On the Collective-Individual Relationship in Traditional China through the Lens of Collective Punishment

Broadly speaking, collective punishment is a disciplinary method that involves the punishment of not only the criminal but also those in the latter’s close circles. It has three major types in traditional China, namely, yuanzuo (“缘坐”), wuzuo (“伍坐”) and zhizuo (“职坐”). Under yuanzuo, wuzuo, and zhizuo, certain relatives, neighbors and colleagues of the criminal would respectively be punished alongside with the criminal himself. Thus, yuanzuo, wuzuo and zhizuo shed light on the essence of relations between individuals and their clans, between individuals and their neighbors and between individuals and their colleagues respectively in traditional China. Both an outgrowth and an important institutional pillar of the absolutist monarchy, collective punishment functions to nip any potential threat to the autocratic regime in the bud. Moreover, collective punishment mirrors a special type of collective-individual relationship. Specifically, it reveals the collectivist nature of individual-collective relationship in traditional China that is featured with the fundamental role of clan, the synthesization of loyalty and filial piety and the same structure shared by Chinese families and the Chinese state.