Comparison of Forms and Concepts of Confrontation against Monarch Power in Ancient China and in Medieval Western Europe

Abstract

Monarchy existed in both ancient China and the Middle-ages Western Europe. It is an inevitable phenomenon of power dynamics for the above two that other societal groups would rise to confront the sovereign authority of the monarch. However, because of the differences in the historical environment between ancient China and the West, the form of the antagonism toward the power of the monarchy and the political concepts embodied therein are naturally quite distinct. In ancient China, resistance against imperial power, both in form and concept, can be roughly divided into “revolution” and “admonishment,” while the political concepts of the Middle-ages Western Europe legally reserved reasonable channels for those opposing the power of the monarchy.