Étiquette : Karel

 

The « Miracle of Gandhara » : When Buddha turned himself into man

SUMMARY

Introduction

The 5th and 4th centuries BC were a period of global intellectual ferment. It was a time of great thinkers, such as Socrates, Plato, and Confucius, but also Panini and Buddha.

In northern India, it was the age of Buddha, after whose death a « non-theistic » faith (Buddha was only a man…) emerged and spread far beyond its region of origin.

With between 500 million and 1 billion believers today, Buddhism has established itself as one of the world’s leading religious and philosophical beliefs.

The life of the Buddha

Lumbini.

The Buddha » (the enlightened one) is the name given to a man called Siddhartha Gautama Shakyamuni (the wise man of the Shakya clan). He reached the age of eighty.

Traditions differ on the exact dates of his life, which modern research tends to place increasingly later: around 623-543 BC according to Theravada tradition, around 563-483 BC according to most specialists of the early 20th century, while others today place him between 420 and 380 BC (his life would not have exceeded 40 years).

According to tradition, Siddhartha Gautama was born in Lumbini (in present-day Nepal) as a Prince of the royal family of Kapilavastu, a small kingdom in the foothills of the Himalayas in present-day Nepal. 

An astrologer is said to have warned the boy’s father, King Suddhodana, that when growing up, the child would either become a brilliant ruler or an influential monk, depending on how he viewed the world.

Fiercely determined to make him his successor, Siddhartha’s father never let him see anything outside the palace walls.

While offering him every distraction and pleasure, he made him a virtual prisoner until the age of 29.

When the young man finally escapes his gilded cage, he discovers the existence of people affected by old age, illness, and death.

Moved by the suffering of the ordinary people he met, Siddhartha abandoned the ephemeral pleasures of the palace to seek a higher purpose.

He first tried ultra-severe asceticism, which he abandoned six years later, realizing it was an exercise in futility.

He then sat down to meditate under a large bodhi (fig tree), where he experienced nirvana (« liberation » or, in Sanskrit, « extinction » of the ego). He became known as « The Buddha » (“the enlightened one”).

The « Four Truths » and the « Eight-fold Path »

Buddha taught his young disciples the « Middle Path », between the two extremes of mortification and lavishness. He enunciates the « Four Noble Truths »:

  1. The noble truth of suffering;
  2. The noble truth of the origin of suffering;
  3. The noble truth of the cessation of suffering;
  4. The noble truth of the path leading to the cessation of suffering, that of the “Noble Eightfold Path”.

Somewhat similar to what Augustine and even more so the Brothers of the Common Life argued in the Christian world, Buddhism insists on the fact that our attachment to earthly existence (both the good and the evil) inflicts suffering. Among Christians, it is said that attachment to “Earthly Paradise” leads us inexorably to “sin”, a concept non-existent in Buddhism for which all errors come from ignorance of the right path.

For Buddha, it is necessary to combat, even extinguish, any sense of the excessive “I” (Today we could say “ego”). It is possible to end our suffering by transcending this strong sense of “I” to enter into greater harmony with things in general. 

The means to achieve this are summarized in the « Noble Eightfold Path », sometimes represented by the eight spokes of a « Wheel of the Law » that Buddha will set in motion, the Dharma, a word one cannot translate with one word of western languages, but akin to “the law, or rather a set of moral and philosophical precepts to work on. 

These eight points of the “Noble Eightfold Path” are:

  1. Right view.
  2. Right thought.
  3. Right speech.
  4. Right action.
  5. Right livelihood.
  6. Right effort.
  7. Mindfulness.
  8. Right concentration.
  • Right view is important right from the start because if we can’t see the truth of the four noble truths, we can’t begin.
  • Right thinking follows naturally from this. The term « right » here means « in accordance with the facts », i.e. with the way things are – which may be different from the way I would like them to be.
  • Right thinking, right speech, right action, and right livelihood imply moral restraint – refraining from lying, stealing, committing violent acts, and earning a living in a way that is not detrimental to others. Moral restraint not only contributes to general social harmony but also helps us to control and diminish the inordinate sense of « self ». Like a spoiled child, the « I » grows wide and unruly the longer we let it have its way.
  • Finally, right effort is important, because the « I » thrives on idleness and wrong effort; some of the greatest criminals are the most energetic people, so effort must be appropriate to the diminution of the « I » (today we’d say ego), and in any case, if we’re not prepared to make an effort, we can’t hope to achieve anything, either in the spiritual sense, or in life. The last two stages of the path, mindfulness and concentration or enthralment , represent the first step towards liberation from suffering.

The ascetics who had listened to the Buddha’s first discourse became the nucleus of a « sangha » (a community, a movement) of men (women were to join later) who followed the path described by the Buddha in his Fourth Noble Truth, the one specifying the “Noble Eightfold Path”.

To make Buddhist nirvana completely accessible to ordinary people during their individual lifetime, the Buddhist imagination invented the intriguing concept of « Bodhisattva », a word whose meaning varies according to context. It can refer to the state Buddha himself was in before his « awakening », or to an ordinary person who has resolved to become a Buddha in the future and has received confirmation or prediction from a living Buddha that this will be so.

In Theravada (“old school”) Buddhism, only a select few can become Bodhisattva, such as Maitreya, presented as the « Buddha of the future ». But in Mahayana Buddhism (“Great Vehicle”), a Bodhisattva refers to anyone who has generated “bodhicitta”, a spontaneous wish and compassionate spirit aimed at attaining Buddhahood for the benefit of “all sentient beings”, including humans and animals. Given that a person may, in a future life, be reincarnated as a mere animal, respect for animals is essential.

Reincarnation

If Siddhartha would build his own vision on certain foundations of Hinduism, one of the world’s oldest religions, he would introduce revolutionary changes with large political implications. 

In most beliefs involving reincarnation (Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism), the soul of a human being is immortal and does not disperse after the physical body disappears. After death, the soul simply transmigrates (metempsychosis) into a newborn baby or animal to continue its immortality. The belief in the rebirth of the soul was expressed by ancient Greek thinkers, beginning with Pythagoras, Socrates, and Plato.

Buddhism aims to bring lasting, unconditional happiness. Hinduism aims to free oneself from the cycle of births and rebirths and, ultimately, to attain moksha or liberation from births and rebirths.

Buddhism and Hinduism agree on karma, dharma, moksha, and samsara (reincarnation). But they strongly differ politically in that Buddhism sees personal commitment as more important than formal rituals and refuses the caste system. Buddhism therefore advocates a more egalitarian society.

Whereas Hinduism holds that the attainment of nirvana is only possible in future lives, the more voluntarist and optimistic Buddhism holds that once you’ve realized that life is suffering, you can put an end to that suffering in your present life.

Buddhists describe their rebirth as a flickering candle lighting another candle, rather than an « immortal » soul or « self » passing from one body to another, as Hindus do. For Buddhists, it’s a rebirth without a « self », and they regard the realization of non-self or emptiness as nirvana (extinction), whereas for Hindus, the soul, once freed from the cycle of rebirths, doesn’t become extinct, but unites with the Supreme Being and enters an eternal state of divine bliss.

Aryans and Vedism

The nomadic Aryans arrived from the steppes and the North and entered India.

One of the great traditions that shaped Hinduism was the Vedic religion (« Vedism »), which flourished among the Indo-Aryan peoples of the north-western Indian subcontinent (Punjab and the western Gangetic plain) during the Vedic period (1500-500 BC).

During this period, nomadic peoples from the Caucasus, calling themselves « Aryans » (« noble », « civilized » and « honorable »), entered India via the northwest frontier. 

The term “Aryan” has a very bad historical connotation, especially in the 19th Century, once several virulent anti-Semites, such as Arthur de Gobineau, Richard Wagner, and Houston Chamberlain started promoting the obsolete historical “Aryan race” concept supporting the white supremacist ideology of Aryanism that portrayed the Aryan race as a “master race”, with non-Aryans regarded as racially inferior (Untermensch) and an existential threat to be exterminated.

Bal Gangadhar Tilak.

From a purely scientific standpoint, in his book The Arctic Home (1903), the Indian teacher Bal Gangadhar Tilak (1856-1920), based on his analysis of astronomical observations contained in the Vedic hymns, formulates the hypothesis that the North Pole was the original home of the Aryans during the pre-glacial period. They supposedly left this region due to climatic changes around 8000 BC, migrating to the northern parts of Europe and Asia. Mahatma Gandhi called Tilak, who led the country’s early independence movement,« the architect of modern India ».

The Aryans arriving from the North were probably less barbaric than has been so far suggested. Thanks to their military superiority and cultural sophistication, they took over the entire Gangetic plain, eventually extending to the Deccan plateau in the South. This conquest has left its mark to the present day, as the regions occupied by these invaders speak Indo-Aryan languages derived from Sanskrit. (*1)

Panini.

The Sanskrit philologist, grammarian, and scholar Panini, believed to be a contemporary of Buddha, is best known for his treatise on Sanskrit grammar, which has attracted much comment from scholars of other Indian religions, notably Buddhism. 

In fact, according to the best archaeological research available today, Vedic culture has deep roots in the Eurasian culture of the Sintashta steppes (2200-1800 BC) south of the Urals, in the Andronovo culture of Central Asia (2000-900 BC) stretching from the southern Urals to the headwaters of the Yenisei in Central Siberia, and ultimately in the Indus Valley (Harappan) civilization (7000-1900 BC).

At the heart of this Vedic culture are the famous “Vedas” (knowledge), four religious texts recording the liturgy of rituals and sacrifices, and the oldest scriptures in Hinduism. The oldest part of the Rigveda was composed orally in north-western India (Punjab) between around 1500 and 1200 BC,  i.e. 700 years before Plato but shortly after the collapse of the Indus Valley Civilization.

Scholars trace the origin of “Brahmanism” to Vedic times. The concept of “Brahman” was that of a pure essence that not only diffused itself everywhere but constituted everything. Men, gods, and the visible world were merely its manifestations. Such was the fundamental doctrine of Brahmanism, another name for Hinduism.

Brahmins and the caste system

To teach that to all of humanity, an all-powerful cast of high priests was created, the Brahmins whose social rank would rise to the top of a caste system. This makes it all a little bit complicated because while “Brahmâ” designates a God in Indian religions, “Brahman” designates Ultimate Reality and “Brahmin” the priest.  

However, with the emergence of this Aryan culture came what is known as « Brahmanism », i.e. the birth of an all-powerful caste of high priests.

According to Gajendran Ayyathurai, an Indian anthropologist at the University of Göttingen in Germany:

Although the term « Brahmin », literally a « superior » member of the highest priestly caste, does appear in the Vedas, modern scholars temper this fact and point out that « there is no evidence in the Rigveda of an elaborate, highly subdivided and very important caste system ».

But with the emergence of a ruling class of Brahmins, who became bankers and landowners, particularly during the, initially very promising, Gupta period (319 to 515 A.D.), a dehumanizing caste system was established. The feudal ruling class, as well as the priests, emphasized local gods, which they gradually integrated with Brahmanism to appeal to the masses. Even among the rulers, the choice of deities indicated divergent positions: part of the Gupta dynasty traditionally supported the god Vishnu, while its rivals supported the god Shiva.

The destructive caste system was then amplified and used to the full by the British East India Company, a private enterprise steering the British Empire, to impose its aristocratic and colonial power over India –  a policy that still persists, especially in people’s minds.

The Hindu caste system revolves around two key concepts that categorize members of society: varna and jati. The varna (colors) divide first the Hindus and then the entire Indian society into a hierarchy of four major social classes:

  • Brahmins (priestly class);
  • Kshatriyas (warriors and rulers);
  • Vaishyas (merchants);
  • Shudras (manual workers).

In addition, jati refers to at least 3,000 hierarchical classifications, within the four varnas, between social groups according to profession, social status, common ancestry, and locality.

The justification for this “social stratification” is intimately linked to the Hindu vision of karma. Each person’s birth is directly linked to karma, the balance sheet of his or her previous life. Thus, mechanically, birth into the Brahmin varna is the result of good karma.

According to this theory, karma determines birth into a class, which in turn defines a person’s social and religious status, which in turn describes a person’s duties and obligations towards that specific status. 

In 2021, a survey revealed that three out of ten Indians (30%) identify themselves as members of the four varnas. Only 4.3% of today’s 60.5 million Indians identify themselves as Brahmins. Only some members are priests, while others exercise professions such as educators, legislators, scholars, doctors, writers, poets, landowners, and politicians. As the caste system evolved, Brahmins became an influential varna in India, discriminating against other lower castes.

The vast remainder of Indians (70 percent), including Hindus, declare themselves as being « Dalits« , also known as « Untouchables », who are individuals considered, from the point of view of the caste system, to be out of the castes and assigned to functions or occupations deemed ‘impure’.

The Buddhist philosopher Asvaghosa.

Present in India, but also throughout South Asia, the Dalits are victims of numerous forms of discrimination. In India, the overwhelming majority of Buddhists declare themselves as being Dalits.

As early as the 1st century, the Indian Buddhist philosopher, playwright, poet, musician, and orator Asvaghosa (c. 80 – c. 150 a. DC), vocally condemned this caste system with two kinds of argument. Some are borrowed from the most revered texts of the Brahmins themselves; others are based on the principle of the natural equality of all men.

The author underscores that

A Buddhist allegory clearly rejects and mocks the very idea of the caste system:

India before Buddhism

The time of the Buddha was that of India’s second urbanization and great social protest. The rise of the sramanas, wandering philosophers who had rejected the authority of the Vedas and Brahmins, was new. Buddha was not alone in exploring ways of achieving liberation (moksha) from the eternal cycle of rebirths (punarjanman).

The realization that Vedic rituals did not lead to eternal liberation led to the search for other means. Primitive Buddhism and yoga but also Jainism, Ajivika, Ajnana, and Carvaka were the most important sramanas. Despite their success in disseminating ideas and concepts that were soon to be accepted by all the religions of India, the orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy (astika) opposed the sramanic schools of thought and refuted their doctrines as « heterodox » (nastika), because they refused to accept the epistemic authority of the Vedas.

For over forty years, the Buddha crisscrossed India on foot to spread his Dharma, a set of precepts and laws governing the behavior of his disciples.

When he died, his body was cremated, as was the custom in India. The Buddha’s ashes were divided, and several reliquaries were buried in large hemispherical mounds known as stupas (dome-shaped funeral temples). By the time of his death, his religion was already widespread throughout central India and in major Indian cities such as Vaishali, Shravasti, and Rajagriha.

The Great Buddhist Councils

Four great Buddhist councils were organized, at the instigation of various kings seeking to escape the clutches of the Brahmin caste.

In 483 BC, just after the Buddha’s death, the first council was held under the patronage of King Ajatasatru (492-460 BC) of the Haryanka dynasty to preserve the Buddha’s teachings and reach a consensus on how his teachings could be disseminated.

The second Buddhist Council took place in 383 BC, one hundred years after the Buddha’s death, under the reign of King Kalasoka of the Sisunaga dynasty. Differences of interpretation arose on points of discipline as followers drifted further apart. A schism threatened to divide those who wished to preserve the original spirit and those who defended a broader interpretation.

The first group, called Thera (meaning « ancient » in Pâli), is at the origin of Theravada Buddhism. They aimed to preserve the Buddha’s teachings in their original spirit.

The other group was called Mahasanghika (Great Community). They interpreted the Buddha’s teachings more liberally and gave us Mahayana Buddhism.

The participants in the council tried to iron out their differences, with little unity but no animosity either. One of the main difficulties stemmed from the fact that the Buddha’s teachings, before being recorded in texts, had been transmitted only orally for three to four centuries. (*2)

The Arrival of the Greeks

Darius the Great.

The Greeks began to settle in the north-western part of the Indian subcontinent during the time of the Achaemenid Persian Empire.

Darius the Great (550 – 486 BC) conquered the region, but he and his successors also conquered much of the Greek world, which at the time included the entire peninsula of western Anatolia.

When Greek villages rebelled under the Persian yoke, they were sometimes ethnically cleansed. Their populations were forcibly deported to the other side of the empire.

As a result, numerous Greek communities sprang up in the remotest Indian regions of the Persian Empire.

Persian Empire.

In the 4th century BC, Alexander the Great defeated and conquered the Persian Empire.

By 326 BC, this empire encompassed the north-western part of the Indian subcontinent as far as the River Beas (which the Greeks called the Hyphasis). Alexander established satrapies and established several colonies. He turned south when his troops, aware of the immensity of India, refused to advance further east. 

From 180 BC to around 10 AD, more than thirty Hellenistic kings succeeded one another, often in conflict with one another. This period is known in history as the « Indo-Greek Kingdoms ». One of these kingdoms was founded when the Greco-Bactrian king Demetrius invaded India in 180 BC, creating an entity that seceded from the powerful Greco-Bactrian kingdom, Bactria (including northern Afghanistan, part of Uzbekistan, etc.).

During the two centuries of their reign, these Indo-Greek kings integrated Greek and Indian languages and symbols into a single culture, as evidenced by their coins, and blended ancient Greek, Hindu, and Buddhist religious practices, as evidenced by the archaeological remains of their cities and signs of their support for Buddhism.

The Maurya Empire and Ashoka the Great

Around 322 BC, Greeks called Yona (Ionians) or Yavana in Indian sources, took part, along with other populations, in the uprising of Chandragupta Maurya, the founder of the Maurya Empire.

Chandragupta’s reign ushered in an era of economic prosperity, reform, infrastructure expansion, and tolerance. Many religions flourished in his kingdom and the empire of his descendants. Buddhism, Jainism, and Ajivika grew in importance alongside the Vedic and Brahmanic traditions, and minority religions such as Zoroastrianism and the Greek pantheon were respected.

Ashoka the Great

Ashoka the Great.

The Maurya Empire reached its apogee under the reign of Chandragupta’s grandson, Ashoka the Great, from 268 to 231 BC. Eight years after taking power, Ashoka led a military campaign to conquer Kalinga, a vast coastal kingdom in east-central India. His victory enabled him to conquer a larger territory than any of his predecessors.

Thanks to Ashoka‘s conquests, the Maurya Empire became a centralized power covering a large part of the Indian subcontinent, stretching from present-day Afghanistan in the west to present-day Bangladesh in the east, with its capital at Pataliputra (present-day Patna in India). 

Before this, the Maurya Empire had existed in some disarray until 185 BC. It was Ashoka who transformed the kingdom with the extreme violence that characterized the early part of his reign. Between 100,000 and 300,000 people were killed in the Kalinga conquest alone!

But the weight of such destruction plunged the king into a serious personal crisis. Ashoka was deeply shocked by the number of people slaughtered by his armies.

Ashoka‘s Edict No. 13 reflects the great remorse felt by the king after observing the destruction of Kalinga:

Ashoka subsequently renounced military displays of force and other forms of violence, including cruelty to animals. Deeply convinced by Buddhism, he devoted himself to spreading his vision of dharma, just and moral conduct. He encouraged the spread of Buddhism throughout India.

According to French archaeologist and scholar François Foucher, even if cases of animal abuse did not disappear overnight, belief in the brotherhood of all living beings still flourished in India more than anywhere else.

In 250 BC, Ashoka convened the third Buddhist council. Theravada sources mention that, in addition to settling internal disputes, the council’s main function was to plan the dispatch of Buddhist missionaries to various countries to spread Buddhism.

These reached as far as the Hellenistic kingdoms to the west, starting with neighboring Bactria. Missionaries were also sent to South India, Sri Lanka, and Southeast Asia (possibly Burma). The fact that these missions were deeply involved in the flourishing of Buddhism in Asia during Ashoka‘s time is well supported by archaeological evidence. Buddhism was not spread by pure chance but as part of a creative, stimulating, and well-planned political operation along the Silk Roads. 

According to the « Mahavamsa » (“Great Chronicle” XII, 1st paragraph), relating the history of the Sinhalese and Tamil kings of Ceylon (today Sri Lanka), the Council and Ashoka sent the following Buddhist missionaries:

  • Elder Majjhantika led the mission to Kashmir and Gandhara (today’s northwest Pakistan and Afghanistan);
  • Elder Mahadeva led the mission in southwest India (Mysore, Karnataka);
    Rakkhita led the mission in southeast India (Tamil Nadu);
  • Elder Yona (Ionian, Greek) Dharmaraksita led the mission in Aparantaka (« the western frontier ») comprising northern Gujarat, Kathiawar, Kutch, and Sindh, which were all parts of India at the time);
  • The elder Mahadharmaraksita led the mission to Maharattha (the western peninsular region of India);
  • Maharakkhita (Maharaksita Thera) led the mission to the land of the Yona (Ionians), which probably refers to Bactria and possibly to the Seleucid kingdom;
  • Majjhima Thera conducted the mission to the Himavat region (northern Nepal, Himalayan foothills);
  • Sona Thera and Uttara Thera led missions to Suvarnabhumi (somewhere in Southeast Asia, perhaps Myanmar or Thailand); and
  • Mahinda, Ashoka‘s eldest son and therefore Prince of his kingdom, accompanied by his disciples, went to Lankadeepa (Sri Lanka).

Some of these missions were successful, such as those that established Buddhism in Afghanistan, Gandhara, and Sri Lanka.

Gandharan Buddhism, Greco-Buddhism, and Sinhalese Buddhism have for generations been a powerful inspiration for the development of Buddhism in the rest of Asia, particularly China. 

While missions to the Hellenistic Mediterranean kingdoms seem to have been less successful, it is possible that Buddhist communities were established for a limited period in Egyptian Alexandria, which may have been the origin of the so-called Therapeutae sect mentioned in some ancient sources such as Philo of Alexandria (c. 20 BC – 50 AD). 

The Jewish Essenes and the Therapeutae of Alexandria are said to be communities founded on the model of Buddhist monasticism. 

According to French historian André Dupont-Sommer (1900-1983), « India is believed to have been the source of this vast monastic movement, which shone brightly within Judaism itself for around three centuries ». According to him, this influence contributed to the emergence of Christianity.

Ashoka’s Edicts

King Ashoka presented his messages through edicts engraved on pillars and rocks in various parts of the kingdom, close to stupas on pilgrimage sites and along busy trade routes.

Some thirty of them have been preserved. They were not written in Sanskrit, but:

  • in Greek (the language of the neighboring Greco-Bactrian kingdom and the Greek communities of Ashoka‘s kingdom), 
  • in Aramaic (the official language of the ancient Achaemenid Empire); and

in various dialects of Prâkrit (*3), including ancient Gândhârî, the language spoken in Gandhara. The edicts were engraved in the language relevant to the region. For example, in Bactria, where the Greeks dominated, an edict near present-day Kandahar was written solely in Greek and Aramaic.

Content of Edicts

Ashoka pillar.

Some edicts reflect Ashoka‘s deep adherence to the precepts of Buddhism and his close relationship with the sangha, the Buddhist monastic order. He also uses the specifically Buddhist term dharma to designate the qualities of the heart that underpin moral action. 

In the Minor Rock Edict N° 1, the King declares himself « a lay follower of the Buddha’s teaching for more than two and a half years », but admits that so far, he has « not made much progress ». He adds that « for a little over a year now, I’ve been getting closer to the Order ».

In the Minor Rock Edict N° 3 from Calcutta-Bairat, Ashoka emphasized that « what has been said by the Buddha has been said well » and described the Buddha’s teachings as the true dharma.

Ashoka recognized the close links between the individual, society, the king, and the state. His dharma can be understood as morality, goodness, or virtue, and the imperative to pursue it gave him a sense of duty. The inscriptions explain that dharma includes self-control, purity of thought, liberality, gratitude, firm devotion, truthfulness, protection of speech, and moderation in spending and possessions. Dharma also has a social aspect. It includes obedience to parents, respect for elders, courtesy and liberality towards Brahma worshipers, courtesy towards slaves and servants, and liberality towards friends, acquaintances, and relatives.

Non-violence, which means refraining from harming or killing any living being, was an important aspect of Ashoka‘s dharma. Not killing living beings is described as part of the good (Minor Rock Edict N° 11), as is gentleness towards them (Minor Rock Edict N° 9). The emphasis on non-violence is accompanied by the promotion of a positive attitude of care, gentleness, and compassion.

Ashoka adopts and advocates a policy based on respect and tolerance of other religions. One of his edicts reads as follows:

Far from being sectarian, Ashoka, based on the conviction that all religions share a common, positive essence, encourages tolerance and understanding of other religions:

And he adds:

Ashoka had the idea of a political empire and a moral empire, the latter encompassing the former. His conception of his constituency extended beyond his political subjects to include all living beings, human and animal, living within and outside his political domain. 

His inscriptions express his fatherlike conception of kingship and describe his welfare measures, including the provision of medical treatment, the planting of herbs, trees, and roots for people and animals, and the digging of wells along roads (Major Rock Edict N° 2). 

The emperor had become a sage. He ran a centralized government from the capital of the Maurya empire: Pataliputra.

Guided by the Arthashastra, the Mauryan state became the central land clearing agency with the objective of extending settled agriculture and breaking up the disintegrating remnants of the frontier hill tribes. Members of such tribes cultivated on these newly cleared forest lands. Agriculture developed thanks to irrigation, and good roads were built to link strategic points and political centers. Centuries before our great Duke de Sully in France, Ashoka demanded that these roads be lined with shade trees, wells, and inns. His administration collected taxes. He made his inspectors accountable to him. The king’s dhamma-propagating activities were not limited to his own political domain but extended to the kingdoms of other rulers.

Hence, Ashoka‘s very existence as a historical figure was close to being forgotten! But since the deciphering of sources in Brahmi script in the 19th century, Ashoka has come to be regarded as one of India’s greatest emperors. Today, Ashoka‘s Buddhist wheel is featured on the Indian flag.

As already mentioned, Ashoka and his descendants used their power to build monasteries and spread Buddhist influence in Afghanistan, large parts of Central Asia, Sri Lanka, and beyond to Thailand, Burma, Indonesia, China, Korea, and Japan.

Bronze statues from his time have been unearthed in the jungles of Annam, Borneo, and Sulawesi. Buddhist culture was superimposed on the whole of Southeast Asia, although each region, happily enough, kept some of its own personality, touch and character.

The Kushan Empire


The Maurya Empire, which ruled Bactria and other ancient Greek satrapies, collapsed in 185 BC, hardly five decades after the death of Ashoka, accused of spending too much on infrastructure and Buddhist missions and not enough on national defense. Some academics argue that Pushyamitra Sunga, who assassinated the last Mauryan monarch, Brihadratha, signalled a strong Brahmanical response against Ashoka’s pro-Buddhist policies and Dhamma. Others argue that Ashoka’s ahimsa (non-violence) philosophy was a contributing factor to the decline of the Mauryan Empire. The king’s non-violence also meant that he stopped exercising control over officials, particularly those in the provinces, who had become tyrannical and required control.

These were turbulent times. In the first century AD, the Kushans, one of the five branches of the Chinese Yuezhi confederation, emigrated from northwest China (Xinjiang and Gansu) and, following in the footsteps of the Iranian Saka nomads, seized control of ancient Bactria. They formed the Kushan empire in the Bactrian territories at the beginning of the 1st century. This empire soon extended to include much of what is now Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and northern India, at least as far as Saketa and Sarnath, near Varanasi (Benares).

Benares.

The founder of the Kushan dynasty, Kujula Kadphises, followed Greek cultural ideas and iconography after the Greco-Bactrian tradition and was a follower of the Shivaite sect of Hinduism. Two later Kushan kings, Vima Kadphises and Vasudeva II, were also patrons of Hinduism and Buddhism. 

The homeland of their empire was in Bactria, where Greek was initially the administrative language before being replaced by « Bactrian » a language written in Greek characters until the 8th century, when Islam replaced it with Arabic.

Emperor Kanishka.

The Kushans also became great patrons of Buddhism, particularly Emperor Kanishka the Great, who played an important role in its spread via the Silk Roads to Central Asia and China, ushering in a 200-year period of relative peace, rightly described as the « Pax Kushana ».

It also seems that, from the very beginning, Buddhism flourished among the merchant class, whose birth barred access to the religious orders of India and the Himalayas.

Buddhist thought and art developed along trade routes between India, the Himalayas, Central Asia, China, Persia, Southeast Asia, and the West. Travelers sought the protection of Buddhist images and made offerings to shrines along the way, collecting portable objects and shrines for personal use.
The term 4th Buddhist Council refers to two different events, one in the Theravada and the other in the Mahayana schools.

  1. According to Theravada tradition: to prevent the Buddha’s teachings, which had hitherto been transmitted orally, from being lost, five hundred monks led by the Venerable Maharakkhita gathered at Tambapanni, Sri Lanka in 72 AD, under the patronage of King Vattagamani (r. 103 — 77 BC) to write down the “Pâli Canon” on palm leaves. (*4) The work, which is said to have lasted three years, took place in the Aloka Lena cave near present-day Matale;
  1. However, according to Mahayana tradition, it was 400 years after the Buddha’s extinction that five hundred Sarvastivadin monks gathered in Kashmir in 72 AD to compile and clarify their doctrines under the direction of Vasumitra and the patronage of Emperor Kanishka. They produced the Mahavibhasa (Great Exegesis) in Sanskrit. 

According to several sources, the Indian Buddhist monk Asvaghosa considered the first classical Sanskrit playwright whose attacks on the caste system we have presented, served as King Kanishka‘s spiritual adviser during the last years of his life.

Birch-bark scrolls acquired by the British Library in 1994.

Note that the oldest Buddhist manuscripts discovered to date, such as the 27 birch-bark scrolls acquired by the British Library in 1994 and dating from the 1st century, were found not in « India », but buried in the ancient monasteries of Gandhara, the central region of the Maurya and Kushan empire, which includes the Peshawar and Swat valleys (Pakistan), and extends westwards to the Kabul valley in Afghanistan and northwards to the Karakorum range. 

Thus, after a first great impetus given by King Ashoka the Great, Gandhara culture was given a second wind under the reign of the Kushan king Kanishka. The cities of Begram, Taxila, Purushapura (now Peshawar), and Surkh Kotal reached new heights of development and prosperity.

The Miracle of Gandhara

It cannot be overemphasized that Gandhara, especially in the Kushan period, was at the heart of a veritable renaissance of civilization, with an enormous concentration of artistic production and unparalleled inventiveness. While Buddhist art was mainly focused on temples and monasteries, objects for personal devotion were very common. 

Thanks to Gandhara’s art, Buddhism became an immense force for beauty, harmony, and peace, and has conquered the world.

Buddhism favored the creation of numerous artistic works that elevate thought and morality by using metaphorical paradoxes. The prevailing mediums and supports were silk paintings, frescoes, illustrated books and engravings, embroidery and other textile arts, sculpture (wood, metal, ivory, stone, jade), and architecture.

Here are a few examples:

A. Poetry

For most Westerners, Buddhism is a « typical » emanation of Asian culture, generally associated with India, Tibet, and Nepal, but also with China and Indonesia. Few of them know that the oldest Buddhist manuscripts known to date (1st century AD) were discovered, not in Asia, but rather in Central Asia, in ancient Buddhist monasteries of Gandhara.

Originally, before their transcription into Sanskrit (for long years the language of the elite), they were written in Gândhârî, an Indo-Aryan language of the Prâkrit group, transcribed with the “kharosthi alphabet” (an ancient Indo-Iranian script). 

Gandhârî was the lingua franca of early Buddhist thought. Proof of this is the Buddhist manuscripts written in Gândhârî that traveled as far away as eastern China, where they can be found in the Luoyang and An-yang inscriptions.

To preserve their writings, the Buddhists were at the forefront of adopting Chinese book-making technologies, notably paper and xylography (single-sheet woodcut). This printing technique consists of reproducing the text to be printed on a transparent sheet of paper, which is turned over and engraved on a soft wooden board. The inking of the protruding parts then allows multiple print runs. This explains why the first fully printed book is the Buddhist Diamond Sutra (circa 868), produced using this process.

The Khaggavisana Suttra, literally « The Horn of the Rhinoceros », is a wonderful example of authentic Buddhist religious poetry. Known as the « Rhinoceros Sutra », this poetic work is part of the Pali collection of short texts known as the Kuddhhaka Nikava, the fifth part of the Pitaka Sutta, written in the 1st century CE.

Since tradition grants the Asian rhinoceros a solitary life in the forest –  the animal dislikes herds –  this sutra (teaching) bears the apt title « On the value of the solitary and wandering life ». The allegory of the rhinoceros helps communicate to devotees the keen sense of individual sovereignty required by the moral commitments prescribed by the Buddha to end suffering by disconnecting from earthly pleasures and pains. Excerpt:


Shunning violence towards all beings,
never harming a single one of them,
compassionately helping with a loving heart,
wander alone like a rhinoceros.

One keeping company nurtures affection,
and from affection suffering arises.
Realizing the danger arising from affection,
wander alone like a rhinoceros.

In sympathizing with friends and companions,
the mind gets fixed on them and loses its way.
Perceiving this danger is familiarity,
wander alone like a rhinoceros.

Concerns that one has for one’s sons and wives,
are like a thick and tangled bamboo tree.
Remaining untangled like a young bamboo,

wander alone like a rhinoceros.

Just like a deer, wandering free in the forest,
goes wherever he wishes as he grazes,
so a wise man, treasuring his freedom,
wanders alone like the rhinoceros.

Leave behind your sons and wives and money,
all your possessions, relatives, and friends.
Abandoning all desires whatsoever,
wander alone like the rhinoceros (…)

B. Literature

Two other masterpieces from the same oeuvre are the famous Jataka, or « Birth stories of the Buddha’s previous lives », and the Milindapanha, or « King Milinda’s questions”.

The Jataka, which features numerous animals, shows how, before the last human incarnation in which he attained nirvana, the Buddha himself was reincarnated countless times as an animal – as various kinds of fish, as a crab, a rooster, a woodpecker, a partridge, a francolin, a quail, a goose, a pigeon, a crow, a zebra, a buffalo, several times as a monkey or an elephant, an antelope, a deer and a horse. One story describes how the Bodhisattva was born as a Great Monkey who dwelled in a beautiful Himalayan forest among a large troop of monkeys. And since it’s Buddha who’s incarnated in the animal, the monkey suddenly speaks words of great wisdom.

But on other occasions, the characters are animals, while our Bodhisattva appears in human form. These tales are often peppered with piquant humor. They are known to have inspired La Fontaine, who must have heard them from Dr. François Bernier, who learned them from him while working as a physician in India for eight years.

The Questions of King Milinda is an imaginative account, a veritable Platonic dialogue between the Greek king of Bactria Milinda (the Greek, Menander), who ruled the Punjab, and the Buddhist sage Bhante Nagasena

Their lively dialogue, dramatic and witty, eloquent, and inspired, explores the various problems of Buddhist thought and practice from the point of view of a perceptive Greek intellectual, both perplexed and fascinated by the strangely rational religion he discovers on the Indian subcontinent.

Through a series of paradoxes, Nagasena leads the Greek « rationalist » to ascend to the spiritual and therefore transcendental dimension, beyond logic and simple rationality, of nirvana, which, like space, has « no formal cause » and can therefore occur, but « cannot be caused ». So how do we get there?

And to one of his disciples, who once asked him whether the universe was finite or infinite, eternal or not, whether the soul was distinct from the body, what became of man after death, the Buddha replied with a parable:

C. Urban Planning

Taxila.

One of the great urban and cultural centers and, for a time, the capital of Gandhara, was Taxila or Takshashila (present-day Punjab), founded around 1000 BC on the ruins of a city dating from the Harappan period and located on the eastern bank of the Indus, the junction points between the Indian subcontinent and Central Asia.

Some ruins of Taxila date to the time of the Achaemenid Persian Empire, followed successively by the Mauryan Empire, the Indo-Greek Kingdom, the Indo-Scythians, and the Kushan Empire. 

According to some accounts, the University of Ancient Taxila (centuries before the residential bouddhist University of Nalanda founded in 427 AD) can be considered one of the earliest centers of learning in South Asia.

As early as 300 BC, Taxila functioned largely as a “University” offering higher education. Students had to complete their primary and secondary education elsewhere before being admitted to Taxila.

The minimum age requirement was sixteen. Not only Indians but also students from neighboring countries like China, Greece, and Arabia flocked to this city of learning.

Chanakya.

Around 321 BC, it was the great philosopher, teacher, and economist of Gandhara, Chanakya, who helped the first Mauryan emperor, Chandragupta, to seize power.

Under the tutelage of Chanakya, Chandragupta received a comprehensive education at Taxila, encompassing the various arts of the time, including the art of war, for a duration of 7–8 years. 

In 303 BC, Taxila fell into their hands, and under Ashoka the Great, the grandson of Chandragupta, the city became a great center of Buddhist learning and art. 

Chanakya, whose writings were only rediscovered in the early 20th century and who served as the principal advisor to both emperors Chandragupta and his son Bindusara, is widely considered to have played an important role in establishing the Mauryan Empire. 

Also known as Kauṭilya and Vishnugupta, Chanakya is the author of The Arthashastra, a Sanskrit political treatise on statecraft, political science, economic policy, and military strategy. The Arthashastra also addresses the question of collective ethics which ensures the cohesion of a society. He advised the king to launch major public works projects, such as the creation of irrigation routes and the construction of forts around the main production centers and strategic towns in regions devastated by famine, epidemics, and other natural disasters, or by war, and to exempt from taxes those affected by these disasters.

Sirkap.

In the 2nd century BC, Taxila was annexed by the Indo-Greek kingdom of Bactria which built a new capital there named Sirkap, where Buddhist temples were contiguous with Hindu and Greek temples, a sign of religious tolerance and syncretism.

Sirkap was built according to the “Hippodamian” grid plan characteristic of Greek cities. (*5)

It is organized around a main avenue and fifteen perpendicular streets, covering an area of ​​approximately 1,200 meters by 400, with a surrounding wall 5 to 7 meters wide and 4.8 kilometers long. 

After its construction by the Greeks, the city was rebuilt during the incursions of the Indo-Scythians, then by the Indo-Parthians after an earthquake in the year 30 AD. Gondophares, the first king of the Indo-Parthian kingdom, built parts of the city, including the Buddhist stupa (funerary monument) of the double-headed eagle and the temple of the Sun god. Finally, inscriptions dating from 76 AD demonstrate that the city had already come under Kushan domination. The Kushan ruler Kanishka erected Sirsukh, about 1.5 km northeast of ancient Taxila.

Buddhist sutras from the Gandhara region were studied in China when the Kushan monk Lokaksema (born 147) began translating some of the earliest Buddhist sutras into Chinese. The oldest of these translations show that they were translated from the Gândhârî language. 

D. Architecture, the invention of Stupas

Stupa of Sanchi, India.

The construction of religious buildings in the form of a Buddhist stupa (reliquary) – a domed monument – began in India as memorials associated with the preservation of the sacred relics of the Buddha.

The stupas are surrounded by a balustrade which serves as a ramp for ritual circumambulation. The sacred area is accessed through doors located at the four cardinal points. Stupas were often built near much older prehistoric burial sites, notably those associated with the Indus Valley Civilization. 

Ruins of buddhist monatry of Garhal Sarni, Gandhara, Pakistan.

Stone gates and gates covered with sculptures were added to the stupas. The favorite themes are the events of the historical life of the Buddha, as well as his previous lives numbering 550 and described with much irony in the Jatakas. (See B)

Monkey offering pot of Honey to Buddha, stupa of Sanchi.

The bas-reliefs of the stupas are like comic strips that tell us about the daily and religious life of Gandhara: wine amphorae, wine goblets (kantaros), bacchanalia, musical instruments, Greek or Indian clothing, ornaments, hairstyles arranged in style. Greek, artisans, their tools, etc. On a vase found inside a stupa, is the inscription of a Greek, Theodore, civil governor of a province in the 1st century BC, explaining in Kharosthi script how the relics were deposited in the stupa.

Many stupas are believed to date from Ashoka‘s time, such as that of Sanchi (Central India) or Kesariya (East India), where he also erected pillars with his edicts and perhaps the stupa of Bharhut (Central India), Amaravati (South-East India) or Dharmarajika (Taxila) in Gandhara (Pakistan). According to Buddhist tradition, Emperor Ashoka recovered the relics of the Buddha in older stupas and erected 84,000 stupas to distribute all these relics throughout Indian territory.

Following in the footsteps of Ashoka, Kanishka ordered the construction of the 400-foot grand stupa at Purushapura (Peshawar), which is among the tallest buildings of the ancient world. 

Archaeologists who rediscovered its base in 1908-1909 estimated that this stupa had a diameter of 87 meters. Reports from Chinese pilgrims such as Xuanzang indicate that its height was around 200 meters and that it was covered in precious stones. Also, under the Kushans, huge statues of the Buddha were erected in monasteries and carved into hillsides.

Sculpture: when Buddha became man 

ANICONIC PERIOD

It is important to know that in early times Buddha was never depicted in human form. For more than four centuries, his presence is simply indicated by symbolic elements such as a pair of footprints, a lotus (indicating the purity of his birth), an empty throne, an unoccupied space under a parasol, a horse without a rider or the Bodhi fig tree under which he reached nirvana. Scholars do not agree on whether these symbols represent the Buddha himself or whether they simply allude to anecdotes from his life. 

END OF ANICONISM

What led Buddhists to abandon aniconic representations remains a vast mystery. Such a development is quite unique in the history of religions. Imagine Muslims suddenly promoting statues of the prophet Mohammed!

The explanations put forward so far leave us wanting more.

For some, the Buddhists wanted to appeal to a Greek clientele, but both the Greek population and Buddhism were in Gandhara long before the iconographic revolution in question. The timing doesn’t fit.

For others, practitioners, in the absence of Buddha himself, would have been desperate to find a visual focal point, be it a statue, a painting or even a few hairs… But for that purpose, the symbols they adopted (wheel, fig tree, empty chair, footprint, etc.), were sufficient.

Buddha, it is reported, refused to be represented in any way, fearing that idolatry would flourish.

But over time, Buddhism evolved. In Gandhara, Mahayana Buddhism flourished.

While for the old school, Siddhartha Gautama was only an enlightened man setting an example, for the new school of Mahayana Buddhism, Buddha was a (successful) attempt to personify (the omnipresent spiritual force, the ultimate and supreme principle of life) in the conception of the first Buddha of all. In short, a kind of Jesus. Consequently, just like Christ from the 5th century on, Buddha could be represented in human form and express elevated states of the soul, such as tenderness and compassion. Added to this is the fact that for Mahayana Buddhism, the objective of helping all living beings to attain nirvana and liberate them from suffering has priority over reaching nirvana on a purely personal level.

