A system that is one death away from chaos
Image Credit: Pixabay
Han, Reign of Gaozu year 1, Luoyang, Imperial Palace
“Yet, his reign lasted less than two years. How did he lose power so . . . efficiently?”
“Political purges tend to have the characteristic of gaining persistent momentum that, in many circumstances, are difficult to curtail or conclude, especially in a sociopolitical system, such as Li Si’s Qin, in which all social and cultural institutions have been dismantled with a centralized political bureaucracy as the only entity remaining to bind the disparate sociocultural forces. Having unleashed such a deadly political mechanism, the fate of Qin central bureaucracy was already determined, the only uncertainty regarding the collapse of Qin authority was the rate of its political dissolution.”
“What prevented Li Si from stopping his purges? Why was Qin doomed to collapse?”
“Ha ha! When the very institution possessing all of a society’s legal, moral, and political power collapses upon itself, to whom would the authority to resolve such a conflict reside? Which emasculated social or cultural institutions would dare to raise itself above that of the political bureaucracy within the Qin Empire? Having undermined the politically expected imperial succession protocols with his execution of the crown prince, the Qin had to resort to increased use of terror tactics and obtuse force application. After all, if the youngest of the Qin princes with no official government position or title, with little to no political experience, could be elevated to the Dragon throne, then would not the sixteen other eminently more qualified Qin princes, or the various consorts of Qin princesses, cast their covetous glances at the Dragon throne? Such political threats, if not neutralized, could have resulted in inevitable civil strife.”
“Would the princes have revolted against Er Shi Huang?”
“Ha ha! Does it matter if they had such ambitions, your Majesty? Whether true or manufactured, all the Qin princes, princesses, and consorts were efficiently processed on charges of treason. Ideologically, having royal princes and princesses in positions of political influence would serve to decentralize authority and would serve to demonstrate the contribution of one’s sociocultural matrix in an individual’s eminence. From the perspective of Legalist thought, the very existence of royal clansmen as a competing political influence to that of the central bureaucracy would be anathema. Furthermore, meritocracy is untenable in a society with royal clansmen wielding enormous political influence simply due to the accident of their birth. To Li Si and his Legalist bureaucrats, the Qin princes and princesses were guilty, only the crime with which they were to be executed remained to be sorted. Their existence needed to be sacrificed for the efficient operation of the state.”
“ . . . and would this ideologic zealotry, given time, extend unto the emperor himself?”
“An emperor firmly grasping the reigns of the state, in his iron fist, is the central tenet of Legalist philosophy. However, the emperor in question does not necessarily require to be from a royal birth. After all, it was the Qin, whom all of Zhou states considered, and still consider, to be uncultured swines of the West, with whom it is unbefitting of humans to interact, that ruled over the Zhou people. Qin Shi Huang invented his title, thus cutting all traditional ties to the Zhou dynasty and to the Qin kingdom. Perhaps, in a new era, successors need not arise from bloodlines and blood-ties.”
“How would a new successor be crowned, in such a system?”
“Legalist thought is . . . silent on the issue of succession. It merely assumes that a Legalist emperor would be at the centre of power. It is a philosophy, your Majesty, not an immutable law of the universe. Pragmatically, new emperors would need to arise from an imperial bloodline, if the state is to exist beyond one generation.”
“Then why would Li Si execute virtually the entire royal family?”
“Ha ha! The state only requires one emperor, your Majesty. Er Shi Huang was a young man, who was more than able to produce offsprings needed for succession. Furthermore, Fusu’s son Ziying still lived, albeit under house arrest, should Er Shi Huang meet an unexpected fate. With only tenuous political legitimacy supporting Er Shi Huang’s succession, the immediate concern of the new regime was addressing potential revolts. The Imperial Guard that had served in . . . quelling Fusu’s treason were expanded to prosecute the new operation to stabilize the Qin from malcontents. Amidst this volatile atmosphere came a document that enflamed the smoldering ambers of suspicion into full-fledged paranoia: Qin Shi Huang’s Last Testament.”
“But Qin Shi Huang did not leave a written testament, or so you claimed.”
“To the best of my examination, he did not.”
“Then, this was a forgery? By whom? For what purpose?”
