文档介绍：156
The Old Order
humanism, indeed, was something of an upper-class luxury.
The niceties of right conduct in social relations were less to
be expected from the unlettered.
All this meant that the acts of a person were to be judged
mainly by their contribution to social welfare and stability.
The individual as such was not exalted. He was neither
unique, immortal, nor the center of the universe. The proper
study of mankind was mankind. Emphasis upon individual
self-expression tended too often toward license and anarchy,
and so the Chinese tradition emphasized social conduct. Com•
promise and tolerance, perspective and sense of humor, wis•
dom concerning human nature, character achieved through
self-discipline, were all parts of a structure of goals and sanc•
tions which gave each individual his motivation within his
community.
Certainly this code may be called humanistic, in its con•
cern for human affairs, yet it fostered paternalism in govern•
ment and permitted a high degree of authoritarianism. The
official's task was to manipulate the people, not to represent
them. The emperor and his officials had sweeping preroga•
tives over the goods and persons of the economy. They creat•
ed at will state monopolies of salt and iron, controlled pro•
duction or distribution of various goods, conscripted labor
gangs and soldiery on a vast and merciless scale, forbade so•
cial gatherings and all anizations, and general•
ly ruled without fear of any higher law. Yet this absolutism
was tempered by an all-pervading concern with human rela•
tions and social stability. In spite of the theories and devices
of autocracy, the Chinese tradition distinctly did not put the
state above mankind. It was not etatisme. But the main rea•
son for this, less a matter of theory than of circumstance, was
that the government and ruling class remained superficial,
merely the top layer of the whole society. They had always
to remember that "Heaven sees as the peop