Korva is a scroll of the internet’s best ideas.
Progress needs both I and we
In the West, agency means I can do it, the individual, and progress there is closely tied to that belief. Asking the same question about the history of China meant measuring two kinds: we agency, the collective, and I agency, the individual.
The balance between the two is what predicts population, innovation, GDP, and the like. When we agency in the form of the state is very high and crushes individual agency, China stagnates and regresses.
When collective agency and individual agency are in balance, that is when progress breaks out.
Why did China's competing states foster new ideas?
Between 770 and 221 BCE, China was divided among rival states, first in the Spring and Autumn period and then in the Warring States period. Rulers competed for talent, and wandering scholars traveled between courts offering advice. Many schools of thought emerged, among them Confucianism, Daoism, Mohism, and Legalism. They are sometimes called the Hundred Schools of Thought.
What happened after the Qin unified China?
The Qin state conquered the last rival state in 221 BCE and governed according to Legalist principles of strict law. Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian, written about a century later, recounts that in 213 BCE the Qin government ordered the burning of many books held outside official collections. The dynasty collapsed in 206 BCE, about fifteen years after unification.
More from Hidden Brain
