Bodily Subjectivity, Way of Administration and Governance in the Axial Age

Abstract

The Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period were key eras in which the family-kingdom-state political structure handed down by the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties transformed into the more familiar four-dimensional political structure of body-family-kingdom-world. The most important of the transformations was the independence of the body. The collapse of the feudal politico-religious structure dominated by emperors, lords and the senior officials allowed the social body to become independent of the overall structure of family-kingdom-world and became a structural element itself. As well, the teaching of Confucian ren 仁 (humanity) expanded the independence of the body to a moral and spiritual level, thus providing another agent for the politico-religious structure of body-family-kingdom-world. The emergence of this new agent provided another political agent “having no right to administer but the right to comment” outside the ruling group. As a result, the assumption that to “rectify” meant to “administer” was developed in the pre-Qin period. This became the Way of Administration, the ultimate meaning of which is to complete one’s human nature and to know destiny, which is the purpose of the Way of Governance. Subsequently, the Way of Administration and Way of Governance together formed one of the most significant political ideas in Chinese history.

Keywords

Way of Administration / Way of Governance / using “rectification” to explain “administration,” body

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

2014 Higher Education Press and Brill