China’s Ancient Law of Equality

In a few days China will celebrate the birthday of a republic based on, among other lofty ideals, the proposition that all Chinese are equal. Of course life in four dimensions can never be as pretty as dreams written on two-dimensional paper. For the first thirty years of the PRC, the military men who secured China’s independence were a little more equal than others. In 1979, the economic realities of the 20^th century prevailed, and today the guy in Jiangsu who makes all those lawn chairs for Walmart is a lot more equal than a Guangzhou firefighter, or a Shanxi coal miner.

But for Chinese, the concept of equality is much older than the PRC, or even the Magna Carta. In fact, Confucius took it upon himself to scrap the belief that one could only be a jun zi, aristocratic gentleman, by virtue of noble birth. He replaced it with the precept that nobility was proven only by character, which was in turn proven by one’s conduct.

Another dream of perfect justice distorted by human nature. True, it paved the way for hard-working, brainy nobodies to claim honor and riches through hard-earned merit. However, Confucius’ teaching broadened the field of potential Sons of Heaven geometrically, inflaming all sorts of ruffians with jade throne wishes and imperial dreams. The story of Chen She shows that China has long been a little more equal for those blessed with a healthy dose of dragon guts.

Chen She and his sidekick, Wu Guang, like so many peasants before and after them, eeked dismal lives from the land. But the land had no king; the second Qin Empire was failing, and even then “crisis” in Chinese meant a blend of danger and opportunity. When the conscription officers came around, Chen She cared not for whom he would be fighting, only that he had a ticket out of the fields. More cocksure than canny, he nevertheless won the honor of leading 900 other peasant-conscripts to the northern front.

Out of far more meager beginnings do megalomaniacs rise to power. Chen figured that, since the most likely outcome for a conscripted soldier was death, he may as well fight for his own glory. To rally the troops to his self-serving cause, he surreptitiously stuffed a caught fish with a piece of silk bearing the sentence “Chen She will be king.” Wonder seized the camp that night when an unsuspecting pair of chopsticks plucked out the divine message.

Late that night, Chen’s multi-talented comrade Wu Guang crouched near the camp and began a dead-on fox howl, punctuated by a ghostly wail, “The Kingdom of Chu will rise again! Chen She will be its king!” The awed looks that followed Chen about the next day are testament to the gullibility of human farm equipment. The three commanding officers, however, were less impressed. Chen She and Wu Guang waited for them to get their nightly drunk on, then strode up and announced their plans to desert. When the blotto sergeants commenced to beating such brazen subordinates, it was easy for the duo to snatch their weapons and spill their lifeblood.

His fellow peasant soldiers stood dumbstruck at such audacity. Chen She seized the moment to deliver his best Braveheart rallying speech. “Fellow soldiers! It will be a miracle if two in ten of us survives battle at the front. Those of you afraid to die, back to your farms at once! But if you would sell your lives dearly, fight with me for fame and honor! Kings and dukes, prime ministers and generals, such men are made, not born!” Not exactly what Confucius had in mind when he invented egalitarianism, but then that’s our entire point.

Thus was born a new army dedicated to restoring the once-great kingdom of Chu. Soon the force swelled from 900 armed farmers to 20,000 fierce infantry, 600 chariots, and 1000 horsemen. As the army moved north to the Qin capital, opportunists who had suffered under the Qin regime seized the chance to join Chen She and murder their superiors, inciting friends and family to support a noble cause against tyranny.

The Second Qin Emperor learned that Chen She’s army was approaching the heartland and searched desperately for a solution. The fact that he had murdered all his most capable generals in fear of treachery compounded his predicament. At last he ordered an amnesty for 700,000 political prisoners working on his father’s tomb and converted them into an army. Barely five months after he began, Chen She, the new King of Chu, was murdered by his carriage driver as he fled south from the rout of his army.

The upstart king was dead, but not his uprising. The nobility of the six states Qin had deposed rose again to restore their status, proclaiming their allegiance to the martyred Chen. He is still remembered for starting the first recorded “peasant’s revolution”, and for daring to believe that great men are made, not born. Ever since, equality has been the justification brave men use to shake the foundations of society, that they may come out more equal than others. That businessmen enjoy extra equality shows what a relatively benign age we live in.

Related posts:

1. The Dao – An Ancient Cure for Modern Ills
2. Getting to “I do”: The 6 Steps of Ancient Chinese Engagement
3. Visiting in Ancient China
4. The Ancient Tea-Horse Road
5. Queer as Ancient Folk

You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.