social mobility this provided was designed to reinforce social hierarchy,
not undermine it.
The means by which social order was given overt expression
and reinforced was through li, meaning literally ‘ritual’, but denoting a
much wider range of religious and secular ceremony down to what we
would call social etiquette. The term derived from the formal ritual
performed during the rites of divination, and was subsequently
extended to performance of all collective religious ceremonies. By
further extension, licame to refer to the polite behaviour expected of
individuals in everyday social intercourse. For Confucius there was a
prescribed way to behave towards both superiors and inferiors. Each
such behaviour, graciously performed, reinforced the social order.
The Chinese way of war
Confucius conspicuously failed to achieve what he had hoped to in his
lifetime. The warring states continued to war. From this period dates
an entirely different, but similarly practical, body of writings, not on
government, but on the conduct of war. Six of the texts traditionally
making up the seven military classics of ancient China date from the
time of the warring states. These texts advise rulers on the strategy and
tactics of warfare, with one end in mind—complete victory over the
enemy.^3 To this end, all available means are justified, including espi-
onage, sabotage and deception, in order to inflict defeat at the least
cost to one’s own forces. Morality is sacrificed to expediency. Indeed
the writers of these treatises on war stand closer to Machiavelli than
they do to Confucius.
Much has been made of these military classics as embodying a
Chinese way of war which all later Chinese commanders, down to
Mao Zedong, drew upon and applied. They have been extensively
commented upon by both Chinese and Western scholars, who have
pointed out how little reference they make to Confucian morality.^4
A Short History of China and Southeast Asia