Unlike many Christian artists in the West, who, following the doxa, represented Christ suffering on the Cross (the founding event of the Christian faith and Church), the artists of Gandhara present the Buddha as a being totally detached from human pain, looking with compassion to all of humanity.

More importantly, the goal is the elimination of suffering in all humans, compassion is not a passive notion for Buddhists. It is not just empathy but rather an empathetic altruism that actively strives to free others from suffering, an act of kindness imbued with both wisdom and love. 

DIFFERENCES IN FORM, DIFFERENCES IN CONTENT

Before discussing their differences, let’s simply distinguish four types of Buddha representations, among many others:

  1. The « Greco-Buddhist » Gandhara school, produced in the region between Hadda (Afghanistan) and Taxila (Punjab), via Peshawar (Pakistan);
  2. The « Indo-Buddhist » school of Mathura;
  3. The Andra Pradesh school in southern India;
  4. The school of the Gupta period (3rd to 5th centuries).

1. Greco-Buddhist in Gandhara

The term « Greco-Buddhist » refers to archaeologist Alfred Foucher’s (1865-1952) 1905 Sorbonne thesis on Gandhara art.

As André Malraux (1901-1976) wrote in Les Voix du silence in 1951, Greco-Buddhist art is the encounter between Hellenism and Buddhism. Instead of saying that art from Greece had metamorphosed into Buddhist art, as Malraux put it, I think that in Gandhara, it was Buddhist art that appropriated the best of Indian, Greek and steppe aesthetics.

However, Foucher was right to insist, against his English friends, that the influence was Hellenic and not Roman. For their part, with India emancipating itself from the British Empire, Indian scholars tried to validate the thesis of an indigenous creation of the Buddha image, contrasting the Gandhara style, which Foucher wanted to be Greco-Buddhist, with the style of Mathura, in the Delhi region, also part of the Kushan empire, and seen by some as contemporary, even if it is far less prolix than Gandhara art.

Gandhara art really took off during the Kushan period, particularly under the reign of King Kanishka.

Thousands of images were produced and spread throughout the region, from portable Buddhas to monumental statues in sacred places of worship.

In Gandhara, Buddha is depicted very realistically as a beautiful person, often a young man or even a woman. The spiritual charge is such that gender is no longer essential. We don’t know whether these are beautiful portraits taken from life, or pure figments of the artist’s imagination.

Buddha is often shown in meditative posture to evoke the moment when he reaches nirvana.

Crowned with a halo, his face serious or smiling, his eyes half-closed, he radiates light. Full of serenity, he embodies detachment, concentration, wisdom and benevolence.

His hair in a bun (the ushnisha) at the top of his head indicates that he is gifted with supramundane knowledge. The black dot between his eyes symbolizes the third eye, the eye of enlightenment.

In some sculptures, this cavity contains a crystal pearl, symbolizing radiant light. The earlobes are elongated to accommodate the heavy jewelry once worn by the young prince Siddhartha during his princely youth.

The positioning of the hands, as in the rest of Indian art, responds to codes. These include the « abhayamudra », the gesture of reassurance, with the palm facing outwards; the « varamudra », symbolizing giving, with the hand hanging open and the arm half-bent; or the « vitarkamudra », symbolizing argumentation, with the hand raised to chest height, half-closed, palm forward, index finger curved towards the thumb.

At Gandhara, Buddha is dressed in a monastic cloak covering both shoulders. The fabric is neither cut nor sewn, but simply draped in a Greek style around the body. The barely stylized folds follow natural volumes.

2. The School of Mathura

King Kanishka, while supporting all religions he found worthy, did not hide his preference for Buddhism. In practice, he encouraged both the Gandhara school of Greco-Buddhist art (in Taxila and Hadda) and the Indo-Buddhist school (in Mathura, closer to South Asia). 

As one can see, in Mathura, local artists produced a very different type of Buddha. His body is dilated by the sacred breath (prana) and his monastic robe is draped in the Indian style in a way that bares the right shoulder.

Mathura artists used the image of statues of the pre-Buddhist yaksha cults of nature as models for their productions. The body position is often more static and without contrapposto. Clothing can be so thin that the lower parts of the anatomy make a showing and detract the viewers’ concentration on Buddha’s spiritual nature.

3. School of Andhra Pradesh


A third type of influential Buddha type developed in Andhra Pradesh in southern India, where images of large proportions, with serious, unsmiling faces, are dressed in robes that also reveal the left shoulder. These southern sites served as artistic inspiration for the Buddhist land of Sri Lanka, at the southern tip of India, and Sri Lankan monks visited them regularly. Many statues in this style spread from there throughout Southeast Asia. 

4. The Gupta period

The Gupta period, from the 4th to 6th centuries AD, in northern India, often referred to as the Golden Age, is believed to have synthesized the three schools. In seeking an “ideal” image for mass production, mannerism took over.

The Gupta Buddhas have their hair arranged in small individual curls, and the robes have a network of strings to suggest the folds of the draperies (as at Mathura).

With their downward gaze and spiritual aura, the Gupta Buddhas became the model for future generations of artists, whether in post-Gupta and Pala India or Nepal, Thailand, and Indonesia.

Metal Gupta statues of the Buddha were also carried by pilgrims along the Silk Road to China and Korea where Confucius literati sometimes felt threatened by the rise of Buddhism.

But the Buddhas of Gandhara are very special and truly unique. They are distinct examples escaping any codification and standards. They were made by artists with a high spirituality, exploring new frontiers of beauty, movement, and freedom, and not objects produced to satisfy an emerging market.

As early as the first century BC, local artists, who had worked with perishable materials such as brick, wood, thatch, and bamboo, adopted stone on a very large scale. The new material used was mainly a light to dark colour gray shale stone (in the Kabul River valley and Peshawar region). Later periods are characterized by the use of stucco and clay (a specialty of Hadda).

The origin of Buddha’s beautiful image is a subject Pakistanis, Indians, Afghans, and Europeans like to wrangle about today. All claim to have been the main sponsors and authors of the « Miracle of Gandhara », but few ask how it came about. The techniques used for the sculptures and coins of Gandhara are very close to those of Greece. Questions about whether they were created by traveling Greek sculptors or by the local artists they trained are up for discussion. Who did what and when remains an open question, but does it really matter? 

When Asia meets Greece

Let’s take a look at some of the artistic expressions that testify to the beautiful encounter between Hellenic culture and Central Asian and Indian local cultures.

A. Kushan Coins 

A gold coin dating from 120 AD shows the king dressed in a heavy Kushan cloak and long boots, with flames emanating from the shoulders, holding a standard in his left hand and making a sacrifice on an altar with the legend in Greek characters: “King of kings, Kanishka the Kushan”

The reverse of the same coin represents a standing Buddha, in Greek costume, making the “fear nothing” (abhaya mudra) gesture with his right hand and holding a fold of his robe in his left hand. The legend in Greek characters now reads ΒΟΔΔΟ (Boddo), for the Buddha.

B. Bimaran Reliquary

A truly classical theme in the repertoire of any artist of the time consists of showing Buddha surrounded, welcomed, and protected by the deities of other beliefs and more ancient religions.

Bimaran casket.

The oldest such representation known to date appears on a reliquary found in the Bimaran stupa in northwestern Gandhara. On this small gold urn, known as the Bimaran casket, generally dated 50-60 AD, there appears, inside vaulted niches of Greco-Roman architecture, a “Hellenistic” representation of the Buddha (hairstyle, contrapposto, prestigeous wrap, etc.), surrounded by the Indian deities Brahma and Shakra. 

Just like Ashoka, the almost secular Kanishka, did not intend to reign against but with all and “above” all religions.

Thus, on occasion, the Greek deities, represented on coins (Zeus, Apollo, Heracles, Athena…), rub shoulders with the deities of Vedism, Zoroastrianism, and Buddhism.

Another example of this form of inclusiveness, is the cave and the temple carved into the rock in Ellora, in central India, with representatives of the three religions (Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism) rubbing shoulders in the center.

C. The Hadda Triad

The Hadda Triad.

Another exquisite example of this Gandharan art is a sculptural group known as the Triad of Hadda, excavated at Tapa Shotor, a large Sarvastivadin monastery near Hadda in Afghanistan, dating from the 2nd century AD.

To give an idea of its vast artistic production, it is worthy of note that some 23,000 Greco-Buddhist sculptures, in clay and plaster, were unearthed in Hadda alone between the 1930s and 1970s.

The site, heavily damaged during recent wars, had beautiful statues, including a seated Buddha (image above), dressed in a Greek chlamys (white coat), with curly hair, accompanied by Heracles and Tyche (Greek goddess of fortune and of prosperity), dressed in a chiton (Greek dress), holding a cornucopia. 

Here, the only adaptation to local traditions of Greek iconography is the fact that Heracles no longer holds in his hand his usual club but the thunderbolt of Vajrapani (from the Sanskrit word which means “thunderbolt” (vajra) and « in the hand » (pani), one of the first three protective deities surrounding the Buddha.

Another statue recalls the portrait of Alexander the Great. Unfortunately, only photographs remain of this sculptural ensemble, .

According to Afghan archaeologist Zemaryalai Tarzi, the Tapa Shotor Monastery, with its clay sculptures dating back to the 2nd century AD, represents the « missing link » between the Hellenistic art of Bactria and the later stucco sculptures found at Hadda, generally dating back to between the 3rd – 4th century AD. Traditionally, the influx of master artists of Hellenistic art has been attributed to the migration of Greek populations from the Greco-Bactrian cities of Ai-Khanoum and Takht-I-Sangin (Northern Afghanistan).

Tarzi suggests that Greek populations settled in the plains of Jalalabad, which included Hadda, around the Hellenistic city of Dionysopolis (Nagara), and were responsible for the Buddhist creations of Tapa Shotor in the 2nd century AD. 

The Greek colonists who remained in Gandhara (the “Yavanas” or Ionians) after the departure of Alexander, either by choice or as populations condemned to exile by Athens, greatly embellished the artistic expressions of their new spirituality. 

Offering freshness, poetry, and a spectacularly modern sense of movement, the first Buddhist artists of Gandhara, capturing instants of « motion-change » allowing the human mind to apprehend a potential leap towards perfection, are an invaluable contribution to all human culture. Isn’t it high time that this magnificent work be recognized?

D. Take the Earth as your Witness

A magnificent sculpture, now on exhibition at the Cleveland Museum, depicts one of the narratives of the Buddha’s struggle to achieve nirvana. The bodhi fig tree under which the Buddha achieved enlightenment is at the center of the composition. It has been revered since ancient times by local villagers, as it is known to be the residence of a deity of nature. The altar itself is covered with kusha grass used as part of sacrificial offerings.

After sitting in meditation for seven days under his tree, approximately 2,500 years ago, the Buddha was challenged by nightmarish demons (Maras) who questioned the authenticity of his accomplishment. 

Mara, who stands on the right in an arrogant swaying position among his beautiful daughters, tries everything to prevent Buddha from succeeding. He threatens him and encourages his daughters to seduce him. Innocently, he asks Buddha if he is sure he can find someone to testify that he has truly reached nirvana. In response to the challenge launched by Mara, the Buddha then touches the earth and calls it to witness.

According to mythology, when he touched the ground, the young Earth Goddess rose out of the ground and started to wring the cool waters of detachment out of her hair to drown Mara. On the sculpture, one can see the Earth goddess, very small, at the base of the altar, kneeling before Buddha in reverence. She also took a human form when rising from the ground. The old religions intervened here to defend and protect the new one, that of Buddha.

The Indians who converted to Buddhism also seem to have missed the old gods and goddesses of their pantheon; hence, they too include their deities above the head of Buddha or next to it, such as the Vedic god Indra, for example.

E. All Bodhisattvas?

Finally, to conclude this section on sculpture, a few words about the bodhisattva, a very interesting figure that has emerged from the Buddhist imagination to make Buddhist spirituality accessible to ordinary people.

Animated by altruism and obeying the disciplines intended for bodhisattvas, a bodhisattva must compassionately first help all other sentient beings to awaken, even by delaying his own nirwana!

Avalokiteshvara, bodhisattva of compassion.

Bodhisattvas are distinguished by great spiritual qualities such as the « four divine abodes »:

  • loving-kindness (Maitri);
  • compassion (karuna);
  • empathic joy (mudita);
  • equanimity (upekṣa).

The other various perfections (paramitas) of the Bodhisattva include prajnaparamita (« transcendent knowledge » or the « perfection of wisdom ») and skillful means (upaya).

Spiritually advanced Bodhisattva such as Avalokiteshvara, Maitreya, and Manjushri were widely revered in the Mahayana Buddhist world and are believed to possess great power which they use to help all living beings.

A wonderful example of the Bodhisattva concept can be seen at the Dallas Museum of Art (above). This terracotta sculpture represents a “thinking Bodhisattva” from the Hadda region in Afghanistan and is a typical production from Gandhara.

With very few visual elements, the artist produces here a huge effect.

The pillars of his large Bodhisattva chair are lions with slightly outlandish eyes, an allegorical representation of those passions that make us suffer and which are kept under sagacious control by the highly reflective effort of the heroic Bodhisattva on the chair at the center of the piece.

Buddhism today

Nehru and his daughter Indira Gandhi, received at the White House by JFK.

Paradoxically, since the 12th century AD Buddhism, as a religion, has almost ceased to exist in its own birthplace of India.

A fine example of the incessant struggle of the best Indian minds for emancipation was in 1956 when nearly half a million « untouchables » converted to Buddhism under the leadership of the political leader who headed the committee responsible for drafting the Constitution of India, the social reformer B. R. Ambedkar (1891-1956), and the Indian Prime Minister and leader of the Congress Party Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964), himself from a Brahmin family.

In June of the same year, the UNESCO Courier dedicated its edition to “25 centuries of Buddhist art and culture”. 

In India, the two statesmen orchestrated a year-long celebration honoring “2,500 years of Buddhism« , not to resurrect an ancient faith per se, but to claim status as the birthplace of Buddhism: this ancient religion that restores to the world an image advocating non-violence and pacifism.

Buddha statue offered by Nehru to JFK during his state visit in 1961.

Later, on November 9, 1961, during his state visit to the White House, Indian Prime Minister Nehru presented a Buddhist sculpture to President John F. Kennedy. 

The West’s gaping ignorance about the real nature of Buddhism and Nehru’s “non-alignment” would eventually turn decolonization into bloody conflicts, such as in Vietnam, where close to 80 percent of the population was Buddhist, but where 80 percent of the land was owned by Catholic interests considered more robust to resist communist expansionism. 

Mahatma Gandhi, like many Hindus, listened to Buddha’s message. For Hindus, Buddhism was just “another form of Hinduism”, and its justified social criticism, therefore, came “from within Hinduism”.

A point of view that Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru did not share. Deeply troubled by certain intrinsic features of Hinduism, such as ritualism and the caste system, Nehru could not place Buddhism, which abhorred these institutions, in the same category. Nehru was profoundly influenced by Buddhism. He even named his daughter Indira Priyadashini (the future Prime Minister Indira Gandhi), because « Priyadarshi » was the name adopted by the great emperor Ashoka after he became a Buddhist prince of peace! 

Nehru was instrumental in making the Ashoka Chakra (the Buddhist wheel incorporated into the national flag) the symbol of India. Every time he visited Sri Lanka, he visited the Buddha statue at Anuradhapura. 

Nehru, who continually urged superstitious and ritualistic Indians to cultivate a « scientific temperament » and bring India into the era of the atomic age, was naturally attracted to the rationalism advocated by the Buddha.

Nehru argued:

The influence of the Buddha was manifested in Nehru’s foreign policy. This policy was motivated by a desire for peace, international harmony, and mutual respect. It aimed to resolve conflicts by peaceful methods.

On November 28, 1956, Nehru stated:

Visibly inspired by Buddhist precepts, the concepts of « non-alignment » and Nehru’s « Treaty of Panchsheel », commonly referred to as the « Treaty of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence », were formally enunciated for the first time in the agreement on trade and relations between the Tibetan region of China and India, signed on 29th April 1954. 

This agreement stipulated, in its preamble, that the two governments,

Nehru, at the International Buddhist Cultural Conference held on 29th November 1952, in Sanchi, the very city where Kanishka had started building the highest stupa of antiquity, specified:

On 3rd October 1960, Nehru addressed the United Nations General Assembly when he said,

Nehru tried his best to apply the teachings of the Buddha in managing India’s internal affairs. His belief is that social change can only be achieved through the broadest social consensus that stems from the influence of the Buddha, Ashoka, and Gandhi.

In his speech of 15th August 15, 1956, on the occasion of Independence Day, Nehru sets out the challenges to be met: We are proud that the soil on which we were born has produced great souls like Gautama Buddha and Gandhi. Let us refresh our memory once again and pay homage to Gautama Buddha and Gandhi, and to the great souls who, like them, shaped this country. Let us follow the path they showed us with strength, determination, and cooperation.” 

Science and religion, Albert Einstein and Buddha

To conclude, here are some quotes of Albert Einstein discussing the relation between science and religion where he underlines the importance of Buddha:

NOTES:

(*1) Indo-Aryan languages. There are over 200 known Indo-Aryan languages spoken by about 1 billion people. Modern Indo-Aryan languages descend from Old Indo-Aryan languages such as early Vedic Sanskrit, through Middle Indo-Aryan languages (or Prakrits). The largest such languages in terms of first-speakers are Hindi–Urdu (c. 330 million), Bengali (242 million), Punjabi (about 120 million), Marathi (112 million), Gujarati (60 million), Rajasthani (58 million), Bhojpuri (51 million), Odia (35 million), Maithili (about 34 million), Sindhi (25 million), Nepali (16 million), Assamese (15 million), Chhattisgarhi (18 million), Sinhala (17 million), and Romani (c. 3.5 million). Southern India has Dravidian languages (Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam). In Europe, the main Indo-European languages are English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Dutch and Spanish.

(*2) Discords. As early as the 3rd century BC, no fewer than eighteen distinct Buddhist schools were at work in India, but all recognized each other as followers of the Buddha’s philosophy. Finally, Diamond Vehicle Buddhism, known as Vajrayana, whose complex texts and rituals were developed in the universities of northeast India around the 7th and 8th centuries.

(*3) Prakrit is a term that designates an Indo-Aryan language derived from classical Sanskrit. The word itself has a fairly flexible definition, because it sometimes has the meaning of “original, natural, without artifice, normal, ordinary, usual, or even local”, thus contrasting with the literary and religious form of Sanskrit; but sometimes, we can also understand Prakrit as meaning “derived from an original language”, that is to say, derived from Sanskrit. We can therefore say that Prakrit, like any vulgar and vernacular language of India, comes from Sanskrit. In a way, we can compare Prakrits to vulgar Latin, while Sanskrit would be classical Latin. The oldest known use of prâkrit is formed by the set of inscriptions of the Indian emperor Ashoka (3rd century BC). One of the most famous Prakrits is Pali, which achieved the status of a literary and intellectual language by becoming that of the texts of Theravada Buddhism.

(*4) Pâli is an Indo-European language of the Indo-Aryan family. It is a Middle Indian Prakrit close to Sanskrit and probably dates back to the 3rd century BC. Pâḷi is used as a Buddhist liturgical language in Sri Lanka, Burma, Laos, Thailand, and Cambodia. Its status as a liturgical language has made it, like Sanskrit, fixed and standardized.

(*5) Hippodamos of Miletus (born 498 BC – died 408 BC) was a surveyor and engineer from the 5th century BC. BC was also an urban architect, physicist, mathematician, meteorologist, and Pythagorean philosopher. Tradition has remembered his great works of urban planning. Although these works are characterized by the systematic use of the checkerboard plan, he is not its inventor, very ancient Greek colonies already providing us with examples of this urban structure.

Merci de partager !

Le « miracle » du Gandhara : quand Bouddha s’est fait homme

Introduction

Les Ve et IVe siècles avant J.-C. furent une période d’effervescence intellectuelle mondiale. C’est l’époque des grands penseurs, tels que Socrate, Platon et Confucius, mais aussi Panini et Bouddha.

Dans le nord de l’Inde, c’est l’âge du Bouddha, après la mort duquel émerge une foi non théiste (Bouddha n’est qu’un homme…), qui se répand bien au-delà de sa région d’origine. Avec entre 500 millions et un milliard de croyants, le bouddhisme constitue aujourd’hui l’une des principales croyances religieuses et philosophiques du monde et sans doute une force potentielle redoutable pour la paix.

Bouddha, bio-express

Lumbini, lieu de naissance de Siddhartha Gautama.

« Le bouddha » (l’éveillé) est le nom donné à un homme appelé Siddhartha Gautama Shakyamuni (le muni ou sage du clan des Shakya). Il aurait atteint l’âge d’environ quatre-vingts an. Craignant l’idolâtrie, il refuse toute représentation de sa personne sous forme d’image.

Les traditions divergent sur les dates exactes de sa vie que la recherche moderne tend à situer de plus en plus tard : vers 623-543 av. J.-C. selon la tradition theravâda, vers 563-483 av. J.-C. selon la majorité des spécialistes du début du XXe siècle, tandis que d’autres le situent aujourd’hui entre 420 et 380 av. J.-C. (sa vie n’aurait pas dépassé les 40 ans).

Bouddha est né à Lumbini (actuel Népal) dans la vallée du Gange

Selon la tradition, Siddhartha Gautama est né à Lumbini (dans l’actuel Népal) en tant que prince de la famille royale de la ville de Kapilavastu, un petit royaume situé dans les contreforts de l’Himalaya, dans l’actuel Népal.

Un astrologue aurait mis en garde le père du garçon, le roi Suddhodana : lorsque l’enfant grandirait, il deviendrait soit un brillant souverain, soit un moine influent, en fonction de sa lecture du monde. Farouchement déterminé à en faire son successeur, le père de Siddhartha ne le laissa donc jamais voir le monde en dehors des murs du palais. Tout en lui offrant tous les plaisirs et distractions possibles, il en fait un prisonnier virtuel jusqu’à l’âge de 29 ans.

Lorsque le jeune homme s’échappe de sa cage dorée, il découvre l’existence de personnes affectées par leur grand âge, la maladie et la mort. Bouleversé par la souffrance des gens ordinaires qu’il rencontre, Siddhartha abandonne les plaisirs éphémères du palais pour rechercher un but plus élevé dans la vie. Il se soumet d’abord à un ascétisme draconien, qu’il abandonne six ans plus tard, estimant qu’il s’agissait d’un exercice futile.

Il s’assoit alors sous un grand figuier pour méditer et y fait l’expérience du nirvana (la bodhi : libération ou, en sanskrit, extinction). On le désigne désormais sous le nom de « Bouddha » (l’éveillé ou l’éclairé).

Les « quatre vérités » et « l’octuple sentier »

Avant d’en esquisser le développement politique, quelques mots sur la philosophie sous-jacente au bouddhisme.

A ses jeunes disciples, Bouddha enseigne la « Voie du milieu », entre les deux extrêmes de la mortification et de la satisfaction des désirs.

Et il énonce les Quatre nobles vérités :

  1. La noble vérité de la souffrance.
  2. La noble vérité de l’origine de la souffrance.
  3. La noble vérité de la cessation de la souffrance.
  4. La noble vérité de la voie menant à la cessation de la souffrance, celle du Noble Chemin octuple.

Ainsi que le feront Augustin et plus encore les Frères de la Vie commune dans le monde chrétien, le bouddhisme insiste sur le fait que notre attachement à l’existence terrestre implique la souffrance.

Chez les chrétiens, c’est ce qui conduirait au « péché », notion inexistante dans le bouddhisme, pour qui l’errance vient de l’ignorance du bon chemin.

Pour Bouddha, il faut combattre, voire éteindre tout sens démesuré du moi (on dirait ego aujourd’hui). Il est possible de mettre fin à notre souffrance en transcendant ce fort sentiment de « moi », afin d’entrer dans une plus grande harmonie avec les choses en général. Les moyens d’y parvenir sont résumés dans le Noble Chemin octuple, parfois représenté par les huit rayons d’une Roue de la Loi (dharmachakra) que Bouddha mettra en marche, la Loi signifiant ici le dharma, un ensemble de préceptes moraux et philosophiques.

Ces huit points du Noble Chemin octuple sont :

  1. la vue juste
  2. la pensée juste
  3. la parole juste
  4. l’action juste
  5. les moyens d’existence justes
  6. l’effort juste
  7. la pleine conscience
  8. la concentration juste

– La vision juste est importante dès le départ, car sans cela, on ne peut pas voir la vérité des quatre nobles vérités.
– La pensée juste en découle naturellement. Le terme « juste » signifie ici « en accord avec les faits », c’est-à-dire avec la façon dont les choses sont (qui peut être différente de la façon dont je voudrais qu’elles soient).
– La pensée juste, la parole juste, l’action juste et les moyens d’existence justes impliquent une retenue morale – s’abstenir de mentir, de voler, de commettre des actes violents et gagner sa vie d’une manière qui ne soit pas préjudiciable aux autres. La retenue morale ne contribue pas seulement à l’harmonie sociale générale, elle nous aide aussi à contrôler et à diminuer le sentiment démesuré du « moi ». Comme un enfant gâté, le « moi » grandit et devient indiscipliné à mesure que nous le laissons agir à sa guise.
– Ensuite, l’effort juste est important parce que le « moi » prospère dans l’oisiveté et le mauvais effort ; certains des plus grands criminels sont les personnes les plus énergiques, donc l’effort doit être approprié à la diminution du « moi » (son ego, dirait-on aujourd’hui). Dans tous les cas, si nous ne sommes pas prêts à faire des efforts, nous ne pouvons pas espérer obtenir quoi que ce soit, ni dans le sens spirituel ni dans la vie. Les deux dernières étapes de la voie, la pleine conscience et la concentration ou absorption, représentent la première étape permettant de nous libérer de la souffrance.

Les ascètes qui avaient écouté le premier discours du Bouddha devinrent le noyau d’un sangha (communauté, mouvement) d’hommes (les femmes devaient entrer plus tard) qui suivaient la voie décrite par le Bouddha dans sa Quatrième noble vérité, celle précisant le Noble Chemin octuple.

Pour rendre le nirvana bouddhiste accessible au citoyen ordinaire, l’imagination bouddhiste a inventé le concept très intéressant de bodhisattva, mot dont le sens varie selon le contexte. Il peut aussi bien désigner l’état dans lequel se trouvait Bouddha lui-même avant son « éveil », qu’un homme ordinaire ayant pris la résolution de devenir un bouddha et ayant reçu d’un bouddha vivant la confirmation ou la prédiction qu’il en serait ainsi.

Dans le bouddhisme theravâda (l’école ancienne), seules quelques personnes choisies peuvent devenir des bodhisattvas, comme Maitreya, présenté comme le « Bouddha à venir ».

Mais dans le bouddhisme mahâyâna (Grand Véhicule), un bodhisattva désigne toute personne qui a généré la bodhicitta, un souhait spontané et un esprit compatissant visant à atteindre l’état de bouddha pour le bien de « tous les êtres sensibles », hommes aussi bien qu’animaux. Etant donné qu’une personne peut, dans une vie future, se réincarner dans un animal, le respect des animaux s’impose.

Réincarnation

Tout en voulant construire sa propre vision sur certains fondements de l’hindouisme, l’une des plus anciennes religions du monde, Siddhartha introduisit néanmoins des changements révolutionnaires aux implications politiques importantes.

Dans la plupart des croyances impliquant la réincarnation (hindouisme, jaïnisme, sikhisme), l’âme humaine est immortelle et ne se disperse pas après la disparition du corps physique. Après la mort, l’âme transmigre simplement (métempsychose) dans un nouveau-né ou un animal pour poursuivre son immortalité. La croyance en la renaissance de l’âme a été exprimée par les penseurs grecs anciens, à commencer par Pythagore, Socrate et Platon.

Le but du bouddhisme est d’apporter un bonheur durable et inconditionnel. Celui de l’hindouisme est de se libérer du cycle de naissance et de renaissance (samsara) pour atteindre, finalement, le moksha, qui en est la libération.

Dans le bouddhisme, le samsara est souvent défini comme le cycle sans fin de la naissance, de la mort et de la renaissance. Il est présenté comme le monde de la souffrance et de l’insatisfaction, l’opposé du nirvana, qui est la seule manière d’être libéré de la souffrance et du cycle de renaissance.

Le bouddhisme et l’hindouisme s’accordent sur le karma, le dharma, le moksha et la réincarnation. Mais ils diffèrent politiquement dans la mesure où le bouddhisme se concentre sur l’effort personnel de chacun et accorde par conséquent une moindre importance aux prêtres et aux rituels formels que l’hindouisme. Enfin, le bouddhisme ne reconnaît pas la notion de caste et prône donc une société plus égalitaire.

Alors que l’hindouisme soutient que l’on ne peut atteindre le nirvana que dans une vie ultérieure, le bouddhisme, plus volontariste et optimiste, soutient qu’une fois qu’on a réalisé que la vie est souffrance, on peut mettre un terme à cette souffrance dans sa vie présente.

Les bouddhistes décrivent leur renaissance comme une bougie vacillante qui vient en allumer une autre, plutôt que comme une âme immortelle ou un « moi » passant d’un corps à un autre, ainsi que le croient les hindous. Pour les bouddhistes, il s’agit d’une renaissance sans « soi », et ils considèrent la réalisation du non-soi ou du vide comme le nirvana (extinction), alors que pour les hindous, l’âme, une fois libérée du cycle des renaissances, ne s’éteint pas, mais s’unit à l’Être suprême et entre dans un éternel état de félicité divine.

Les Aryens et le védisme

L’une des grandes traditions ayant façonné l’hindouisme est la religion védique (védisme), qui s’est épanouie chez les peuples indo-aryens du nord-ouest du sous-continent indien (Pendjab et plaine occidentale du Gange) au cours de la période védique (1500-500 av. J.-C.).

Au cours de cette période, des peuples nomades venus du Caucase et se désignant eux-mêmes comme « Aryens » (« noble », « civilisé » et « honorable ») pénétrèrent en Inde par la frontière nord-ouest.

Le terme « aryen » a une très mauvaise connotation historique, en particulier depuis le XIXe siècle, lorsque plusieurs antisémites virulents, tels qu’Arthur de Gobineau, Richard Wagner et Houston Chamberlain, ont commencé à promouvoir le mythe d’une « race aryenne », soutenant l’idéologie suprémaciste blanche de l’aryanisme qui dépeint la race aryenne comme une « race des seigneurs », les non-aryens étant considérés non seulement comme génétiquement inférieurs (Untermensch, ou sous-homme) mais surtout comme une menace existentielle à exterminer.

Bal Gangadhar Tilak.

D’un point de vue purement scientifique, dans son livre The Arctic Home (1903), le patriote indien Bal Gangadhar Tilak (1856-1920), s’appuyant sur son analyse des observations astronomiques contenues dans les hymnes védiques, émet l’hypothèse selon laquelle le pôle Nord aurait été le lieu de vie originel des Aryens pendant la période préglaciaire, région qu’ils auraient quittée vers 8000 avant J.-C. à cause de changements climatiques, migrant vers les parties septentrionales de l’Europe et de l’Asie. Gandhi disait de Tilak, l’un des pères du mouvement de l’indépendance du pays, qu’il était « l’artisan de l’Inde moderne ».

Les Aryens arrivant du Nord étaient probablement moins barbares qu’on ne l’a suggéré jusqu’à présent. Grâce à leur supériorité militaire et culturelle, ils conquirent toute la plaine du Gange, avant d’étendre leur domination sur les plateaux du Deccan.

Cette conquête a laissé des traces jusqu’à nos jours, puisque les régions occupées par ces envahisseurs parlent des langues indo-européennes issues du sanskrit. (*1)

Panini.

En réalité, la culture védique est profondément enracinée dans la culture eurasienne des steppes Sintashta (2200-1800 avant notre ère) du sud de l’Oural, dans la culture Andronovo d’Asie centrale (2000-900 avant notre ère), qui s’étend du sud de l’Oural au cours supérieur de l’Ienisseï en Sibérie centrale, et enfin dans la Civilisation de la vallée de l’Indus (Harappa) (4000-1500 avant notre ère).

Cette culture védique se fonde sur les fameux Védas (savoirs), quatre textes religieux consignant la liturgie des rituels et des sacrifices et les plus anciennes écritures de l’hindouisme. La partie la plus ancienne du Rig-Veda a été composée oralement dans le nord-ouest de l’Inde (Pendjab) entre 1500 et 1200 av. JC., c’est-à-dire peu après l’effondrement de la Civilisation de la vallée de l’Indus.

Le philologue, grammairien et érudit sanskrit Panini, qu’on croit être un contemporain de Bouddha, est connu pour son traité de grammaire sanskrite en forme de sutra, qui a suscité de nombreux commentaires de la part d’érudits d’autres religions indiennes, notamment bouddhistes.

Les Brahmanes et le système des castes

Un prêtre hindou.

Cependant, avec l’émergence de cette culture aryenne apparut ce que l’on appelle le « brahmanisme », c’est-à-dire la naissance d’une caste toute puissante de grands prêtres.

« De nombreuses études linguistiques et historiques font état de troubles socioculturels résultant de cette migration et de la pénétration de la culture brahmanique dans diverses régions, de l’ouest de l’Asie du Sud vers l’Inde du Nord, l’Inde du Sud et l’Asie du Sud-Est », constate aujourd’hui Gajendran Ayyathurai, un anthropologue indien de l’Université de Göttingen en Allemagne.

Le brahman, littéralement « supérieur », est un membre de la caste sacerdotale la plus élevée (à ne pas confondre avec les adorateurs du dieu hindou Brahma). Bien que le terme apparaisse dans les Védas, les chercheurs modernes tempèrent ce fait et soulignent qu’il « n’existe aucune preuve dans le Rig-Veda d’un système de castes élaboré, très subdivisé et très important ».

Mais avec l’émergence d’une classe dirigeante de brahmanes, devenus banquiers et propriétaires terriens, notamment sous la période Gupta (de 319 à 515 après J.-C.), un redoutable système de castes se met graduellement en place. La classe dirigeante féodale, ainsi que les prêtres, vivant des recettes des sacrifices, mettront l’accent sur des dieux locaux qu’ils intégreront progressivement au brahmanisme afin de séduire les masses. Même parmi les souverains, le choix des divinités indiquait des positions divergentes : une partie de la dynastie Gupta soutenait traditionnellement le dieu Vishnou, tandis qu’une autre soutenait le dieu Shiva.

Ce système déshumanisant des castes fut ensuite amplifié et utilisé à outrance par la Compagnie britannique des Indes orientales, une entreprise et une armée privée à la tête de l’Empire britannique, pour imposer son pouvoir aristocratique et colonial sur les Indes, une politique qui perdure encore aujourd’hui, surtout dans les esprits.

Le système hindou des castes s’articule autour de deux concepts clés permettant de catégoriser les membres de la société : le varṇa et la jati. Le varna (littéralement « couleur ») divise la société en une hiérarchie de quatre grandes classes sociales :

  1. Brahmanes (la classe sacerdotale)
  2. Kshatriyas (guerriers et dirigeants)
  3. Vaishyas (marchands)
  4. Shudras (travailleurs manuels) 

En outre, la jati fait référence à plus de 3000 classifications hiérarchiques, à l’intérieur des quatre varnas, entre les groupes sociaux en fonction de la profession, du statut social, de l’ascendance commune et de la localité…

La justification de cette stratification sociale est intimement liée à la vision hindouiste du karma. Car la naissance de chacun est directement liée au karma, véritable bilan de sa vie précédente. Ainsi, la naissance dans le varna brahmanique est le résultat d’un bon karma

Selon cette théorie, le karma détermine la naissance de l’individu dans une classe, ce qui définit son statut social et religieux, qui fixe à son tour ses devoirs et obligations au regard de ce statut spécifique.

En 2021, une enquête a révélé que trois Indiens sur dix (30 %) s’identifient comme membres des quatre varnas et seulement 4,3 % des Indiens (60,5 millions) comme des brahmanes.

Certains d’entre eux sont prêtres, d’autres exercent des professions telles qu’éducateurs, législateurs, érudits, médecins, écrivains, poètes, propriétaires terriens et politiciens. Au fur et à mesure de l’évolution de ce système de castes, les brahmanes ont acquis une forte influence en Inde et ont exercé une discrimination à l’encontre des autres castes « inférieures ».

Asvaghosa.

L’immense partie restante des Indiens (70 %), y compris parmi les hindous, déclare faire partie des dalits, encore appelés intouchables, des individus considérés, du point de vue du système des castes, comme hors castes et affectés à des fonctions ou métiers jugés impurs. Présents en Inde, mais également dans toute l’Asie du Sud, les dalits sont victimes de fortes discriminations. En Inde, une écrasante majorité de bouddhistes se déclarent dalits.

Dès le Ier siècle, le philosophe bouddhiste, dramaturge, poète, musicien et orateur indien Asvaghosa (v. 80 – v. 150 ap. J.-C.) a élevé la voix pour condamner ce système des castes, avec des arguments empruntés pour certains aux textes les plus vénérés des brahmanes eux-mêmes, et pour d’autres, fondés sur le principe de l’égalité naturelle entre tous les hommes.

Selon Asvaghosa,

Une allégorie bouddhiste rejette clairement et se moque de l’idée même du système de castes:

L’Inde avant le bouddhisme

L’époque du Bouddha est celle de la deuxième urbanisation de l’Inde et d’une grande contestation sociale.

L’essor des shramaṇas, des philosophes ou moines errants ayant rejeté l’autorité des Védas et des brahmanes, était nouveau. Bouddha n’était pas le seul à explorer les moyens d’obtenir la libération (moksha) du cycle éternel des renaissances (saṃsara).

Le constat que les rituels védiques ne menaient pas à une libération éternelle conduisit à la recherche d’autres moyens. Le bouddhisme primitif, le yoga et des courants similaires de l’hindouisme, jaïnisme, ajivika, ajnana et chârvaka, étaient les shramanas les plus importants.

Malgré le succès obtenu en diffusant des idées et des concepts qui allaient bientôt être acceptés par toutes les religions de l’Inde, les écoles orthodoxes de philosophie hindoue (astika) s’opposaient aux écoles de pensée shramaṇiques et réfutèrent leurs doctrines en les qualifiant d’hétérodoxes (nastika), parce qu’elles refusaient d’accepter l’autorité épistémique des Védas.

Pendant plus de quarante ans, le Bouddha sillonna l’Inde à pied pour diffuser son dharma, un ensemble de préceptes et de lois sur le comportement de ses disciples. À sa mort, son corps fut incinéré, comme c’était la coutume en Inde, et ses cendres furent réparties dans plusieurs reliquaires, enterrés dans de grands monticules hémisphériques connus sous le nom de stupas. Alors déjà, sa religion était répandue dans tout le centre de l’Inde et dans de grandes villes indiennes comme Vaishali, Shravasti et Rajagriha.

Les grands conciles bouddhistes

Quatre grands conciles bouddhistes furent organisés, à l’instigation de différents rois qui cherchaient en réalité à briser l’omnipuissante caste des brahmanes.

Le premier eut lieu en 483 avant J.-C., juste après la mort du Bouddha, sous le patronage du roi Ajatasatru (492-460 av. J.-C.) du Royaume du Magadha, le plus grand des seize royaumes de l’Inde ancienne, afin de préserver les enseignements du Bouddha et de parvenir à un consensus sur la manière de les diffuser.

Le deuxième intervint en 383 avant J.-C., soit cent ans après la mort du Bouddha, sous le règne du roi Kalashoka. Des divergences d’interprétation s’installant sur des points de discipline au fur et à mesure que les adeptes s’éloignaient les uns des autres, un schisme menaçait de diviser ceux qui voulaient préserver l’esprit originel et ceux qui défendaient une interprétation plus large.

Le premier groupe, appelé Thera (signifiant « ancien » en pâli), est à l’origine du bouddhisme theravâda, engagé à préserver les enseignements du Bouddha dans l’esprit originel.

L’autre groupe était appelé Mahasanghika (Grande Communauté). Ils interprétaient les enseignements du Bouddha de manière plus libérale et nous ont donné le bouddhisme Mahâyâna.

Les participants au concile tentèrent d’aplanir leurs divergences, sans grande unité mais sans animosité non plus. L’une des principales difficultés venait du fait qu’avant d’être consignés dans des textes, les enseignements du Bouddha n’avaient été transmis qu’oralement pendant trois à quatre siècles. (*2)

L’arrivée des Grecs

L’étendu de la langue (bleu foncé) et de l’influence grecques.

Ainsi que nous l’avons documenté par ailleurs, l’Asie centrale, et l’Afghanistan en particulier, furent le lieu de rencontre entre les civilisations perses, chinoises, grecques et indiennes.

C’est au Gandhara, région à cheval entre le Pakistan et l’Afghanistan, au cœur des Routes de la soie, que le bouddhisme prendra à deux reprises un envol majeur, donnant naissance à un art dit « gréco-bouddhiste », qui parviendra à faire la synthèse entre plusieurs cultures à travers des œuvres d’une beauté incomparable.

Darius le Grand.

Les premiers Grecs commencèrent à s’installer dans la partie nord-ouest du sous-continent indien à l’époque de l’Empire perse achéménide. Après avoir conquis la région, le roi perse Darius le Grand (521 – 486 av. J.-C.) colonisa également une grande partie du monde grec, qui comprenait à l’époque toute la péninsule anatolienne occidentale.

Lorsque des villages grecs se rebellaient sous le joug perse, ils faisaient parfois l’objet d’un nettoyage ethnique et leurs populations étaient déportées à l’autre bout de l’empire.

C’est ainsi que de nombreuses communautés grecques virent le jour dans les régions indiennes les plus reculées de l’empire perse.

Au IVe siècle avant J.-C., Alexandre le Grand (356 – 323 av. J.-C.) vainquit et conquit l’empire perse. En 326 avant J.-C., cet empire comprenait la partie nord-ouest du sous-continent indien jusqu’à la rivière Beas (que les Grecs nommaient l’Hyphase). Alexandre établit des satrapies et fonde plusieurs colonies. Il se tourne vers le sud lorsque ses troupes, conscientes de l’immensité de l’Inde, refusent de pousser plus loin encore vers l’est.

