CONFUCIAN EXPERIMENTS IN BUILDING CIVIL SOCIETY

Extracted from:
Wm. Theodore de Bary and Irene Bloom (ed.), Sources of Chinese Tradition [SCT], second edition, Vol.1

1. PROPOSAL FOR COMMUNITY GRANARIES

De Bary: This proposal is typical of many initiatives Zhu Xi (1130-1200) took as a government official to encourage
local elites to deal with chronic problems more or less on their own. It is also indicative of the fact that, however
much private or local initiative might be promoted, the problem remained one of how local groups could do so with
the necessary official approval and oversight but without direct government interference. In this respect Zhu
envisaged some kind of civil infrastructure, between the private or household level and the state administration, that
would serve local public functions through relatively autonomous, cooperative, not-for-profit organizations. In the
proposal here one should note especially how interest repayment was used initially to build up a reserve for later
operation of a system of interest free loans. Note too that Zhu first demonstrated the practicality of his plan by a
fourteen-year pilot program in one area before recommending it for general authorization by the central government.
…Zhu’s proposals for community granaries also serve as an expression of his belief (and Mencius’ long
before) that a strong economic (i.e. agricultural) base was needed to sustain any program of educational or cultural
uplift. Some of Zhu’s followers (Xu Heng in the Yuan and Wu Yubi in the Ming) believed a system of independent
scholar-farmers was preferable to having a class of scholar-officials largely dependent on state funds or the ruler’s
largesse.
Imperial Edict
On the 28th day of the twelfth month, in the eighth year of the Chunxi era (1181), the Secretariat forwarded
a memorial to the emperor from the Ministry of Revenue submitted by the Commissioner for Ever-Normal
Granaries, Salt and Iron in the Liangzhe Eastern District, Zhu Xi.
The memorial says:
There is a community granary in Kaiyao village in Chongan county, Jianning superior prefecture.
It was founded in the fourth year of the Qiandao era (1168) because of a famine in the village. An
appropriation of 600 tan of rice from the Ever-Normal Granary of the prefecture was to serve as the seed
rice. I was entrusted with the responsibility of working with Liu Ruyu, a local scholar with the honorific
title of “Gentlemen for Court Service,” to use the amount for lending to those in need of support. The rice
was appropriated in the winter. The following summer the prefectural office instructed that the rice should
continue to be lent out and those who borrowed should then pay back in the winter.
We consulted the prefectural office and decided that the interest should be two dou per dan of
rice borrowed [i.e., 20 percent]. This rate was to be in force for the coming [several] years, although it
was agreed that should any borrower have difficulty in repayment, the interest rate could be reduced by a
half, or even in full in the case of serious famine.
The granary has been in operation for fourteen years and we have managed to build three
warehouses and have accumulated 3,100 dan of interest rice after the initial amount of 600 dan had been
paid back to the prefecture. The amount of the interest rice has been properly reported to the prefecture.

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 I further suggest that the lending should continue, although the borrowers should no longer have
to pay interest. An administrative fee of three sheng (i.e., 3 percent) will be collected, and the [retired]
officials residing in this village, together with the local literati and myself, will [continue to] manage the
granary. During the lending season, we ask that a county official be present to supervise the process.
Because of this granary, the village, comprising an area of about 40 to 50 [square] li, has not
suffered hunger even in bad years. I believe that this is a method that could be introduced to other areas.
Because there is no legal precedent, and no one would take it upon himself to initiate the system on his
own, I request that it be instituted in all circuits and prefectures by Imperial decree, and further that should
local households wish to establish a granary, the prefectural or county office should allocate a suitable
amount of rice from its Ever-Normal Granary and entrust it to the leading household in the area to manage
the lending and borrowing. The interest should also be two dou of rice. I hope that the village leaders,
resident retired officials, and respected local scholars would work with the county magistrate to manage
the lending and collecting. Once the interest rice has accumulated to ten times the seed rice, then the seed
rice should be returned to the government and the interest rice be used for future lending, at a fee of three
sheng [but] without interest. If well-to-do families are willing to contribute rice for seed purposes, they
should be encouraged to do so. Their contribution should be paid back in a similar manner. Moreover, if
certain regions have different customs, they should follow what is convenient for them and devise their
own regulations and submit them to the government for recognition. This granary system is designed for
creating long-term benefit, and if any village decides that it does not wish to establish a granary, then the
government should not apply any pressure or force them to establish it….
The emperor ordered the Ministry of Revenue to consider the memorial and the following is its
opinion:
The Secretariat, commenting on the opinion submitted by the Department of Revenue, says:
We think it desirable that this memorial be circulated to the circuits and various supervisory
offices and the prefectural and county offices under them. It should be made known that any people
wishing to do as the memorial specifies would be assisted to do so. Retired officials—either coming
originally from the county or those retired to the county—if they have shown themselves to be morally
upright, should be allowed to apply to the prefectural or county offices for establishing such a granary.
The local government should then allocate an amount of rice from the government’s own “righteous
[charitable] granary” to serve as seed rice. The retired officials should work with local elders to manage
the granary, while the prefectural and county offices should not intervene or seek to control things.
[SCT, pp.746-748]

