You contrast a supposedly egalitarian and "meritocratic" Legalism against a Confucianism that is supposedly none of either. I certainly grant that Confucianism implies hierarchical relationships of various sorts. But is it not also true that in principle Confucianism was meritocratic? Anybody could become a mandarin bureaucrat who could pass the appropriate exams? Is it not in fact the case that the degeneration away from that and the rise of bought positions in the mandarin bureaucracy and the inheritance of such positions by incompetent sons was the key sign of a corruption of Confucianism, a tendency observed in the decadent periods of declining Confucian-oriented dynasties? Barkley Rosser
-- Rosser Jr, John Barkley rosserjb at jmu.edu