Old Takes on Giving: Charity in Ancient China

A world where the widowed, disabled and anyone in need are all cared for was an ideal envisioned by Confucian scholars during the Warring States period from the fifth to third century BCE. Their writings make up the earliest recorded ideas about charity in China’s history.  Government-sponsored charity mainly included disaster relief. This falls far short of modern Western charity, a virtue that has roots in Christian ethics. Buddhist temples provided alms to the poor. This marked the beginning of non-governmental charity in China, including poverty and disaster relief, health care and other programs. Individuals played a greater role in charity through donations to temples as Buddhism promoted the idea of karmic behavior.After Buddhist charities declined, big family clans took up the cause. During the boom of Neo-Confucianism in the 11th century, ancestral worship was encouraged. This created a social network based on family clans. Fan Zhongyan, a prestigious scholar and politician, launched one of China’s first clan-based charities to support poor clan members. The Northern Song government encouraged such organizations, and institutionalized charities previously run by Buddhist temples. They provided government housing to the poor, disabled, elderly, and orphans. The government and clans worked side-by-side yet independently of one another. This was another step toward modern charity. However, there were still no public organizations to link government and clan-based charity efforts. Also, clan charity institutions were not open to people outside the clans. The rise of a new social group filled the vacuum.