kommunistischen China.
Donald Munro refers to its Chapter 1 in Tbe Concept of Man in Early
Cbina, Stanford, 1969, p.208, and in his essay "Chinese Communist
Treatment of the Thinkers of the Hundred Schools Period" in
Feuerwerker, ed., History in Communist China (Cambridge: M.I.T.
Press, 1968), p. 93.
W. T. Chan, in his Cbinese Philosophy 1949-1963: An annotated
bibliograpby of Mainland Cbina Publications, p. 15, mentions the three
earliest editions, but it is clear from his summary of the contents that
he has not read the book, as he mistranslates the chapter headings.
13. Page references to Zhao, when given, are to the one-volume
1974 edition, and when the 1962 edition is referred to, this will be
indicated by adding "1962" to the reference. As this review in the main
will be chapter by chapter, only few page references will be given.
14. This simplification in the analysis of the class position of
Confucius is presumably due to the influence of the "gang of four" and
their exaggeration of the significance of the struggle between the
Confucians and the Legalists. Curiously, though, in the criticism of
Zhao in the aforementioned article (see note 10), he is instead criticized
for his too positive view of Confucius in the 1962 edition of T.un-yu
xin-tan!
15. Transcribed throughout this review as REN, to distinguish it
from the homonym ren or "slaveowner."
16. Brunhild Staiger, "Die Gesellschaftspolitische Relevanz der
Diskussionen iiber Konfuzius in der Volksrepublik China," in
Internationales Asie forum, Munchen, No. 213, 1971, p. 428.
17. LI is capitalized in this review to distinguish it from Ii
"stand."
18. For instance, Eduard Erkes, "Die ursprungliche Bedeutung
der Ausdriicke chun-tse und hsiao-jen," Sino-Japonica. Festscbrift
Andre Wedemeyer zum 80. Geburtstag, Leipzig 1956.
19. Chan, A Sourcebook in Chinese Philosophy, p. 45.
20. In Lun-yu VII,19 Confucius denies any claims for himself to
belong to this category.
21. Chan, ibid., p. 18.
22. See for instance Kong Meng zhi dao mingci jianyi (Simple
Explanations of Confucian Terms) by the 2nd class of worker-peasant-
soldier students in the Philosophy Department at Peking University,
Peking 1974, p. 32. See also English translation of the phrase ke ji fu U
in various articles in Peking Review.
23. Staiger, Das Konfuzius-Bild im Kommunistischen China,
p.83.
24. Waley, The Analects of Confucius, p. 200, footnote 1.
25. The criticism of Zhao J ibin in China recently (after this
review was first written) does indeed specifically reject his
interpretation of Lun-yu XV,38.
62
Forum on Teaching: Number 2
Neo-Confucian Tyranny in theDream
oftheRedChamber: A Critical Note
by Moss Roberts
After the Dream of the Red Chamber appeared, traditional
thought and writing were demolished.
-Lu Xun*
This vast and complex novel is an unsparing comprehen-
sive expose of a decadent and unjust social order as well as a
conscious critique of neo-Confucian authoritarian ideology. It
is also deeply feminist, in the best sense of the word. Not
surprisingly, American critical writing has dwelt on the novel's
mythic, symbolic, allegorical and stylistic aspects (important
but secondary matters) while neglecting (and misunderstand-
ing) the moral tale in the form of a love triangle which is the
dramatic nucleus of the novel and the vehicle of the author's
purposes.
We may gauge the force of social criticism in this novel
from the fact that in the three generations after it was written
some thirty sequels appeared, almost all of which sought to
blunt the novel's meanings by ending the narrative in a spirit
of meretricious optimism. Even the existing "Gau Ou" ending,
the last forty chapters, is only partially consistent with the
tragic directions of the first eighty chapters by the primary
author Cao Xue-qin. The text we now have gives the fortunes
of the House of Jia an improbably happy turn and allows the
male hero, Bao-yu, to make certain compromises with the
social order.
Even if we may never know the extent of the primary
author's purposes, nonetheless in its totality the novel not
only unfolds an extensive critique of those who control court
and family (bureaucrats and parents) but also voices positive
themes: aspiration for egalitarian relations among men and
women, freedom of marriage, sexuality as love (i.e., between
equals, non-exploitative sexuality). The authors also express a
strong respect for the "lowly," for primary human desires, and
for manual labor. Taken together, these themes develop a
tradition of libertarian thought that can be traced back in the
first place to the late Ming period.
Cited in Shi Da-qing, Hung Lou Meng yu Qing Dai Feng Jian Sbe Hui,
p.134.
Black Jade (Dai-yu), Bao-yu (Precious Jade) and
Precious Virtue (Bao-chai) are the three characters at the ceri-
ter of the Dream. Bao-yu is the eligible young man of the Jia
household, bearer of the family'S future hopes. As his name
has one element from the names of each of the two women
(Bao from Precious Virtue, Yu from Black Jade), so is he torn
between the two. Black Jade and Bao-yu have a deep
affectionate affinity for one another, and there is hope early in
the novel that they will be allowed to marry. At the same time
Bao-yu finds Precious Virtue physically alluring. The three
young people are entering that early stage of adolescence when
sexuality is beginning, but only beginning, to become
separated from other kinds of friendship and emotional
affection. As Baoyu's relations with each develop, rivalry
between the two women grows and their characters become
more divergent and delineated. In the course of the action
Black Jade's. chances for marrying Bao-yu fade even as the
intensity of their love increases. The elders who control the
marriages decide that Bao-yu is to marry Precious Virtue
(Bao-chai), but, recognizing how they are violating his desires,
they lead him to believe he is marrying Black Jade. Bao-yu
learns the truth only after the wedding ceremony. He falls into
a prolonged faint. When he awakens he enters into the fullness
of marriage with Bao-chai, who urges on him the good
Confucian course of upholding the family honor. He is
persuaded to prepare for the examinations (something he had
always loathed) and passes them with distinction. Formally, he
has satisfied the family's demands of him, but inwardly he is
already making his departure from the world.