Après sa mort, son empire se délite. De 180 av. J.-C. à environ l’an 10 de notre ère, plus de trente rois hellénistiques se succèdent, souvent en conflit entre eux. Cette époque est connue dans l’histoire sous le nom des « Royaumes indo-grecs ».

L’un d’eux a été fondé lorsque le roi gréco-bactrien Démétrius envahit l’Inde en 180 avant notre ère, créant ainsi une entité faisant sécession avec le puissant royaume gréco-bactrien, la Bactriane (comprenant notamment le nord de l’Afghanistan, une partie de l’Ouzbékistan, etc.).

Pendant les deux siècles de leur règne, ces rois indo-grecs intégrèrent dans une seule culture des langues et des symboles grecs et indiens, comme en témoignent leurs pièces de monnaie, et mêlèrent les anciennes pratiques religieuses grecques, hindoues et bouddhistes, comme le montrent les vestiges archéologiques de leurs villes et les signes de leur soutien au bouddhisme.

L’Empire Maurya

Empire Maurya.

Vers 322 avant J.-C., les Grecs appelés Yona (Ioniens) ou Yavana dans les sources indiennes, participent, avec d’autres populations, au soulèvement de Chandragupta Maurya (né v. -340 et mort v. – 297), le fondateur de l’Empire maurya.

Le règne de Chandragupta ouvre une ère de prospérité économique, de réformes, d’expansion des infrastructures et de tolérance. De nombreuses religions ont ainsi prospéré dans son royaume et dans l’empire de ses descendants. Bouddhisme, jaïnisme et ajivika prennent de l’importance aux côtés des traditions védiques et brahmaniques, tout en respectant les religions minoritaires telles que le zoroastrisme et le panthéon grec.

Le règne d’Ashoka le Grand
(de 268 à 231 av. JC)

Ashoka le Grand.

L’Empire Maurya atteint son apogée sous le règne du petit-fils de Chandragupta, Ashoka le Grand, de 268 à 231 av. J.-C. (parfois écrit Asoka).

Huit ans après sa prise de pouvoir, Ashoka mène une campagne militaire pour conquérir le Kalinga, un vaste royaume côtier du centre-est de l’Inde. Sa victoire lui permet de conquérir un territoire plus vaste que celui de tous ses prédécesseurs. Grâce aux conquêtes d’Ashoka, l’Empire Maurya devient une puissance centralisée couvrant une grande partie du sous-continent indien, s’étendant de l’actuel Afghanistan à l’ouest à l’actuel Bangladesh à l’est, avec sa capitale à Pataliputra (proche de l’actuelle Patna en Inde).

Alors que l’Empire Maurya avait existé dans un certain désordre jusqu’en 185 av. J.-C., Ashoka va transformer le royaume en recourant à une violence extrême qui caractérise le début de son règne. On parle de 100 000 à 300 000 morts, rien que lors de la conquête du Kalinga !

Mais le poids d’un tel carnage plonge le roi dans une grave crise personnelle. Ashoka est gravement choqué par la multitude de vies arrachées par ses armées. L’édit N° 13 d’Ashoka reflète le profond remords ressenti par le roi après avoir observé la destruction de Kalinga :

Ashoka renonce alors aux démonstrations de force militaires et autres formes de violence, y compris la cruauté envers les animaux. Conquis par le bouddhisme, il se consacre alors à répandre sa vision du dharma, une conduite juste et morale. Il va encourager la diffusion du bouddhisme dans toute l’Inde. Selon l’archéologue et érudit français François Foucher, même si les cas de mauvais traitements envers les animaux ne disparurent pas du jour au lendemain, la croyance en la fraternité de tous les êtres vivants est plus florissante en Inde que partout ailleurs.

En 250 avant J.-C., Ashoka convoque le troisième concile bouddhique. Les sources theravâda mentionnent qu’en plus de régler les différends intérieurs, la principale fonction du conseil était de planifier l’envoi de missionnaires bouddhistes dans différents pays afin d’y répandre la doctrine.

Missions bouddhistes envoyées par Ashoka.

Ces missionnaires allèrent jusqu’aux royaumes hellénistiques de l’ouest, en commençant par la Bactriane voisine. Des missionnaires furent également envoyés en Inde du sud, au Sri Lanka et en Asie du Sud-Est (peut-être en Birmanie).

La forte implication de ces missions dans l’éclosion du bouddhisme en Asie à l’époque d’Ashoka est solidement étayée par des preuves archéologiques. Le bouddhisme ne s’est pas répandu par pur hasard, mais dans le cadre d’une opération politique créative, stimulante et bien planifiée, tout au long des Routes de la soie.

Le Mahavamsa ou Grande chronique (XII, 1er paragraphe), relatant l’histoire des rois cinghalais et tamouls de Ceylan (aujourd’hui Sri Lanka), donne la liste des missionnaires bouddhistes envoyés par le Concile et Ashoka :

  • Le vieux Majjhantika prit la tête de la mission au Cachemire et au Gandhara (aujourd’hui le nord-ouest du Pakistan et l’Afghanistan) ;
  • L’aîné Mahadeva dirigea la mission dans le sud-ouest de l’Inde (Mysore, Karnataka) ;
  • Rakkhita, celle du sud-est de l’Inde (Tamil Nadu) ;
  • Le vieux Yona (Ionien, Grec) Dharmaraksita partit vers Aparantaka (« frontière occidentale », comprenant le nord du Gujarat, le Kathiawar, le Kachch et le Sindh, toutes des parties de l’Inde à l’époque) ;
  • L’aîné Mahadharmaraksita dirigea la mission de Maharattha (région péninsulaire occidentale de l’Inde) ;
  • Maharakkhita (Maharaksita Thera) fut envoyé au pays des Yona (Ioniens), probablement la Bactriane et peut-être le royaume séleucide ;
  • Majjhima Thera conduisit la mission dans la région d’Himavant (nord du Népal, contreforts de l’Himalaya) ;
  • Sona Thera et Uttara Thera, celles de Suvannabhumi (quelque part en Asie du Sud-Est, peut-être au Myanmar ou en Thaïlande) ;
  • Enfin, Mahinda, fils aîné d’Ashoka et donc le Prince de son royaume, accompagné de ses disciples Utthiya, Ittiya, Sambala et Bhaddasala, se rendit à Lankadipa (Sri Lanka).

Certaines de ces missions furent couronnées de succès, permettant d’implanter le bouddhisme en Afghanistan, au Gandhara et au Sri Lanka, par exemple.

Le bouddhisme gandharien, le gréco-bouddhisme et le bouddhisme cinghalais ont puissamment inspiré le développement du bouddhisme dans le reste de l’Asie, notamment en Chine, et ceci pendant des générations.

Si les missions dans les royaumes hellénistiques méditerranéens semblent avoir été moins fructueuses, il est possible que des communautés bouddhistes se soient établies pendant une période limitée dans l’Alexandrie égyptienne, ce qui pourrait être à l’origine de la secte dite des Therapeutae, mentionnée dans certaines sources anciennes comme Philon d’Alexandrie (v. 20 av. J.-C. – 50 apr. J.-C.).

Le courant juif des Esséniens et les Thérapeutes d’Alexandrie seraient des communautés fondées sur le modèle du monachisme bouddhique. « C’est l’Inde qui serait, selon nous, au départ de ce vaste courant monastique qui brilla d’un vif éclat durant environ trois siècles dans le judaïsme même », affirme l’historien français André Dupont-Sommer, et cette influence aurait même contribué, selon lui, à l’émergence du christianisme.

Edits d’Ashoka

Un pilier proche du stupa d’Ananda, à Vaisali en Inde.
Un pilier d’Ashoka.

Ashoka transmettait ses messages par le biais d’édits gravés sur des piliers et des rochers en divers lieux du royaume, proches des stupas, sur des lieux de pèlerinage et le long de routes commerciales très fréquentées.

Une trentaine d’entre eux ont été conservés. Ils sont souvent rédigés non pas en sanskrit, mais en grec (la langue du royaume gréco-bactrien voisin et des communautés grecques du royaume d’Ashoka), en araméen (langue officielle de l’ancien empire achéménide) ou en divers dialectes du prâkrit (une langue indo-aryenne moyenne), y compris le gândhârî ancien, langue parlée au Gandhara. (*3)

Ces édits utilisaient la langue pertinente pour la région. Par exemple, en Bactriane, ou les Grecs dominaient, on trouve près de l’actuelle Kandahar un édit rédigé uniquement en grec et en araméen.

Contenu des édits

Pilier d’Ashoka.

Certains d’entre eux reflètent l’adhésion profonde d’Ashoka aux préceptes du bouddhisme et ses relations étroites avec le Sangha, l’ordre monastique bouddhiste. Il utilise également le terme spécifiquement bouddhiste de dharma pour désigner les qualités du cœur qui sous-tendent l’action morale.

Dans son édit mineur sur rocher N° 1, le roi se déclare « adepte laïc de l’enseignement du Bouddha depuis plus de deux ans et demi », mais avoue que jusqu’ici, il n’a « pas fait grand progrès ». « Depuis un peu plus d’un an, je me suis rapproché de l’Ordre », ajoute-t-il.

Dans l’édit mineur sur rocher N° 3 de Calcutta-Bairat, il affirme : « Tout ce qui a été dit par le Bouddha a été bien dit », décrivant les enseignements du Bouddha comme le véritable dharma.

Ashoka a reconnu les liens étroits entre l’individu, la société, le roi et l’État. Son dharma peut être compris comme la moralité, la bonté ou la vertu, et l’impératif de le poursuivre lui a donné le sens du devoir. Les inscriptions expliquent que le dharma intègre la maîtrise de soi, la pureté de la pensée, la libéralité, la gratitude, la dévotion ferme, la véracité, la protection de la parole et la modération dans les dépenses et les possessions.

Le dharma a également un aspect social. Il comprend l’obéissance aux parents, le respect des aînés, la courtoisie et la libéralité envers les adorateurs de Brahma, la courtoisie envers les esclaves et les serviteurs, et la libéralité envers les amis, les connaissances et les parents.

La non-violence, qui consiste à s’abstenir de blesser ou de tuer tout être vivant, était un aspect important du dharma d’Ashoka. Ne tuer aucun être vivant est décrit comme faisant partie du bien (Édit mineur sur rocher N° 11), de même que la douceur à leur égard (Édit mineur sur rocher N° 9). L’accent mis sur la non-violence s’accompagne de l’incitation à une attitude positive d’attention, de douceur et de compassion.

Ashoka adopte et préconise une politique fondée sur le respect et la tolérance des autres religions. L’un de ses édits préconise :

Loin d’être sectaire, Ashoka, s’appuyant sur la conviction que toutes les religions partagent une essence commune et positive, encourage la tolérance et la compréhension des autres religions :

Et il précise :

Ashoka avait l’idée d’un empire politique et d’un empire moral, le second englobant le premier. Sa conception de sa circonscription s’étendait au-delà de ses sujets politiques pour inclure tous les êtres vivants, humains et animaux, vivant à l’intérieur comme à l’extérieur de son domaine politique. Ses inscriptions expriment sa conception paternelle de la royauté et décrivent ses mesures d’aide sociale, notamment la fourniture de traitements médicaux, la plantation d’herbes, d’arbres et de racines pour les hommes et les animaux, et le creusement de puits le long des routes (Edit majeur sur rocher N°2). Les efforts du roi pour propager son dharma ne se limitaient pas à son propre domaine politique, mais s’étendaient aux royaumes des autres souverains.

Le Dharmachakra, la « Roue du Dharma » ou « Roue de la Loi », est un symbole représentant la doctrine bouddhiste.

L’empereur est devenu un sage. Il dirige un gouvernement centralisé depuis Pataliputra, capitale de l’Empire Maurya. Son administration perçoit des impôts et il demande à ses inspecteurs de lui rendre des comptes. L’agriculture se développe grâce à des canaux d’irrigation. Il fait construire des routes de qualité pour relier les points stratégiques et les centres politiques, exigeant, des siècles avant notre grand Sully en France, qu’elles soient bordées d’arbres d’ombrage, de puits et d’auberges.

Si l’existence même d’Ashoka en tant que personnage historique a été quasiment oubliée, depuis le déchiffrement de sources écrites en brahmi au XIXe siècle, il est désormais considéré comme l’un des plus grands empereurs indiens. La roue bouddhiste d’Ashoka figure d’ailleurs sur le drapeau indien.

Comme nous l’avons déjà dit, Ashoka et ses descendants ont utilisé leur pouvoir pour construire des monastères et répandre l’influence bouddhiste en Afghanistan, dans de vastes régions de l’Asie centrale, au Sri Lanka et, au-delà, en Thaïlande, Birmanie, Indonésie, puis en Chine, en Corée et au Japon.

Des statues en bronze de son époque ont été déterrées dans les jungles d’Annam, de Bornéo et des Célèbes. La culture bouddhiste s’est implantée dans l’ensemble de l’Asie du Sud-Est, même si chaque région a su conserver une partie de sa personnalité et de son caractère propres.

L’Empire Kouchan
(du Ier siècle av. JC au IIIe siècle)

L’Empire Kouchan.

L’Empire Maurya, qui régnait sur la Bactriane et d’autres anciennes satrapies grecques, s’effondra en 185 avant J.-C., à peine cinq décennies après la mort d’Ashoka, accusé d’avoir trop dépensé pour les temples et les missions bouddhistes. Les mafias brahmaniques, qui avaient abhorré son règne, revinrent immédiatement au pouvoir.

Mais la période est turbulente. Au premier siècle avant J.C., les Kouchans, l’une des cinq branches de la confédération nomade chinoise Yuezhi, émigrent du nord-ouest de la Chine (Xinjiang et Gansu) et s’emparent, après les nomades iraniens Saka, de l’ancienne Bactriane.

Ils forment l’Empire kouchan dans les territoires de la Bactriane. Cet empire s’étend assez vite à une grande partie de ce qui est aujourd’hui l’Ouzbékistan, l’Afghanistan, le Pakistan et le nord de l’Inde, au moins jusqu’à Saketa et Sarnath, près de la ville de Varanasi (Bénarès).

Bénarès (Varanasi).

Le fondateur de la dynastie kouchane, Kujula Kadphisès, qui suit les idées culturelles et l’iconographie grecques après la tradition gréco-bactrienne, est un adepte de la secte shivaïte de l’hindouisme. Deux rois kouchans ultérieurs, Vima Kadphisès et Vasudeva II, furent également des mécènes de l’hindouisme et du bouddhisme. La patrie de leur empire se trouvait en Bactriane, où le grec était initialement la langue administrative, avant d’être remplacé par le bactrien écrit en caractères grecs jusqu’au VIIIe siècle, lorsque l’islam le remplace par l’arabe.

Kanishka le Grand.

Les Kouchans devinrent également de grands mécènes du bouddhisme, en particulier l’empereur Kanishka le Grand (78-144 après J.-C.), qui joua un rôle important dans sa diffusion, via les Routes de la soie, vers l’Asie centrale et la Chine, inaugurant une période de paix relative de 200 ans, parfois décrite comme la « Pax Kouchana ».

Il semble également que dès ses débuts, le bouddhisme ait prospéré dans la classe des marchands, à qui la naissance interdisait l’accès aux ordres religieux de l’Inde et de l’Himalaya. La pensée et l’art bouddhistes se développèrent grâce aux routes commerciales entre l’Inde, l’Himalaya, l’Asie centrale, la Chine, la Perse, l’Asie du Sud-Est et l’Occident. Les voyageurs recherchaient la protection des images bouddhistes et faisaient des offrandes aux sanctuaires le long de la route, ramassant des objets et des sanctuaires portables pour leur usage personnel.

Le terme quatrième concile bouddhiste désigne deux évènements différents selon les écoles theravâda et mahâyâna.

1) La tradition theravâda : afin d’éviter que ne se perde l’enseignement du Bouddha, qui se serait jusqu’alors transmis oralement, cinq cents moines menés par le Vénérable Maharakkhita se réunirent à Tambapanni (Sri Lanka), sous le patronage du roi Vattagamani (r. 103 – 77 av. J.-C.) afin de coucher par écrit sur des feuilles de palme le Canon pâli. (*4)

Le travail, qui aurait duré trois ans, se serait déroulé dans la grotte Aloka lena, près de l’actuel Matale.

2) Selon la tradition mahâyâna, c’est 400 ans après l’extinction du Bouddha que cinq cents moines sarvastivadin se réunirent en 72 après J.-C. au Cachemire pour compiler et clarifier leurs doctrines sous la direction de Vasumitra et sous le patronage personnel de l’empereur Kanishka. Ils auraient ainsi produit le Mahavibhasa (Grande exégèse) en sanskrit.

Selon plusieurs sources, le moine bouddhiste indien Asvaghosa, considéré comme le premier dramaturge classique sanskrit et dont nous avons évoqué plus haut les attaques contre le système des castes, était le conseiller spirituel du roi Kanishka dans les dernières années de sa vie.

Parmi les plus anciens manuscrits bouddhiques trouvés au Gandhara, un des vingt-sept rouleaux d’écorce de bouleau acquis par la British Library en 1994 et datant du Ier siècle.

A noter que les plus anciens manuscrits bouddhiques découverts à ce jour, tels que les vingt-sept rouleaux d’écorce de bouleau acquis par la British Library en 1994 et datant du Ier siècle, ont été trouvés, non pas en Inde, mais enterrés dans les anciens monastères du Gandhara, la région centrale de l’empire maurya et kouchan, qui comprend les vallées de Peshawar et de Swat (Pakistan) et s’étend vers l’ouest jusqu’à la vallée de Kaboul en Afghanistan et vers le nord jusqu’à la chaîne du Karakoram

Ainsi, après le grand élan donné par le roi Ashoka le Grand, la culture du Gandhara connaîtra un second souffle sous le règne du roi kouchan Kanishka Ier.

Les villes de Begram, Taxila, Purushapura (aujourd’hui Peshawar) et Surkh Kotal atteignent alors des sommets de développement et de prospérité.

Le miracle de Gandhara

C’est peu dire que le Gandhara, surtout à l’époque kouchane, fut au cœur d’une véritable renaissance de la civilisation, avec une incroyable concentration de productions artistiques et une inventivité sans pareil. Si l’art bouddhiste était principalement centré sur les temples et les monastères, les objets de dévotion personnelle étaient très courants.

Grâce à l’art du Gandhara, le bouddhisme se mua en une grande force de beauté, d’harmonie et de paix, conquérant le monde.

Il favorisa alors une création artistique qui élève la pensée et la moralité en faisant appel à des paradoxes métaphoriques.

Les médiums et supports qui prévalent sont la peinture sur soie, les fresques, les livres illustrés et gravures, la broderie et autres arts du tissu, la sculpture (bois, métal, ivoire, pierre, jade) et l’architecture. Quelques exemples :

A. La poésie

Diffusion du bouddhisme dans le monde.

Pour la plupart des Occidentaux, le bouddhisme est une émanation typique de la culture asiatique, généralement associée à l’Inde, au Tibet, au Népal, mais aussi à la Chine et à l’Indonésie.

Peu de gens savent que les plus anciens manuscrits bouddhistes connus à ce jour (Ier siècle de notre ère) ont été découverts, non pas en Asie, mais en Asie centrale, dans d’anciens monastères bouddhistes du Gandhara.

A l’origine, avant leur transcription en sanskrit (pendant longtemps la langue des élites), ils étaient écrits en gândhârî, une langue indo-aryenne du groupe prâkrit, transcrit avec l’alphabet kharosthi (une ancienne écriture indo-iranienne). Le gândhârî était la lingua franca de la pensée bouddhiste à ses débuts. Preuve en est, les manuscrits bouddhistes écrits en gândhârî qui ont voyagé jusqu’en Chine orientale pour se retrouver dans les inscriptions de Luoyang et d’Anyang.

Grottes de Longmen à Lyoyang en Chine.

Afin de préserver leurs écrits, les bouddhistes étaient à l’avant-garde de l’adoption des technologies chinoises liées à la fabrication de livres, notamment le papier et la xylographie. Cette technique d’impression consiste à reproduire le texte à imprimer sur une feuille de papier transparente qui est retournée et gravée sur une planche de bois tendre. L’encrage des parties saillantes permet ensuite des tirages multiples. C’est ce qui explique que le premier livre entièrement imprimé est le Sutra du diamant bouddhique (vers 868) réalisé par ce procédé

Le Khaggavisana Sutta, littéralement « la corne du rhinocéros », est une expression authentique de la poésie religieuse bouddhiste originale. Connu sous le nom de Sutra du rhinocéros, cette œuvre poétique fait partie du recueil pâli de textes courts Kuddhhaka Nikava, la cinquième partie du Sutta Pitaka, écrit au Ier siècle de notre ère.

Parce que la tradition accorde au rhinocéros asiatique une vie solitaire dans la forêt, l’animal n’aime pas les troupeaux, ce sutra (enseignement) porte le titre approprié d’essai « sur la valeur de la vie solitaire et errante ». L’allégorie du rhinocéros permet de communiquer aux dévots un sens aigu de la souveraineté individuelle que requièrent les engagements moraux prescrits par le Bouddha pour mettre fin à la souffrance en se déconnectant des plaisirs et des douleurs terrestres.

Extrait :

Refuser la violence à l’égard de tous les êtres,
ne jamais faire de mal à un seul d’entre eux,
aider avec compassion et un cœur aimant ;
erre seul comme un rhinocéros.

Celui qui tient compagnie nourrit l’affection
et de l’affection naît la souffrance.
Réalisant le danger qui découle de l’affection,
erre seul comme un rhinocéros.

En sympathisant avec les amis et les compagnons,
l’esprit se fixe sur eux et perd son chemin.
Percevoir ce danger, c’est la familiarité,
erre seul comme un rhinocéros.

Les préoccupations que l’on a pour ses fils et ses femmes
sont comme une pensée et un bambou enchevêtré.
Reste démêlé comme un jeune bambou,
erre seul comme un rhinocéros.

Comme un cerf qui erre librement dans la forêt,
va où il veut en broutant,
un homme sage, qui chérit sa liberté,
erre seul comme le rhinocéros.

Laissez derrière vous vos fils, vos femmes et votre argent,
tous vos biens, vos parents et vos amis.
Abandonnez tous vos désirs, quels qu’ils soient,
erre seul comme le rhinocéros. (…)

B. La littérature

Deux autres chefs-d’œuvre tirés du même recueil sont d’une part les célèbres Jataka (Récits des vies antérieures du Bouddha), et d’autre part, le Milindapanha (Les questions du roi Milinda).

Les Jataka, qui mettent en scène de nombreux animaux, montrent comment, avant la dernière incarnation humaine au cours de laquelle il atteignit le nirvana, le Bouddha lui-même s’était réincarné d’innombrables fois en animal (en diverses sortes de poissons, en crabe, coq, pivert, perdrix, francolin, caille, oie, pigeon, corbeau, zèbre, buffle, plusieurs fois en singe ou en éléphant, en antilope, cerf et cheval).

Et puisque c’est Bouddha qui est incarné dans cet animal, celui-ci a soudainement des propos d’une grande sagesse.

Mais en d’autres occasions, ce sont des personnages qui sont des animaux alors que notre Bodhisattva apparaît sous forme humaine. Ces contes sont souvent pimentés d’un humour piquant. On sait d’ailleurs qu’elles ont inspiré La Fontaine, qui a dû les entendre du docteur François Bernier, qui les avait lui-même apprises alors qu’il était médecin en Inde pendant huit ans.

Les questions du roi Milinda est un compte-rendu imagé, véritable dialogue platonicien entre le roi grec de Bactriane, Milinda (le Grec, Ménandre), qui régnait au Pendjab, et le sage bouddhiste Bhante Nagasena. Leur dialogue animé, dramatique et spirituel, éloquent et inspiré, explore les divers problèmes de la pensée et de la pratique bouddhistes du point de vue d’un intellectuel grec perspicace, à la fois perplexe et fasciné par la religion étrangement rationnelle qu’il découvre sur le sous-continent indien.

Par le biais de paradoxes, Nagasena amène le « rationaliste » grec à s’élever jusqu’à la dimension spirituelle, au-delà de la logique et de la simple rationalité. Car le nirvana, tout comme l’espace, n’a « pas de cause » formelle et, bien qu’il peut se produire, « ne peut pas être causé ». Mince, comment faire alors pour y aboutir ?

Et à l’un de ses disciples qui un jour lui posa la question de savoir si l’univers était fini ou infini, éternel ou non, si l’âme était distincte du corps, ce que devenait l’homme après la mort, le Bouddha répondit par une parabole :

C. Urbanisme

Ruines de Taxila.

Taxila ou Takshashila (aujourd’hui au Pendjab), l’un des grands centres urbains et, pendant un certain temps, la capitale du Gandhara, fut fondée vers 1000 avant J.-C. sur les ruines d’une cité datant de la période Harappa et située sur la rive orientale de l’Indus, point de jonction entre le sous-continent indien et l’Asie centrale.

Certaines ruines de Taxila datent de l’époque de l’empire perse achéménide, suivi successivement par l’Empire Maurya, le royaume indo-grec, les Indo-Scythes et l’empire kouchan.

D’après certains témoignages, l’université de l’ancienne Taxila (des siècles avant l’université bouddhiste résidentielle de Nalanda fondée en 427 après J.-C.) peut être considérée comme l’un des premiers centres d’enseignement d’Asie du Sud. Dès 800 av. J.-C., la ville fonctionnait en grande partie comme une université, offrant des études supérieures. Avant d’y être admis, les étudiants devaient avoir terminé ailleurs leurs études primaires et secondaires. L’âge minimum requis était de seize ans. Non seulement les Indiens, mais aussi les étudiants de contrées voisines comme la Chine, la Grèce et l’Arabie affluaient dans cette ville d’apprentissage.

Chanakya.

Vers 321 avant J.-C., c’est le grand philosophe, enseignant et économiste du Gandhara, Chanakya (375 à 283 av. J.-C.) qui aida le premier empereur maurya, Chandragupta, à accéder au pouvoir.

Sous la tutelle de Chanakya, Chandragupta avait reçu une éducation complète à Taxila, englobant les différents arts de l’époque, y compris l’art de la guerre, pendant sept à huit ans.

En 303 avant J.-C., Taxila tomba entre leurs mains et sous Ashoka le Grand, le petit-fils de Chandragupta, la ville devint un grand centre de l’enseignement et de l’art bouddhiste.

Chanakya, dont les écrits n’ont été redécouverts qu’au début du XXe siècle et qui fut le principal conseiller des deux empereurs Chandragupta et de son fils Bindusara, est considéré comme ayant joué un rôle majeur dans l’établissement de l’Empire Maurya.

Également connu sous les noms de Kauṭilya et Vishnugupta, Chanakya est l’auteur de l’Arthashastra, un traité politique sanskrit sur l’art de gouverner, la science politique, la politique économique et la stratégie militaire. L’Arthashastra aborde également la question d’une éthique collective assurant la cohésion de la société.

Il conseille au roi de lancer de grands projets de travaux publics dans les régions dévastées par la famine, les épidémies et autres catastrophes naturelles, ou par la guerre, tels que la création de voies d’irrigation et la construction de forts autour des principaux centres de production et villes stratégiques, et d’exonérer d’impôts les personnes touchées par ces catastrophes.

Au IIe siècle avant notre ère, Taxila fut annexée par le royaume indo-grec de Bactriane qui y érigea une nouvelle capitale nommée Sirkap, où des temples bouddhistes côtoyaient des temples hindous et grecs, signe de tolérance religieuse et de syncrétisme. Sirkap fut construite selon le plan quadrillé hippodamien (*5) caractéristique des villes grecques

Elle s’organise autour d’une avenue principale et de quinze rues perpendiculaires, couvrant une surface d’environ 1200 mètres sur 400, avec un mur d’enceinte de 5 à 7 mètres de large et de 4,8 kilomètres de long.

Après sa construction par les Grecs, la ville fut reconstruite lors des incursions des Indo-Scythes, puis par les Indo-Parthiens, après un tremblement de terre en l’an 30 de notre ère.

Certaines parties de la ville, notamment le stupa (reliquaire) bouddhiste de l’aigle bicéphale et le temple du dieu Soleil, furent construites par Gondophares, le premier roi du royaume indo-parthien. Enfin, des inscriptions datant de l’an 76 de notre ère démontrent que la ville était déjà passée sous la domination des Kouchans. Le souverain kouchan Kanishka érigera Sirsukh, à environ 1,5 km au nord-est de l’ancienne Taxila.

Des sutras bouddhistes de la région du Gandhara sont étudiés en Chine dès 147 de notre ère, lorsque le moine kouchan Lokakṣema (né en 147) commença à traduire en chinois certains des premiers sutras bouddhistes. Les plus anciennes de ces traductions montrent qu’elles ont été faites à partir de la langue

D. Architecture, l’invention des stupas

Le stupa de Sanchi.

A l’origine, les édifices religieux sous forme de stupa (reliquaire) ont été érigés en Inde comme monuments commémoratifs associés à la conservation des reliques sacrées du Bouddha.

Construits en forme de dôme, ils sont entourés d’une balustrade qui sert de rampe pour la circumambulation rituelle. On accède à la zone sacrée par des portes situées aux quatre points cardinaux. Les stupas se situent souvent à proximité de sites funéraires préhistoriques beaucoup plus anciens, associés notamment à la Civilisation de la vallée de l’Indus.

Site de Garnal Sarhi, Gandhara, Pakistan.

Des grilles et des portails en pierre, recouverts de sculptures, leur ont été ajoutés. Les thèmes favoris sont les événements de la vie historique du Bouddha, ainsi que de ses vies antérieures, au nombre de 550, décrites avec beaucoup d’ironie dans les Jatakas. (Voir B)

Les bas-reliefs des stupas sont comme des bandes dessinées qui nous racontent la vie quotidienne et religieuse du Gandhara : amphores, coupes à vin (kantaros), bacchanales, instruments de musique, vêtements grecs ou indiens, ornements, coiffures arrangées à la grecque, artisans, leurs outils, etc.

Sur un vase trouvé à l’intérieur d’un stupa, on trouve l’inscription d’un Grec, Théodore, gouverneur civil d’une province au Ier siècle avant J.-C., expliquant en alphabet kharosthi comment les reliques ont été déposées dans le stupa.

On pense que de nombreux stupas datent de l’époque d’Ashoka, comme celui de Sanchi (Inde centrale) ou de Kesariya (Inde de l’Est), où il a également érigé des piliers avec ses édits, et peut-être ceux de Bharhut (Inde centrale), Amaravati (sud-est de l’Inde) ou Dharmarajika (Taxila) dans le Gandhara (Pakistan).

Selon la tradition bouddhiste, l’empereur Ashoka aurait récupéré les reliques du Bouddha dans des stupas plus anciens et en aurait fait ériger 84 000 pour répartir l’ensemble de ces reliques sur tout le territoire indien.

Marchant dans les pas d’Ashoka, Kanishka ordonna la construction à Purushapura (Peshawar) du grand stupa de 400 pieds qui figure parmi les plus hauts édifices du monde antique.

Stupa de Kesanya.

Les archéologues qui en ont redécouvert la base en 1908-1909 ont estimé que ce stupa avait un diamètre de 87 mètres. Selon les rapports de pèlerins chinois tels que Xuanzang, il faisait environ 200 mètres de haut et était recouvert de pierres précieuses. Sous les Kouchans également, d’immenses statues du Bouddha furent érigées dans les monastères ou sculptées à flanc de colline.

E. Sculpture

PERIODE ANICONIQUE

Il est important de rappeler que dans les premiers temps, Bouddha n’était jamais représenté sous forme humaine.

Représentations aniconiques de Bouddha.

Pendant plus de quatre siècles, sa présence est simplement suggérée par des éléments symboliques tel qu’une empreinte de pieds, une fleur de lotus (indiquant la pureté de sa naissance), une roue à huit rayons (symbolisant la dharma), un trône vide, un espace inoccupé sous un parasol, un cheval sans cavalier ou encore le figuier sous lequel il a atteint le nirvana.

–FIN DE L’ANICONISME

Ce qui a conduit les bouddhistes à renoncer aux représentations aniconiques reste un vaste mystère. Un tel développement est assez unique dans l’histoire des religions. Imaginons soudainement les musulmans promouvant des statues du prophète Mohammed !

Les explications avancées jusqu’ici nous laissent sur la faim.

Pour les uns, les bouddhistes auraient voulu séduire une clientèle grecque, mais aussi bien les populations grecques que le bouddhisme était au Gandhara bien avant la révolution iconographique en question.

Pour les autres, les pratiquants, en l’absence de Bouddha lui-même, auraient cherché désespérément un centre d’intérêt visuel, soit une statue, une peinture ou mêmes quelques cheveux… Ces représentations symboliques, on l’a vu, répondaient à cette demande.

Bouddha, rapporte-t-on, aurait refusé qu’il soit représenté d’aucune façon, craignant de voir prospérer l’idolâtrie.

Avec le temps, le bouddhisme va évoluer. Au Gandhara, c’est le bouddhisme mahâyâna (Grand Véhicule) qui s’épanouit. Pour ce courant, l’objectif ne se limite plus à atteindre le nirvana à titre personnel mais de libérer toute l’humanité de la souffrance.

Si pour le bouddhisme theravâda, Siddhartha Gautama n’était qu’un homme éclairé donnant l’exemple, pour le bouddhisme mahâyâna, il s’agit indubitablement, avec Bouddha, d’une tentative (réussie) de personnifier le dharma (la force spirituelle omniprésente, le principe ultime et suprême de la vie) dans la conception du premier de tous les bouddhas. Une sorte de Jésus, un dieu devenu homme pour ainsi dire…

Comme plus tard Jésus dans le christianisme à partir du Ve siècle, Bouddha pouvait dès lors être représenté sous une forme humaine.

Certains bouddhas du Gandhara représentent également des états d’âme spécifiques, tels que la sagesse, la tendresse et la compassion.

Contrairement à de nombreux artistes chrétiens chez nous, qui, conformément à la doxa, ont représenté le Christ souffrant sur la Croix (événement fondamental de la foi chrétienne), les artistes du Gandhara présentent Bouddha comme un être totalement détaché de la douleur humaine, regardant avec compassion l’humanité tout entière.

Le but étant d’éliminer la souffrance chez tous les hommes, la compassion n’est pas une notion passive chez les bouddhistes. Ce n’est pas seulement de l’empathie, mais plutôt un altruisme empathique qui s’efforce activement de libérer les autres de la souffrance, un acte de bienveillance empreinte à la fois de sagesse et d’amour.

DIFFERENCES DE FORME, DIFFERENCE DE CONTENU

Avant de discuter de leurs différences, pour faire simple, distinguons ici, parmi tant d’autres, quatre types de représentations de bouddha:

  1. L’école dite « greco-bouddhique » de Gandhara produite dans la région qui va de Hadda (Afghanistan) à Taxila (Pundjab) en passant par Peshawar (Pakistan);
  2. L’école dite « indo-bouddhique » de Mathura;
  3. L’école d’Andra Pradesh, au sud de l’Inde;
  4. L’école de la période Gupta (3e au 5e siècle).

1. Greco-Bouddhique au Gandhara

Le terme « greco-bouddhique », renvoie à la thèse de l’archéologue Alfred Foucher (1865-1952) soutenue à la Sorbonne en 1905 sur l’art du Gandhara.

Comme l’écrivait André Malraux (1901-1976) dans les « Voix du silence », en 1951, l’art gréco-bouddhique est cette rencontre entre hellénisme et bouddhisme. Au lieu de dire que l’art venu de Grèce s’était métamorphosé en art bouddhique comme le disait Malraux, je pense plutot qu’au Gandhara, c’est l’art bouddhique qui s’est approprié le meilleur de l’esthétique indienne, grecque et des steppes.

Cependant, Foucher avait raison d’insister, contre ses amis anglais, qu’il s’agit bien d’une influence hellénique et non pas romaine. De leur coté, avec l’Inde s’émancipant de l’Empire britannique, les savants indiens ont tenté de valider la thèse d’une création autochtone de l’image de Buddha, opposant au style du Gandhara, que Foucher voulait gréco-bouddhique, le style de Mathura, dans la région de Delhi, lui aussi englobé dans l’empire des Kouchans, et vu par certains comme contemporain, même s’il est beaucoup moins prolixe que l’art du Gandhara.

L’art du Gandhara prit véritablement son essor à l’époque kouchane, et plus particulièrement sous le règne du roi Kanishka.

Des milliers d’images furent produites et répandues dans tous les coins de la région, depuis les bouddhas portatifs jusqu’aux statues monumentales des lieux de culte sacrés.

Au Gandhara, pour figurer Bouddha, on représente d’une façon très réaliste une belle personne, souvent un jeune homme, voire une femme. La charge spirituelle est telle que le genre n’est plus essentiel. On ne sait pas s’il s’agit de beaux portraits pris sur le vif, ou de purs fruits de l’imagination des artistes.

Bouddha y est souvent montré en posture méditative afin d’évoquer le moment où il atteint le nirvana.

Couronné d’une auréole, le visage grave ou souriant, les yeux mi-clos, il irradie la lumière. Plein de sérénité, il incarne le détachement, la concentration, la sagesse et la bienveillance.

Ses cheveux en chignon (l’ushnisha) au sommet du crâne indiquent qu’il est doué d’une connaissance supramondaine. Le point noire entre les deux yeux symbolise le troisième œil, celui de l’éveil.

Dans certaines sculptures, cette cavité contient une perle de cristal, symbole de lumière irradiante. Les lobes d’oreilles sont allongés et servent à accueillir les lourds bijoux que portait autrefois le jeune prince Siddhartha, durant sa jeunesse princière.

Le positionnement des mains, comme dans le reste de l’art indien, répond à des codes. Il peut s’agir de « l’abhayamudra », le geste qui rassure, la paume de la main tournée vers l’extérieur ; de la « varamudra », qui symbolise le don, la main pendante et ouverte avec le bras à demi plié, ou encore de la « vitarkamudra », qui symbolise l’argumentation, la main levée à hauteur de la poitrine, à demi fermée, paume en avant, l’index recourbé vers le pouce.

Au Gandhara, Bouddha est vêtu d’un manteau monastique qui lui couvre les deux épaules. L’étoffe n’est ni taillée, ni cousue, mais simplement drapée à la grecque autour du corps. Les plis à peine stylisés suivent les volumes naturels.

Le roi Kanitscha encouragea à la fois l’école d’art gréco-bouddhique du Gandhara (à Taxila, Peshawar et Hadda) et l’école indo-bouddhique (à Mathura, plus proche de l’Inde).

2. Ecole de Mathura

A Mathura, les artistes ont produit un Bouddha très différent. Son corps est dilaté par le souffle sacré (prana) et sa robe monastique est drapée à l’indienne de manière à laisser l’épaule droite dénudée.

On pense que les artistes, pour plaire à un public local, se sont inspirés des statues de yaksha, des esprits de la nature.

Dans les mythologies hindoue, jaïne et bouddhiste, le yakṣha a une double personnalité.

D’un côté, ce peut être une fée de nature inoffensive, associée aux forêts et aux montagnes ; mais il existe une version beaucoup plus sombre du yakṣa, qui est une sorte d’ogre, de fantôme ou de démon anthropophage qui harcèle et dévore les voyageurs.

3. Ecole d’Andrah Pradesh

Un troisième type de bouddha influent s’est développé dans l’Andhra Pradesh, au sud de l’Inde, où des représentations aux proportions imposantes, au visage grave, sans sourire, sont vêtues de robes qui laissent également apparaître l’épaule droite.

Ces sites méridionaux ont servi d’inspiration artistique à la terre bouddhiste du Sri Lanka, à la pointe sud de l’Inde, et les moines sri-lankais s’y rendaient régulièrement. Un certain nombre de statues de ce style se sont également répandues dans toute l’Asie du Sud-Est.

4. Ecole Gupta

La période Gupta, du IVe au VIe siècle de notre ère, dans le nord de l’Inde, souvent qualifiée d’âge d’or, est supposée avoir synthétisé les deux courants. En réalité, en cherchant une image idéale, elle a sombré dans le maniérisme. Les bouddhas gupta ont les cheveux disposés en petites boucles individuelles et leur tunique arbore un réseau de cordelettes suggérant les plis des draperies (comme à Mathura).

Avec leurs yeux baissés et leur aura spirituelle, les bouddhas gupta deviendront le modèle des futures générations d’artistes, que ce soit dans l’Inde post-Gupta et Pala ou au Népal, en Thaïlande et en Indonésie.

Des statues métalliques gupta du Bouddha, emportées par les pèlerins, ont également été disséminées le long de la Route de la soie jusqu’en Chine.

Mais les Bouddhas du Gandhara sont uniques et vraiment à part. Ce sont de véritables individualités échappant à toute codification et aux normes. Ils ont été fabriqués par des artistes habités d’une spiritualité élevée, explorant de nouvelles frontières de la beauté, du mouvement et de la liberté, et non produisant des objets pour satisfaire un marché émergent.

Aujourd’hui, Pakistanais, Indiens, Afghans et Européens aiment à se quereller. Tous prétendent avoir été les principaux parrains et auteurs du « miracle de Gandhara », mais peu se demandent comment il s’est produit.

Dès le Ier siècle avant J.-C., les artistes locaux délaissent les matériaux périssables avec lesquels ils travaillaient, comme la brique, le bois, le chaume et le bambou, pour adopter la pierre. Le nouveau matériau utilisé était principalement une pierre de schiste allant du gris clair au gris foncé (dans la vallée de la rivière Kaboul et la région de Peshawar). Les périodes ultérieures se caractérisent par l’utilisation du stuc et de l’argile (spécialité de Hadda).

Les techniques utilisées pour les sculptures et les pièces de monnaie du Gandhara sont très proches de celles de la Grèce. Ont-elles été créées par des sculpteurs grecs itinérants ou par des artistes locaux qu’ils ont formés ? Rien n’a été prouvé, mais est-ce vraiment important ?

Lorsque l’Asie rencontre la Grèce

Examinons maintenant des expressions artistiques attestant la belle rencontre entre la culture hellénique et les cultures indiennes et locales.

A. Pièces de monnaie kouchanes


Tout en soutenant toutes les religions qu’il jugeait dignes, Kanishka ne cachait pas sa préférence pour le bouddhisme.

