Editor's Note: National governance has been a common topic for people worldwide ever since the beginning of human civilization. Yet whether their governance is effective or not largely depends on people's understanding of social and political life. Ancient Chinese people held the idea of 民惟邦本 (people are the foundation of the state), which has exerted a far-reaching impact on our social governance.

The state is the natural habitat of the people

The idea that "people are the foundation of a state, and a state can enjoy peace only when its foundation is firm" was formed at an early stage in the Shang (1600-1046 BC) and Zhou (1046-256 BC) dynasties and has been preserved until now, which could be proved by historical documents of the early Western Zhou Dynasty (1046-771 BC).

Ancient Chinese people differed from the ancient Greeks, who saw gods as the only source of truth and justice and believed that the world order relied entirely on gods' will; and from medieval Europeans, who held the belief that human society hinged on God's decision. When Chinese people could reflect on social and political life, they paid attention to human society and focused more on men as the protagonists of social life.

Understanding the entire social life and figuring out solutions for social problems through the understanding of people has been a common way of thinking for ancient Chinese philosophers. They tried to understand social life from the perspective of people with different social statuses, such as emperors, officials, and commoners who had their corresponding responsibilities and obligations.

Philosophers in ancient China thought that as the majority of the population, people played an essential role in social and political life. For example, Mencius, born in the Warring States period (476-221 BC), said in Mencius: "Of the first importance are the people, next comes the state, and of the least importance is the ruler."

The reason why people were considered important is that they were, and have always been, the primary condition for a country's existence. Without them, the country cannot exist. The premise for a country to exist is that it can appeal to its people. Only with sound national governance and the political life that stands for justice will the people be willing to live in this country.

Without the people, the country cannot exist, and the emperor cannot be enthroned. As Mencius's contemporary, Xun Zi compared fish and water to emperors and their people. "The lord is the boat; his subjects the water. It is the water that sustains the boat, and it is the water that capsizes the boat." Later in the Zhenguan period (627-649) of the Tang Dynasty (618-907), Emperor Taizong, Li Shimin, further explained that fish couldn't survive without water; however, the water remained the same even without fish. Between the emperors and the people, the latter one was indisputably more important.

"Win the people's will and you can win the world"

Ancient Chinese philosophers saw the people's importance as an entirety. In their opinions, the people played a decisive role in social and political life. They determined the political order and even the fate of a state.

When summarizing the history of the rise and fall of the Xia (2070-1600 BC), Shang, and Zhou dynasties, Mencius said the downfall of the first two dynasties was due to their loss of popular support. What he said was right. Throughout history, no dynasty could last long without the people's hearts. For rulers, if they wanted a sustained political order, the people's support was a must-have, and this was where the saying "Win the people's will, and you can win the world" came from.

Then, how to win the people's support? In the view of the ancient Chinese, the best way was that the ruler should give them what they liked instead of imposing on them things they disliked in the process of governance. Mencius once said: "There is a way to win the people's hearts: collect for them what they desire and do not force on them what they hate. That is all there is to it!"

The key to winning the people's support is to follow their wishes, which displays the traditional Chinese humanistic spirit in the aspect of governance principles. According to ancient Chinese philosophy, whether rulers can meet the people's needs is the basic criterion to evaluate their political measures. Nothing is more important than the people's will.

It is widely acknowledged that, to some extent, ancient Chinese people also admitted to the existence of gods. But gods, in their opinions, are fortune-tellers rather than the origin of dignity and truth. Therefore, usually, the ancient Chinese all believed that when it was time to make decisions about specific affairs in social and political life, the vital factor was not the divine revelation but the people's opinions. It was revealed in the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 BC), "when a state is about to flourish, its ruler receives his lesson from the people; and when it is about to perish, he receives his lessons from Spirits."

Ancient Chinese society has never experienced the governance of theology of religions like Europe in the Middle Ages. This is mainly because the idea of governance, which considers the people as the foundation of a state, has kept religion from entering Chinese social and political life.

Love the people and deliver well benefits to them

Such traditional Chinese idea highly focuses on the importance of the people, while also stressing the social responsibility of rulers, which urges them to love the people, bring them benefits, and ensure the basic livelihood for them by ethically exercising their power to maintain a stable social order.

When talking about how to rule a country, Confucius, the founder of Confucianism, said: "A country of a thousand war-chariots cannot be administered unless the ruler attends strictly to business, punctually observes his promises, is economical in expenditure, shows affection towards his subjects in general, and uses the labor of the peasantry only at the proper times of the year", which was later written in the Analects of Confucius by his students.

Traditional Confucianism believes that providing people with what they need and bringing them benefits are inescapable responsibilities of rulers and indispensable elements in maintaining their royal power. Only if they possess these elements can they achieve political success. Upholding such ideas, traditional Confucianism advocated moral enlightenment and politics that benefit the people and opposed tyranny solely based on punishment.

Those ancient philosophers deemed that to fulfill such responsibility, rulers should give priority to meeting the people's basic living needs and bringing them economic affluence in the process of governance in order to enrich the people first and then pursue national prosperity.

Moreover, they also suggested that emperors should be mindful of the hardships the people face and share happiness with them. Mencius once said: "The people will delight in the joy of a ruler who delights in their joy and grieve at the sorrow of a ruler who grieves at their sorrow. If a ruler shares joys and sorrows with the people of the world, he will undoubtedly be able to unify the whole world." He pointed out that only the emperor who cares about the people and knows what makes them upset or happy can be acclaimed as a great ruler. In social and political life, rulers should exercise their power in line with the people's will and avoid imposing their own will on their people. All in all, only the national governance that respects the people's will and ensures their interests can be seen as a good one.

Considering such responsibility, ancient thinkers advocated seeking benefits for the people. This has been not only the purpose of national governance but also the criterion for distinguishing good politics from bad ones. In the late Ming (1368-1644) and early Qing (1616-1912) dynasties, Huang Zongxi, a famous philosopher, discussed even further, "Whether there is peace or disorder in the world does not depend on the rise or fall of dynasties, but upon the happiness or distress of the people." In his view, the fate of a country did not depend on that of a dynasty or the transfer of royal power. What mattered was whether the people's living conditions had been improved. This shows that the understanding of the idea of putting the people first during this period has reached a new level.

Putting people first is the most helpful idea in the political life of ancient Chinese society. According to the history of Chinese dynastic states, as long as this idea was accepted by rulers, the national governance then rose to a higher level. There were many prosperous periods influenced by people-first ideology, such as the periods during the Rule of Wen and Jing of the Han Dynasty (203-141 BC), and the Zhenguan Reign of the Tang Dynasty (626-649 BC).

References:

[1] Wm. Theodore de Bary. Waiting for the Dawn: A Plan for the Prince---Huang Tsung-hsi's Ming-i-tai-fang lu. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999.

The views don't necessarily reflect those of DeepChina.

The author is Sun Xiaochun, a Kuangyaming Chair Professor at Jilin University and a professor at Zhou Enlai School of Government, Nankai University.