Historical and Philosophical Origins of the Chinese Conception of Sovereignty

• In Event: Democracy Theory and Chinese Political Thought

Abstract

The nature, importance, and pertinence of the concept of sovereignty in the modern, globalized world is contested. Whereas “sovereignty” is venerated by some in the West, among whom are nationalists and populists, it is excoriated by, among others, internationalists and cosmopolitans, as a “dogma.” Regardless of this division, the concept of sovereignty was developed with an eye to the European experience. It is tempting to ask whether non-European societies and thinkers can provide any insights that can contribute to our understanding of “sovereignty.” I believe that it is important to compare and reconcile the concept of sovereignty across civilizations that are radically different. A comparative project of this sort may help overcome the conventional approach to our understanding of all that “sovereignty” might entail, which has hitherto been based almost exclusively on the European experience, the European imagination, and more importantly, on European definitions. China --- a rising global power with a political practise and an intellectual tradition that is radically different from that of Western liberal democracies --- can serve as a fruitful example for such a comparative study. In this paper, I attempt to identify and articulate the historical and theoretical evolution of the Chinese conception of sovereignty as it developed in relation to Confucianism (儒家) and Chinese Legalism (法家,a tradition of thought that was extremely popular in the latter half of the Warring States period in China from 453 to 221 BCE and considered the guiding philosophy of Qin dynasty 秦 that unified China in 221 BCE), and their interactions with historical practices in imperial China. More importantly, I explore how China received Western political ideas of sovereignty and how it attempted to understand and reshape this concept in light of its own intellectual traditions. This attempt to craft a modernized conception of sovereignty in China began in 1839, as part of the period of its modernization. More specifically, I argue that, before 1839, the dominant conception of sovereignty in China was what I term an omnipotent-father-sovereignty or unified-sovereignty that was theoretically derived from both Confucianism and Chinese Legalism, with the Legalist omnipotent-model dominating the Confucian father-model. Since the invasion by the West in 1839, the conception of the omnipotent-father-sovereignty began to incorporate statist and populist elements from Western, Japanese, and Russian political thought, and evolved into what I shall call modernized-unified-sovereignty that incorporates the authoritarian features of a version of statism, populism, and Chinese Legalism.

Author

• Qi Jing, University of California, Los Angeles