Scholarly Work Contrasts
Jewish and Chinese Cultures
by Tiberiu Weisz
IUniverse 2008.
Reviewed by Eric Shoag
The Jewish Journal Boston North
September 25, 2008
In the aftermath of all the spectacle and rhetoric that characterized the recent Olympic Games in Beijing, one may discover a growing unease and curiosity concerning the strange land many are predicting will become the next superpower.
In his new book, The Covenant and the Mandate of Heaven, scholar and author Tiberiu Weisz has done an outstanding job not only collapsing thousands of years of Chinese history into one short work, but also comparing that rich fascinating history of that of the Jewish people, pointing out the many parallels, differences and ironies between the two unrelated cultures.
The concept is a unique and curious one, and Weisz performs adorably under the circumstances. The author exercises superhuman focus and restraint to touch on the key points and figures throughout the centuries and not get bogged down in too many details or digressions. The result in a very readable, sometimes dizzying journey from Biblical ties through Antiquity to Modernity, and somehow, improbably, it works.
Beginning with the basic idea of God and Creation, Weisz shows immediate parallels between the two peoples, whose concept of Supreme Being forbade the construction of images or idols and demanded high moral standards its worshippers. Weisz also shows how the Torah of the Jews and the Liji, or Book of Rites, for the Chinese, have been instrumental in shaping the philosophies and destinies of both, providing a basic moral framework aw well as of inspiration.
Though some of the connections the author makes are a bit tenuous or contrived, and the unavoidable promotional blurbs attempt to tie everything together in an neat, pithy package of “yin and yang”, what emerges is an enlightening study of two cultures that have overcome many challenges and catastrophes to not only survive, but thrive and outlast many other civilizations that have come and gone. The way both Chinese and Jewish people have met and overcome those challenges are at times remarkably similar: by re-examining their past and reinventing themselves again and again for the future.
Some of the similarities are truly uncanny, from the importance of an “oral tradition” of learning that grew out of the teaching of Confucius for the Chinese, and who eventually became the books of laws and commentaries that are the Mishna for the Jews, to the appearance oft charismatic figures at a particularly dark time to reinvigorate both cultures.
Though they lived two hundred years apart, both Shabbatai Zvi (1626-1676) and Hong Xiuquan (1814-1864) had grandiose Messianic ideas of their personal destinies, and inspired legions of followers who had become disenchanted be the restrictive rules of their respective cultures. Though both their movement ultimately failed, they were instrumental in shaping the Jewish and Chinese futures, injecting an essential celebratory, ecstatic element into what had become in both cases a dry joyless observance.
Most fascinating, however, are the sometimes startlingly ironic differences between the two people , and the opposite ways they met some of their challenges. While both the Chinese and Jews were isolated from the rest of the world, the forms of that isolation were quite different. Where China was cut off physically from its surrounding neighbors, the Jews wandered through many lands and were separated from others by their own beliefs and practices.
In the early 20th century both people had new challenges. To facilitate the Zionist dream of settling a Jewish homeland, the Jews had to learn to become farers and laborers. Conversely, to combat the threat of Colonialism, China with its enormous population of illiterate workers, had to cultivate a new class of intellectuals and in sense join the modern world they had long ignored.
And yet, strange similarities persist. In both cases language was a major uniting factor, as the Chinese began their journey of literacy and the Jews resurrected their biblical language of Hebrew to unify their own nationalist movement.
As Weisz writes,”…this was the beauty of their heritage: they could be influenced by other cultures and absorb foreign ideas, but they always rose above the challenges and reached new heights.” From exile and disunity, the destruction of the Temple and the Mongol conquest to the Holocaust and Cultural Revolution, The Covenant and the Mandate of Heaven is a crash course in the history of two fascinating contrasting cultures and people, and cannot fail to excite even the most casual reader.
