Qian Mu compares the difference of China and West

Frank (Hongde) Li, March 20, 2025

I try to understand the different of China and the West from the eyes of noted historians and philosophers, so that we can grab the main points in the time of minutes.

Qian Mu (1895 – 1990), a Chinese historian, philosopher and writer. He is considered to be one of the greatest historian and philosopher of 20th-century China. Follow was translated from book Political gains and losses in Chinese history.

The source of Western politics is in the Greek city-state. First, it is launched from a small area through trade or through the military; Second, the idea of "individualism" is the starting point; the third is a kind of politics of the stronger bullying the weaker, the rich bullying the poor, and majority bullying the minority; the fourth is not focused on the spirit for the interest of large group of social members. Therefore, this kind of politics is easy to cause two kinds of conflicts - the struggle of the external ethnic groups and the struggle of the internal different class. It is a kind of politics in confrontation and conquering.

The politics of Greece and Rome are largely influenced by religion. It intertwined with the Christianity and interacts to form the source of European culture.

The concrete manifestation is at: First, it has a strong individualistic color; secondly, it is the Imperial Emperor co-works with the Pope, one acts as social ruler, and the other one acts as tamer of people; the third is politics and religion are prone to disputes, which is the big flaw of the traditional European politics.

Qian Mu believes the national state and democratic politics that emerged after the Renaissance are the result of the expansion and disguise of the Greek-Romanian central politics.

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The characteristics of Western modern democracy

First, Western modern democratic politics cannot transcend class and transcend nationality, so political struggle is either class struggle or ethnic conflict.

Second, European democracy is only present in its core body, not in the periphery of its conquest. This is due to the two fulcrums of European urban culture - the slaves in the inside and commerce in the outside and the Western countries will expand outwards in order to ensure these two support points, which will cause conflicts in the process.

Finally, although European countries have different polities, but, they are governed by political parties that represent the interests of class or nationality, there is inevitably a potential danger of the inherent struggle of class or nationality. Only religion can transcend class and nationality, but it cannot solve the problem of political reality.

China's traditional politics, neither aristocratic politics nor monarchy, indeed, it is democratic governance.

In compared with Western political systems, although China did not set up a parliament for public expressing opinion, it does not mean that China does not have civil rights.

In the case of the ruling of the monarchs and nobles in the West, in order to enable the people to supervise the government, they established the National Assembly, which is a manifestation of the civil rights of the West. Therefore, in such a context, the Western political system is a system in the state of opposition between governments and nationals; in which, the people exercise an indirect civil rights through the Congress.

In traditional political system of China, the reason why there is no Congress is because that Chinese government is formed by the people that select from private sector, not from royal families; thus, the government itself has represented the public opinion; which is a political system that the government and the people are integrated. The domestic civil rights are exercised by the composition of the government.

In the Chinese political system, what really represents the public opinion is not by the majority of the people, but by selected most knowledgeable people. The optimal political system is the political system that must ensure that the most knowledgeable people can take the political power.

Therefore, in order to enable the civil rights to maximize their role, it is necessary to pay attention to the quality rather than the number of representatives.

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China's political system is not an autocratic at all

The reason why China's political system is considered to be authoritarian rule is because that the royal rule lasted for a thousand years, without a parliament for representing public opinion.

But, this does not mean that China is autocracy.

First of all, the royal family of China is a symbolic head without power for authoritarian rule, but helps the stability of the political situation and the long-term stability of the country. Secondly, China implements "sage politics" and, therefore, does not require public opinion organs.

The government of the West is like the Wal-Mart, the owner hires a manager (government) to take charge of the business, and the shareholders (public opinion agencies) have the right to question management matters.

The government of China is like a university. The professors (sages) teach the students (people), and the students cannot override the authority of the professors.

Therefore, the politics between China and West is not comparable and cannot be generally compared.

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The relationship between law and morality is different between China and the West

China emphasizes the nature of people is good, so it is considered that morality is supreme, and the law is only used to make up for moral deficiencies; while the West considers that stipulates morality and leads ethics by law.

In China, the core of morality is benevolence and filial piety, which is not regulated by law; while the West considers morality to be fair. This kind of fair is for protecting the rights of individual and must be protected by law.

Due to the differences in political consciousness and national concept between Chinese and Western, the nature of law between Chinese and Western is also different.

In the West, the state is above all else. The law is the specific manifestation of the state's domination of the will and rights of individual. The law is a tool of domination. Under the control of state power, the people need to fight for human rights against the state to defend themselves; so that the Western people demand legislative power and demand separation of powers.

