| Highlights of Dawn | May 1972 |
Mr. Nixon’s Chinese Junket
MONDAY, February 21, 1972 was a historic date in the touchy relationship between the United States and China, for on that momentous day Richard M. Nixon and his entourage stepped down from his plane at Peking to be greeted by Chairman Mao Tse-tung and Premier Chou En-lai, while the strains of the national anthems of each nation sounded strangely in their ears. This unprecedented visit aroused the keen interest of the entire world, and well it might; for it set in motion political waves that would touch the shores of every nation on this ever-shrinking planet.
Just what is this China, now visited for the first time by a President of the United States while still in office? What is Mr. Nixon’s interest in it? What does he hope to accomplish?
Apart from the obvious domestic political considerations involved in his visit, Mr. Nixon is genuinely interested in trying to prevent a third, and potentially catastrophic world war. It is generally conceded that another such war might well reduce civilization to ashes. And no doubt he believes that the tensions presently existing between the two great communist powers offers an opportunity, by paying his respects to each, to play one off against the other in the interest of world peace. But this kind of political magician ship requires great dexterity, and can be risky; for in trying to produce harmless doves of peace from the diplomatic hat, one might wind up instead with an angry dragon, or an unmanageable bear on his hands—or both!
The Middle Kingdom
Perhaps, to many, the mental picture that is evoked by the word “China” would show the Great Wall of China, bare-legged, wide-hatted women working in flooded rice fields, dingy opium dens, or countless ricks has being drawn through narrow, overcrowded streets. A restricted picture, to be sure! There are, however, certain facts about China of which we can be certain. For one thing, it now comprises about one-fourth of the earth’s population—in itself a factor to be reckoned with. It is made up of a proud, sturdy people born of the amalgamation and absorption, over the millennia, of succeeding waves of invaders from the west and north. It is a country that long regarded itself as the center of man’s universe; by Chinese it is called Chung Kuo, the “Middle Kingdom,” about which all else revolves, and to which all other peoples have been expected to pay tribute, if not in material things, certainly in deference and homage.
The Chinese pride themselves on their ages-long civilization, tracing their beginnings back into the shadowy past, from which were handed down their legends, language, learning, and traditions, from generation to generation. The art of writing was practiced in China some 1,500 years before Christ. Actual documents of Chinese literature are extant that date as far back as the eighth century B.C. While Europe was still inhabited by “barbarians,” China had an organized government, a culture, a literature. They invented paper, the compass, gunpowder, and even the art of printing, it is believed, before this device was known in Europe.
China has always been, and is preponderantly so today, an agricultural nation, producing grains, rice, cotton, silk, and fruit, with some eighty per cent of the people gaining a living directly from the land. Its inhabitants have been farmers for over four thousand years, typically on small family holdings, and even today most work is done by hand. Manufacturing and commerce did not develop as in other parts of the world during the industrial revolution. There is reason to believe that this was no accident, but rather was by design of the ruling classes, since an unlearned, unskilled rural people depending on the land for their meager subsistence is less likely to be troublesome. And for most of the 6,000 years of its history the story of the peasant class, making up the great bulk of the population, has been one of grinding poverty, and oppression by local petty officials.
Putting the Giant to Sleep
These last-mentioned conditions would seem to explain the development, and ready acceptance by the masses, of the various philosophical systems that successively invaded China and captured the minds of the people.
One of the first of these philosophies to affect Chinese thinking was Taoism, a system of belief and ethics reputedly established by one Lao-Tze, supposedly born about 600 B.C., and whose teachings were later propounded by a Chinese named Chuang-Tze. Whether or not such a man as Lao-Tze ever lived is uncertain, but at any rate it is believed that there may be as many as 50,000,000 followers of Taoism in China today.
The meaning of the word “Tao” is somewhat obscure, but it may be broadly comprehended in the thought “The Way,” presumably the way of heaven, or the way of nature. The Tao, or way, may be conceived of as a pantheistic mysticism, in which the entire universe is held to be God, and in which every part of the universe is a manifestation of God; that is to say, God is nature, and nature is God.
