Comparative Civilizations Review
Volume 25
Number 25 Fall 1991
Article 3
10-1-1991
Civilization: A Definition Part I. Indentifying
Individual Civilizations
John K. Hord
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Hord: Civilization: A Definition Part I. Indentifying Individual Civili
CIVILIZATION: A DEFINITION
Part I: Identifying individual civilizations
J O H N K. H O R D
In 1952 the anthropologists A. L. Kroeber and Clyde Kluckh o h n published their survey Culture, in which they f o u n d that
scholars use the word essentially interchangeably with "civilization" and have proposed 164 distinct major definitions of these
words (with a footnote that, counting details, the sum was probably closer to 300) [Kroeber and Kluckhohn n.d.: 25, 291], We of
the ISCSC have probably a d d e d at least some dozen more definitions of "civilization" since then. This essay will build on a series of
articles published in this journal [Hord 1981,1987a, 1987b, 1989]
to propose yet another.
H o r d (1981) was a discussion of the nature of the beginning of
civilization. It r e f e r r e d a m o n g other examples to a North American archaeological assemblage called the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex or Southern Cult, which has been the subject of very
hot a r g u m e n t ever since it was first proposed to be a legitimate
assemblage. J a m e s Brown has complained that the applications of
this particular label have become so general that one "could single
out f r o m the Southern Cult laundry list [of associations] a symbolic system, the trappings and accoutrements of states, a cosmology, trade networks, ritual life, art style, and even a technology"
[Brown 1975:3]. T h e culture at issue, the Mississippians, ca. AD
1200, was only Neolithic; it had polished stone tools, pottery, and
grain agriculture, but no cities (with one possible exception), writing, or metallurgy beyond beaten raw copper. Nevertheless it is
hereby proposed to have been civilized, because it is f u r t h e r proposed that, in the very nature of his complaint, Brown was defining civilization. Consider for example medieval Europe: If an
archaeologist were excavating the culture built a r o u n d the
Roman Catholic Church, would he also find "a symbolic system,
the trappings and accoutrements of states, a cosmology, trade
networks, ritual life, art style, and even a technology"? In o u r own
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times, specifically in t h e m o d e r n socialist states, d o e s M a r x i s m L e n i n i s m also i n c l u d e " a symbolic system, t h e t r a p p i n g s a n d
a c c o u t r e m e n t s of states, a c o s m o l o g y [even, in o n e w e l l - k n o w n
e p i s o d e , its o w n Lysenkoist biology], t r a d e n e t w o r k s , r i t u a l life,
a r t style, a n d e v e n a t e c h n o l o g y " ? T h u s it w o u l d s e e m t h a t t h e
e x i s t e n c e o f t h e s e collectivities o f associations has a very g r e a t
t i m e d e p t h , f r o m t h e a r c h a e o l o g i c a l a s s e m b l a g e s of N e o l i t h i c
p r e h i s t o r y t h r o u g h t h e M i d d l e A g e s i n t o m o d e r n times.
But these are only assemblages. T h e y p u r p o r t that certain
i t e m s a r e associated, b u t it is very d i f f i c u l t to d e t e r m i n e t h e n a t u r e
a n d e x t e n t of t h e association. N e v e r t h e l e s s it has a l r e a d y b e e n
p r o p o s e d by G o r d o n Willey t h a t , in t h e b e g i n n i n g s of civilization
in M e s o a m e r i c a a n d P e r u , t h e s e a s s e m b l a g e s r e f l e c t a g e n u i n e
i n t e g r a t i o n of t h e m e n t a l w o r l d s associated with t h e m :
T h e great styles . . . Olmec [of Mesoamerica, ca. 1250-400 BC] and
Chavin [of Peru, ca. 1500-200 BC]. . . are but the symbols of the religious
ideologies of the early farming societies of Mesoamerica and Peru. I
would f u r t h e r suggest that in these ideologies these early societies had
developed a mechanism of intercommunication, a way of knitting together the smaller parts of the social universe of their day into a more
unified whole than it had heretofore been or would otherwise be. In a
way similar to that of the exchange of objects, plants, and techniques
which had previously prepared the village agricultural threshold, the
sharing of common ideologies led to the threshold of civilization by enlarging the social field. By this enlargement more individuals, more social segments, more local societies combined and coordinated their energies than at any time before. [Willey 1962:9-10]
O n c e t h e e v i d e n c e of history is available, n o t j u s t association b u t
system b e c o m e s o b v i o u s . C o n s i d e r , t h e s i t u a t i o n in t h e M e d i t e r r a n e a n a r e a at t h e b e g i n n i n g of history, as r e f l e c t e d in a discussion of p r o t o h i s t o r i c k i n g s h i p :
If we refer to kingship as a political institution, we assume a point of
view which would have been incomprehensible to the ancients. We imply
that the human polity can be considered by itself. T h e ancients, however,
experienced life as part of a widely spreading network of communications which reached beyond the local and the national into the hidden
depths of nature and the powers that rule nature. T h e purely secular—
insofar as it could be granted to exist at all—was the purely trivial. Whatever was significant was embedded in the life of the cosmos, and it was
precisely the king's function to maintain the harmony of that integration.
This doctrine is valid for the whole of the ancient Near East and for many
other regions. [Frankfort 1948:3]
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H e r e again the same applies to medieval Catholicism and m o d e r n
Marxism-Leninism: Both are, much more than mere collections
of associations, ideologized integrations of their entire worlds.
O n e may say the same of Greek and Russian Orthodoxy, of Islam
and Judaism and Zoroastrianism, of Taoism and the various
schools of Buddhism and Hinduism. These religions are not just
theologies: they are detailed and systematized understandings of
their worlds f r o m each separate religious point of view. For purposes of this paper, the word religion will henceforth r e f e r solely
to such universal religions as Catholicism, Orthodoxy, Islam,
Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, and Taoism,
thus not so much to theologies as to interpretations of the universe that h a p p e n to have a theology as a central element. This
introduces certain problems that will be dealt with later; for the
moment, when the word religion is used the reader should think
automatically of one of these medieval-type churches.
Everyone admits these religions to have been important, even
central, in their various civilizations. But this paper proposes
them to be not merely central but defining; each individual civilization would not have existed without its systematized core set of
beliefs. In most cases this is a very difficult proposition to prove. A
theorist may hypothesize what the civilization would have been
like without the religion, but this can never be more than a
hypothesis. This is because, by the very nature of their claims to
universality, although these religions have identifiable core beliefs they usually have at best only very vague boundaries. O n e
may talk theoretically about subtracting the religion f r o m the rest
of the culture, but no agreement would be reached as to the
extent of this subtraction. Medieval-type religions exist in so d e e p
a symbiosis with their associated cultures that while certain basic
items—crops, plows, bricks, swords, even villages—would exist
without the religion, one must wonder whether the civilization's
appreciation and treatment of them would still be essentially the
same.
This problem may be resolved by addressing it f r o m the opposite viewpoint, by looking not f r o m the top down but f r o m the
bottom up. Consider the interpretation and handling of a single
familiar event, for example the common headache, across different civilizations. This is now commonly treated as a physical problem, to be dealt with by such physical means as the aspirin tablet.
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But b e h i n d this aspirin is a whole set of what is nowadays called
"doctor-patient relationships," such that not only the doctor but
also the patient has a great deal of indoctrinated b a c k g r o u n d in
what to expect. T h u s even in o u r own physical-scientific civilization n o doctor would a d m i t that even so physical a p r o b l e m as
headaches could have a complete study that was limited j u s t to its
physical aspects. Even to suggest the possibility would m a k e the
t h o r o u g h l y ethnocentric 1 assumption that medical t r e a t m e n t is a
purely physical field of study. In most civilizations, n o t h i n g to d o
with medicine was ever considered "purely physical." I n d e e d the
basic i m p o r t of the F r a n k f o r t quotation above is that the civilizations r e f e r r e d to would never have admitted that a n y t h i n g beyond the "purely trivial" could be "purely physical" at all; the
word "physical" itself is in its m o d e r n u n d e r s t a n d i n g the p r o d u c t
of o u r own m o d e r n scientific culture. T h e r e f o r e this p a p e r will
c o n t e n d that to ask what a culture would be like without its associated religion is t a n t a m o u n t to asking what Catholicism would
be like without Christianity; the association is so intimate that,
insofar as the integrated civilization is c o n c e r n e d , the subtraction
leaves n o c o h e r e n t r e m a i n d e r , b u t only f r a g m e n t s contributed
f r o m sometimes quite d i f f e r e n t sources. T h e m e m b e r s of a civilization would not admit, could not even conceive, of its existing
without its core beliefs, a n d students of that civilization should not
d o so either.