Une pièce d’or datant de 120 après J.-C. montre le roi vêtu d’un lourd manteau kouchan et de longues bottes, des flammes sortant de ses épaules, un étendard dans la main gauche et faisant un sacrifice sur un autel, avec cette légende en caractères grecs : « Roi des rois, Kanishka le Kouchan. » Le revers de la même pièce représente un bouddha debout, en costume grec, faisant de la main droite le geste « ne craignez rien » (abhaya mudra) et tenant un pli de sa robe dans la main gauche. La légende en caractères grecs se lit désormais ΒΟΔΔΟ (Boddo), pour Bouddha.

B. Reliquaire bimaran

Reliquaire Bimaran.

Un véritable thème classique du répertoire de tout artiste de l’époque consiste à montrer Bouddha entouré, accueilli et protégé des divinités d’autres croyances et de religions plus anciennes. La plus ancienne représentation de ce type connue à ce jour figure sur un reliquaire trouvé dans le stupa de Bimaran, au nord-ouest du Gandhara.

Sur cette petite urne en or, généralement datée de 50-60 après J.-C., figure, à l’intérieur de niches voûtées d’architecture gréco-romaine, une représentation hellénistique du Bouddha (coiffure, contrapposto, himation d’élite, etc.), entourée des divinités indiennes Brahma et Sakra.

Tout comme Ashoka, Kanishka, presque laïque, entendait régner, non pas contre mais avec, et surtout au-dessus de toutes les religions. Ainsi, à l’occasion, les divinités grecques, représentées sur les pièces de monnaie (Zeus, Apollon, Héraclès, Athéna, etc.), côtoient les divinités du védisme, du zoroastrisme et du bouddhisme.

Autre exemple, à Ellora, au centre de l’Inde, la grotte et le temple taillés dans le roc où se côtoient les représentants des trois religions (bouddhisme, hindouisme et jaïnisme).

C. Triade de Hadda

La « triade de Hadda ».
Tête de bouddha, monastère de Tapa Shotor, Hadda.

Un autre exemple exquis de cet art gandharien est un groupe sculptural connu sous le nom de Triade de Hadda, excavé à Tapa Shotor, un grand monastère sarvastivadin près de Hadda en Afghanistan, datant du IIe siècle après J.-C.

Pour donner une idée de son activité, ce sont quelque 23 000 sculptures gréco-bouddhiques, en argile et en plâtre, qui ont été mises au jour rien qu’à Hadda, entre les années 1930 et 1970.

Le site, fortement endommagé lors des dernières guerres, possédait de belles statues, notamment un bouddha assis, vêtu d’une chlamyde grecque (manteau blanc), les cheveux bouclés, accompagné d’Héraclès et de Tyché (déesse grecque de la fortune et de la prospérité), vêtue d’un chiton (robe à la grecque) et tenant une corne d’abondance.

Seule adaptation aux traditions locales de l’iconographie grecque, Héraclès tient en main, non plus son habituelle massue, mais la foudre de Vajrapani (du sanskrit vajra, signifiant « foudre », et pani « en main »), l’une des trois premières divinités protectrices entourant le Bouddha.

C’est un bodhisattva. Il apparaît dès le IIe siècle dans l’iconographie mahāyāna comme doué d’une grande force et comme protecteur du Bouddha. Dans l’art gréco-bouddhique il ressemble à Héraclès ou Zeus, tenant en main une courte massue en forme de vajra, un foudre stylisé. On l’identifie au protecteur, « puissant comme un éléphant », qui aurait veillé sur Bouddha à sa naissance.

Une autre statue rappelle le portrait d’Alexandre le Grand.

Une statue rappelle le portrait d’Alexandre le Grand.

De cet ensemble sculptural, il ne reste malheureusement que des photographies.

Selon l’archéologue afghan Zemaryalai Tarzi, le monastère de Tapa Shotor, avec ses sculptures en argile datées du IIe siècle de notre ère, représente le « chaînon manquant » entre l’art hellénistique de Bactriane et les sculptures en stuc plus tardives trouvées à Hadda, généralement datées du IIIe-IVe siècle de notre ère.

Traditionnellement, l’afflux d’artistes, maître de l’art hellénistique, a été attribué à la migration des populations grecques des villes gréco-bactriennes d’Aî-Khanoum et de Takht-I-Sangin (Nord de l’Afghanistan).

Génie aux fleurs, Hadda.

Tarzi suggère que les populations grecques se sont établies dans les plaines de Jalalabad, qui comprennent Hadda, autour de la ville hellénistique de Dionysopolis, et qu’elles sont à l’origine des créations bouddhistes de Tapa Shotor, au IIe siècle de notre ère.

Les colons grecs restés au Gandhara (les Yavanas) après le départ d’Alexandre, soit par choix, soit en tant que populations condamnées à l’exil par Athènes, ont grandement embelli les expressions artistiques de leur nouvelle spiritualité.

Offrant fraîcheur, poésie et un sens du mouvement spectaculairement moderne, les premiers artistes bouddhistes du Gandhara, saisissant des instants de « mouvement-changement » permettant à l’esprit humain d’appréhender un saut vers la perfection, sont une contribution inestimable à la culture de l’humanité tout entière. N’est-il pas temps de reconnaître ce magnifique travail ?

D. Prendre la terre à témoin

Parmi les autres types productions artistiques de Gandhara, ce magnifique bas-relief, aujourd’hui conservée au musée de Cleveland, illustre la lutte du Bouddha pour atteindre le nirvana.

L’arbre (replanté à plusieurs reprises) de la Bodhi, à Bodhgaya en Inde.

Au centre de la composition se trouve l’arbre de la Bodhi, sous lequel le Bouddha atteignit l’illumination. Ce figuier sacré est vénéré depuis des temps ancestraux par les villageois locaux, car il passe pour être la résidence d’une divinité de la nature. L’autel lui-même est recouvert de kusha, herbe utilisée pour des offrandes sacrificielles.

Il y a environ 2500 ans, après être resté en méditation pendant 49 jours, assis sous cet arbre, le Bouddha est défié par des démons cauchemardesques qui remettent en cause l’authenticité de son illumination.

Leur chef Mara (littéralement, la mort), qui se tient à droite dans une posture arrogante, entouré de ses filles, fait tout pour empêcher Bouddha d’atteindre le nirvana (l’éveil).

Il le menace et encourage ses propres filles à le séduire. Innocemment, il lui demande s’il est sûr de pouvoir trouver quelqu’un pour témoigner qu’il a véritablement atteint le nirvana. En réponse à ce défi, le Bouddha touche alors la terre et la prend à témoin.

Selon la mythologie, la jeune déesse de la Terre surgit alors du sol et commença à essorer les eaux déferlant de ses cheveux pour noyer Mara. Sur la sculpture, on peut la voir, toute petite, au pied de l’autel, agenouillée devant Bouddha en signe de révérence. Elle a également pris forme humaine en sortant de terre. Les anciennes religions interviennent ici pour défendre et protéger la nouvelle, celle de Bouddha.

Semblant, eux aussi, regretter les anciens dieux et déesses de leur panthéon, les Indiens convertis au bouddhisme les ajoutent au-dessus de la tête de Bouddha ou à côté, comme, par exemple, le dieu védique Indra.

E. Tous bodhisattva ?

Trois Bodhisattvas de Gandhara.

Enfin, pour conlure cette section sur la sculpture, deux mots sur le bodhisattva, figure très intéressante sortie de l’imaginaire bouddhiste pour rendre la spiritualité bouddhiste accessible au citoyen ordinaire.

Il peut s’agir soit d’une représentation de Bouddha en personnage princier orné de bijoux, avant son renoncement à la vie de palais, soit d’un humain ordinaire, déjà conscient qu’il est sur la voie de l’illumination et qu’il est devenu un outil au service du bien.

Animé d’altruisme et obéissant les disciplines destinées aux bodhisattvas, il doit aider par compassion d’abord les autres êtres sensibles à s’éveiller, y compris en retardant sa propre libération !

Les bodhisattvas se distinguent par de grandes qualités spirituelles telles que les « quatre demeures divines » que sont:

Avalokiteshvara, bodhisattva de la compassion.

ainsi que les diverses perfections (paramitas), qui comprennent la prajnaparamita (« connaissance transcendante » ou « perfection de la sagesse ») et les moyens habiles (upaya).

Des bodhisattvas spirituellement avancés tels qu’Avalokiteshvara (ci-dessus), Maitreya et Manjushri, largement vénérés dans le monde bouddhiste mahâyâna, sont censés posséder un grand pouvoir, qu’ils utilisent pour aider tous les êtres vivants.

Pour certains courants bouddhistes, seul Maitreya mérite le titre de « Bouddha du futur ». Dans l’art on le représente à la fois comme un bouddha vêtu d’une robe monastique et comme un bodhisattva princier avant l’illumination.

Un magnifique bodhisattva de Gandhara peut être admiré au Dallas Museum of Art (ci-dessous).

Cette sculpture en terre cuite représente un « Bodhisattva pensant » de la région de Hadda en Afghanistan, une production typique du Gandhara.

Avec très peu d’éléments visuels, l’artiste réussit un travail gigantesque. Les piliers de sa large chaise sont des lions au regard un peu fou, représentation allégorique de ces passions qui nous font souffrir et qui sont maintenues sous un sage contrôle par l’effort hautement réflexif du Bodhisattva héroïque au centre de l’œuvre.

Le bouddhisme aujourd’hui, l’exemple de Nehru

Nehru et sa fille Indira, reçus par le Président John F. Kennedy.

Paradoxalement, le bouddhisme, en tant que religion, a presque cessé d’exister dans son propre berceau, l’Inde, depuis le XIIe siècle de notre ère.

Bel exemple de la lutte incessante des meilleurs esprits indiens pour l’émancipation, en 1956, près d’un demi-million « d’intouchables » se sont convertis au bouddhisme sous l’impulsion du dirigeant politique à la tête du comité chargé de rédiger la Constitution de l’Inde, le réformateur social B. R. Ambedkar (1891-1956), et du Premier ministre indien et chef du Parti du Congrès Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964), lui-même issu d’une famille de brahmanes.

En juin de la même année, le Courrier de l’UNESCO consacrait son édition à « 25 siècles d’art et de culture bouddhistes ».

En Inde, les deux hommes d’État ont orchestré une année de célébration en l’honneur de « 2500 ans de bouddhisme », non pas pour ressusciter une ancienne religion en soi, mais pour s’approprier le statut de berceau de cette vieille religion et renvoyer au monde une image de champion de la non-violence et du pacifisme.

Bouddha offert par Nehru à JFK en 1961.

Quelques années plus tard, lors de sa visite d’État à la Maison Blanche, le 9 novembre 1961, le Premier ministre indien Nehru offrit une sculpture bouddhiste au président John F. Kennedy

Comme beaucoup d’hindous, Mahatma Gandhi vénérait Bouddha. Pour lui, le bouddhisme n’était qu’une « autre forme d’hindouisme » et sa critique venait donc « de l’intérieur de l’hindouisme ».

Un point de vue que ne partageait pas le Premier ministre indien Jawaharlal Nehru. Profondément troublé par certaines caractéristiques intrinsèques à l’hindouisme, telles que le ritualisme et les castes, Nehru ne pouvait pas placer le bouddhisme, qui abhorrait ces institutions, dans la même rubrique…

Nehru fut fortement influencé par le bouddhisme. C’est ainsi qu’il appela sa fille (la future Première ministre Indira Gandhi) Indira Priyadarshini, du nom de « Priyadarshi » adopté par le grand empereur Ashoka, après être devenu un prince bouddhiste de la paix !

Par ailleurs, Nehru contribua à faire de l’Ashoka Chakra (la Roue bouddhiste intégrée au drapeau national) le symbole de l’Inde. Chaque fois qu’il se rendait au Sri Lanka, il visitait la statue du Bouddha à Anuradhapura.

Le dirigeant indien, qui ne cessait d’exhorter les Indiens superstitieux et ritualistes à cultiver un « tempérament scientifique » et à faire entrer l’Inde dans l’ère de l’âge atomique, était naturellement attiré par le rationalisme prôné par le Bouddha.

Et d’ajouter :

L’influence du Bouddha s’est manifestée dans la politique étrangère de Nehru. Cette politique était motivée par un désir de paix, d’harmonie internationale et de respect mutuel. Elle visait à résoudre les conflits par des méthodes pacifiques. Le 28 novembre 1956, Nehru déclare :

Visiblement inspirés par les préceptes bouddhistes, les concepts de non-alignement et le Traité de Panchsheel de Nehru, communément appelé « Traité des cinq principes de coexistence pacifique », ont été formellement énoncés pour la première fois dans l’Accord sur le commerce et les relations entre le Tibet chinois et l’Inde, signé le 29 avril 1954.

Cet accord stipulait, dans son préambule, que les deux gouvernements,

Le 29 novembre 1952, lors de la Conférence culturelle bouddhiste internationale à Sanchi, où Kanitscha avait entamé la construction du plus haut stupa de l’Antiquité, Nehru précisait :

Le 3 octobre 1960, Nehru s’adressait à l’Assemblée générale des Nations unies :

Nehru a fait de son mieux pour appliquer les enseignements du Bouddha dans la gestion des affaires intérieures de l’Inde. Sa conviction que le changement social ne peut être obtenu que par le consensus social le plus large découle de l’influence du Bouddha, d’Ashoka et de Gandhi.

Dans son discours du 15 août 1956 à l’occasion de la fête de l’indépendance, Nehru fixe les défis à relever :

Science et religion, Albert Einstein et Bouddha

Pour conclure, je vous invite à méditer quelques citations d’Albert Einstein discutant les rapports entre la science et la religion où il évoque l’importance de Bouddha :

NOTES :

*1. Les langues indo-aryennes. Il existe plus de 200 langues indo-aryennes connues, parlées par environ 1 milliard de personnes. Leurs formes modernes descendent des langues indo-aryennes anciennes, telles que le sanskrit védique primitif, en passant par les langues indo-aryennes moyennes (ou prakrits). Les langues indo-aryennes les plus importantes en termes de premiers locuteurs sont l’hindi-ourdou (c. 330 millions), le bengali (242 millions), le pendjabi (environ 120 millions), le marathi (112 millions), le gujarati (60 millions), le rajasthani (58 millions), le bhojpuri (51 millions), l’odia (35 millions), le maithili (environ 34 millions), le sindhi (25 millions), le népali (16 millions), l’assamais (15 millions), le chhattisgarhi (18 millions), le cinghalais (17 millions) et le romani (environ 3,5 millions). Le sud de l’Inde compte des langues dravidiennes (telugu, tamil, kannada et malayalam). En Europe, les principales langues indo-européennes sont l’anglais, le français, le portugais, le russe, le néerlandais et l’espagnol.

*2. Discords. Dès le IIIe siècle avant J.-C., pas moins de dix-huit écoles bouddhistes distinctes sont à l’œuvre en Inde, mais toutes se reconnaissent mutuellement comme des adeptes de la philosophie du Bouddha. Enfin, le bouddhisme du Véhicule du Diamant, dit Vajrayâna, dont les textes et les rituels complexes ont été élaborés dans les universités du nord-est de l’Inde vers le VIIe et VIIIe siècles.

*3. Le prâkrit est un terme qui désigne une langue indo-aryenne dérivée du sanskrit classique. Le mot lui-même a une définition assez souple, car il a parfois le sens de « originel, naturel, sans artifices, normal, ordinaire, usuel, ou encore, local », contrastant ainsi avec la forme littéraire et religieuse du sanskrit ; mais parfois, on peut aussi comprendre prâkrit comme signifiant « dérivé d’une langue originelle », c’est-à-dire dérivé du sanskrit. On peut donc dire que le prâkrit, comme toute langue vulgaire et vernaculaire de l’Inde, est issu du sanskrit. En fait, on peut comparer les prâkrits au latin vulgaire, tandis que le sanskrit serait le latin classique. L’usage le plus ancien que l’on connaisse du prâkrit est formé par l’ensemble d’inscriptions de l’empereur indien Ashoka (IIIe siècle av. J.-C.). L’un des prâkrits les plus célèbres est le pâli, qui a accédé au statut de langue littéraire et intellectuelle en devenant celle des textes du bouddhisme theravâda.

*4. Le pâli est une langue indo-européenne de la famille indo-aryenne. C’est un prâkrit moyen indien proche du sanskrit et remontant vraisemblablement au IIIe siècle av. J.-C. Le pâḷi est utilisé comme langue liturgique bouddhiste au Sri Lanka, en Birmanie, au Laos, en Thaïlande et au Cambodge. Son statut de langue liturgique l’a rendu, à l’instar du sanskrit, figé et normalisé.

*5. Hippodamos de Milet (né en 498 av. J.-C. et mort en 408 av. J.-C.) est un géomètre et ingénieur du Ve siècle av. J.-C., qui fut aussi architecte urbaniste, physicien, mathématicien, météorologiste et philosophe pythagoricien. La tradition a retenu de lui ses grands travaux de planification urbaine. Bien que ces travaux se caractérisent par l’utilisation systématique du plan en damier, il n’en est pas l’inventeur, de très anciennes colonies grecques nous fournissant déjà des exemples de cette structure urbaine.

Merci de partager !

Paris Schiller Institute stages Afghan civil society protest against UNESCO

How it started

Following a highly successful conference in Kabul last November by the Ibn-e-Sina Research & Development Center on the reconstruction of Afghanistan, a group of senior archaeologists of the Afghan Academy of Sciences (ASA), in discussion with the organizers and the invited experts of the Schiller Institute, suggested to launch a common appeal to UNESCO and Western governments to “lift the sanctions against cultural heritage cooperation.”

Initiators of the call, Kabul, November 2023.

The Call

The dramatic neglect of international cultural institutions and donors to Afghanistan, the lack of sufficient funds in the field of cultural heritage protection, and the political treatment of international cultural heritage institutions have seriously endangered Afghanistan,” underscores the petition.

Specifically, “UNESCO, which should raise its voice against any new form of ‘cultural and scientific apartheid,’ has repeatedly worsened the situation by politicizing issues beyond its prerogatives.”

To conclude, the signers call

Living Spirit of Afghanistan

To date, over 550 signatures have been collected, mainly from both Afghan male (370) and female (140) citizens, whose socio-professional profiles indicates they truly represent the « living spirit of the nation ».

Among the signatories: 62 university lecturers, 27 doctors, 25 teachers, 25 members of the Afghan Academy of Sciences, 23 merchants, 16 civil and women’s rights activists, 16 engineers, 10 directors and deans of private and public universities, 7 political analysts, 6 journalists, 5 prosecutors, several business leaders and dozens of qualified professionals from various sectors.

International support

On four continents (Europe, Asia, America, Africa), senior archaeologists, scientists, researchers, members of the Academy of Sciences, historians and musicians from over 20 countries have welcomed and signed this appeal.

Italian Professor Pino Arlacchi, a former member of the European Parliament and the former head of United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) was the first to sign. Award-winning American filmmaker Oliver Stone, is a more recent signer.

In France, Syria, Italy, the UK and Russia, among the signers one finds senior researchers suffering the consequences of what some have identified as a « New Cultural Cold War. » Superseding the very different opinions they have on many questions, the signatories stand united on the core issue of this appeal: for science to progress, all players, beyond ideological, political and religious differences, and far from the geopolitical logic of ‘blocs’, must be able to exchange freely and cooperate, in particular to protect mankind’s historical and cultural heritage.

Testifying to the firm commitment of the Afghan authorities, the petition has also been endorsed by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Minister of Culture and Arts, and the Minister of Agriculture, as well as senior officials from the Ministries of Higher Education, Water and Energy, Mines, Finance, and others.

The 46th session of UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee, to be held in New Delhi in July this year, offers UNESCO the opportunity to announce Afghanistan’s full return into world heritage cooperation, if we can have our voice heard,” says Karel Vereycken of the Paris Schiller Institute. “We certainly will not miss transmitting this appeal to HE Vishal V Sharma, India’s permanent representative to UNESCO, recently nominated to make the Delhi 46th session a success.”

Full text of the appeal

SIGNERS:
A. FROM AFGHAN CIVIL SOCIETY:

Hussain Burhani, Archaeologist, Numismatist, Afghanistan ;

Ketab Khan Faizi, Archaeologist, Director of the Academy of Sciences at the International Centre for Kushan Studies in Kabul, Afghanistan;

Stora Ishams Mayar, Archaeologist, member of the Academy of Sciences at the International Centre for Kushan Studies in Kabul, editor in chief of the journal of this mentioned center, Afghanistan;

Mahmood Jan Drost, Senior Architect, head of protection of old cities of Afghanistan, Ministry of Urban Development and Housing, Afghanistan;

Ghulam Haidar Kushkaky, Archaeologist, associate professor, Archaeology Investigation Center, Afghanistan ;

Shawkatullah Abed, Chief of staff, Afghan Science Academy, Afghanistan;

Sardar Ghulam Ali Balouch, Head of Afghanistan Balochs Union, Afghanistan;

Daud Azimi Shinwari, Ibn-e-Sina Research & Development Center, Germany;

Abdul Fatah Raufi, Ibn-e-Sina Research & Development Center, Kabul, Afghanistan;

Mirwais Popal, Dip, Master, Ibn-e-Sina Research & Development Center, Germany;

B. FROM ABROAD:


(Russia, China, USA, Indonesia, France, Angola, Germany, Turkiye, Italy, Mexico, Sweden, Iran, Belgium, Czech Republic, Syria, Congo Brazzaville, Yemen, Venezuela, Pakistan, Canada, Democratic Republic of Congo.)

H.E. Mr Mohammad Homayoon Azizi, Afghanistan’s Ambassador to Paris, UNESCO and ICESCO, France;

Julio Bendezu-Sarmiento, Researcher at the National Scientific Research Centre (CNRS), Archaeologist specializing in Central Asia; Former director of the Delegation of French Archaeologists in Afghanistan (DAFA) (2014-2018), France;

Inès Safi, CNRS, Researcher in Theoretical Nanophysics, France;

Pierre Leriche, Archeologist, Director of Research Emeritus at CNRS-AOROC, Scientific Director of the Urban Archaeology of the Hellenized Orient research program, France;

Nadezhda A. Dubova, Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Dr. in Biology, Prof. in History. Head of the Russian-Turkmen Margiana archaeological expedition, Russian Academy of Science (RAS), Russia;

Raffaele Biscione, retired, associate Researcher, Consiglio Nazionale delle Recerche (CNR); former first researcher of CNR, former director of the CNR archaeological mission in Eastern Iran (2009-2022), Italy;

Dr. Razia Sultanova, Professor, Cambridge University, UK;

Dr. Houmam Saad, Archaeologist, Directorate General of Antiquities and Museums, Syria;

Estelle Ottenwelter, Institute of Archaeology, Czech Academy of Sciences, Natural Sciences and Archaeometry, Post-Doc, Czech Republic;

Didier Destremau, author, diplomat, former French Ambassador, President of the Franco-Syrian Friendship Association (AFS), France ;

Wang Feng, Professor, South-West Asia Department of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), China;

Dr. Engin Beksaç, Professor, Trakya University, Department of Art History, Turkiye;

Bruno Drweski, Professor, National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations (INALCO), France;

Maurizio Abbate, National President of National Agency of Cultural Activities (ENAC), Italy;

Patricia Lalonde, Former Member of the European Parliament, vice-president of Geopragma, author of several books on Afghanistan, France;

Pino Arlacchi, Professor of sociology, Former Member of the European Parliament, former head of United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Italy;

Oliver Stone, Academy Award-winning Film director, Producer, and Screenwriter;

Graham E. Fuller, Author, former Station chief for the CIA in Kabul until 1978, former Vice-Chair of the National Intelligence Council (1986), USA;

Prof. H.C. Fouad Al Ghaffari, Advisor to Prime Minister of Yemen for BRICS Countries affairs, Yemen;

Farhat Asif, President of Institute of Peace and Diplomatic Studies (IPDS), Pakistan;

Irène Neto, president, Fundacao Dr. Antonio Agostinho Neto (FAAN), Angola;

Luc Reychler, Professor international politics, University of Leuven, Belgium;

Pierre-Emmanuel Dupont, Expert and Consultant in public International Law, Senior Lecturer at the Institut Catholique de Vendée, France;

Dr. Ririn Tri Ratnasari, Professor, Head of Center for Halal Industry and Digitalization, Advisory Board at Journal of Islamic Accounting and Business Research, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Airlangga, Indonesia;

Dr. Clifford A. Kiracofe, Author, retired Professor of International Relations, USA;

Bernard Bourdin, Dominican priest, Philosophy and Theology teacher, Institut Catholique de Paris (ICP), France;

Dr. jur. Wolfgang Bittner, Author, Göttingen, Germany;

Annie Lacroix-Riz, Professor Emeritus of Contemporary History, Université Paris-Cité, France;

Mohammad Abdo Al-Ibrahim, Ph.D in Philology and Literature, University Lecturer and former editor in chief of the Syria Times, Syria;

Jean Bricmont, Author, retired Physics Professor, Belgium;

Syed Mohsin Abbas, Journalist, Broadcaster, Political Analyst and Political Justice activist, Pakistan;

Eduardo D. Greaves PhD, Professor of Physics, Universidad Simón Bolívar, Caracas, Venezuela;

Dora Muanda, Scientific Director, Kinshasa Science and Technology Week, Democratic Republic of Congo;

Dr. Christian Parenti, Professor of Political Economy, John Jay College CUNY, New York, USA;

Diogène Senny, President of the Panafrican Ligue UMOJA, Congo Brazzaville;

Waheed Seyed Hasan, Journalist based in Qatar, former Special correspondent of IRNA in New Delhi, former collaborator of Tehran Times, Iran;

Alain Corvez, Colonel (retired), Consultant International Strategy consultant, France;

Stefano Citati, Journalist, Italy;

Gaston Pardo, Journalist, graduate of the National University of Mexico. Co-founder of the daily Liberacion, Mexico;

Jan Oberg, PhD, Peace and Future Research, Art Photographer, Lund, Sweden.

Julie Péréa, City Councilor for the town of Poussan (Hérault), delegate for gender equality and the fight against domestic violence, member of the Sète Agglopole Méditerranée gender equality committee, France;

Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Founder and International President of the Schiller Institute, Germany;

Abid Hussein, independent journalist, Pakistan;

Anne Lettrée, Founder and President of the Garden of Titans, Cultural Relations Ambassador between France and China for the Greater Paris region, France;

Karel Vereycken, Painter-engraver, amateur Art Historian, Schiller Institute, France;

Carlo Levi Minzi, Pianist, Musician, Italy;

Leena Malkki Brobjerg, Opera singer, Sweden;

Georges Bériachvili, Pianist, Musicologist, France;

Jacques Pauwels, Historian, Canada;

C. FROM AFGHAN AUTHORITIES

Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, Deputy Foreign Minister, Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA);

Mawlawi Muhibullah Wasiq, Head of Foreign Minister’s Office, IEA;

Waliwullah Shahin, Member of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, IEA;

Sayedull Afghani, Member of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, IEA;

Hekmatullah Zaland, Member of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, IEA;

Shafi Azam, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, IEA;

Atiqullah Azizi, Deputy Minister of Culture and Art, Ministry of Information and Culture, IEA;

Ghorzang Farhand, Ministry of Information and Culture, IEA;

Ghulam Dastgir Khawari, Advisor of Ministry of Higher Education, IEA;

Mawlawi Rahmat Kaka Zadah, Member of ministry of Interior Affairs, IEA;

Mawlawi Arefullah, Member of Interior Affairs, IEA;

Ataullah Omari, Acting Agriculture Minister, IEA;

Mawlawi Hussain Ahmad, Head of office in Ministry of Agriculture, IEA:

Musa Noorzai, Member of Ministry of Agriculture, IEA;

Mawlawi Hussain Ahmad, Head of office, Ministry of Agriculture, IEA;

Mawlawi Shar Aqa, Head of Kunar Agriculture Administration, IEA;

Matiulah Mujadidi, Head of Communication of Ministry of Finance, IEA;

Zabiullah Noori, Executive Manager, Ministry of Finance, IEA;

Akbar Wazizi, Member of Ministry of Finance, IEA;

Nasrullah Ebrahimi, Auditor, Ministry of Finance, IEA;

Mir M. Haroon Noori, Representative, Ministry of Economy, IEA;

Abdul Qahar Mahmodi, Ministry of Commerce, IEA;

Dr. Ghulam Farooq Azam, Adviser, Ministry of Water & Energy (MoWE), IEA;

Faisal Mahmoodi, Investment Facilitation Expert, Ministry of Mines and Petroleum, IEA;

Rustam Hafiz Yar, Ministry of Transportation, IEA;

Qudratullah Abu Hamza, Governor of Kunar, IEA;

Mansor Faryabi, Member of Kabul Municipality, IEA;

Mohammad Sediq Patman, Former Deputy Minister of Education for Academic Affairs, IEA;

