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The Floating Press - Bertrand Russell

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127 pages

English

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Though it was penned nearly a century ago, current-day readers will find that Bertrand Russell's insightful critique of China is still surprisingly accurate. The important British philosopher based his arguments on his own extended stay in China, and the resulting analysis of the conflict between traditional culture and the rise of capitalism in the country is keen and multi-dimensional.

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Publié par	The Floating Press
Date de parution	01 juillet 2014
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781776583973
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0134€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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THE PROBLEM OF CHINA
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BERTRAND RUSSELL

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The Problem of China First published in 1922 Epub ISBN 978-1-77658-397-3 Also available: PDF ISBN 978-1-77658-398-0 © 2013 The Floating Press and its licensors. All rights reserved. While every effort has been used to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the information contained in The Floating Press edition of this book, The Floating Press does not assume liability or responsibility for any errors or omissions in this book. The Floating Press does not accept responsibility for loss suffered as a result of reliance upon the accuracy or currency of information contained in this book. Do not use while operating a motor vehicle or heavy equipment. Many suitcases look alike. Visit www.thefloatingpress.com
Contents
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The Problem of China Chapter I - Questions Chapter II - China Before the Nineteenth Century Chapter III - China and the Western Powers Chapter IV - Modern China Chapter V - Japan Before the Restoration Chapter VI - Modern Japan Chapter VII - Japan and China Before 1914 Chapter VIII - Japan and China During the War Chapter IX - The Washington Conference Chapter X - Present Forces and Tendencies in the Far East Chapter XI - Chinese and Western Civilization Contrasted Chapter XII - The Chinese Character Chapter XIII - Higher Education in China Chapter XIV - Industrialism in China Chapter XV - The Outlook for China Appendix Endnotes
The Problem of China
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The Ruler of the Southern Ocean was Shû (Heedless), the Ruler of the Northern Ocean was Hû (Sudden), and the Ruler of the Centre was Chaos. Shû and Hû were continually meeting in the land of Chaos, who treated them very well. They consulted together how they might repay his kindness, and said, "Men all have seven orifices for the purpose of seeing, hearing, eating, and breathing, while this poor Ruler alone has not one. Let us try and make them for him." Accordingly they dug one orifice in him every day; and at the end of seven days Chaos died.—[ Chuang Tze , Legge's translation.]
Chapter I - Questions
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A European lately arrived in China, if he is of a receptive andreflective disposition, finds himself confronted with a number of verypuzzling questions, for many of which the problems of Western Europewill not have prepared him. Russian problems, it is true, have importantaffinities with those of China, but they have also importantdifferences; moreover they are decidedly less complex. Chinese problems,even if they affected no one outside China, would be of vast importance,since the Chinese are estimated to constitute about a quarter of thehuman race. In fact, however, all the world will be vitally affected bythe development of Chinese affairs, which may well prove a decisivefactor, for good or evil, during the next two centuries. This makes itimportant, to Europe and America almost as much as to Asia, that thereshould be an intelligent understanding of the questions raised by China,even if, as yet, definite answers are difficult to give.
The questions raised by the present condition of China fall naturallyinto three groups, economic, political, and cultural. No one of thesegroups, however, can be considered in isolation, because each isintimately bound up with the other two. For my part, I think thecultural questions are the most important, both for China and formankind; if these could be solved, I would accept, with more or lessequanimity, any political or economic system which ministered to thatend. Unfortunately, however, cultural questions have little interest forpractical men, who regard money and power as the proper ends for nationsas for individuals. The helplessness of the artist in a hard-headedbusiness community has long been a commonplace of novelists andmoralizers, and has made collectors feel virtuous when they bought upthe pictures of painters who had died in penury. China may be regardedas an artist nation, with the virtues and vices to be expected of theartist: virtues chiefly useful to others, and vices chiefly harmful tooneself. Can Chinese virtues be preserved? Or must China, in order tosurvive, acquire, instead, the vices which make for success and causemisery to others only? And if China does copy the model set by allforeign nations with which she has dealings, what will become of all ofus?