. Bao-yu's love for Black Jade is one of compassionate
desire and is charged with the spirit of egalitarian sympathy he
has for many of the maidservants in the novel. This spirit of
sympathy, at once social and biological, manifests itself in the
tender fleeting moment in human biology between awakening
sexuality and full procreative maturity. But society and
biology are pushing Bao-yu swiftly out into the mature world
63
where androgynous affection turns to male lust, where the
purpose of marriage is procreation, where feudal inheritance
imperatives must be obeyed, where the cruel institution of
enforced marriage ("arranged" marriage) must overrule all
desires of the young so that the pattern of land and office
holding may be assured its continuity through the progeny.
Bayo-yu resists entering that "adult" world, resists the
coming into being of what he sees as his masculine self. He
seeks to remain in the evanescent world of early adolescence,
to be on equal compassionate terms with the men and women
around him without regard to rank or status, to preserve the
feminine in himself. Associating masculinity with proper
Confucian careerism he says:
It is a pity that even the pure, merry atmosphere of the
girls' apartments in this unhappy house is spoiled by the
dirty, ill-humored gossip of men! 1 do not want to hear
anything of tiresome words such as office, and dignity, and
State, and fame! These boring things were invented long
ago by place-hunters and pedants in order to keep stupid,
uncouth men in their place. What have gentle, innocent girls
like you to do with such things? ... In the end none of his
cousins or waiting maids dared to come to him with
admonitions or suggestions any more. It was just this that
he esteemed so highly in Black Jade-that she had always
tactfully spared him any unpleasant questioning regarding
his calling or future or such worldly matters. (Kuhn-
McHugh translation p. 248-9)
Earlier in the novel Bao-yu
had come to the conclusion that the pure essence of
humanity was all concentrated in the female of the species
and that males were its mere dregs and off-scourings. To
him, therefore, all members of his own sex without
distinction were brutes. (Hawkes, The Story of the Stone,
V. l,'p. 407)
In these passages Bao-yu challenges the neo-Confucian idea of
state service, reverses the neo-Confucian dogma that the male
is superior to the female (as the yang is to the yin), and turns
around the stereotyped neo-Confucian equation of good and
evil with clear and muddy water.
Black Jade supports Bao-yu in his determination to resist
entering' the "adult" world, and that is the political-moral
foundation of their romance. In this respect Black Jade
contrasts with other women, Bao-chai and Xi-ren, his first
waiting-maid, who urge him to study the Confucian classics,
place well in the imperial examinations, take office and
protect the family interest. Bao-yu's elder sister, Yuan-chun, is
a model for this kind of service. She becomes an imperial
concubine early in the novel and, despite the luxury she enjoys
and the prestige she confers on the delighted Jia family, she
grieves in her role. Bao-yu has especial compassion for her
suffering, an indirect negative comment on the emperor.
But Bao-yu is not the hero. Black Jade's insight into the
social order is even keener than Bao-yu's. He is the pampered
privileged son, apple of the family's eye, bearer of its destiny.
She is a close relation (the daughter of Bao-yu's father's sister)
but a poor one. Her mother has died before the novel opens;
her father dies during the action. Her entry to the world of the
Jia household and the parallel entry of Liu Lao-lao, the
peasant grandmother, commence the narrative. These "out-
siders" can see things the "insiders" can never see. The famous
flower burial scene illustrates the discrepancy in consciousness
between Bao-yu and Black Jade.
Bao-yu is gathering peach petals in the folds of his
clothes and setting them on a stream to keep them from falling
to the ground (Chap. 23; cf. C. C. Wang trans, p. 146). Black
Jade appears and reproaches him to this effect:
"You cannot leave the petals to their fate like that. The
stream will carry them beyond the wall, and an insider like
you may not realize what is beyond the wall. To preserve
the purity of the petals one must bury them. l' have a
mound for the purpose. "
The novel is saying that in such a society the only way a young
woman can keep her purity is to die young. Bao-yu's naive
precious conceit is contrasted with Black Jade's unblinking
recognitions. The novel supports Black Jade's view by
depicting a society littered with the corpses of young women.
Bao-yu submits to Black Jade's view and joins her in burying
the flowers.
This scene establishes a Bao-yu who could be deceived
into an "arranged" marriage with the wrong woman, and also a
Black Jade who would have taken the injustice fatally to heart.
Black Jade is the moral pivot of the novel, the figure at the
center of the action who corresponds to other "outsiders"
who set limits to the apparently massive, solidly self-contained
"real" world of the household-Liu Lao-lao, the Buddhist
monk, the Taoist priest.
If Bao-yu is inferior to Black Jade in terms of
consciousness, he is also morally inferior. This theme has been
neglected or obscured in excerpted translations and recent
American criticism, perhaps due to a combination of
romanticism and chauvinism. Bao-yu is androgynous. There
are masculine ("dregs") as well as feminine ("pure") elements
in his character, We have discussed his "feminine" self; his
masculine self is revealed in the Golden Bracelet incident.