“It may have been a genuine document, your Majesty.”
“What is the . . . no, irrelevant . . . what was the effect of this document?”
“Er Shi Huang was paralyzed with fear. Zhao Gao advised the emperor to issue an imperial edict outlawing the possession, distribution, and discussion of the aforementioned document; a policy of emotionally satisfying, yet marginal, in its intended purpose. Li Si, as the rational Legalist, advised the emperor to have the said document examined by the academics, declare it a forgery, and legitimize Qin Er Shi through competent governance; an effective policy, albeit requiring some effort and patience. Er Shi Huang, being unaccustomed with the rigors of mental exercise and the weight of responsibility, could not render a decision. Meanwhile, the document percolated through the ranks of Qin imperial bureaucracy and the officer corp.”
“What did the document indicate?”
“There were two documents, your Majesty. The first document that circulated indicated Qin Shi Huang officially designated Fusu as the next emperor. Since, Fusu held the title of the crown prince, the impact of this document was marginal. Besides, with Fusu dead, the entire point of the document was moot. But the second, or rather the addendum to the first testament indicated Qin Shi Huang’s successor to be any one of the remaining princes, should Fusu be indisposed, other than Huhai, his youngest.”
“. . . that seems to be quite the convenient addendum for anyone seeking to usurp the throne.”
“Ha ha! Yes, your Majesty. Quite obtusely so! Yet, a guilty mind descries evidence of his crime everywhere, while a paranoid soul detects treachery in everyone. Although Li Si’s advise was sensible, Zhao Gao’s counsel was more comforting. After months of indecision, Er Shi Huang finally delegated the authority of decision to Zhao Gao.”
“Zhao Gao? Not Li Si, his chancellor?”
“Er Shi Huang, as he would repeat throughout his pitiful life, chose emotional comfort over rational sensibility. With Zhao Gao in charge of Qin internal security, Li Si’s career as the head of Qin bureaucracy began its rapid decline. Zhao Gao convinced Qin Er Shi of the necessity in constructing the Epang Palace for his safety; after all, his predecessor was poisoned in the old imperial residence.”
“The Epang Palace was constructed for his safety? I always thought it was Qin Er Shi’s vanity project.”
“It was both, your Majesty. Qin Er Shi expended all available resource of Qin to provide both security and luxury. Zhao Gao was able to provide the wealth necessary for the perpetual construction of the Epang Palace with the resources expropriated from his interminable purges. Zhao Gao prioritized the cleansing of Qin outer territories, leaving the security of Xingyang to Li Si. While Li Si was half-heartedly enforcing the censure of the Testament, Zhao Gao, with surprising fanaticism, purged the regional bureaucrats and officials without mercy. First to perish were the imperial family entrusted with any government office or title, along with their attendants, consorts, and sympathizers; Li Si seems to have tacitly acceded to this pursuit. After efficiently extinguishing the Qin imperial line, Zhao Gao aimed his internal security apparatus at the regional governors, officials, and bureaucrats. Though his explicit commission was the suppression of the Testament, virtually all of Zhao Gao’s internees had never even heard of such a document.”
“Then, why did Zhao Gao purge these officials?”
“Zhao Gao’s political power derived from his authority to suppress the Testament. What would be the fate of his internal security bureau, once its purpose was accomplished?”
“Are you suggesting that Zhao Gao killed all those people, so that his funding would increase?”
“That is one of the reasons for Zhao Gao’s indiscriminate purges, your Majesty. Another, more significant, reason for all the blood was from his hatred of himself and towards humanity.”
“How do you know this?”
“We can not, of course, know Zhao Gao’s mind for certain, but we can analyze his behaviors, schemes, and upbringing. Zhao Gao was rumored to be the last of the Zhao royal line, though there is some debate as to the validity of such claim. He was raised as an orphan by the Qin eunuchs and served as a distracting entertainment for Qin Shi Huang. Having lived as a clown for most of his childhood, he was given the task of managing the Emperor’s horses, when of age. He became a . . . tutor to the youngest Qin prince and rose to power with the ascendence of Qin Er Shi. The zeal with which Zhao Gao culled the imperial family is likely due to his deep-rooted hatred towards Qin Shi Huang. Furthermore, Zhao Gao’s security policies have little purpose other than shedding of increasing blood and wasting of treasure, resulting in the inevitable chaos that erupted almost immediately after the accession of Qin Er Shi.”
