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Junxian and Fengjian

The oldest country in the world, China, at one point was organized into two tribes. During the Neolithic era, historians immersed themselves on the Northern tribe as this was to be the primary source of the Chinese civilization. The first Chinese state established its state along the Yellow River. The state can be associated with three dynasties, Xia, Shang, and Zhou. Schrecker defines a dynasty as a ruling family being in control during a specific era. The three dynasties had two sociopolitical systems fengjian and junxian.

Under the fengjian system, it had an open social order, and an elite class based on wealth, talent, or education. A king did not run the system but ruled in a decentralized model where local hereditary lords had been given a piece of land. The fengjian society has class lines and an elite of hereditary aristocrats. In the fengjian existed restrictions on the sale of property, labor, and goods; furthermore, they had a military mentality and had a deeply religious, spiritual ideology.

The fengjian system developed in the early years of the Zhou. The Zhou were an independent group on the outskirts of the Shang state. The Zhou had previously conquered the Shang claiming the Shang had failed their governing society. The king of Zhou was the ruler of "all under heaven." The three ruling dynasties were to remain intact and not became rival political entities. In the Fengjian society, the king stood at the apex and below him stood the aristocracy that was based on a hereditary position. The state ran as a feudal system. The aristocrats were military men as well as religious. The fēngjiàn had played a fundamental role in securing the long-lasting rule of the Zhōu dynasty, whose political success and overall stability they attributed to the support and military aid offered by the

territorial lords of hereditary fiefdoms

Two theories emerge, depicting the reasons for the fall of the Zhou empire. Schrecker outlines two perspectives; the aristocratic increased in population weakening the family, second economic development infused by Western influence.

The Warring States era terminated the Zhou Dynasty. The rise of the Qin, junxian in nature, conquered neighboring territories establishing the junxian ideology. To develop such principles, the king of Qin did so by brute harshness and a uniform code of law. It is said that thousands of aristocratic families lost their lives in this purge. The Qin was responsible for disparaging ideologies that did not conform with Confucianism. Books were burned, and many scholars murdered.

Whereas, the junxian society is run from the center and the land is divided into local units run by bureaucrats chosen by the king. The economy had a loose, free sale of property, labor, and goods. In a junxian society, individuals tended to be humanistic, secular and atheist. The society's focus strayed away from obtaining military status and focused on civilians or mercantile.

Schrecker's comparative thinking analyzes the Chinese Revolution from a historical perspective. Fengjian is a form of feudalism and junxian has no true interpretation. Schrecker conceives that Chinese systems throughout history can be expressed as time periods that fell apart or prevailed. He believes that after one thousand years the Zhou dynasty crumbled, and the fengjian deteriorated, and the junxian system dominated in the 10th century and began its descent in the 18th century. After, the eighteenth-century Chinese history begins to have a different perspective that derives from the dissolution of the junxian system.

Schrecker focuses on the long history of authoritarian government and traditional beliefs that played a role in its evolution. He continues by stating that China generated its own form of nationalism.

Schrecker, J. (1991). The Chinese revolution in historical perspective. New York: Praeger.


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