After reading the Honourable Jung Chang's book Wild Swans Fu-Manchu was impressed enough to prepare this humble synopsis of the Middle Kingdom for future readers of this book.

Institutional Organisation

Institutional organisation of China has revolved around the family for several millennia. Communication across the country was forever bad until the twentieth century. Ultimate authority was vested in an emperor, devolved from the emperor down to the peasantry through the male bloodline. Each head of family was held personally responsible for the conduct of family members, including servants and concubines. Groups of families would be responsible to a family of higher rank. In this structure, control of the population could be exercised and taxation levied. Poor communication meant that district governors could become very powerful, and they did.

Powerful heads of families became powerful warlords. Filial piety was strengthened by the philosophy of Confucius. Political advancement required patronage even though a civil service exam existed for centuries. Often it was not what you knew but who you knew that counted, and, of course, how well you oiled your path with bribes. Justice was entirely arbitrary, often exceeding cruel. Corruption and court intrigue was a way of life for anyone above the status of peasant. Loyalty to one's family and organisation applied to everybody.

Civil War & Security

In the past most Chinese never moved far from home, for often the geography would preclude widespread travel. Wild animals such as tigers and bandits added to the difficulty of going a journey. In consequence groups of people knew little of what was going on farther from their home district, their whole world circumscribed by the control of the local lord.

Warlords fought one another for political advantage and, at the same time, a refined civilisation flourished; there was much for the upper classes to lose. A wall was built; begun in the third century BC by linking the walls of states along the northern frontier, Ming engineers put finishing touches to it thirteen-hundred years later. Designed to keep the foreign devils and their barbarity in check, the Great Wall stretches along the edge of the Mongolian plateau from Gansu province in the west to the Yellow Sea in the east, a distance of fifteen-hundred miles. Dowager Empress Cixi and her Manchurian court became decadent and ineffective. Life continued tough for the ordinary people.

National Collapse

With the decline of the Manchu dynasty, China, in its weakened state, was repeatedly humiliated by western European and Japanese powers. Civil war weakened China further. Japan, in search of natural resources, manufactured reasons to take more Chinese land. Eventually, Japan abandoned pretense and began full-scale invasion of Manchuria. Taking a stand, the Guomindang and Communists joined forces to drive out the Japanese and Japanese brutality. In 1945 the Japanese surrendered in China. Civil war resumed between the Communists and the Guomindang. Guomindang corruption was rampant and it was the cities that they occupied. Mao Zedong increased his power, surrounding the cities by occupying the countryside. Corruption was the downfall of the Guomindang.

Resurrection

Taking power, the Communists restored the country to working order, bringing much sought after peace. In an effort to prevent patronage and corruption, the Communists worked to replace the family hierarchy with the Communist Party structure and loyalty to the Party. Sadly, an independent judiciary system and other checks and balances that we take for granted in the West went begging. Instead China was re-made into a monolithic party system oiled by modern communication. Mao remained head of this organisation and became bored with peace and the concomitant prosperity. Instead of being invaded by the barbarian from without, China was destroyed by the barbarian from within.

Self-induced Hardship

First a Mao-induced famine and loss of face for the Chairman; an interregnum then Cultural Revolution. The Cultural Revolution was a lie. In truth it was an anti-cultural revolution that scorched the country, destroying an ancient civilisation. Mao was a revolutionary never happier than when revolving and plotting the demise of his enemies. In other circumstances such a person would have been retired with honours as Winston Churchill was retired after the war: Churchill was the man to rally the country to fight a war, but he was not the man to run the country in peacetime. Mao was economically incompetent; a great hand at stealing a march on the enemy yet worthless at the economics of steel production and farming.

Inevitable History

Recent history of China was inevitable. If China could have avoided the stupidity of the famine and the Cultural Revolution, the country would be more highly developed and prosperous. China had huge insoluble problems, the cure almost killed the patient. China's cure was drastic, yet there is reason to hope for a brighter future.

Personal Struggle to Live

Jung Chang has succeeded wonderfully with her book Wild Swans, its broad sweep across three generations clearly illustrates the inevitability of China's cure through the intimate story of a family's struggle to live. The book is an act of filial piety and a warning to us all of the danger of absolute power. Civilisation is a thin, thin veneer; a delicate plant that requires constant care and attention.