(Chap. 30, cf. Wang, p. 156)
One sultry summer afternoon Mme. Wang, Bao-yu's
mother, is having her legs massaged by one of the maids,
Golden Bracelet. Both women are dozing as Bao-yu enters. He
makes overtures to Golden Bracelet. She appears reluctant, but
a young master is difficult to refuse in old China. Suddenly,
Mme. Wang sits up, slaps Golden Bracelet and says, "Degraded
little prostitute! Such as you are responsible for the corruption
of the boys." (Wang, tr.) Mme. Wang orders the servant
dismissed, despite her ten years' service. During the incident
Bao-yu ungallantly "slips away." His naivete makes him
unaware of his own responsibility and of the implications for
Golden Bracelet. Rather than returH home in disgrace, Golden
Bracelet jumps into a well, demonstrating, in the author's
words, an "unconquerable spirit."
The sequences to this scene are not presented in
excerpted translations (though they are now available in
Hawkes' complete translation, vol. 2, p. 105) and have been
ignored or misunderstood in English and American criticism.
Bao-yu is caught in a sudden rainstorm. He races to his
compound only to find the gates locked. Absorbed in a game,
his household maids do not hear his furious knocking. Finally,
Xi Jen (Pervading Fragrance), his closest personal maid, hears
him and opens the gate. Unused to being so neglected, Bao-yu
fetches her a vicious kick to the side of the chest, raising a
purple bruise the size of a bowl. Later he is contrite, but his
64
brutality foreshadows what he will become in the adult role
being prepared for him. Black Jade may realize some of this
potential in Bao-yu's character, but she cannot change him.
(At this point the Romeo and Juliet analogy is virtually
meaningless because Juliet educates Romeo from fop to lover.)
Having commented on the relationship between Black
Jade and Bao-yu, we have to consider the third person of the
triangle, Bao-chai ("Precious Virtue" in the Wang tr.), whom
Bao-yu is deceived into marrying. Western and conservative
Chinese commentary gloss over the very full character study in
the novel, but recent work in the People's Republic of China
has laid bare her unctuous malignancy. Her character is
decisively established in Chapter 32 in connection with Golden
Bracelet's suicide: Mme. Wang, Bao-yu's mother, expressing
anguish over the maid's fate, asks rhetorically, "How can I ever
forgive myself for having caused her death?" Precious Virtue
seeks to console her. From the Wang translation, p. 162:
"Naturally Tai-tai would blame herself, being so kind-
hearted," Precious Virtue said, "But I don't think Golden
Bracelet would have taken it so much to heart. It must have
been an accident. [Italics added] If not, it shows how little
she appreciated Tai tai's kindness and how undeserving she
is of Tai-Tai's grief . .. There is nothing you can do now
except to treat her family generously. "
Precious Virtue is cunningly ingratiating herself with her
mother-in-law to be. Their minds move parallel, modulating
easily from sentiment to calculation. At Precious Virtue's
prudent suggestion that the victim's family be paid off, Mme.
Wang replies: "I have given her fifty tae!s." (One tael per
month is the salary for a high ranking maid.)
Excerpted translations of the novel have not done justice
to this passage, simplifying Precious Virtue's words to "It must
have been an accident." Compare David Hawkes' newly
available complete translation of Bao-chai's words (Vol. 2, p.
138):
"In my opinion Golden would never have drowned herself
in anger. It's much more likely that she was playing about
the well and slipped in accidentally . .. it would.be natural
for her to go running about everywhere during her first day
or two outside. "
By fabricating this explanation she is signalling to Mme. Wang
her readiness to cooperate fully in the cover-up like the good
neo-Confucian obedient to Analects XII, 1: "If it is not
according to Form, do not look; if it is not according to Form,
do not speak." (One old commentator described Bao-chai as
I
EI"
;IF
?lJ # fa
Jej
jf
JI
~ ."
B"
pp II
ill #
?lJ
~
~ 'jIJo
it
;ftl"
fJt"
Mt ?n #
12:1
mt iRIt
-go
jf
J=I"
"having a heart like city hall.") In the ensuing dialogue she
blithely offers her dress for Golden to be buried in. Both
Bao-chai and Mme. Wang realize that Black Jade would be the
wrong person to ask for a dress for such a purpose because she
is too "superstitious."
Later events in the novel involving Precious Virtue
should be read in the light of the above. For example, it is
likely that she connived in her "arranged" marriage with
Bao-yu, and it is possible that her sympathetic inquiries about
Black Jade's health may have been a way to gain information
that would advance her own chances. This is not a fatalistic
novel. There is tragedy and evil.
Bao-yu's marriage to Bao-chai coincides with the
(self-willed?) death of Black Jade. After these events Bao-yu is
a different person. Having passed into the "red dust" world of
the elders he begins emotionally to withdraw. But he will
make compromises with the social order before he leaves
altogether. Perhaps he can not help doing so, since the woman
who gave him his greatest strength and cause to resist is gone.
Because Bao-chai is such a paragon of neo-Confucian
conformity, because Bao-yu is struggling against a conven-
tional Confucian career, because there is deep hostility to
neo-Confucian orthodoxy in the vernacular literature (cf. The
Scholars, Liao Zhai Zhi Yi, the chuan chi and xiao shuo
collections), and finally because desire is a philosophical
category for neo-Confucian thought, it seems fitting to close
this note with some remarks on mid-eighteenth century
controversies between orthodox and critical Confucians.
The orthodox Confucians include the Cheng brothers,
Zhu Xi, and their epogones in the Ming and Qing periods.
(Wang Yang-ming, but not his "left subjectivist" followers,
could also be included.) Broadly speaking the philosophers of
the orthodox tradition had a negative view of human desire.
One classic formulation was: "Of the sage's thousands of
statements and tens of thousands of conversations, all are only
for teaching men to preserve Heavenly Reason (or Principle, Ii)
and annihilate human desire."
Now, in orthodox neo-Confucian thought, desire stands
opposed not only to li "Reason" but also to a term correlate
with Ii, xing, or "Nature." "Reason" has both an objective and
a correlate, subjective side. Objectively, it is an abstraction of
the rationality of bureaucratic and parental authority (a state
modeled on the family is the essence of Confucian politics).
