The Tao of Darwin, Part 2

In this episode, senior contributing editor Prego de Nada continues his queries with the chatbot about the evolution of Chinese civilization as Taoism and Confucianism, two opposing philosophies, each found a role in society.  The purpose of this investigation is to cast light on the contest in our time between the evolutionary thinking that stems from the scientific study of nature, and the intelligent-design thinking that is the legacy of Europe's feudal period.  The discussion concludes with a query about the introduction in China of the Western philosophy of Marxism, and how this development is playing out.

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The Tao of Darwin, Part II

 Good day to you, and welcome to Fascinating!  I am your host Rik, from Planet Vulcan.  My ongoing mission on Planet Earth:  to plant seeds of a way of thinking, a way that is based on an understanding of evolutionary processes, with the ultimate aim of helping to sustain and increase the momentum of Earth’s long arc towards prosperous and happy societies, founded on ideals of liberty and justice.

 In the previous episode, senior contributing editor Prego de Nada wrote about parallels between the ancient and ongoing contest in Asia between Taoism and Confucianism, and the contest in our time between Darwinian evolutionary thinking and the legacy of intelligent-design thinking in the western world which was inherited from European feudalism.

 Taoism and Darwinism have much in common, and so do Confucianism and medievalist intelligent-design thinking.

 Prego asked his chatbot some further followup questions, and here is his report.

 I would like to begin by acknowledging that Chinese civilization has a long an intricate history; and that I have no particular expertise in this subject.  The focus of this essay is to talk about modern evolutionary thinking, about which I do have considerable expertise; and my intent in having a look at the Chinese experience and Chinese philosophical systems is to shed light on modern evolutionary thinking, and NOT to offer lessons on Chinese culture.

 So:

 After querying the bot about the differences between Confucian and Taoist thinking, and about what are the modern equivalents of Confucianism, and based on the bot’s reply, I then asked, “Over the centuries and milennia, how have the two philosophies shaped the evolution of Chinese culture?”

 Here is a summary of the reply to that query:

 The interplay between Confucianism and Taoism has profoundly shaped Chinese culture over millennia, influencing everything from government and education to art, medicine, and daily life. Their combined influence has created a unique and charming balance between structure and spontaneity, duty and freedom, social order and individual harmony.  

 Confucianism became the dominant philosophical and ethical system in China, influencing governance, family structures, and education, and it can be understood as the backbone of social order in that society.

 Confucianism was institutionalized during the Han Dynasty, which ruled between 206 BCE and 220 CE, during which time the civil service exam system was established.  To become part of the civil service, you had to become well versed in Confucian texts and demonstrate moral integrity.

 To demonstrate moral integrity, a prospective civil servant had to answer hypothetical questions on the exam in such a way as to demonstrate an understanding of basic Confucian principles; and it was a common practice for the examiners to conduct inquiries into a candidate’s reputation, and for the candidate to sit for an oral exam with senior officials.

 Confucian ideals were intended to promote a stable hierarchical society, where rulers were expected to govern with wisdom and benevolence, and citizens were expected to fulfill their duties.

 Filial piety, extending to what is often described as ancestor worship became the foundations of Chinese family life, along with a presumption that it is men who exercise final authority.

 The education of children emphasized moral cultivation, discipline, hard work and achievement.

 Chinese scholars devoted themselves to study and commentary on the Confucian classics, as well as becoming versed in the arts, especially painting, calligraphy and poetry composition; but except for astronomy and mathematics, not much of what would today be classified as scientific investigation (unless you count the study of alchemy, which many explored as a possible path to immortality).

Taoism offered a contrasting philosophy, one that embraced spontaneity, contemplation of nature, and individual freedom.

 The disciplines of Qigong and Tai Chi, emphasizing energy flow and balance, became part and parcel of spiritual practice. And when Buddhism arrived in China via the Silk Road trade routes, Taoism and Buddhism influenced one another and combined in the form of Chan Buddhism, more commonly called Zen.

 The I Ching, the Book of Changes, actually predates Taoist texts, but has been incorporated into Taoist thinking.  It consists of 64 hexagrams – consisting of different combinations of solid lines (representing Yang) and broken lines (representing Yin) with accompanying commentary, which people use for all sorts of thinking, including divination, reflection and contemplation, and decision-making.  It posits change as the only enduring principle of life, and it can help anyone who cares to make use of it to gain insight into the flow of change and to go with it.

 Traditional Chinese medicine incorporates many Taoist concepts, like life force, yin-yang balance and the five elements: wood, fire, earth, water and metal and the symbolism that derives from viewing elements in this way.

 An example of the symbolic use of the five elements can be seen in the study of martial arts, where you can be “like water”, as the legendary Bruce Lee taught.  There are other martial arts styles where you can likewise be like wood, like fire, like earth and like metal.

 Bruce Lee cannot be compartmentalized, however, and when asked what the best school of martial arts is, answered by saying that “if it helps you in a fight, use it”.

