Une histoire du présent. Gouvernement rituel et gouvernement d'État dans la Chine ancienne

A History of the Present. Ritual Government and State Government in Ancient China. This is an interpretation of the transition ancient Chinese history from the ritual and segmentary state order (Xia Shang and Zhou periods) to the first centralized impe- rial despotic state in 221 BCE. The fact that in 1973 during the Cultural Revolution, a political campaign called "Criticize Lin, Criticize Confucius" which upheld the school of Legalism and attacked Confucianism in ancient Chinese history, makes this period especially relevant for understanding the state socialist order in China today. The article explicates the ancient Confucian concept of li (ritual) and argues that ritual, kinship, and gift relations were central elements of polity which did not yet experience the emergence of centralized bureaucratic and militaristic state. In contemporary socialist society, the resurfacing of gift relations in everyday life hearkens back to the ancient resistance to frightening new state order.Yang Mayfair, Séné Jean-François. Une histoire du présent. Gouvernement rituel et gouvernement d'État dans la Chine ancienne. In: Annales. Économies, Sociétés, Civilisations. 46ᵉ année, N. 5, 1991. pp. 1041-1069