The Political Culture of East Asia : A Civilization of Total Power

This book explores the phenomenon of total power in East Asia, with particular attention to China, Korea, and Japan. It shows how total power enables an examination of regional experience as a part of global context in order to demarcate the connections with other countries and regions that have similar political cultures, such as those in Central Asia, the Middle East, and East Africa. Moreover, it elucidates that the phenomenon of total power unpacks the interrelations not only between different countries, but also between political, economic, religious, or cultural aspects of the region as a whole, and of each country in particular. This book takes East Asia as a classic example of where total power has achieved the highest forms of development during traditional periods in the form of absolute economic dependence of society on the state, ideologically enshrined by a system of moral obligations toward supreme power that allowed for the establishment of a monopoly on forced labour, and the appropriation and distribution of social products. The author emphasizes the importance of exploring the tradition of total power with reference to the ongoing global crisis of European democracy. In doing so, the book shows that democratization has not brought qualitative changes to the political culture of East Asia. An essential interdisciplinary read for scholars studying political science, particularly East-West relations, this book situates East Asian political culture within a global context. Acknowledgements Contents 1 Introduction 2 Chinese Universalism and the Birth of East Asian Civilization 2.1 Chinese Universalism: Sacred Power Becomes Total 2.2 Total Power Constructs Hydraulic Infrastructure 2.3 Total Power Oscillates from State to Society and Back 2.4 Korea and Japan Adopt Chinese Universalism of Total Power 2.5 Position in the Chinese World Order Determines Development of Social Organization 2.6 Chinese Universalism Confronts Local Conditions of Korea and Japan 2.7 Total Power in Search for Stability 2.8 The Yuan Dynasty Puts Korea and Japan on Separate Paths 2.9 Choson Dynasty Completes Koreanization of Chinese Universalism 2.10 Japan Continues the Search for Stabilization of Total Power 2.11 Togukawa Shogunate Completes Japanization of Chinese Universalism 3 Modernity Turns Total Power into Total Chaos 3.1 Commercialization of Social Life Corrupts but Does not Undermine Total Power 3.2 Qualitatively New Changes Take Place 3.3 Western Influence Magnifies the Effect 3.4 “Barbarization” of China: East Asia Adapts to New Realities 3.5 China and Korea Have Reached a Deadlock 3.6 Total Disintegration of Total Power 3.7 The Power of Kuomintang: Already Dictatorial but Not yet Total 3.8 Japanese Emperor and Chinese Communists Bring a Ray of Hope 4 Japan Finds the Solution 4.1 The Failure of Chinese Universalism in Japan Was Blessing in Disguise 4.2 Emperor of Japan: Destruction of Traditional Order Does not Mean Descent in Chaos 4.3 Emperor of Japan is the Basis of Modernized Order and Stands Above Any Order 4.4 Real Power is in the Hands of Bureaucracy 4.5 Japanese Empire is in Trouble: China to the Rescue! 5 Anti-Chinese World Order of Japanese Empire 5.1 Emperor of Japan Claims His Superiority of Son of Heaven 5.2 The Main Principles of Anti-Chinese World Order 5.3 The Crisis of Japanese Imperialism Was the Crisis of Its Sinocentricity 6 Nationalism in East Asia: It is All About China 6.1 Nationalism in Japan and Mongolia: Desperate Attempts to Break up with China 6.2 Terror in the Name of Re-Unification with Mainland in Taiwan 6.3 North Korean Nationalism: Kim Il-Sung is Keeping up with Mao Zedong 6.4 South Korean Nationalism: Park Chung-Hee is not Keeping Pace with Kim Il-Sung 6.5 Total Power of Mao Zedong’s “Mass Line” 6.6 China Pulls East Asia into Neoliberal Globalization 6.7 Neoliberalism is not What It Seems 6.8 “Mandate of Heaven” Goes to Washington 6.9 Neoliberalism Seeks for Total Power (and Finds It in East Asia) 6.10 Neoliberalism Goes from Vox Populi to Vox Naturae 7 Larger Than China: Total Power in East Asia and Beyond 7.1 Radical Sinocentrism of Southeast Asia 7.2 Go West: Chinese Universalism Has Gone Beyond Chinese World 8 Conclusion Bibliography