Subjectively it is the necessary predisposition in all men and
even things to respond affirmatively to that authority. This is
what the neo-Confucians call Nature, a potentiality for the
social virtues, filiality, loyalty-to put it another way, a sense
of form and order. Thus by fundamental definition Nature is
never what is emotional, instinctual, or natural in man, though
of course the philosophy does not ignore these aspects of man.
From the perspective of the orthodox neo-Confucians,
desire was subversive of Reason and Nature because it
represented the independent momentum of all things,
phenomena following their own course, creating their own
relations, rather than responding to alleged correlates in the
social order. Socially, desire could mean the wish for freedom
of marriage or the wish of the productive common people for
a greater share of what they produce.
Against the orthodox neo-Confucian view there stands a
significant and substantial counter tradition which could be
called critical neo-Confucianism, including, for example, Dai
65
Zhen, Yen Yuan, Wang Fu-zhi, Gu Yan-wu, Li Zhi, Ho
Xin-yin, etc. These important thinkers have been drastically
under- and mis-reprs;:sented in current English language
anthologies, though scholars in thePeople'sRepublic ofChina
have been extremely productive in bringingoutnewtextsand
analyses.
Since Dai Zhen was a contemporary ofCao Xue-qin's,
letus sample his views on desire and Reason. This is from his
philologicalstudyoftheMencius:
Confucianists since the Sung in debating over Reason and
desire have clung inflexibly to a consensus that classifies
together as human desire hunger, cold, son'ow, resentment,
food, drink, sex, common and covert emotions. Thus,
throughout man's life we see how hard desire is to control.
What they call preserving Reason was but an empty phrase
which ultimately meant simply to cut off the affect of
feeling and desire . ..In all events action comes into e i n ~
out of desire. If there is no desire there will be no action.
Only when there is desire will action follow. A'nd when
such action culminates in what is most fitting and necessary
that is Reason! Without desire, without action, wherein
then is Reason! .. '
The way of the sage is to enable the world to fulfill its
desires and feelings. Thus the world becomes well governed.
Latter day Confucians never understood that feeling
reaching a state of refinement and dispassion is Reason!
What they mean by Reason is no different from what the
cruel officials meant by law. The cruel officials used the law
to kill, the latter-day Confucians use Reason to kill! (Li
Xi-fan and Lan Ling, Hung Lou Meng PingLunJi, 1973,p.
212.)
Elsewhere in a letter Dai attacks the anti-egalitarian use of
Reason: "Reason is used by the superior to obligate the
inferior, by the senior to obligate the junior, by the high to
obligate the lowly. Though in the wrong, theformer are tobe
obeyed, while ifthelatterconfrontthemwith Reason, though
in the right, it is called subversion." (Shi Ta-qing, op.cit. p.
108)
Other themes voiced by Dai or his predecessors in the
critical neo-Confucian tradition include: desireoremotionis a
common denominator toall men, hence the basis ofequality;
ofthe'five feudal relations onlyfriendship (between equals) is
worth preserving; the relation between man andwomanis the
fundamentalone.
While it is more commonly viewed as developing the
tradition of vernacular literature, the Dream of the Red
Chamber may be seen as responsive to these controversies in
neo-Confucian thought. However it transcends rather than
develops that tradition in its depth of criticism and social
vision. Itmight besaid thatradical social criticism in China is
expressedmorethroughthepopularliteratureandless through
philosophy andhistoryas intheWest. Perhapsthisis whyMao
Ze-dong pointed to Lu Xun as a symbol of revolution and
perhaps this is why most establishment books on traditional
Chinapaysolittleattentiontothevernacularliterature. "/:(
BULLETIN
OFCONCERNEDASIANSCHOLARS
.Japan
For the Bulletin, 1977 seemed to be the year for articles on
Thailand, Korea, India, The materials for Volume 10 (1978)
are still comingin, butalready it is clear that we will feature
several essays on Japan. In anticipation, here is a list of
available pastessaysonJapan:
Reportfrom Japan, 1972(Bix,4:2,4:4, $1 each)
ChloramphenicolUseinJapan(Hellegers, 5:1, $1)
Zaibatsu Dissolution during the Occupation (Schon-
berger, 5:2,$1)
Japan,S. KoreaandtheU.S. (Bix, 5:3, $1)
TheAmerican-JapaneseEmpire (T. A. Bisson,6:1, $1)
TheU.S. Occupation:aBibliography(Dower,6:1, $1)
Sanya: InternalColony(B.Nee, 6:3,$1)
TheJapaneseWorkerO. Moore, 6:3,$1)
Academic Freedom in the Occupation (Robinson, 6:4,
$1)
ImagisticHistoriography/review oflriye(Bix,7:3, $2)
U.S.,Japan,andOil, 1934-5 (Breslin, 7:3,$2)
JapaneseWomen (YurikoandTomoko,7:4,$2)
Halliday's History of Japanese Capitalism/review (Bix,
8:3, $2)
Origins of the Pacific War: a Bibliography (Breslin, 8:4,
$2)
PeopleUnderFeudalism(E. H. Norman,9:2, $2)
plus the issues of Volume 10 ..
* * * * *
Total cost ofback issues listed: $18. Butduring 1978,you
may purchase the lot for $15. For yourself. Forclassroom
use. Forafriend.
B.C.A.S., P.O. BoxW, Charlemont,MA 01339,USA
Comingin thenextissueofthe
Bulletin
Afocus onJapan:
MiyamotoYuriko;PeasantRebellion;
TheBombonHiroshima
66
A Review Essay
Acupuncture: Politics and Medicine
by Catherine L. Luh and David A. Wilson
Since the beginning of the Great Proletarian Cultural
Revolution, the Chinese have taken major steps toward
repudiating accepted ideas of the superiority of western
technology and the neutrality of science. In the West, the
development of science and medicine within the capitalist
system has led to the monopolization of science by elites. This
is not an automatic result of scientific and technological
advancement, as some western sociologists will have us believe.
Rather it results from capitalist relations of production.
1
In
part, the Cultural Revolution was a great struggle to put
human needs in control of science and technology, including
medicine. The Chinese sought to tear down the system of
hierarchical relations which developed with industrialization in
the West and in the Soviet Union and which threatened to
overwhelm China's socialist experiment as well. This cultural
revolution promoted a political ideology in which
imd other form's of traditional medicine could be studied and
practiced as a science on par with western medicine because
they meet the needs of the people-the basis for medicine
within China's socialist context.
The experience of generations of practice has provided
the empirical evidence that patients benefit from acupuncture
treatment. What the Chinese choose to stress is not only the
scientific element but also the political aspect of acupuncture
study and treatment. The Chinese attribute the success of
acupuncture treatment to the practitioner's "earnest study of
Chairman Mao's philosophical works, his/her painstaking
efforts to remold both the objective and his/her own
subjective world, his/her proletarian sympathy with the
patients and his/her spirit of daring to practice." Politics, not
science, stands at the fore of Chinese materials on
acupuncture. And there is sound reason for the Chinese to
emphasize politics, not simply to explain the development of
the traditional acupuncture technique or the traditional
system out of which it developed, but to explain the use of
acupuncture as an integral part of their medical practice today.
The subtlety of this point is worth emphasizing. The
Chinese contention is not (as occasionally parodied in Western
media) that acupuncture's effectiveness in any particular
situation is determined by the doctor's or the patient'S
familiarity with the writings of Mao. Rather, they correctly
argue that the decisions about the uses of acupuncture-how
to use it, when, by whom, and for whom-are political ones.
If one wishes to understand acupuncture, one might
begin with a look at history. There are a number of good,
readable introductory texts, including Felix Mann, Acupunc-
ture: The Ancient Chinese Art of Healing (London:
Heinemann and Company, 1971); Marc Duke, Acupuncture
(New York: Pyramid House, 1972); Yoshio Manaka and Ian A.
Urquhart, The Layman's Guide to Acupuncture (New York:
Weatherhill, 1972). These three books all give fairly detailed
explanations of the traditional medical system, but since their
primary source of information is the Huangdi Nei ling Su Wen,
translated by Ilza Vieth as The Yellow Emperor's Classic of
Internal Medicine (Berkeley: University of California paper-
back edition, 1972), one may choose to start there.
The Yellow Emperor's Classic is the world's earliest
extant medical treatise. Theoretically composed by the Yellow
Emperor, it was most likely written during the Warring States
Period (481-221 B.C.). In this treatise, the science of
acupuncture is already thoroughly integrated into the context
of Taoist and Naturalist thought. Acupuncture points are
defined as holes for the passing in and out of the body of qi
(ch'i), the life force. These points connect to form lines or
meridians, and each meridian links specific organs with the
surface of the body. Qi and blood circulate through the body
along the meridians. Illness results when yin and yang the
manifestations of qi, are not in harmony in the body. The
imbalance may be throughout the entire body, within one
organ, or along one or more of the 12 meridians which
connect related acupuncture points.
67
In order to diagnose the imbalance of yin and yang,
Chinese acupuncturists discovered that each meridian had a
pulse which. could be felt near the wrists. Thus, while western
medicine finds but one pulse, the Chinese traditional medical
'doctor finds twelve. The pulse indicates the particular
condition of that meridian and its associated organs. Once a
diagnosis is made, then acupuncture is recommended for
excesses of yang; and moxibustion, the application of
combustible cones of powdered leaves which are ignited and
burn to 'the skin leaving a blister, is used for excesses of yin.
Traditionally treatment is also made in accordance with
the Naturalists' theory that the five elements make up the
world. Each meridian is associated with one of the five
elements: wood, metal, fire, water, earth. The meridians relate
to each other in the same sequence as the five elements: wood
builds up fire; fire leaves behind earth; earth comes forth with
metal; metal when molten becomes like water; and water is
necessary to plant growth (wood). At the same time, wood
destroys earth and rocks by root action; earth dams water;
water extinguishes fire; fire melts metal; and metal cuts wood.
(See figure 1) Moreover, the body, like all natural phenomena,
is associated with one of the five elements. The seasons, the
hour of the day, the geographic location, the weather, all being
natural phenomena and thus related to the five elements affect
the cause and therefore the cure of a disease. So for example,
it says in the Nei jing,
Figure 1.
fire: heart
& small
intestine
water:
kidney &
bladder
earth:
spleen &
stomach
The arrows around the circle indicate the creative, positive
relationships among the five elements. The arrows around the
star show the destructive relationships.
From the South there comes extreme heat. Heat produces
fire and fire produces the bitter flavor. The bitter flavor
strengthens the heart, the heart nourishes the blood and the
blood enlivens the stomach. The heart rules over the
tongue. (p 118-9)
Or, as Felix Mann explains," someone who has a liver
(wood) weakness is more sensitive than the average person to
an East (wood) wind (wood), his nails (wood) may be
blemished and he may have foggy vision with black spots
(wood)." (p. 94)
The Yellow Emperor's Classic thus outlines the
philosophical basis for understanding both the theory and
application of acupuncture technique. The experienced
traditional acupuncturist would u"e this text as a basis for
actual treatment of patients. Later texts supplemented the
physiological information of this first work. The Zhen jiu Da
Cheng (Compendium of Acupuncture and Moxibustion)
written in 1601 was the basic text of the acupuncture doctor
with whom Cathy studied in Taiwan in 1973. It includes the
basic theory of the Nei jing, a detailed description of the
meridians and where points are located, a description of
diseases and how to treat them, and a discussion of what each
acupuncture point can treat.
Wu Wei-p'ing's [Wu Wei-ping) recent Zhen jiu Xue
(Taipei, Xin-ya Chu-ban-she, 1972) provides m ~ h the same
information in more easily readable Chinese. Unfortunately,
the English translation of this work has numerous errors and
thus is not usable as a reference work.
2
In English, An Outline
of Chinese Acupuncture by the Academy of Traditional
Chinese Medicine (Beijing, 1974) is probably the most
complete volume. It is organized like Zhen jiu Da Cheng with
sections on techniques, theories, the points and diseases and
their treatment. For one seeking more general coverage, Felix
Mann's Acupuncture: Cure of Many. Diseases (London:
Heinemann, 1971) provides a layman's discussion of
acupuncture treatment and theory.
Although the philosophical base for acupuncture was
established with the writing of the Nei jin, acupuncturists
from that time have been traditionally prepared to incorporate
new empirical findings into their methods of treatment. Herbal
medicinal practices were adopted by acupuncturists at an early
date. The efficacy of the treatment, not the system of thought
to which it belonged, determined whether a given technique
was used. Thus in one sense, the official policy in the People's
Republic of China, of "walking on two legs"-combining
traditional Chinese medicine with modern western medical
techniques-has a long history in China. (China is not unique
in this regard. Until the early part of the twentieth century,
western medicine also evolved by the recombination of
traditional medical beliefs with new discoveries.)
Despite this tradition, under the influence of imperialism
and the development of modern scientific medicine under
capitalism in the twentieth century, acupuncture, along with
other traditional Chinese medical practices, fell into official
disrepute. The Nationalist government went so far as to outlaw
acupuncture practice in 1929. Thus, the political victory for
acupuncturists' today has been the restoration of traditional
medicine to a respected position in the Chinese medical
community. Although Chinese medical colleges study all of
the scientific systems of western medicine, they also have full
departments of acupuncture and herbal medicine.
68
We visited the Liao-ning College of Traditional Medicine
in the summer of 1977.-This college, established in 1958, has
1500 staff and workers who see 2000 patients daily in its four
affiliated hospitals (three are in the countryside). These
patients prefer to be treated by traditional Chinese medicine; a
western medical hospital is equally accessible. The 1000
students in the college study 70 percent traditional medicine
and 30 percent western medicine in a three year course. The
college has two major areas of study: traditional Chinese
medicine and pharmacology (mostly herbs with some animal
and mineral ingredients). Both areas treat patients and carry
on research, thus not only continuing China's traditional
medical practices but actively seeking to build upon and
advance this system of thooght. For example, the herbs used
for medication numbered less than 2000 before 1949. This
number rose to 3400 before the cultural revolution and in the
last ten years has increased to 5000 varieties of herbs as the
masses have contributed their knowledge of folk remedies and
herbs to the hospital researchers. It is this willingness to build
on varieties of systems of- knowledge and to make use of
empirical research and not be restrained by the paradigms of
the one most successful system of treatment which has led to
the discovery since 1949 of new uses for acupuncture as well.
In the 1950s Chinese researchers discovered that
acupuncture lessened pain during and after toncillectomies.
Research on location of points, length of stimulation,
electrical vs. manual stimulation, etc., eventually led to the
development of acupuncture as anesthetic for even major
surgery. Other recent developments include new techniques
for curing deaf mutes and some successes in helping polio
victims.
Theoretical research into how acupuncture works is also
being conducted in the PRC by personnel of both Chinese and
western medicine. According to E. Grey Dimond of the
University of Missouri-Kansas City Medical School, the PRC is
testing three theories. One group of researchers is searching for
the existence of meridians as histological entities. Another
Histology: microscopic structure of tissue.
group is trying to trace a neural pathway. The third is studying
hormones as possible agents through which acupuncture takes
effect. The nervous system seems to be involved as 50 percent
of all acupuncture points lie directly above major nerve
pathways, while the rest are in close proximity. Recent
research also indicates that hormones may also play a role:
cerebrospinal fluid from a mouse which as been treated with
acupuncture has been transferred to a recipient mouse which
also experiences analgesia.
3
So far results have been
inconclusive.
Teruo Matsumoto's Acupuncture for Physicians (Spring-
field, Charles C. Thomas, 1974) predates the recent
cerebrospinal fluid transfer experiments, but gives a good
summary of -various theories on how acupuncture may work,
including the Chinese neurological hypothesis: that the
acupuncture sensation opPQses pain sensations at several levels
of the central nervous system and relegates pain sensations to
less essential areas of the brain. Matsumoto also cites the
theory of Dr. B. M. Hyodo of the Osaka Pain Clinic who found
that different diseases caused different patterns of electrical
resistance on the skin. Many of the less resistive areas are in
traditional acupuncture points. Stimulation by acupuncture on
these points can change the electrical permeability pattern.
Hyodo suggests that the meridian line is a functional route by
which nerves, when in touch with a dysfunctioning orian,
signal this fact by forming electropermeable points on the
body surface. Impulses set off by stimulation of these points
are carried back to the organs through a reversal of the same
mechanism. Visceral pain, as in the case of a heart attack,
radiates to parts of the skin on the arm, etc. Yet another
theory proposes that the connection between visceral organs
and surface acupuncture points is formed by the juxtaposition
of undifferentiated cells in the embryo. When these cells
develop into different types of tissues and organs, those cells
which were originally adjacent to each other exert a special
influence on each other.
