第九讲：中美政治制度.docVIP

Lecture 9：Comparison between Polities of China and America 9.1. Chinese Feudalist Imperial System The Traditional Chinese state was an awesome political achievement, the most advanced such governing body in the world. Featuring a centralized bureaucratic apparatus begun over two thousand years ago by Qin Shi Huang ( 221-206,B.C ),the first emperor in the Chinese political system. China ‘s system of governance evolved through the rise and fall of various dynasties until the early 1900s. However it bears some similarities to the system regardless of certain changes and certain characteristics during different individual periods of times and different individual rulers. There are five key components or common features that warrant the system as the following: 9.1.1 The first feature, the ideology. In every dynasty the ruling party must have something as its leading ideological backup, or politically theoretical support under which the governance could be carried out. That could be either Confucianism, or Taoism, or Legalism or Buddhism, such as in the Qin Dynasty (221—207B.C) the prominent ideology was Legalism, in Han Dynasty (West Han206B.C—24 A.D, East Han 25—220 A.D) Daoism first, then Confucianism, “Confucianism only, and Deposition of all the rest of ideologies (独尊儒术，废除百家) ”；in the Tang Dynasty (618-907 A.D) Buddhism, or it could be simply a mixture in a given period of time, such as during the Spring and Autumn Period. But Confucianism ,undoubtedly, took its leading position as the principal ideology for almost most of the times in the history of Chinese polities. 9.1.2. The second feature, the divinity and supremacy of centralized absolutist government headed by the emperor. The notion that the political system headed by the emperor provided the divinity and legal identity for the emperor himself as he was the “ son of heaven ”, and “ the ruler of all under heaven”, which was absolutely fundamental to the traditional Confucian thought. Insofar the emperor was