1.The Inherent Logic and Developmental Tendency of the Practice of Building Socialism with Chinese Characteristics: A Structural Analytical Framework for the Questions of “Where Did China Come From?” and “Where Should China Go?”

Han Qingxianga and Zhang Jianb

a Party School of the Central Committee of CPC

b Party School of CPC Tianjin Municipal Committee

Abstract:The practice of more than 30 years of building socialism with Chinese characteristics contains within it a five-step evolution: “functional thinking → government leadership→ theoretical guidance → hybrid structure → the people in the principal position”; in the course of the further development of the practice of building socialism with Chinese characteristics, the important responsibility and mission of Chinese Communists (exercising governance for the people) and the new expectations of the people (innovative practice) determine that its basic tendency should be to carry out reform and breakthroughs at three levels: “deep structures → core institutions → operational means,” embodied in “structural adjustment → restructuring → change of methods → construction of order.”

Keywords: practice of socialism with Chinese characteristics, inherent logic, structural analysis

 

2.Has Transport Infrastructure Promoted Regional Economic Growth?—With an Analysis of the　Spatial Spillover Effect of Transport Infrastructure

Zhang Xueliang

Institute of Finance and Economics, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics

Abstract:Taking full account of the synergistic effects of multidimensional factors on regional economic growth in China, this paper constructs a model of the spatial spillover effects of transport infrastructure on regional economic growth. Using provincial panel data from 1993 to 2009 and employing spatial econometric techniques, our empirical analysis comes to the following conclusions. (1) The total output elasticity of transport infrastructure for regional economic growth varies between 0.05 and 0.07, indicating its important role in such growth. (2) Transport infrastructure has very clear spatial spillover effects on regional economic growth; its role in regional economic growth will be overestimated if these are neglected. (3) For a specific region, transport infrastructure in other regions has mainly positive spillover effects on economic growth, but there is also evidence of negative spillover effects. (4) Among multidimensional factors contributing to regional economic growth, labor plus capital stock from other parts of the public sector make the greatest contribution to regional economic growth in China, followed by the new economic growth factors and new economic geography.

Keywords: transport infrastructure, spatial spillover effects, regional economic growth, spatial econometric model

 

3.Report on a Research Experiment on the Independent Sentencing

Procedure:A Sample from the Wuhu Model*

Chen Weidonga and Cheng Leib

a and b School of Law, Renmin University of China

Abstract:The standardization of sentencing is an important issue in the Chinese reform of criminal justice and sentencing procedure. This study draws on the material obtained from a sentencing procedure pilot project and employs typical experimental methodology to test the effect of implementing the independent sentencing procedure through overall and paired comparisons. The results show that independent sentencing is viable in that it can significantly improve the transparency of the sentencing process and increase the quantity and amount of sentencing information obtained and employed by judges. Although the degree of satisfaction of participants in the procedure is not as high as expected, the results in trials of the first instance appear to have greater legitimacy and justifiability. At the same time, the independent sentencing procedure also helps give substance to the function of the collegiate bench, and can thus be taken as an important entry point for deepening court reform. However, the findings of our study show that there was room for improvement in the role of lawyers in this experiment.

Keywords: procedural reform of criminal justice, standardization of sentencing, independent

sentencing procedure, relatively independent sentencing procedure

 

4.Understanding Strategic Behavior: A Preliminary Analytical Framework*

Zuo Xiyinga and Tang Shipingb

a and b School of International Relations and Public Affairs, Fudan University

Abstract:To understand complex state behavior, a detailed study of strategic behavior is needed. To get rid of what is out-of-date and take in fresh perspectives, we need to eliminate the current methodological bottleneck and take full advantage of multivariate research methods to explore the complex interactions among variables and develop a basic analytical framework. First, strategic behavior should be divided into four stages, i.e., strategic assessment, strategic decision-making, strategic mobilization and strategic implementation, then the factors affecting each stage should be clarified and their interactions grasped. A preliminary framework for understanding state strategic behavior will help to promote the in-depth development of this field of research.

