THE MILIEU 25 24 FRIENDS,GUESTS,AND COLLEAGUES divorced from the other because the same people dwelled in both ravages of nature,and the government itself.In the West,men have worlds and normally followed the teachings of Confucius in prefer- usually turned to law for this type of protection.Of course Western ence to those of the Legalists."The duke of Chow addressed his son, law has not always had the stature and importance it does today. the duke of Loo,saying,The virtuous prince does not neglect his One need only to think of the periods of lawlessness in Western relations.He does not cause the great ministers to repine at his not history when family and friends were the only recourse;but gen- employing them.Without some great cause,he does not dismiss erally speaking the law has always been there.In China,however, from their offices the members of old families.He does not seek in the tradition has been to stay away from law and to look to the one man talents for every employment." family and one's friends for protection.An old Chinese adage says, In government,just as in society,the man who did not favor his "At home rely on parents,going away rely on friends." relatives and friends when it came to jobs was considered to be The family was the basic unit of society and the basic unit of completely lacking in human feelings.And if he refused to help protection.Despite internal conflicts,to the world the family pre- his close relatives then he was said "to be unfilial or to demonstrate sented a unified front,and interfamily relations were the first link pei-te,that is not loving those to whom one is bound by natural ties, in the chain of defenses with which an individual was forced to sur- both of which are extremes of inhumanity."A mother threatened round himself.Interfamily links were formed by marriage,business to curse her son for not appointing a favorite nephew to a post for connections,social or official status,or through any other medium which he was totally unfit.The question was not whether the of mutual interest. relative or friend was qualified for the job,or whether the business The next link in the chain,or,in reality,the next group of links, or organization needed extra help,but whether the individual in was formed through friendships.A family was a comparatively small question was a friend or relative and needed the job.Jobs provided unit,but through the friendships of its various members it could livelihood,and livelihood was more important than efficiency.This expand its influence so that it penetrated upwards to the heart of attitude was reinforced by the fact that "all work depended on government,downwards into the dregs of society,and outward to personal relationships and involved personal loyalties.Employees encompass large portions of the empire.A high official,through served their chief and not the institution or the business enterprise the extension of his influence,could protect literally hundreds of he conducted.The chief felt that he had to have underlings per- people,who in turn could be relied upon in times of need.Actually, sonally related to him,persons he could trust."63 many Chinese felt that friends were much more important than rela- Aside from the aesthetic,emotional,and economic aspects of tives in times of stress.ee The'following story illustrates how an offi- friendships,there was one other which seems to have been over- cial could make social investments as a form of insurance against looked in most discussions of this phenomenon,and that is "protec- a time of need. tion."Despite the existence of a detailed and extensive system of law,the Chinese people by and large had an aversion to using it. In the first years of the ninth century,Ts'ui Ch'tin was prime minister and "Don't talk like that,'he said,we're a respectable family,who've very famous for his incorruptibility.Once he served as commissioner of examinations.Sometime afterward,when his wife advised him to buy never picked quarrels with people or gone to court!'"64 Because of some real estate to be left to children and grandchildren,he replied this lack of faith in the law,and a training which emphasized human smiling,"I have thirty excellent manor houses with rich fields spreading felations,each family or individual consciously or unconsciously all over the empire.Why should you worry about real estate?"His wife built up a network of alliances of families and friends as a form of was puzzled and said she had not heard anything like that.The minister insurance against the depredations of the officials,their enemies,the said,"You remember the year before last I served as examiner and passed thirty candidates.Are they not excellent estates?"67 60Legg9,I,338. 61 Levy,p.355. 92 Paul King,In the Chinese Customs Service (London:T.Fisher Unwin 65 Lang,p.325. e0 Fried,p.91. Ltd,1924),p.20L. 07 Yang Lien-sheng,p.304. ,63Lang,Pp.22-23. 64 Wu Ching-tzu,p.248
26 FRIENDS,GUESTS,AND COLLEAGUES THE MILIEU 27 Although the story is of the ninth century and the comparison of candidates to estates may seem to be a joke,the story could have life was the only way,but focused rather on the immediate goals, been set in the Ch'ing period,for the successful candidates were values,and interests of the people-power,wealth and prestige. still a form of insurance for the examiner. The Ch'ing rulers did not need to fear the overthrow of the system Human beings,whether.in China or the West,appear to fit Sigmund Freud's assertion: because the"have nots"had the opportunity of becoming"haves," not only through the examination system but also through social Men are not gentle,friendly creatures wishing for love,who simply conflict and custom.A chief minister could be laid low through the defenid themselves if they are attacked,...a powerful measure of machinations of his enemies,a rich landlord could become a pauper desire for aggression has to