The tyranny of history

Over a quarter of the human race lives within the borders of China, the empire that has outlasted all its rivals from the Roman to the British. But, claims the author, the Chinese empire is in terminal crisis, a crisis that goes much deeper than the decline of the current regime and threatens the survival both of China as a unified state and of the high tradition and culture that span more than three thousand years. According to Professor Jenner, China has been both held together and held back by the tyranny of its history, by a culture and an education system that have always looked back, have rooted authority in the past and have inhibited creative thinking. Although in this century the orthodoxy has borrowed the language of Marxism, 'revolutionary' history has contrived to celebrate the authoritarian values of the imperial bureaucracy and the single orthodox tradition of pre-revolutionary China. The tyranny of China's past is not simply a matter of history and politics, however, but derives equally from the Chinese writing system, which is inherently authoritarian, and the Chinese family, which inhibits both individuality and a sense of citizenship and provides the building blocks of the autocratic state. The very successes of pre-modern China's productive technology have left the present with an ecological nightmare that recent economic growth has only exacerbated. This remarkable book, by a very experienced observer of Chinese history and culture, greatly deepens our understanding of recent events and the challenge of the future. Democracy, though appealing as a slogan to some Chinese, will not easily find a place in the China that W.J.F. Jenner portrays. Yet he also sees hope as the tyranny of China's past and the unity of the Chinese imperial state begin to unravel and the many local components of the Chinese world assert their own identities and defend their own interests.