T h e proposal that medieval-type religions d e f i n e their civilizations may be an interesting hypothesis, but if in fact the b o u n d aries of such religions a r e always so vague, t h e n such a hypothesis
must be very h a r d to test. However, t h e r e have b e e n some situations in which a religion has been a specific, b o u n d e d a n d definable entity, subject to relatively s t r a i g h t f o r w a r d analysis. T h i s occurs w h e n e v e r the religion is picked u p a n d moved bodily f r o m its
initial set of believers to a new people, when it is limited to those
few concepts that can metaphorically be packed in the priests'
knapsacks a n d survive a m o n g a people not b o r n a n d raised to
t h e m . All missionary work is an a t t e m p t at this process. C o n s i d e r
t h e specific case of Kievan Russia, which at o n e m o m e n t was not a
m e m b e r state of the G r e e k O r t h o d o x C h u r c h , a n d at the next
m o m e n t was. T h i s c h a n g e had various effects, a n d the Russians
themselves were well aware of these effects:
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T h e conversion to Christianity was not a purely religious event: Christianity, for Russia, meant at that time a higher civilization. In the eyes of
the Russians themselves the conversion to Christianity made them part of
the civilized world. . . . Vladimir's motives in his conversion may have
been predominantly political. Once baptized, however, he accepted the
new faith with all possible responsibility. [Vernadsky 1948:69-71]
However d o u b t f u l o n e may be of the spiritual significance of Christianity in Kievan Russia—for the mass of the population, Christian ritual
was evidently but a thin veneer on pagan superstition, while the rulers
h o n o r e d Christian precepts mainly in the breach—there can be no question of the immense cultural influence of the Church. O n the material
side, Russian architecture was profoundly influenced by Byzantine models; the arts and crafts, largely in the service of the Church, flourished in
Kievan Rus after the conversion. In the realm of government, the canon
law provided precedents for developing the legislative activity of the
Kievan princes. . . . Education, of course, was monopolized by the
Church. . . . A few of the leading sons of ruling families even studied at
Constantinople. [Clarkson 1961:35]
Likewise in other civilizations, early Japanese Buddhism is remarked as "a vehicle of high learning [as well as] the professed
faith of the Court and nobility" [Samson 1958:120-121]. It is always remarked that the rulers of these "early states," to use the
anthropological term, wanted these churches principally as an
ideological s u p p o r t for their own newly-founded rule, 2 but each
imported church became far more than that. T h e positions of
imported Vajrayana Buddhism in Yarlung Tibet, T h e r a v a d a
Buddhism in Pagan Burma, and Saiva Hinduism in the K h m e r
Empire are three more examples proposed to be of this same
class; they were initially supported by rulers of new states as instruments of integration, and came to be the ideological centers of
each society. 3
It is next important that this emphasis on religion is not characteristic only of new states borrowing instruments of integration
f r o m older ones. T h e medieval Mediterranean world had a long
and distinguished history of civilization at the time of the disintegration of the Roman Empire, an event usually taken to mark the
end of Classical civilization a n d the beginning of the Middle Ages.
H o r d (1987b) studied this type of period, and fixed the transitions
between civilizations to specific times, for example that between
Classical and Byzantine civilization to the reign of Justinian
(527-565), between Classical and Western civilization to the joint
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r e i g n of t h e s o n s o f Clovis (511-561). T h e f o l l o w i n g q u o t a t i o n s
w e r e a m o n g t h o s e u s e d in illustration:
T h e epoch of Justinian doubtless bore many marks of late antiquity but
it also showed many signs of the new Byzantine civilization that was
coming into being. T h e age of Justinian is essentially the time of transition f r o m the world of late antiquity to that of Byzantium. [Haussig
1971:75]
T h e first question that has to be considered in laying down the plan of
[the Cambridge] Medieval History is, Where to begin? Where shall we
draw the line that separates it from Ancient History? . . . [He notes various traditional dates, such as the deposition of the last Western Roman
Emperor in 476.] We should do better . . . by dividing in the middle of the
Gothic War (535-553). . . . T h e Rome which Belisarius delivered [in 536]
was still the Rome of the Caesars, while the Rome which Narses entered
sixteen years later [552] is already the Rome of the popes. It is the same in
Gaul. T h e remains of the old civilisation still found under the sons of
Clovis are mostly obliterated in the next generation. Procopius [ca. 500ca. 560] witnessed as great a revolution as did Polybius [historian of the
Roman conquest of the Mediterranean, second century BC]. [Gwatkin
1924:1,1]
T h i s is t h e p e r i o d c o m m o n l y called t h e D a r k A g e s , a t e r m fav o r e d by h i s t o r i a n s d i s g u s t e d at t h e lack of w r i t t e n e v i d e n c e f r o m
w h i c h to write p a p e r s , b u t q u i t e a d e q u a t e e v e n o n t h a t basis. T h e
D a r k A g e s a r e usually t h o u g h t o f in t e r m s of E u r o p e , b u t t h e y
a p p l i e d in p o s t - R o m a n B y z a n t i u m as well, w h i c h h a d its o w n
p e r i o d t h a t Byzantinists call t h e " B y z a n t i n e D a r k A g e s " ( a p p r o x imately A D 6 0 0 - 8 0 0 ) . Private schools d i s a p p e a r e d ; e d u c a t i o n d e clined a n d b e c a m e a p r o v i n c e of t h e C h u r c h [ R u n c i m a n
1956:180-181]; a f o u n d a t i o n o f 8 4 3 is n o t e d as " t h e first B y z a n t i n e
school since t h e e a r l y s e v e n t h c e n t u r y to h a v e m o r e t h a n o n e
i n s t r u c t o r [ f o u r ] a n d to o f f e r a f o r m a l p r o g r a m of w h a t m a y b e
called h i g h e r e d u c a t i o n " [ T r e a d g o l d 1984:87]. C o n s i d e r f o r
example one book f r o m that period:
It would be natural to see the impetus for [this book] . . . in the all too
evident decline of the late antique city and the desire to record and
explain what remained, for the Forum of Constantine, for example, had
already become a focus of myth and legend, and the Hippodrome a scene
of enigmatic decoration and strange statues. We shall see below that [the
book's] contributors belong very much to the intellectual milieu of
eighth-century Constantinople, when books were few and scholarship
difficult. Had they done their work in the tenth century, after the work of
Constantine Porphyrogenitus had made many texts available once again,
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their achievement might have looked very different. As it was, they were
ill-equipped for their task, and had to d e p e n d all too often on illi n f o r m e d oral information o r hearsay, p e r h a p s often little more than
mere gossip. Surviving late antique inscriptions were a mystery to them,
and for much of their subject matter they seem to have had no written
material to start f r o m . Yet these men were probably as well educated as
any, for laymen of the period. [Cameron and H e r r i n 1984:27-29]
B u t B y z a n t i u m p r e s e r v e d t h e a n c i e n t l e a r n i n g q u i t e well as
c o m p a r e d to E u r o p e . I n E u r o p e t h e r e was n o t only a considerable
loss o f m a t e r i a l b u t also a c h a n g e in t h e v e r y n a t u r e o f l e a r n i n g .
T h i s o c c u r r e d a t a p p r o x i m a t e l y t h e s a m e t i m e as t h e p r o p o s e d
t r a n s i t i o n b e t w e e n civilizations c i t e d a b o v e .