be reckoned as part of their instinctual endow- through false accusation or dissolute sons,and a lowly official ment.The result is that their neighbour is to them not only a possible could become one of the chief ministers of state through the right helper or sexual object,but also a temptation to them to gratify their connections. aggressiveness on him,to exploit his capacity for work without recom- pense,to use him sexually without his consent,to seize his possessions, In this atmosphere of social conflict,the greatest need for protec- to humiliate him,to 'cause him pain,to torture and to kill him. tion was against false accusation,the depredations of officials,and the demands of the government.H.B.Morse,a longtime member In the West we have built a wall around man's aggressive nature of the Imperial Chinese Customs Service,claimed that in China in with laws,customs,and social pressures so that within our society the nineteenth century there were three kinds of people:the law there are not a great many outward signs of social conflict.We have abiding,the lawless,and the falsely accused.Despite laws against been taught that heated arguments in public and open displays of slander and false accusation,this was a common means of getting emotion are not proper,and that to slander,cheat,falsely accuse, back at one's enemies.Even if the accusation was eventually proven and so on is not playing the game according to the rules.Yet,to any- false,the defendant usually was economically and physically ruined, one who has lived in a Chinese community,it is.clear that there is if not dead.In addition,there were individuals known as the sung-tu constant social conflict.An eminent sociologist maintains that social (lawsuit worms),the Chinese term for pettifoggers,who made it conflict can be neither a disruptive force in a society or a means of their business to stir up trouble and incite people to go to court maintaining stability,depending on the social structure and the is- over some imagined grievance.11 The best protection against this sues involved.If the.conflicts center around goals,values,and sort of accusation was to have friends in high places or friends who interests that do not contradict the basic assumptions upon which had friends in high places.They could also help one fend off the the society is founded,then such conflicts tend to make possible depredations of corrupt officials or the honest accusations of upright the readjustment of norms and power relations within groups in officials.Of course the best means of protection in a case of this accordance with the desires.of its individual members and sub- nature was to be an official or a member of the gentry yourself or, groups.However,when.the participants in internal conflicts no lacking that,to be the close friend of one."Having official rank, longer share the same basic assumptions,then the social structure fairly won by examination,and not obtained by purchase,your is threatened.9 On the basis of this hypothesis,it would appear that status will exempt you from persecution by the minor officials and for Confucian China social conflict had a stabilizing effect.The in- their subordinates,and no magistrate will dare to threaten you with ternal social conflict that existed to a marked degree never focused personal indignities or corporal punishment."12 In the Chinese novel, on the basic assumption of the society that the Confucian way of The Dream of the Red Chamber,a young official is advised to keep a“Protection List”: 08 Sigmund Frieud,Civilization and.Its Discontents,transl.by Joan Riviere (Garden City,N.Y.:Doubleday and Co.Inc.1958),pp.60-61. 70 Hosea Ballou Morse,The Trade and Administration of the Chinese Empire 69 Lewis A.Coser,The Ftinctions of Social Conflict (Glencoe,Ill.:The Free (Shanghai:Kelly and Walsh,Ltd.,1908),p.72. Press,1956),Pp.151-152. 71 Chang Ch'un-ming,p.244. 72 Hosea Ballou Morse,In the Days of the Taipings (Salem,Mass.:The Essex Institute,1927),p.10
28 FRIENDS,GUESTS,AND COLLEAGUES THE MILIEU 29 It is customary nowadays for government officials in the provinces to keep of crop failure or other misfortunes the latter would be lenient in a secret list of the names of all the specially prominent,well-off,and the matter of the repayment of a loan and the like.On the other hand, influential citizens'domiciled in their district,above all the "Wearers of to have a tenant on his lands whom he could trust not to cheat the Belt,"or former high officials who have important connections with government circles at the Court.A prudent provincial magistrate will him and who would take care of the property was of great benefit take great care not to come into conflict with these important people, to the landlord.A merchant would try to develop kan-ch'ing with otherwise he endangers his position or in certain circumstances even his the local officials in order to insure against misfortunes,and the life.That is why it is called the Protection List. support of the merchants made the officials'jobs easier and afforded them the opportunity of investing in local enterprises.This concept One ot the basic reasons for the formation of provincial clubs could be applied to innumerable situations,and to have a"good and guilds was protection.The members were strangers in a foreign kan-ch'ing"was the ideal,whereas to have no kan-ch'ing often led area and felt that they needed the protection of a group to make to disaster.In all cases it was an attempt to turn what would nor- sure that the natives of the area did not take advantage of them. mally be an impersonal situation into a personal one,as a means Also,in both types of organizations,thre secretary was always some- of protection.7 one with official and literary standing so that he could represent "We must count half on friendship,half on money."18 As this them at the official level.74 He could talk to the local