By Jan van der Putten
The Western classics are better known in China than the Chinese classics are here. Since the nineteenth century, Aristotle and his followers have played a political role in the Celestial Empire. Chinese chauvinists have used them for their cart, or simply canceled them.
Machiavelli of Maryland
Edward Luttwak knows everything about wars, coups, strategy, international politics, history, the rise of China, and much more. The now 84-year-old strategic advisor to American presidents, ministers, and multinationals has written books on these subjects that are as controversial as they are groundbreaking. The research of this Machiavelli of Maryland goes back very far, all the way to the Roman and Byzantine Empires, and even to Homer’s Iliad. Fifteen years ago, he discovered how popular certain Western classics are in China just for the Illiad alone there were 4 different translation.
Rewind in time; Silk
The relationship between China and Europe goes back about two thousand years. Rome had just become an empire and the Han dynasty ruled China. In ancient Rome, wealthy ladies and later also the highest-ranking men wore expensive robes made of silk imported from China via the Silk Road. The historians Seneca the Younger, Pliny the Elder and Tacitus made the moralizing note that this decadent clothing had more of a revealing than a covering function. Men who wore silk were considered effeminate. Centuries later, China was visited by two Venetian merchants, the Polo brothers, and probably also by the son of one of those two. His sensational travel story about exotic China made a deep impression in Europe.
Uomo universale Matteo Ricci
After that, it took another three hundred years before the West became familiar with Chinese culture, and China with Western culture. That was mainly the work of learned Jesuits. With their erudition, they hoped to make such an impression that the Chinese would also embrace the faith of those brilliant fathers. The founder of the Chinese mission was the Italian Jesuit Matteo Ricci, a uomo universale who became an advisor to the Chinese emperor in the early seventeenth century because of his awe-inspiring knowledge.
Ricci believed that Confucianism and Christianity were well reconciled. He translated the classical Confucian writings into Latin. Kong Fuzi (孔夫子), Master Kong, was given a Latinized name by him: Confucius. He also translated Western scientific works into Chinese, including Elements by the Greek mathematician Euclid. He was the first foreigner to be buried in China. He is still held in high regard. His tomb is in the garden of the Party School in Beijing, where the students are being prepared to become party bosses.
Chinese society as an example for many
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Ricci and the Jesuits who came after him formed the Western image of China: a society in which virtue and respect reigned and the emperor was the example of virtue. They idealized Chinese society to a great extent, but no one could control that at the time. Their descriptions resonated strongly with Enlightenment thinkers, and the Founding Fathers of the United States even thought about making their constitution Confucian. Idea for Trump?
Western ideas as an example for China
Towards the end of the nineteenth century, many Chinese intellectuals became very interested in the Western classical authors, especially the Greek ones. That interest was anything but accidental. China was in a very bad state at the time. It was torn apart by bloody civil strife, lost war after war, suffered one humiliation after another, and began to look more and more like a Western colony. The survival of China itself seemed to have become doubtful.
What to do to save the country from destruction? The intelligentsia was divided. Some wanted to throw overboard what was old and set up the country as a Western state, others wanted to modernize China and learn from the West to do so. Not to westernize the country, but to get ideas for a national renewal. The new China had to remain Chinese, but it had to be freed from petrified Confucianism, with its emphasis on hierarchy and obedience. Overboard, that old ballast. Idea for Xi Jinping?
Aristotle as a source of inspiration
It is logical that the reformers of that time also consulted classical literary, philosophical and historical masters such as Homer, Plato, Thucydides and Aristotle. Their names sound a little different in Chinese than we are used to. For example, the transcription of Aristotle’s Chinese name is ‘Yà lǐ shì duō dé’. His treatise Politica on systems of government was devoured in particular. And so the ancient philosopher became indirectly responsible for the fall of the Chinese empire in 1912 and for the founding of the May 4 Movement in 1919 by revolutionary students – who in turn inspired the communist party founded two years later.
During the civil war between nationalists and communists, there was no place for Homer and his followers, and even less during the chaotic dictatorship of Mao Zedong. But when China opened up after Mao, the greatest Western classics also returned, this time in the company of socially critical figures such as Rousseau and Voltaire. The Chinese Academy of Sciences implemented the new party line. And so the Institute of Foreign Literature introduced the study of Greek and Latin.
Look inward
But once again, the study of Aristotle et al. backfired for the authorities. The knowledge of their works contributed to criticism of the system, its corruption and its lack of freedom. In the end, the system hit back hard in the Tiananmen massacre. To prevent new rebellions, the Party then introduced a new subject in all schools and universities: patriotism. China’s glorious history in particular should serve to teach young people unconditional love for the fatherland and the Party. If history is useless for that, then it is simply rewritten.
Western classical texts have also been used to promote patriotism. Each university has a course on Chinese civilization, which covers an anthology of political and social Ancient Greek and Latin texts. Some are praised for defending the same noble values as those of the Party – values that the modern West would have betrayed. Other texts are condemned because they proclaim values that are completely flawed and that the modern West would have inherited. However, few go as far as Jin Canrong. This professor of international relations has found a tried and tested method to get rid of the annoying Aristotle: he claims that the greatest philosopher of ancient Greece never existed.
Jan van der Putten is a writer and journalist, who previously served, among other things, as a correspondent in China. His latest book is Time of Illusions: My Little History of the World, published by Querido Facto