But though he [Flavius Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus, c. 490- c. 585]
had a real enthusiasm for learning, it must not be imagined that he was a
classical writer himself. O n the contrary, he was a most admirable example of the fact that the pattern of men's thought had changed. . . . In his
attitude toward knowledge, which again was profoundly medieval, Cassiodorus caught something of this same infection. If the distinguishing
mark of the learned was that they read books, it would seem to follow that
learning to be had in books was sounder than any knowledge that might
be gathered by personal observation. He stated in all seriousness that the
elephant had no knees, that once prostrate u p o n the g r o u n d it could not
rise unaided, that it paid homage to good rulers but not to bad, and that
'when requested to do so, it exhales its breath, which is said to be a remedy
for the headache.' If challenged as to the truth of these statements he
would probably have replied that they were certainly true because he had
read them in a book; a n d if by any chance he had subsequently seen an
elephant he would probably have said that it was not a 'real' elephant,
since 'real' elephants had no knees. This uncritical adoration of booklearning was one of the most significant features of the so-called 'Dark
Ages.' T h e r e is a popular fallacy that the cause of the Dark Ages was the
fact that the barbarians destroyed the civilization which they found,
b u r n i n g cities, breaking statues, a n d casting works of classical authors
into the flames. In point of fact, the men who ushered in the Dark Ages
were men like T h e o d o r i c and Cassiodorus, who were intent on restoring
the cities, preserving the statues, and transcribing the classics. T h e i r
adoration of the ancient world was matched only by their inability to
understand it, for by the time that they were born, classical culture was
already dead. T h e y were the first of the great medievals and began to
build a new civilization in an attempt to restore the old. [Davis 1970:52]
T h i s p r o p o s e d t r a n s i t i o n f r o m o n e civilization t o t h e n e x t is
even m o r e m a r k e d r e g a r d i n g a n o t h e r kind of knowledge.
Medieval scholars w o r k e d h a r d to restore the ancient learning,
b u t w i t h a g r e a t d i f f e r e n c e . T h e m e d i e v a l e m p h a s i s was o n a
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source of knowledge that the Classical world, until its last years,
had treated only with c o n t e m p t : those same religions discussed
above as the cores of the new civilizations. It is at the beginning of
these new civilizations that this emphasis becomes visible.
If we say that Justinian I was more of a Roman than of a Christian
emperor, the statement requires several qualifications. But it nonetheless
embodies a profound truth. Justinian I was in thought far more akin to
Constantine the Great, or for that matter, to Augustus Caesar, than to
Heraclius [610-641], who was so much closer to him in time. Would it be
going too far to suggest that the Christian religion was to Justinian
scarcely more than a p r o p or adjunct of Roman imperialism and unification, whereas to Heraclius and his successors it was the inspiration, the
justification, the very marrow of that concept? [Jenkins 1969:379]
But it was not only t h e self-consciously post-Roman Byzantines
who chose to emphasize Christianity. W h e n eventually the postG e r m a n West began to cohere, it m a d e the same choice.
Charlemagne's conception of the function of a ruler was basically
primitive. This should not be taken in a derogatory sense. It simply
means that Charlemagne saw himself as a tribal chieftain and, since he
was a Christian, he derived much of his knowledge of human affairs
f r o m the Bible. . . . [He saw] himself as a new David. He was the anointed
of the Lord who held power over his tribesmen u n d e r God, and they
owed obedience to him because he was to them what God was to all
creatures. . . . In order to promote unity, stability, and hierarchy, Charlemagne and his scholar friends threw their whole weight behind the
propagation of the Christian religion. . . . They all thought that the
Christian religion they were so earnestly preaching and promoting was a
tribal religion and that its chief merit was to define the membership and
the limits of the tribe which had espoused it. T h e tribe thus envisaged
was, of course, a very large one . . . but a tribe it nonetheless was. It was
calledpopulus Christianus, the Christian people. [Munz 1967:57,135-136]
But however m u c h C h a r l e m a g n e may have looked o n Catholicism as a vehicle f o r "unity, stability, a n d hierarchy," it became the
"vehicle of high learning" f o r the E u r o p e a n High Middle Ages as
well. I p r o p o s e this to be the key to the p r o b l e m . H o w e v e r primitive they may be in the Dark Ages a n d the early years of the new
civilizations, by the time each civilization is m a t u r e these c h u r c h e s
have become fully integrated formal knowledge systems, fully suitable f o r t r a n s f e r to uncivilized areas as messengers of civilization,
as O r t h o d o x y was to Kievan Russia above. T o appreciate such a
system o n e n e e d only imagine his own field of study: Every such
field includes its own c o m p e n d i u m of assumptions, facts a n d at-
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t i t u d e s , o f k n o w l e d g e t h a t is a s s u m e d by e v e r y m e m b e r o f t h e
p r o f e s s i o n t o b e i n d o c t r i n a t e d b a c k g r o u n d in e v e r y o t h e r
m e m b e r o f t h e p r o f e s s i o n . A n d i n d e e d e v e r y Field w o u l d b e in
complete chaos without somesuch b a c k g r o u n d systematization.
O n t h e l a r g e r scale w e m a y s p e a k t o S c i e n c e itself, a d i s c i p l i n e
w h i c h h a s its o w n a s s u m p t i o n s a n d o t h e r b a c k g r o u n d i n f o r m a tion a n d which p r e s u m a b l y s u b s u m e s a n d incorporates every
" p h y s i c a l " f a c t in t h e u n i v e r s e . Science is j u s t s u c h a f o r m a l
k n o w l e d g e s y s t e m , a n d so a r e t h e m e d i e v a l c h u r c h e s , a n d so is
M a r x i s m - L e n i n i s m . All o f t h e m a r e o r g a n i z a t i o n s o f b o t h ideolo g y a n d f a c t , distilled i n t o a p a c k a g e w h i c h c a n b e t r a n s p o r t e d
e l s e w h e r e in a b o d y . A m e d i e v a l c h u r c h is a civilization c o m p l e t e
e x c e p t f o r a p o p u l a t i o n ; o n e n e e d only a d d p e o p l e a n d the mixt u r e c a n evolve i n d e f i n i t e l y .
B u t this is o n l y E u r o p e a n d B y z a n t i u m . F o r a s u p p o s e d l y p a r a l lel e x p e r i e n c e t h e o b v i o u s c a n d i d a t e f o r n e x t i n s p e c t i o n is C h i n a ,
w h i c h t w o c e n t u r i e s b e f o r e R o m e h a d a n e x p e r i e n c e so like t h e
fall o f R o m e t h a t t h e r e s e m b l a n c e h a s b e e n r e m a r k e d e l s e w h e r e :
[T]he roots of the barbarian disaster of Chin China were struck d e e p in
the Han, and particularly the Later Han, period. . . . It is highly interesting to note that the dissolution of the Chinese Empire in the early fourth
century amidst barbarian uprisings bears striking resemblance to the fall
of the Roman Empire in the West in the face of the Gothic invasions. If
we looked into the matter a little more deeply, we would find even more
interesting similarities in details. T h e barbarian policy of the Roman
Empire, if any, seems also to have been to absorb the Germans into the
frontier provinces with a view to eventually civilizing them. Like the
shih-kuo or subject states of the Han, Rome also allowed these inner
barbarians to organize themselves into separate units known as Federates. . . . Like the inner barbarians in Han-China, the Federates also
g u a r d e d the Roman frontiers f r o m within against the inroads of other
barbarians, o r even their kinsfolk, in r e t u r n for Roman pay a n d
lands. . . .
Close Sino-barbarian intercourse, especially economic intercourse,
also affected the way of life of the Chinese of o u r period to some extent,
which for brevity is here r e f e r r e d to as "barbarization." From the historical point of view, it seems that Later Han society was far more barbarized
than Former Han society. T h e following three selected instances will
suffice to serve the purpose of illustration. First, let us begin with the
e m p e r o r a n d the aristocracy. E m p e r o r Ling (168-188) is reported to have
been thoroughly barbarized in his daily life. He liked not only barbarian
clothes, curtains, beds, chairs, rice but also barbarian music and dance.