In China, the state is only a kind of social organization. The state is established for the people, not the people are born for the state. At the same time, the people of China have a sense of taking care of the overall interests, in the eyes of the Chinese people, the highest goal of the life is that individual ethics conforms to the overall morality of society and does not conform to the power and will of the state; therefore, the state does not override personal will or hurts individual freedom, and people do not need to fight for freedom from the state.

The law of China is education at first, and then the penalties are imposed. The function of the state is to guide the advancement of morality, and the role of the law is to help correction. Therefore, as far as the nature of law is concerned, the Western law is to give people rights, so it is mostly a law to protect rights; and Chinese law is to prevent people from being immoral, so it is mostly a law to punish evil.

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The relationship between law and religion is also different between China and the West

In West, the religion and law complement each other. At the beginning, law is a part of religion; except law has no justice, except religion has no moral guidance. The religion and law synthesized the idea of freedom, equality, and fraternity is the highest goal of European political consciousness.

The law of China is completely separated from religion. The moral education is in school, and the penalty of law is in the government.

The requirements of China for law are not only fair, but also to assist morality and make up for the deficiencies of ethics. Then, since morality comes from the mind of the people, the law should focus on the mind of people and focus on the emotion of people.

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The politics of China and West is radically different

Firstly, China is a unified state, and the country is a whole that condensates into a center, it is a political form of centralized. The West began in the Greek city-state, which is the state of a small country. The formation of the country is spread from the center to the surrounding area, which formed a political form of “outward conquest”.

Second, the politics of China has had religious functions since ancient times. The ideal of traditional Chinese politics is to transcend the class and transcend the nationality. There is the responsibility to teach and supervise all the large groups of people. Therefore, the function of Chinese politics is in both of complying with natural law and also meeting the needs of the people; thus the Chinese politics already have the function of religious education.

The Western religions and politics, any of them is without such integrated function. Therefore, religion and politics must co-work together, both are indispensable.

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The society of China is neither a feudal society nor a capitalist society

First of all, in terms of the political system, China is a united country with centralized power since the Qin Dynasty in 221 BC, and the county administration directly under the Central government as today’s regional distribution of counties and provinces.

China does not have a feudal aristocracy. There is no privilege of nobler; there is no aristocratic hereditary politics; compared with the West, there is no slavery in China.

In terms of economic conditions, Chinese society is dominated by the agricultural economy rather than the feudal economy. In addition, the system of taxation and servitude in China has largely demonstrated the freedom of giving farmers.

The difference in political theory between China and the West

In China, the emperor is the "outstanding talent of the sages" and is at a high level by virtue of the trust of the people. Therefore, if the theoretical source of the Western regime is the contract of the people, that is, the "contractual regime," then the rationality of the Chinese regime is from the trust of people, that is, the "trust regime."

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The political theory in Confucianism

Chinese traditional politics advocates knowledgeable people, and education is the ultimate goal of the politics of China. The traditional education of China is transcend class and transcend nationality and is developed for the entire human culture, so the government must be under education. This is particularly evident in Confucianism.

The focus of Confucian political thought is not in the monarch, the so-called monarchical power comes from heaven, and the heavenly way exists in the ministers. That is to say, the emperor is hereditary, is not necessarily the sage, and the ministers are all selected "most sages" from the whole society through the examination system, they can make up for the shortcomings of the celestial hereditary.

From the perspective of the development of Confucianism in dynasties, they all reflect the characteristics of the well integration of religion, politics and education. This is the big end of Confucian ideals. China's education is in politics, so the political objectives are often far-reaching. Therefore, for China, politics has the connotation of education, and the most ideal political system should be the system that can best guarantee that the "most sages" can engage in politics.

Chinese traditional politics has the goal of make the customs and the political rights equal. There is no confrontation between classes, and there is no competition between the nations.

The flaw of traditional Chinese politics

First, because of contempt for expansionary hegemony, it is not to engage in prosperous by aggression and merger and is easy to be bullied by strong neighbors. Second, it cannot guarantee the sages kept as the sages and the people cannot conduct effective supervision.

The traditional political theory of China is not only originated from Chinese traditional culture, but, also conformed to China's national conditions. This was the reasons and feasibility of the value for the existence.

The key to the way out of Chinese politics is not to copy the political systems in the West, but to carry forward the essence of Chinese traditional political theory, to correct its illnesses, to restore its original ideals and its original appearance, to pull out new political theories and exert a new political spirit. It can achieve political stability and long-term stability.