COMPLEMENTARY LIST

A. FROM AFGHANS

  • Jawad Nikzad, Ibn-e-Sina R&D Centre, Kabul, Afghanistan ;
  • Dr. Akram Azimi, Ibn-e-Sina R&D Centre, Kabul, Afghanistan ;
  • Najibullah Totakhel, Ibn-e-Sina R&D Centre, Germany 
  • Ghulam Farooq Ansari, Professor, Ibn-e-Sina R&D Centre, Kabul, Afghanistan ;
  • Imran Zakeria, Researcher at Regional Studies Center, Academy of Sciences of Afghanistan, Ibn Sina R&D Centre, Kabul, Afghanistan ;
  • Subhanullah Obaidi, Doctor, Ibn-e-Sina R&D Centre, Germany ;
  • Ali Shabeez, Ibn-e-Sina R&D Centre, Kabul, Germany ;
  • Mawlawi Wahid Ameen, Ibn-e-Sina R&D Centre, Kabul, Afghanistan ;
  • Shar M. Amir Zadah, Ibne-eSina R&D Centre, Kabul, Afghanistan ;
  • Sayed Rafiullah Halim, Professor, Ibn-e-Sina R&D Centre, Kabul Afghanistan ;
  • Nazar Mohmmad Ragheb, Ibn-e-Sina R&D Centre, Kabul, Afghanistan ;
  • Ali Sina Masoumi, Ibn-e-Sina R&D Centre Kabul, Afghanistan ;
  • Faisal Mahmoodi, Ibn-e-Sina R&D Centre, Kabul, Afghanistan ;
  • Fatima Basir, Ibn-e-Sina R&D Centre, Kabul, Afghanistan ;
  • Muneera Aman, Ibn-e-Sina R&D Centre, Kabul, Afghanistan ;
  • Abdul Shakoor, Ibn-e-Sina R&D Centre, Kabul, Afghanistan ;
  • Abdul Waris Ebad, Employee of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Afghanistan ;
  • Waisullah Sediqi, Ibn-e-Sina R&D Centre, Kabul, Afghanistan ;
  • Sayed Hakim Aria, Employee of Ministry of Information and Culture, Afghanistan ;
  • Nayebuddin Ekrami, Employee of Ministry of information and Culture, Afghanistan ;
  • Latifa Azimi, Former Employee of Ministry of Education, Afghanistan ;
  • Latifa Noori, Former Employee of Ministry of Education, Afghanistan ;
  • Habibullah Haqani, Employee of Kabul Municipality, Afghanistan ;
  • Shafiqullah Baburzai, Cultural Heritage, Afghanistan ;
  • Abdullah Kamawal, Cultural Heritage, Afghanistan ;
  • Abdul Rashid Lodin, Cultural Heritage, Afghanistan ;
  • Asef Nang, Cultural Heritage, Afghanistan ;
  • Awal Khan Shekib, Member of Afghanistan Regional Studies Center, Afghanistan ;
  • Mohammad Anwar Fayaz, Lecturer, Afghanistan Science Academy, Afghanistan ;
  • Farhad Ahmadi, Lecturer, Afghanistan Science Academy, Afghanistan ;
  • Fayqa Lahza Faizi, Lecturer, Afghanistan Science Academy, Afghanistan ;
  • Dr. Hakim Haidar, Lecturer, Afghanistan Science Academy, Afghanistan ;
  • Rahimullah Harifal, Lecturer, Afghanistan Science Academy, Afghanistan ;
  • Sharifullah Dost, Lecturer, Afghanistan Science Academy, Afghanistan ;
  • Eshaq Momand, Lecturer, Afghanistan Science Academy, Afghanistan ;
  • Khalil Rahman Barekzal, Lecturer, Afghanistan Science Academy, Afghanistan ;
  • Ghulam Haidar Kushkaki, Lecturer, Afghanistan Science Academy, Afghanistan ;
  • Ghulam Nabi Hanifi, Lecturer, Afghanistan Science Academy, Afghanistan ;
  • Marina Bahar, Lecturer, Afghanistan Science Academy, Afghanistan ;
  • Sayed Muhaidin Hashimi, Lecturer, Afghanistan Science Academy, Afghanistan ;
  • Abdul Majid Nadim, Lecturer, Afghanistan Science Academy, Afghanistan ;
  • Elaha Maqsoodi, Lecturer, Afghanistan Science Academy, Afghanistan ;
  • Khadim Ahmad Haqiqi, Lecturer, Afghanistan Science Academy, Afghanistan ;
  • Shahidullah Safi, Member, Afghanistan Science Academy, Afghanistan ;
  • Abdul Wahab Hamdard, Member, Afghanistan Science Academy, Afghanistan ;
  • Burhanullah Niazi, Member, Afghanistan Science Academy, Afghanistan ;
  • M. Alam Eshaq Zai, Member, Afghanistan Science Academy, Afghanistan ;
  • Ghulam Hasan Farmand, Member, Afghanistan Science Academy, Afghanistan ;
  • Zalmai Hewad Mal, Member, Afghanistan Science Academy, Afghanistan ;
  • Abdul Rahman Atash, Head of Afghanistan National Development Company (NDC), Afghanistan ;
  • Obaidullah, Head of Public Library, Afghanistan ;
  • Sayed Abdul Maqdam, Head of Khawar construction company, Afghanistan ;
  • Zaki Zarifi, Head of Zarifi company, Afghanistan ;
  • Jamshid Faizi, Head of Faizi company, Afghanistan ;
  • M. Yasin Farahman, Head of Agriculture Center, Afghanistan ;
  • Mawlawi Nik M. Nikmal, Head of Planning in Technical Administration, Afghanistan ;
  • Abdul Wahid Rahimi, Member of Bashtani Bank, Afghanistan ;
  • M. Daud Mangal, Head of Ariana Afghan Airlines, Afghanistan ;
  • Mostafa Yari, entrepreneur, Afghanistan;
  • Gharwal Roshan, Head of Kabul International Airfield, Afghanistan ;
  • Eqbal Mirzad, Head of New Kabul City Project, Afghanistan ;
  • Najibullah Sadiq, Vice-president of Afghan Chamber of Commerce and Indunstry (ACCI), Afghanistan;
  • M. Yunis Mohmand, Vice-president of ACCI, Afghanistan;
  • Khanjan Alikozai, Member of ACCI, Afghanistan;
  • Mawlawi Abdul Rashid, Kabul Municipality, Afghanistan ;
  • Atiqullah Safi, Employee of Kabul Municipality, Afghanistan ;
  • Abdul Jalil Safi, Employee of Kabul Municipality, Afghanistan ;
  • Hujat Fazli, Head of Harakat, Afghanistan Investment Climate Facility Afghanistan ;
  • Dr. Mehrab Hamidi, Member of Economical Commission, Afghanistan;
  • Hamid Pazhwak, Economist, Afghanistan ;
  • M. Awaz Ali Alizai, Economist, Afghanistan ;
  • Shamshad Omar, Economist, Afghanistan ;
  • Helai Fahang, Economy Specialist, Afghanistan ;
  • Maryam Alikozai, Economy Specialist, Afghanistan ;
  • Dunya Farooz, Economy Specialist, Afghanistan ;
  • Soman Khamoosh, Economy Specialist, Afghanistan ;
  • Drs. Shokoria Yousofi, Bachelor of Economy, Afghanistan;
  • Sharifa Wardak, Specialist of Agriculture, Afghanistan;
  • M. Asef Dawlat Shahi, Specialist of Chemistry, Afghanistan;
  • Pashtana Hamami, Specialist of Statistics, Afghanistan;
  • Asma Karimi, Master of Management, Afghanistan;
  • Dr. Ahmad Zaki Afghanyar, Vice-President of Herat Health committee, Afghanistan ;
  • Dr. Hashem Mudaber, Medical Doctor, Afghanistan ;
  • Dr. Hekmatullah Arian, Medical Doctor, Afghanistan ;
  • Dr. Abdul Wahab Rahmani, Medical Doctor, Afghanistan ;
  • Dr. Karima Rahimyar, Medical Doctor, Afghanistan ;
  • Dr. Sayeeda Basiri, Medical Doctor, Afghanistan ;
  • Dr. Emran Sayeedi, Medical Doctor, Afghanistan ;
  • Dr. Abdul Hadi Dawlatzai, Medical Doctor, Afghanistan ;
  • Dr. Ghani Naseri, Medical Doctor, Afghanistan ;
  • Dr. Nafisa Naseri, Medical Doctor, Afghanistan ;
  • Dr. Abdul Ghani Naseri, Medical Doctor, Afghanistan;
  • Dr. Mohammad Younis Shouaib, Medical Doctor, Afghanistan ;
  • Dr. Halima Akbari, Medical Doctor, Afghanistan;
  • Dr. Manizha Emaq, Medical Doctor, Afghanistan;
  • Dr. Shafiq Shinwari, Medical Doctor, Afghanistan ;
  • Dr. Akbar Jan Foolad, Medical Doctor, Afghanistan ;
  • Dr. Haidar Omar, Medical Doctor, Afghanistan ;
  • Dr. Ehsanuddin Ehsan, Medical Doctor, Afghanistan ;
  • Dr. Abdul Wakil Matin, Medical Doctor, Afghanistan ;
  • Dr. Abdul Matalib, Medical Doctor, Afghanistan ;
  • Dr. Azizi Amer, Medical Doctor, Afghanistan ;
  • Dr. Nasr Sajar, Medical Doctor, Afghanistan ;
  • Dr. Humayon Hemat, Medical Doctor, Afghanistan ;
  • Dr. Humaira Fayaq, Medical Doctor, Afghanistan ;
  • Dr. Sadruddin Tajik, Medical Doctor, Afghanistan ;
  • Dr. Abdul Baqi Ahmad Zai, Surgery Specialist, Afghanistan ;
  • Dr. Beqis Kohistani, Medical Doctor, Afghanistan;
  • Dr. Nafisa Nasiri, Medical Doctor, Afghanistan;
  • Dr. Aziza Yousuf, Head of Malalai Hospital, Afghanistan;
  • Dr. Yasamin Hashimi, Medical Doctor, Afghanistan;
  • Dr. Zuhal Najimi, Medical Doctor, Afghanistan;
  • Dr. Ahmad Salem Sedeqi, Medical Doctor, Afghanistan;
  • Dr. Fazel Raman, veterinary, Afghanistan;
  • Khatera Anwary, Health, Afghanistan;
  • Rajina Noori, Member of Afghanistan Journalists Union, Afghanistan ;
  • Sajad Nikzad, Journalist, Afghanistan ;
  • Ahmad Suhaib Hasrat, Journalist, Afghanistan ;
  • Shar Aqa Karimi, Journalist, Afghanistan ;
  • Sayed Mohammad Suhrabi , Journalist, Afghanistan ;
  • Mohammad Nasir Kuhzad, Journalist and Political Analyst, Afghanistan ;
  • Fazel Menallah, Political Analyst, Afghanistan;
  • M. Wahid Benish, Political Analyst, Afghanistan ;
  • Mahmood Jan Shafizada, Political Analyst, Afghanistan ;
  • Fazel Rahman Orya, Political Analyst, Afghanistan ;
  • Zarghon Shah Shinwari, Political Analyst, Afghanistan ;
  • Abdul Ghafor Shinwari, Political Analyst, Afghanistan ;
  • Dr. Ahmad Yousufi, Dean, Kateb University, Afghanistan ;
  • Dr. Yayia Balaghat, Scientific Vice-President, Kateb University, Afghanistan ;
  • Chaman Shah Etemadi, Head of Gharjistan University, Afghanistan;
  • Dr. Mesbah, Head of Salam University, Afghanistan;
  • Dr. Pirzad Ahmad Fawad, Kabul University;
  • Dr. Nasir Nawidi, Dean of a Private University, Afghanistan;
  • Zabiullah Fazli, Dean of a Private University, Afghanistan;
  • Ramish Adib, Vice of a Private University, Afghanistan;
  • M. Taloot Muahid, Dean of a Private University, Afghanistan;
  • Ebrahim Ansari, School Manager, Afghanistan;
  • Abas Ali Zimozai, Univ. Lecturer, Afghanistan ;
  • Arshad Rahimi, Univ. Lecturer, Afghanistan ;
  • Fasihuddin Fasihi, Univ. Lecturer, Afghanistan ;
  • Waisuddin Jawad, Univ. Lecturer, Afghanistan ;
  • M. Murtaza Sharzoi, Univ. Lecturer, Afghanistan ;
  • M. Matin Monis, Univ. Lecturer, Afghanistan ;
  • Mohammad Wahid Benish, Univ. Lecturer, Afghanistan ;
  • Hussian Iqbal, Univ. Lecturer, Afghanistan ;
  • Muhsin Reshad, Univ. Lecturer, Afghanistan ;
  • Mohammad Sadiq Baqori, Univ. Lecturer, Afghanistan ;
  • Mohammad Zahir Halimi, Univ. Lecturer , Afghanistan ;
  • Rohla Qurbani, Univ. Lecturer, Afghanistan ;
  • Murtaza Rezaee, Univ. Lecturer, Afghanistan ;
  • Ghulam Rasoul Qarluq, Univ. Lecturer, Afghanistan ;
  • Najim Wahidi, Univ. Lecturer, Afghanistan ;
  • M. Rashid Iqbal, Univ. Lecturer, Afghanistan ;
  • Abdul Rahman Matin, Univ. Lecturer, Afghanistan ;
  • M. Mujtaba Amin, Univ. Lecturer, Afghanistan ;
  • Amanullah Faqiri, Univ. Lecturer, Afghanistan ;
  • Abuzar Khpelwak Zazai, Univ. Lecturer, Afghanistan ;
  • Belal Tayab, Univ. Lecturer, Afghanistan ;
  • M. Adel Hakimi, Univ. Lecturer, Afghanistan ;
  • Wasiqullah Ghyas, Univ. Lecturer, Afghanistan ;
  • Faridduin Atar, Univ. Lecturer, Afghanistan ;
  • Safiullah Jawhar, Univ. Lecturer, Afghanistan ;
  • Amir Jan Saqib, Univ. Lecturer, Afghanistan ;
  • Ahmad Shekib Rahmani, Univ. Lecturer, Afghanistan ;
  • M. Gulzar Hashimi, Univ. Lecturer, Afghanistan ;
  • Taj Mohammad, Univ. Lecturer, Afghanistan;
  • Hekmatullah Mirzad, Univ. Lecturer, Afghanistan;
  • Abdul Haq Atid, Univ. Lecturer, Afghanistan ;
  • M. Fahim Momand, Univ. Lecturer, Afghanistan;
  • Ahmad Fawad Ehsas, Univ. Lecturer, Afghanistan;
  • Naqibullah Sediqi, Univ. Lecturer, Afghanistan;
  • Maiwand Wahidi, Univ. Lecturer, Afghanistan;
  • M. Nazir Hayati, Univ. Lecturer, Afghanistan;
  • Najiba Rahmani, Univ. Lecturer, Afghanistan;
  • Abeda Baba Karkhil, Univ. Lecturer, Afghanistan;
  • Dr. M. Qayoum Karim, Univ. Lecturer, Afghanistan;
  • Sayed Sharif Shabir, Univ. Lecturer, Afghanistan;
  • Ahmad Walid Howaida, Univ. Lecturer, Afghanistan;
  • Zalmai Rahib, Univ. Lecturer, Afghanistan;
  • Dr. Sadiq Baqori, Univ. Lecturer, Afghanistan;
  • Mir Zafaruddin Ansari, Univ. Lecturer, Afghanistan;
  • Atta Mohammad Alwak, Univ. Lecturer, Afghanistan;
  • Dr. Zabiullah Iqbal, Univ. Lecturer, Afghanistan;
  • Dr. Hasan Fazaili, Univ. Lecturer, Afghanistan;
  • M. Jawad Jalili, Univ. Lecturer, Afghanistan;
  • Mukhtar Ali Nasto, Univ. Lecturer, Afghanistan;
  • Namatullah Nabawi, Univ. Lecturer, Afghanistan;
  • Ghulam Abas Noori, Univ. Lecturer, Afghanistan;
  • Mustafa Anwari, Univ. Lecturer, Afghanistan;
  • Fakhria Popal, Univ. Lecturer, Afghanistan;
  • Shiba Sharzai, Univ. Lecturer, Afghanistan;
  • Marya Hashimi, Univ. Lecturer, Afghanistan;
  • Nilofar Hashimi, Univ. Lecturer, Afghanistan;
  • Munisa Hasan, Univ. Lecturer, Afghanistan;
  • Nazifa Azimi, Univ. Lecturer, Afghanistan;
  • Sweeta Sharify, Lecturer; Afghanistan;
  • Fayaz Gul, Lecturer, Afghanistan;
  • Zakia Ahmad Zai, Lecturer, Afghanistan;
  • Nigani Barati, Education Specialist, Afghanistan ;
  • Azeeta Nazhand, Teacher, Afghanistan ;
  • Sughra, Teacher, Afghanistan;
  • Nadia Sharif, Teacher, Afghanistan;
  • Maryam Omari, Teacher, Afghanistan;
  • Masoud, Teacher, Afghanistan;
  • Zubair Ahmad, Teacher, Afghanistan;
  • Khalil Ahmad, Teacher, Afghanistan;
  • Khadija Omid, Teacher, Afghanistan;
  • Haida Rasouli, Teacher, Afghanistan;
  • Hemat Hamad, Teacher, Afghanistan ;
  • Wazir Safi, Teacher, Afghanistan ;
  • Mohammad Qasim, Teacher, Afghanistan ;
  • Zamin Shah, Teacher, Afghanistan ;
  • Sayed Qayas, Teacher, Afghanistan ;
  • Mehrabuddin, Teacher, Afghanistan ;
  • Zahidullah Zahid, Teacher, Afghanistan ;
  • Akmal Mahros, Teacher, Afghanistan ;
  • Sadia Mohammadi, Teacher, Afghanistan;
  • Mina Amiri, Teacher, Afghanistan;
  • M. Sajad Nikzad, Teacher, Afghanistan ;
  • Mursal Nikzad, Teacher, Afghanistan ;
  • Abdul Qadir Shahab, Teacher, Afghanistan;
  • M. Hasan Sahi, Teacher, Afghanistan ;
  • Mirwais Haqmal, Teacher, Afghanistan ;
  • Leeda Khurasai, Teacher, Afghanistan ;
  • Karishma Hashimi, Instructor, Afghanistan;
  • Majeed Shams, Architect, Afghanistan;
  • Azimullah Esmati, Master of Civil Engineering, Afghanistan;
  • Najibullah Hussaini, Engineer, Afghanistan ;
  • Burhanuddin Nezami, Engineer, Afghanistan ;
  • Abdul Hafiz Hafizi, Engineer, Afghanistan ;
  • Bahir, Engineer, Afghanistan;
  • Wali Bayan, Engineer, Afghanistan;
  • Abdul Khaliq Najir, Engineer, Afghanistan;
  • Diana Niazi, Engineer, Afghanistan;
  • Imam Jan, Engineer, Afghanistan ;
  • Khalil Ahmad Nadem, Engineer, Afghanistan;
  • Sayeed Aqa, Engineer, Afghanistan ;
  • Edris Rasouli, Engineer, Afghanistan ;
  • Raz Mohammad, Engineer of Mines, Afghanistan ;
  • Nasrullah Rahimi, Technical Engineer, Afghanistan ;
  • Ehsanullah, Helmand, Construction Engineer, Netherlands;
  • Ahmad Hamad, Technologist, Afghanistan ;
  • Akmal Ahmadi, Technologist, Afghanistan ;
  • Ershad Hurmati, Technologist, Afghanistan ;
  • M. Akram Shafim, Technologist, Afghanistan ;
  • M. Akbar Ehsan, Technologist, Afghanistan ;
  • Raziullah, Technologist, Afghanistan ;
  • Zaki Khorrami, IT Officer, Afghanistan ;
  • Osman Nikzad, Graphic Designer, Afghanistan ;
  • Maryam Ayani, Carpet Weaver, Afghanistan ;
  • Be be sima Hashimi, Tailor, Afghanistan ;
  • Maryam Masoumi, Tailor, Afghanistan ;
  • Roya Mohammadi, Craftsman, Afghanistan ;
  • Nadia Sayes, Craftsman, Afghanistan ;
  • Nazdana Ebad, Craftsman, Afghanistan ;
  • Sima Ahmadi , Bachelor of Biology, Afghanistan;
  • Sima Rasouli, Merchant, Afghanistan ;
  • Khatera Nawabi, Merchant, Afghanistan ;
  • Haji Noor Agha Haqyar, Merchant, Afghanstan;
  • Husna Anwari, Merchant, Afghanistan ;
  • Nargis Hashimi, Merchant, Afghanistan ;
  • Shakira Barish, Merchant, Afghanistan ;
  • Nasima Darwish, Merchant, Afghanistan ;
  • Wajiha Haidari, Merchant of Jawzjan, Afghanistan ;
  • Shagul, Merchant, Afghanistan ;
  • Fatima Nik Rasoul, Merchant, Afghanistan ;
  • Haji Farid Alikozai, Merchant, Afghanistan;
  • Nigina Nawabi, Merchant, Afghanistan ;
  • Masouda Nazimi, Merchant, Afghanistan ;
  • Najla Kohistani, Merchant, Afghanistan ;
  • Kerisma Jawhari, Merchant, Afghanistan ;
  • Hasina Hashimi, Merchant, Afghanistan ;
  • Husna Anwari, Merchant, Afghanistan ;
  • Maaz Baburzai, Merchant, Afghanistan ;
  • Freshta Safari, Merchant, Afghanistan;
  • Yalda Azimi, Merchant, Afghanistan ;
  • Azim Jan Baba Karkhil, Merchant, Afghanistan ;
  • Akhtar Mohammad, Merchant, Afghanistan ;
  • M. Haroon Ahmadzai, Merchant, Afghanistan ;
  • Azizullah Faizi, Former head of Afghanistan Cricket Board, Afghanistan ;
  • Wakil Akhar, Prosecutor, Afghanistan ;
  • Akhtar M. Azimi, Prosecutor, Afghanistan;
  • Shabnam Noori, Prosecutor, Afghanistan;
  • Be be Abeda Wayar, Prosecutor, Afghanistan;
  • Madina Ahmad Zai, Prosecutor, Afghanistan;
  • Shakila Joya, Former Employee of Attorney General, Afghanistan;
  • Sardar M. Akbar Bashash, Member, Afghanistan Balochs Union, Afghanistan ;
  • Eng. Abdul Dayan Balouch, Spokesperson of Afghanistan Balochs Union, Afghanistan ;
  • Shah Mahmood Lahoti, Member of Afghanistan Balochs Union, Afghanistan ;
  • Abdul Khaliq Barekzai, Advisor, Afghanistan Balochs Union, Afghanistan ;
  • Salahuddin Ayoubi Balouch, Advisor, Afghanistan Balochs Union, Afghanistan ;
  • Faizuddin Lashkari Balouch, Member, Afghanistan Balochs Union, Afghanistan ;
  • Sayed Ishaq Gilani, head of the National Solidarity Movement of Afghanistan, IEA;
  • Haji Zalmai Latifi, Representative, Qizilbash tribes, Afghanistan ;
  • Gul Nabi Ahmad Zai, Former Commander of Kabul Garrison, Afghanistan ;
  • Ghulam Hussain Rezaee, Member, Habitat Organization, Afghanistan ;
  • Dr. Amani Adiba, Doctor of Liberal Arts in Architecture and Urban Planning, Afghanistan;
  • Ismael Paienda, Afghan Peace Activist, France;
  • Mohammad Belal Rahimi, Head of Peace institution, Afghanistan ;
  • M. Mushtaq Hanafi, Head of Sayadan council, Afghanistan ;
  • Sabira Waizi, Founder of T.W.P.S., Afghanistan ;
  • Majabin Sharifi, Member of Women Network Organization, Afghanistan;
  • Shekiba Saadat, Former head of women affairs, Afghanistan ;
  • Atya Salik, Women rights activist, Afghanistan ;
  • Fatima Mahmoodi, Women rights activist, Afghanistan;
  • Diana Rohin, Women rights activist , Afghanistan;
  • Amena Hashimi, Head of Women Organization, Afghanistan;
  • Fatanh Sharif, Former employee of Gender equality, Afghanistan;
  • Sediq Mansour Ansari, Civil Activist, Afghanistan ;
  • Sebghatullah Najibi, Civil Activist, Afghanistan ;
  • Naemullah Nasiri, Civil Activist, Afghanistan;
  • Reha Ramazani, Civil Activist, Afghanistan ;
  • Lia Jawad, Civil Activist, Afghanistan;
  • Arezo Khurasani, Social Activist, Afghanistan ;
  • Beheshta Bairn, Social Activist, Afghanistan;
  • Samsama Haidari, Social Activist, Afghanistan;
  • Shabnam Nikzad, Humans Rights Activist, Afghanistan;
  • Mliha Sadiqi, Head of Young Development Organization, Afghanistan;
  • Mehria, Sharify, University Student;
  • Shiba Azimi, Member of IPSO Organization, Afghanistan;
  • Nadira Rashidi, Master of Management, Afghanistan;
  • Sefatullah Atayee, Banking, Afghanistan;
  • Khatira Yousufi, Employee of RTA, Afghanistan;
  • Yalda Mirzad , Employee of Breshna Company, Afghanistan;
  • Izzatullah Sherzad, Employee, Afghanistan;
  • Erfanullah Salamzai , Afghanistan;
  • Naser Abdul Rahim Khil, Afghanistan;
  • Ghulam Rasoul Faizi, Afghanistan;
  • Dr. Mir Agha Hasan Khil, Afghanistan;
  • Abdul Ghafor Muradi, Afghanistan;
  • Gul M. Azhir, Afghanistan;
  • Gul Ahmad Zahiryan, Afghanistan;
  • Shamsul Rahman Shams, Afghanistan;
  • Khaliq Stanekzai, Afghanistan;
  • M. Daud Haidari, Afghanistan;
  • Marhaba Subhani, Afghanistan;
  • Maazullah Nasim, Afghanistan;
  • Haji Mohammad Tayeb, Afghanistan;
  • Ali Sina Masoumi, Afghanistan ;
  • Sweeta Sadiqi Hotak, Afghanistan ;
  • Khatira Anwari, Afghanistan ;
  • Fatima Sharzad, Afghanistan ; Momen Shah Kakar, Afghanistan ;
  • Shah Rukh Raufi, Afghanistan ;
  • Hanifa Rasouli, Kabul, Afghanistan ;
  • Qudsia Ebrahimi, Afghanistan ;
  • Mahmood Haqiqat, Afghanistan ;
  • Nasir Abdul Rahim Khan, Kabul, Afghanistan ;
  • Abdul Hamid Ahmadzai, Afghanistan ;
  • Sardar Khan Sirat, Afghanistan ;
  • Zurmatullah Ahmadi, Afghanistan ;
  • Yasar Khogyani, Afghanistan ;
  • Shar Sha Lodi, Afghanistan ;
  • Ahmad Shah Omar, Afghanistan ;
  • M. Azam Khan Ahmad Zai, Afghanistan;
  • Nadia Farooq Sharzoi, Afghanistan;
  • Shar Ali Tazari, Afghanistan ;
  • Mayel Aqa Hakim, Afghanistan ;
  • Khatira Hesar, Afghanistan ;
  • Tamim Mehraban, Afghanistan ;
  • Lina Noori, Afghanistan ;
  • Khubaib Ghufran, Afghanistan ;
  • M. Yasin Farahmand, Afghanistan ;
  • Dr. Mir M. Ayoubi, Afghanistan ;
  • Dr. Namatullah Nabawi, Afghanistan ;
  • Abozar Zazai, Afghanistan ;
  • Atiqullah Rahimi, Afghanistan ;
  • Fahim Ahmad Sultan, Afghanistan ;
  • Humaira Farhangyar, Afghanistan ;
  • Imam M. Wrimaj, Afghanistan ;
  • Masoud Ashna, Afghanistan ;
  • Dr. Yahia Baiza, Afghanistan ;
  • Dr. Besmila, Afghanistan ;
  • Ehsan Shorish, Germany;
  • Irshad, Omer, Afghanistan;
  • Musa Noorzai, Afghanistan;
  • Lida Noori Nazhand, Afghanistan;
  • Dr. Abdul Masood Panah, Afghanistan;
  • Gholam Sachi Hassanzadah, Afghanistan;
  • Dr. Sayed Ali Eqbal, Afghanistan;
  • Hashmatullah Atmar, Afghanistan;
  • Ahmad Matin Safi, Afghanistan;
  • Ahmad Helmand, Afghanistan;
  • Ehsanullah Helmand, Afghanistan;
  • Izazatullah Sherzad, Afghanistan;
  • Hafizullah Omarzai, Afghanistan;
  • Hedayatullah Hilal, Afghanistan;
  • Edris Ramez, student, Afghanistan;
  • Amina Saadaty, Afghanistan;
  • Muska Hamidi, Afghanistan;
  • Raihana Ahmadi, Afghanistan;
  • Zuhal Sherzad, Afghanistan;
  • Meelad Ahmad, Afghanistan;
  • Devah Kubra Falcone, Germany;
  • Maryam Baburi, Germany;
  • Suraya Paikan, Afghanistan;
  • Abdul Fatah Ahmadzai, Afghanistan ;
  • Dr. Mohammad Zalmai, Afghanistan ;
  • Hashmatullah Parwarni, Afghanistan ;
  • Asadullah, Afghanistan;
  • Hedayat ullah Hillal, Afghanistan;
  • Najibullah Zazai, Afghanistan;
  • M. Yousuf Ahmadi, Afghanistan;
  • Ahmad Reshad Reka, Afghanistan;
  • Sayed Ahmad Arghandiwal, Afghanistan;
  • Nooria Noozai, Afghanistan;
  • Eng. Fahim Osmani, Afghanistan;
  • Wafiullah Maaraj, Afghanistan;
  • Roya Shujaee, Afghanistan;
  • Shakira Shujaee, Afghanistan ;
  • Adina Ranjbar, Afghanistan;
  • Ayesha Shafiq, Afghanistan;
  • Hajira Mujadidi, Afghanistan ;
  • Abdul Zahir Shekib, Afghanistan;
  • Zuhra Mohammad Zai, Afghanistan;
  • Razia Ghaws, Afghanistan;
  • Abdul Sabor Mubariz, Afghanistan;
  • Abdul Khaliq Ferdows, Afghanistan;
  • Abdul Shakoor Salangi, Afghanistan;
  • Nasir Ahmad Basharyar, Afghanistan;
  • Mohammad Mukhtar Sharifi, Afghanistan;
  • Mukhtar Ahmad Haqtash, Afghanistan;
  • Yousuf Amin Zazai, Afghanistan;
  • Zakiri Sahib, Afghanistan;
  • Mirwais Ghafori, Afghanistan;
  • Nesar Rahmani, Afghanistan;
  • Shar M. Amir Zadah, Afghanistan;
  • Yasin Farahmand, Afghanistan;
  • Faizul Haq Faizan, Afghanistan;
  • Khaibar Sarwary, Afghanistan;
  • Ali Sina Masoumi, Afghanistan;
  • Hamidullah Akhund Zadah, Afghanistan;
  • Dr. Benish, Afghanistan;
  • Hayatullah Fazel, Afghanistan;
  • Faizullah Habibi, Afghanistan;
  • Abdul Hamid Lyan, Afghanistan;
  • Abdul Qayoum Qayoum Zadah, Afghanistan;
  • Qazi Qudratullah Safi, Afghanistan;
  • Noor Agha Haqyar, Afghanistan;
  • Maryan Aiany, Afghanistan;

B. FROM ABROAD

  • Odile Mojon, Schiller Institute, Paris, France ;
  • Johanna Clerc, Choir Conductor, Schiller Institute Chorus, France ;
  • Sébastien Perimony, Africa Department, Schiller Institute, France ;
  • Christine Bierre, Journalist, Chief Editor of Nouvelle Solidarité, monthly, France ;
  • Marcia Merry Baker, agriculture expert, EIR, Co-Editor, USA ;
  • Bob Van Hee,Redwood County Minnesota Commissioner, USA ;
  • Dr. Tarik Vardag, Doctor in Natural Sciences (RER), Business Owner, Germany;
  • Richard Freeman, Department of Physical Economy, Schiller Institute, USA ;
  • Liliana Gorini, chairwoman of Movisol and singer, Italy;
  • Ulrike Lillge,Editor Ibykus Magazine, Berlin, Germany ;
  • Michelle Rasmussen, Vice President, Schiller Institute in Denmark, amateur musician;
  • Feride Istogu Gillesberg, Vice President, Schiller Institute in Denmark;
  • Jason Ross, Science Department, Schiller Institute, USA ;
  • Dennis Small, Director of the Economic Department, Schiller Institute, USA ;
  • Robert “Bob” Baker, Agriculture Commission, Schiller Institute, USA ;
  • Dr. Wolfgang Lillge, Medical Doctor, Editor, Fusion Magazine, Berlin, Germany ;
  • Ulf Sandmark, Vice-Chairman of the Belt and Road Institute, Sweden ;
  • Mary Jane Freeman, Schiller Institute, USA ;
  • Hussein Askary, South West Asia Coordinator, Schiller Institute, Sweden ;
  • David Dobrodt, EIR News, USA ;
  • Klaus Fimmen, 2nd Vice-Chairman of the Bürgerrechtsbewegung Solidarität (Büso) party, Germany;
  • Christophe Lamotte, Consulting Engineer, France ;
  • Richard Burden, EIR production staff, USA ;
  • Rolf Gerdes, Electronic Engineer, Germany;
  • Marcella Skinner, USA ;
  • Delaveau Mathieu, Farm Worker, France ;
  • Shekeba Jentsch, StayIN, Board, Germany;
  • Bernard Carail, retired Postal Worker, France ;
  • Etienne Dreyfus, Social Activist, France ;
  • Harrison Elfrink, Social Activist, USA ;
  • Jason Seidmann,USA ;

Merci de partager !

Afghanistan: Qosh Tepa canal and prospects of Aral Sea basin water management

Let’s start with current events. In August 2021, faced with the Taliban takeover, the United States hastily withdrew from Afghanistan, one of the world’s poorest countries, whose population has doubled in 20 years to 39.5 million.

While the UN acknowledged that the country was facing « the worst humanitarian crisis » in the post-war era, overnight all international aid, which represented more than half of the Afghan budget, was suspended. At the same time, $9.5 billion of the country’s central bank assets, held in accounts at the US Federal Reserve and a number of European banks, were frozen.

Qosh Tepa canal

Despite these dramatic conditions, the Afghan government, via its state construction group, the National Development Company (NDC), committed $684 million to a major river infrastructure project, the Qosh Tepa Canal, which had been suspended since the Soviet invasion.

In less than a week, over 7,000 drivers flocked from the four corners of the country to work day and night on the first section of the canal, the first phase of which was completed in record time.

Politically, the canal project is a clear expression of the re-birth of an inclusive Afghanistan, as the region is mainly inhabited by Turkmen and Tajik populations, whereas the government is exclusively in the hands of the Pashtuns. The latter represent 57% rather than 37% of the country.

According to the FAO, 62.5% of the Abu Darya’s water comes from Tajikistan, 27.5% from Afghanistan (22 million m3), 6.3% from Uzbekistan, 1.9% from Kyrgyzstan and 1.9% from Turkmenistan.

The river irrigates 469,000 ha of farmland in Tajikistan, 2,000,000 ha in Turkmenistan and 2,321,000 ha in Uzbekistan.

So it’s only natural that Afghanistan should harness some of the river’s waters (10 million m³ out of a total of 61.5 to 80 million m³ per year) to irrigate its territory and boost its ailing agricultural production

By harnessing part of the waters of the Amu Daria river, the new 285 km-long canal will eventually irrigate 550,000 ha of arid land in ancient Bactria to the north, the « Land of a 1000 Cities » and« The Land of Oases » whose incomparable fertility was already praised by the 1st-century Greek historian Strabo.

In October 2023, the first 108 km section was impounded.

Agricultural production has been kick-started to consolidate the riverbanks, and 250,000 jobs are being created.

While opium poppy cultivation has been virtually eradicated in the Helmhand, the aim is to double the country’s wheat production and to become a grain net exporter.

Today, whatever one may think of the regime, the Afghans, who for 40 years have been self-destructing in proxy wars in the service of the Soviets and Americans, have decided to take their destiny into their own hands. Putting an end to the systemic corruption that has enriched an international oligarchy, they are determined to build their country and give their children a future, notably by making water available for irrigation, for health and for the inhabitants.

How did the world react?

On November 7, in The Guardian, Daanish Mustafa, a professor of « critical geography », explains that Pakistan must rid itself of the colonial spirit of water.

In his view, the floods that hit Pakistan in 2010 and 2022 demonstrate that « colonial » river and canal development is a recipe for disaster. It’s time, he concludes, to « decolonize » our imaginations on the subject of water by abandoning all our vanitous desires to manage water.

On November 9, the Khaama Press News agency reported:

Two days earlier, on November 7, Cédric Gras, Le Figaro‘s correspondent in Tashkent, published an article entitled:
« En Afghanistan, les Talibans creusent le canal de la discorde » (« In Afghanistan, the Taliban are digging the canal of discord »):

Obviously, the aim is to create scare. But if the accusation is hasty, it touches on a fundamental issue that deserves explanation.

Endoreic basin

Aral Sea Basin.

The Amu Daria, the 2539 km long river that the Greeks called the Oxus, and its brother, the 2212 km long Syr Daria, feed, or rather used to feed, the Aral Sea, which straddles the border between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. The water of both rivers were increasingly redirected by soviet experts to irrigate mainly cotton cultivation causing the Aral Sea to disappear.

I won’t go into detail here on the history of the ecological disaster that everyone has heard about but I am ready to answer your questions on that later;

Central Asia which of course should include Afghanistan.

The « Aral Sea Basin » essentially covers five Central Asian « stan » countries. To the North, these are Kazakhstan, followed by Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.
In fact, Afghanistan, whose border with the latter three countries is formed by sections of the Amu Darya, is geologically and geographically part of the « Aral Sea Basin ».

This is a so-called « endoreic basin ». (endo = inside; rhein = carried).

18 % of the world’s emerged surface is endoreic.

In Europe, we see falling rain and snowmelt flowing into rivers that discharge it into the sea. Not so in Central Asia. Rainwater, or water from melting snow, flows down mountain ranges. They eventually form rivers that either disappear under the sands, or form « inland seas » having no connection whatever to a larger sea and no outlet to the oceans. 18% of the world’s emerged surface is endoreic.

Among the best-known endoreic basins are the Dead Sea in Israel and Lake Chad in Africa.

Endoreic regions in Central Asia.

In Asia, there are plenty of them. Just think of the Tarim Basin, the world’s largest endoreic river basin in Qinjiang, covering over 400,000 km². Then there’s the vast Caspian Sea, the Balkhach and Alakoll lakes in Kazakhstan, the Yssyk Kul in Kyrgyzstan and, as we’ve just said, the Aral Sea.

The very nature of an endoreic basin strongly reinforces the fear that water is a scarce limited source. That realty can either bolster the conviction that problems cannot but be solved true cooperation and discussion, or push countries to go to war one against the other. Democraphic growth, economic progress and climate/meteorogical chaos can worsen that perception and make water issues appear as a « time-bomb ».

The early Soviet planners started with a strict quota system laid down in 1987 by Protocol 566 of the Scientific and Technical Council of the Soviet Ministry of Water Resources. The system fixed quotas for all countries, both in percentage and in BCM (Billions of Cubic Meters).

That simple quota system looks 100 % functional on paper. However, nations are not abstractions.

First, this system created quite rigid procedures and even would forbid some upstream countries to invest in their own agriculture since they had to deliver the water to their neighbors.

Second, conflict arose about dissymetric seasonal use of the water. The use of the water was completely different between « Upstream countries » such as Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan and « Downstream countries » such as Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.

Seasonal use of water is dissymmetric between « Upstream » and « Downstream » countries.

Upstream countries could accept releasing their water resources in autumn and winter since the release of the water provides them up to 90 % of their electricity via hydrodams.

Downstream countries however don’t need the water at that time but in spring and summer when their farmland needs to be irrigated.

However, in Central Asia, their seems to exist some sort of « geological justice » since downstream countries lacking water (Kazakhstan, Uzbekhistan and Turkmenistan) have vast hydrocarbon energy reserves such as coal, oil and gaz.

Therefore, not always stupid, Soviet planners, which realized that a simple quota system was insufficient to prevent conflict, created a compensation mechanism. Downstream nations, in exchange for water, would supply parts of their oil and gas to upstream nations to compensate the loss of potential energy that water represents.

However imperfect that mechanism, for want of a better one, it remained in place after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

It can be said that by appealing to an external factor of a given problem, in this case to bring energy in the equation to solve the water problem, soviet planners conceived in a rudimentary form what became known as the « Water, Energy, Food Nexus ». One cannot deal with theses factors as separate factors. They have to be conceived as part of a single, dynamic Monad.

Today, we should avoid the geopolitical trap. If we consider the water resources to be shared between the states of Central Asia and Afghanistan to be « limited », or even « declining » due to meteorological phenomena such as El Nino, we might hastily and geopolitically conclude that, with the construction of the Qosh Tepa canal, which will tap water from the Amu Daria, the « water time bomb » cannot but explode.

Solutions

So we need to be creative. We don’t have all the solutions but some ideas about where to find them:

  1. In Central Asia, especially in Turkmenistan but also Uzbekistan, huge quantities of water from the Abu Daria water basin are wasted. In 2021, Chinese researchers, looking at Central Asia’s potential in terms of food production, estimated that with improvements in irrigation, better seeds and other « agricultural technology », 56 % of the water can be saved farming the same crops, meaning that today, about half of the water is simply wasted.
  2. The lack of investment into new water infrastructure and maintenance cannot but lead to the kind of disasters the world has seen in Libya or Pakistan where, predictably, systems collapsed for lack of mere maintenance;
  3. Uncontrolled and controlled flooding are very primitive and inefficient forms of irrigation and should be outphased and replaced by modern irrigation techniques;
  4. Therefore, a water emergency should be declared and a vast international effort should assist all the countries of the Abu Daria basin, including Afghanistan, to modernize and improve the efficiency of their water infrastructure, be it lakes, canals, rivers and irrigation systems.
  5. Such and effort can best organized within the framework of the « One Belt, One Road » initiative and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. BRICS countries such as China, Russia and India could help Afghanistan with data from their satellites and space programs.
  6. By improving the efficiency of water use, notably through targeted irrigation using « drip irrigation » as seen in the case of the Tarim basin in Xinjiang, it is possible to reduce the total amount of water used to obtain an even higher yield of agriculture production, while considerably increasing the availability of the water to be shared among neighbors. The know how and experience of African, South American, Israeli and Chinese agronomists, specialized in food production in arid countries, can play a key role.
  7. In the near future, Pumped Hydro Energy Storage (PHES), which means storing water in high altitude reservoirs for a later use, can massively increase the independance and autonomy of countries such as Afghanistan and others. Having sufficient water at hand at any time means also having the water security required to operate mining activities and handle thermal and nuclear electricity production units. PHES infrastructure would be greatly efficient on both sides of the Abu Daria and jointly operated among friendly nations.

Over the past 1,200 years, nations bordering waterways have concluded 3,600 treaties on the sharing of river usufructs, whether for fishing, river transport or the sharing of water for domestic, agricultural and industrial uses.

Afghanistan’s Qosh Tepa canal project is a laudable and legitimate initiative. But it is true that by breaking the status quo, it obliges a new dialogue among nations allowing each and all of them to rise to a higher level, a willing to live together increasingly the opposite to the dominant paradigm in the Anglosphere and its european followers.

It’s up to all of us to make sure it works out fine.

Merci de partager !

The science of Oases, from the Indus Valley to Persian qanats

While the dog was domesticated as early as 15,000 years BC, we associate the first human activities aimed at managing water with the Neolithic period, which began around 10,000 BC.

It is thought to be the moment at which mankind moved from a « tribal subsistence economy of hunter-gatherers » to agriculture and animal husbandry, giving rise to villages and cities, where pottery, weaving, metallurgy and the arts would start blooming.

Key to this, the domestication of animals. The goat was domesticated around 11,000 BC, the cow around 9,000 BC, the sheep around -8,000 BC, and finally the horse around 2,200 BC in the steppes of Ukraine.

The oldest archaeological sites showing agricultural activities and irrigation techniques were discovered in the Indus Valley and the « Fertile Crescent ».

The site of Mehrgarh, in the Indus Valley, now Pakistan Balochistan, discovered in 1974 by François and Cathérine Jarrige, two French archaeologists, demonstrates important agricultural practices from 7000 BC onward.

Cotton, wheat and barley were grown, and beer was brewed. Cattle, sheep and goats were raised. But Mehrgarh was much more than that.

Vestiges de Mehrgarh (Balotchistan, Pakistan).

Contradicting the linear « developmental » schema, since we’re in the middle of the Neolithic, Mehrgarh is also home to the oldest pottery in South Asia and, above all, to the “Mehrgahr amulet”, the oldest bronze object casted with the « lost-wax » method.

Mehrgarh bronze casted amulette.

The first seals made of terracotta or bone and decorated with geometric motifs were found here.

On the technological side, tiny bow drills were used, possibly for dental treatment, as evidenced by the pierced teeth of some skeletons found on site.

At the same time, or shortly afterwards, around 6000 B.C., Mesopotamia, between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, witnessed rapid urban development in terms of demographics, institutions, agriculture, techniques and trade.

A veritable « fertile crescent » emerged in the region stretching from Sumer to Egypt, passing through the whole of Mesopotamia and the Levant, i.e. Syria and the Jordan Valley.

Irrigation

Whether in the Indus Valley, Mesopotamia or Egypt, the earliest irrigation techniques are nothing but retaining as much water as possible when Mother Nature has the sweet kindness to offer it to mankind.

Rainwater was collected in cisterns and, as much as possible, when snowmelt or monsoon rains swell the rivers, the objective was to amplify and steer seasonal « flooding » by canals and trenches carrying the water as far away as possible to areas to be cultivated, while at the same time protecting crops.

In Egypt, for example, where the Nile rises by around 8 meters, the water brings not only moisture but also silt to the soil near the river, providing crops with the nutrients they need to grow and thus maintain the soil’s fertility.

While the Egyptians complained about the harsh labor condition of their farmers, for the Greek historian Herodotus, this was the place in the world where work was least arduous. Of Egypt he says:

In Mehrgarh, where agriculture was born from 7000 BC, the work was indeed far more demanding.

However, the drainage system around the village and the rudimentary dams to control water-logging indicate that the inhabitants understood most of the basic principles involved. The cultivation of cotton, wheat and barley, as well as the domestication of animals, show that they were also familiar with canals and irrigation systems.

Constantly refined, this know-how enabled the civilization of the Indus Valley to create great cities that impress us by their modernity, notably Harappa and Mohenjo Daro, a city of 40,000 inhabitants with a public bath in its center, not a palace.

Central bathing facility of Mohenjo Daro.

Pioneers of modern hygiene, these towns were equipped with small containers where residents could deposit their household waste.

Anticipating our « all-to-the-sewer » systems imagined in the early XVIth century by Leonardo da Vinci, for example in his plans for the new french capital of Romorantin, many towns had public water supplies as well as an ingenious sewage system.

In the port city of Lothal (now India), for example, many homes had private brick bathrooms and latrines. Wastewater was evacuated via a communal sewage system leading either to a canal in the port, or to a soaking pit outside the city walls, or to buried urns equipped with a hole for the evacuation of liquids, which were regularly emptied and cleaned.

Excavations at the Mohenjo Daro site reveal the existence of no fewer than 700 brick wells, houses equipped with bathrooms and individual and collective latrines.

Latrins of Mohenjo Daro.

Many of the city’s buildings had two floors or more. Water trickled down from cisterns installed on the roofs was channeled through closed clay pipes or open gutters that emptied into the covered sewers beneath the street.

Showers and sewer system of Mohenjo Daro.
Chadouf system to raise water to a higher level.

This hydraulic and sanitary know-how was passed on to the civilization of Crete, the mother of Greece, before being implemented on a large scale by the Romans.

It was forgotten with the collapse of the Roman Empire, only to return during the Renaissance.

Noria in Syria.

The first human contributions were aimed at maximizing water reservoirs and their gravity-flow capacity. To achieve this, it was necessary to transfer water from a lower level to higher ground and build « water towers ».

To this end, the Mesopotamian « chadouf » was widely used in Egypt, followed by the « Archimedean screw ».

Next came the « saquia » or « Persian wheel », a geared wheel driven by animal power, and finally the « noria », the best-known water-drawing machine, powered by the river itself.

Persian qanats

Before Alexander the Great, Persia’s Achaemenid Empire (6th century BC) developed the technique of underground qanats or underground aqueducts. This « draining gallery” cut into the rock or built by man, is one of the most ingenious inventions for irrigation in arid and semi-arid regions.

Whatever displeases our environmentalist friends, it’s not nature that magically produces « oases » in the desert.

It’s a scientific man who digs a drainage gallery from a water table close enough to the ground surface, or sometimes from an aquifer that flows into the desert.

On the website of ArchéOrient, archaeologist Rémy Boucharlat, Director of Emeritus Research at the French CNRS, an expert on Iran, explains:

Historically, the majority of the populations of Iran and other arid regions of Asia and North Africa depended on the water supplied by qanats; settlement areas thus corresponded to the places where their construction was possible.

The technique offers a significant advantage: as the water moves through an underground conduit, not a drop of water is lost through evaporation.

This technique spread throughout the world under various names: qanat and kareez in Iran, Syria and Egypt, kariz, kehriz in Pakistan and Afghanistan, aflaj in Oman, galeria in Spain, kahn in Balochistan, kanerjing in China, foggara in North Africa, khettara in Morocco, ngruttati in Sicily, bottini in Siena, etc.).

Improved by the Greeks and amplified by the Etruscans and the Romans, the qanats technique was carried by the Spaniards across the Atlantic to the New World, where numerous underground canals of this type still operate in Peru, Chile and western Mexico.

After Alexander the Great, Bactria, covering parts of today’s Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and the northern part of Afghanistan, was even known as the « Oasis civilization » or the “Land of a 1000 Golden Cities”.

Iran boasts it had the highest number of qanats in the world, with approximately 50,000 qanats covering a total length of 360,000 km, about 9 times the circumference of the Earth !

Thousands of them are still operational but increasingly destabilized by erratic well digging and demographic overconcentration.

Shared responsability

In 1017, the Baghdad-based hydrologist Mohammed Al-Karaji provided a detailed description of qanat construction and maintenance techniques, as well as legal considerations about the collective management of wells and pipes.

While each qanat is designed and supervised by a mirab (dowser-hydrologist and discoverer), building a qanat is a collective task that takes several months or years for a village or group of villages. The absolute necessity of collective investment in the infrastructure and its maintenance calls for a superior notion of the common good, an indispensable complement to the notion of private property that rains and rivers are not accustomed to respecting.

In North Africa, the management of water distributed by a khettara (the local name for qanâts) is governed by traditional distribution norms known as « water rights ».

Originally, the volume of water granted per user was proportional to the work involved in building the khettara, and translated into an irrigation period during which the beneficiary could use all the khettara’s flow for his or her fields. Even today, when the khettara has not dried up, this rule of water rights still applies, and a share can be bought or sold. The size of each family’s fields to be irrigated must also be taken into account

All of this demonstrates that good cooperation between man and nature can do miracles if man decides so.

Thank you for your attention and questions welcome!

Iran, underground bathroom from Antiquity.



Merci de partager !

Joachim Patinir and the invention of landscape painting

Joachim Patinir, Landscape with Saint Jerome, National Gallery, London.
Joachim Patinir (1485-1524), drawing by Albrecht Dürer, who attended Patinir’s wedding in Antwerp in 1520.

It is generally believed that the « modern » concept of landscape in Flemish painting only emerged with the work of Joachim Patinir (1485-1524), a Dinant-born painter working in Antwerp in the early 16th century.

For Viennese art historian Ludwig von Baldass (1887-1963), writing at the beginning of the 20th century, Patinir‘s work, presented as clearly ahead of its time, would herald landscape as überschauweltlandschaft, translatable as « panoramic landscape of the world », a truly cosmic and totalizing representation of the visible universe.

What characterizes Patinir‘s work, say the proponents of this analysis, is the sheer scale of the landscapes it presents for the viewer to contemplate.

This breadth has a dual character: the space depicted is immense (due to a panoramic viewpoint situated high up, almost « celestial »), while at the same time it encompasses, without concern for geographical verisimilitude, the greatest possible number of different phenomena and representative specimens, typical of what the earth can offer as curiosities, sometimes even imaginary, dreamlike, unreal, fantastic motifs: fields, woods, anthropomorphic mountains, villages and cities, deserts and forests, rainbows and storms, swamps and rivers, rivers and volcanoes.

Bayart Rock on the Meuse, near Dinant, Belgium.

For example, the « Bayart Rock », which borders the Meuse not far from Patinir‘s native town of Dinant.

In addition to this panoramic perspective, Patinir uses aerial perspective – theorized at the time by Leonardo da Vinci – by dividing the space into three color planes: brown-ochre for the first plane, green for the middle plane and blue for the distant plane.

However, the painter preserves the visibility of the totality of details with a meticulousness, minutiae and preciousness worthy of the Flemish masters of the XVth century, who, by tending towards a quantitative infinity (consisting in showing everything), sought to approach a qualitative infinity (allowing us to see everything).

For their part, the authors of the weltlandschaft thesis, after showering with praise, do not hesitate to strongly relativize his contribution, saying:

And it’s here that the trap of this approach, which consists in making us believe that the advent of landscape as an autonomous genre, its so-called « secularization », is simply the result of emancipation from a medieval and religious mental matrix, considered necessarily retrograde, for which landscape was reduced to a pure emanation or incarnation of divine power, is clearly identified.

Patinir, the first, would thus have demonstrated a purely « modern » aesthetic conception, and these « realistic » landscapes would mark the transition from a religious – and therefore obscurantist – cultural paradigm to a modern one, i.e. one devoid of meaning… which he would later be criticized for.

This is how the romantic and fantastic minds of the XVIIth and XVIIIth centuries viewed the artists of the XVth and XVIth centuries.

Von Baldass was undoubtedly influenced by the writings of Goethe, who, no doubt in a moment of enthusiasm for Greek paganism, analyzed the increasingly diminished role of religious figures in XVIth-century Flemish paintings and deduced that it was no longer the religious subject that was the subject, but the landscape.

Just as Rubens would have used the pretext of painting Adam and Eve expelled from Paradise to be able to paint nudes, Patinir would simply have seized the pretext of a biblical passage to be able to indulge his true passion, landscape…

A little detour via Hieronymus Bosch

A fresh look at Patinir’s work clearly demonstrates the error of this analysis.

To arrive at a more accurate reading, I suggest a detour to Hieronymus Bosch, whose spirit was very much alive among Erasmus‘ circle of friends in Antwerp (Gérard David, Quentin Massys, Jan Wellens Cock, Albrecht Dürer, etc.), of which Patinir was a member.

Bosch, contrary to the clichés still in vogue today, is above all a pious and moralizing spirit. If he shows vice, it’s not so much to praise it as to make us aware of just how much it attracts us. Faithful to the Augustinian traditions of Devotio Moderna, promoted by the Brothers of the Common Life (a spiritual renewal movement to which he was close), Bosch believes that man’s attachment to earthly things leads him to sin. This is the central theme of all his work, the spirit of which can only be penetrated by reading The Imitation of Christ, written, in all probability, by the founding soul of the Devotio Moderna, Geert Groote (1340-1384), or his disciple, Thomas à Kempis (1379-1471), to whom this work is generally attributed.

In this work, the most widely read in human history after the Bible, we read:

Bosch treats this subject with great compassion and humor in his painting The Hay Wagon (Prado Museum, Madrid).