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This imperial example of barbarization, as we are told, was in turn followed by all the nobles in the capital
[Yii 1967:203-213]
H o r d (1987b) s u g g e s t e d , o n t h e basis of t h e a b o v e q u o t a t i o n
a n d o t h e r e v i d e n c e , t h a t t h e fall of H a n c o n s t i t u t e s a l e g i t i m a t e
parallel to t h e b r e a k u p of t h e R o m a n E m p i r e ca. A D 395. T h e
f o l l o w i n g c e n t u r i e s m a r k e d t h e t r a n s i t i o n b e t w e e n Classical a n d
m e d i e v a l civilization in E u r o p e a n d B y z a n t i u m , b u t t h e r e is n o
c o n s e n s u s of any s u c h t r a n s i t i o n b e t w e e n t w o successive C h i n e s e
civilizations. B u t is this a t t i t u d e m e r e l y ideological a n d r e t r o s p e c tive, a j u d g m e n t by C o n f u c i a n i s t s c h o l a r s t h a t t h e B u d d h i s t c e n t u r i e s w e r e a n a b e r r a t i o n a n d s h o u l d n o t be c o u n t e d as p a r t o f a
p r o p e r c o u r s e of C h i n e s e d e v e l o p m e n t ? If o n e c o m p a r e d t h e
d e v e l o p m e n t o f E u r o p e a n d B y z a n t i u m u p to ca. 1100 with t h a t of
C h i n a u p to ca. 800, w i t h o u t r e f e r e n c e to later d e v e l o p m e n t s , t h e
parallel b e t w e e n t h e t w o histories w o u l d be m u c h m o r e s t r i k i n g . 5
I n E u r o p e a n d B y z a n t i u m by ca. 1100 t h e i n f l u e n c e of t h e
C a t h o l i c a n d O r t h o d o x c h u r c h e s h a d b e c o m e very g r e a t i n d e e d ;
likewise in T ' a n g C h i n a we find t h e f o l l o w i n g s i t u a t i o n :
If today Chinese civilization seems almost synonymous with Confucian
culture, we need to be reminded of the long centuries in which China lay
under the spell of Buddhism and Taoism. For nearly eight centuries,
from the fall of Han (A.D. 220) to the rise of Sung (960), Chinese culture
was so closely identified with Buddhism that less civilized neighbors like
the Japanese and Koreans embraced the one with the other, and thought
of great T'ang China, the cynosure of the civilized world, as perhaps
more of a "Buddha-land" than the "land of Confucius." T h e famed
centers of learning to which pilgrims came from afar were the great
Buddhist temples, where some of the best Chinese minds were engaged
in teaching and developing new schools of Buddhist philosophy. T h e
great works of art and architecture, which impressed these same visitors
with the splendor of China, were most often monuments to the Buddha.
Until the close of this period not even one first-rate mind appeared
among the Confucianists who could dispute the pre-eminence of the
Buddhist philosophers or slow the progress of the Taoist church, officially supported by the T ' a n g imperial house. Indeed, it may be said that
during this period, while there were Confucian scholars, there were
virtually no Confucianists, that is, persons who adhered to the teachings
of Confucius as a distinct creed, which set them apart from others, [de
Bary 1960:369]
C o m p a r i s o n with t h e M e d i t e r r a n e a n w o r l d w o u l d t h e n s u g g e s t
t h a t s o m e t r a n s i t i o n e x i s t e d in C h i n a parallel t o t h e i m p e r i a l r e -
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i n t e g r a t i o n s d u r i n g t h e r e i g n s o f J u s t i n i a n in B y z a n t i u m a n d t h e
s o n s o f Clovis in E u r o p e , at s o m e t i m e b e t w e e n t h e fall o f H a n
( A D 2 2 0 ) a n d t h e e s t a b l i s h m e n t o f T ' a n g (628). If t h e t r a n s i t i o n
f r o m a p r a g m a t i c i m p e r i a l ( H a n ) society t o t h e l a t e r r e l i g i o u s
society is t o b e i d e n t i f i e d , t h e n t h e e n d o f t h e t h i r d c e n t u r y A D ,
t h e a g e o f t h e W e s t e r n C h i n d y n a s t y ( e f f e c t i v e l y A D 2 6 5 - 3 0 0 ) , is
easily t h e best c a n d i d a t e :
T h e Ch'in and Han had made China into a unified empire. It had been
necessary to introduce a method of centralizing power, and a system of
o r d e r and authority based on a highly structured administrative a n d
military machine; its ideology had to be essentially pragmatic, somewhat
like that of imperial Rome. . . . T h e collapse of the Han dynasty during
the second and third centuries A.D., together with the political, social,
and economic problems that it brought about, resulted in a period of
intellectual f e r m e n t unequaled in Chinese history except at the end of
the Chou period (fourth to third centuries B.C.) and the end of the Ming
dynasty (sixteenth to seventeenth centuries A.D.) and the revolutions of
the twentieth century. During that period certain philosophical concepts
evolved that were to be essential to later Chinese thought and to mark it
indelibly. When Buddhism was introduced about the beginning of o u r
era and began, from the f o u r t h century onward, to penetrate into the
educated elite, it accentuated these changes while at the same time altering their emphasis. Buddhism was adapted to the Chinese mind by a slow
process in which it was mingled with and grafted onto Taoism, and it was
to dominate "medieval" China until the e n d of the first millennium.
[Demieville 1986:808]
In the late third and early f o u r t h century we find the first unmistakable signs of the formation of an intellectual clerical elite . . . creators and
propagators of a completely sinicized Buddhist doctrine which f r o m that
time onward starts to penetrate into the Chinese u p p e r classes. . . . T h e r e
are several facts which point to the years 290-320 as the period in which
this supremely important development took place,
b e c a u s e t h e e x t a n t l i t e r a t u r e b e g i n s t o m e n t i o n B u d d h i s m inc r e a s i n g l y a n d in i n c r e a s i n g l y i m p o r t a n t c i r c u m s t a n c e s j u s t a t this
t i m e [ Z u r c h e r 1959:71], By A D 3 0 0 t h e i m p e r i a l c a p i t a l " b o a s t e d
f o r t y - t w o p a g o d a t e m p l e s " [ T u a n 1969:91]. A n o t h e r p a r a l l e l is
t h a t j u s t as t h e r e i g n s o f J u s t i n i a n in t h e e a s t a n d t h e s o n s o f Clovis
in t h e west saw t h e h e i g h t o f i m p e r i a l e x p a n s i o n a n d r e u n i f i c a t i o n
f o r t h e p e r i o d , so also W e s t e r n C h i n saw t h e o n l y r e u n i f i c a t i o n o f
C h i n a b e t w e e n H a n a n d S u i . As o f t h i s t i m e t h e twin c h u r c h e s
B u d d h i s m a n d T a o i s m set t h e p a t t e r n f o r m e d i e v a l C h i n a . T h i s
p a t t e r n w a s c h a n g e d a f t e r A D 1000, by a classical revival w h i c h
replaced B u d d h i s m a n d T a o i s m with a m u c h m o d i f i e d Con-
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fucianism. But this too is paralleled elsewhere: T h e West also saw
a classical revival at the c o r r e s p o n d i n g period, that is some two
centuries later (ca. A D 1200 in E u r o p e , as ca. A D 1000 in China),
a n d if N e o - C o n f u c i a n i s m seems to have been m u c h m o r e overwhelmingly successful in China t h a n the Classical (principally
Aristotelian a n d Justinianic) revival in E u r o p e , this does not seem
p r o p e r g r o u n d s f o r saying that the previous transition to a religious orientation never h a p p e n e d . T h u s a transition would seem
to have o c c u r r e d in C h i n a to a new religious f o r m a l knowledge
system j u s t as it did in E u r o p e .
