II. The Commonwealth of the World for All

The ideal society of “the commonwealth of the world for all” pursued by ancient Confucianism is the basic ideological framework of ancient Chinese society. Here, “the world” (tian xia) means the whole country or the globe. The essential features of the “commonwealth” are that everyone will love each other, live and work in peace and contentment, and there will be no discrepancies and no wars. The concept of the “commonwealth of the world” is very similar to the Western ideas of Utopia, modern communism, and the global village. Therefore, the aspiration of the “commonwealth of the world” is shared by both Chinese and other countries in the world.

The initial form of the idea of the “commonwealth of the world” took shape in the Shang and Western Zhou dynasties. Good kings, like Yu the Great, the reputed founder of the Xia Dynasty (2070-1600 BC), King Tang, the founder of the Shang Dynasty (1600-1046 BC), King Wen (1152-1056 BC), King Wu (?-1043 BC), and King Cheng (?-1021 BC)of the Zhou Dynasty (1046-256 BC), have always been held in esteem and respected by Confucianism. However, during the same periods, there were also the brutal reigns of King Jie of Xia, King Zhou (1105-1046 BC) of Shang, and King Li (904-829 BC) and King You (795?-771 BC)of Zhou. During this period, the moral degeneration of society was getting worse, the influence of the central government declined, the dukes were fighting for hegemony, and the great lords were annexing the land. As a result, the working people lived miserably under severe exploitation and oppression, which eventually led to the large-scale “Riot of People in the Capital City” (guo ren bao dong) in 841 BC. “Now that the Grand course has fallen into disuse and obscurity, the kingdom is a family inher-itance. Every one loves above all others his own parents and cherishes as children only his own sons. People accumulate articles and exert their strength for their own advantage.” (The Book of Rites) In this context, people were nostalgic for a life in which everyone was self-reliant, free from exploitation and slavery, and had a longing and desire for a “commonwealth” society without class conflicts.

“Large rat, large rat, / Eat no more millet we grow! / Three years you have grown fat;/ No care for us you show. / We’ll leave you now, I swear, / For a happier land, / A happier land where / We may have a free hand.”

In The Book of Songs, laborers had outlined the basic principles of the idea of a commonwealth that opposed exploitation and aspired to equality of labor. Since then, spokesmen of all classes and strata had written books, published salvation proposals, and argued and designed their own schemes for establishing an ideal state.

The Taoist’s ideal society is Lao Tze’s “little state with a small population (xiao guo gua min).” In such a state, there was no internal struggle and no external warfare. People lived in peace without any interaction, and the inhabitants lived in their own small world, relying on simple and primitive production to live a happy and quiet life without knowledge and desire. This was a sparsely populated, low-productivity, closed and backward society. In this society, people were content with the status quo, neither seeking progress and innovation, using advanced tools, having weapons and armor, nor having writing and exchange.” “There should be a neighboring state within sight, but I would make the people to old age, even to death, not have any intercourse with it.” (Tao De Ching) Lao Tze’s “little state with a small population” advocates regressing society to the primitive society of the barbaric era, which is unattainable in real life.

The School of Agrarians (nong jia) pursued the ideal society of “all working without any exploitation.” According to the words of Xu Xing(372-289 BC) in The Works of Mencius, “A sage who governs a country should cultivate the ground equally and along with their people, and eat the fruit of their labor. They should prepare their own meals, morning and evening, while at the same time they carry on their government.” They believed that social production was generally based on subsistence agriculture. However, if there were a number of independent handicrafts, the exchange between agricultural and handicraft products should be carried out according to the principle of equivalence without any commercial fraud. In such a society, there was no division of labor between mental labor and physical labor, and professional mental workers did not emerged yet. Even the monarch should “cultivate the ground equally and along with their people, and eat the fruit of their labor.” This ideal of the Agrarians reflected the social aspirations of the peasants of small-scale production.

The Mohists (mo jia) pursued a society of “all-embracing love (jian ai)” and “agreeing with the superior (shang tong).” In that ideal society, there is an all-embracing love with no distinction between relatives and strangers, and “no gradations of greater or lesser.” (The Works of Mencius)In Mo Tzu’s (476-390 BC) view, the root cause of the chaos in the world was that everyone was to profit at the expense of others. To govern the state and bring peace to the world, the monarch must “work with his people for mutual love and reciprocal benefit.” “If people get along amicably, the country will be governed; if they regard each other as enemies, the country will be in chaos.” Mo Tzu advocated that everyone should work, so that “everyone should do what he can do,” and “we can feed the hungry, clothe the cold, give the weary rest, and restore the disturbed peace.” (The Works of Mo Tzu) Mohists advocated “non-attack,” and that both large and small nations should be equal and not fight against each other. They believed that cruel wars were one of the roots of social chaos, and that only when “all the people in the world love one another” could there be a “peaceful and prosperous world.” Mo Tzu’s stopping the Chu State from attacking the Song State is a case in point. The all-embracing love advocated by Mo Tzu not only confines within the ruling class, but also among all classes, ranks, affinity, and countries. This idea reflects the desire of small peasants for a stable social environment in which people can rely on each other, support each other, and look out for each other in the process of production.

