ABSTRACT
The ancient Chinese expression for 'punitive expedition' is zheng or zhengfa, which connote 'conquest and subjugation'. This chapter reappraises early Chinese ideas, especially the Daoist one, on punitive expeditions with the intention that those ethical debates should be revisited to look at discourses of just war and world order in the twenty-first century. It focuses on the Daoist position as represented by Laozi and Zhuangzi. One of the contested issues within the framework of contemporary just war theory is 'humanitarian intervention'. The chapter argues that the differences between Confucianism and Daoism with regard to their political views and positions on war and peace may be approached from two related yet different models of 'harmony' in early Chinese philosophy, namely the music model and the culinary model. These two models point to two different ways of understanding what constitutes harmony and harmonization.