If these knowledge systems are necessary to civilization a n d
d e m a r c a t e t h e transition f r o m o n e civilization to a n o t h e r , the
next question would seem to be w h e t h e r o n e "knowledge system"
equates to o n e "civilization." Is t h e r e a useful distinction between
knowledge systems a n d civilizations?
T h e obvious answer to this question is "yes." If it were so simple
to identify the d e f i n i n g e l e m e n t of each individual civilization,
t h e n it would have been d e f i n e d a n d a g r e e d u p o n long ago, a n d
the m e m b e r s of this Society would not have been t h r o w i n g definitions past each o t h e r f o r the last t h r e e decades. Moreover, the
above statements have already p r o p o s e d two distinct, b u t b o t h
Christian, civilizations as immediate successors to the R o m a n
E m p i r e (in E u r o p e a n d Byzantium) a n d medieval China has been
treated as a single civilization in spite of having at least two distinct
religious knowledge system ( B u d d h i s m a n d Taoism). Likewise
the present-day United States recognizes at least t h r e e distinctly
separate formal knowledge systems as being valid, even w h e n
t h e y c o n t r a d i c t e a c h o t h e r : C h r i s t i a n i t y , Science, a n d nationalism. Evidently if f o r m a l knowledge systems are characteristic of civilization, the two are not necessarily t h e r e f o r e coterminous.
T h e case of the civilization with multiple knowledge systems is
the easiest to deal with. T h e r e is of course the possibility that the
civilization will be hopelessly splintered a m o n g the w a r r i n g partisans of the d i f f e r e n t knowledge systems; in this case o n e may
a r g u e w h e t h e r a civilization actually exists, as against a congeries
of w a r r i n g ideas. T h i s is the case in some partially, b u t only partially, Westernized civilizations today, with a d d e d complications
f r o m foreign i n t e r f e r e n c e in such especially complex areas as
L e b a n o n . Alternatively, t h e r e may be n o large-scale dissension
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a m o n g the competing systems. A civilization in this situation
keeps the peace simply by refusing to admit that any conflict
exists; there is a loose, usually unsystematized belief that the different knowledge systems are only parts of some unidentified
higher system. 6 In such a situation it does not matter if there is
conflict between minorities composed of fervent partisans of the
individual systems, so long as the government and most of the
people continue to refuse to recognize this conflict. T h e partisans
will be considered an annoyance but not a crucial challenge. T h e
problems between Science and Christianity in the United States,
or between Judaism and nationalism in Israel, will illustrate. A
similar attitude was emphasized in medieval China:
Successive T ' a n g sovereigns encouraged the idea of the f u n d a m e n t a l
compatability of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism. . . . [DJespite
the protest of Confucian orientated officials, u n d e r Hsiian tsung's immediate predecessors, resources that might have gone into the u p k e e p of
[Confucian] ritual precincts o r buildings were used on a lavish scale for
Buddhist and Taoist temples. In the second half of Hsiian tsung's reign,
the emperor's promotion of Taoism and establishment of Taoist schools
a n d temples . . . again must have been to the detriment of the prog r a m m e prescribed by the Confucian ritual code. Emperors were also
likely to take y p a n d develop their own religious interests, perhaps new
or dubiously canonical cults, on the margins of orthodoxy. T h e y were
often supported in this by the ambitious or opportunistic, f r o m within
the bureaucracy or outside it. [McMullen 1987:223]
An even more striking example of the early medieval Chinese
attitude toward d i f f e r e n t religions may be f o u n d in a pronouncement of the E m p e r o r T ' a n g and T'ai-tsung in 635, concerning the arrival of Nestorian Christianity in China:
T h e Way has more than one name. T h e r e is more than one Sage.
Doctrines vary in d i f f e r e n t lands, their benefits reach all mankind. O Lo
Pen [Ruben?], a m a n of great virtue f r o m T a Ts'in (the Roman Empire),
has brought his images a n d books f r o m afar to present them in o u r
capital. After examining his doctrines we find them p r o f o u n d and
pacific. After studying his principles we find that they stres what is good
and important. His teaching is not diffuse and his reasoning is sound.
This religion does good to all men. Let it be preached freely in O u r
Empire. [Fitzgerald 1961:336]
If one civilization can have several formal knowledge systems,
can one formal knowledge system also have several civilizations?
H e r e again the answer is necessarily in the affirmative. T h e
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E u r o p e a n West has a long tradition of considering itself distinct
f r o m Byzantine civilization, yet both were based on the same
Christian c h u r c h . Spain and Britain also, in my analysis, e n t e r e d
the Middle Ages as civilizations distinct f r o m Frankish E u r o p e
(built a r o u n d the K i n g d o m of Asturias and E m p i r e of Leon in
Spain, a r o u n d the Anglo-Saxon k i n g d o m s in England), a n d while
both later a m a l g a m a t e d to some m a j o r e x t e n t with E u r o p e , this
c a n n o t be said to have r e n d e r e d their previous histories nonexistent. T h i s p r o b l e m of a u t o n o m o u s d e v e l o p m e n t involves
questions of detail that will f o r the m o m e n t be left f o r a f u t u r e
study.
T h e r e is next India. As discussed in H o r d 1987b, the e n d of
classical India, with the fall of the G u p t a E m p i r e ca. AD 450,
shares very many characteristics with the fall of R o m e a n d the fall
of H a n China. T h e r e was an imperial collapse followed by centuries of barbarian invasions a n d rule [ T h a p a r 1966:142]; t h e r e
was an economic collapse [Kosambi 1965:1961]; t h e r e was reversion to a b a r t e r economy accompanied by the rise of s e r f d o m a n d
a landed aristocracy [Sharma 1980:44-80]. Most particularly, the
e n d of ancient India, like the Later R o m a n a n d Later H a n empires, saw a m a j o r religious transition. In Classical Greece a n d
Rome a n d in C h o u China, religion h a d been a m a t t e r not j u s t of
the relationship of individuals with the s u p e r n a t u r a l b u t of the
state with the s u p e r n a t u r a l a n d of individuals with the state. For
R o m e in particular the position of m a n , state a n d universe in the
state religion seems almost contractual, but the same could be said
f o r the relationship of the A t h e n i a n s to Athens a n d to A t h e n a a n d
likewise elsewhere a r o u n d Greece, a n d the magical central position of the rulers of ancient China is discussed at length in H o r d
(1987a). In both the M e d i t e r r a n e a n world a n d C h i n a this ancient
integration is well known to have fallen a p a r t d u r i n g the last
centuries BC, in favor of a stewpot of, first philosophies, then
religions, that stressed only the relationship of individuals with
the u n i v e r s e — i n the M e d i t e r r a n e a n a r e a Stoicism a n d
Epicureanism, then the Hellenistic mystery religions; in C h i n a
the long evolution of Taoism a n d the introduction of B u d d h i s m .
