International Social Science Journal (Chinese Edition)

No.4, 2022

The Charisma of Rites: Max Weber on the Balance and Static State of China

(Abstract)

Mingzhen Li and Shiyu Wang

Weber provides a paradigmatic answer to the question of China’s failure to modern capitalism spontaneously based on a comparative study of civilizations. China’s unique creation of the imperial examination bureaucracy balanced the desire for domination by the arbitrary family monarchy with the desire for monopoly by local prestige families, replacing it with a pacifist bureaucratic class that was not hereditary but enjoyed a privileged position in society. The amalgamation of the scholar class with this-worldness, practically rational bureaucratic class decisively shaped the direction of charisma into the sanctification of the present order in the form of ritual, and the system of ideas centred on ritual and filial piety in turn gave conceptual legitimacy to the dominance of the scholar class. This balanced, self-consistent structure of thought and domination is the reason why Chinese civilization has remained stable and static for so long, but also has restricted the development of new elements of great potential.