“Surely, Zhao Gao did not purposefully propagate chaos. He was merely ambitious for power, or was incompetent.”
“Ha ha! Your Majesty, like Li Si, assumes inherent rationality in men! Logic, reason, discernment are qualities possessed by trained men. Untrained men are as irrational as chickens pecking at sand, your Majesty, and some men desire nothing more than to have the world burnt to ashes around them. Consider the policies of Zhao Gao, which decapitated Qin regional bureaucracy; extorted enormous resources from these leaderless regions towards the capital for the construction of yet another security palace; killed all messengers bearing factual information regarding regional revolts arising as a consequence of his regional purges and extortions; executed all senior ministers and officers in the central government for disloyalty without replacing the vacant posts, hampering coordination of revolt suppression; and purged his own security apparatus for their belief in feudal atavism, while the security officers are purging the regional bureaucracy, academia, and military for their belief in feudal atavism. Does your Majesty perceive any logic to these policies other than maximization of chaos and blood-letting?”
“. . . how did Li Si not perceive this? How was Er Shi Huang fooled? Why was Zhao Gao not executed earlier?”
“Ideologic blindness, your Majesty, the foolish and dangerous Legalist theory of inherent rationality in men. By the time Li Si became truly aware of the dire situation facing Qin from multiple internal revolts and military defections, Zhao Gao was ready to unleash his dogs upon the central government itself. When the Three Lords confronted Er Shi Huang in his pleasure den with the news of Qin imperial dissolution, Zhao Gao’s security forces were already waiting to arrest them for treason. Despite being a dissolute emperor, Qin Er Shi was still the final authority, and Qin Er Shi favored his childhood chum, Zhao Gao, over his father’s minister Li Si. Li Si was executed by the Five Pains, an execution of Li Si’s own creation, after he was . . . convinced to sign his confession. Zhao Gao had Li Si’s entire family exterminated as well, along with much of the central bureaucracy and ministers. Crippled by the loss of competent ministers, bureaucrats, and officers, Qin empire quickly dissolved into the waste bin of human failures.”
“. . . a fatal error in Legalist philosophy led the Qin to its fantastic destruction. Political philosophy is not the law of the universe; errors and assumptions must be considered when using any political philosophy, lest we become blind and deaf. Centralization of all sociocultural, socioeconomic, and sociopolitical forces results in a system that is one death away from chaos. Though truth may be irrelevant, factual reality must be the basis of all policy decisions. An emperor must not allow for his ministers to surmise his true intentions. Use of semi-centralized sociocultural and socioeconomic institutions to instill desired traits in men would be most effective. Information must be censored and tailored, in order for civil society to function properly. Most importantly, training rational men must hold priority in all government decisions.”
“To that end, your Majesty, I humbly offer my services.”
Succession crises: eternally the weakest link in the monarchical power structure.
"Political philosophy is not the law of the universe; errors and assumptions must be considered when using any political philosophy, lest we become blind and deaf." This reminds me heavily of the battles between two factions in science in the earlier 20th century that have, to an extent, continued to this day- the positivists and the pragmatists. The positivists had a tendency to reject hypotheses for not conforming to theories- the Missoula/Bretz flood, for instance, faced decades of opposition before its acceptance due to running afoul of uniformitarianist principles. The pragmatists, on the other hand, placed physical evidence and the natural world above all theory. My sympathies, of course, are with the pragmatists.
I totally agree. Science would move much quicker without fixed ideological mindsets (and woo woo) holding it back.
I think succession crisis exist for all type of governments. That man is mortal seems to guarantee that our sociopolitical systems also live its time and die. Only our ideological attachments to our current sociopolitical matrix blinds us to the possibility of our system dying.
Francis Fukuyama remains my most disliked political theorist for his insistence that we'd reached a form of government that would never die. End of history my ass.