India saw the same kind of c h a n g e d u r i n g the last centuries BC:
From what has been said above it will appear that the most remarkable
facts in the religious history of the period are the amazing diversity of
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beliefs, a proneness to reverence, either towards gods or towards men of
wisdom and morality, an eager pursuit of religious truths, and a tendency to make experiments in religious matters. Once the hold of the
Vedic cult lost its grip and, later, the formalism of the Brahmanas and the
abstruse speculations of the Upanishads failed to satisfy the common
man, the more earnest and devout souls sought comfort in bhakti
[devotion] to a personal god, while a bolder but not always more intellectual section sought out a saint or religious r e f o r m e r . . . . T h e most significant religious p h e n o m e n a were, however, the rise into prominence of
the two major gods, Vishnu and Siva, and the establishment of the two
major dissenting sects, Jainism a n d Buddhism. T h e minor sects had to
make alliance with one or other of these, a n d were gradually absorbed
into or transformed by these major cults. T h e period is also characterized
by the virtual disappearance, toward its close, of the importance of Indra
and Prajapati, the two outstanding divine figures of the Vedic and the
Brahmanic age respectively. [Bhattacharyya 1951:474-475]
I n G r e e c e , R o m e , a n d C h i n a t h e e v e n t u a l w i n n e r s o f this c o m p e tition w e r e l a r g e l y i m p o r t e d r e l i g i o n s , C h r i s t i a n i t y a n d B u d d h ism. I n d i a also h a d o n e o f t h e s e , called S a u r i s m , t h e r e l i g i o n o f t h e
sun g o d Surya, which "receive[d] a s u d d e n accession of s t r e n g t h
t h r o u g h t h e infiltration of Persian beliefs a n d t h e installation of
[ P e r s i a n - s t y l e ] i m a g e s s o o n a f t e r [ B h a t t a c h a r y y a 1951:465]." T h e
S a u r a f a i t h c o n t i n u e s e v e n t o d a y , b u t it w a s n o t a m o n g t h e m o s t
s u c c e s s f u l c o m p e t i t o r s . T h e s i t u a t i o n is s o m e w h a t c o n f u s e d , b e c a u s e t h e t e x t s a r e c o m p o s i t e s p r o d u c e d o v e r c e n t u r i e s a n d relig i o u s e v o l u t i o n c o n t i n u e d t h r o u g h all this p e r i o d . B u t t h e G u p t a
d e v e l o p m e n t s s e e m to h a v e b e e n decisive:
T h e religious movement definitely swings f r o m the abstract to the
concrete. T h e ceremonial worship of the images of Vishnu, Siva, a n d
other gods . . . takes the place of sacrificial offerings to the host of unseen
Vedic gods of vague personality. Even the austere and rigid morality of
Buddhism and Jainism gives way to devotion to the concrete personalities of B u d d h a and Mahavira. Soon . . . hosts of lesser divinities
gather r o u n d these primary figures. T h e resulting changes are great
indeed in all cases [Majumdar 1970:370]
A n o t h e r s o u r c e r e f e r s t o " t h e n e w u p h e a v a l of H i n d u i s m u n d e r
the Guptas" such that the H i n d u i s m "established t h r o u g h the
Puranas d u r i n g t h e G u p t a e r a b e c a m e t h e r e l i g i o n o f t h e I n d i a n
p e o p l e " [ B h a t t a c h a r j i 1970:19, 99]. t h e s e n e w r e l i g i o n s w e r e o f
d o m e s t i c r a t h e r t h a n f o r e i g n o r i g i n , so t h e d e g r e e o f c h a n g e o f
o r i e n t a t i o n is n o t as o b v i o u s in I n d i a as in t h e M e d i t e r r a n e a n
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world a n d China. But the actuality of a m a j o r c h a n g e of religion
seems to be a g r e e d u p o n .
In India as in the M e d i t e r r a n e a n world a n d China, the following centuries saw a recovery o r i e n t e d a r o u n d the new universal
religions. But while we W e s t e r n e r s generally consider R o m e to
have given birth to multiple following civilizations (at least
E u r o p e a n d Byzantium), pre-Muslim India has with equal certainty been considered m o r e o r less a single unit. Even T o y n b e e
considered medieval India all p a r t of a single H i n d u Society. But
India of the later First millennium AD not only had several d i f f e r e n t religions, it also t e n d e d to concentrate these religions in diff e r e n t regions (albeit with very little of the exclusivity a n d intolerance f o u n d a r o u n d the Mediterranean). T h e T a m i l - n a d (the
south) emphasized Saiva H i n d u i s m :
In the long period of Cola rule [ca. 900-1200] the Hindu temple attained the zenith of its influence on the social life of the country. . . . Most
[local endowments] centered round the village temple which, from
somewhat obscure religious origins, had grown by the time of the Colas
to dominate every aspect of social life all over the country. T h e role of the
temple in the secular life of its neighbourhood can hardly be exaggerated. [Nilakanta-Sastri 1955:512, 652]
In the n o r t h e r n Deccan, across the middle of India, the rulers of
the eighth t h r o u g h twelfth centuries a r e r e m a r k e d as
great patrons of Jainism. . . . Their emergence into power proved a great
boon for the propagation and glorification of the faith. . . . It was not
only these predominant royal houses that patronised Jainism, but the
faith was adopted by several feudatory chiefs and small rulers in the land
as well. . . . Jain temples, shrines, images, tombs, and epitaphs . . . amply
testify that during this period the Jain religion was extremely popular
and constituted a living faith of all classes of people from royalty to
peasantry, inspiring them to deeds of piety and philanthropy during life,
and affording them solace and hope in death. IJain 1979:429-431]
During the heyday of its power there was not a single dynasty in the
Deccan that did not come u n d e r the influence of Jainism at one time or
another. Non-Jain rulers also patronised Jainism. Ministers, generals,
women—all played their part as devout Jains. [Pulsaker 1984:292]
Bengal a n d Bihar are known in this period f o r their emphasis o n
Mahayana B u d d h i s m , b u t the e x t e n t of B u d d h i s t influence in this
region and period is not stated. O n the o t h e r h a n d , it is r e m a r k e d
quite forthrightly of t h e ruling dynasty that its f o u n d e r "was a
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Buddhist and so were all his successors" through almost f o u r
centuries of rule [Majumdar 1984:44], indeed they were "above
all, zealous Buddhists" ]Moreland and Chatterjee 1944:114],
which should be a good indicator of a powerful and lasting influence.
T h e r e is also the possibility of a f o u r t h Indian regional nucleus
based on Vaishnava Hinduism (not to mention a fifth and sixth
a r o u n d T h e r a v a d a Buddhism in Sri Lanka and Burma). T h e
proposed core region f o r Vaishnava development, contemporaneous with the other three, is northwestern India:
From 700 A.D. onwards, Vaisnavism emerges [in north India] as a
comprehensive, all-pervading movement. Apart f r o m incorporating
local and tribal deities into its pantheon, it also admitted people of divergent views, social standing a n d financial status. This probably accounts
for the fact that many petty rulers whose inscriptions range f r o m 8th to
12th century and whose political status and lineage is not exactly clear,
w e r e a r d e n t followers a n d p a t r o n s of Vaisnavism. [Bhagowalia
1980:160.]
T h e case for a separate Vaishnava core is not as good as the
others, partly because the area was invaded and largely occupied
by the Muslims before this development was mature, partly because the religion was rather more influential outside its core
region, in south India, than this model would predict, to the
extent that "the greatest stronghold of Vaishnavism in postGupta India [is suggested to be] the Tamil country" [Sircar
1984:312]. This perception may be a product of intellectual prejudice; in the prospective homeland of Vaishnava civilization,
northwest India, development was of a folk religion of distinctly
"vulgar" type [Majumdar 1979:435-436], while contemporary
south India saw the emergence of the intellectually important
Srivaishnava philosophers [Sircar 1979:436-442]. O n the other
hand, it is the "folk" religions that belong to the whole people of a
civilization rather than just to court intellectuals. But in any case
north Indian Vaishnavism was undergoing the standard development of the times, and so may qualify as a separate f o u r t h
regional development inside medieval India.
These religions interacted with one another and existed in one
another's associated empires, and eventually a somewhat more
generic and consolidated Hinduism won the day, but f r o m ca. AD
600 to 1200 they were distinct and separable faiths. In terms of
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John K. Hard
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civilizations w i t h t h e i r o w n p a t r o n i z e d f o r m a l k n o w l e d g e systems,
if m e d i e v a l E u r o p e a n d B y z a n t i u m a r e a c c o u n t e d s e p a r a t e e v e n
t h o u g h based on the same original church, then medieval India
p r o d u c e d at least t h r e e s e p a r a t e civilizations, with t h e possibility
of a fourth.
