VOLUME IV, CHAPTER 6, SECTION 1
Why Good Rule Is Rare, the Difficulty of Having All Three
Last chapter covered the three things, the examination, the will of the people, and the enlightened ruler. In the first section of this chapter we put them together and answer a question every reader of history feels: dynasties averaged two or three centuries, so why were the stretches truly called times of good rule so few? The answer is that good rule takes all three together at once, and any one missing is not enough.
A reader of history notices one thing. Dynasties averaged two or three centuries, yet the stretches historians truly call times of good rule are very few. Across over two thousand years of imperial history in China, the widely acknowledged times of good rule can be counted on the fingers, the rule of Wen and Jing in the early Han, the early reign of Emperor Wu of Han, the Guangwu restoration of the Eastern Han, the Zhenguan rule of the early Tang, the Kaiyuan height of Emperor Xuanzong, the reign of Emperor Renzong of Song, the early Ming, the early Kangxi and Qianlong years of the Qing, fewer than ten stretches in all, each lasting twenty or thirty years to a few decades. However long a dynasty, its true time of good rule is only a small part of its whole span, the rest being the disorder before founding, the recovery after, the steadiness of the middle, and the decline at the end. Why is good rule so rare? Last chapter gave one answer, the enlightened ruler is rare, so good rule is rare. But having covered the sections on the will of the people and the enlightened ruler, we can give the answer more fully: good rule is rare because it takes all three together at once, the merit selection of the examination, the from-below of the will of the people, and the from-above of the enlightened ruler. Any one of the three not present, and good rule does not stand. Put the three together and you see at once why good rule is so rare.
The first thing, the examination, picks the able out. This one has had a mechanism in China since the Sui, but the examination itself has inner problems, that its content may come loose from real affairs, that its range may be too narrow, that its standard may be manipulated by corruption, that the person it produces may only read books and not do work. These problems left the examination, in most dynasties, completing only part of the merit selection, picking out the ones good at study but not always the ones who can truly do things. The second thing, the will of the people, has the selected person find footing in the six layers of acceptance. This one is harder still, for the acceptance of all six, superiors, peers, subordinates, gentry, the common people, and the verdict of history, to be fully in place is extremely hard. An official of examination origin sent to serve on the ground takes years, even more than a decade, to stand firm across the six layers, and many are squeezed out, impeached, or pushed to the margin in that process. The third thing, the enlightened ruler, has the one on the throne able to recognize talent, dare to use, protect, tolerate, and cede the seat. This one is the scarcest, China having in over two thousand years fewer than ten true enlightened rulers, dynastic enfeoffment making the appearance of one a matter of luck, power magnifying private wants so that an early enlightened ruler turns muddled late. All three together means three scarce resources present at the same moment, an extremely demanding condition. The examination present but the will of the people not won, and the selected can do nothing, not good rule. The examination and the will of the people both present but no enlightened ruler, and the talent is held down, not good rule. The will of the people and the enlightened ruler both present but the examination failing to pick out the fitting person, and the one in the position has no real ability, not good rule. Good rule needs these three present at the same moment, and this is why good rule is rare, not that any one is hard, but that all three at once is hard.
More than two thousand years ago, Mencius taught, in the second book of Gongsun Chou, that in doing a great thing the timing of Heaven is worth less than the advantage of the ground, and the advantage of the ground is worth less than the harmony of people. This line is deep. What is the harmony of people? Mencius did not define it directly, but read the whole of the Mencius and you find the harmony of people holds three layers. The first, the ruler has ability, near the enlightened ruler. The second, the ministers are worthy and able, near the merit selection of the examination. The third, the people are of one heart with him, near the will of the people. The three layers together are what Mencius called the harmony of people. Mencius then taught that one who holds the way has much help, and one who loses the way has little. The way here points at the same thing as the harmony of people, the state of all three being present. Mencius in his age had no examination yet, and the worthy and able he spoke of are nearer to raising up the worthy, but the spirit of raising up the worthy and the merit selection of the later examination are of one line. So the harmony of people Mencius taught is one of the earliest complete statements of the later joining of the examination, the will of the people, and the enlightened ruler. Mencius saw, more than two thousand years ago, that the real thing in governing is not any one resource, but the harmony of people that joins all three.
Look at a historical sample, at what a time of good rule with all three present looks like. The rule of Wen and Jing in the early Han, some forty years, is one of the most complete samples of good rule in Chinese history. Merit selection: the early Han had no examination yet, but Emperors Wen and Jing set up the recommendation system, local officials recommending the worthy and the filial to the center, a merit-selection mechanism that was the forerunner of the examination, and Chao Cuo, Jia Yi, and Zhang Shizhi were all selected out in this period. The will of the people: the core of the policy of Wen and Jing was rest for the people, cutting taxes and lightening labor duties, Emperor Wen reducing the land tax from one part in fifteen to one part in thirty, so the people's burden lightened, they farmed in peace, and the population grew from under twenty million in the early Han to near forty million, all six layers of acceptance drawing toward the Han. The enlightened ruler: Emperor Wen of Han is among the most revered enlightened rulers of the dynasties, able to tolerate the sharp proposals of Jia Yi and Chao Cuo without letting the court fall into disorder, able to recognize the contributions of the founding officials without letting them grow too strong, on the throne unextravagant, raising no great building works, a patch on his dragon robe. Emperor Jing carried on his father's policy, using Zhou Yafu decisively in the rebellion of the seven kingdoms and, after putting it down, not letting Zhou Yafu grow too strong. With all three present, the result was a rare flourishing, the treasury so full that the cords stringing the coins rotted, the population greatly grown, order excellent, laying the ground for Emperor Wu to hold off the Xiongnu to the north later. In a mere forty years, the strength of the state went from the ruin of the founding to wealth and power.