There is an apocryphal tale regarding Electors of Brandenburg constructing their palace across from some ancient ruins to always remind the Dukes of the transience of man's accomplishments within the eternity of creation. Venetians also used to have massive paintings of past empires to caution the Doges of man's folly in considering their polity to be eternal. It seems incredible that a learned intellectual of politics and history could be so flippant regarding his infallibility. Fukuyama ought to visit his ancestral homeland and stand before Mt. Fuji to remind himself of his insignificance before pontificating "end of history."
That's an apocryphal tale I'd like to believe.
Fukuyama is just the latest in a long chain of thinkers trying to give history telos- I remain firmly committed to opposing any such effort.
You brought the post full circle here. Quite interesting. And relevant to cryptos! In fact, as I was reading, and contemplating the argument that the royals had to go because true meritocracy could not flourish with them - but then I was thinking, who's to assure us that the government doesn't similarly abuse its role and become a new type of inherited royalty, only it's parties and money instead of blood? And so I was wondering whether some kind of AI could maybe rule better, because it would be based on clear, rational, and transparent rules. When the power to abuse a position exists, it will be abused, even if the current emperor/president/whatever is great, still the future emperor might not be. But with AI you don't face that problem. AI is immortal. It changes only when you want it to. It can't cheat cos the code won't let it. And it's transparent so everyone can check it. It won't make promises on the campaign trail that it won't keep: whatever code was voted will be applied, unless the voters themselves change their minds.
Basically, I wonder whether (human-ruled, not machine-learning) AI could circumvent the arguments you've presented.
The modern Western political structures were designed, initially, with 18th century mechanical perspective. The so-called separation of powers was a crude attempt to industrialize decision-making process. Much of "enlightenment" sociopolitical institutions are mechanization of social functions of guild/class apparatus. Whether the sociocultural shift from human decisions towards system decision is benefit or hazard is quite complex to decypher.
I think that many of the discontented youths and much of their desire for anarchy stems from being ruled by machines/systems and being turned into cogs within the organization of sociopolitical institutions. Western desire for "individuality" seems fundamentally incompatible with systems, institutions, and mechanical operations. It may be that uniformity demanded from mechanical institutions, populated by men who hold individuality in primacy, create recurrent systematic problems.
Though evolution of sociopolitical decision process from 18th century industrial machine to 21st century AI algorithm may be logical, the irrationality of men will likely prevent or hamper such trajectory. As Gibbon once observed that perversity of men results in their preferring misrule by their own over well-governed polity under a foreign power, so too, humans will prefer misery under fallible, corrupt men over potential good government under a machine. Besides, it will be fallible men who will program the AI governing algorithm, which will result in a fallible product.
Wow. Such ruthlessness. It's amazing just how far some people will go in the pursuit of power! Awesome machinations!
This brings chills to the bones, doesn't it!
So true! This is a brilliant dissection of the warped mind of a megalomaniacal misanthrope! Raised as an orphan clown, a toy to the rich; those palaces incubated a pure monster capable of acting only on primitive urges.
The conclusion is interesting too, that info must be censored/tailored to create a dam against chaos. I can see the *merits in this
*as long as I'm the one holding all the factual info :P
Thanks Soo. Love this series :D
Too much censorship, as well as too little, results in chaos and social disintegration.
UK "hate speech" laws serve to severely limit information dissemination and to provide the Crown with the authority to apply "crimes" to anyone based on nebulous wording of the law. The recent "weapons ban" by Her Majesty's government administered by PM May, also gives broad authority to the Crown to apply criminal charges to sport and online merchants.
As Western social and cultural institutions increasingly become marginalized, it seems we are transforming all sociocultural issues into sociopolitical "solutions" to be administered by bureaucrats. Such transition is dangerous to civil society, as illustrated by the magnificent collapse of Qin and more recently, the USSR.
The art of governance seems to be the ability to recognize and apply proper power sharing/delegation within sociocultural and sociopolitical institutions.
Thanks for your reply, Soo.
Yes... The 'hate speech' laws are absolutely ridiculous. I'm amazed that people can't see what this really means. I can't understand how they are fooled. The government doesn't care about their health, their education, their lives, yet somehow cares about their feelings. It's total bullshit and created as another layer of control, another lever in the government's arsenal.
It's a shame that governance has been hijacked by power-crazy lunatics, eh.