officials as an quotation suggests,money was a key link in the chain of defense, equal,write official documents in the proper style,and use his infu- since friendship and human relationships alone were usually not ence to intercede for a member who might become entangled with enough to guarantee adequate protection.Wealth was a sign of suc- the law.In the guilds,whether local or regional,there was always cess and was greatly sought after by the Chinese.To have wealth, the question of whether or not its members were getting their fair however,laid one open to exploitation by the officials;on the other share of the business.The Chinese attitude towards business was hand,it could open many doors and help to ward off disaster.Wealth that the total volume was constant and any increase on the part of was a means of "greasing the wheels of human intercourse."As long one businessman must be offset by a corresponding loss on the part as the use of money was not overdone,it was considered a natural part of the others.By joining together in guilds they could rely on the of human relationships.It was only when it was used to excess that weight of numbers in order to insure that they would not be dis- it was considered bribery.The dividing line between what was nor- criminated against by local customs,if they were strangers to the mal and what was excessive was intangible and was more or less area;and to insure that interlopers,unfair practices,and substandard "played by ear."To use one's money to purchase office,secure a products would not siphon off their profits,if they were native to small favor,smooth out a disagreement,or even thwart the govern- the area. ment seems to have been considered normal,but to bribe a magis- There were certain human relationships in Chinese society,such trate to decide a case in your favor,and thus injure someone else, as that of tenant and landlord,which were distinct from friendships was considered excessive.The Chinese had a very practical appre- and from family,provincial club,or guild relationships.In a rela- ciation for money and what it could do,and,as a result,took a keen tionship of this nature,the concept of kan-ch'ing was called into interest in it.Money was indispensable in the acquisition of power play as a means of protection.15 Kan-ch'ing simply means "affection" and prestige and was a necessary adjunct to their continued and,.as the term implies,was a reciprocal relationship.76 The tenant existence. farmer tried to develop kan-ch'ing with his landlord so that in times The Ch'ing rulers of China had inherited the problem of how to 7s Tsao and Kao,p.36. govern a society whose values opposed those of the ruling institu- 14 Morse,Gilds of China,pp.37-8;van der Sprenkel,p.95. tions-the Confucian world of human relationships versus the 75 van der Sprenkel,p.100. Legalistic world of law and authority.Although both the society and 76 Verbal discussion with Professor Ch'en Shih-hsiang,University of Cali- fornia,November 21,1963. Fried,,Pp.224,103-104. 78 Wu Ching-tzu,p.658
30 FRIENDS,GUESTS,AND COLLEAGUES THE MILIEU 31 the government had made concessions to each other,a basic tension still existed.The crux of this tension was the question of supreme modern patriotism.s In Tokugawa Japan,loyalty to the lord was loyalty. put above that to the family in much the same way as it was in The state insisted that one's first loyalty should be to it and tried Medieval Europe,with the accompanying growth of patriotism.Yet to redirect Confucian morality to this end.The Yung-cheng Emperor in China such loyalties never developed on a national scale.A feel- (1723-1736)in 1724 claimed that there was nothing wrong with ing for the"nation"had existed as far back as the end of the Sung, friendship,but that it must cease to influence one's acts once one but it was not until the twentieth century that true nationalism be- had assumed office;he also claimed that the relationship of son to gan to develop.The Chinese did not adopt a national flag until 1862, parent must give way to a higher loyalty should the son assume and this was.done merely for diplomatic purposes.s Sun Yat-sen office because,"he gives himself to his prince,and can no longer con- referred to the Chinese as "a sheet of loose sand,"when it came to sider himself as belonging to his father and mother!"On the other national.feelings,implying that there was no cohesion or unity. hand,society felt that the family was an end in itself and that one Actually there was a unity,but it was a unity of group affiliations. should be loyal to it above all else. The purpose of a state is to protect the people,but when the Confucius had made the first of the Five Confucian Relationships people turn to their own devices for protection and distrust the state, that of ruler to subject.He had never considered the question of any possible chance of loyalty to the state is nullified.The Chinese divided loyalty because if everyone ordered his life in conformance state was so large geographically and so superior in culture to its with the proper moral principles,there would be no cause for con- neighbors that the threat of foreign invasion came only once in sev- eral hundred years.Hence,the state's role of protecting the people flict.In the ideal Confucian state the ruler would rule in a Confucian from invasion and conquest was only occasionally put to the test. way and the state and the people would be in harmony.However, What the people wanted was protection from the machinations of Chinese civilization did not develop as Confucius envisaged it. enemies within their own society (which the legal structure failed Legalism gained control first and set the patterns of imperial rule. to provide because of the evils of the system and the moral values The Confucianists could only attempt to modify and control them of the society),protection from the horrors of