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Applying Confucian Ethics to International Relations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 September 2012

Cho-yun Hsu
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Abstract

China's vast borders and unique geographical conditions predisposed it to a hierarchically arranged multi-state “zoning system,” first instituted in the Chou dynasty's (13th-8th centuries B.C.) feudal network. “The Mandate from Heaven” embodied the moral implications and its “judging god” that the Chou incorporated into their political ethics of a system of a universal state. The Mandate essentially reflected the will of the people and stated that rulers could be removed if they failed to fulfill their prescribed Mandate. As the foundation for Confucian ethics, the Mandate was the guiding force of any political or social choice based on benevolence and humanism, jen and li, respectively. Drawing on the writings of two ancient Chinese philosophers, Motzu (ca. 479–390 B.C.) and Mencius (ca. 370–296 B.C.), Hsu shows how the Confucian virtues of governing emphasized that only a compassionate and just king would be supported by the people, would be able to avoid violence, and would promote moral values among the citizenry. According to Confucius, only moral individuals can create a moral order at every level of society and therefore a moral world with China at its center. The Confucian sino-centric concept of morality and ethics, which dictated both domestic and international policies, maintained that through good government and internal peace and prosperity, China would play a leadership role in the world and serve as a universal paradigm for other nations.

Type
Articles
Information
Ethics & International Affairs , Volume 5 , March 1991 , pp. 15 - 31
Copyright
Copyright © Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs 1991

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References

1 Cho-yun Hsu and Kathryn M. Linduff, Western Chou Civilization (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988), pp. 6–16.

2 Ibid., pp. 24–27.

3 Ibid., pp. 151–53.

4 Ibid., pp. 224–26.

5 John K. Fairbank, The Chinese World Order: Traditional China's Foreign Relations (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1968), pp. 20–22.

6 Hsu and Linduff, Western Chou Civilization, pp. 101–106.

7 Richard L. Walker, The Multi-State System of Ancient China (Hamden: The Shoe String, 1953), pp. 20–40.

8 Cho-yun Hsu, Ancient China in Transition (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1965), pp. 2–8.

9 Walker, The Multi-State System, pp. 73–92.

10 Ibid., pp. 83–86.

11 Benjamin I. Schwartz, The World of Thought in Ancient China (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1985), pp. 73–85, 146–47.

12 Ibid., p. 75.

13 Terry Nardin and David Mapel, eds., Traditions in International Ethics (London: Cambridge University Press, forthcoming 1991), p. 3.

14 The Confucian Analects, trans. James Legge (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1960), XIV pp. 17–18.

15 Ibid., XIII, p. 19; XV, p. 5.

16 Ibid., p. 22.

17 Confucius himself had been considered the author of a chronicle titled the “Spring-and- Autumn,” from which the historical period is given the same name. The authorship of this chronicle still remains disputable. Nevertheless, two commentaries, known as the “Kung-yang” and the “Ku-liang,” were composed by Confucian scholars.

18 Po-chi liu, Chun-Chiu Hui-meng Cheng-Chih (International Politics in the Chun-Chiu Period) (Taipei: Chungua Ts'ung Shu, 1962), pp. 399 ff.

19 Ibid., p. 389 ff.

20 Ibid., pp. 404 ff., especially p. 407.

21 Ibid., pp. 414 ff., especially pp. 422–24.

22 Schwartz, The World of Thought in Ancient China, pp. 143–51; Angus Graham, Later Mohist Logic, Ethics and Sciences (Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 1978), p. 451.

23 The Works of Mencius, trans. James Legge (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1960), II: pp. i-4.

24 Schwartz, The World of Thought in Ancient China, p. 147; Graham, Later Mohist Logic, Ethics and Sciences, p. 451.

25 The Works ofMencius, VII, i, p. 15.

26 Ibid., VI: i, p. 10.

27 Ibid., VI: i, p. 8.

28 Ibid., I: ii, p. 5.

29 Ibid., I: i, p. 4.

30 Ibid., I: i, p. 5–6; II: i, p. 2.

31 Ibid., I: ii, p. 2.

32 Ibid., VII: ii, p. 2.

33 Ibid., I: ii, p. 6; I: ii, p.8; V: ii, p.9.

34 Ibid., IV: i, p. 14; VI: ii, p. 9.

35 Ibid., VI: ii, p. 13; VII: ii, p. 28.

36 The Great Learning, transl. James Legge, (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1960), Chap. 1.

37 Ibid., Chap. 6–10.

38 The Works of Mencius, III: i, p. 4.

39 Ibid., IV: ii, p. 1.

40 lbid., IV: i, p. 5.

41 For arguments of both sides, see Yen-Tieh-Lun (The Discourses on Salt and Iron) (Taipei, 1934: Chunghua gsu-pu-pei-yao edition), passim.

42 Larry W. Moses, “Tang Tribute Relations With the Inner Asian Barbarians,” in John Curtis Perry and Bardwell L. Smith, eds., Essays on T'ang Society (London: E.J. Brill, 1976), pp. 61–89.

43 Fang-Kuei Li, “The Inscription of the Sino-Tibetan Treaty of 821–822,”T'oung-pao, 1956.

44 Morris Rossabi, ed., China Among Equals: The Middle Kingdom and Its Neighbors, 10th–14th Centuries (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983), pp. 6–12.

45 Ibid., passim; Tao Jing-shen, Two Sons of Heaven: Studies in Sung-Liao Relations (Tuscon: University of Arizona Press, 1988), pp. 6–9.

46 Ibid., pp. 46–48.

47 Tao, Jing-shen, Sung-Liao Kuan-hsi-shih Yen-chiu (A Study on Relations Between Sung andLiao) (Taipei: lien-ching, 1984), p. 123; Tao, Two Sons of Heaven, p. 48.

48 Tao, Sung-Liao Kuan-hsi-shis Yen-Chiu, pp.24–26.

49 Fairbank, The Chinese World Order, pp.63–89.

50 Ibid., pp. 90–111.

51 Ibid., pp. 165–79.

52 Ibid., pp. 1–4.