The Self in China

FC Yang (2006) History of Chinese self construct.

Hsu (1985) Offers the blended model of psychosocial homeostasis (PSH)
and Jen. Drawing from the Psychoanalytic tradition he makes reference to layers of consciousness and of ego, PSH.

PsychoSocial Homeostasis refers to the dynamics of the jen matrix
of human existence where it is the stabilizing process of the constituent parts (layers of the person)
-ranges from outer-world to personal unconscious.
-similarities and differences between typical configurations
of persons from China, Japan and "the West".

  figure 1 

-Here there are several concentric layers to a human's existence moving from outer-world through to personal unconscious.

Jen - the "indigenous" Chinese concept of man has many social connotations, in contrast to the typically western "disengaged" conceptions of man.
- refers to a matrix of psychological and social elements; constituting man as a moral being; existing within a larger context.

figure 2

  Chinese self is primarily constituted by the "supremacy of kinship
"Self esteem" is said to be embedded in layer 3 -psychological identification with one's parents, siblings and close relatives.

-God and nature are treated as impersonal, not personal God of Christianity

-typical "westerner" where the layer 3 is more dynamic and is likely to be filled with peer individuals rather than by family members.

Hsu suggests that such persons may end up expanding identity and mastery to layers 2, 1 and even 0 in compensation of the weaker layer 3. Alternatively such individuals may "reach inward" to layers 5 and 6 through exploration of their own anxieties perhaps even through drugs (Hsu, 1985).

Typical Japanese self is similar to the Chinese jen, yet differing with respect to the status of inheriting and non-inheriting sons.
-Inheriting sons are similar to the Chinese with their strong connection to family.

-Non-inheriting sons must find their human networks elsewhere as seen in the iemoto, or master-disciple (mutually dependent) relationships. Here, the layer 3 relationships can be met through non-peer relationships which are also non-familial.

These relationships are strongly formalized in various institutions in Japan, representing a much more rigid delineation of roles and a strongly held hierarchy than is seen either in China or in the "west" (Figure 2).

One can, as does Hsu, extend this investigation into "National Character studies", getting deeper into the content of the cultural selves, rather than their structures.

Tu (1985) provides a neo-Freudian analysis of selfhood and otherness in Confucian thought. Focusing relationships between sons and fathers and the ideals of filial piety.

-Confucian self, involves self and other in a dyadic relationship as part of the more central feature of a quest for sagehood and self-realisation through lifelong commitment to learning.

 Various ritualizations further are said to lead to a broadening awareness and self cultivation through an opening up of self to others.

 -mutual caring for each other and the devotion of the son to the father (allowing the father to be a father, and the son to be a son), the two can move towards their ideals of self realization

 Unlike Oedipal conflict between fathers and sons, . . .

the Confucian filial piety relationship leads to the submission of the son to a set of values and ideals. Here, as Tu suggests, the son does not act out of repressed aggression, but rather out of a sense of duty to his own self development and to that of his father (who leads and guides the son through standards of emulation).

There is room for the son to assist the father if he happens to err in his fathering, yet there is not the need for defiance of authority because the ultimate authority is in the ideal of harmony with heaven; for it is heaven which ultimately endows a person with selfhood.

Chu (1985) changing concept of self in contemporary China

Changes in the self in China have occurred because of the cultural revolution which destroyed traditional familial moral principles.

-traditional (pre-revolutionary) Chinese self is most closely centered on the significant others (and the cultural value of these relationships), and less so on the body and objects.

This self is authority-guided and when such individuals (today's older generation) are confronted with difficulties they usually work them out through the support of the family authority structure.

Contemporary China - the Maoists have attempted to maintain the emphasis on the collective, however, it is now the collective of the party rather than so much the family or kinship group.
-Chinese tradition involves the importance of one's relations with authority figures.

Elvin (1985) Individualism in the history of Chinese thought, many people.

KS Yang (2006) Personality in China today

Tonks (2017) Ethos and Self and Identity in the I Ching and Erikson's psychoanlytical psychology
Comparing The Chinese self and Erikson's configurations of ego and culture.