ABSTRACT
The differences between China and the West have contributed to distinctive interpretations of the commons. China always had the challenge of feeding her large population despite her highly developed agricultural economy. In China and other East Asian cultures, the 'public' and the 'private' are not necessarily opposite. Neo-Confucianism in the Song and Ming Dynasties tried to exclude superstitious and religious elements from Confucianism and developed a new school of philosophy. 'China's whole ethical system thus tended to be family-centred and particularistic, not universalistic and oriented toward God or state, as in the West'. Religion is the expression of a common view and collective action, as well as their interaction. In China, diffused religion is an informal facilitator of social cohesion. The bureaucracy was mostly self-regulated within an ethical/moral system. Systems of performance-oriented assessment and supervision and discipline were the main institutional constraints for bureaucracy. The Fankou dam presents an example of a complicated bureaucracy.