The Zhenguan rule of the early Tang, some twenty-three years, is another complete sample. Merit selection: in Taizong's time the examination was already established, and he consciously selected talent through many channels besides, old ministers of the former reign and poor-house men both used, Ma Zhou, Cen Wenben, and Dai Zhou all of poor origin found and heavily used by Taizong. The will of the people: in the early Zhenguan years the Tang had just come through the wars of the late Sui, the people's livelihood in ruin, and Taizong's policy, like that of Wen and Jing, was light labor duties and low taxes, rest for the people, the people recovering from the wars, the will of the people drawing toward the Tang. The enlightened ruler: Taizong is one of the most complete samples of the enlightened ruler, recognizing talent, daring to use, protecting, and tolerating all to a very high standard, as covered in the last chapter. With all three present, the result was another rare flourishing, the strength of the state recovering quickly from the wars of the late Sui, until by Taizong's late years it was one of the strongest states in the world of its day, the population recovering fast, the surrounding peoples honoring Taizong as Heavenly Khan, the Tang the center of East Asian civilization. Set these two times of good rule, Wen and Jing and Zhenguan, against the decline that followed, and the meaning of all three present comes clearer. The early reign of Emperor Wu of Han did great things on the foundation Wen and Jing left, but in his late years his power to tolerate declined, he made heavy use of cruel officials and campaigned year after year, the enlightened-ruler thing weakened, and the flourishing turned to decline. The Kaiyuan years of Emperor Xuanzong were the most brilliant of the Tang, but in the Tianbao years his enlightened-ruler qualities vanished, he favored treacherous ministers and misjudged the border commanders, the An Lushan rebellion broke out, and the flourishing collapsed at once. These samples say the same thing again and again: with all three present, a flourishing arises, and let any one weaken, and the flourishing begins to decline.
Since all three present brings good rule, why were the times of good rule all so short? Forty years for Wen and Jing, twenty-three for Zhenguan, twenty and more for Kaiyuan, why could none last longer? Because all three present is itself an unstable state, and all three wear away with time. The examination thing, the institution may be stable, but the people the examination produces are eroded by time and power, the first generation clean, the second compromising, the third corrupt, the good officials selected out at the start becoming a bloc of vested interest a few decades later, the merit-selection function then weakened. The will-of-the-people thing, in a time of peace the will of the people slowly turns from gratitude to the court into taking it as their due, the people under Wen and Jing just recovered from war and full of gratitude to the Han, by the time of Emperor Wu taking peace as their due and complaining at the smallest added tax, for the will of the people is dynamic, easily gained in a flourishing, hard to keep over the long run. The enlightened-ruler thing wears away fastest, an emperor averaging a reign of a dozen or twenty years, an early enlightened ruler turning muddled late a common thing, and even if he stays an enlightened ruler throughout, whether his son is one is again a matter of luck, the luck-nature of dynastic enfeoffment making an enduring line of enlightened rulers nearly impossible. All three wear away with time, so the state of all three present is naturally short. This is the real thing in good rule being rare and short, good rule being a few bright points in the long river of history, most of the time decline or recovery.
Cut the camera to the present, and the state of all three present is still scarce, only the form differs. In a company, a truly excellent one needs a good mechanism of hiring and training, an acceptance of the company's way of running from every side above, below, and across, and an excellent management. Companies with all three are few, and many have an institution but not the will of the people, or leaders but a lack of talent, or talent but leaders who cannot recognize it, and the result is mediocrity or failure. In government, a well-governed one needs a reasonable selection, the support of the people and of officials at every level, and a leadership of ability and judgment, and good rule with all three present is rare in history and rare today. In an academic body, a truly excellent university needs a strict hiring review, mutual respect between teachers and students, and a far-sighted head, and all three present is a world-class university, any one missing dropping it a rank. In a family, a truly harmonious one needs each member to spend their strengths, mutual understanding and acceptance, and parents of wisdom and judgment, and only with all three present does a child grow up healthy. You might look back at the organization you are in too, your company, department, school, family, are all three present? And if not, which one is missing?
So here is the position this section lays down. We set one layer firm: good rule is rare because it takes all three present at once, the merit selection of the examination, the from-below of the will of the people, and the from-above of the enlightened ruler. Any one of the three not present, and good rule does not stand, and all three present wears away with time, so good rule is a few bright points in the long river of history, not the normal state. Mencius taught more than two thousand years ago that the timing of Heaven is worth less than the advantage of the ground, and the advantage of the ground less than the harmony of people, and the harmony of people is an early statement of all three joined. The rule of Wen and Jing and the Zhenguan rule are the most complete samples, and together under seventy years, already enough to let a dynasty accumulate a foundation of strength for centuries.
All three present, scarce and short, is one of the deepest real things in political institutions. But a deeper question is due here. Of these three, the examination is the only one that can be made into a stable institution. So the step the ancestors took fourteen hundred years ago in making the examination an institution, where exactly did it reach? And why, to this day, has the complete examination, the kind that runs all the way through to the highest position, never truly been realized? The next section looks back at the step the ancestors took, at what it achieved, and at what it left unfinished.
Credit to the ancestors; the mistakes are mine: Tiger Lyon.