The tyranny of history

by W. J. F. Jenner

Over a quarter of the human race lives within the borders of China, the empire that has outlasted all its rivals from the Roman to the British. But, claims the author, the Chinese empire is in terminal crisis, a crisis that goes much deeper than the decline of the current regime and threatens the survival both of China as a unified state and of the high tradition and culture that span more than three thousand years. According to Professor Jenner, China has been both held together and held back by the tyranny of its history, by a culture and an education system that have always looked back, have rooted authority in the past and have inhibited creative thinking. Although in this century the orthodoxy has borrowed the language of Marxism, 'revolutionary' history has contrived to celebrate the authoritarian values of the imperial bureaucracy and the single orthodox tradition of pre-revolutionary China. The tyranny of China's past is not simply a matter of history and politics, however, but