The Confucian ideal harmonious society is most clearly expressed in The Book of Rites.

“When the Grand course was pursued, a public and common spirit ruled all under the sky; they chose men of talents, virtue, and ability; their words were sincere, and what they cultivated was harmony. Thus man did not love their parents only, nor treat as children only their own sons. A competent provision was secured for the aged till their death, employment for the able-bodied, and means of growing up to the young. They showed kindness and compassion to widows, orphans, childless men, and those who were disabled by disease, so that they were all sufficiently maintained. Males had their proper work, and females had their homes. They accumulated articles of value, disliking that they should be thrown away upon the ground, but not wishing to keep them for their own gratification. They labored with their strength, disliking that it should not be exerted, but not exerting it only with a view of their advantage. In this way, selfish schemings were repressed and found no development. Robbers, filchers, and rebellious traitors did not show themselves, and hence the outer doors remained open, and were not shut. This was the period of what we call the Grand Union.”

Here is a picture of an ideal society: there is no private ownership, and everyone works for the society and not for himself; the old, the weak, the sick, and the disabled are taken care of by the society, and children are raised by the society; all those who can work have the opportunity to give full play to their talents; there is no privilege and hereditary system(shi xi zhi); the people elect all those who hold public office; the society is very secure, and it really has a good social atmosphere with high moral standards. Mutual confidence is emphasized, and brotherhood is cultivated in the external affairs between the states. All states peacefully coexist and exchange friendly with no wars or international conspiracies.

The main claims of these ideas of the commonwealth in the Spring and Autumn (770-476 BC) and the Warring States Periods (475-221 BC)include:

1. Opposing exploitation and oppression. The claim to oppose exploitation and oppression is directly from the “commonwealth” idea. In the Taoist view, the heavy taxation, slavery, and extravagance of the ruling class are the fundamental causes of the poverty of the people and the chaos of the state. Lao Tze regarded the Rites of the Zhou promoted by the ruling class as the general source of social chaos. He held that “now propriety is the attenuated form of leal-heartedness and good faith, and is also the commencement of disorder.” Xu Xing, a representative of the Agrarians, raised his opinion to oppose “feeding lords by raiding the working people,” expressing the deep hatred of the working people for the exploiting class.

2. Public ownership. The principle of public ownership of property is the most basic principle of the idea of commonwealth. The key to the good governance of a nation lies in “making the people selfless.” In this Utopia, the property is publicly owned, people are united as one, and all people are clothed and fed.

3. Everyone should work. The Mohists proposed that “those who exert themselves will live; those who do not exert themselves cannot live,” and “a sage who governs a country should cultivate the ground equally and along with their people, and eat the fruit of their labor. They should prepare their own meals, morning and evening, while at the same time they carry on their government.” They expressed the strong desire “for everyone to participate in labor and those who do not work will not be fed.”

4. Equal distribution of consumer goods. When Confucius heard that Ji Kangzi of the Lu State was going to attack Zhuan Yu, a small and weak state, he said, “I have heard that rulers of states and chiefs of families are not troubled lest their people should be few, but are troubled lest they should not keep their several places; that they are not troubled with fears of poverty, but are troubled with fears of want of contented repose among the people in their several places. For when the people keep their several places, there will be no poverty; when harmony prevails, there will be no scarcity of people; and when there is such a contented repose, there will be no rebellious upsetting.” The concept of absolute egalitarianism of evening the poor and the rich and no distinction between the noble and base has been a dominant ideology in China for a long time.

5. A reasonable division of labor and the selection of virtuous and capable. Just as Mo Tzu said, “Officials cannot be in constant honor and people in eternal humility.” Whoever has talent will be selected. The Eclectics (za jia) believed that only sages could be monarchs because they were impartial and selected the capable. Emperor Yao and Emperor Shun are good cases in point. “Although Emperor Yao had ten sons, he passed the throne to Shun instead of his sons; Emperor Shun did the same as Emperor Yao had done, and gave the throne to Yu the Great even though he had nine sons.” (Lü’s Commentaries of History) All these behaviors are motivated by ecumenism.

6. Good human relations and social environment. According to Confucius, an ideal society should be like this: “In regard to the aged, to give them rest; in regard to friends, to show them sincerity; in regard to the young, to treat them tenderly.” In this way, “the old are safe, the friends are trustworthy, and the young are well respected” (The Analects of Confucius). Mo Tzu advocated “the sage work with his people for mutual love and reciprocal benefit.”

