ABSTRACT
In this chapter, while dealing with the Agencies of Social Order in the Mediaeval East, our main interest lies in the examination of those ideas as initiated by individuals which superseded the existing institutions in the mediaeval East, notably in China. The Middle Ages of China started from the Burning of the Books in 213 B.c. and ended with the establishment of the Sung dynasty (960–1279). During this period of Eastern mediaevalism ancient ideas became institutionalized and few new ideas appeared on the stage, so that order rather than progress and organization rather than initiation characterized the era. Therefore, we shall consider not only the various ways individual theories, philosophic schools, and religious systems, became institutionalized as agencies of social order in the mediaeval East, but also their principles of motivation and techniques of group-control. Among the six co-ordinate agencies of social order in the mediaeval East—Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Mohammedanism, and Shintoism—only the first three will be studied because of the significance of their influence and uniqueness of their initiating ideas. Hinduism will be treated in subordination to Buddhism simply because it has no definite founder despite its unique rôle in maintaining social order in India. But a few remarks must be made before we pass over Mohammedanism and Shintoism.