In its ancient and purest form Taoism advocated the practice of quietism, a form of mysticism in which the mind is oblivious to external happenings, yielding itself completely to the course of natural events. The Taoist ceased from all striving (possibly because it was largely fruitless) and sought to escape from the illusion of desire through contemplation. In point of fact, he was probably trying to escape from the intolerable conditions about him. The ultimate goal of mankind, it taught, was to come, finally, into harmony with the Tao.
Down through the centuries the Taoist philosophy has come to permeate great areas of Chinese life and culture, and is much in evidence today in Chinese art, its poetry, and its drama. The original concept of Taoism, however, has virtually disappeared, having long been supplanted by a later form of Taoism that is more akin to magic, astrology, and alchemy, with its priests practicing exorcism and geomancy, so that today it is little more than a combination of witchcraft, animism and demonology—another area, of course, that has much appeal to the ignorant and the suffering.
Even medicine has been profoundly affected by the later corrupt Taoist influence, with its charms and incantations playing an important role. Thus Taoism seems to have deteriorated from its original somewhat idealistic concept to a form that plays upon the fears, ignorance, and superstitions of the common people. But it was still an effective tool in keeping the masses lulled.
The Buddhist Search for Peace
Another of these philosophies that entered early into Chinese thought was Buddhism, which grew out of the teachings of a good man and teacher by the name of Siddhartha Gautama. He is generally believed to have lived about 563-483 B.C. in India, and was the son of a wealthy ruler of a district near Nepal. He was evidently a gentle and sensitive man, for he was deeply moved by the seemingly universal human misery by which he was surrounded—disease, hunger, death. He later wrote:
“Then did I … think thus, ‘An ignorant, ordinary person, who is himself subject to old age … on seeing an old man is troubled, ashamed and disgusted, extending the thought to himself.’ … As I thus reflected on it, all the elation of youth utterly disappeared.”
Thus saddened, he renounced his life of ease, and became a hermit and wanderer. While resting under a tree he was supposed to have been given great understanding as a reward for his asceticism. The system of thought that he subsequently founded was thus the result of his initial revulsion to human sufferings, and was designed to present a way of escape from this unhappy condition, for himself and his devotees. As his fame and teachings grew and were accepted, he was given the title Buddha, “the enlightened one.”
Buddhists do not believe in the soul—the person is not, indeed, an individual; rather, he is merely a transitory grouping of elements formed from the primal stream. The process of forming, dissolving, and reforming one’s identity in various subsequent kinds of existence is continuous. But since suffering is inherent in any and every form of existence, the ideal state for which the Buddhist strives is nirvana, or the ultimate condition of nonexistence. This sought-for end is finally attained only by those who have completely banished all desire, at which time the elements comprising the transitory self return to their primal source.
The path to nirvana, nonexistence, ultimate peace, is found by adherence to certain noble precepts: the Buddhist is to harm no living creature; he is to be careful of his speech, his thoughts, his conduct; he is to be gentle, compassionate, self-renouncing.
Buddhism arrived in China during the first century, A.D. Its impact on the Chinese mind (a commentary, perhaps, on the hard conditions into which it was introduced) may be judged from that fact that there are in China today some 80,000,000 followers of Buddhist doctrines. But as so often happens with other religions or philosophies with the passage of time, Buddhism in China today is divided into many sects, some of which bear little resemblance to the original teachings of Buddha—but they all retain their power to entrance their devotees.
Islam Tries Its Hand
It is not certain when Islam, or Mohammedanism, found its way into this vast land, but it is estimated that there are some twenty million adherents of the religion in that nation today. The word “Islam” means “submission to God,” or Allah, a mighty, just, and merciful God, in whom alone one may have hope. The religion was founded by its prophet Mohammed, a title meaning “praised” in Arabic.
