Thought beyond the boundary: the Ming yimin Wei Xi’s unique idea of statecraft (Jingshi)

Abstract

The rapid collapse of the Ming dynasty confused many of its contemporaries and the cause of Ming demise became one of the key issues the early-Qing literati were concerned about. However, despite their significance, some ideas such as “the Confucian distinction between gentleman (junzi) and little man (xiaoren)” and its relationship to the rise and fall of a dynasty, advanced by Wei Xi, one of the best-known “Nine Scholars of Yitang” (Yitang jiuzi), did not receive adequate attention. In Chinese tradition, moral integrity was considered to be of paramount importance to political correctness and legitimation. All institutional arrangements and legal measures, when finally in practice, would be assessed according to the personality and motivation of the executant. Therefore, few people would dare to suggest learning from little man and people would find this shameful. However, after analyzing the causes of Ming fall, Wei Xi was brave enough to advocate that gentleman should learn from little man. As a matter of fact, Wei’s suggestion of gentleman employing the methods of little man was a great advancement beyond traditional Chinese moralism and might lead to an emphasis on the significance of rule by law, a system based on law rather than political leader. In other words, the political ideas of Wei were different from most of the Confucians, who insisted on the Confucian way of rule by virtue. His criticism of the gentleman who failed in real politics, in fact, revealed that he did not trust the Confucian political model of rule by virtue which had prevailed for thousand years in imperial China.