Individual Autonomy and Responsibility in Late Imperial China By ...

approach to social reality and inherent rules of reciprocity, there is a series of elements which work in favor of the autonomous development of the individual, like the critique (and not the refusal) of the Confucian tradition and the attention toward individual self-determination.³⁶ As we will see in more detail, one set of misrepresentations comes from the fact that the person is generally viewed as a member of a larger social body and the two are rarely contrasted with each other. Nevertheless, this sense of interdependence does not a priori exclude individual autonomy.³⁷

To better grasp the differences found in Western and Chinese interpretations of this controversial concept, it may be useful to concentrate on the conflicting aspects of the Promethean dimension, which in the West represents the ideal of heroic independence from society and power.³⁸ The legend goes that Prometheus sided with humans against the gods. He stole fire from Zeus to make men powerful and relieve them from gods’ dependency. The fire was equated with science and technique for its discovery freed humans from their basic needs and made them independent in front of gods.³⁹ Technical knowledge allowed men to dominate beasts and nature, but this was not enough to eliminate human evil, as they still had to administer justice, execute laws, and take care of the overall organization of society.⁴⁰ Although what Prometheus provided to men was not sufficient for them to establish a peaceful and fully functional society, so far he has remained the symbol of human ransom.⁴¹ His resistance against Zeus’s despotic rule and his unjust, severe punishment are the elements of tragedy. If we seek analogies in the ancient mythology of China, we would not probably find analogous legends—regardless of the fact that heroic resistance to the arrogance of power can be identified at any time in Chinese history; there is no such a thing as a Promethean attitude in Chinese tradition. On the contrary, a passage in Zhuangzi is somewhat emblematic for its idea of human adaptation to the natural order, in a caveat against “love of knowing” (haozhi 好知), owing to its ecological and selfish destructiveness: