Abstract
This chapter provides a detailed introduction to exemplary morality, or exemplarity, in China. Cody offers a conceptual framework of the term and discusses its mechanical and existential characteristics, situating this discussion within theories of charismatic authority. The chapter maps out several manifestations of exemplarity throughout Chinese history, including Confucian exemplarity but focusing primarily on various practices that are promoted by the Chinese Communist Party. “Exemplarity” concludes by discussing the implications of this history and argues that ordinary Chinese citizens are willing to self-appoint themselves as role models for others to emulate.
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Notes
- 1.
Exemplarity also has a long history in the West. Bryan Warnick (2008) identifies a number of perspectives and evolutions of Western exemplarity. First, the standard model, where role models and their actions are directly presented as worthy of imitation. To motivate students, the benefits of imitation are presented. Warnick believes ancient Greece and imperial Rome—and their philosophers and writers such as Socrates (470–399 B.C.E.), Plato (428–348 B.C.E.) and Livy (64 B.C.E.–17 C.E.)—are representative of this perspective. Second, nonimitative exemplars, where exemplarity is rejected in favour of self-reliance and the expression of the self. In this perspective, to follow others is viewed as a betrayal of the true self. Warnick argues that the philosophy of Rene Descartes (1596–1650)—to doubt everything—initiated this perspective. Later, exemplarity came to be viewed as a means of inspiration. This change in perspective was initiated by the work of Nietzsche (1844–1900). According to this perspective, looking at the greatness of exemplars can ‘open up new ways of seeing significance in the world’ (Warnick 2008, p. 352).
- 2.
In the Western tradition, role models are also extreme points of reference, never averages. They point to traits such as authenticity, beauty, perfection, integrity, charisma and aura in unique and powerful ways (Ferrara 2008). The ancient Greek poet Homer, for example, places the educational qualities of exemplary heroes such as Odysseus and Achilles at the centre of his stories about the ancient Greek world. Nietzsche took the ancient philosopher Zoroaster and adapted him into his otherworldly figure of Zarathustra; someone uncorrupted by the world that offers a vision of a new kind of role model for everyone, a superman (Nietzsche 2012).
- 3.
The individual who is a village chief or an elected councilwoman, for example, will be replaced when they leave their post. Even though they may remain individuals who are publicly recognised and even celebrated, they are unlikely to possess authority to the same degree they once held. It is also difficult to assess whether people under traditional or rational authority voluntarily submit themselves or whether they simply comply because they have no alternative. Being born in a particular village or with a certain citizenship, for example, comes with responsibilities and expectations over which one has little choice or control.
- 4.
There are many well-known examples of charismatic leaders in China and elsewhere. Hong Xiuquan, leader of the Taiping Rebellion against the Qing Dynasty in the seventeenth century, undoubtedly possessed charismatic qualities: he was the self-proclaimed brother of Jesus Christ and led an army estimated to comprise half a million voluntary soldiers (Hsü 1995). Mao Zedong was also certainly a charismatic leader at various times throughout his life, mustering millions of followers as he led the CCP and the establishment of the People’s Republic of China. Elsewhere, the American Jim Jones, leader of the radical leftist cult People’s Temple of Jonestown in Guyana, South America, was a charismatic leader. He attracted thousands of followers to his vision of communism and community before orchestrating the mass murder-suicide of over 900 residents in 1978.
- 5.
Ancient documents and literature show the influence of heroic Chinese figures over later generations. They provided material for myths and stories of the grandeur of ancient Chinese civilisation as well as elaborate illustrations of the worthy behaviours of great heroes. The Sage Kings, the mythical rulers and deities from three millennia B.C.E., and the Duke of Zhou, a member of the Zhou Dynasty (1100–221 B.C.E.) renowned for his capability and loyalty, are two such examples.
- 6.
Harding explores the process by which a non-religious person—in fundamentalist language, the unsaved listener—is converted into accepting religion into his or her life. The first step is when the non-religious person starts to acquire the language and attendant view of the world of the religious person—i.e. the saved speaker. This appropriation process can be unexpected and unsettling. Harding recounts her personal experience as an ethnographer immersed in her fieldsite; after narrowly avoiding a car crash one evening she unconsciously asked herself ‘What is God trying to tell me?’ (2000, p. 33). The non-religious person is now primed for conversion because the appropriation of the new language creates a ‘contested terrain—a divided self’ whereby he or she questions existing assumptions about the world and becomes open to different worldviews.
- 7.
Study sessions are a common pedagogic method used throughout China at all levels of government as well as in work-units and schools. In study sessions, cadres, employees and students are required to undertake a close reading (jingdu) of a short text, memorise it word for word and answer a series of questions to which there is only one correct response (see Kipnis 2011; Lu 2007).
- 8.
See Lewis (2008) for an exploration of individual agency and indirection through the medium of the joke in the Soviet Union and postsocialist Europe.
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Cody, S. (2019). Exemplarity. In: Exemplary Agriculture. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-3795-6_3
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