Hieronymus Bosch, The Hay Chariot Altarpiece, central panel, reference to the vanity of earthly riches. Prado Museum, Madrid.

The allegory of straw already exists in the Old Testament. Isaiah 40:6 :

It was echoed in the New Testament by the apostle Peter (1:24):

Johannes Brahms uses this passage in the second movement of his German Requiem.

Bosch‘s triptych depicts a hay wagon, an allegory of the vanity of earthly riches, pulled by strange creatures on their way to hell.

The Duke of Burgundy, the Emperor of Germany and even the Pope himself (this is the time of Julius II…) follow close behind, while a dozen or so characters fight to the death for a blade of straw. It’s a bit like the huge speculative securities bubble that is leading our era into a great depression…

It’s easy to imagine the bankers who sabotaged the G20 summit to perpetuate their system, which is so profitable in the very short term. But this corruption doesn’t just affect the big boys. In the foreground of the picture, an abbot has entire sacks of hay filled, a false dentist and also gypsies cheat people for a bit of straw.

The peddler and the Homo Viator

The closed triptych sums up the same topos in the form of a peddler (not the prodigal son). This peddler, eternal homo viator, is an allegory of Man who fights to stay on the right path and insists on staying on it.

In another version of the same subject painted by Bosch (Museum Boijmans Beuningen, Rotterdam), the peddler advances op een slof en een schoen (on a slipper and a shoe), i.e. he chooses precariousness, leaving the visible world of sin (we see a brothel and drunkards) and abandoning his material possessions.

Painting by Bosch. Here, the peddler is merely a metaphor for the path chosen by the soul as it steadily detaches itself from earthly temptations. With his staff (faith), the believer repels the sin (the dog) that comes to bite his calves.

With his staff (symbol of faith), he fends off the infernal dogs (symbol of temptation), who try to hold him back.

Once again, these are not manifestations of Bosch‘s exuberant imagination, but of a metaphorical language common at the time. We find this representation in the margin of the famous Luttrell Psalter, a XIVth-century English psalter.

Luttrell Psalter, peddler with staff and infernal dog, British Library, London.

This theme of homo viator, the man who detaches himself from earthly goods, is also recurrent in the art and literature of this period, particularly since the Dutch translation of Pèlerinage de la vie et de l’âme humaine (pilgrimage of life and the human soul), written in 1358 by the Norman Cistercian monk Guillaume de Degulleville (1295-after 1358).

A miniature from this work shows a soul on its way, dressed as a peddler.

Miniature from Guillaume Degulleville’s Pèlerinage de la vie et l’âme humaine.

Nevertheless, while in the XIVth century this spiritual requirement may have dictated a sometimes excessive rigorism, the liberating laughter of nascent humanism (Brant, Erasmus, Rabelais, etc.) would bring happier, freer colors to Flemish Brabant culture (Bosch, Matsys, Bruegel), albeit later stifled by the dictates of the Council of Trent.

Man’s foolish attachment to earthly goods became a laughing matter. Published in Basel in 1494, Sébastien Brant’s Ship of Fools, a veritable inventory of all the follies that can lead man to his doom, left its mark on an entire generation, which rediscovered creativity and optimism thanks to the liberating laughter of Erasmus and his disciple, the Christian humanist François Rabelais.

In any case, for Bosch, Patinir and the Devotio Moderna, contemplation was the very opposite of pessimism and scholastic passivity. For them, laughter is the ideal antidote to despair, acedia (weariness) and melancholy.

Contemplation thus took on a new dimension. Each member of the faithful is encouraged to live out his or her Christian commitment, through personal experience and individual imitation of Christ. They must stop blaming themselves on the great figures of the Bible and Sacred History.

Man can no longer rely on the intercession of the Virgin Mary, the apostles and the saints. While following their examples, he must give personal content to the ideal of the Christian life. Driven to action, each individual, fully aware of his or her sinful nature, is constantly led to choose good over evil. These are just a few of the cultural backgrounds that enable us to approach Patinir’s landscapes in a different way.

Charon crossing the Styx

Patinir’s painting Charon Crossing the Styx (Prado Museum, Madrid), which combines ancient and Christian traditions, will serve here as our « Rosetta stone ». Inspired by the sixth book of the Aeneid, in which the Roman writer Virgil describes the catabasis, or descent into hell, or Dante‘s Inferno (3, line 78) taken from Virgil, Patinir places a boat at the center of the work.

Joachim Patinir, Charon crossing the Styx, Prado Museum, Madrid.

The tall figure standing in this boat is Charon, the Ferryman of the Underworld, usually portrayed as a gloomy, sinister old man. His task is to ferry the souls of the deceased across the River Styx.

In payment, Charon takes a coin placed in the mouths of the corpses. The passenger in the boat is thus a human soul.

Although the scene takes place after the person’s physical death, the soul – and this may come as a surprise – is tormented by the choice between Heaven and Hell.

Since the Council of Trent, it has been considered that a bad life irrevocably sends man to Hell from the moment of his death. But Christian faith continues, even today, to distinguish the Last Judgment from what is known as the « particular judgment ».

According to this concept, which is sometimes disputed within denominations, at the moment of death, although our final fate is fixed (Hebrews 9:27), all the consequences of this particular Judgment will not be drawn until the general Judgment, which will take place when Christ returns at the end of time.

So, the « particular judgment » that is supposed to immediately follow our death, concerns our last act of freedom, prepared by all that our life has been. Helping us to contemplate this ultimate moment therefore seems to be the primary aim of Patinir‘s painting, with other metaphors thrown in for good measure.

However, a closer look at the lower part of the painting reveals a contradiction that is absent from Virgil’s poem. While Hell is on the right (Cerberus, the three-headed dog guarding the gateway to Hell, can be seen), the gateway seems easily accessible, with splendid trees dotting the lawns.

To the left is Paradise. An angel tries to attract the attention of the soul in the boat, but it seems much more attracted by a seemingly welcoming Hell.

What’s more, the dimly-lit path to paradise seems perilous, with rocks, swamps and other dangerous obstacles. Once again, it’s our senses that may lead us to make a literally hellish choice.

Hercules at the crossroads, Ship of Fools, Sébastien Brant.

The subject of the painting is clearly that of the bivium, the binary choice at the crossroads that offers the pilgrim viewer the choice between the path of vice and that of salvation.

This theme was widespread at the time. We find it again in Sébastien Brant‘s Ship of Fools, in the form of Hercules at the crossroads. In this illustration, on the left, at the top of a hill, a naked woman represents vice and idleness. Behind her, death smiles down on us.

On the right, planted at the top of a higher hill, at the end of a rocky path, awaits virtue symbolized by work. Let’s also remember that the Gospel (Matthew 7:13-14) clearly evokes the choice we will face:

Landscape as an object of contemplation

The art historian Reindert Leonard Falkenburg, in his 1985 doctoral thesis, was the first to note that Patinir takes pleasure in transposing this metaphorical language to the whole of his landscape.

Although the image of impassable rocks as a metaphor for the virtue achieved by choosing the difficult path is nothing new, Patinir exploits this idea with unprecedented virtuosity.

We thus discover that the theme of man courageously turning away from the temptation of a world that traps our sensorium, is the underlying theo-philosophical theme of almost all Patinir’s landscapes. In this way, his work finds its raison d’être as an object of contemplation, where man measures himself against the infinite.Let’s return to our Landscape with Saint Jerome by Patinir (National Gallery, London).

Here we discover the « narrow gate » leading to a difficult path that takes us to the first plateau. This is not the highest mountain. The highest, like the Tower of Babylon, is a symbol of pride.

Next, let’s look at Resting on the Road to Egypt (Prado Museum, Madrid). At the side of the road, Mary is seated, and in front of her, on the ground, are the peddler’s staff and his typical basket.

Joachim Patinir, The Rest of the Holy Family, Prado Museum, Madrid.

In conclusion, we could say that, driven by his spiritual and humanist fervor, by painting increasingly impassable rocks – reflecting the immense virtue of those who decide to climb them – Patinir elaborates not « realistic » landscapes, but « spiritual landscapes », dictated by the immense need to tell the spiritual journey of the soul.

Hence, far from being mere aesthetic objects, his spiritual landscapes serve contemplation.

Like a half-ironic mirror image, they enable those who wish to do so to prepare for the choices their soul will face during, and after, life’s pilgrimage.

Bibliography:

  • R.L. Falkenburg, Joachim Patinir, Het landschap als beeld van de levenspelgrimage, Nijmegen, 1985;
  • Maurice Pons and André Barret, Patinir ou l’harmonie du monde, Robert Laffont, 1980;
  • Eric de Bruyn, De vergeten beeldentaal van Jheronimus Bosch, Adr. Heinen, s’Hertogenbosch, 2001;
  • Dirk Bax, Hieronymus Bosch, his picture-writing deciphered, A. A. Balkema, Capetown, 1979;
  • Georgette Epinay-Burgard, Gérard Groote, fondateur de la Dévotion Moderne, Brepols, 1998.
  • Karel Vereycken, Devotio Moderna, cradle of Humanism in the North, Artkarel.com, 2011;
  • Karel Vereycken, With Hieronymus Bosch on the track of the Sublime, Schiller Institute, 2007.
  • Karel Vereycken, How Erasmus Folly saved our Civilization, Schiller Institute, 2004.

Merci de partager !

Victor Hugo and the awakening of the colossus

Steeped in a worldview of Christian humanism and love for the other, the french state sman, critic, author and poet Victor Hugo (1802-1885) felt challenged by the people and the misery in which they found themselves, without falling for a purely idealized or romantic vision. And when he sees the people rise, Hugo takes the measure of their colossal power, be it for good or for evil.

In his poem To the People (Les Châtiments, Book VI), he uses the powerful metaphor of the Ocean to characterize this often unpredictable force. In evoking it, Hugo addresses the people:

During the first half of his life, Hugo witnessed several popular uprisings. The years 1830 are particularly agitated. Riots and strikes broke out in the big cities, in Paris, Lyon, Marseille, provoked by the harshness of life that was aggravated by the crisis in agricultural production. Generally speaking, the rigor of working conditions was the result of absurd market mechanisms: faced with the collapse of industrial prices (1817-1851), entrepreneurs decided purely and simply to reduce wages!

Pauperization exploded and the workers rebelled against this dramatic decrease in their income. In Paris, Hugo had before his eyes the spectacle of a laboring mass, coming from the provinces to crowd into the center of the capital, uprooted, living in insalubrity and precariousness, exposed to epidemics (cholera in 1832), quick to riot (February and September 1831, June 1832, April 1834).

However, the workers, who represented only a small minority in a largely agricultural and peasant country, struggled to assert their demands, especially for shorter working days. Not yet structured, their fragmentation prevented them from acquiring a true consciousness of class solidarity. This battered mass, regularly agitated by brutal shocks, frightened the notables and the owners, who saw it as a dangerous class threatening their privileges.

Love stronger than pity

Hugo is very early aware that the misery of the people is the main “social question”. This sensitivity to the fate of the poorest is not that of the hypocritical lady-do-rightly, it is the bottom of his soul. And when, elected deputy, he evokes it in the Assembly, the conservatives of which he thought he was close until 1849, started to yell.

The misery of the working classes, the poet knew and had reported on it: misery of the prison (visit to the Conciergerie, in Choses vues, September 1846), misery of working-class life (visit to the cellars of Lille in February 1851, speech not delivered that will inspire the poem of the Châtiments « Joyful life »). He is convinced that it can be eradicated.

Contradicting the conservatives, the working classes are not, in his eyes, « dangerous classes ». They are even in danger, and the fact that they are in danger threatens the stability of the whole society:

If he abandons his convictions as a young Royalist to become a passionate Republican of progress, Hugo fears chaos and needless bloodshed. Although he did not live through 1793 and the Terror, he is obsessed with the memory of the bloody days of the French Revolution, when the guillotine was in full swing.

Reporting on the insurrection, in 1832, more than the violence as such, he denounced the extremists who, for personal calculations and not to fight against injustice, excite the masses to revolt and announce for the end of the month « four beautiful permanent guillotines on the four main squares of Paris”.

Hugo considers this strategy as a political dead end (« Don’t ask for rights as long as the people ask for heads »), while understanding its legitimacy:

With irony, he points out to the powerful that « the most excellent symbol of the people is the pavement. You walk on it until it falls on your head. » (Things Seen, 1830 to 1885.)

Like the German poet Friedrich Schiller, Hugo believes that the role of the artist and the poet is to elevate the debate. Art, like the polar star shining in the night for sailors lost on the ocean, is essential to guide the people to safety.

Magnanimous

Politically, in order to lay the foundations of a peaceful and harmonious future destiny, he affirms that compassion and forgiveness must prevail over hatred and vengeance.

Lucid, the poet declares that « to open a school is to close a prison, » for « when the people are intelligent, only then will the people be sovereign. »

This is the treatment applied to Jean Valjean, the main hero of Les Misérables: the poor thief, an escaped convict, will eventually become the great soul that his host of one evening, Monsignor Myriel, had been able to detect in him while the rest of society proved unable to identify it … Hugo will spend his life to de-demonize « the beggars » (les gueux), that is to say the people.

In 1812, in his song Les gueux, the popular chansonnier Pierre-Jean de Béranger*, whom he admired, intoned:

In one of his greatest speeches (in July 1851, on the reform of the Constitution), Hugo claimed for the people (and for all) the right to material life (assured work, organized assistance, abolition of the death penalty) and the right to intellectual life (compulsory and free education, freedom of conscience, freedom of expression, freedom of the press).

In short, in embryo, the vision of a Jaurès and a De Gaulle that we will find in « Les Jours heureux » (The Happy Days), the program of the National Council of the Resistance (CNR), and the antithesis of the financial globalization that is inflicted on us today.

A whistleblower

Le colosse, Goya.

In 1527, in a letter to his friend Thomas More, the humanist Erasmus of Rotterdam warned the powerful: if the Church of Rome does not adopt the measures of progressive and peaceful reform that he, Erasmus, proposes, they will be guilty of having provoked a century of violence.

In Les années funestes (1852), knowing the power of the colossus, Victor Hugo also warned the oligarchy. A warning that keeps its topicality:

NOTE:

*Christine Bierre: « Pierre-Jean de Béranger : la chanson, une arme républicaine » in Nouvelle Solidarité N°07/2022.

Merci de partager !

Derrière les « chevaux célestes » chinois, la science terrestre

Cheval volant de Gansu (porté par une alouette ou un autre oiseau sur lequel il pose son sabot…).

Nul besoin d’être anthropologue pour comprendre que l’histoire de l’humanité a radicalement changé avec la domestication du cheval, certaines choses considérées comme impossibles auparavant devenant, du jour au lendemain, la normalité.

Peinture rupestre (-36 000 ans), Grotte Chauvet, France.

La question de savoir quand et comment l’animal a été domestiqué reste sujet à controverse. Bien que des chevaux apparaissent dans l’art rupestre du paléolithique dès 36 000 ans avant notre ère (grotte Chauvet, France), il s’agissait alors de chevaux sauvages sans doute chassés pour leur viande.

Pour les zoologistes, la domestication se définit comme la maîtrise de l’élevage, pratique confirmée par des restes de squelettes anciens indiquant des changements dans la taille et la variabilité des populations de chevaux anciens.

Peinture rupestre montrant un guerrier à cheval (-10 000 ans), grotte du Bhimbetka, Inde.

D’autres chercheurs s’intéressent à des éléments plus généraux de la relation homme-cheval, notamment les preuves squelettiques et dentaires de l’activité professionnelle, les armes, l’art et les artefacts spirituels, ainsi que les modes de vie. Il est prouvé que les chevaux furent une source de viande et de lait avant d’être dressés comme animaux de travail.

En Inde, près de Bhopal, les abris-sous-roche du Bhimbetka, qui constituent le plus ancien art rupestre connu du pays (100 000 av. JC)), représentent des scènes de danse et de chasse de l’âge de pierre ainsi que des guerriers à cheval d’une époque plus tardive (10 000 av. JC).

Char tiré par des chevaux, art achéménide, Ve siècle av. JC.

Les preuves les plus évidentes de l’utilisation précoce du cheval comme moyen de transport sont les sépultures présentant des chevaux avec leurs chars. Les plus anciens vrais chars, datant d’environ 2000 av. JC, ont été retrouvés dans des tombeaux de la culture de Sintachta, dans des sites archéologiques situés le long du cours supérieur de la rivière Tobol, au sud-est de Magnitogorsk en Russie. Il s’agit de chars à roues à rayons tirés par deux chevaux.

Kazakhstan et Ukraine

Cheval de Przewalkski.

Jusqu’à récemment, on pensait que le cheval le plus communément utilisé aujourd’hui était un descendant des chevaux domestiqués par la culture de Botaï, vivant dans les steppes de la province d’Akmola au Kazakhstan.

Cependant, des recherches génétiques récentes (2021) indiquent que les chevaux de Botaï ne sont que les ancêtres du cheval de Przewalski, une espèce qui a failli disparaître.

Selon les chercheurs, notre cheval commun, Equus ferus caballus, aurait été domestiqué il y a 4200 ans en Ukraine, dans la région du Don-Volga, c’est-à-dire la steppe pontique-caspienne de l’Eurasie occidentale, vers 2200 av. JC. Au fur et à mesure de leur domestication, ces chevaux ont été régulièrement croisés avec des chevaux sauvages.

Il est intéressant de noter à cet égard que, selon « l’hypothèse kourgane » formulée par Marija Gimbutas en 1956, c’est depuis cette région que la plupart des langues indo-européennes se sont répandues dans toute l’Europe et certaines parties de l’Asie.

Le nom vient du terme russe d’origine turque, « kourgane », qui désigne les tumuli caractéristiques de ces peuples et qui marquent leur expansion en Europe.

La Route du thé, du cheval ou de la soie?

Ferdinand von Richthofen.

La description des échanges commerciaux, culturels et humains tout au long des « Routes de la soie » a fait couler beaucoup d’encre. Or, ce terme est récent. Ce n’est qu’en 1877 que le géographe allemand Ferdinand von Richthofen l’utilise pour la première fois afin de désigner ces axes Est-Ouest structurant les échanges mondiaux.

En réalité, il s’avère que l’une des principales marchandises échangées sur ladite Route de la soie était… les chevaux et autres animaux de labour (mules, chameaux, ânes et onagres).

Si l’on y échangeait effectivement la soie et le thé, ces produits constituaient, comme la porcelaine et l’or, un moyen pour régler d’autres achats, notamment les chevaux que les Chinois cherchaient à acquérir.

Ce que l’on appelait la « Route du thé et du cheval » (route de la soie du sud) partait de la ville de Chengdu, dans la province du Sichuan, en Chine, traversait le Yunnan vers le sud, jusqu’en Inde et dans la péninsule indochinoise, et s’étendait vers l’ouest jusqu’au Tibet.

C’était une route importante pour le commerce du thé en Chine du Sud et en Asie du Sud-Est, et elle a contribué à la diffusion de religions comme le taoïsme et le bouddhisme dans la région. Il est vrai que « Route de la soie » est plus poétique que « route du crottin » !

La Steppe et ses nomades

« Grande muraille » de Chine.

Constamment harcelée par les peuples nomades des steppes du Nord, la Chine entreprit la construction de sa Grande Muraille dès le VIIe siècle av. JC.

La liaison entre les premiers éléments fut réalisée par Qin Shi Huang (220-206 avant JC.), le premier empereur de Chine, et l’ensemble du mur, achevé sous la dynastie des Ming (1368-1644), est devenu l’un des exploits les plus remarquables de l’histoire humaine.

Le terme générique de « nomades eurasiens » englobe les divers groupes ethniques peuplant la steppe eurasienne, se déplaçant à travers les steppes du Kazakhstan, du Kirghizistan, du Tadjikistan, du Turkménistan, d’Ouzbékistan, de Mongolie, de Russie et d’Ukraine.

En domestiquant le cheval vers 2200 av. JC., ces peuples augmentèrent considérablement les possibilités de vie nomade.

Par la suite, leur économie et leur culture se concentrèrent sur l’élevage de chevaux, l’équitation et le pastoralisme nomade, permettant de riches échanges commerciaux avec les peuples sédentaires vivant en bordure de la steppe, que ce soit en Europe, en Asie ou en Asie centrale.

On pense qu’ils opéraient souvent sous forme de confédérations. Par définition, les nomades ne créent pas d’empires. Sans forcément les occuper, en contrôlant les points névralgiques, ils règnent en maître sur d’immenses territoires.

Ce sont eux qui développèrent le char, le chariot, la cavalerie et le tir à l’arc à cheval, introduisant des innovations telles que la bride, le mors, l’étrier et la selle, qui traversèrent rapidement toute l’Eurasie et furent copiées par leurs voisins sédentaires.

Durant l’âge du fer, des cultures scythes (iraniennes) apparurent parmi les nomades eurasiens, caractérisées par un art distinct, dont la joaillerie en or force l’admiration.

Le cheval en Chine

Les objets funéraires chinois fournissent une quantité extraordinaire d’informations sur le mode de vie des Chinois de l’Antiquité. La cavalerie militaire, mise sur pied dès le IIIe siècle avant J.C., s’y développe afin de faire face aux guerriers nomades et archers à cheval qui menacent la Chine le long de sa frontière septentrionale. Leurs grands et puissants chevaux étaient nouveaux pour les Chinois.

Échangés contre de la soie de luxe, comme nous l’avons dit, ils sont la première importation majeure en Chine depuis la Route de la soie. Des vestiges archéologiques montrent qu’en l’espace de quelques années, les merveilleux destriers arabes deviennent extrêmement populaires auprès des militaires et des aristocrates chinois, et les tombes des classes supérieures sont remplies de représentations de ces grands chevaux destinés à être utilisés dans l’au-delà. Ils restent cependant difficiles à trouver sur place…

Les diplomates chinois et le royaume de Dayuan (Ferghana)

Zhang Qian prenant congé de l’empereur Wu en -138, peinture murale des grottes de Mogao datant d’environ le VIIIe siècle.

À la fin du IIe siècle av. JC., Zhang Qian, diplomate et explorateur de la dynastie Han, se rend en Asie centrale et découvre trois civilisations urbaines sophistiquées créées par des colons grecs appelés Ioniens.

Le récit de sa visite en Bactriane, et son étonnement d’y trouver des marchandises chinoises sur les marchés (acquises via l’Inde), ainsi que ses voyages en Parthie et au Ferghana, sont conservés dans les œuvres de Sima Qian, l’historien des premiers Han.

Une touriste prend des photos d’une carte montrant le deuxième voyage de Zhang Qian vers l’Ouest. Photo prise au tombeau de Zhang Qian dans le comté de Chenggu de Hanzhong.

À son retour, son récit incite l’empereur chinois à envoyer des émissaires à travers l’Asie centrale pour négocier et encourager le commerce avec son pays. « Et c’est ainsi que naquit la route de la soie », affirment certains historiens.

Carte de la vallée de Ferghana.

Outre la Parthie et la Bactriane, Zhang Qian visite, dans la fertile vallée de Ferghana (aujourd’hui essentiellement au Tadjikistan), un État que les Chinois baptisèrent le royaume de Dayuan (« Da » signifiant « grand » et « Yuan » étant la translittération du sanskrit Yavana ou du pali Yona, utilisé dans toute l’Antiquité en Asie pour désigner les Ioniens, ou colons grecs).

Les Actes du grand historien et le Livre des Han décrivent Dayuan comme un pays de plusieurs centaines de milliers d’habitants, vivant dans 70 villes fortifiées de taille variable.

Princesse bactriane.

Ils cultivent le riz et le blé et produisent du vin à partir de leurs vignes. Ils avaient des traits caucasiens et des « coutumes identiques à celles de la Bactriane » (l’État le plus hellénistique de la région depuis Alexandre le Grand), dont l’épicentre se trouve alors au nord de l’Afghanistan. (voir notre article)

En outre, le diplomate chinois rapporte un fait d’un grand intérêt stratégique : la présence, dans la vallée de la Ferghana, de chevaux incroyables, rapides et puissants, élevés par ces Ioniens !

Expansion de la dynastie des Hans.

Or, comme nous l’avons déjà dit, la Chine, se sentant menacée en permanence par les peuples nomades des steppes, était en train de construire sa Grande Muraille. Elle avait également conscience de son infériorité militaire par rapport aux nomades des steppes et déplorait son manque cruel de puissants chevaux.

Sans oublier que, dans l’échelle des valeurs chinoises, le cheval possédait une valeur spirituelle et symbolique presque aussi forte que le dragon : il pouvait voler et représentait l’esprit divin et créatif de l’univers lui-même, chose essentielle pour tout empereur désireux d’acquérir aussi bien la sécurité militaire pour son empire que son immortalité personnelle.

Bref, posséder de bons chevaux est alors une question allant au-delà de la sécurité nationale, tout en l’incluant. À tel point qu’en 100 av. JC., lorsque le souverain de la vallée de Ferghana refuse de lui fournir des chevaux de qualité, la dynastie Han déclenche contre Dayuan la « guerre des chevaux célestes ».

Guerre des chevaux célestes



C’est un conflit militaire qui se déroule entre 104 et 102 av. JC. entre la Chine et Dayuan, Etat peuplé d’Ioniens (entre l’Ouzbékistan, le Kirghizstan et le Tadjikistan actuels

Tout d’abord, l’empereur Wu décide d’infliger une défaite décisive aux nomades des steppes, les Xiongnu, qui harcèlent la dynastie Han depuis des décennies.

Pour les faire plier, en 139 av. JC, il envoie le diplomate Zhang Qian avec pour mission d’arpenter l’ouest et d’y forger une alliance militaire avec les nomades chinois Yuezhi contre les Xiongnu.

Zhang Qian, comme nous l’avons dit, se rend en Parthie, en Bactriane et à Dayuan. À son retour, il impressionne l’empereur en lui décrivant les « chevaux célestes » de la vallée de Ferghana, qui pourraient grandement améliorer la qualité des montures de la cavalerie Han lors des combats contre les Xiongnu.

La cour des Han envoie alors jusqu’à dix groupes de diplomates pour acquérir ces « chevaux célestes ».

Cheval céleste.


Une mission commerciale et diplomatique arrive donc à Dayuan avec 1000 pièces d’or et un cheval d’or pour acheter les précieux animaux. Dayuan, qui était à cette époque l’un des États les plus occidentaux à avoir des émissaires à la cour des Han, commerce déjà avec eux depuis un certain temps à son grand avantage. Non seulement sa population accède aux marchandises orientales, mais apprend des soldats Han la fonte des métaux pour fabriquer des pièces et des armes. Cependant, contrairement aux autres envoyés à la cour des Han, ceux de Dayuan ne se conforment pas aux rituels des Han et se montrent arrogants, pensant que leur pays est trop éloigné pour avoir à craindre une invasion.

Dès lors, dans un élan de folie et par pure arrogance, le roi du Dayuan non seulement refuse le marché, mais confisque l’or. Les envoyés des Han maudissent les hommes de Dayuan et brisent le cheval d’or qu’ils avaient amené. Furieux de cet acte de mépris, les nobles de Dayuan ordonnent aux militaires de Yucheng, qui se trouvent à leur frontière orientale, d’attaquer les envoyés, de les tuer et de s’emparer de leurs marchandises.

Humiliée et furieuse, la cour des Han envoie alors une armée dirigée par le général Li Guangli pour soumettre Dayuan, mais leur première incursion s’avère mal organisée et insuffisamment approvisionnée.

Deux ans plus tard, une seconde expédition, plus importante et mieux approvisionnée, parvient à assiéger la capitale des Dayuan, « Alexandria Eschate » (aujourd’hui proche de Khodjent, au Tadjikistan), forçant les Dayuan à se rendre sans condition.

Le général Li Guangli.



Les forces expéditionnaires y installent alors un régime pro-Han et repartent avec 3000 chevaux. Il n’en restera que 1000 à leur arrivée en Chine, en 101 av. JC.

Le Dayuan accepte également d’envoyer chaque année deux chevaux célestes à l’empereur et des semences de luzerne sont ramenées en Chine, fournissant des pâturages de qualité supérieure pour élever de beaux chevaux afin de fournir une cavalerie capable de faire face aux Xiongnu qui menacent le pays.

Les chevaux ont depuis lors captivé l’imagination populaire en Chine, inspirant des sculptures, faisant l’objet d’élevage dans le Gansu et dotant la cavalerie de 430 000 chevaux de ce type sous la dynastie des Tang.

La Chine et la Révolution agricole

Après avoir imposé son rôle dans la stratégie militaire pour les siècles à venir, le cheval devient, avec la maîtrise de l’eau, le facteur clé permettant d’accroître la productivité agricole.

Contrairement aux Romains, qui préféraient utiliser du « bétail humain » (esclaves) plutôt que des animaux (qu’ils élevaient pour les courses), les Chinois ont contribué de façon décisive à la survie de l’humanité avec deux innovations cruciales concernant l’attelage des chevaux.

Rappelons que pendant toute l’Antiquité, que ce soit en Égypte ou en Grèce, charrues et chariots sont tirés à l’aide d’une bande de cuir encerclant le cou de l’animal.

Cet attelage s’apparente au joug utilisé pour les bœufs, la charge étant attachée au sommet du collier, au-dessus du cou. Le cheval se trouvant ainsi constamment étranglé, ce système réduit considérablement sa capacité à travailler, et plus il tire, plus il a du mal à respirer.

En raison de cette contrainte physique, le bœuf restera l’animal préféré pour les travaux lourds tels que le labourage. Cependant, il est lent, difficile à manœuvrer et n’a pas l’endurance du cheval, qui est deux fois supérieure pour une puissance équivalente.

La Chine aurait d’abord inventé la « bricole », large courroie de cuir enserrant le poitrail du cheval, ce qui était un premier pas dans la bonne direction.

La « bricole » sous la dynastie Han.

Au Ve siècle, la Chine invente « le collier d’épaule », conçu comme un ovale rigide qui s’adapte au cou et aux épaules du cheval sans lui couper le souffle.

Il présente les avantages suivants :
— Il soulage la pression exercée sur la gorge du cheval, libérant les voies respiratoires de toute constriction, ce qui améliore considérablement le débit d’énergie de l’animal.
— Les traits peuvent être attachés de chaque côté du collier, ce qui permet au cheval de pousser sur ses pattes postérieures, plus puissantes, au lieu de tirer avec celles de devant, plus faibles.

Vous me direz qu’il s’agit là d’une simple anecdote. Vous avez tort, car ce qui semble n’être qu’un changement mineur aura des conséquences gigantesques.

La Renaissance européenne

Miniature montrant un cheval de trait.

Dans le cadre d’une alliance stratégique et d’une coopération avec le califat humaniste des Abbassides de Bagdad (voir notre article), Charlemagne et ses successeurs ont défriché de vastes terrains pour l’agriculture, amélioré l’usage de l’eau et généralisé le collier d’épaule pour les chevaux de trait.

Grâce à ce nouvel outil beaucoup plus efficace, les agriculteurs européens ont pu tirer pleinement parti de la force du cheval, qui sera alors capable de tirer une autre innovation récente, la lourde charrue. Cela s’est avéré particulièrement appréciable pour les sols durs et argileux, ouvrant de nouvelles terres à l’agriculture.

Le collier, la charrue lourde et le fer à cheval ont contribué à l’essor de la production agricole.

Entre l’an 1000 et l’an 1300, les rendements agricoles ont été multipliés par trois, autant que la population d’Europe et de France.

Ainsi, entre l’an 1000 et l’an 1300, on estime qu’en Europe, les rendements agricoles ont triplé, permettant de nourrir un nombre croissant de citoyens dans les villes urbaines apparues au XVe siècle et de donner le coup d’envoi à la Renaissance européenne. Merci la Chine !

Certains chiffres laissent néanmoins perplexes :

–Il aura fallu des milliers d’années à l’humanité pour domestiquer le cheval, en 2200 av. JC. (bien après la vache).
— Il faudra encore 2700 ans à l’humanité pour trouver, au Ve siècle de notre ère, la façon la plus efficace d’utiliser sa force motrice…

Le passage d’une plateforme d’infrastructure inférieure à une plate-forme d’infrastructure supérieure peut certes prendre un certain temps. Les nouvelles plateformes supérieures d’aujourd’hui s’appellent l’espace et l’énergie de fusion.

N’attendons pas encore un millénaire pour savoir comment les utiliser correctement !

Merci de partager !

Grands travaux : l’exemple inspirant du « Plan Freycinet »

Port de Marseille avec les voies ferrées arrivant sur les quais.
Charles de Freycinet.

L’analyse de Charles de Freycinet sur les buts de la science économique est limpide et se résume en une phrase : « Le progrès économique, c’est la plus grande satisfaction pour le moindre effort. »

Si l’objectif phare est de donner accès au chemin de fer à tous les Français, il s’agit de favoriser le développement économique du pays par le désenclavement des régions reculées.

Les promoteurs du plan veulent également aboutir à un contrôle plus strict de l’État voire au rachat des compagnies de chemins de fer.

L’analyse de Freycinet sur les buts de la science économique n’est pas sans rappeler la pensée du philosophe et scientifique allemand Leibniz :

Pour sa mise en œuvre, le « plan Freycinet » est inscrit dans la loi de Finances et une première loi est votée le 18 mai 1878.

Ensuite, il fait l’objet de trois lois promulguées par Jules Grévy, président de la République, à quelques jours d’intervalle:

1. Nouvelles lignes ferroviaires nationales et secondaires

Poseurs de rail.

La première concerne la construction de 8700 kilomètres de nouvelles voies ferroviaires soit 154 lignes dites d’intérêt général (avec un écartement des voies d’1m43) afin de desservir toutes les sous-préfectures du pays.

Leur construction est assurée, soit par les grandes compagnies privées, le coût étant le plus souvent pris en charge par l’État, soit par l’État lui-même. Freycinet est ainsi à l’origine de la compagnie de l’État (loi du 18 mai 1878).

Dans le même temps il s’agit de désenclaver tous les chefs lieux de cantons par des réseaux secondaires (lignes dites « d’intérêt local » avec un écartement des voies d’1 m) construites principalement à l’initiative des conseils généraux.

Le réseau ferré français, avant et après le plan Freycinet.

La longueur des ces réseaux départementaux passera de 2187 kilomètres en 1880 à 17 653 km en 1913.

2. L’aménagement du réseau fluvial

Dans le domaine de la navigation fluviale le plan Freycinet ambitionne la création d’un réseau national unifié et cohérent de voies navigables, par l’amélioration de 14 600 km de voies existantes et par la mise en service de 1900 km de canaux supplémentaires.

Le plan Freycinet porte les dimensions des écluses à 39 m de long pour 5,20 m de large, afin qu’elles soient franchissables par des péniches de 300 à 350 tonnes.

Le gabarit Freycinet.

En conséquence, les bateaux au gabarit Freycinet ne doivent pas dépasser 38,5 m sur 5,05 m.

Le « gabarit Freycinet » correspond aujourd’hui au gabarit européen de classe I.

En France, 5800 km de voies fluviales ont conservés cette taille et en 2011, 23 % du trafic fluvial y transite.

3. La modernisation des ports

Manet, port de Bordeaux en 1870.

Au niveau portuaire, Freycinet déplore que :

L’originalité du plan Freycinet, au niveau portuaire, recouvre trois aspects :
–le souci de l’interconnexion,
–l’étendue et
–le mode de financement.

La modernisation des ports, affirme-t-il :

Freycinet, qui avait bien conscience que la bataille pour le maritime se gagne sur terre ferme. Un port sans hinterland capable d’accueillir les flux de marchandises est comme un cœur déconnecté d’artères en mesure de faire circuler le sang.

Freycinet mettra donc l’accent sur l’amélioration de l’intermodalité, ce qui signifie l’extension des quais, la multiplication des bassins, notamment à flot, l’approfondissement des chenaux, afin que « l’installation générale soit appropriée à la fois aux deux modes de transport qui viennent s’y rencontrer ».

Alors que l’État financera les superstructures, les infrastructures, l’outillage sera à la charge des chambres de commerce ou des particuliers par voie de concession. 116 ports sur 188 sont ainsi modernisés.

–La longueur utile des quais passe de 140 km en 1879 à 205 km en 1900, une augmentation de 46 % ;
–le nombre de ports présentant plus de 7 mètres de profondeur s’est élevé de 9 en 1878 à 15 en 1900 ;
–le tonnage de jauge de navires entrés et sortis a progressé de 64 % entre 1878 et 1898 ;
–aux mêmes dates, le poids des marchandises importées ou exportées a augmenté de 75 %, passant de 17 à 30 millions de tonnes.

L’abaissement du prix du fret, l’accroissement de la rapidité et de la régularité des transports, le perfectionnement des moyens de manutention sont autant de progrès à enregistrer.

Un plan décennal

Dans son chiffrage initial, largement dépassé au final, le plan prévoyait de consacrer environ 3 milliards de francs aux lignes de chemin de fer, 1 milliard aux canaux et 500 millions aux ports. Le tout était financé par un crédit d’État à 3 %, remboursable en 75 annuités.

Si à l’origine, le « plan Freycinet » aurait du être réalisé en dix ans, la faillite retentissante de la banque l’Union générale en 1882 (cadre du roman L’Argent de Zola) et la crise économique qu’elle engendrera, retarderont sa mise en œuvre.

La crise du crédit public brise l’élan et entraîne à moyen terme le ralentissement considérable du rythme des réalisations. Cet arrêt brutal aura deux conséquences.

D’une part, l’allongement des délais de construction provoque une élévation de leurs coûts, et de l’autre, l’abandon prématuré du système de financement imaginé par la loi du 11 juin 1878.

Ainsi, ce n’est qu’en 1914, c’est-à-dire après 36 ans, que l’ensemble du plan arrivera, à quelques détails près, à son stade de réalisation.

Entre-temps, cette mobilisation des forces productives, par effet d’entrainement, à fait naître le savoir-faire permettant la réalisation de la tour Eiffel ou les écluses du canal de Suez et celui de Panama.

Faute de crédit productif public et de volonté politique réelle, à part quelques miracles accomplis à l’époque De Gaulle/Pompidou, la France n’a jamais connue une initiative de cette ampleur visant à susciter un « choc de productivité » par l’investissement en infrastructures. Quel candidat aura aujourd’hui le courage et la compétence pour défendre un « Nouveau plan Freycinet » ?

Relance française

Le 1er octobre 2020, dans sa chronique dans Le Monde, Pierre-Cyrille Hautcoeur, professeur à PSE, directeur d’études EHESS, confirme la réussite retentissante du Plan Freycinet.

Merci de partager !

Horse-power, the Earthly Science behind China’s “Heavenly Horses”

« Horse Riding on a Flying Bird » (hoof on a swallow or other bird…). This bronze statue of the Gansu Museum is a perfect combination of strength and beauty, both thrilling and stunning. According to Chinese historians, it embodies the majestic, strenuous, bold and enterprising national spirit.

The history of mankind completely changed with the domestication of the horse. Things considered “impossible” before the domestication of the horse became the “new normal”. How and when horses became domesticated has been disputed. Although horses appear in Paleolithic cave art as early as 36,000 BC (Chauvet cave, France), these were wild horses and were probably hunted for meat.

Grotte Chauvet, France.

Zoologists define « domestication » as human control over breeding, which can be detected in ancient skeletal samples by changes in the size and variability of ancient horse populations. Other researchers look at the broader evidence, including skeletal and dental evidence of working activity; weapons, art, and spiritual artifacts; and lifestyle patterns of human cultures. There is evidence that horses were kept as a source of meat and milk before they were trained as working animals.

Bhimbetka Rock Shelters, India.

In India, close to Bopal, the “Bhimbetka rock shelters”, which are the oldest known rock art of the country, figures dance and hunting scenes from the Stone Age as well as of warriors on horseback from a later time (10 000 BC).

Horses were a late addition to the barnyard. Dogs were domesticated 15,000 years ago; sheep, pigs and cattle, about 8,000 to 11,000 years ago. But clear evidence of horse domestication doesn’t appear in the archaeological record until about 5,500 years ago.

Aechemenid, Vth Century BC.

The clearest evidence of early use of the horse as a means of transport is from chariot burials. The earliest true chariots known are from around 2,000 BC, in burials of the Sintashta-Petrovka culture in modern Russia in a cluster along the upper Tobol river, southeast of Magnitogorsk.

They contain spoke-wheeled chariots drawn by teams of two horses.

Kazakhstan and Ukraine

Przewalkski horse.

Up till recently, it was thought that the most common horse used today was a descendant of the horses domesticated by the Botai culture living in the steppes of the Akmola Province of Kazakhstan, around 3500 BC.

Recent genetic research points to the fact that the Botai horses were the forefathers of the Przewalski horse, a species that nearly disappeared.

Our common horse, the Equus ferus caballus, genetic research says, has been domesticated 4,200 years ago in Ukraine, in an area known as the Volga-Don, in the Pontic-Caspian steppe region of Western Eurasia, around 2,200 BC.

As these horses were domesticated, they were regularly interbred with wild horses.

Interesting in this respect, is the fact that according to the Kurgan” or “steppe hypothesis”, most Indo-European languages spread from the same region throughout Europe and parts of Asia.

It postulates that the people of a Kurgan culture in the Pontic steppe north of the Black Sea were the most likely speakers of what some call the Proto-Indo-European language (PIE).

The term is derived from the Turkic word kurgan, meaning tumulus or burial mound.

Tea Road, Horse Road or Silk Road?

Von Richthofen.

As a matter of fact, the main commodities traded on the “Silk Road” (a term only coined in 1877 by the German geographer Ferdinand Von Richthofen), were… horses, mules, camels, donkeys and onagers.

Silk and tea were of course traded, but appeared mainly as a means… to pay for horses. People “paid” with silk, gold, porcelain and tea, the animals they needed to secure the survival of their society!

What was known as the « Tea-Horse Road » (Southern Silk Road) extended from the city of Chengdu in Sichuan Province, China, south through Yunnan into India and the Indochina Peninsula, and extended westwards into Tibet. It was an important route for the tea trade throughout South China and Southeast Asia and contributed to the spread of religions like Taoism and Buddhism across the region.

Eurasian Steppe

Eurasian Steppe and grassland.

China, feeling itself under constant threat from the nomadic steppe people from the North, started building the first parts of its “Great Wall” as early as the VIIth Century BC, with selective stretches joined by Qin Shi Huang (220–206 BC), the first emperor of China and completed under the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) to become one of the most impressive feats in history.

