The secret to Chinese civilization’s longevity? Exams and bureaucracy.

In his ambitious “The Rise and Fall of the EAST,” Yasheng Huang identifies patterns from Chinese history to explain the endurance and achievements of autocratic governance in China, and how its excesses under Communist Party leader Xi Jinping today risk causing stagnation.

Dr. Huang leads readers on an engaging gallop through ancient Chinese dynasties to probe the staying power of its rulers. He reveals the tools they used – ones adopted in different forms by the present Communist-run state – and how these tools excel at promoting stability, but to the detriment of innovation.

The author draws on two newly created databases from projects he’s overseen since 2014. One database of Chinese technology covers more than 10,000 inventions. Another details attributes of Chinese emperors and senior court officials over time.

Dr. Huang also draws contrasts with Western democracies, focusing on how they balance governing capacity and freedom. For example, whereas democracies’ legal and electoral systems allow them to cohere while permitting significant diversity, China’s system demands conformity.

A key thesis of the book is that China achieved this conformity through its invention, in the year 581 during the Sui dynasty, of an examination system for recruiting bureaucrats. The keju examination system is the key method Chinese emperors used to mold the bureaucracy that they leveraged to govern, the author writes. The exams helped engender a large, male, managerial class indoctrinated by a common way of thinking – Confucian ideology. 

"The Rise and Fall of the EAST," by Yasheng Huang, Yale University Press, 440 pp.

By monopolizing this talent pool, the state deprived society of an independent intelligentsia and stifled the rise of competing sources of power. The result was an autocracy that has proved remarkably enduring. 

“The ability of the Chinese state to rule over a large territory and over a long span of time during an era without modern communication technologies is a non-trivial achievement,” he writes. “Ancient Europe was unable to do it; China, by contrast, reconstituted itself into a unified polity in 581 and has remained a cohesive political unit ever since.” 

But this stability comes at a cost – for technological inventiveness in particular, the author states. Ancient China was famous for many impressive inventions – from ship construction and navigation to paper and  printing. Yet Dr. Huang shows how China lost this technological lead beginning in the 6th century, after the Sui dynasty reunified the country and created the examination system. Other historians have placed China’s technological peak more than 700 years later, in the Ming dynasty (1368 to 1644).

“China fell behind,” writes Dr. Huang. China’s political and ideological uniformity stifled technological advancement – while in Europe, divisions promoted innovation. “The unraveling of the Western Roman Empire in 476 led to the political and economic fragmentation of Europe and Europe never looked back. Just a hundred years later, the opposite happened in China. ... The Sui dynasty holds the key to one of the most enduring enigmas in the history of technology – the collapse of Chinese technological supremacy.”

Fast-forward to post-Mao China. Dr. Huang shows how, for about four decades starting in 1978, Communist Party reformers pulled off a rare exception – maintaining stability while also encouraging technological advancement. They did this, he says, by delegating authority to regions, incentivizing officials to target gross domestic product growth, and allowing much greater social and economic diversity – all under a central framework of personnel management.

But Mr. Xi, who came to power in 2012, has adopted policies that Dr. Huang says could threaten the innovation and stability Mr. Xi seeks to promote. He has reversed key reforms and tightened party controls. In many ways, Mr. Xi’s plan for ensuring the continuation of Communist Party rule “vastly understates his own system’s strengths and sophistications.” 

This book is a sweeping inquiry that both China scholars and a general audience will value – not the least for Dr. Huang’s wit, colorful observations, and direct style. Challenging conventional wisdom with fresh insights and data, it is a must-read for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of China today and where it is headed.