Barbarians and the Wall.

Went to see Mulan, the live action remake of Disney’s animated cartoon with Kiddo yesterday. There were two struck me about the movie. One is the shallow point that Gong Li looks fantastic and it’s hard to believe that she’s in her 50s. The other point that struck me is the fact that the “bad guys,” or the “Northern Invaders” led by the villainous Bori Khan, looked hell of a lot better than the Chinese. It was like these guys were dressed in black, could scale walls and while on horse back they could turn around and fire arrows. The Chinese by contrast could merely march in formation and follow orders and kept bleating on about duty of the empire, country, village, family and so on.

While the movie is clearly Disney’s creation, they did get one thing right about Chinese history – namely the fact that Chinese history is the story of the constant conflict between tightly controlled central authority and lone wolf units. Thanks to Confucius, the Chinese have had a mad obsession with strong central authority and while Confucius was not wrong in his suggestion that government be staffed by intelligent people there was one flaw in his entire philosophy. It worked on the assumption that there was a golden age of a wise and benevolent ruler who always acted in the best interest of the people and any good ruler worth his salt would model himself on the rulers of the past.

As a result, the people who were revered in Confucian society were those who worked to preserve the status quo and looked inwards to keeping the system running, namely bureaucrats and farmers. The people who went beyond their shores and had to mix with different people, thus being exposed to outside influences, namely merchants and soldiers were spat upon in Confucian society. The Chinese built a “GREAT” Wall at the cost of millions of lives to keep invader or outside influences out.

What was the result of this obsession with a mythical golden age and looking back to the past? For over a thousand years, the highly civilized Chinese empire had its buttocks kicked on the battle field by “barbarian” hoards like the Mongols and the Manchus. The Chinese only got rid of “barbarian” overlords once the said overlords discovered the finer things about Chinese civilization and became as soft and flabby and the Chinese. This pattern ended when the Chinese got wacked by the European powers and it turned out that the Europeans had at that stage advanced beyond anything the Chinese had.

While the Chinese had a strong state and a unifying culture that got everyone to look to the centre, that very state stifled innovation. The emperor was always right and the only way to succeed in society was to study hard (specifically ancient text) and not create anything new. Change was bad because it meant a deviation from anything in the past, which was always better. China, was the world’s largest economy and as an ancient civilization it was a highly innovative one. Then, they stopped innovating and stayed in the Middle Ages while the Europeans went through the Renaissance and Reformation.

The barbarians by contrast had to struggle to survive. In their environment, one had to look after one’s self. Kids grew up working with animals, hunting and gathering food. Rather than a state, they were a confederation of tribes or small units that came together for bigger things. Collaboration and competition were a part of life. You had to be tough in order to survive and you needed to know how to collaborate and compete.

While the “GREAT” Wall worked initially, the barbarians found a way around it and China did end up being ruled by them. What happened? The Mongols found a leader in the form of Genghis Khan to unify them and they got round the Wall. While Genghis Khan probably didn’t know his Chinese characters, he was actually an openminded thinker. After taking China, he discovered Chinese technology and used their siege machinery to very great effect in his further conquest. It only went wrong for Genghis Khan and his decedents when they got a wee bit too comfortable as “Emperors” in China and became like the Chinese.

Confucius probably had noble thoughts in what he said. However, the practice only encouraged insularity, which screwed China up to the modern age. For much of modern history, Chinese people only succeeded when they got out of China and moved to places like Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and the Chinatowns of the West, where they got away from overwhelming central authority and had to be open to outside influences.  

One might point out that China has grown its economy despite strong central government. It is true that companies like Sinopec, the Bank of China and so on are global behemoths, the real strength of the Chinese economy lies in small and innovative companies. These are the companies that you don’t hear about. These are the companies that do not have the comfort of easy loans from state banks or the protection of the communist party. 

It’s nice to be comfortable and its nice to stick in your comfort zone. It is nice to keep outside influences – out and not to mix with people who are different. However, Chinese history has shown that when this is carried to an extreme, you end up getting your arse kicked whenever you face any form of challenge. Chinese history has shown that you should never look back to a past or that government, even with one with bureaucrats with good degrees will keep you in comfort forever. Better go out into the world and face challenges. It will toughen you up and who knows, it will probably make you an arse kicker instead of someone who has his arse handed to him.