The fa Tradition Versus Confucianism: Intellectuals, the State, and Meritocracy

The Confucian and the fa traditions are often treated as antipodes, but this view is not entirely accurate. Both shared common political objectives, but proposed radically different means to attain these objectives. This chapter focus on a single aspect of comparison—the views of the proper relation between the educated elite and the state. Whereas both traditions broadly agreed that skilled and ambitious men should be employed in the government, they disagreed dramatically about the conditions for entering government service. In a nutshell, Confucians wanted to join the ruler-centered political order on their own terms, retaining a considerable degree of intellectual and moral autonomy. The educated elite itself should define who is eligible to join its ranks as a “noble man” (junzi 君子). Even when serving the ruler, the noble man should maintain his dignity, independent mind, and commitment to the moral Way. For the fa thinkers, these views were a direct threat to the political order, first, because they opened the way for manipulative and unscrupulous fake “noble men” to enter government service, and second because the elite empowerment undermined the cherished principles of impartiality and orderly monarchic rule. The debate between the two currents had profound ramifications on traditional Chinese political culture in general, and on the complex pattern of China’s meritocratic government in particular. Some of its aspects may still be relevant today.