Keywords: strategic behavior, analytical framework, factor combination, methodology

 

SPECIAL ISSUE: TRADITION: THINGS THAT COULD BE INTERPRETED

 

5.Introduction

Shu Jianjun

Social Sciences in China Press, CASS

 

6.“Things Become” and “Things Becoming”: Tradition and Cross-cultural Systems

Yue Daiyun

Department of Chinese Language and Literature, Peking University

Abstract:From cosmology to the various kinds of epistemological thinking to the visible and invisible guiding principles in every aspect of common people’s daily lives, all these, combined and discussed, are what is meant by “tradition.” Tradition is composed of two layers: “cultural tradition” and “traditional culture.” The ancient books in China are part of the legacy of Chinese culture and form an important component of Chinese “traditional culture.” That kind of accumulated interpretation and study constitutes the ceaselessly extended line of descent of “cultural tradition” in China. That “process” varies due to different actors’ interpretations and explanations of canonical writings and objects from different eras, and therefore the tradition formed by the “process” changes continuously. This is seen especially in the rise of the “constructivist” post-modernist intellectual trend that emphasizes the “systematic conception of the organic whole,” resisting the unipolar and homogeneous nature of global culture and offering theoretical grounds for the equal co- existence of different cultures while striving for the world-wide victory of the multicultural. Since the world is entering a pluralistic and changeable age, we need to study tradition, its variation and constancy, and its development in cross-cultural dialogue, in order to make tradition a positive power that promotes innovation in mankind’s spiritual realm and propels mankind into a more rational and more beautiful society.

Keywords: China, traditional culture, cross-cultural, multicultural

 

7.An Anti-traditional Tradition: The American Idea of Liberal Education

Michael Roth

Wesleyan University

Abstract:The American idea of liberal education does not have a consistent thread running through it. The tradition of liberal education pioneered by Thomas Jefferson emphasized liberal learning and the diffusion of knowledge, but its object was still elite education. However, the inheritance of its core ideas of “freedom of speech and useful skills” led to sustained “anti- traditional” changes in American thinking about liberal education. Targeting the excesses of American business culture, Ralph Waldo Emerson proposed focusing on reflection and experiential learning, injecting new life into the anti-traditional tradition. American liberal education is still making necessary adjustments to the latest trends of our new era, and will continue to do so.

Keywords: liberal education, Thomas Jefferson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, anti-traditionalism

 

8.Expounding Neo-Confucianism: Choice of Tradition at a Time of Dynastic Change—Cultural Conflict and the Social Reconstruction of Early Qing

Gao Xiang

Social Sciences in China Press, CASS

Abstract:During the dynastic change from Ming to Qing, the Manchu and Han cultures also changed places. The transfer of political power and the change in the fortunes of the scholar-officials pushed change in tradition to the forefront for both individuals and groups. In all these conflicts, the crucial element was undoubtedly the way the Manchu ruling stratum, Han Neo- Confucian officials and the Han loyalists of the Ming dynasty retrieved, deserted or changed their own traditions. Outside the intense political culture, Confucianism, typified by Neo- Confucianism, took a political stance that neither criticized existing realities nor opposed tradition. By expounding Neo-Confucianism, its followers made contact with and tested out the Qing regime, establishing a new tradition. The Qing regime, with Emperor Kangxi as its head, interacted with Neo-Confucian officialdom and established a new Confucianized cultural tradition. Having personally witnessed the Qing regime’s cultural choices, the political attitude of the late Ming loyalists underwent a transformation and they relinquished their own view of tradition. These choices in relation to tradition, with differing perspectives depending on the times and differing degrees of intensity, along with the absence of a resort to force, subvert our stereotypical judgments about Chinese tradition.