2. COMMUNITY SCHOOLS AND UNIVERSAL EDUCATION

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De Bary: [Zhu Xi’s] initial premise is that all learning is predicated on the unity and universality of the human moral
nature, the full development of which is a responsibility of the ruler but, even more, a prerequisite to sound
government. For this purpose the sage kings of antiquity maintained a universal school system, Zhu says, one that
could legitimately be called a public school system, since it was open to all and aimed at the general uplift of
humankind, not just the recruitment of an elite into state service. Nor does Zhu Xi mean by this just some form of
learning in the home or private tutoring. Rather, he has in mind the physical establishment of schools in each village,
providing for all who are capable of it an education that is carefully structured and sequenced in order to bring the
individual learning process to its full maturity in the “greater learning.”
At this point a question naturally arises: “If the system was so great in ancient times, why didn’t it last?”
The trouble, says Zhu, lay not with the system but with the failure of later dynasties to implement it. The Way itself
did not cease to hold true; only the power to practice it was lost to those, like Confucius, who still understood it but
did not rule….
In the end Zhu’s justification for presuming to speak for this ideal from the prehistoric past, while
disallowing the results of most subsequent historical experience, is based on his prophetic claim that only through
such a universal school system and the regeneration of all humankind can society be properly reconstituted. Here
Zhu’s key expression, appearing first in his preface and commentary… is xiuji zhiren. This could be read simply as
“cultivating self, governing others,” referring to two distinct duties of the educated elite, except that Zhu is mindful
of the former as a precondition of the latter…. But Zhu’s whole argument goes beyond simply the cultivation of
leaders (“noble men”) to govern others, important though that is for rulers and the leadership class themselves to
learn. He implies that universal self-cultivation and self-discipline are indispensable to human governance in general
—in other words, that the true “governance of men” is not just the “governing of [some by] others” but an
undertaking that involves everyone’s assuming responsibility for his own self-discipline and self-governance.

The Book of the Great Learning comprises the method by which people were taught in the higher learning
of antiquity. When Heaven gives birth to the people, it gives each one, without exception, a nature of
humaneness, rightness, ritual decorum, and wisdom….
In the flourishing days of the Three Dynasties [Xia, Shang, and Zhou] their institutions were
steadily perfected until everyone, from the king’s court and feudal capitals down to the smallest lane or
alley, had schooling. At the age of eight all children of the king and dukes, on down to the common
people, started their elementary schooling, in which they were instructed in the [social] disciplines od
sprinkling and sweeping, responding to others, and coming forward or withdrawing from [the presence of
others]…, and in the polite arts of ritual, music, archery, charioteering, writing, and arithmetic. Then, at
the age of fifteen, starting with the heir apparent and other princes, and down through the legitimate sons
of the dukes, chief ministers, grandees, and lower aristocracy to the talented sons of the common people—
all started their higher learning, in which they were taught the way of self-cultivation and governance of
men through the fathoming of principle and rectifying the mind. This is also how the distinction was
made in the gradations of elementary and higher instruction in schools.
Thus widely were schools established, and thus precisely defined was the art of instruction in the
details of its sequence and itemized content! As to the reasons for providing this instruction, they
followed naturally from the superabundance of the ruler’s personal attention to the practice of virtue and
did not need to go beyond the constant norms that govern the people’s livelihood and times, and as to the
learning itself, no one would be without an understanding of what was inherent in his individual nature or

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what was proper to the performance of his individual duties so that each could exert himself to the fullest
extent of his energies. This is why, in the great days of high antiquity, good government prevailed on high
and beautiful customs below, to a degree that later ages have not been able to attain.
With the decline of the Zhou, sage and worthy rulers no longer appeared, and the school system
was not well maintained. The transformation of the people through education became eclipsed and
popular customs deteriorated…. There was, however, this piece, the Great Learning, which followed up
what had been accomplished in elementary learning with a view to setting forth the lucid teaching
methods of the higher learning. Thus for outward emulation there would be a model great enough to serve
as the highest standard of perfection, and for inner cultivation something detailed enough to spell out in
full its sequence and contents…. [SCT, pp.721-3]

