Confucianism & Culturalism
China, despite the numerous dynastic changes, had maintained their culture throughout the long history. Confucianism and Chinese Culturalism, as a result, prevailed in the Chinese dynasties.
"So about the Confucian foundation that had lasted in China for over 2000 years… After Qin Shi Huang united China, the previous Confucian philosophy emerged as the political ideology of the Han dynasty. Since then, Confucianism had maintained its position as the central political dogma and imposed influence on political, social, economic, cultural, and intellectual aspects of China. Thus, its social foundation had become indispensable part of China throughout the numerous dynasties."-student interview with Insoo Park, the author of "The Age of Wars and Revolutions" (translated by Keonwoo Oh)
Confucian basis of China:
Along with the long period of the Han culture and isolation grew culturalism; Chinese perception of its own cultural superiority. Chinese viewed their culture as civilized and superior compared to "barbarians"
China's long history as a political unit meant that its people had a strong sense of identity focused round the idea of the political and moral superiority of their culture over that of their neighbours. This type of identity, often called “culturalism, ” was seen both in ethnic relations (peripheral peoples were expected to assimilate to the dominant Han Chinese culture) and in the political order (peripheral states were expected to pay tribute to the Chinese emperor)."-Twentieth-Century China: New Approaches, by Jeffery Wasserstrom
In 1644, the Manchus established a new empire, the Qing dynasty. Despite their "foreign origin", after the construction of the new empire, Manchus too, came under Han cultural influence and its perception of superiority.
Fredrick Wakeman at UC Berkeley discusses the acculturation of the Manchus in Chinese society
"The Manchu had learned from the failure of the Yuan dynasty and encouraged participation of Chinese officials. They maintained the traditional bureaucracy through the civil examination system and heavily relied on Chinese officials for administrative, educational, social, and cultural duties of the (central and local) government. Meanwhile, the Manchu were able to retain their top position as the ruling class for a long period of time (300 years) by taking control of the military and diplomacy themselves."-student interview with Insoo Park, the author of "The Age of Wars and Revolutions" (translated by Keonwoo Oh) |