Keywords: Neo-Confucianism, Kangxi, Confucianization, loyalists

 

9.Ancient China’s Legal Tradition and Legal Thought

Zhang Jinfan

Institute of Legal History, China University of Political Science and Law

Abstract:China’s pre-modern legal system enjoyed a continuous history of more than four thousand years. In the course of this long process, it developed distinctive legal traditions, including a tradition that prioritized agriculture, a stress on criminal law at the expense of civil law, an ethical orientation that stressed the five Confucian relationships, an approach to the legal traditions of different ethnic groups that embraced diversity in unity, and a Confucianized legal system based on virtue and ritual. These legal traditions were all based on the accretion of a deep-rooted legal culture which embodied the wisdom and creativity of the Chinese people. At the same time, they bore the stamp of China’s national conditions: an economic structure dominated by agriculture, an autocratic political system, a multi-ethnic national structure, the preeminent position of Confucian thought, the uneven development of politics, culture and the economy, etc.

Keywords: founding the country on agriculture, autocracy, ethics-based law, kinship ties and geographical proximity, legal culture

 

10 .On the Fate of Traditional Culture in Modern China

Jin Chongji

CCCPC Party Literature Research Office

Abstract:Traditional Chinese culture covers a variety of ethical principles and behavioral norms that have arisen from thousands of years of Chinese social life to handle interpersonal relationships in an appropriate way. Such principles and norms are a typical expression of Chinese people’s wisdom in the analysis of their surroundings. However, traditional Chinese culture also contains some poisonous thinking that has been carefully nurtured by feudal rulers to maintain their power. In the practice of the great social changes of pre-1949 China, after repeated experience, people gained a relatively clear and comprehensive understanding of traditional Chinese culture: it should neither be totally affirmed nor totally rejected. Rather, we should analyze it concretely, endeavoring to separate the dross from the essence. In late Qing and Republican China, traditional culture was continuously handed on and renewed, and this process will be carried on and on.

Keywords: traditional culture, Opium War, 1911 Revolution, modern Chinese history

 

11.The Confucian Merchant Tradition in the Late Qing and the Early Republic and Its Contemporary Significance*

Ma Min

Institute of Chinese Modern History, Central China Normal University

Abstract:In the late Qing, as the social status of merchants rose, the Ming and Qing phenomenon of combining business with learning became increasingly visible and its ranks expanded. Common characteristics were “talking of business but still inclining towards Confucianism,” and the lack of a dividing line between “business” and “Confucianism.” Among them, Zhang Jian and Jing Yuanshan were the best examples. These late Qing Confucian merchants shared a similar business ethic and formed a new tradition: helping bring Confucianism into business while holding fast to Confucian character ideals; gaining profits through righteousness and seeking shared benefits for all under heaven; cultivating virtuous behavior and conducting business ethically; enthusiastically promoting the public good and dedicating themselves to giving back to society; and establishing schools and educating the talented, pledging themselves to develop education. The late Qing and early Republican tradition of Confucian merchants has an important significance for the contemporary rebuilding of an ethical commercial culture. The question of how we can draw on its best points to construct a commercial morality and spirit of enterprise for this new era urgently needs to be addressed.

Keywords: Confucian merchants, tradition, moral rebuilding

 

12.Ethical Tradition and Modernity: The Problem of Ethical Culture in the Context of Modern China

Wan Junren

school of Humanities, Tsinghua University

Abstract:This paper reexamines the metamorphosis of China’s moral and cultural traditions in the course of modernization over the last hundred years and the complex relationship between Chinese modernity and the moral and cultural traditions latent in this metamorphosis, in the context of contemporary China. We deduce and demonstrate the following basic conclusion: modern China’s attempt at resolving the dichotomy of liberalism and conservatism of moral cultural traditions shows that the country’s post-tradition ethical culture faces the dilemma of whether to hold on to tradition or abandon it. However, the final result may be that modern China is still “within tradition” rather than “outside tradition.” The only difference is that new socialist morality has risen dramatically to prominence out of intellectual debates in the last century and has become the mainstream moral culture of modern China. However, this does not represent something that is purely alien or “outside tradition,” but rather a new stage in the development of Chinese moral tradition and Chinese modernity; it is still part of the chain of transmitted variants in China’s long, profound and continuous moral cultural tradition.

Keywords: moral culture, modernity, post-tradition, within tradition, outside tradition