T h e r e is n e x t t h e q u e s t i o n of d e g r e e o f i n f l u e n c e . H o w i m p o r t a n t is e a c h f o r m a l k n o w l e d g e system to its associated civilization
a t d i f f e r e n t t i m e s in t h e d e v e l o p m e n t o f t h a t civilization? So f a r in
this essay t h e f o r m a l k n o w l e d g e system h a s b e e n t r e a t e d as a
single u n c h a n g i n g entity, b u t in fact s u c h k n o w l e d g e systems exist
in t i m e like e v e r y t h i n g else, a n d t h e i r positions c a n a n d d o
c h a n g e . C o n s i d e r a g a i n t h e history o f C h r i s t i a n i t y in W e s t e r n
civilization. W e s t e r n t h i n k e r s w e r e a w a r e of t h e e x i s t e n c e of t h e
p r e c e d i n g Classical civilization f r o m t h e b e g i n n i n g , b u t at first t h e
a n c i e n t k n o w l e d g e d i d n o t c o n s t i t u t e a c o m p e t i t o r to C h r i s t i a n i t y .
W h i l e t h e civilization was still t a k i n g f o r m , p e o p l e saw t h e a n c i e n t
ways t h r o u g h C h r i s t i a n eyes:
Perhaps, wrote Alouin, a new Athens will arise in Francia 'only much
more excellent,' and as if in anticipation of the event he and his companions adopted, in their more intimate moments, the great names of antiquity. . . . Aachen, where the court had its favorite residence, was 'the
second Rome,' and everything was done to give the impression that the
whole of antiquity, Hebrew, Greek, and Roman, was being resuscitated at
a breath. T o a real classical scholar, or to the men of the Byzantine
Empire, where the classical tradition had never been broken, it would
have been tempting to laugh at these serious-minded Franks who strutted about pretending to be Romans, for they were unmistakably Germanic. But, in spite of all their play-acting, Charlemagne and his scholars
had grasped one of the fundamental truths which make civilization
real—that knowledge had to be loved for its own sake. . . .
Equally important was the fact that the revival of learning spread
beyond the sphere of religious education. A new style of writing, the
Carolingian miniscule, which was both beautiful and clear, was introduced and rapidly adopted by scribes throughout Charlemagne's dominion. . . . It is no exaggeration to say that it is to the scholars of this period
that we owe our knowledge of the classics. T h e fact is attested in a most
impressive way; for when, some seven centuries later, the humanists of
the Renaissance were ransacking the libraries of Europe for manuscripts
of the classics, the great majority that they found were written in Carolingian miniscule—so much so, that they mistook the handwriting for that
of the ancient Romans themselves, called it scripture Romana, and propagated it as the only classical hand.
In one respect, however, the Carolingian renaissance was markedly
different from that of the fifteenth century. It was fundamentally Chris-
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tian. Charlemagne did not distinguish between 'the classics' and 'the
Fathers,' except to wish that the f o r m e r had been Christian. T o him,
J e r o m e , Augustine, Gregory the Great, and Virgil were all equally Roman. His favorite book, we are told, was St. Augustine's De Civitate Dei. In
this work we have a direct link between Charlemagne's literary renaissance and his political ideals, for there can be no doubt that it exercised
an e n o r m o u s influence on his conception of kingship. It was not, however, the precise influence that St. Augustine would have intended, since
it was f o u n d e d on a misunderstanding of his text. For the term 'city of
God' and 'society of the faithful,' which had been used by St. Augustine to
denote the mystical body of the faithful in all eternity, were taken by
Charlemagne to denote the community of Christians on earth, and he
therefore applied them to the Church of Rome and the Kingdom of the
Franks. T o him it seemed that these two institutions were but one society.
Was not Charlemagne the Lord's anointed ('David') and were not the
Franks 'the Christian people' (populus christianus)? [Davis 1970:137-139]
T h e height of influence of each religious knowledge system
seems as a rule to be confined to the period beginning some f o u r
or five centuries after the fall of the preceding civilization. It lasts
some f o u r centuries, which also see the height of a growing empire oriented specifically toward that religion, as noted above for
the Indian regional developments. Consider again the West, d u r ing the Holy Roman Empire of the Saxon and Salian dynasties:
But in fact the change to optimism had occurred a generation or two
before [AD 1000], and was more probably caused by the cessation of the
Viking, Saracen, and Hungarian raids [as the Saxon emperors established their realm]. It was visible in every aspect of life, political,
economic, religious, and cultural, and particularly in an outburst of
church-building which an eleventh-century monk described as follows:
'One would have thought that the world was shaking itself to cast off its
old age and was clothing itself everywhere in a white robe of churches.
T h u s nearly all the churches of episcopal sees, a n d all the other minsters
of divers saints, and even the little village oratories, were reconstructed
more beautifully than before.'
T h e author of this passage, Ralph Glaber, was apparently referring to
the years 1002-3, a n d was therefore guilty of the wildest exaggeration;
but the statement would be valid if it were applied to the whole period
f r o m 900 to 1250. During those three-and-a-half centuries the vast
majority of the cathedrals a n d churches of the Latin West were built in
their present f o r m , at least in so f a r as their main fabric is concerned. For
while the m o n u m e n t s that have survived f r o m the Dark Ages (c. 400-900)
consist of only a very few churches, fragments of churches, or crypts,
those that have survived f r o m the central period of the Middle Ages are
innumerable. T h e y are to be seen in very town and village of Western
Europe, and still amaze us by their g r a n d e u r . . . . [T]he eleventh and
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John K. Hard
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twelfth centuries [also] witnessed an 'unregulated passion for monasticism' among the laity. T u r n i n g over the pages of Dugdale's Monasticon
one gets the impression that there was hardly a single lord in twelfthcentury England who did not have some share in the endowment of a
monastery. [Davis 1970:203-204, 262[
A n d if as n o t e d a b o v e t h e p r i m a c y of religion in C h i n a involved
m o s t of t h e first m i l l e n n i u m A D , it is p a r t i c u l a r l y n o t e d f o r t h e
T ' a n g dynasty:
It is obvious to the most casually interested observer that during the
T'ang dynasty Buddhism suffused T'ang life, penetrated every segment
of Chinese society to a degree that it had not done before and was never
to do again. [Twitchett and Wright 1973:18; see also Wright 1959;70-83]
T a o i s m m a y h a v e b e e n s o m e w h a t m o r e a state r e l i g i o n :
China's reunification under the T'ang dynasty marked the beginning
of Taoism's most spectacular success. T h e dynasty's founder, Li Yuan,
claimed to be descended f r o m the Lao-tzu. . . . This notion was built into
the dynasty's state ideology and the emperor was commonly referred to
as the 'sage' (sheng). . . . [R]eports of Taoism's dominance on the continent may still be read in the diaries of Japanese Buddhist pilgrims. . . .
[T[he T'ang . . . saw itself as an essentially Taocratic realm. [Sidel and
Strickmann 1986:403]
At the height of T'ang's glory . . . in the official figures for the empire
of that time the Taoists had 1,687 monasteries and nunneries as against
5,358 for the Buddhists. . . . T h e T'ang examination system included an
examination on the Tao-te ching and even one on the Chuang-tsu. Although we know little of those who took these examinations and what it
availed them to pass, we do know these books had a profound influence
on the T'ang elite. [Twitchett and Wright 1973:23-24]
B u t this p r e d o m i n a n c e is t e m p o r a r y . T ' a n g B u d d h i s m " p e n e t r a t e d e v e r y s e g m e n t of C h i n e s e society to a d e g r e e t h a t it h a d n o t
d o n e b e f o r e a n d was n e v e r to d o a g a i n , " a n d u n d e r t h e Colas " t h e
H i n d u t e m p l e a t t a i n e d t h e z e n i t h of its i n f l u e n c e o n t h e social life
of the country." T h e s e statements imply a decline following the
glory years, a n d in fact o n c e e a c h k n o w l e d g e system has r e a c h e d
this z e n i t h of i n f l u e n c e , its p r e - e m i n e n c e b e c o m e s s u b j e c t to serio u s c h a l l e n g e . I n I n d i a t w o of t h e c h u r c h e s , B u d d h i s m a n d
J a i n i s m , lost t h e i r c e n t r a l p o s i t i o n a n d o n e ( B u d d h i s m ) e v e n bec a m e essentially e x t i n c t . I n E u r o p e t h e r e o c c u r r e d a f t e r t h e
b r e a k u p o f t h e Salian e m p i r e " t h e r e n a i s s a n c e o f t h e t w e l f t h c e n t u r y , " with its r e d i s c o v e r y of Aristotle a n d J u s t i n i a n a n d c o n s e q u e n t u p s u r g e of Classical ideas, i n c l u d i n g w h a t m a y be called
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the invention of that competing knowledge system, m o d e r n Science. In China the classical revival was even more successful, as
Neo-Confucianism displaced both Buddhism and Taoism as the
ruling knowledge system of the civilization. T h u s it would seem
that development produces opportunities for major change. This
change is by no means always beneficial; in India it involved reestablishment of a rigid caste system that has been called
straightforwardly one of the two "foremost . . . causes of the
downfall of the Hindus" [Saran and M a j u m d a r 1979:126], and
the reunification of China u n d e r the hypertrophied bureaucracy
f o u n d e d by the Sung may also be accounted the cause for the end
of development in that country. But whether it is for good or ill, it
does seem clear that the High Middle Ages of each civilization
mark an unpredictable growth in complexity of each civilization's
relationship with its knowledge system(s).
