Bulletin Winter 1975

to making Chinese civilization the most enduring in the annals of man. Biological and Social Perpetuation Second, the overriding concern of the Chinese for biological and social perpetuation. To use an anthropological expression, this concer n for biological and social perpetuation may well be regarded as a focal value in Chinese culture, which can now be traced back to the beginnings of Chines e religion in prehistoric times. The discovery since 1949 of ceramic and stone phalli c symbols in a number of prehistoric cultures, the etymology of the character for ancestor,tsu 且，祖， itself a phallic symbol , and detailed cumulative knowledge abou t Shang religion indicate that the center of gravity of earliest Chinese religion was ancestor worship. There were three prerequisites to ancestor worship. First, a kinship group had to be able to perpetuate, if not constantly to multiply, itself biologically, for without descendants there could be no ancestor worship. Second, since in Shang-Chou times ancestor worship was a cult mainly for the high ruling class, it was an absolute requisite for descendants of royal and of various noble lineages to maintain forever, if not further to improve, their status. For the politica l hierarchy determine d the ritualistic hierarchy of ancestor worship. Third, since the sacrificial rituals had to be performed by the legal heir and that heir had to be a male, ancestor worship required the breeding of sons and grandsons. This earnest desire for male heirs was amply reflected in earl y Chou literature and bronz e inscriptions. Although the original religioua tenets of ancestor worship were much diluted through rationalization by Confucius and Hs ü n Tzu, its social importance was greatly enhanced during th e subsequent two millennia. For, with the dawning of the imperial age in 221 B.C., ancestor worship was no longer a cult mainly for the ruling aristocracy; it gradually permeated all social strata. The long historical process of the universalization of an ancient focal value—the emphasis on the continuity of patrilineal descent 一 was facilitated by the efforts of the elite since Later Ha n times to strengthen family and kinship ties and by the efforts of both the elite and commoners since A.D. 105 0 to organize themselves into common descent groups. Consequently, the famous saying of Mencius which was originally referred to the aristocracy only—of all unfilial deeds none is more serious than th e failure to produce mal e descendants—has exerted abiding influence over the high and low alike. In further analysis, what is perpetuated is a line of descent which can be continued by the adoption of a son when a man biologically fails to produce one . It is therefore social perpetuation, achieve d whenever possible biologically. While a man's desire to reproduce his own species is certainly universal, never i n world history has a large nation been more subjected to powerful and sustained ethical and cultural pressure s for biological and social perpetuation than the Chinese. The present Chinese government has made systematic efforts to modernize the family system and to shake off the burden of the pa st But there is little in its repeated exhortation s to the nation tha t is not in keeping with a long series of traditional didatic sayings to the effect that the individual, the family, the various work units, and the nation should work hard, live frugally, and make sacrifices, if necessary, for posterity. Throughout the millennia, therefore, there has been no weakening of th e overriding concern of the Chinese for posterity, which offers a striking contras t to the curren t Western way of "living on credit". In conclusion, the uniquely Chinese concern for biological and social perpetuation—which originated from the prehistoric and early historic cult of ancestor worship and which in the course of time became the most primary of all human considerations— has contributed probably as much to making Chinese civilization enduring as China's self-sustaining agriculture. * Raphael Pumpelly, ed., Explorations in Turkestan: Prehistoric Civilizations of Anau (2 vols., Washington D.G., 1908), I ， p. 7. 7