China’s Dynastic Cycle vs. West’s Directional History

中国的朝代恶环与西方的方向性进步历史
中国的权力崇拜与道德沦丧对照西方对真理的崇尚与追求
On Power Worship and Chinese Moral Degradation against the Christian Culture of Truth Telling

By Kai Chen 3/25/06 陈凯 Reprint: 10/14/2011

“A nation can never be great, unless it is good.” - Winston Churchill
一个道德上伪劣的国度绝不会是一个伟大的国度。 - 丘吉尔

“Only truth shall set you free.” – Jesus Christ
只有真理才能使你自由。 - 耶稣

“Political power comes only from the muzzle of a gun.” “With political power, you have everything. Without political power, you have nothing.” – Mao Zedong
枪杆子里面出政权。 有了政权就有了一切，没有政权就丧失一切。 - 毛泽东

-------------------------------------------------

The most obvious things are often the most easily ignored and forgotten. Yet the deep meaning in them is by no means diminished.

“Today is March 25, 2006, Saturday.” It sounds obvious and bland, doesn’t it? Yet it is the most profound statement with deepest meaning permeated in the every word, every number of this statement. It all has something to do with Jesus Christ and the Christian culture of directional history. The weekdays and weekends we spend in our lives are not without their religious connotations. Professor Francis Fukuyama has written a book “End of History” and in it he elaborated in detail and depth the philosophical concept of directional history and concluded that human history ends with our realization of mankind’s endless pursuit of a timeless value - freedom. Events will still occur, but the values that humans have struggled for thousands of years to discover and assert will remain constant and thus the ultimate end of human history is already here.

I concur.

Does history have a direction which implies progress, advancement, better tomorrow? Or history as a cyclic occurrence as what happened and is still happening in China, which implies stagnation, desperation, helplessness, and a dark future of suffering and misery for mankind?

I have always maintained that China is a country with NO history, only recorded time and events at best. At worst, China has a fake and manufactured history based on the interests of the power elite, fostered by a class of self-castrating intellectual eunuchs aiming at preserving and boosting the power of the dynasties. History has many facets and dimensions. Collecting facts and recording them in the book is only one of them. Most importantly, history is to tell the truth. In order for the truth to come out, humans have to have open debate, freedom of expression, honest interpretation and unlimited access to information for research. Chinese history only has one part of the necessary elements -collecting and recording. The entire part of telling truth is missing in, for China has never had the prerequisites for this fundamental human endeavor. Hence even the Chinese collection of facts and times now appears in question for its lack of authenticity.

Chang and Halliday’s book “Mao – The Unknown Story” reveals many lies and untruths in the Chinese history books which are manufactured for the interest of the Communist Party and its grip on power. And it further demonstrates my point: In China, there is NO history.
The history of the world progresses to today, to a large degree, due to the emergence of Christian culture based on Jesus Christ’s teachings about truth telling. Although Copernicus and Galileo had been persecuted by the fanatic religious clerics at the time, history only recorded their heroic deeds and convictions in telling the truth, NOT the glory of the repressive clerics in suppressing it. Contrary to the truth-telling in Western history, all the Chinese literatures, all the Chinese philosophers including Confucius have been focused on only one thing – POWER. With power as their standard of values, man-eating-man, man-killing-man, man-deceiving-man, man-degrading-man, have become the central theme of Chinese lives. A vicious dynastic cycle, a cyclic therefore stagnant history is the only necessary and logic outcome. For power and a sense of domination and superiority over others, there is nothing the Chinese would NOT do. Today’s China is a dark, stinky and nauseous place of moral degradation and spiritual degeneration. Any suggestion by anyone to organize a spiritual group such as Falungong is crushed to maintain the monopoly of power by the Communist government. People lie, steal, cheat, pirate other’s inventions, threat, taking hostages, selling their own souls and conscience for a morsel of food and a higher step on the social ladder. They even kill, poison and murder to get what they wanted. Government tyrannical rules and repression is only the extension of this “Power Worship”.

Contrast to Jesus Christ who has never been a government official in the Roman Empire, all the Chinese philosophers and intellectuals have been one time or another part of the Chinese government official echelon. The Chinese morals and ethics saint – the Confucius was not an exception. But deeper analysis reveals that the morals and ethics from Chinese philosophers such as Confucius are NOT true morals and ethics at all. They are only some carefully designed patterned conduct and behavioral mode aimed at maintaining emperor’s power.