 Taoist influence can be seen in art, poetry, calligraphy and martial arts, with its themes of nature worship, fluidity, adaptability and spontaneity.  

 Taoism and Confucianism blended over time, even though the fundamental notions are oppositional, as are evolutionary thinking and intelligent-design thinking.  Many Chinese have a dual outlook, and embrace Confucianism for social and family life and Taoism for personal and spiritual pursuits: “Confucianism by day, Taoism by night”.

 This dualism has been evident even in Confucian scholars of high rank, who routinely have participated in Taoist retreats and a contemplation of nature without regarding such a thing as inappropriate for a Confucian.

 The bot concludes:  the interplay between Confucianism and Taoism has shaped Chinese civilization for over 2,000 years.  Together, they create a balance between order and spontaneity, social duty and personal freedom, and hierarchy and nature.

 I then asked the bot, “How has Marxist political ideology interacted with the evolution of Chinese society and governance?”

 The bot replied:

 The introduction of Marxist political ideology in China, through Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), profoundly reshaped Chinese society, governance, and economic structures over the last century.  Marxism as a political ideology never really sat comfortably with the Chinese, even though the CCP still pays it lip service.

 The Chinese Communist Party came to power after the followers of Mao defeated the Kuo Min Tong after a protracted conflict. The Kuo Min Tong had been founded by Sun Yat Sen after he and his followers overthrew the corrupt and ineffectual Qing Dynasty in 1911.  Sun Yat Sen is still referred to as the father of modern China because he was instrumental in ending imperial reign.

 The attempt to achieve ideological purity and a planned economy under Mao’s Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution produced only disaster and stagnation for China, and much misery and early death for the Chinese people.

 The Great Leap Forward attempted rapid industrialization and collectivization of all production.  A typical project that was supposed to help the leaping happen was backyard steel furnaces.  Individual households were assigned production quotas, and to meet the quotas people were melting down useful metal objects and producing only slag.

 Peasants were told to kill birds, because birds were supposedly competing with humans for food.  Unfortunately, birds were also eating insects, and after the birds were gone, insects multiplied out of control and destroyed crops, and along with other ridiculous but fashionable efforts under the direction of the CCP, quickly led to a famine in which an estimated 30+ million people died.

 The Cultural Revolution was instituted to root out “bourgeois” tendencies.  The Red Guards, a group of young fanatics, created incredible destruction and economic chaos in pursuit of their ill-defined ideals.  Political purges and indiscriminate mass persecution ensued.

 Fortunately for China and the Chinese, Mao died in 1976 and the cultural revolution soon ended.  Under Deng Xiao Ping, his de facto successor, the emphasis shifted from the pursuit of ideological purity to economic reforms.

 Peasants were now permitted to sell surplus crops and people in general were allowed room to engage in some entrepreneurial business.  Deng’s reforms made the country more hospitable to free enterprise, and foreign investment was attracted and welcomed.

 The result of Deng’s reforms was a period of spectacular economic growth.  Deng was never chairman of the CCP, but he was the de facto leader until his death in 1992.

 For a thorough and scholarly economic analysis of this period, I recommend “How China Became Capitalist”, coauthored by British-American economist Ronald Coase of the University of Chicago and Chinese economist Ning Wang, who was an associate of Coase’s at the University of Chicago.

 You may recall that we have praised the work of Ronald Coase before on this podcast, particularly for his work on “The Problem of Social Cost”, for which he won a Nobel Prize.

 After Deng’s death in 1992 (and with his blessing, as revealed in his choice of successor) China began re-emphasizing totalitarian control by the CCP, and economic reforms have stagnated and have even been rolled back.  China’s leaders believe they can exercise strict control and still have the economic growth that stems from the efficiency that evolved under their experiment with free enterprise.

 My chatbot then gave me a somewhat surreal take as the conclusion of its reply to my question about the influence of Marxism on Chinese societal evolution.

 It said that China’s adoption of Marxism and its unique adaptation to Marxism has led to a strong state and rapid economic growth.

 I was somewhat taken aback when I saw this statement, because of its disregard of some important distinctions; although given how fashionable Marxianity is in the West, the data on which the bot was trained is heavily biased in favor of sanguine interpretations of Marxian influence.

 So I queried the bot with the following: “Some will point out that the onset of rapid economic growth coincided, not with the beginning of the influence of Marxist thought, but more with the influence of a lighter regulatory hand, under Deng, coupled with the unleashing of market forces based on supply and demand, also under Deng. If anything, the early Marxist era led to, among other things, a strait-jacketing of economic activity under the strict control of the party, with very poor results in terms of economic growth.”

 The bot replied:

 You're absolutely right. The rapid economic growth of China did not originate from classical Marxist economic principles but rather from Deng Xiaoping’s market reforms, which introduced capitalist mechanisms within a still-socialist political framework.

 Before Deng's reforms, China's economic policies under Mao followed a strict command economy model and top-down planning, leading to stagnation, inefficiency, and disaster.

 By the time of Mao’s death in 1976, China was one of the poorest large nations on Earth, despite three decades of Marxist three-year and five-year plans.