Mohammed lived about A.D. 570-632. He was born in Mecca into modest circumstances, but his marriage at the age of twenty-five to a wealthy widow permitted him leisure for religious contemplation. Paganism, which he rejected, was rife. In addition to his contact with Paganism, the man who was later to be known as Mohammed delved rather deeply into Judaism and Christianity, from which religions he seems to have borrowed the doctrine of monotheism, as well as other teachings. Indeed, some of his writings appear to be but a paraphrasing of parts of the Old Testament. One such passage follows:
“All that is in the heavens and the earth has given glory to Allah; He is the Sublime, the Wise. To Him belongs the kingdom of the heavens and the earth; He giveth life and He causeth to die; He over everything hath power. He is the First and the Last, the Outward and the Inward; He everything doth know. He it is who created the heavens and the earth in six days, and then sat firm upon the throne. He knoweth what penetrates into the earth and what comes forth from it, what comes down from the heaven and what mounts up into it. He is with you wherever ye are; Allah, of what ye do, is observant.”
Also, Abraham and Jesus are listed in the Koran, the sacred book of Mohammedans, as among the prophets of Islam, of which prophets Mohammed claimed to be the last. He also taught that Jesus will return at the end of the world to execute judgment on the people, and that heaven will be the reward of the faithful (Islamites, presumably), while the traditional hell awaits the infidels (non-Islamites).
The Moslem is required to state his belief that there is but one God, and that Mohammed was his prophet; he must pray five times daily; he must give alms very generously; he must keep the required fast, and, if possible, he must journey to Mecca at least once in his life. In addition to the Koran, which is held by Moslems to contain God’s latest revelations, as made to Mohammed, the Moslem accepts the Sunna, reputed to be a collection of the moral sayings of their teacher.
“Jen”
The next important system of philosophy that influenced the Chinese mind was Confucianism, comprising the ethical precepts of K’ung Fu-tse, a Chinese sage better known to most of us simply as Confucius, who was born in Shantung province about 551 B.C., and lived some seventy years.
In its original form, Confucianism was a moral and philosophical system designed to guide man in his relations with his fellows, the essence of which relationship was embraced in the word “jen,” or sympathy. By the third century B.C. it had gained a following, and it was adopted as the state religion of China in the seventh century A.D.
Jen sought to relieve the five principal relations between man and man: between sovereign and subject, parent and child, elder brother and younger brother, husband and wife, and friend and friend; the filial relationship being held the most important. The smooth functioning of these various relations was promoted by the observance of “li,” which was a combination of etiquette and ritual. No doubt, a more peaceful and harmonious relationship between the various elements of society was thus achieved, for which the ruling elements of these people would be glad.
Later on, in the Sung dynasty (960-1279), to combat the inroads of the so-called “meditative” methods of self-improvement and search for peace, Neo-Confucianism appeared on the scene which, in contrast with the quietistic techniques of other philosophies, advocated the active pursuit of understanding. It is interesting to note that this circumstance is considered by some to have constituted the earliest beginnings of the scientific approach to knowledge. In former times Chinese education consisted of learning the Confucian classics, and Confucianism has been the chief foundation of Chinese society for many centuries.
Education Displacing Religion
The earliest form of Christianity to arrive in China was known as Nestorianism, in the seventh century, but eventually this virtually disappeared. In the fourteenth century Catholicism was introduced, and in 1807 Protestant missionary work was started. Oddly, the impact of Christianity has been negligible, for in China today there are perhaps three million Catholics, and possibly one million followers of the Protestant faith.
In fact, there has been in modern times a turning away by many Chinese from all forms of religion, particularly on the part of the young and educated. To combat this trend, there has arisen a tendency by the various religions and philosophies to adapt to the new conditions by reforming and restating their doctrines in a form more acceptable to the attitudes of present day Chinese, who are turning more and more to education, and who have been much disillusioned by developments in their country for a century past.
