Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No.12, 2013

 

Cultural Institutions and the Construction of the State-from the Perspective of “Writing the Same Script” and the “Official Language” (Mandarin)

(Abstract)

 

Su Li

 

The word “state” is not just a territorial concept, but, more importantly, refers to political, social and cultural communities. How to link up highly dispersed agricultural villages, integrate and build a political and cultural communities, and, on this basis, set up different levels of government organizations and agencies in order to achieve stable political governance was a task faced by every dynasty in ancient China. Once unification had been “won by war,” that is, gained by military and political means, the two major cultural institutions of “writing with the same script” and the “official language” were indispensable to the subsequent civil government; they were vital to the formation and cultivation of successive generations of political and cultural elites who belonged mentally, emotionally and imaginatively to this state and civilization instead of to the agricultural communities where they had been born, resided and passed their lives. It was because of these political and cultural elites that reading and literacy were important to the development and expansion of historical China and had a sustained involvement in its construction.