This essay will leave f u r t h e r diachronic investigations of the
development of knowledge systems to a later discussion. Part II of
this paper will present hypotheses on the nature of formal knowledge systems as parts of civilization and on the effects of this
concept on o u r interpretation of the n a t u r e of civilization.
Fort Walton Beach, FL
NOTES
1. T h e word "ethnocentric" properly refers to the assumptions of one's
own people rather than to the assumptions of one's own knowledge
system, and even in o u r m o d e r n times this is a seriously flawed usage.
T h e assumption that at core all things are "purely physical" is an indoctrination f r o m that formal knowledge system called Experimental Science, and science is not a monopoly of, say, the American people. O n e
might call it a monopoly of the scientific people, but that expression is so
strange that it would be more likely to confuse than to enlighten. Properly an adjectival f o r m of "knowledge system" is needed here, but none
such exists. O n e might o f f e r the neologisms "epistemocentric," coined
f r o m the Greek episteme, course of knowledge, o r "paidecentric," f r o m
the Greek paideia, education, suggested by the writings of Lowell Edm u n d s and Gordon Hewes respectively. T h e concepts behind episteme
and paideia are not as all-embracing as that behind "formal knowledge
system," but either is close e n o u g h to serve.
2. T h e importation of these religions for political purposes is noted in
Japan:
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The significance of the Great Buddha was that it represented Rushana, the
universal Buddha and symbol of the unity of the universe. The emperor Shomu, by
calling himself the "slave" of Rushana, could nonetheless claim to be his earthly
counterpart. For as Rushana presided over the universe in all its manifestations, so
did the emperor assure the harmony of his state. Here was the ultimate use oj
religious symbolism for support of the state. In Buddhism, the government thus
acquired, above and beyond Shinto, a powerful set of religious sanctions. And it is
important to note that the relationship between the temporal authority and the
Buddhist establishment remained similar to that which existed between the state and
Shinto. [Hall 1970:57-60]
In Tibet:
It is difficult to explain why the Tibetan kings of that time favored Buddhism
and most of the nobility Bon-po. A highly possible explanation is that the kings saw
in the rising strength of the new religion a good opportunity to rid themselves of the
aristocrats who were ever intriguing and counter-intriguing for more power. It
was this king [Ral-pa-chen, 817-836]who raised the Buddhist rank andfile to the
status of a new aristocracy. He appointed a few Buddhists to important government posts to replace the nobles . . . [Shen and Liu 1953:26-27]
Regarding Burma the statement is made outright of the king who converted the country to Buddhism that "no doubt he saw in this religion a
means of consolidating his rule over the whole country" [Wales 1973:2].
Likewise concerning the first Khmer ruler:
Jayavarman II's revival of the ancient Devaraja symbolism of universal kingship occurred after his occupation of Hariharalaya (819 or 820) .... The ruler
thus became a Chakravartin, or universal ruler, or the divine essence of kingship.
[Cady 1964:89]
These polities will be discussed in more detail in a later paper.
3. In the Khmer Empire this was temporary; for reasons that are not
well understood, Theravada Buddhism replaced Saiva Hinduism as the
principal religion of Cambodia after the fall of Angkor.
4. One may also find other events that might stand as transitions of
civilizational stature. Regarding Byzantium for example:
Culturally, too, his [Heraclius', 610-641 ] reign marked a new era. If Justinian
had been the last of the truly Roman Emperors, it was Heraclius who dealt the old
Roman tradition its death-blow. Until his day, Latin was still regularly used by the
civil service and even by the army—despite thefact that it was incomprehensible to
the overwhelming majority of his subjects. At a moment when efficiency of communications was of paramount importance, such a state of affairs was clearly
ridiculous; and it was Heraclius who decreed that Greek, for long the language of
the people and the Church, should henceforth be the official language of the
Empire. Within a generation, even among the educated classes, Latin became
virtually extinct. Finally, by way of marking the end of the old Empire and setting
the seal on the new, he abolished the ancient Roman titles of imperial dignity.
Heretofore, like his predecessors, he had been formally hailed as Imperator
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Caesar and Augustus; all these were now replaced by the old Greek word for
king, Basileus—which was to remain the official title for as long as the Empire
lasted. [Norwich 1989:311]
But this seems clearly a recognition of an already long-existing situation,
and there seems to be some dissent whether Latin continued to be used
into the reign of Heraclius:
As the sixth century draws to a close there is less and less sign of literary life. One
symptom of decline is the disappearance of knowledge of Latin. At the beginning of
the century the capital at least had been, if not a bilingual city, one in which both
languages were well understood. The great grammarian Priscian wrote in Latin.
It is certain that it was Justinian's first language. The codification of the law, one
of the greatest achievements of the reign, required a professional knowledge of it.
But by the middle of the century the law students seem to have needed a crib of
Justinian's Code, the so-called Kata podas. John the Lydian laments that the use
of Latin was abolished in the bureau for European affairs by order of John the
Cappadocian, Justinian's minister. . . . Whereas the historian Procopius had been
a versatile linguist, there is much less sign that Agathias [the next major historian ]
. . . had similar talents. The loss of linguistic competence may have happened quite
suddenly at the end of the century. The most striking proof of it is the story of Pope
Gregory the Great who, in a letter dated 597, says that in Constantinople it is not
possible to obtain a satisfactory translation. [Wilson 1983:58-59]
In any case the consensus seems to be that transition f r o m Classical to
Byzantine civilization, so f a r as it can be dated, occurred approximately
in the reign of Justinian.
5. T h e r e is one other obvious parallel between Rome and China: Both
the Roman Empire a n d the Han Empire split into two regional variants
on dissolution, one part occupied by barbarian invaders and the other
consciously the home of the old imperial tradition. T h e r e were two differences. In Rome the conscious continuator of old traditions was the
long-settled east, in China the frontier south; in Rome the barbarian
development was in the frontier west, in China it was in the long-settled
north. In the f o r m e r Roman Empire both halves developed f u t u r e civilizations; in China, only the barbarian north managed to create a stable
integration, a n d it reunified China. O n e may also compare India, albeit
less well, since its records are not as complete. In India the old heartland
of the Ganges Basin went to the Mahayana Buddhist Pala dynasty, which
may easily have been the least integrated, most thoroughly "feudalized"
part of medieval India, while the frontier far south went to the "almost
Byzantine royalty of Rajaraja [Chola, ca. AD 1000] and his successors
with its n u m e r o u s palaces, officials, and ceremonials a n d its majestic
display of t h e c o n c e n t r a t e d r e s o u r c e s of an e x t e n s i v e e m p i r e
[Nilakanta-Sastri 1955:447]."
6. T h e r e are occasionally efforts to formalize this peaceful coexistence,
such as the formation in India of the idea of the Trimurti of Brahma,
Vishnu, and Siva as an e f f o r t to unite formally the godheads of the
Hindu religions.
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