True morals and ethics are manifested by eternal values that mankind strives to achieve – life, liberty, rights to pursue happiness, truth, justice, equality… A moral person is a person who adheres to these values and principles. A moral culture is a culture which treasures these values and principles. Yet against these values, a Confucian culture is established and based purely on hierarchy – the unquestioned authority comes not from election by a consent populace and truth seeking institutions. It comes from an arbitrary and artificial arrangement which designates the emperor as the ruler of the concerned domain for all people, and the father as the ruler in the family. Petty officials and masses, children and women are only subjects of such an unquestioned and mysterious arrangement. In such an amoral and immoral arrangement, humans are only robots performing designated tasks by someone from above. They serve only as tools and sacrificial animals on the altar of the sacred Big Family – the Nation. Nation has become God for the Chinese and the collective interests have become the ultimate arbiter to judge everyone’s worth. Individual human beings, with their own distinct faculties, yearnings, talents, attributes are pushed and oppressed to the very bottom of this hierarchical arrangement.

Confucius once said: “One can not open his mouth to speak unless he has a proper, recognized official title.” With this pseudo-moral code, one does not have to go far to understand the deplorable state of Chinese living – a silent desperation. No power leads to no expressions and no existence. No wonder in all the Chinese literatures, ancient to modern, in all the Chinese strives and struggles, all a Chinese has to think about from the moment he opens his eyes to even the dreams he ventured into in his sleep is preoccupied with Power. There is struggle for power in the family, there is struggle for power in the officialdom, there is struggle for power in social groups, and there is struggle for power with other nations and peoples. Even moments of personal contact sets the stage for live and death intrigues for power. One cannot open his mouth without understanding where he is in this power echelon, by age, by gender, by ranks, by salary, by skin color, by race, by ethnicity, by diplomas.., by everything but who is most truthful.

With “Power Worship” as the absolute, everything becomes a Zero-Sum game. Everything becomes relative – morals, pleasures and joy, achievements, human lives and existence. Truth is the biggest victim in the Chinese officialdom and power-worshipping hierarchy. Equality is another value to be sacrificed and abandoned by the pseudo-ethics. Justice is pushed aside. Reality discarded. True knowledge shrunk to almost nothing. Only human flesh and blood remains; only face and façade remain; only the menacing dragon which symbolizes eternal power of the emperors dominates the sky over the insignificant, ants-like crowds underneath. Fear becomes the main tool to maintain order. Logic and reason is none-existent. Human creativity and initiatives stifled. Blind following and obedience is the norm. Conformity is a must to be instilled in younger generations. Such is the essence of mystery. Such is the truth. Such is China.

“One country, two systems” is the newest invention of the Chinese authority. Along with it comes “Chinese style democracy” and “Chinese style market economy” and “Chinese style human rights – feed the mouths first” and “Chinese style freedom – serve the people”…
Interpretation: Despotic democracy; Command Capitalism; Protected Open Market; Shackled Human Rights; Enslaved Freedom; Hierarchical Equality; Official Justice; Governmental Science and Technology; Collective Creativity… Such is the Ying-Yang dynastic cycle. Such is the superior Harmonious Society. Such is the state of morals and ethics in China. Such is the Chinese uniqueness.

Are there entirely two different standards in formulating human morals and values? One for China and one for the rest of mankind? When the wind of freedom sends the vessel of humanity sailing toward limitless ocean of human potential, the Chinese boat is stuck in some decaying pond decorated with human corpses by a pernicious tornado, whirling senselessly and directionlessly with immense force for destruction.
Without understanding the origin, the dynamics and the consequences of such a devastating phenomenon, the Chinese will not only NOT get themselves out of the path of such a cyclic monster, they will become part of it to destroy others and the world.

Morality has only one standard, on direction, one outcome for mankind. It is the very compass by which mankind extracts themselves from one after another vicious cyclones to sail toward a better, brighter future. Unless the Chinese join the mainstream of mankind in their endeavor to achieve human potential, guided by the eternal values of these moral absolutes, they will never arrive at their destiny and forever be outcasts by history. An entirely separate sphere of human activity to achieve human potential, against the power sphere of the government, must be established to be the dominant force to find truth, to create and produce, to fulfill human spiritual yearnings.

Fukuyama in his “Eng of History” has categorized nations according to this directional history. There are pre-historical nations; there are historical nations; there are post-historical nations. You tell me where China stands today.