rebellion (which wherever possible.Thus in the course of the centuries of develop- imperial armies usually intensified rather than alleviated),and pro- ment of the imperial state,the tension between Legalist ruler and tection from the demands of the state itself.The people received Confucian society resulted in the society making the family an end this protection not from the state,but from a broad network of in itself.Although the first of the Five Confucian Relationships was human relations that they were forced to construct themselves. still cited as "ruler to subject,"in actual practice the society put the One might well ask,since the state did not provide protection other four,which dealt with family and friends in the paramount and was based on a set of principles which were contrary to those position.As a result,loyalty to the state,in the Western sense,never of the society,why the people did not change the system of govern- developed in imperial China. ment to one that would give the needed protection and be more The history of Western civilization shows a tradition of loyalty to in keeping with the Confucian ideals.The answer is that the mem- something higher than oneself or one's family.The Greeks and bers of the gentry-literati-official class-those who upheld and de- Romans put the state above the family.In the Christian world the cided what Confucianism was,who set the social values,and who church demanded loyalties that far exceeded those of the family, were the leaders of the society-depended upon this imperial, and in Europe during the Middle Ages loyalty to a territorial chief- Legalist,authoritarian system of government as the source of all tain,the head of a patria or a local county,was the forerunner of 80 Henri Pirenne,A History of Europe,transl.by Bernard Miall (Garden 7 David S.Nivison,"Ho-shen and His Accusers:Ideology and Political Be- City,N.Y.:Doubleday Anchor Books,1956),I,134. havior in the Eighteenth Century,"in David S.Nivison and Arthur F.Wright, 81U.S.Dept of State,Despatches from United States Ministers to China, eds.,Confucianism in Action(Stanford:Stanford Univ.Press,1959),p.227. June 27,1843-August 14,1906 (Washington,D.C.:The National Archives, 1946-1947),Vol.20,Prince Kung to Anson Burlingame,October 22,1862
32 FRIENDS,GUESTS,AND COLLEAGUES their honors,their wealth,and their privileged position in society. Even when their personal depredations at the expense of the state resulted in its destruction,they were the first to work for its reestab- lishment,since they stood to lose the most if the system were changed.Despite their personal depredations and loyalties,which the state recognized and sought to control,the state needed this class in order to govern the country.It was the educated class,and its education was in how to rule and handle human beings.Both II.The Traditional Mu-Fu sides needed each other but were opposed to each other.As a result, a balance of tension existed which oscillated in favor of one or the The term mu-fu is used to designate the system of privately hired other depending on their relative strengths.There was never any provincial advisers which flourished at various periods in Chinese question,however,on the part of either side of lack of loyalty to history,but which was most extensively used during the Ch'ing the system.This loyalty was most evident when the system itself period (1644-1912).The first of these two characters,"mu,"is de- was threatened in the nineteenth century by the Taiping rebels fined by the Shuo-wen,the earliest Chinese etymological dictionary, from within and the Westerners from without.In order to meet this compiled about 100 A.D.as "a curtain above,or,a tent."The second dual threat,Chinese such as Tseng Kuo-fan,Li Hung-chang,and character,,“fu,”is defined as“a public documents storehouse,"1The Tso Tsung-t'ang,who had a vested interest in the society,and the earlier and basic meaning of this character is simply"a storehouse," Manchus,who had a vested interest in the state,joined forces to but in time it took on connotations of government and came to be oppose the common enemy.Because of.the weakened condition used in reference to government buildings or provincial government. of the state,the initiative lay with the Chinese.Unable to rely on The term was never used in connection with imperial govern- the ossified government and flexible institutions,they turned to the ment.?The combination of the two characters thus meant "tent mu-fu system in order to preserve the world in which they believed. government.”A further connotation was“military government,,”in that the"tent"was conceived of as a military one,and the term was originally used to designate a specific military situation. One of the earliest extant passages in which the term mu-fu was used can be found in the Shih-chi.In speaking of Li Mu,a famous general of the State of Chao who died in 229 B.c.,the Shih-chi says: He regularly dwelt at Tai-yen-men and prepared for the Hsiung-nu In order to establish the proper officials,the market rents were all 1Tz'u-hai (Taipei,Taiwan:Chung-hua shu-ehi,1959),shang,pp.183,202 Ch'ian Tseng-y四，“Ch'ing-tai mu--liao chih-tuln”(On the Mi-liao System of the Ch'ing Period),Ssu-hsiang yii shih-tai yuieh-k'an,No.31 (Feb.,1944),p.29. The same two characters are used by the Japanese for the term "Bakufu"to designate the military government of the Shogun.The principal difference be- tween the Japanese and the Chinese systems was that the former remained basically military and was the instrument of centralized military authority,while the latter was civil,as well as military,and remained provincial.See Conrad D. Totman,"The Struggle for Control of the Shogunate (1853-1858),"Harvard University,Center for East Asian Studies,Papers on Japan,Vol.I,pp.42-88. 2 Verbal discussion with Professor Ch'en Shih-hsiang,University of California. November 21,1963