 The CCP had claimed an average annual growth rate of 2.9% from 1952-1978, although this was certainly an exaggeration, and many of the statistics were simply invented.  During the period following Mao’s death, economic growth has until recently averaged over 10% per year, and this figure is based on somewhat more reliable statistics.

 Hundreds of millions of Chinese have been able to climb out of poverty, and China has become the world’s second-largest economy, even though per capita income still lags.

 I then asked the bot “When did the rate of economic growth begin to decline in China?

 The bot replied:

 China’s economic growth began to slow down after reaching its peak in the early 2010s, with a noticeable decline from 2012 onward. 

 The bot listed some trends associated with the decline, including the end of the export boom as labor costs increased and exports became less competitive; an aging population; the trade war; and COVID.

 These trends are an inadequate explanation of the huge drop that began in 2012, where over the next ten years the growth rate has dropped to less than 3%.

 So I next posed this to the bot: “Isn't it true that under the Xi regime, economic liberalization has been reversed to some extent, and that this reversal is likely a major cause of the decline in growth?”

 The bot replied:

 Yes, under Xi Jinping, economic liberalization has been reversed to some extent, and this shift has played a major role in China's economic slowdown. Since coming to power in 2012, Xi has moved away from the market-friendly policies of Deng Xiaoping and his successors, favoring greater state control over the economy. This reversal has reduced private sector confidence, weakened investment, and contributed to declining growth.

 Xi has implemented a stronger role for state-owned enterprises; he has increased government intervention in tech, education and real estate; he has cracked down on entrepreneurs and private businesses; and he has embedded party committees in private companies.

 The results of these intelligent-design schemes have been predictable to anyone who understands the evolutionary nature of an economic system.

 Distortions have proliferated, most spectacularly in the real estate development sector, where we now see entire cities having been constructed but which still have no inhabitants – “ghost cities”.

 And the government response to the Covid pandemic, with its indiscriminate lockdowns and forced family separations, created far more damage and destruction than the virus itself did, as we have previously noted on this podcast.

 Xi has been replacing pro-market officials, and those with some technocratic expertise who have been in key positions, with Party loyalists.

 Unsurprisingly, foreign investment has plummeted, and so has domestic private sector investment.  Youth unemployment now stands at over 20%.

 Xi’s emphasis on state dominance, political control, and ideological rigidity has undermined the very market forces that fueled China's rise.  And in spite of the opinion of many mainstream Western Keynesian economists, China’s current problems will not be solved by any amount of macroeconomic fine tuning.  Mark my words.

 The CCP will soon be unable to claim with a straight face that anything but continued stagnation and decline will be the result of their increasing authoritarianism.

 In the previous podcast, I speculated about the future of the contest in the modern world between evolutionary thinking and intelligent-design thinking, and wondered if this contest would develop into a perpetual Yin-Yang state of opposition, ebbing and flowing while each way of thinking finds its own niches.

 This time could be different, due to the power of the scientific basis of modern evolutionary thinking.  Confucian intelligent designers were able to prevail in China possibly because the deep understanding of spontaneous emergent order that has been revealed by scientific investigation of natural and social processes wasn’t so widespread as it is in today’s world – the “universal acid” of evolutionary thinking spoken of by the late Daniel Dennett was not yet part of the picture.

 For the sake of future generations, I sincerely hope that China will once again liberalize, and that the CCP will cease answering anyone who challenges their authority by putting them to death.

 Thanks to Prego for this essay.

 It occurs to me that one feature of Maoist China has survived, and that is the notion that “Power flows from the barrel of a gun”.  Such a sentiment is at least understandable, even if ultimately flawed.  This quote is attributed to Mao Zedong, who was speaking at a time when European colonialists, in the course of fulfilling the White Man’s Burden, took away the right of the Chinese people to say yes and no. 

 The colonialists had to be rebuffed, and this sentiment helped to make the rebuffment stick.  However, the ruling party in China will eventually have to come to the realization that this sort of power is ultimately weakness in disguise, and that trying to make the exercise of this sort of power the basis of governing is inadvisable on many levels, most urgently because of the fact that it breeds resistance which will inevitably lead to overthrow by someone who opposes you.

 It is further inadvisable because it is cruel to just-plain-folks in China to force them to live with so few rights and under so many restrictions.

 The fundamental source of true power anywhere and everywhere is the thinking brain, and that is what all governments, and not just China’s, need to understand and live by.

 I invite you to have a listen to the next Fascinating! podcast and a look at the next video on our YouTube channel.  You can find access to all podcasts and videos on our web page, fascinatingpodcast.com.

 Please recommend Fascinating! to your friends if you find the lessons from nature in these essays personally valuable.

 Theme music:  Helium, with thanks to TrackTribe.

 Live long and prosper.

 Practice the art of winning without defeating anyone.

 Savor your experiences.

 Treasure your memories.

 Anticipate a happy and rewarding future.

 And respect nature’s wisdom.