It would appear, then, that the philosophical systems sought deliberately to ignore and shut out of one’s consciousness the reality of suffering, and aimed to provide relief through asceticism, through contemplation, through “self-improvement.” The web of reasoning embodying some of their concepts of man’s relationship to an external force, to his existence, to his destiny, is often devious, and sometimes difficult of comprehension.
But the formation of these various philosophies was motivated by an inescapable recognition of the evils and the sorrows that beset so much of mankind, and the fact that death is reigning throughout the world. They were induced by a sincere search for some way, some means, to make these sufferings endurable in this present life, and to provide some vague, indefinite hope of happiness beyond this vale of tears. And since for most of mankind no literal relief appeared possible, the only means of escape that seemed available was philosophical. How true are the words of the Apostle Paul, “It is plain to anyone with eyes to see that at the present time all created life groans in a sort of universal travail.”—Rom. 8:22, Phillips
As one takes note of these various concepts, it is found that they contain much that is commendable: they urge love, respect, and compassion for one’s fellows; they appeal for honesty and industry, gentleness and self-denial—and these qualities are always proper and admirable. In thus setting noble standards of conduct, these systems surely can do much to make life more endurable to the unfortunate.
While these systems of thought varied in certain ways one from another, they possessed a common denominator—in a vast country like China where life for most was hard, they acted as an effective tranquilizer, molding the masses of Chinese into an essentially quiescent people, while the ruling officials and rich landlords enjoyed their position and their wealth.
Sun Wakens Sleeping Giant
It was into this environment that the boy who was later to become Dr. Sun Yat-sen was born of peasant parentage. As he matured he was appalled by the conditions about him. He smelled the poverty, and felt the oppression of the people. He was stung by the humiliations forced upon his country by selfish foreign powers. He deplored the ignorance in which the people were kept by the ruling classes.
But these things did not move Sun Yat-sen to sit down and produce a further philosophical tranquilizer for his people. He thought that something should be done about it. At the age of nineteen he boldly decided to devote his life to an attempt at correcting the situation by fighting to remove the powerful Manchu government, and establishing in its stead a republic. Twenty-six years and many adversities later, on December 24, 1911, the revolution of which he dreamed and for which he planned having finally succeeded, Dr. Sun was offered the post of President. In the interests of harmony, he generously, but unfortunately, relinquished this position to the corrupt and ambitious Yuan Shi-kai, who did, however, force the Emperor to abdicate, and on February 12, 1912 China became a republic.
During these chaotic times, Mao Tse-tung was growing to manhood. He too, like Dr. Sun, was dismayed by the sufferings of the masses, and by the evils of the government, at this time under Yuan. He turned to Communism, joining himself to the movement that eventually defeated Chiang Kai-shek, and came into power in 1935 with himself as the Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party. After long years of struggle, internal and external, on October 1, 1949, Mao proclaimed the establishment of the new People’s Republic of China, and he has since been the generally accepted leader of the Chinese people.
The Little Red Book
What sort of man is this Mao Tse-tung, to negotiate with whom the chief executive of the mightiest nation on earth went half way around the world? And why, after so many years of vicious denunciation of the United States, did he consent to receive Mr. Nixon?
As a child, Mao also had suffered the hardships common to most of his people. His father had come from a poor peasant family, but by dint of great industry he had achieved a measure of affluence. This had the effect, however, of directing Mao’s sympathies to those about him who were in greater need. His talent for writing manifested itself early in life. He loved and wrote poetry, devoured books avidly. At the age of eighteen, while in high school, he wrote an essay advocating the adoption of the republican form of government. Later, he spent five years taking courses in a teachers’ college, meanwhile studying politics and economics, and discussing these things with his friends.
Mao was a clever, tough-minded individual. He was definitely a man committed to action, but he too, like the renowned philosophers before him, had learned the power of the pithy precept to condition the minds of the people. But unlike his philosophical predecessors, he did not use that power to lull the people, but rather to stir them to revolution. Far from urging the people to submit supinely to the abuses of the bourgeois, and philosophically accept these as their appointed lot, he advocated violence, even war, by the peasants to overcome their tormentors. His aims and the methods by which he planned to achieve them are revealed in some of his writings as contained in the little red book that is so universally carried, idolized, and studied by Chinese Communists today.
