The personal views in this essay concerning the relationship between culture and power in traditional China are expressed in honor of my friend Hoyt Cleveland Tillman's retirement at the end of academic year 2018–19, after forty-three years of distinguished service to Arizona State University. The essay given here served as the keynote to the March 29–30, 2019, conference at Arizona State University to discuss "Culture and Power in China's History," an international conference supported, in part, by the Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation for International Exchange. It sets forth an overview of the interactive dynamism of Confucian culture and state power, not only as it developed and changed in historical context but also with an analogy to a pair of Siamese twins who require one another for life, yet need to counterbalance one another.
Mandate of Heaven, Han Wudi, shared governance, Zhu Xi, Ming Taizu, Wang Yangming