Table Of Contentjust hierarchy
Just Hierarchy
why social hierarchies
matter in china and the
rest of the world
daniel a. bell
wang pei
prince ton university press
princet on & oxford
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contents
Acknowl edgments vii
Introduction 1
1. What’s Wrong with Hierarchy? 8
2. In Defense of Hierarchy 13
3. From China to the World 21
1 Just Hierarchy between Intimates:
On the Importance of Shifting Roles 29
1. Relations with Friends 31
2. Relations with Lovers 36
3. Relations with Family Members 45
4. Relations with House keepers 55
2 Just Hierarchy between Citizens:
On the Importance of Ser vice 66
1. Justifying Hierarchical Po liti cal Rule in the
Chinese Context 68
2. Is It Pos si ble to Limit Po liti cal Power without
Competitive Elections? 78
3. Po liti cal Meritocracy as the Prob lem, Po liti cal
Meritocracy as the Solution 84
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4. Justifying a Hierarchical Po liti cal System to
Those Outside the System 93
3 Just Hierarchy between States: On the
Need for Reciprocity 106
1. Hierarchical Ideals of Global Order in
Ancient India 111
2. Hierarchical Ideals of Global Order in
Ancient China 117
3. One World, Two Hierarchical Systems? 129
4 Just Hierarchy between Humans and Animals:
Subordination without Cruelty 143
1. Are Animals Our Equals? 144
2. Domesticated Animals: Subordination with Care 154
3. Eating Animals: Subordination with
Humane Exploitation 166
5 Just Hierarchy between Humans and Machines:
On the Need for a Master- Slave Relation 177
1. Marx on Machines 179
2. The Role of Confucian Role Ethics 187
3. Silicon Valley vs. the Chinese Communist Party 198
Notes 207
Selected Bibliography 249
Index 263
acknowle dgments
first but not least, we would like to thank each other. The
ideas in this book evolved via prolonged conversations and ar-
guments over the past few years, to the point that we forgot who
said what. Daniel wrote most of the En glish version of this book,
and Pei wrote most of the Chinese version, but we are jointly
responsible for its ideas, w hether good or bad. We are most grate-
ful to Rob Tempio, our insightful and supportive editor at
Prince ton University Press, along with two anonymous referees
who allowed us to further refine our ideas. We are also grateful
to our research assistant, Sun Qiming, and Daniel would like to
thank his assistants at Shandong University— Liu Yuhan, Huang
Ping, Wang Fuxiang, and Wang Chengchao— for help. We would
also like to thank Cheng Jiaolong for writing the beautiful cal-
ligraphy on the book’s back cover.
Daniel owes special thanks to f amily members for emotional
and intellectual support. He would also like to thank Kong Ling-
dong, Cao Xianqiang, Kong Xinfeng, Liu Lin, and all his other
colleagues and leaders at Shandong University’s School of
Po liti cal Science and Public Administration for providing an
intellectually stimulating setting that allowed him to write this
book. Daniel is also grateful to Tsing hua University president
Qiu Yong for continued support at Tsing hua as well as his co-
teacher at Schwarzman College, Wang Hui, for fascinating dis-
cussions on Chinese intellectual history, Bai Tongdong at Fudan
vii
viii acknowle dgments
University for inspiring conversations in po liti cal theory, and
Eric X. Li for friendship that goes beyond the ordinary meaning
of friendship. He would also like to thank his students at Shan-
dong University and Tsingh ua University for constructive and
often well- deserved criticism of the teacher’s ideas.
Daniel also owes special thanks to Nicolas Berggruen. We can-
not construct a better world without serious engagement with
the world’s ideas—i ncluding ideas from previously marginalized
parts of the world— and Nicolas has both the vision and the
means to realize this aspiration. The idea for this book emerged
when Daniel was director of the Berggruen Institute’s Center for
Philosophy and Culture. Daniel helped to or ga nize a conference
on “Hierarchy and Equality” at Stanford University’s Center for
the Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences in March 2016.
The papers w ere excellent—a nd we have made use of several of
them in this book—a nd Daniel realized that t here’s the need for
a full-l ength book on the topic of “Just Hierarchy.” Daniel would
like to thank the workshop’s participants as well as co- organizers
Margaret Conley and Jennifer Bourne for help and inspiration.
He would also like to thank Berggruen Institute leadership in Los
Angeles: Nathan Gardels, Dawn Nakagawa, Nils Gilman, and
(former) president Craig Calhoun for help over the years. Dan-
iel owes special thanks to the Berggruen Institute’s China Cen-
ter at Peking University which supported several workshops in
New Delhi, Qingdao, Beijing, and Bangkok, comparing Chinese
and Indian thought, and Daniel is grateful to workshop partici-
pants as well as to co- organizers Song Bing, Roger Ames, Yan
Xuetong, Amitav Acharya, Rajeev Bhargava, Shelley Hu, Li Xiao-
jiao, and Li He.
Pei would like to thank her friends and colleagues at Fudan
University’s China Institute. She is particularly grateful to Zhang
Weiwei, Eric X. Li, Fan Yongpeng, Chen Ping, Li Bo, Yu Liang,
acknowl edgments ix
Lin Ling, Meng Weizhan, and Feng Zhun. She would also like
to thank visitors to the China Institute, especially Alexander
Dugin, Yukon Huang, Martin Jacques, Kishore Mahbubani, and
Dominique de Villepin. She is grateful to the institute for pro-
viding time and support and an intellectually stimulating envi-
ronment for research.
Pei owes much to Wang Hui for constant concern and intel-
lectual inspiration. Wang Hui supervised Pei’s postdoctoral re-
search at Tsingh ua University and showed the importance of
relating philosophy to real politics and social life. Pei would also
like to thank her former colleagues at the Tsing hua Institute for
Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences (TIAS):
Kong Yuan, Fu Zheng, Yuan Xianxin, Li Peiyan, and Yang Tao,
as well as visitors to TIAS, Michael Dutton, Viren Murthy, and
Yu Zhizhong. Pei and Daniel are also grateful to Geir Helgesen,
Liu Chunrong, and Unn Irene Aasdalen for facilitating and
modeling the best form of cross- cultural dialogue at Nansen
Acad emy in Lillehammer, Norway.
Pei’s friends Cheng Jiaolong, Li Shuzhi, and Wang Hairong
have provided unconditional support and have inspired her with
new perspectives on real ity. Pei is deeply indebted to her f amily
members and especially to her m other, who always surprises
with her direct and sharp comments, and spoils Pei with all her
tenderness.
Earlier versions of chapter 2 w ere published in Philosophy and
Public Issues (by Pei) and the Journal of Chinese Humanities /
文史哲 (by Daniel), and we are grateful to the publications for
permission to draw on t hose articles, as well as to Aeon for
permission to publish the online appendix. E arlier versions of
chapter 2 were presented (by Daniel and Pei) at the University
of Malaya’s Institute of China Studies, the Penang Institute, the
Beijing Thinkers’ Forum, and the annual Reset conference in