For instance, concerning the aims of the cultural revolution, Mao observed that for ages the people had been taught to respect traditions and customs, and to exercise submission to nature, to the government, to their landlords. Now, he said, in one giant leap, and in the interests of revolutionary change and progress, all that previous thinking was to be jettisoned.
Revolution Not Like a Dinner Party
Mao was not above using harsh methods to accomplish the aims of the revolution. Nothing was too drastic, for in his mind the end clearly justifies the means. In defending the excesses of the peasants against the landlords and the gentry, he said that a revolution is not like inviting people to your home for dinner. Revolution, in its simplest terms, is an act of violence whereby one class overthrows another. He suggested that good revolutionaries keep their swords sharp.
Nor is Chairman Mao without personal vanity. It is said that he enjoys to the full the adulation of the people, and takes much pleasure in appearing before a multitude, each waving his little red book, the symbol of the cultural revolution. Just as the Chinese of countless earlier generations studied the writings of Confucius, Buddha, and others, so should they; and so do they today study the sayings of Chairman Mao.
The thoughts and principles which he expresses had their roots, he admits, in the Marx-Lenin doctrines, except that Mao believes these should be applied according to the specific problems encountered in a particular situation. Their application in China, for instance, would not necessarily be the same as in Russia. Mao states in no uncertain terms that the state is everything, the individual having no choice but to advance the wellbeing of the state and the party. All are admonished to study his writings and teachings, and to act in harmony with them.
Mao declares that he wants peace to prevail in the world, but believes that there are wars that are justifiable; for war is merely a means to gain desired ends that cannot be gained politically. He believes that nothing will convince your opponent that he is wrong as will a gun. He is brutally practical and frank, noting that if the state would be dominant, it must control the army.
He has harsh words for “U.S. Imperialism,” with its hydrogen bombs. He sets forth a principle that may well have an ironic application to the negotiations now aborning between the United States and China, when he comes out for peaceful coexistence with imperial nations, indicating that China should strive to avoid war with them, and even engage in exchange of goods with them—and then cautions, “but do not trust them.” This concept, of course, is in line with Lenin’s advice to the effect that one should make friends with his enemy, if it is expedient to do so, then make use of him, and finally discard him. Mr. Nixon, please take note! Perhaps this last should be sufficient warning to all not to expect too much of a constructive nature to emerge from the forthcoming discussions.
“I Am the Way”
There is one group of earnest watchers, however, who will not be disarmed by empty promises and false hopes. The Lord’s true people, knowing God’s plans and purposes as revealed in his Holy Word, do not expect peace on earth and understanding between nations and men to come from the frail human efforts of present-day statesmen. Neither do they look to the wise sayings and moral precepts of the ancient sages to plant lasting love, and mercy, and compassion in the hearts of mankind.
Taoism claims to be “the way” to complete happiness. But Jesus said that he was the way. He it is who, alone, will give peace to all men. Because of the sacrifice of his perfect humanity as a ransom for fallen mankind, all who are in their graves shall come forth, and experience the joy of going up the way of holiness, when God’s kingdom is established in the earth.
This blessed opportunity to gain perfect and everlasting life will not be restricted to any single nation, or to any single race, color or creed—it will be joyously open to ALL of mankind who have ever lived on this earth, including the long-suffering people of China! How beautifully the Lord states it, through his Prophet Isaiah:
“Thus saith the Lord, In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee: and I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages; That thou mayest say to the prisoners, Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Show yourselves. They shall feed in the ways, and their pastures shall be in all high places. They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun smite them: for he that hath mercy on them shall lead them, even by the springs of water shall he guide them. And I will make all my mountains a way, and my highways shall be exalted. Behold, these shall come from far: and, lo, these from the north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim [China].”—Isa. 49:8-12: “China,” Amplified Bible