The Eurasian nomads were groups of nomadic peoples living throughout the Eurasian Steppe. The generic title encompasses the varied ethnic groups who have at times inhabited the steppes of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Mongolia, Russia, and Ukraine.

By the domestication of the horse around 2,200 BC (i.e. 4,200 years ago), they vastly increased the possibilities of nomadic life and subsequently their economy and culture emphasized horse breeding, horse riding, and nomadic pastoralism, usually engaging in trade with settled peoples around the steppe edges, be it in Europe, Asia or Central Asia.

Nomads, by definition, don’t create empires. It is thought they operated often as confederations. But it was them who developed the chariot, wagon, cavalry, and horseback archery and introduced innovations such as the bridle, bit, stirrup, and saddle and the very rapid rate at which innovations crossed the steppe-lands spread these widely, to be copied by settled peoples bordering the steppes.

During the Iron Age, Scythian (Persian) culture emerged among the Eurasian nomads, which was characterized by a distinct Scythian art.

China and the Horse

Throughout China’s long and storied past, no animal has impacted its history as greatly as the horse. Its significance was such that as early as the Shang dynasty (ca.1600-1100 BC), military might was measured by the number of the war chariots available to a particular kingdom.

The mounted cavalery, which emerged in the IIIrd century BC grew rapidly during the IInd century BC to meet the challenge of horse-riding peoples threatening China along the northern frontier.

Their large, powerful, horses were very new to China. As said before, traded for luxurious silk, they were the first major import to China from the “Silk Road.”

Chinese grave goods provide extraordinary amounts of information about how the ancient Chinese lived. Archaeological evidence shows that within a few years, the marvelous Arabian steeds had become immensely popular with military and aristocracy alike and upper-class tombs began to be filled with images of these great horses for use in the afterlife. But horses were hard to find in China.

Chinese diplomats and the Kingdom of Dayuan (Ferghana)

Zhang Qian taking leave from Emperor Wu in 138 BCE, Mogao Caves mural from circa 8th century AD.

Something had to be done. In the late IInd Century BC, Zhang Qian, a Han dynasty diplomat and explorer, travels to Central Asia and discovers three sophisticated urban civilizations created by Greek settlers he named « Ionians ». The account of his visit to Bactria, including his recollection of his amazement at finding Chinese goods in the markets (acquired via India), as well as his travels to Parthia and Ferghana, are preserved in the works of the early Han historian Sima Qian.

A tourist takes photos of a roadmap showing Zhang Qian’s second trip to the West at the Tomb of Zhang Qian in Chenggu county of Hanzhong, Northwest China’s Shaanxi province, June 21, 2014.

Upon returning to China, his account prompts the Emperor to dispatch Chinese envoys across Central Asia to negotiate and encourage trade with China. Some historians say that this dicision gave « birth of the Silk Road.«  

Besides Parthia and Bactria, where Chinese goods were being traded via Indian imports, Zhang Qian visited, in the fertile Ferghana valley (today essentially in Tajikistan), a State the Chinese called the “Kingdom of Dayuan” (“Da” meaning “great”, and “Yuan” being the transliteration of Sanskrit Yavana or Pali Yona, used throughout antiquity in Asia to designate « Ionians », i.e. Greek settlers).

The Records of the Grand Historian and the Book of Han describe the Dayuan as numbering several hundred thousand people living in 70 walled cities of varying size. They grew rice and wheat, and made wine from grapes. They had Caucasian features and “customs identical to those of Bactria (the most Hellenistic state of the region since Alexander the Great) which is today’s northern Afghanistan.

The Chinese diplomat reported something of great strategic interest: unbelievable, fast and powerful horses raised by these Ionians in the Ferghana Valley!

Now, as said before, China felt under permanent threat by the nomadic people from the steppes and was in the process of building the “Great Wall”. China also was acutely aware that the nomadic steppe people derived their military superiority from something dramatically lacking at home: powerful horses !

Added to that, the fact that in terms of China’s scale of values, horses where nearly of the same mythological nature as dragons: they could fly and represented the divine, creative spirit of the universe itself, something essential for any Chinese emperor eager to acquire both military security for his Empire and for his personal immortality.

In short, having good horses became an issue of national security. So much, that in 100 BC, the Han dynasty started what is known as the “War of the Heavenly Horses” with Dayuan, when its ruler refused to provide high quality horses to China !

The War of the Heavenly Horses

The War of the Heavenly Horses was a military conflict fought in 104 BC and 102 BC between China and a part of the Saka-ruled (Scythian) Greco-Bactrian kingdom known to the Chinese as Dayuan, in the Ferghana Valley (between modern-day Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan).

First, Emperor Wu decided to defeat the nomadic steppe Xiongnu, who had harassed the Han dynasty for decades.

As said earlier, in 139 BC, the emperor sent diplomat Zhang Qian to survey the west and forge a military alliance with the Yuezhi nomads against another group of nomads, the Xiongnu. On the way to Central Asia through the Gobi desert, Zhang was captured twice. On his return, he impressed the emperor with his description of the « Heavenly Horses » of Dayuan, that could greatly improve the quality of Han cavalry mounts when fighting the Xiongnu.

The Han court sent at least five or six, and perhaps as many as ten diplomatic groups annually to Central Asia during this period to get a hold on these “Heavenly Horses”.

A trade mission arrived in Dayuan with 1000 pieces of gold and a golden horse to purchase these precious animals.

Dayuan, who was one of the furthest western states to send envoys to the Han court at that point, had already been trading with the Han for quite some time and benefited greatly from it. Not only were they overflowed by eastern goods, they also learned from Han soldiers how to cast metal into coins and weapons. However unlike the other envoys to the Han court, the ones from Dayuan did not conform to the proper Han rituals and behaved with great arrogance and self-assurance, believing they were too far away to be in any danger of invasion.

Hence, in a stroke of folly and taken by pure arrogance, the Dayuan king not only refused the deal, but confiscated the payment in gold. The Han envoys cursed the men of Dayuan and smashed the golden horse they had brought. Enraged by this act of contempt, the nobles of Dayuan ordered Yucheng, which lay on their eastern borders, to attack and kill the envoys and seize their goods.

Upon receiving word of the trade mission’s demise, humiliated and enraged, the Han court sent an army led by General Li Guangli to subdue Dayuan, but their first incursion was poorly organized and under-supplied.

A second, larger and much better provisioned expedition was sent two years later and successfully laid siege to the Dayuan capital at Alexandria Eschate, and forced Dayuan to surrender unconditionally.

General Li Guangli.

The Han expeditionary forces installed a pro-Han regime in Dayuan and left with 3,000 horses, although only 1,000 remained by the time they reached China in 101 BCE.

The Ferghana also agreed to send two Heavenly horses each year to the Emperor, and lucerne seed was brought back to China providing superior pasture for raising fine horses in China, to provide cavalry which could cope with the Xiongnu who threatened China.

The horses have since captured the popular imagination of China, leading to horse carvings, breeding grounds in Gansu, and up to 430,000 such horses in the cavalry during the Tang dynasty.

China and the agricultural revolution

After imposing its role in military strategy for the next centuries, horsepower, together with water management, became a crucial factor to raise the productivity of the world’s food production.

First, contrary to the Romans, who preferred to use “human cattle” (slaves) rather than animals (which they raised for race contests), the Chinese greatly contributed to the survival of mankind with two crucial innovations respecting a more efficient use of horse power.

As can be seen in murals and paintings, through the ancient world, be it in Egypt or Greece, plows and carts were pulled using animal harnesses that had flat straps across the neck of the horse, with the load attached at the top of the collar, above the neck, in a manner similar to a yoke used for oxen.

In reality, this greatly limited a horse’s ability to exert itself as it was constantly choked at the neck. The harder the horse pulled, the harder it became to breathe.

Due to this physical limitation, oxen remained the preferred animal to do heavy work such as plowing. Yet oxen are hard to maneuver, are slow, and lack the quality of horses, whose power is equivalent but whose endurance is twice that of oxen.

Han dynasty « breast strap ».

China reportedly first invented the “breast strap” which was the first step in the right direction.

Then, in the Vth Century, China also invented what is called the “rigid horse collar”, designed as an oval that fits around the neck and shoulders of the horse.

It has the following advantages:

–First, it relieved the pressure of the horse’s windpipes. It left the airway of the horse free from constriction improving massively the animal’s energy through-put.

–Second, the traces could be attached to the sides of the collar. This allowed the horse to push forward with its more powerful hind-legs rather than pulling with the weaker front legs.

Now you can argue that this is anecdotal. It is NOT, because what appears as only a slight change had absolutely monumental consequences.

European Renaissance

Use of the « rigid horse collar » in Europe.

In a strategic alliance and cooperation with the humanist Baghdad Abbasid caliphate, Charlemagne and his successors introduced the “rigid horse collar” in Europe.

With that new, far more efficient tool, European farmers finally could take full advantage of a horse’s strength. The horse was able to pull another recent innovation, the heavy plow. This became particularly important in areas where the soil was hard and clay-like. This opened up new plots of lands to agriculture. The rigid horse collar, the heavy plow, and horseshoes helped usher in a period of increased agricultural production.

As crop yields increased by threefold, so did Europe’s and France’s population.

As a result, between 1000 CE and 1300 CE, it is estimated that in Europe, crop yields increased by threefold, allowing to feed a rising number of citizens in the urban cities appearing in the XVth century and kick starting the global “Golden” European Renaissance. Thank you, China!

Some numbers are nevertheless disturbing:

–it took humanity thousands of years to finally domesticate the horse (long after the cow), in 3200 BC.

–it took humanity another 3700 years to learn how to find out, in the Vth century AD, the most efficient way to use horse-power…

Shifting from a “lower” infrastructure platform to a “higher” infrastructure platform might take some time. Today’s new “higher” platforms are called “space data” and “fusion power.” Let’s not wait another century to find out how to use them correctly!

Merci de partager !

Afghanistan : « Le pays des 1000 cités d’or » et l’histoire d’Aï Khanoum

Parler de la culture d’un pays étranger est toujours une chose difficile, surtout si l’on n’en connaît pas la langue et si l’on n’a pas pu séjourner et voyager dans le pays pendant de longues périodes. Par conséquent, je ne peux que vous offrir mes impressions de l’extérieur et commenter ce que j’ai découvert dans des livres. Vous allez donc m’aider en me corrigeant et en me signalant ce qui a échappé à mon attention.

L’Afghanistan est un pays fascinant. Sa réputation de « tombeau des Empires » a capté mon imagination. Récemment, votre pays s’est émancipé de l’occupation américaine et de l’OTAN. Une poignée de combattants déterminés a mis en déroute un immense empire déjà en train de s’autodétruire. 34 ans plus tôt, le pays avait chassé l’occupant russe, après avoir résisté à l’Empire britannique au cours des trois guerres anglo-afghanes du XIXe siècle (1839-42, 1878-80 et 1919), alors que Londres, engagé dans le « Grand Jeu » (Great Game), tentait d’empêcher la Russie d’accéder aux mers chaudes.

Pour éviter d’être colonisé à la fois par la Russie et la Grande-Bretagne, l’Afghanistan a même courageusement refusé d’avoir des chemins de fer, ce qui explique qu’il n’existe aujourd’hui que 300 km de voies ferrées, une situation bien sûr inacceptable aujourd’hui.

Cette capacité de résistance et ce sentiment de dignité découlent, j’en suis convaincu, du fait que votre pays a su faire siennes les diverses influences qui s’y sont rencontrées. Voilà ce qui est devenu au fil des siècles le socle d’une forte identité afghane, totalement à l’opposé de l’étiquette tribale que les colonisateurs cherchent à lui coller.

J’aborderai uniquement, aujourd’hui, l’influence grecque, qui s’est avérée majeure à partir du moment où Alexandre le Grand traverse le Hindou Kouch, en 329 av. JC.

Dès lors, des dizaines de milliers de colons grecs, appelés Ioniens, s’installent en Asie centrale.

Sous le règne de ses successeurs concurrents, l’immense empire d’Alexandre le Grand se décompose en plusieurs entités et royaumes.

En 256 av. JC, Diodote Ier Soter fonde en Afghanistan le royaume gréco-bactrien, connu sous le nom de « Bactriane », dont le territoire englobe une grande partie de l’Afghanistan, de l’Ouzbékistan, du Tadjikistan et du Turkménistan actuels, ainsi que certaines parties de l’Iran et du Pakistan. L’influence grecque y perdure au moins jusqu’à l’arrivée de l’Islam au VIIIe siècle.

La Bactriane

La Bactriane.

De nombreuses fouilles archéologiques confirment un développement urbain, économique, social et culturel remarquable.

Strabon (64 av. JC – 24 après JC), comme d’autres historiens grecs, qualifiait déjà la Bactriane de « Terre des mille cités », une terre que tous les écrivains, anciens et modernes, louaient pour la douceur de son climat et sa fertilité, car « la Bactriane produit tout, sauf de l’huile d’olive. »

Pour le naturaliste romain Pline l’Ancien (23 – 79 après JC), en Bactriane,

Sa capitale Bactres (aujourd’hui Balkh, proche de Mazâr-e Charîf au nord de l’Afghanistan), « Mère des cités », figure parmi les villes les plus riches de l’Antiquité.

Une des « princesses de Bactriane » provenant du nord de l’Afghanistan (2500 à 1500 av. JC).

C’est là qu’Alexandre le Grand épouse Roxana (« Petite étoile ») et adopte l’habit perse pour pacifier son Empire. C’est également là que naîtra le père du grand médecin et philosophe Ibn Sina (Avicenne), avant de s’installer à Boukhara (Ouzbékistan).

Au fil du temps, la Bactriane sera le creuset de cultures et de civilisations où se mêlent, sur le plan artistique, architectural et religieux, traditions grecques et cultures locales.

Si le grec y est la langue de l’administration, les langues locales y foisonnent. Rien que les noms des villes démontrent la prédominance de la culture hellénique.

Ainsi, Ghazni s’appelle « Alexandrie en Opiana », Bagram « Alexandrie au Caucase », Kandahar « Alexandrie Arachosia », Hérat « Alexandria Ariana », etc., et la liste ne s’arrête pas là.

Ruines de Gonur Depe.

La ville de Gonur Depe (actuellement au Turkménistan, au nord de Mary, l’ancienne Merv), capitale du Royaume de Margiane, est un autre exemple de ce qu’on s’accorde maintenant à appeler la « Culture de l’Oxus »)

Aï Khanoum, la grecque

Si certaines villes ne font que changer de nom, d’autres sont construites ex nihilo. C’est le cas d’Aï Khanoum (« Dame Lune » en ouzbek), cité érigée au confluent du grand fleuve Amou Daria (l’Oxus des Grecs) et de la rivière Kokcha.

En 1961, le roi d’Afghanistan (Mohammed Zahir Shah), voulant marquer son indépendance vis-à-vis des Soviétiques et des Américains, invite la France à participer aux fouilles.

C’est le Département des archéologues français en Afghanistan (DAFA) qui met au jour les vestiges d’un immense palais dans la ville basse, ainsi qu’un grand gymnase, un théâtre pouvant accueillir 6000 spectateurs, un arsenal et deux sanctuaires.

Plan au sol de la cité d’Aï Khanoum.

Entourée de terres agricoles bien irriguées, la ville elle-même était divisée entre une ville basse et une acropole de 60 mètres de haut.

Bien qu’elle n’est pas située sur une route commerciale majeure, Aï Khanoum commande l’accès aux mines du Hindou Koush. De vastes fortifications, continuellement entretenues et améliorées, entourent la ville.

Un monument au cœur de la ville y présente une stèle inscrite en grec avec une longue liste de maximes incarnant les idéaux de la vie grecque. Celles-ci sont copiées de Delphes et se terminent par :

L’architecture du site indique que les colons grecques y vivent en bonne entente avec les populations locales. Elle est très grecque mais intègre en même temps diverses influences artistiques et éléments culturels que les Ioniens ont pu observer au cours de leur voyage du bassin méditerranéen à l’Asie centrale. Par exemple, ils utilisent les styles néo-babylonien et achéménide pour la construction de leurs cours.

Shortugai et la Civilisation de la vallée de l’Indus

La date précise des premières fondations d’Aï Khanoum reste inconnue.

A une jetée de là, Shortugai, avant-poste commercial et minier de la fameuse civilisation de l’Indus (dite « harappéenne ») qui, au IIIe millénaire avant notre ère, était à l’avant-garde sur le plan de l’irrigation et de la maîtrise de l’eau. (voir notre article)

Des scientifiques de l’Institut indien de technologie de Kharagpur et du Service archéologique d’Inde ont publié le 25 mai 2016, dans la revue Nature, les fruits d’une recherche qui permettrait de dater la civilisation harappéenne d’au moins 8000 ans avant JC et non 5500 ans, comme on le croyait jusqu’à présent. Cette découverte majeure signifierait qu’elle serait encore plus ancienne que les civilisations mésopotamienne et égyptienne.

Shortugai est construite avec des briques standardisées typiques de la vallée de l’Indus. Des sceaux de la civilisation de la vallée de l’Indus ont également été trouvés sur d’autres sites archéologiques d’Afghanistan.

Carte de la civilisation de la vallée de l’Indus. Flèche rouge indiquant son avant-poste à Shortugai, à 20 km au nord d’Aï Khanoum.

Pendant plusieurs siècles, Shortugai a fonctionné comme un site minier exceptionnel pour l’extraction de l’étain (un minerai indispensable pour la fabrication du bronze), de l’or et du fameux lapis-lazuli, cette pierre précieuse bleue qui, avec l’or, habille de sa splendeur la tombe du pharaon égyptien Toutankhamon et d’autres tombes religieuses majeures en Mésopotamie (Irak).

Les données archéologiques démontrent que Shortugai commerçait avec ses voisins d’Aï Khanoum et construisit les premiers systèmes d’irrigation de la région, une spécialité de la civilisation de la vallée de l’Indus.

Bien des sites restent inexplorés en Afghanistan, pays où les guerres, les occupations étrangères et les pillages ont perturbé ou rendu impossible les recherches archéologiques.

Voici quelques-unes des découvertes de la DAFA, dont certaines restent exposées au Musée national de Kaboul.



L’auteur visitant le Musée national d’Afghanistan en nov. 2023, admirant le chapiteau corinthien d’une colonne fouillée à Aï Khanoum.

Relations avec l’Inde

Plaque d’origine indienne trouvé à Aï Khanoum. Coquillage, verre de couleur et feuille d’or, 20,5 cm de diamètre, IIIe – IIe siècles av. JC. À droite : reconstitution de la portion en bas à droite de la plaque. On y voit des soldats montés à cheval, un quadrige avec passagers surmontés d’un parasol, des colonnes, des animaux et des plantes.

Ce qu’on a trouvé à Aï Khanoum, les pièces de monnaie, les objets et les céramiques, notamment d’origine indienne, témoigne qu’il s’agissait d’une importante plaque tournante du commerce avec l’Inde.

En 258 avant notre ère, Ashoka le Grand, souverain de l’empire Maurya (l’État dominant en Inde), fait ériger ce que l’on appelle « l’Edit grec d’Ashoka à Kandahar », une inscription rupestre bilingue, en grec et en araméen. Une autre inscription d’Ashoka était rédigée uniquement en grec.

Le contenu même de ces édits donne également une indication claire du niveau des échanges entre l’Inde et le monde hellénistique. Par exemple, dans son XIIIe édit, Ashoka, faisant preuve d’érudition, énumère avec précision tous les souverains du monde hellénistique de son époque.

Édit d’Ashoka à Kandahar. La partie supérieure est en grec, la partie inférieure en araméen.

Relations avec la Chine

Outre son interaction avec le sous-continent indien, la Bactriane établira des contacts avec une puissance située encore plus à l’est : la Chine.

À la fin du IIe siècle avant JC, Zhang Qian, diplomate et explorateur de la dynastie Han, arrive en Bactriane. Le récit de sa visite, y compris son étonnement d’y trouver des marchandises chinoises sur les marchés (acquises via l’Inde), ainsi que ses voyages dans le reste de l’Asie centrale, sont conservés dans les œuvres de l’historien Sima Qian.

À son retour en Chine, Zhang Qian informe l’empereur de l’existence de civilisations urbaines sophistiquées en Asie centrale : le Dayuan (vallée de la Ferghana), la Bactriane (Afghanistan) et la Partie (nord-est du plateau iranien).

Les découvertes de Zhang Qian incitent l’empereur à envoyer des émissaires chinois en Asie centrale pour y favoriser le commerce avec la Chine. Certains historiens n’hésitent pas à qualifier cette décision de l’Empereur chinois de « naissance de la Route de la soie ».

Déclin et chute

Représentation d’Eucratides Ier, le bâtisseur d’Aï Khanoum, sur une pièce d’or de 20 stères.

Une grande partie des ruines actuelles d’Aï Khanoum datent de l’époque d’Eucratides Ier (172-145 av. JC), qui a considérablement réaménagé la ville et l’a peut-être rebaptisée Eucratideia, d’après son nom.

Il fut assassiné en 145 av. JC. par son fils. Un an plus tard, le royaume s’effondre face à l’invasion des nomades.

Aï Khanoum est pillée une première fois en 145 av. JC par les Sakas, des tribus iraniennes d’origine scythe, suivis quinze ans plus tard par les nomades chinois Yuezhi.

Le « complexe du trésor » d’Aï Khanoum montre des signes de pillage lors de deux assauts, à quinze ans d’intervalle. D’après des témoins oculaires, certaines villes se sont arrangées avec les envahisseurs et organisèrent une coexistence pacifique. Les villes qui ont résisté, comme Aï Khanoum, ont été pillées et incendiées.

L’empire Kouchan

Les nomades chinois Yuezhi se sédentarisent et créent au début du Ier siècle l’Empire kouchan, qui englobe une grande partie de ce qui est aujourd’hui l’Ouzbékistan, l’Afghanistan, le Pakistan et l’Inde du Nord.

Son territoire s’étend de l’Asie centrale et du Gandhara (frontière occidentale actuelle du Pakistan) à Pataliputra, dans la plaine du Gange (Inde d’aujourd’hui). La capitale principale de son empire était située à Purushapura (aujourd’hui Peshawar au Pakistan).

Kanishka le Grand.

C’est sous le règne de Kanishka le Grand (vers 127-150) que l’Empire kouchan deviendra célèbre pour ses réalisations militaires, politiques et spirituelles. Kanishka échange des ambassadeurs avec l’empereur romain Marc Aurèle (161-180) et l’empereur Han de Chine. Il noue des contacts diplomatiques avec la Perse sassanide et le royaume d’Aksoum (Yémen et Arabie saoudite d’aujourd’hui).

Si la dynastie kouchane reprend la tradition gréco-bactrienne, elle se forge peu à peu sa propre identité.

Les artistes kouchans enrichirent la sculpture bouddhique en donnant à Bouddha la forme humaine, innovation qui fut la plus importante de l’époque.

En 127, Kanishka remplace le grec par le bactrien, une langue moyenne iranienne utilisant l’alphabet grec.

Le bouddhisme

Les Kouchans joueront également un rôle majeur dans la transmission du bouddhisme. Le rayonnement de cette religion venue des rives du Gange favorisera celui des Routes de la soie.

Dans le domaine de la religion, les Kouchans, initialement attirés par l’hindouisme, joueront un rôle majeur dans la transmission du bouddhisme mahayana du Gandhara vers la Chine, l’Asie centrale et même le Sri Lanka, favorisant ainsi l’expansion de la route de la soie.

Tous ces facteurs ont inauguré une période de paix relative de 200 ans, connue comme la « Pax Kouchana ».

À partir du milieu du IIIe siècle après JC, l’Empire kouchan, affaibli, commence à se désintégrer. Dans sa partie occidentale, il passe sous le contrôle des Kushanshahs, c’est-à-dire les Indo-Sassanides (perses), progressivement supplantés au nord par les Hephtalites (appelés également les « Huns blancs » ou « Huns iraniens ») venus de la steppe d’Asie centrale.

Le bouddhisme connaît néanmoins une période de grande prospérité, comme l’illustrent les descriptions du moine chinois Xuanzang du VIIe siècle ainsi que la construction des statues géantes de bouddhas dans la vallée de Bamiyan en Afghanistan.

Bouddhas de la vallée de Bamiyan.

L’Islam

Après avoir conquis l’Iran, l’islam pénètre l’Afghanistan par le nord. Il n’y a pas de preuve d’un rejet massif de la nouvelle religion, sauf dans des régions isolées. Cependant, la volonté de rester indépendants des gouverneurs nommés par Damas (Omeyyades) puis par Bagdad (Abassides) se manifeste rapidement. C’est même à partir d’une province couvrant une partie du nord de l’Afghanistan, le Khorasan, que se répand initialement une partie de l’insurrection contre les Omeyyades pour les remplacer par le califat abbasside d’Haroun-al-Rachid, plus humaniste, et la création de Bagdad (voir notre article).

À partir de la fin du Xe siècle, une dynastie d’origine turque, les Ghaznévides, bâtit autour de leur capitale Ghazni (Afghanistan) un vaste sultanat qui s’étend jusqu’en Inde et fonde une communauté musulmane durable.

Architecture gaznavide.

Leur influence culturelle se mesure par la beauté de l’architecture qu’ils nous ont laissée, mais aussi par le patronage qu’ils accordèrent au grand poète épique Ferdowsi (940-1025), à qui l’on doit la grande épopée nationale en langue persane, le Shahnameh : Le livre des rois.

Les Ghaznévides ont été suivis par une nouvelle dynastie, les Ghorides, originaire de la partie centrale de l’Hindou Kouch. C’est à eux que l’on doit l’impressionnant minaret de Jam.

Ce riche patrimoine culturel, qui a jeté les bases de leur identité et qui a donné sa dignité au peuple afghan, a été ignoré, détruit par les guerres successives, pillé et saccagé.

Fortement combattu par les talibans au pouvoir à Kaboul, ISIS, Daech et d’autres groupes terroristes, dont certains encouragés en sous-main par des agences de renseignement occidentales se sont livrés à un pillage à échelle quasi-industrielle du patrimoine culturel afghan. Pour eux, la revente d’objets d’art et d’antiquités est une des principales sources de revenus.

Recommandations

Aujourd’hui, le temps est venu d’un nouveau départ. L’Afghanistan peut changer complètement son image dans le monde, qui a été polluée par des adversaires et des ennemis qui veulent maintenir l’Afghanistan comme une zone de non-développement pour leur propre grand jeu géopolitique.

Ma proposition pour renouveler la contribution de l’Afghanistan à la culture mondiale est simple.

Avec Mes Aynak, qui signifie « petite mine », située à 35 km au sud de Kaboul, l’Afghanistan dispose du deuxième plus grand gisement de cuivre au monde. Alors que la Chine et les autres pays du BRICS ont besoin de ce métal précieux pour leur développement industriel, la mine offrira un revenu substantiel dont l’Afghanistan a un besoin urgent pour reconstruire le pays.

Le 25 mai 2008, Ibrahim Adel, ministre des Mines, et Shen Heting, directeur général de MCC, l’actionnaire majoritaire du consortium MCC-Jiangxi Copper MJAM, ont signé le contrat minier de Mes Aynak.

Ce contrat décrivait les conditions du premier grand projet minier et du plus important investissement étranger en Afghanistan. Cependant, suite à des incidents de sécurité qui ont créé d’importants problèmes d’insécurité, et sous la pression des puissances étrangères, le projet a été bloqué.

Paradoxalement, cela a donné aux archéologues le temps de mettre au jour sur le site minier une zone de 40 ha d’une valeur culturelle exceptionnelle de classe mondiale, principalement un vaste complexe de monastères bouddhistes, comprenant des stupas (temples), des peintures murales, des sculptures et des centaines d’artefacts archéologiques, etc.

Même si le contrat (fichier pdf) a pu être modifié depuis 2008, on ne peut que constater que le contrat initial contient une série d’aspects potentiellement très intéressants, à la fois pour la Chine mais surtout pour l’Afghanistan lui-même.

  • EXPORTER DU MÉTAL, PAS DU MINERAI
    De même que la Bolivie ne veut pas exporter du lithium (matière première) mais des batteries (produit fini transformé à haute valeur ajoutée), l’Afghanistan ne veut pas exporter du minerai de cuivre mais du cuivre métal. Pour atteindre cet objectif, le contrat prévoit la construction d’une fonderie sur le site.
    Paragraphe IV, 33 : « Afin de respecter son engagement envers le gouvernement de financer, construire et exploiter une fonderie en Afghanistan, la MCC a demandé au gouvernement de lui donner accès à des gisements de phosphates, de calcaire et de quartz qu’elle pourra utiliser dans le cadre du projet Aynak. »
  • ACHATS LOCAUX
    Paragraphe VII, 38 : « MCC s’efforce d’acheter des biens et des services en Afghanistan s’ils sont disponibles. »
  • MAIN-D’ŒUVRE LOCALE
    Paragraphe VIII, 39, a : « MCC emploie du personnel afghan, dans toute la mesure du possible. »
  • APPROVISIONNEMENT EN EAU
    Paragraphe IV, 32 : « MCC s’est engagée auprès du gouvernement à construire des puits d’approvisionnement en eau et des systèmes de canalisation … pour répondre aux besoins en eau douce du projet. La MCC s’est également engagée à réutiliser et à recycler l’eau de traitement dans la mesure du possible. »
  • CENTRALE AU CHARBON
    Paragraphe IV, 31 : « MCC s’est engagée auprès du ministère des Mines à construire … une centrale au charbon d’une capacité de 400 mégawatts pour fournir de l’énergie électrique au projet et à Kaboul. »
  • CHEMIN DE FER
    Paragraphe IV, 30 : « MCC s’est engagée à construire un chemin de fer associé au projet ».
  • LOGEMENT
    Paragraphe IV, 24 : « MCC doit fournir des logements de qualité et en quantité suffisante à ses salariés et à leurs familles immédiates, à un prix de location raisonnable. »
  • SOINS MÉDICAUX
    Paragraphe IV, 25 : « MCC fournira des soins médicaux gratuits à tous ses salariés et à leurs familles… et établira, dotera en personnel et entretiendra des dispensaires, des cliniques et des hôpitaux en nombre suffisant … »
  • ÉCOLES
    Paragraphe IV, 26 : « MCC doit fournir gratuitement un enseignement primaire et secondaire adéquat aux enfants de tous les salariés et résidents de la zone entourant Aynak. »
  • CADRE DE VIE
    Paragraphe IV, 27 : « MCC construira et financera le fonctionnement de centres d’activités récréatives adéquats tels que des gymnases et des terrains de sport. … En outre, il construira un marché/une zone commerciale. »
  • RELIGION
    Paragraphe IV, 28 : « MCC respectera et protégera les convictions religieuses du peuple afghan. »

Le monde serait stupéfait en constatant que l’Afghanistan mobilise ses meilleurs architectes et urbanistes pour construire une nouvelle ville à Mes Aynak qu’il baptisera poétiquement, l’« Aï Khanoum du XXIe siècle ». 

A Kaboul, un archéologue de premier plan qui travaille sur le site depuis une décennie, m’a confié avec une joie non-dissimulée que, suite à d’intenses discussions en octobre dernier entre les autorités afghanes et l’entreprise chinoise, une issue heureuse a été trouvée.

A l’heure actuelle, dit-il, les deux parties ont convenu de préserver, non plus une infime partie du site archéologique (la partie centrale avec les temples bouddhistes), mais l’ensemble des vestiges historiques du site en surface. A en croire mon interlocuteur, la décision est prise que l’ensemble du site sera désormais exclusivement exploité par la technique d’exploitation minière souterraine. N’en déplaise à la presse occidentale, le sauvetage de Mes Aynak révèle au monde le vrai visage du nouveau gouvernement afghan.

Il rendra également pensable, d’ici un certain temps, la reconstruction des bouddhas géants de la vallée de Bamiyan, l’un de 55 mètres et l’autre de 38 mètres, détruits en 2001. Plusieurs experts, lors de colloques récents de l’UNESCO, ont précisé que les difficultés techniques ne sont pas insurmontables, les bouddhas étant fabriqué en stuc. Le soi-disant « danger » que les sculptures soient considérées comme « fausses » n’a aucun sens, tant que l’intention d’atteindre un bien supérieur par leur reconstruction est réelle.

La « Proposition technique pour la revitalisation des statues du Bouddha de Bâmiyân » de 2017, élaborée par le département d’architecture de l’université japonaise Mukogawa Women’s University, mérite d’être examinée. Sans doute pourra-t-on faire mieux, mais elle a le mérite d’exister. Des chercheurs chinois se disent également prêts à donner un coup de main.

Rappelons que le monde compte 620 millions de bouddhistes qui considèrent Bamiyan comme une partie de leur culture et pourraient envisager de venir en Afghanistan pour mieux comprendre leur propre histoire.

Bouddha de feu, Musée national, Kaboul.

Si l’Afghanistan indiquait clairement au monde qu’il a décidé de renforcer ses activités économiques et minières tout en protégeant, notamment grâce à l’aide généreuse de la Chine, le patrimoine culturel mondial sur son sol, il apparaîtra aux yeux de tous ce qu’il est désormais aujourd’hui : une force du bien, de la tolérance et de la paix dans le monde, en cohérence avec sa propre identité et son histoire.

L’Afghanistan apparaîtra comme le « Bouddha de feu » (IIe-IIIe siècle) du Musée national de Kaboul, où l’on voit la réponse donnée par Bouddha à un défi lancé par des hérétiques selon lequel il ne pouvait pas faire de miracles.

Connu sous le nom de « miracles jumeaux », on y voit Bouddha confiant avec des flammes sortant de ses épaules et des cours d’eau de ses pieds ! En altérant ces deux flux, dit la légende, Bouddha a même fait apparaître un arc-en-ciel !

En augmentant sa production d’énergie et en gérant d’une façon plus intelligence ses ressources en eau, l’Afghanistan démontrera, j’en suis convaincu, sa splendide force spirituelle !

Merci à tous et j’ouvre le débat à vos questions.

Merci de partager !

Afghanistan: « The Land of 1000 Golden Cities » and the Story of Ai-Khanoum

To talk about the culture of a foreign country is always a difficult thing to do, especially if one doesn’t know the language and if one wasn’t able to stay and travel around the country for a longer period. Therefore, I only can offer some impressions from the outside and things I read in books. So probably you will have to correct those things that escaped my attention.

Seen from the outside, Afghanistan is a fascinating country. Its reputation as the “Graveyard of Empires” captured my imagination. Most recently, Afghanistan resisted American and NATO occupation. A handful of determined combatants defeated a huge Empire already in the process of defeating itself. Before, Afghanistan resisted Russian occupation. And in the XIXth century, it resisted the British Empire during three Anglo-Afghan wars: the first in 1839-42, the second in 1878-1880 and the third one in 1919. Britain was playing the “Great Game”, trying to prevent Russia from getting access to the warm waters of the Arab gulf and the Indian Ocean. To prevent being colonized by both Russia and Britain, Afghanistan even courageously refused to have railroads, explaining why there only exists 300 km of rail today, a situation of course inacceptable today.

This capacity to resist, this quality of self respect and dignity, I think, derives from the fact that Afghanistan, being a roundabout on what was called the Silk-Road, absorbed and integrated into its own culture the best of the various influences that came to meet in this region and this became over centuries the foundation upon which was built the Afghan identity.

Totally opposed to that, foreign colonial powers, of course, always have wanted to erase the history, culture and heritage of the subjects over which they want to rule by “divide and conquer”. Justifying themselves as the unifying central power, they always pretend locals are mere representatives of eternally quarreling tribes.

The Greek influence along this trade spread massively into Central Asia in the IVth Century BC with Alexander the Great (356 BC – 323 BC) crossing the Hindu Kush mountain range in 329 BC.

Alexander and his successors brought with them thousands of Greek settlers sometimes called the « The Ionians ». Greek influence, before reaching regions as distant from Macedonia as India, would last at least till the arrival of Islam in the VIIIth Century.

The Greco-Bactrian Kingdom

Under the rule of his competing successors, Alexander the Great’s huge empire collapsed into various entities and kingdoms.

One of them, and I will limit myself to this one as an example, stands what today’s historians call the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom or Bactria (or Bactriana), where Greek influence can be thoroughly documented by archeological findings that demonstrate an exceptional urban, economic, social and cultural development.

Bactrian princess.

Bactria was founded in 256 BC by the Seleucid (persian) satrap Diodotus I Soter and lasted till its fall in 145 BC. Its territory stretched out from the Parthian Empire at its West side, to the North of the Indus River Valley civilization, much older, at its East. It covered much of present-day Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan, and some parts of Iran and Pakistan.

Among the largest and richest cities of antiquity one counts cities as Ai-Khanoum and Bactria‘s capital Bactra (todays Balkh, some kilometers east of Mazar-e-Shariff in Afghanistan), the city where Ibn-Sina’s father, before moving to Buchara, currently Uzbekistan, was born.

Centuries before, it was also in Balkh, that Alexander the Great married Roxana (« Little Star »), the daughter of a Bactrian warlord and adopted local dress in a vast effort to create peace inside his Empire.

Strabo (64 or 63 BC – c. 24 AD), as many other Greek historians, referred to Bactria as « The Land of a 1000 Golden Cities », a land that all writers, both ancient and modern, praised for its gentle climate and fertility:

And for the Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder (AD 23/24 – AD 79), in Bactria,

Often erected at key strategic positions of trading routes, over time Bactria‘s cities became significant cultural centers where local and Greek traditions interacted and blended in artistic areas, as well as in architecture and religion.

Greeks lived alongside the local population in these places. The Greek language was used in this Central Asian region for administrative, economic, and philosophical matters. However, due to the constant flow of ideas and people of different professions, it was employed alongside local languages.

It is sufficient to look at the Greek names of many afghan cities to realize how predominant the Greek heritage is in this country.

Nearly all cities founded by Alexander the Great were of course called “Alexandria”, the best known being the major port of Egypt where Greek scientists such as Eratosthenes and others worked and lived.

  • Ghazni, for example, was simply named “Alexandria” (in Opiana);
  • Bagram, mainly known as the former US Airbase, was called “Alexandria in the Caucasus” and “Kapisa” in the Middle Ages.
  • Kandahar had a Greek name: “Alexandria Arachosia”;
  • Herat was “Alexandria Ariana”;
  • Merv in today’s Turkmenistan was named “Alexandria” and later “Antiochia in Margiana”.

And the list doesn’t end there.

Also part of Bactria, the city and oasis of Gonur Depe (now in Turkmenistan, north of Mary, the ancient Merv), capital of the Kingdom of Margiane, is another example of what has been called the Bactro-Margian Archeological Complex (BMAC), more recently rebranded as the « Oxus Culture ».

Gonur Depe (in today’s Turkmenistan).

Other parts of today’s Afghanistan also came under the influence of Hellenistic culture under the rule of what are called the “Indo-Greek” Kingdoms, but that is yet another long story which I will not tell today.

Ai-Khanoum, the Greek

Some cities in Bactria just got new names, but others were entirely built new or given a new beginning. Such seems to have been the case of an ancient city whose name remains unknown but who became known over centuries as Ai-Khanoum (meaning “Lady Moon” in Uzbek).

The city was beautifully located at the confluence of the Amou Daria (the Greek “Oxus”) and the Kokcha rivers.

In 1961, after visiting the site on a hunting trip, the King of Afghanistan, (Mohammed Zahir Shah), showed huge interest.

Invited by Afghanistan, which wanted to mark its independance from both the Soviets and the US, it was a French archaeological delegation, led by Paul Bernard of the Département des archéologues français en Afghanistan (DAFA), that unearthed the remains of a huge palace in the lower town, along with a large gymnasium, a theater capable of holding 6000 spectators, an arsenal, and two sanctuaries.

The precise date of Ai-Khanoum‘s initial foundations remains unknown. Interesting enough, Ai-Khanoum was erected some 20 kilometers south of Shortugai, an outpost and trading colony of the very innovative Indus Valley Civilization (also known as “Harappan”) during the late third millennium BC. (see my article here)

Shortugai was built with the typical Indus Valley standardized bricks. Indus Valley Civilization seals have also been found on other sites.

For several centuries Shortugai operated as an exceptional mining site for the extraction of tin, a key component of bronze, gold and the world famous magical blue gems of lapis lazuli used for the tomb of the Egyptian pharaon Toutankhamun and other major religious tombs in Mesopotamia (Iraq).

Shortugai traded with its southern neighbors of Ai-Khanoum and constructed the first irrigation systems in the area, a specialty of the Indus Valley Civilization.

In Ai-Khanoum, several inscriptions were found, along with coins, artifacts, and ceramics including from Indian origin showing the extensive trade relations of the city ! One monument in the heart of the city displayed a stela inscribed in Greek with a long list of maxims embodying the ideals of Greek life. Those were copied from Delphi and ended with:

Unfortunately, the onset of the Soviet-Afghan War in the late 1970s halted scholarly progress and during the following conflicts in Afghanistan, the site was extensively looted.

The excavations in Ai-Khanoum nevertheless show archaeological evidence of the Greek presence and their peaceful coexistence with the local populations in this region.

Its architecture remains very Greek, but has also integrated various artistic influences and cultural elements which they saw during their travel from the Mediterranean area to Central Asia. For example, they used the Neo-Babylonian and Achaemenid styles – for the construction of their courtyards.

Here are some of the findings of the DAFA, most of them in possession and eventually on display at the National Museum in Kabul.

Surrounded by well-irrigated farmland, the city itself was divided between a lower town and a 60-meter-high (200 ft) acropolis. Although not situated on a major trade route, Ai-Khanoum controlled access to both mining in the Hindu Kush and strategically important choke points. Extensive fortifications, which were continually maintained and improved, surrounded the city.

Trading with India

Indian ceramics found in Ai-Khanoum.

Ai-Khanoum also became an important trade hub with India. It is a testament to the level of Greek interaction with India and the influence of urban centres such as Ai-Khanoum in the region that even as early as 258 BCE, Ashoka the Great, ruler of the Maurya Empire (the dominant state in India), created the so-called « Kandahar Greek Edict of Ashoka », a bilingual rock inscription written in Greek and Aramaic. Another of Ashoka’s inscriptions near Kandahar was written solely in Greek. The actual content of these edicts also gives a clear indication of the level of exchange between India and the Hellenistic world. In his 13th Edict, Ashoka accurately names all of the rulers in the Hellenistic world at the time of the inscription.

