[2.] Cf. H. Arthur Sterner, Government in Fascist Italy, New York and London, 1938.
[3.] Cf. Fritz Morstein Marx, Government in the Third Reich, 2d ed., New York and London, 1937.
[4.] Cf. Sidney and Beatrice Webb, Soviet Communism, 2d ed., New York, 1937.
FIRST PART
MOVEMENTS
Chapter I
[CONFUCIANISM]
The continuity of Chinese civilization depends not alone upon its political virtues, but upon its working effectiveness in all relevant spheres of human activity. In emphasizing certain aspects of old China, it is impossible to trace the entire broad evolution.[1] In fact, the emergence of those devices which, along with government in the narrow sense, guided China in her long past dates back to prehistory. Throughout the ages, however, Chinese life has preserved its identity.
Chinese culture is unique in its continuity. Its most striking characteristic is a capacity for change without disruption. It would appear that that characteristic goes back even to [those] cultures which preceded the Shang in northeast China. Shang culture, like all great cultures, was eclectic, fertilized by influences from many quarters. But these influences and techniques, when they were accepted, met the same fate which has overtaken every people, every religion, every philosophy which has invaded China. They were taken up, developed to accord with Chinese conditions, and transmuted into organic parts of a culture which remained fundamentally and characteristically Chinese.[2]