Since in traditional Chinese theory it is the meridian
which connects internal organs with the skin surface, people
interested especially in acupuncture as a cure for internal
organ dysfunctions have put much effort into finding actual
histological connections between acupuncture points and their
Shell1'aJI&' Medical College.
69
related organs. Such a theory was proposed in 1963 by Kim
Bong Hon, a researcher in the People's Democratic Republic of
Korea, who claimed to have discovered channels containing a
colorless fluid full of granules which corresponded to
traditional meridian lines.
4
No one has been able to duplicate
his research, although the Chinese scientists do not rule out
the possible existence of Bong Hon tissue.
Felix Mann's Acupuncture: The Ancient Chinese Art of
Healing, and William Lowe's Introduction to Acupuncture
Anesthesia (Flushing, New York: Medical Examination
Publishing Company, 1973) also cover these and various other
possible physiological theories about the way that acupuncture
acts to relieve pain and cure diseases. Since these books were
published in the early 1970s, in response to the sudden
interest in acupuncture in the West, they have little to say
about the western response to acupuncture research.
Moved by the Chinese announcements of the success of
acupuncture treatments, medical experts in the United States
have begun research limited primarily to acupuncture as a pain
killer or pain reliever. One reason for this interest is that
western medicine has relied on drug-based methods for reliev-
ing pain-methods which often have deleterious respiratory
side-effects, are often addictive, and have decreasing effec-
tiveness over time. Acupuncture can bring relief to people
whose bodies react adversely to pain killing drugs. Moreover,
acupuncture for anesthesia or analgesia does not require the
use of the complex diagnostic cosmology of the traditional
Chinese system. There is no need to discover if the liver
meridian has too much fire or whether the stomach is sour.
One needs only to use the points the scientists in the PRC have
prescribed in order to anesthetize a particular part of the
body. Finally, pain and pain relief are relatively easy to meas-
ure in contrast to changes in internal organs.
As in China, western research has focused on the nervous
system and on hormonal agents to explain how acupuncture
works. Neurological theories focus on a concept of "gates" at
various levels in the nervous system which can shunt pain
signals away from the brain. Acupuncture stimulation closes
these gates and thus blocks pain signals to the brain, having an
effect similar to adrenalin, which keeps a prize fighter from
feeling blows to his body during a title match. Gate theories
focus on the spinal cord, the thalamus, the brain stem and/or
the cerebral cortex as key areas where pain signals may be
blocked.
5
The nervous system is somehow able to filter the
sensations it passes on to the brain, and acupuncture is able to
inhibit passage of the pain sensations.
Another approach has been suggested by the recent
discovery of a morphine-like hormone, endorphin, produced
by the brain. Acupuncture seems measurably to increase the
level of this endogenous hormone which acts to reduce trans-
mission in the pain pathways.
6
Some American institutions are continuing to study the
correlation between acupuncture and hypnosis and suggesti-
bility. While some argue that acupuncture is essentially a form
of hypnosis,
7
preliminary data from at least two institutions
indicate there is "no correlation between hypnotizability and
therapeutic response" to acupuncture.
8
American efforts to link the efficacy of acupuncture to
mental stimuli contrast with the Chinese emphasis on correct
political attitudes for all doctors and patients regardless of the
kind of treatment. Recogni.zing that a positive patient attitude
may promote more rapid recovery, the Chinese stress corr<:=ct
social practices by all medical personnel: "A doctor should be
warm hearted and show concern toward his/her patients ...
She should develop their confidence in overcoming their dis-
ease, relieve their anxiety and gain their initiative and coopera-
tion." 9 Emphasis on the social and political attitudes of the
medical personnel, just like emphasis on using whatever medi-
cal treatment is of benefit to the patient, is the result of seeing
health and disease as a dialectic among people and between
people and their environment rather than seeing the person as
a machine composed of discrete parts which the doctor will
fix. On the medical front, the political struggles of the last 30
years in China have been focused on overcoming much of the
"scientific" bias and emphasis on expertise which the West
brought to the Chinese medical profession.
Figure 2.
The proven efficacy of modern medicine vs. possible
efficacy of acupuncture.
acupuncture modern western medicine
/
I I
I
I
I
/-.....
,
"
---
" \
,
I
\
pain and organic infections incurable disease
discomfort, not contagious diseases (hard to treat
c1as.o;ified as to and trauma at present)
disease
(Source: Matsumoto, Acupuncture for Physicians, p. 21)
70
Acupuncture is an especially important element in the
effort to oppose the emphasis on expertise. It can be learned
quickly, requires no complicated machinery and is inexpen-
sive. But, of course, acupuncture is only one small part of
China's total medical system. The Barefoot Doctor's Manual,
recently available in translation,10 suggests the holistic ap-
proach the Chinese take to medicine and their emphasis on
eliminating the information gap between the expert and the
patient. This manual covers everything from basic anatomy to
the treatment of common and recurring diseases, to proper
disposal of human and animal waste and other matters of
public health.
So far in the United States, the medical establishment
has been able legally to control acupuncture treatment while
beginning cautious research into its uses for anesthesia and
pain. Only in New York and Nevada can non-physicians prac-
tice acupuncture independent of a hospital or licensed M.D.
However, most states permit physicians to practice acupunc-
ture without any mandatory training in acupuncture. The
AMA position on acupuncture is contradictory. Marc Duke
quotes Frank Chappell, an AMA spokesperson: "We don't
understand it .... Acupuncrure ranks with other Oriental folk-
lore, but it can't be called medicine. There is a heavy psycho-
logical element in it, possibly involving self-hypnosis." When
asked who might practice in the U.S., he said, "It would be the
practice of medicine, so it would ... have to be licensed. That
is it would have to be done by licensed physicians." 11 If the
AMA recognizes the medical effectiveness of acupuncture, it
will legitimize the practice. If the AMA scorns it as folk
medicine, then the AMA will have no jurisdiction to regulate
it.