3. THE LÜ FAMILY COMMUNITY COMPACT, AMENDED AND EMENDED

De Bary: …[The] Lü Family Community Compact, originally composed by Lü Dajun (1031-1082), in the Northern
Song, which represented an attempt by members of the cultural and social elite to lead in the organization of local
associations that would embody in contemporary (eleventh century) form some of the communitarian values that
Confucians identified with the ancient enfeoffment system…. The compact emphasized voluntary subscription to
certain values and practices that would govern the common life, stressing moral relations, self-help, and cooperative
assistance—all basic human needs and values shared by members of the community regardless of status. At the
same time, Zhu recognized the importance of leadership in any group endeavor and was particularly concerned to
specify the necessary hierarchy of authority, fix the functions and responsibilities attaching thereto, and embody
them in community rituals. Many variations of this basic pattern were attempted later in imperial China and Korea,
but while local structures differed, the key elements were those classified under the four headings indicated at the
beginning of the compact’s text: (1) mutual encouragement of virtue and meritorious deeds; (2) mutual correction of
faults; (3) mutual association in rites and customs; and (4) mutual sympathy [aid] in calamities and difficulties.
Other provisions specify the leadership, organization, and conduct of meetings of the members, described in precise
detail but too extensive to be reported on here.
Although the excerpts included here may not fairly represent it, the compact as a whole expresses Zhu’s
conviction that education through joint participation in proper rites and community functions is far more effective for
achieving social harmony and promoting general welfare than attempts at forced indoctrination or punitive laws.

MUTUAL ENCOURAGEMENT OF VIRTUE AND MERITORIOUS DEEDS

“Virtue” means being sure to act upon seeing the good and being sure to reform upon hearing of
faults; to be able to govern oneself; to be able to govern one’s family; to be able to serve father and elder
brothers; to be able to instruct sons and younger brothers; to be able to manage servants; to be able to
serve superiors; to be friendly with relatives and acquaintances; to be able to choose friends; to be able to
maintain integrity; to be able to extend kindness; to be able to fulfill a trust; to be able to relieve a distress;
to be able to correct faults; to be able to plan things for men; to be able to accomplish things for the
people; to be able to resolve conflicts; to be able to decide right and wrong; to be able to promote the
beneficial and abolish the harmful; to be able to hold office and reinvigorate offices.

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 “Meritorious deeds” means, at home, serving one’s father and elder brothers, instructing one’s
children and younger brothers, and managing one’s wife and concubines. Outside, it means serving one’s
superiors, entertaining friends, instructing students, and managing servants. As to reading books,
overseeing the fields, managing the household, helping creatures, and favoring the practice of rites, music,
archery, charioteering, writing, and arithmetic—all are the kinds of things that should be done. To do
anything not of that kind is of no benefit.
The foregoing virtuous deeds should be the subjects of individual emulation and mutual
encouragement. At meetings of the compact members they should be cited as cause for mutual
congratulation, and the names of those performing them should be recorded for the encouragement or
admonition of others.

MUTUAL CORRECTION OF FAULTS

“Faults” means six faults of violating right conduct, four faults of violating the compact, and five faults of
unbecoming conduct.
The faults of violating right conduct:
1. Drunken quarreling, gambling, fighting, litigation.
Drunken quarreling means a brawling argument under the influence of wine.
Gambling means gambling for valuables.
Fighting means assaulting and reviling.
Litigation means accusing someone of a crime with the intention of harming him. If [however] it
is a case of going so far that someone attacks and injures another and is accused of it, it
[litigation] is not to be disallowed.
2. Excessiveness and abnormality in conduct.
The many evils of exceeding and deviating are all included.
3. Irreverent and unyielding conduct.
To be rude to those of virtue or age; to bully men and to impose on people by relying on one’s
superior strength; to know of a fault and not change; to hear remonstrance and do even worse.
4. Stating what is not true and not being trustworthy….
5. Making up statements of false accusation and slander….
6. Managing things to one’s own undue advantage.

The faults of violating the compact:

1. Not mutually encouraging virtue and meritorious deeds.
2. Not mutually correcting faults.

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 3. Not mutually observing rites and customs.
4. Not mutually expressing sympathy for the distressed.

The faults of unbecoming conduct:

1. Mixing with men not of the right kind….
2. Rambling, playing around, and idling….
3. Acting without proper manners….
4. Not treating pressing matters with due care….
5. Uneconomical expenditures….

Those who have joined the compact should each examine themselves in regard to the foregoing faults and
mutually admonish one another. If the fault is slight, confidential admonition is in order; if it is great,
group admonition is called for. If the person charged will not listen, then at a general meeting the head of
the compact, so informed, shall try to reason with him and if he agrees to reform, the matter shall simply
be recorded in the register, but if he resists, will not submit, and provides incorrigible, all shall agree to his
ejection from the compact….

De Bary: Not included here are the norms for mutual participation in family, community, and seasonal rituals,
prescriptions with regard to polite social correspondence, wedding gifts, help with funerals, proper mourning dress,
and so on. Seven kinds of calamities calling for mutual aid are indicated, including fire and flood, catching robbers,
illness, death, orphanhood, false accusation, and aid to the poor in times of distress. There is a general emphasis on
sharing information and offering help to those in need, while setting reasonable standards as to what kind of help one
might be expected to give….
Finally the compact concludes with detailed instructions by Zhu Xi on the holding of meetings of the
compact members….

Every month there shall be a meeting where a meal is served. Once every three months there
shall be a gathering where wine and a meal are served. The person in charge each month shall be entered
in a register and rewards and penalties administered. Any troublesome matter should be dealt with on the
basis of general discussion. [SCT, pp.751-4]