China has an ancient civilization which is now undergoing a very rapidprocess of change. The traditional civilization of China had developedin almost complete independence of Europe, and had merits and demeritsquite different from those of the West. It would be futile to attempt tostrike a balance; whether our present culture is better or worse, on thewhole, than that which seventeenth-century missionaries found in theCelestial Empire is a question as to which no prudent person wouldventure to pronounce. But it is easy to point to certain respects inwhich we are better than old China, and to other respects in which weare worse. If intercourse between Western nations and China is to befruitful, we must cease to regard ourselves as missionaries of asuperior civilization, or, worse still, as men who have a right toexploit, oppress, and swindle the Chinese because they are an "inferior"race. I do not see any reason to believe that the Chinese are inferiorto ourselves; and I think most Europeans, who have any intimateknowledge of China, would take the same view.
In comparing an alien culture with one's own, one is forced to askoneself questions more fundamental than any that usually arise in regardto home affairs. One is forced to ask: What are the things that Iultimately value? What would make me judge one sort of society moredesirable than another sort? What sort of ends should I most wish to seerealized in the world? Different people will answer these questionsdifferently, and I do not know of any argument by which I could persuadea man who gave an answer different from my own. I must therefore becontent merely to state the answer which appeals to me, in the hope thatthe reader may feel likewise.
The main things which seem to me important on their own account, and notmerely as means to other things, are: knowledge, art, instinctivehappiness, and relations of friendship or affection. When I speak ofknowledge, I do not mean all knowledge; there is much in the way of drylists of facts that is merely useful, and still more that has noappreciable value of any kind. But the understanding of Nature,incomplete as it is, which is to be derived from science, I hold to be athing which is good and delightful on its own account. The same may besaid, I think, of some biographies and parts of history. To enlarge onthis topic would, however, take me too far from my theme. When I speakof art as one of the things that have value on their own account, I donot mean only the deliberate productions of trained artists, though ofcourse these, at their best, deserve the highest place. I mean also thealmost unconscious effort after beauty which one finds among Russianpeasants and Chinese coolies, the sort of impulse that createsfolk-songs, that existed among ourselves before the time of thePuritans, and survives in cottage gardens. Instinctive happiness, or joyof life, is one of the most important widespread popular goods that wehave lost through industrialism and the high pressure at which most ofus live; its commonness in China is a strong reason for thinking well ofChinese civilization.
In judging of a community, we have to consider, not only how much ofgood or evil there is within the community, but also what effects it hasin promoting good or evil in other communities, and how far the goodthings which it enjoys depend upon evils elsewhere. In this respect,also, China is better than we are. Our prosperity, and most of what weendeavour to secure for ourselves, can only be obtained by widespreadoppression and exploitation of weaker nations, while the Chinese are notstrong enough to injure other countries, and secure whatever they enjoyby means of their own merits and exertions alone.
These general ethical considerations are by no means irrelevant inconsidering the practical problems of China. Our industrial andcommercial civilization has been both the effect and the cause ofcertain more or less unconscious beliefs as to what is worth while; inChina one becomes conscious of these beliefs through the spectacle of asociety which challenges them by being built, just as unconsciously,upon a different standard of values. Progress and efficiency, forexample, make no appeal to the Chinese, except to those who have comeunder Western influence. By valuing progress and efficiency, we havesecured power and wealth; by ignoring them, the Chinese, until webrought disturbance, secured on the whole a peaceable existence and alife full of enjoyment. It is difficult to compare these oppositeachievements unless we have some standard of values in our minds; andunless it is a more or less conscious standard, we shall undervalue theless familiar civilization, because evils to which we are not accustomedalways make a stronger impression than those that we have learned totake as a matter of course.
The culture of China is changing rapidly, and undoubtedly rapid changeis needed. The change that has hitherto taken place is traceableultimately to the military superiority of the West; but in future oureconomic superiority is likely to be quite as potent. I believe that, ifthe Chinese are left free to assimilate what they want of ourcivilization, and to reject what strikes them as bad, they will be ableto achieve an organic growth from their own tradition, and to produce avery splendid result, combining our merits with theirs. There are,however, two opposite dangers to be avoided if this is to happen. Thefirst danger is that they may become completely Westernized, retainingnothing of what has hitherto distinguished them, adding merely one moreto the restless, intelligent, industrial, and militaristic nationswhich now afflict this un