Since acupuncture is an inexpensive form of treatment
which can potentially be self administered, it threatens drug
company profits as well as physicians' control of health care
delivery. As acupuncture is a fully developed system of med-
ical treatment not based on drugs, it poses a challenge to the
hegemony of the American medical-industrial-scientific con-
glomerate whose total expenditures now exceed $108 billion
per year, making it the single largest industry in the V.S.
l2
Thus, acupuncture has the potential to be used by nursing
groups, lay people and doctors who seek to demythologize
medicine and return health care to popular control.
In fact treatments by acupuncture and western medical
systems tend to overlap. Matsumoto reports that the effec-
tiveness of acupuncture is greatest in treatments where western
medical treatment is weakest (figure 2). Western medicine is
best for treating the systemic cause of a particular ailment,
while acupuncture can relieve the symptoms of unknown
ailments or pain which will not respond to drugs. Acupuncture
anesthesia also functions best not in place of but alongside
drug-induced anesthesia. In the PRC, the development of acu-
puncture was promoted as a means of improving other
methods of anesthesia, because of the numerous advantages
that it has over drugs. With acupuncture, the patient is con-
scious and thus can communicate directly with the physician.
The patient's physiological functions, including blood pres-
sure, respiration, neuromotor functions, continue as normal.
The procedure is simple and economical. The greatest disad-
vantage is the possibility of incomplete analgesia. The doctors
in the PRC routinely use drugs such as phenobarbital prior to
acupuncture treatment, and the availability of acupuncture
simply gives the physician and the patient one more choice in
deciding the best approach to a medical problem.
In terms of medical treatments, then, acupuncture and
western scientific medicine seem complementary. Reasons for
the original neglect of acupuncture in the West no doubt lie in
the cultural chauvinism of the Westerners who brought their
own scientific methods to China in the last century. Today,
just as politics has brought the study of acupuncture renewed
legitimacy in the PRC, entrenched interests in the West may
continue to resist serious study of acupuncture and other
forms of traditional medical "folklore." The strength of the
Chinese political approach to medicine lies in their recognition
of the underlying importance of medical care as a human right
and their understanding that the nature of medical treatment
and the organization of the medical system, just like other
parts of society, is determined by social values and the social
consciousness of the society.
While most books on acupuncture make little or no
reference to the political aspect of China's medical revolution,
it is clear that the continued success of the Chinese political
struggles at home will have results in challenging established
systems abroad. '*
An old doctor trains a barefoot
doctor &0 recognize medicinal herbs.
71
Notes
1. For a critique of western sociological thought, including a
critique of one of the major critics of industrialization, see Vincente
Navarro, "The Industrialization of Fetishism or the Fetishism of Indus-
trialization: A Critique of Ivan IIIich" in Social Science and Medicine,
9.1 (July 1975), pp. 351-63; cf. Andre Gorz, "Technical Intelligence
and the Capitalist Division of Labor," Telos, 12 (Summer 1972) pp.
27-41. Gorz argues the productive forces that develop under capitalist
control are shaped and distorted by capitalist priorities.
2. Wu Wei-p'ing, Chinese Acupuncture, translated by J. Lavier
(Northamptonshire: Health Science Press, 1962).
3. Peking Research Group of Acupuncture Anesthesia, Scientia
Sinica, 17, pp. 112-130.
4. Kim Bong Hon, On the Kyungrak System, (Pyongyang:
Foreign Languages Press, 1964); cited in Matsumoto Acupuncture for
Physicians, p. 19.
5. A brief survey is in Acupuncture Anesthesia, ROERIG Div-
ision of Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, New York, 1974, pp. 40-42; cf. Pang L.
Man and Calvin H. Chen, "Mechanisms of Acupuncture Anesthesia: the
Two Gate Control Theory," Diseases of the Nervous System, 33
(1972), pp. 730-73 5.
6. Bruce Pomeranz and Daryl Chiu, "Naloxone Blockade of
Acupuncture Analgesia: Endorphin Indicated," Life Sciences, 19,
(1976),pp. 1757-62; and Gregory S. Chen, "Enkephalin, Drug Addic-
tion and Acupuncture," American Journal of Chinese Medicine, 5.1
(Spring 1977), pp. 25-30. (This journal has been publishing numerous
articles on results of acupuncture research.)
7. W. S. Kroger in Journal of the American Medical Associa-
tion, 220, (1972), pp. 1012-13.
8. National Institute of Health, Proceedings: NIH Acupuncture
Research Conference, DHEW Publication No. (NIH) 74-165, Washing-
ton, D.C., p. 28.
9. An Outline of Chinese Acupuncture, p. 13.
10. A Barefoot Doctor's Manual, (Philadelphia: Running Press,
1977).
11. M. Duke, Acupuncture, pp. 24-25.
12. St. Louis University School of Medicine, Department of
Community Medicine, Human Biology and Ecology, St. Louis, 1976,
p.33.
Since the Bulletin published Thadeus Flood's article on Thailand in
Volume 9 #3 (1977), and more especially since his death (see page 33),
a number of things have arrived at our office from the revolutionary
base in the Thai jungle. The materials, which have come via the postal
system of a neighboring nation rather than through Bangkok, have
included a new and very impressive newsletter, warm greetings, and
two letters praising Thadeus' work for the people of Thailand. N0W
Chadine Flood has also received photographs of a memorial service
held in Thailand. We print two of them here.
72