anger or irritation had worn off, we were more likely to enlist their cooperation by showing that the various provisions offered for those affected by the government's decisions were reasonable and acceptable. This actually happened in Tsuen Wan in 1959, when the village population of Ho Pui, distrustful of government and unimpressed by its need to produce more land for housing and industrial use, concluded that its own safety and legitimate interests were not being addressed, opposed a particular public work, and through its power of combination withdrew its cooperation for some six months until they were secured. Blackmail, you may ask? It might appear so: but the defence of legitimate self-interest has always been accepted in the Chinese value system and allowed for in the relationship of government and people.
PART TWO: The Traditional Sources of a Positive Response to Well-conducted Government
1. The Confucian Ethical System
The proper relationship between ruler and people was one of the "Five Relationships" prescribed in the Confucian Classics and taught in every school room in the empire. "The underlying principle of the whole", wrote one informed Westerner, "was the making of a man, the development of personality and the training of moral character". Besides stressing the social obligations of superior and inferior towards each other, the ethical system promoted by the Classics placed a particular emphasis on "propriety". Whatever their rank or station, this was the keystone of the social system for all, since each person in Chinese society was presumed to know how to behave and what was expected of him. The result was -- to quote the same keen observer of Chinese life -- to produce an educated man who:
"took his stand before society as an expert in moral principles. In all the relationships of life, whether precedented or unprecedented, he was the man to point out the right word, the right act, the right ritual.
Over millennia, this ethical system had developed immense strength and tenacity; and to such a degree, said Dr. Smith, that Confucianist thinking had become an instinct that determined attitudes. Nor could he over-emphasize for his readers the intensity of Chinese feeling on the subject:
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anger or irritation had worn off, we were more likely to enlist their cooperation by showing that the various provisions offered for those affected by the government's decisions were reasonable and acceptable. This actually happened in Tsuen Wan in 1959, when the village population of Ho Pui, distrustful of government and unimpressed by its need to produce more land for housing and industrial use, concluded that its own safety and legitimate interests were not being addressed, opposed a particular public work, and through its power of combination withdrew its cooperation for some six months until they were secured. Blackmail, you may ask? It might appear so: but the defence of legitimate self-interest has always been accepted in the Chinese value system and allowed for in the relationship of government and people.
PART TWO: The Traditional Sources of a Positive Response to
Well-conducted Government
1. The Confucian Ethical System
The proper relationship between rufer and people was one of the "Five Relationships" prescribed in the Confucian Classics and taught in every school room in the empire. "The underlying principle of the whole", wrote one informed Westerner, "was the making of a man, the development of personality and the training of moral character" Besides stressing the social obligations of superior and inferior towards each other, the ethical system promoted by the Classics placed a particular emphasis on "propriety". Whatever their rank or station, this was the keystone of the social system for all, since each person in Chinese society was presumed to know how to behave and what was expected of him. The result was -- to quote the same keen observer of Chinese life to produce an educated man who:
"took his stand before society as an expert in moral principles. In all the relationships of life, whether precedented or unprecedented, he was the man to point out the right word, the right act, the right ritual.
Over millenia, this ethical system had developed immense strength and tenacity; and to such a degree, said Dr. Smith, that Confucianist thinking had become an instinct that determined attitudes. Nor could he over-emphasize for his readers the intensity of Chinese feeling on the subject:
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