The ideas, such as “the world for all,” the “great harmony of the world,” have had profound influences on China. During the Qin and Han dynasties (221 BC-220 AD), the idea of the “commonwealth” evolved into the idea of a “peaceful world” in the peasant wars. During the Chen Sheng-Wu Guang Uprising, the first large-scale peasant uprising in Chinese history, they said, “When Adam delved and Eve span, who was then the gentleman?” (Records of the Grand Historian)

The Taoism of the Way of Peace, preached by peasant leader Zhang Jiao (?-184), is an example of an illusion of the “peaceful world.” The so-called “peace” is the highest law of “equal pay for equal work,” expressing a strong aspiration for a better society. Tao Yuanming (365-427), a poet of the Eastern Jin Dynasty ((317-420), painted a picture of an isolated paradise on earth – Peach Blossom Garden (Shangri-la): “Where flat and wide was the land with well-arranged houses, rich fields, beautiful ponds, mulberries, bamboos and the like, and where the paths were intersecting, the fields were spreading in all directions, and cocks crowing and dogs barking can be heard.” People are farming in the fields. Here, “men and women passing back and forth or working in the fields were dressed like people outside. The grizzled-haired elders and the children with uncoiled hairs looked happy and self-contented.”

To Ji Kang (224-263), a thinker, musician, and literary scholar of Wei during the Three Kingdoms period (220-280), the ideal society was a “world of virtue” in which people “plow for food, raise silkworms for clothes, and are well-fed and well-clothed all the life.” A peaceful and harmonious society is unfolded before us.

Ruan Ji (210-263), a poet of the Wei and Jin dynasties, depicted the ideal society of “Chaos,” full of peace and happiness, where there was no ruler, no lords, no hierarchy, and no oppression and abuse of the real society.

Wang Xianzhi Uprising in the late Tang Dynasty (618-907), Wang Xiaobo Uprising in the early Song Dynasty (960-1279), and Zhong Xiang Uprising in the Southern Song Dynasty all proposed to “even the rich and the poor and equalize the noble and the inferior,” which was to abolish the feudal privileges of the hierarchy of fields and the direct domination of labor, so as to eliminate the inequality between the rich and the poor.

During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the sprout of capitalism had already appeared within the feudal society of China. The peasant wars of this period further articulated a realistic demand for land, demanding “land to the tiller” and “no tax payment and tax grain.” The uprising led by Li Zicheng (1606 -1645) at the end of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644)inherited those ideas.

In the peasant movement of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (1851-1864), the peasant class put forward a land program that reflected the peasants’ demand for land and conceived a new world in which “people in the world are united as one” and “everything belongs to the public.” In this peasant movement, the Land System of the Heavenly Kingdom (tian chao tian mu zhi du) proposed that “all fields should be distributed to all, all people should be fed and clothed, and all money should be shared by all, resulting in a society of equality and prosperity.”

At the end of the nineteenth century, Kang Youwei (1858-1927)wrote Ta T’ung Shu, addressing the nine barriers that produced all sufferings in China and proposing eliminating them. He further detailed the measures as breaking the boundaries of nations, eradicating class bondage, building people-to-people bonds among all peoples, promoting the equality between men and women, eradicating family suffering, eliminating uneven production, and abolishing local boundaries, so as to realize a world of the commonwealth where people enjoyed the same rights, where there was a shared future of all creatures, where there was no suffering, and where everyone lived happily. Kang Youwei also combined the Three Evolutionary Stages proposed by the Gongyang School with the idea of the “commonwealth of the world” in The Book of Rites and elaborated the “Three Evolutionary Stages” in a progressive manner, that is, “the world of chaos – the world of prosperity – the world of the commonwealth.” Kang Youwei’s “commonwealth” is a perfect society in which classes and exploitation are eliminated, the property is publicly owned, and everyone is equal and absolutely free.

During the democratic revolution in modern China, Sun Yat-sen(866-1925), inspired by the ancient idea of the “commonwealth of the world” and influenced by Western progressive thinking, advocated the Principle of the People’s Livelihood and proposed a set of social programs to transform China. According to him, the Principle of the People’s Livelihood was socialism or communism, which was the “commonwealth of the world” in essence. He boiled down the Principle of the People’s Livelihood to two essential elements, namely, “equalization of land” and “restraint of capital and development of state capitalism.” The so-called “restraint of capital” means “opposing a few economic powers monopolizing the source of wealth in society” and trying to restrain capital by means of income tax. These ideas further develop the ancient Chinese idea of the “commonwealth of the world.”

Nowadays, the idea of the community of a shared future of humankind is being accepted and recognized by more and more countries and peoples. The ancient Chinese aspiration of the “commonwealth of the world equally shared by all” is full of vitality in the new era.