This is an authored volume of Dr. Yao's “big-picture” writings on China and the West, translated by David Ownby. Those writings are selected from his writings as a public intellectual, reflecting his thought on China’s path of modernization and the effort to rebuild a political philosophy based on Confucianism, his interpretation of China’s political system and his prescriptions to improve it. A moderate, yet influential scholar, Yao's work has had great influence on Chinese social and economic policymakers; his project of renewing China's traditional value system is an important position, as Chinese reforms begin to focus on equity and inclusion. In an engaging, at times personal, and thoughtful volume, Dr. Yao's vision of a gentler Chinese society will interest Sinologists, political scientists, and journalists.
Author(s): Yao Yang
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 270
City: Singapore
Contents
Introduction
Foreword
Yao Yang: Public Intellectual, Liberal Economist, Confucian Pragmatist
Introduction
Public Intellectuals and Their Career Trajectories in China
Yao the Economist
Yao Yang and Life in China’s Villages
Yao Yang and Confucianism
This Volume of Translations
Is a New Cold War Coming? (2020)
My Family, My Village and China’s Modernization
The Vanishing Town (2002)
Three Days Back in the Village (2005)
Epilogue
Notes of 2023
Before My Grandfather’s Portrait (2009)
“My View of Revolutionary History” (2019)
Revolution Is a Tool for Modernization
The Inevitability of Revolution
The Path of Chinese Modernization and Its World Significance (2022)
The Birth of the Chinese Communist Party
The Socialist Revolution and Its Significance
Land Reform
Women's Emancipation
Building a New Socialist Culture
Socialist Construction
Industrialization
Human Development
Reform and Opening: Reconciling with the Chinese Tradition
Pragmatism
Meritocracy
The Return to the Market Economy
The Meaning of the Revolution Reexamined
The World Significance of the Chinese Path
New Wine in an Old Bottle: A New Interpretation of Confucianism
The Confucian State: An Ideal Type of Governance for China? (2020)
The Confucian World
Confucian State vs. Liberal Democracy
On the Virtuous Ruler
The Selection of Political Officials
Performance of China’s Current Political System
Two Changes Were the Most Significant
Why the International Discourse on China Is Too Simplistic
Introducing Checks and Balances into China’s Political System
The CCP Should Complete Its Sinification
Go Beyond Liberal Democracy: Insights from Confucianism (2017)
The Contradictions of Liberal Democracy
The “Democratic Decline” Brought About by Liberalism
What Confucianism Can Teach Us
Contemporary Chinese Practice
Confucianism and Liberalism (2021)
How Do Confucians View Equality?
How Do Confucians View Individual Value and Self-Determination?
Confucianism and Common Prosperity (2023)
An Analysis of “Worry not About Scarcity/寡 but About Uneven Distribution/不均”
Social Function at a Micro-Level: The Role of Incentives
Invest in the People’s Income Capacity
Restoring the True Face of Politics in Chinese History: Qian Mu and His Book Successes and Failures of Chinese Politics Throughout the Ages (2020)
A Basic Periodization of China’s Political History
The Spring and Autumn Period: The Age of Aristocratic Politics
The Qin Dynasty: “Turning Family into State,” Unifying China and Building a Bureaucratic Empire
The Han and Tang Eras: Completing the Task of “Turning the Family into the State” and Improving the Bureaucratic Empire
The Song Dynasty: The Dawn of Chinese Modernity
The Ming and Qing Period: From Rigidity to Decline
Turning Back to China: Understanding the CCP
The End of Ideology? (2002)
The Dilemma of China’s Democratization (2009)
The Social Foundation of Democracy
Economic Growth and Popular Demands for Democratization
The Democratic Movement of the 1980s
Economic Growth and Low Democratic Demand
Accountability, Responsiveness, and Their Relationship to Democracy
Understanding the Chinese Communist Party System (2018)
Neutralization of the Party
Depoliticization
The Disinterested Government
The Constitutional Status of the Party
The Chinese Communist Party as a “Selectorate”
Political Selection in China
Competence and Political Selection
The Question of Justness
Improvements and the “New Narrative”
Accommodating Diversity
Monitoring the Selectors
A New Narrative
The Sinification of Marxism: The CCP’s Most Urgent Ideological Challenge (2021)
Modernization: The CCP’s First Hundred years
Legacy and Reality
Marxism Meets Confucianism
Concluding Remarks
Name Index
Subject Index
