The Everlasting Empire: The Political Culture of Ancient China and Its Imperial Legacy

by Yuri Pines

Established in 221 BCE, the Chinese empire lasted for 2,132 years before being replaced by the Republic of China in 1912. During its two millennia, the empire endured internal wars, foreign incursions, alien occupations, and devastating rebellions--yet fundamental institutional, sociopolitical, and cultural features of the empire remained intact. The Everlasting Empire traces the roots of the Chinese empire's exceptional longevity and unparalleled political durability, and shows how lessons from the imperial past are relevant for China today.


Yuri Pines demonstrates that the empire survived and adjusted to a variety of domestic and external challenges through a peculiar combination of rigid ideological premises and their flexible implementation. The empire's major political actors and neighbors shared its fundamental ideological principles, such as unity under a single monarch--hence, even the empire's strongest domestic and foreign foes adopted the system of imperial rule. Yet details of this rule were constantly negotiated and adjusted. Pines shows how deep tensions between political actors including the emperor, the literati, local elites, and rebellious commoners actually enabled the empire's basic institutional framework to remain critically vital and adaptable to ever-changing sociopolitical circumstances. As contemporary China moves toward a new period of prosperity and power in the twenty-first century, Pines argues that the legacy of the empire may become an increasingly important force in shaping the nation's future trajectory.

Genres: China, History, Nonfiction, Politics

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2012

Reviews

[Hadrian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pines, a specialist on the early Chinese politics and culture, wrote The Everlasting Empire on the "interplay between the empire's ideological guidelines and their practical application": particularly, the "ideological prowess" of the pre-imperial and imperial period, with the intent of explaining how empire, in some form or another, lasted from 221 BCE to 1911. Pines makes his argument explicitly as a counter to arguments such as Karl Wittfogel's environmental determinism.

Pines starts his book with the quote from Mencius: "stability is in unity", before moving on a discussion of the intellectual flowering of the Warring States period (5th century BCE to 221 BCE), and the formulation of the idea of all China being unified under a single ruler. Unity, of course, is not always stability, and Pines does take care to describe the bloodshed, needless cruelty, and rapid collapse of the first imperial dynasty. The next chapter focuses on conceptions of rulership and the "true monarch" - omnipotent, with ritual supremacy, and yet surrounded by so many institutions to hedge against the abuse or monarchical ineptitude. While the idea was for a wise all-knowing emperor, Pines again notes that most emperors were profoundly mediocre.

Later chapters focus on the scholarly elite, local gentry, and the ordinary people themselves, before turning to the modern implications of the ancient disputes and debates over political authority, particularly the role of the Chinese Communist Party in establishing itself as a ruling elite, with unitary authority, and potentially a single locus of power.

Even with the force of his argument, I admit I still have some doubts - in that the dramatic changes in organization and authority across dynasties present a story of disruption, not of unbroken change across the centuries. Likewise, I understand why Pines would be skeptical of Wittfogel's old saw of "oriental despotism", but the importance of environmental factors - food, water, famines - are essential to understanding Chinese history. And to say nothing of the non-Han groups such as the Mongols or the Manchus. But all these are the expected points of difference over such a broad period and wide topic.

What stands out to me in reading this is how well Pines draws from so many primary sources, including those more ancient works of political philosophy written in classical Chinese. If you want to ask the big questions - how did an 'empire', in various forms, survive for so long - then this the kind of book you have to take seriously.

[Brent L · Rating 5 out of 5]

For many years I had been pondering the question of why Imperial China lasted for along as it did. 2000+ years is an impressive record! Through periods of fragmentation and disunity, foreign conquests and massive internal rebellions, Imperial China was robust enough to survive and reconstitute itself until the modern age.

Yuri Pines does a fantastic job of answering why- in this short, dense and thoughtful book. He examines the role of ideology, the institution of the Emperor, the role of the literati, elites and even fascinatingly the role of popular rebellions in contributing to the longevity of the Imperial system.

I feel so fortunate to be able to read scholarship of this quality, and will eagerly seek more books by Yuri Pines in the future.

[Xulin · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is a great model of imperial China. A more simplified model for China and any society lies in the interactions of three components: the regime (the supreme political authority, monarchs, emperors, presidents, etc.), the elites (potentates, bureaucrats, capitalists, etc.), and the commoners. As ordinary people, we would rather live under a regime that acts in the name of commoners to suppress elites, than in a society where elites control the regime to exploit us. Fortunately, our Chinese civilization has always favored the former.

[J · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting, don't take the time I took to read this as an indictment of its quality. Pines does an excellent job of blending history with political theory, making it an interesting, well-structured survey of Chinese political philosophy in the imperial period. I did hope for a bit more linkage to modern political structures, but can't fault Pines for not doing too much on that, what he did do was well executed.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

An enlightening monograph that analyses the enduring unity of the Chinese empire over two millennia and how unity was and remains a central ideological tenant of Chinese political thought.

Well-researched with an extensive bibliography and endnotes, Pines offers a concise and compact yet detailed analysis and will be beneficial in aiding a greater understanding of Chinese politics.

[Lauren Albert · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I didn't really understand Pines' discussion of post-Revolutionary China, I found his discussion of the role of ideology in sustaining the Chinese Empire up to that point interesting. Fear of chaos mattered more than desire for other things like political democracy.

[Mu-tien Chiou]

Pines 在此書要強調的是：

中國的帝王制度歷經2000多年，雖然因應各種時局變遷而有一定的彈性，但背後已經形成中國政治哲學的基本思想品質。 現在13億人的PRC背後仍然是這套思考，以古鑑今才能瞭解當代天朝強國在西方人眼中的諸多怪象。（就像要瞭解西方當代政治脈絡，必定要學習奧古斯丁思想、改教運動／更正教的認識論與政治神學。）