Relations with China

Zhang Qian departure from China to Central Asia.

In addition to its interaction with the Indian subcontinent, the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom as a whole would eventually come to develop increasing contacts with a power even further to the East: China.

In the late Second Century BC, Zhang Qian, a Han dynasty diplomat and explorer, arrived in Bactria. His account of his visit to Bactria, including his recollection of his amazement at finding Chinese goods in the markets (acquired via India), as well as his travels in the rest of Central Asia, is preserved in the works of the early Han historian Sima Qian.

Upon returning to China, Zhang Qian informed the Emperor of the sophisticated urban civilisations in Ferghana, Bactria and Parthia. Zhang Qian’s discoveries prompted the Emperor to dispatch Chinese envoys across Central Asia to negotiate and encourage trade with China. Some historians are convinced that « this was the birth of the Silk Road. »

Many of the present ruins of Ai-Khanoum date from the time of Eucratides I (reigned 172–145 BC), who substantially redeveloped the city and who may have renamed it Eucratideia, after himself.

Eucratides I was killed in 145 BC by his son and soon after his death, the Greco-Bactrian kingdom collapsed.

This invasion of Ai-Khanoum was probably carried out by the Iranian Saka tribes of Scythian origin driven south by the nomadic Chinese Yuezhi peoples, who in turn formed a second wave of invaders, in around 130 BC. The treasury complex of the city shows signs of having been plundered in two assaults, fifteen years apart.

According to eye-witness reports, some cities made arrangements with the invaders and organized peaceful co-existence. Urban cities that resisted, such as Ai-Khanoum, were plundered and burned to the ground.

Kushan Empire

Very soon, showing a very interesting process of sedentarization, after the Saka tribes, the Yuezhi themselves took over Bactria and created in the early Ist century the “Kushan Empire” encompassing much of what is now Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Northern India and which lasted from around the year 30 AD till its subjugation in 375 AD by the (persian) Kushanshahs, the name used to designate the Kushano-Sasanian Kingdom that established its rule over Bactria over the declining Kushans.

The Kushan empire, which lasted till the end of 300 AD, was a center-point of the Silk Roads. Northern Pakistan and parts of India became part of the kingdom, which extended from Central Asia and Gandhara (Today’s western border of Pakistan) to Pataliputra on the Gangetic plain (today’s India). The main capital of his empire was located at Puruṣapura (today’s Peshawar in Pakistan).

Kanishka the Great was an emperor of the Kushan dynasty, under whose reign (c. 127–150 CE) the empire reached its zenith. He is famous for his military, political, and spiritual achievements. Under his rule, the Kushan Empire exchanged ambassadors with the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (161-180) and the Han Emperor of China. He had had diplomatic contacts with Sassanian Persia and the Kingdom of Aksum (today’s Yemen and Saudi Arabia).

So while initially the Kushan dynasty followed Greek cultural ideas and iconography after the Greco-Bactrian tradition, they gradually developed their own.

For example, while initially they kept the Greek language for administrative purposes but in 127 AD, Kanisha replaced Greek with Bactrian, an Iranian language written in Greek letters, as the official language of administration in the empire.

In the domain of religion, the Kushans, which initially were attracted by Hinduism, would play a major role in the transmission of Mahayana Buddhism from Gandhara across the Karakoram range to China, Central Asia and even Sri Lanka, favoring the overall expansion of the Silk Road.

All of these factors ushered in a period of relative peace for 200 years, sometimes described as “Pax Kushana”.

From the middle of the 3rd century AD, the weakened Kushan kingdom began to disintegrate. In its western part, it came under the control of the (persian) Sassanids, gradually supplanted in the north by the Hephtalites (Called the « White » or « Iranian Huns ») from the Central Asian steppe.

Buddhism nevertheless enjoyed a period of great prosperity, as illustrated by the descriptions of the VIIth century Chinese monk Xuanzang and the construction of the giant buddha statues of the Bamiyan Valley in Afghanistan.

Islam

After conquering Iran, Islam penetrated Afghanistan from the north. There is no evidence of mass rejection of the new religion, except in isolated areas. However, the desire to remain independent from the governors appointed by Damascus and then Baghdad soon became apparent. It was even from a province covering part of northern Afghanistan, Khorasan, that part of an insurrection spread against the Umayyad to replace them with the more humanist Abbasid Caliphate of Harun-al-Rachid and the creation of Baghdad (see my article here)

From the end of the Xth century, a dynasty of Turkish origin, the Ghaznevids, built a vast sultanate around their capital Ghazni, extending as far as India and establishing a long-lasting Muslim community.

Their cultural influence can be measured by the beauty of the architecture they left us, but also by the patronage they gave to the great poet Ferdowsi (940-1025), to whom we owe the great Persian-language national epic Shahnameh: The Book of Kings.

The Ghaznevids were followed by a new dynasty, the Ghorids, from the central Hindu Kush. It was to them that we owe Jam’s “Minaret”.

Much of this rich cultural heritage, which laid the foundations of their identity and gave dignity to the Afghan people, has been ignored, destroyed in successive wars, looted and plundered.

ISIS, Daech and other terrorist groups, some of them backed by certain western intelligence agencies, currently being eliminated by the Afghan government, have engaged in industrial plunder using their loot as a source of income.

Recommandations

Today, the time is ripe for a new beginning. Afghanistan can completely change its image in the world, which currently has been polluted by adversaries and enemies that want to keep Afghanistan a zone of non-development for their own new geopolitical Great Game.

My proposal to renew Afghanistan’s contribution to world culture is simple.

Mes Aynak, meaning “Little Mine”, 35 km south of Kabul, is in reality the world’s second largest copper reserve. While China and other BRICS countries need copper for industrial development, the mine could generate a substantial income which Afghanistan urgently requires to rebuild the country.

On May 25, 2008, Ibrahim Adel, Minister of Mines, and Shen Heting, general manager of MCC, the MCC-Jiangxi Copper MJAM consortium’s majority stakeholder, signed the Mes Aynak mining contract. The contract described the conditions for the first major mining project andbiggest foreign investment in Afghanistan.

However, after security incidents created major insecurity problems, and pressured by foreign powers, the project was stalled.

Paradoxically, this gave archeologists the time to unearth on the mining site an area of 40 ha of exceptional world class cultural value, mainly a vast complex of buddhist monasteries, including stupas (temples), murals, sculptures and hundreds of archeological artifacts, and more.

Even if the contract (pdf file) might have been modified since 2008, one cannot but note that the initial contract contains a series of potentially very interesting aspects, both for China but mainly for Afghanistan itself.

  1. SMELTER
    Just as Bolivia doesn’t want to export lithium (as a raw material) but batteries (a finished transformed product with high added value), Afghanistan doesn’t want to export copper ore but copper metal. To achieve that aim, the contract plans to build a smelter on the site Part IV, 33: « In order to fulfill its commitment to the Government to fund, construct and operate a smelter in Afghanistan, MCC has requested that the Government provide access to deposits of phosphats, limestone and quartz for MCC’s use in the Aynak Project. »
  2. LOCAL PURCHASING
    Part VII, 38: « MCC shall use its best efforts to purchase goods and services in Afghanistan if they are available. »
  3. LOCAL WORKFORCE
    Part VIII, 39, a : « MCC shall employ Afghan personnel, to the maximum extent practicable. »
  4. WATER
    Part IV, 32: « MCC has made a commitment to the Government to construct water supply wells and pipeline systems … to supply the project’s fresh water requirements. MCC has also committed to reuse and re-circulate process water to the extent possible. »
  5. POWER SUPPLY
    Part IV, 31: « MCC has made a commitment to the Ministry of Mines to construct … one 400 megawatt capacity coal fired plant to supply electrical power to the project and to Kabul. »
  6. RAILWAY
    Part IV, 30: « MCC has committed to construct a railway associated with the project ».
  7. HOUSING
    Part IV, 24: « MCC shall provide housing facilities of sufficient quality and quantity for its employees and their immediate families at a reasonable rental rate. »
  8. MEDICAL FACILITIES
    Part IV, 25: « MCC shall furnish free medical care and attention to all its employees and families of employees … and shall establish, staff and maintain sufficient dispensary, clinic and hospital facilities … »
  9. SCHOOLS
    Part IV, 26: « MCC shall provide, free of charge, adequate primary and secondary school education for the children of all employees and residents in the area surrounding Aynak. »
  10. ENTERTAINMENT AND SHOPPING
    Part IV, 27: « MCC shall construct and fund the operation of adequate recreational activity centers such as gymnasiums and sport fields. … In addition, it shall construct a market/shopping area. »
  11. RELIGION
    Part IV, 28: MCC shall « respect and protect the religious belief of the Afghan people. »

The world would be stunned if Afghanistan would mobilize its best architects and city builders and make the new city under construction in Mes Aynak « The Aï Khanoum of the XXIst Century ». Let’s think about it.

According to a senior field archeologist who worked on the site for a decade, following intense discussions last October between the Afghan authorities and the Chinese company, big progress has been made. As of now, he says, both are fully committed to preserve the entire historical remains on the surface and not only a small part. While the contract planned to do « open-pit » mining in the western part and only wanted to preserve the central part with the Buddhist stupas (temples), from now on, says this highly credible source, the entire site will be mined by (more expensive) underground mining exploitation techniques that will leave the surface historical remains untouched.

If the world discovers the remains of the Mes Aynak buddhist monasteries are saved, Afghanistan’s image in the world will change. In a second period, it might become much easier to consider the reconstruction of the Bamiyan giant buddha statues, one of 55 meters and the other of 38 meters, destroyed in 2001.

It has been scientifically demonstrated by several experts speaking at conferences of UNESCO that this is not a technical problem and relatively easy to accomplish. The so-called “danger” that the sculptures would be considered as “fake” makes no sense, as long as the intention to reach a higher good by their reconstruction is real.

The 2017 “Technical Proposal for Revitalizing the Bamiyan Buddha Statues”, by the department of architecture of the Japanese Mukogawa Women’s University should be studied. It needs to be improved but it has the merit to exist. One should not forget that 620 million Buddhists in the world consider Bamiyan as a part of their own culture and might consider coming to Afghanistan to visit the site.

If Afghanistan would make it clear to the world it has decided to bolster its economic and mining activities but in the same time will protect at all cost and, in this case, with generous Chinese help, the world’s cultural heritage on its soil, it would underline its willingness to act as a force of good, tolerance and peace in the world, in coherence with its own identity and history.

An Afghan economic and cultural « miracle » would impress the world as much as Buddha in the story of the Greek influenced Buddha statue found north of Kabul in 1965.

Called the « Fire Buddha » (IInd-IIIrd Century) it represents Buddha’s response to a challenge from heretics that he could not perform miracles.

Known as « The Twin miracles », flames emanated from his shoulders and water poured from his feet, demonstrating his pre-eminence. By alternating both currents (fire and water), a wonderful rainbow appeared and convinced the heretics this man definitely was kind of special.

Today, in a simular miracle, by boosting its energy production and smart water management, Afghanistan will demonstrate its spiritual strength !

Thank You,

Merci de partager !

Rembrandt and the Light of Agapè

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn. Don’t count on me here to tell his story in a few lines! (*1) In any case, since the romantics, all, and nearly to much has been said and written about the rediscovered Dutch master of light inelegantly thrown into darkness by the barbarians of neo-classicism.

By Karel Vereycken, June 2001.

The uneasy task that imparts me here is like that of Apelles of Cos, the Greek painter who, when challenged, painted a line evermore thinner than the abysmal line painted by his rival. In order to draw that line, tracing the horizons of the political and philosophical battles who raged that epoch will unveil new and surprising angles throwing unusual light on the genius of our painter-philosopher.

First, we will show that Rembrandt (1606-1669) was « the painter of the Thirty years War » (1618-1648), a terrible continental conflict unfolding during a major part of his life, challenging his philosophical, religious and political commitment in favor of peace and unity of mankind.

Secondly, we will inquire into the origin of that commitment and worldview. Did Rembrandt met the person and ideas of the Czech humanist Jan Amos Komensky (« Comenius ») (1592-1670), one of the organizers of the revolt of Bohemia? This militant for peace, predecessor of Leibniz in the domain of pansophia (universal wisdom), traveled regularly to the Netherlands where he settled definitively in 1656. A strong communion of ideas seems to unite the painter with the great Moravian pedagogue.

Also, isn’t it astonishing that the treaties of Westphalia, who put an end to the atrocious war, are precisely based on the notions of repentance and pardon so dear to Comenius and sublimely evoked in Rembrandt’s art?

Finally, we will dramatize the subject matter by sketching the stark contrast opposing Rembrandt’s oeuvre with that of one of the major war propagandist: (Sir) Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640).

Rembrandt, who finished rejecting any quest for earthly glory could not but paint his work away from that of the fashion-styled Flemish courtier painter. Moreover, Rubens was in high gear mobilizing all his virtuoso energy in support of the oligarchy whose Counter Reformation crusades and Jesuitical fanaticism were engulfing the continent with gallows, fire and innocent blood.

What Rembrandt advises us for his painting also applies to his life: if you stick your head to close to the canvass, the toxic odors will sharply irritate your nose and eyes. But taking some distance will permit you to discover sublime and unforgettable beauty.

What Art?

Since the triumph of Immanuel Kant‘s modernist thesis, the Critique of the Faculty of Judgment, it has not been « politically correct » to assert that art has a political dimension. And with good reason! If art can influence the course of history and shape it through its power, it is because it is a vector of ideas! An impossibility, according to the Kantian thesis, because art is a gratuitous act, free of everything, including meaning. The ultimate freedom! You either like it or you don’t, it’s all a matter of taste.

Following in the footsteps of the German poet Friedrich Schiller, we’re here to convince you otherwise, and abolish the tyranny of taste. For us, art is an eminently political act, although the work of art has nothing in common with a mere political manifesto, and the artist can in no way be reduced to an ordinary « activist ».

His domain, that of the poet, the musician or the visual artist, is to be a guide for mankind. To enable people to identify within themselves what makes them human, i.e. to strengthen that part of their soul, of their divine creativity, which places them entirely at the zenith of their responsibility for the whole of creation.

To achieve this, and we’ll develop this here, what counts in art is the type of conception of love it communicates. By making this « universal » sensitive, sublime art makes the most elevated conception of love accessible.

Such art, which forces us think, employs enigmas, ambiguities, metaphores and ironies to give us access to the idea beyond the visible. For art that limits itself to theatricality and the beauty of form fatally sinks into erotic, romantic love, depriving man of his humanity and therefore of his revolutionary power.

Rubens will be the ambassador of the great un-powers of his time: the glory of the empire and the magnificent financial strength of those days « new economy », the « tulip bubble ». In short, the oligarchy.

Rembrandt, in turn, will be the ambassador of the have-nots: the weak, the sick, the humiliated, the refugees; he will live in the image of the living Christ as the ambassador of humanity. It might seem strange to you to call such a man the « the painter of the thirty years war. »

Paradoxically, his historical period underscores the fact that very often mankind only wakes up and mobilizes its best resources for genius when confronted with the terrible menace of extinction. Today, when the Cheney’s, the Rumsfeld’s and the Kissinger’s want to plunge the world into a « post-Westphalian epoch », in reality a new dark age of « perpetual war », Rembrandt will be one of our powerful weapons of mass education.

Historical context and the origins of the war

Before entering Rembrandt, it is indispensable to know what was at stake those days. The academic name « Thirty Years War » indicates only the last period of a far longer period of « religious » conflict which was taking place around the globe during the sixteenth century, mainly centered in central Europe, on the territory of today’s Germany.

While 1618 refers to the revolt of Bohemia, the 1648 peace of Westphalia defines a reality far beyond the apparent religious pretext: the utter ruin of the utopian imperial dream of Habsburg and the birth of modern Europe composed of nation-states (*2)

On the reasons for « religious » warfare, let us look at the first half of the sixteenth century. At the eighteen years long Council of Trent (1545-1563), the Roman Catholic Church discarded stubbornly all the wise advise given earlier to avoid all conflict by one of its most ardent, but most critical supporters: Erasmus of Rotterdam.

As Erasmus forewarned, by choosing as main adversary the radical anti-semite demagogue Martin Luther, the church degraded itself to sterile and intolerant dogmatism, opening each day new highways for « the Reformation ».

The religious power-sharing of the « Peace of Augsburg » of 1555, between Rome and the protestant princes, temporarily calmed down the situation, but the ambiguous terms of that treaty incorporated all the germs of the new conflicts to come. Note that « freedom of religion » meant above all « freedom of possession ». The « peace » solely applied to Catholics and Lutherans, authorizing both to possess churches and territories, while ostracizing all the others, very often abusively labeled « Calvinists ».

Playing diabolically on internal divisions, some evil Jesuits of those days set up Calvinists and Lutherans to combat each other bitterly, by claiming, for example in Germany, that Calvinism was illegal since not explicitly mentioned in the treaty. Furthermore, the citizen obtained no real freedom of religion; he was simply authorized to leave the country or adopt the confessions of his respective lord or prince, which in turn could freely choose.

As a result of a general climate of suspicion, the protestant princes created in 1608 the « Evangelical Union » under the direction of the palatine elector Frederic V. Their eyes and hopes were turned on King Henri IV‘s France, where the Edit of Nantes and other treaties had ended a far long era of religious wars. After Henry IV‘s assassination in 1610, the Evangelical Union forged an alliance with Sweden and England.

The answer of the Catholic side, was the formation in 1609 of a « Holy League » allied with Habsburg’s Spain by Maximilian of Bavaria. Beyond all the religious and political labels, a real war party is created on both sides and the heavy clouds carrying the coming tempest threw their menacing shadows on a sharply divided Europe.

1618: The Revolt of Bohemia

Prague defenstration.

Hence, after the never-ending revolt of the Netherlands, the very idea of an insurrection of Bohemia drove the Habsburgs (and the slave trading Fugger and Welser banking empires controlling them) into total hysteria, since they felt the heath on their plans. If Bohemia would become « a new, but larger Holland », then many other nations, such as Poland, could join the Reformation camp and destabilize the imperial geopolitical power balance forever.

As from 1576, the crown of Bohemia was in the hands of the Catholic Rudolphe II, Holy Roman Emperor. Despite a far-fetched passion for esotericism, Rudolphe II will be the protector of astronomers Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler in Prague.

In 1609, the Protestants of Bohemia obtain from him a « Letter of Majesty » offering them certain rights in terms of religion. After his death in 1612, his brother Matthias, Holy Roman Emperor, became his successor and left the direction of the country to cardinal Melchior Klesl, a radical Counter Reformation militant refusing any application of the « letter of majesty ».

This set the conditions for the famous « defenestration of Prague », when two representatives of the imperial power were thrown out of the window and fall on a manure heap, at the end of hot diplomatic negotiations. That highly symbolical act was in reality the first signal for a general uprising, and following the early death of Matthias, the rebels made Frederic V their sovereign instead of accepting Habsburg’s choice.

Charles Zerotina, a protestant nobleman and Comenius, (see box below), a Moravian reverend and respected community leader, masterminded that revolt. Frederic V, for example was crowned in 1619 by Jan Cyrill, who was Zerotina’s confessor, and whose daughter will become Comenius wife.

The insurgents were defeated at the battle of White Mountain, close to Prague, in 1620 by a Catholic coalition, composed of Spanish troops pulled out of Flanders together with Maximilian’s Bavarians. On the scene: French philosopher René Descartes, who paid his own trip and who was part of the war coalition and joined in entering defeated Prague in search for Kepler’s astronomical instruments… (*3)

An arrest warrant immediately targeted Comenius, who escaped with Zerotina from bloody repression. Protestantism was forbidden and the Czech language replaced by German.

Most resistance leaders were arrested and 27 beheaded in public. Their heads were put up on pins and shown on the roof of Prague’s Saint-Charles bridge.

One of them was the famous Jan Jessenius, head of the University of Prague who performed one of Europe’s early public anatomical dissections in 1600 and was a close friend of Tycho Brahe. To warn those who used their speech to encourage « heresy », his tongue was pulled out before he was beheaded, quartered and impaled.

Thirty thousand people went into exile while Frederic V and his court took refuge in Den Haag in the Netherlands. There, but years before, Comenius had a personal encouter with the future « Winterkönig » and his wife Elisabeth Stuart, on their way back from their wedding in England for which Shakespeare had arranged a representation of « The Tempest ».

A World War

Misery and calamities of war, Jacques Callot.

1618 marked the outbreak of an all-out war across Europe, provoked by the imperial drive of Habsburg to reunify all of the continent behind one unique emperor and one single religion.

As of 1625, aided by French and English financial facilities, Christian IV of Denmark and Gustave Adolphus of Sweden intervened on the northern flank against Habsburg descending from the north as far as up till Munich.

Then, France opened another flank on the western front in 1635. Catholic cardinal Richelieu, who defeated the Huguenots at LaRochelle in 1628 (since he « fought their political rights but not their religious ones », will heavily aid the Protestant camp. His fears were that,

« if the protestant party is completely in shambles, the offensive of the house of Austria will come down on France ».

The famous etchings of the Lorraine engraver Jacques Callot, « Misery and calamities of war » of 1633, give an idea how this savage war swept Europe with its cortège of misery, famine, epidemics and desolation.

The estimated population loss on the territory of present day Germany indicates a downturn from 15 to less than 10 million. Hundreds of cities were turned back into simple villages and thousands of communities simply disappeared from the map.

War affected all the colonies of those powers involved in the conflict. Dutch and English pirates would sink any Spanish or Portuguese ships encountered at the other edge of the Earth’s curve. For Spain, loyal pillar of Habsburg, 250 million ducats were spent for the war effort (between 1568 and 1654), despite the state bankruptcy of 1575. That amount represents more than the double of the revenue from the loot of the new world (gold, spices, slaves, etc.) which scarcely amounted only to 121 million ducats…

Rembrandt and Comenius

That the young Rembrandt was totally heckled by the situation of general war which was shaking up Europe is easily visible in the early self-portrait of Nuremberg.

Here he portrays himself divided between two choices. One shoulder reveals the gorget, a piece of armor that invokes the patriotic call for serving the nation calling on every young Dutchman of his generation in age of serving the military, especially after the surprise attack of the Spanish troops on Amersfoort of august 1629.

The other shoulder is nonchalantly caressed by a « liefdelok », the French « cadenette » or lovelock exhibited by amorous adolescents. What to choose? Love the nation, or the beloved?

More and more irritated by the ambitions of Constantijn Huygens, the powerful secretary of the stadholder which got him well-paid orders for the government and made him move from Leiden to Amsterdam, Rembrandt’s thinking and activity gets ever more concentrated and powerful.

Ten years later, the dying away of his wife Saskia in 1642, year of the « Night watch », plunges the painter into a deep personnal existential crisis. Gone, the self-portraits where he paints himself as an Italian courtier, with a glove in one hand carrying a heavy golden chain around his neck fronting for his social status and competing with the court. Suddenly he seems to realize that the totality of the world’s gold will never buy back the lost lives of those once loved.

When interrogated on the matter, Rembrandt would bluntly state he didn’t need to go to Italy, as the tradition used to be, since everything Italy ever produced came to him anyway as it was available in one form or another on the Amsterdam art market. But traveler he was, as drawings of the gates of London indicate, done in the early forties, maybe the year Comenius crossed the channel?

In 1644, the neo-Platonist rabbi and teacher of Spinoza, Menasseh Ben Israel, for which Rembrandt illustrated books, received a letter from Comenius agent John Dury, chaplain of Mary Princess of Orange, starting a discussion on the reintegration of the Jews in England, and Menasseh finally went for negotiations to meet Cromwell in 1655.

The Nightly Conspiracy

« The nightly conspiracy of Claudius Civilus at the Schakerbos ».

Although some timid hypothesis’ exists concerning Comenius‘ influence on Rembrandt, a rigorous historian’s research could certainly bring more light on this matter.

Although Rembrandt’s worldview evolved in an environment of the Mennonite community, peace-loving Anabaptists miles away from any political commitment, Rembrandt’s passion for the « cause of Bohemia » seems particularly striking in « The nightly conspiracy of Claudius Civilus at the Schakerbos ».

The large painting figured as one in a series planned to decorate the new Amsterdam city hall to celebrate the revolt of the Batavians against the Romans. Starting from historical elements of Tacitus, the story had been cooked up to warm up Dutch patriotism since the reference to Spanish tyranny was clear to all. For reasons unknown today, Rembrandt’s painting was taken down after a couple of months. To mock the cowardice of the ruling elites, Rembrandt seems to have transposed the historical scene into his present timeframe.

One Swedish historian thinks that the leader of the conspiracy here is not Claudius Civilis (the Batavian general who lost an eye in battle), but another general who equally lost an eye in battle and which was non-other than the Hussite general Jan Zizka! (*4).

Remember that Comenius and the revolt of Bohemia strongly identified with John Huss. Looking closely makes you discover that Rembrandt’s Claudius Civilis is indeed dressed up in central European costume. From left to right one sees first a Dutch patrician. Is this a portrait of the then rising republican Jan De Wit?

Next, one sees a monk, without weapons, who poses his hand on Civilus’ arm in a conspiratorial gesture. Is this Comenius resistance movement, the Unity of the Brethren?

According to the historians, the two chalices, one wide, the other narrow, could signify the « Eucharist under the two species », namely that bread and wine be shared with all, which happened to be one of the demands of the Jan Hus tradition.

One also can identify a Jew or rabbi taking place in the conspiracy. Looks pretty weird for a simple Batavian conspiracy! That the establishment was unhappy to see their hero painted as an ugly Cyclops seems probable.

But to be challenged in their flight forward into pompous fantasy in stead of taking up the urgent tasks of their time was another one.

King of Swedish Steel, Louis De Geer

Louis de Geer.

Comenius arrives in Amsterdam on invitation of the de Geer family in 1656, the year of Rembrandt’s bankruptcy (*5).

Louis de Geer, alias « the Steel King » and his son Laurent were the life-long protectors of Comenius for whom they paid the funeral and even build a chapel in the city of Naarden, some miles outside Amsterdam.

Originally from Luik (Liège) in today’s Belgium, that uncompromising Calvinist family settled in Amsterdam. It was the de Geer family who led the foundations of Sweden’s industrial flowering of iron, steel and copper . To do this, de Geer brought three hundred families of Walloon steelworkers to Sweden, and for whom he build hospitals, schools, housing projects and commercial facilities.

De Geer also financed the scottish preacher John Dury and the « intelligencer » Samuel Hartlib, two active friends of Comenius in England. At war with the Royal Society and Francis Bacon, they wanted to render scientific knowledge available to all of the population.

John Milton’s treatise On Education was dedicated to the same Samuel Hartlib. Louis de Geer and Sweden’s prime Minister Johan Skytte, realized Comenius education projects were the best of all possible investment to foster the physical economy. His educational reforms created a labor force of such an exceptional quality and astonishing productivity, that they warmly invited him to Sweden and asked him to reform the nation’s educational system.

That relationship of Comenius with the de Geer family leads us to Rembrandt, since Louis de Geer’s sister, Marghareta, and her husband Jacob Trip, one of the major shareholders of the Swedish copper mines, had their portrait done by Rembrandt, offering him a well paid order during very difficult years.

Margaretha De Geer, painted by Rembrandt.

The City of Amsterdam allotted Comenius a yearly pension, encouraged him to publish his complete works on pedagogy and offered him the keys of the city library. Comenius brought over his family and assistants and installed a library and a printing shop behind the Westerkerk where Rembrandt will be buried.

Comenius, when going every day from his house to his printing shop crossed the street where Rembrandt lived his last days. Since early this century, Czech curators got convinced that Rembrandt’s Portrait of an old man at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, is in reality a portrait of Comenius (*6).

True or not, one has to realize that Rembrandt demanded to each of his models to sit each day for four hours over a period of three months to paint their portrait, a thing maybe not so evident for the aging Comenius.

But what is known with certainty is the fact that one of Rembrandt’s pupils, Juriaen Ovens, painted Comenius portrait during that period.

The Peace of Westphalia and the « Via Lucis »

Signing of the Peace of Westphalia in Münster 1648.

Although Bohemia did not gain its long-desired independence at the peace of Westphalia, one cannot underestimate Comenius influence on the negotiations leading to the establishment of the peace-treaty. His work, Cesta Pokoje (Road to peace) of 1630, written in Czech is described as,

« an ethical-religious writing in which love, faith and mutual comprehension are established as the single ethical foundations of a possible peace ».

From 1641 to 1642, right before the start of the first peace negotiations, Comenius wrote the Via Lucis (The path of light), which could have been used as a guiding memorandum for the negotiators.

At the question if this Via Lucis was a millenarist mystical vision, as has been often pretended, we can consider the following.

Asked what could be hoped for and when a major change could take place, Comenius answered that the hope would come with the arrival of a time where the Gospel of the Kingdom would be preached all over the world and universal peace established.

That change could arise as the result of the emergence of a light to which will turn not only the Christian, but all the people of the world.

That light will come, « from the combination of the lanterns of human conscience, of a rational consideration of the works of God or of nature, and from the law or divine will ».

For him, « human enterprise can, through prayer and considerations of pious men imagine the possible ways to unite these rays of light, to irradiate them on the entirety of the human species and to spill similar thoughts in the minds of others » (*7).

Rembrandt’s etching that Goethe would (wrongly) use as the frontispiece for his Faust in 1790, since the light here is the divine light and not that of the devil.

One identifies exactly that concept in an etching of Rembrandt that Goethe awkwardly used by having it copied as frontispiece for his Faust in 1790 (*8).

The subject here is not at all a man going along to get along with the devil, but light (mirror of Christ) enlightening the life and the mind of the mortals. Way before Voltaire and opposed to the Venetian illuminati, Comenius and Rembrandt made own the metaphor of light.

To get an even more precise idea of Comenius demands for peace, one can read another memorandum called Angelus Pacis (The peace-angel),

« send to the English and Dutch peace Ambassadors at Breda, a writing designated to be sent afterwards to all the Christians of Europe and then to all the nations of the world in order to stop them, that they cease fighting each other ».

Comenius first remarks laconically that England and Holland are morally so degraded that they even don’t need some spiritual difference as a pretext, but fight each other for purely material possessions! As a way out, he proposes a new friendship:

« But how do you conceive that new friendship (or rather reestablishment of your friendship)? Will it be not by the general pardon that you will allow each other? The wise men have always seen the oblivion of received injuries as the surest road leading to peace. Touching too rudely the wounds, is to revivify the pains and to furnish the wounds an occasion for irritation.

« When this is true, it would be to be wished that the river Aa, whose tranquil waters irrigate Breda, would turn for this hour into the river Lethe of which the poets tell us that whoever drinks their water forgets everything of the past.

« The one who is guilty of trouble, God will find him, even when men, for love of peace, spare him. That the just one starts accusing himself; that means that the one whose conscience accuses him of having broken the friendship and witnessed enmity, should, according to justice, be the first one and the most ardent to reestablish friendship. If the offended party neglects that duty of justice, it will be the honor of the offended party to assume that honorable role, according to the word of the philosopher. » (*9)

COMENIUS: TEACH EVERYTHING TO ALL AND EVERYONE

Jan Amos Komensky (« Comenius ») (1592-1670) was above all a militant teacher, practicing « the universal art of teaching everything to everybody » (pan-sophia) and reckless source of inspiring enthusiasm.

One year after his death in 1670, Leibniz wrote of him: « time will come, Comenius, that honors will be offered to your works, to your hopes and even to the objects of your desires ».

In some domains, indeed, Comenius was Leibniz‘s precursor. First, he fought the fossilization of thought resulting from the dominant Aristotelianism: « Little time after that unification between Christ and Aristotle, the church fell into a pitiable state and became filled with the uproar of theological dispute ».

Strong defender of the free will that he didn’t see entirely in contradiction with an Augustinianconcept of predestination, he felt closer to John Huss than to Calvin, while generally labeled a « Calvinist » by historians.

In 1608, Comenius enters the Latin School of Prérov (Moravia), a school reorganized at the demand of Charles Zerotina on the model of the Calvinist school of Sankt-Gall in Switzerland. Zerotina was one of the key figures of the Bohemian nobility, promoter of the Church of Unity of Brethren, organizer of popular education and key leader of the international anti-Habsburg resistance. For example, in 1589 he lends a considerable amount of money to the French King Henri IV, which he meets in Rouen, France, in 1593 in support of ending the religious wars with the the Spanish.

Henri IV’s conversion to Catholicism (« Paris is worth a mass ») ruined Zerotina’s hope to reproach the Unity of Brethren with the French Huguenots. Befriended with Theodore de Bèze, which he met regularly when studying in Basel and Geneva, Zerotina sent Comenius to study at the Herborn University in Nassau. That University was founded in 1584 by Louis of Nassau, brother of William the Silent, the leader of the revolt of the Netherlands against Habsburg’s Spain. Louis of Nassau, a key international coordinator of the revolt was in permanent contact with the humanist Huguenot leader Gaspard de Coligny in France and with Walsingham, the chancellor of England’s Queen Elisabeth Ist.

Together with Zerotina, Comenius unleashed the revolt of Bohemia of 1618. After spending some time with the guerrilla forces for which he drew a map of Moravia, Comenius went into exile, as bishop of his church, the « Unity Brethren of Bohemia ».

Till his death, he was the soul of the Bohemian resistance, the gray eminence of the Diaspora and the guardian that prevented the Czech language from disappearing, since it was replaced by German in Bohemia. Since wars are only possible if large parts of the population remain uneducated, for Comenius education became the leading edge to fight for Peace.

Opposed to the Jesuit educators who consolidated their own power by education the elites only, Comenius, starting from his conviction that every individual is made in the living image of God, elaborated with great passion a very high level curriculum, which he wanted accessible to all, as he develops this in his « The Great Didactic » (1638).

Following the advice of Erasmus and Vivès, Comenius abolishes corporal punishment and decides to bring boys and girls in the same class. With him, a school needs to be available in every village, free of cost and open to everybody.

Breaking the division between intellectual and manual work, the schools were part-time technical workshops, anticipating France’s Ecole Polytechnique and the Arts et Metiers (technical school to perfect working people), completely oriented towards the joy of discovery. Leibniz idea of academies originated in Comenius’ schools and societies of friends.

For him, as for Leibniz, the body of physics couldn’t walk without the legs of metaphysics. Integrating that transcendence, he strongly rejected the very idea that nature was reducible to a mere aggregate defined by formal laws, and he adamantly lambasted Bacon, Galileo and Descartes for doing so. In stead, nature has to be looked to as a dynamic process defined by the becoming. That becoming is not repetitive, but permanent progression and potentialization: nature has a quality of development, tending towards self-accomplishment and harmony.

He was severely attacked by Descartes’ « Judgment of the Pansophical works » and mocked by Voltaire, who made him appear as Candide‘s naive philosophy teacher « Pangloss ».

Founder of modern pedagogy, he realized children are beings of affection, before becoming beings of reason. Up till those days, ignorant children were often seen as possessed by the devil, a devil which had to be beaten out of them. The French cardinal Pierre de Bérulle, founder of the Oratorians, reflected that mindset when he wrote that « infancy is the most vile and abject state of man’s nature after that of death ».

To make knowledge accessible to all, Comenius revolutionized the dogmas of that educational approach. In well-ordered classrooms, beautifully decorated with maps, classes would last only one hour covering all the domains one fiends in an engraving of Comenius: theology, manual works, music, astronomy, geometry, botany, printing, construction, painting and sculpture.

Comenius taught Latin, but was strongly convinced that every pupil had to master first his mother tongue. That was a total revolution, since up till then, Latin was taught in Latin, and to bad for those who didn’t understand already !

He also will also re-introduce illustrated textbooks (« The sensible world in images »)(1653), which had been stupidly banned from schools to « not invite the senses to disturb the intellect ». For Comenius, images have the same role as a telescope, displacing the field of perception beyond immediate limits.

His ideas, and especially the rapid successes of schools adopting his pedagogy attracted all of Europe and beyond. In 1642, Comenius was hired by Johan Skytte, the influential chancellor of the University of Uppsala, to reorganize the Swedish education system according to his principles. Skytte, an erudite Platonist inspired by Erasmus, will be Gustaphe Adolph’s preceptor and his son Bengt Skytte will be an influential teacher of Leibniz.

Before that job, Comenius discarded a similar offer originating from Richelieu of France and the offer that came from John Winthrop Junior from the United States who offered Comenius to preside Harvard University, newly founded in the Massachussetts Bay Colony of America.

Rembrandt and Forgiveness

To express in art that precise moment where love gives birth to pardon and repentance will be precisely one of Rembrandt’s favorite subjects. The fact that he choose the name Titus for his son, after the roman emperor who supposedly had showed great clemency toward the early Christians, demonstrates that point. But Titus was also the name of a bishop of Creta who was a close collaborator of Apostle Paul.

Rembrandt was fascinated by the figure of Saint-Paul, who used to be after all a roman officer who, through his conversion, showed the possible transformation of each individual for the better, capable of becoming a militant for the good.

Self-portrait as Paul the Apostle.

Rembrandt’s self-portrait of the Rijksmuseum, with the famous « ghost-image » of a badly lit dagger nearly planted his breast supposedly represent him as Saint-Paul, traditionally represented defending Christian faith with the scripture in one hand and the sword in the other.

The bible in the armored hand do appear in that painting, but the sword here seems more as a dagger, suggesting an eventual reference to the name given by Erasmus to his Christian’s manual, the « Enchiridion » after the Greek word egkheiridion (dagger).

The Prodigal Son

In one of Rembrandt’s late works, the « Return of the prodigal son », despite the fact that the work was completed by a pupil, we see how profoundly he dealt with precisely that subject. The expressiveness of the figures is amplified by the nearly life-size representation on the wide canvas (262 x 205 cm).

The father’s eyes, plunged in interior vision, look yonder the small passage by which the son hasarrived, as doubting of the happiness that overwhelms him, since his son « who was dead », « came back to life ».

The son, who installs his convicts head on the father’s abdomen, engages in the act of total repentance. The naked foot who leaves behind the rotten shoe, communicates in a metaphorical way that sinners deed of repentance, offering what he has inside. The father embraces his son by putting his pardoning hands on his shoulders, while the jealous brothers stand by wondering and enraged why so much love is given to the son « who had spoiled the fathers good with prostitutes ».

Three observations indicate Comenius person and thought might have inspired this work.

First, according to all available portraits, the face of the father shows heavy resemblance with the treats of Comenius himself, a well known militant for peace based on repentance and pardon which Rembrandt probably met frequently during that period.

Second, and after a second look, the son doesn’t look European at all, but actually Negroid, which would add to the painting some critical thoughts on the widely practiced slavery of the European powers of those days.

To conclude, one could interpret the parable of the prodigal son in a much larger sense: is this not man itself, son of God, who returns to his father after having wandered on the roads of sin? Comenius, after a moment of nearly total desperation uses that same image in his book The labyrinth of the world and the paradise of the hearth (1623).

Similar to the image employed by the Dutch painter Hieronymous Bosch, in his « ambulant salesman », man gets lost in the multiplicity of the world that leads him to self-destruction, but after a crisis decides to regain divine unity.

In order to add still another dimension to the discussion on the quality of love involved in art, it is useful to contrast our master with the works of the most talented belonging to the tradition of his detractors: Peter-Paul Rubens.

Rembrandt, Rubens and other Philistines

But before investigating Rubens, it is appropriate to consider the following. Despite the fact that Rembrandt came out of the immense intellectual ferment of the late sixteenth century University of Leiden, one of the cradle’s of humanism, one cannot escape the fact that his lashing career would have infatuated many.

Remember, Constantijn Huygens « discovered Rembrandt » in 1629, while still a young millers son running a small boutique with Jan Lievens, asking them to come to Amsterdam and work for the government. (*10).

Rembrandt’s « patron » nevertheless would write without blushing in his diary Mijn Jeugd (my youth) that Peter Paul Rubens, the Flemish baroque painter was « one of the seven marvels of the world ».

Rubens was, before everything else, the talented standard bearer of the « enemy » Counterreformation and its Jesuits army, whose admiration made Rembrandt totally uncomfortable. How could this virtuoso painter be seen as the brightest star on the firmament of painting? According to some, Huygens was looking for « a Dutch Rubens », capable of making shine the « elites » of the nation.

Samson blinded by the Philistines, Rembrandt.

Rembrandt at one point got so irritated with Huygens’ shortsightedness that he
offered him a large painting called Samson blinded by the Philistines. The work, a pastiche of the violent style, painted « à la Rubens », shows roman soldiers gouging out Samson’s eye with a dagger. Did Rembrandt suggest that his Republic (the strong giant) and its representatives were blinded by their own philistinism?

When a little Page becomes a great Leporello

Rembrandt perfectly translates the feeling of revulsion any honest Dutch patriot would have felt in front of Rubens. Had the Dutch elites already forgotten that Peter Paul’s father, Jan Rubens, once a Calvinist city councilor of Antwerp close to the leadership of the revolt of the Netherlands, had severely damaged the integrity of the father of the fatherland by engaging in an extra-conjugal relationship with Anna of Saxen, the unstable spouse of William the Silent?

Humiliated, but with courage and determination, Rubens mother fought as a lioness to free her husband from an uncertain jail. Her son Peter Paul, could not but become the calculated instrument of vengeance against the protestants and an indispensable tool to do away the blame hanging over the family. Hence, at the age of twelve, Peter Paul was sent to the special college of Romualdus Verdonck, a private school specifically designed to train the shock troops of the Counterreformation.

From there on, Rubens becomes a pageboy at the little court of Marguerite de Ligne, countess de Lalaing at Oudenaarde, whose descendants still form the Royal blood of today’s Belgium. As a kid, Rubens copied the biblical images of the woodprints of Holbein and the Swiss engraver Tobias Stimmer. After two waves of iconoclasm (1566 and 1581), the Counterreformation was very eager to recruit image-makers of all kinds, but under strict regulations specified by the final session of the Council of Trent in 1563. (*12).

After a short training by Abraham van Noort, Rubens career was boosted by his entering of the workshop of Otto van Veen. Born in Leiden in 1556 and trained by the Jesuits, « Venius » was the pupil of the master-courtier Federico Zuccari in Rome. Zuccari was the court painter of Habsburg’s Philippe II of Spain and the founder of the « Accademia di San Luca ». Traveling from court to court, Venius succeeded in getting the favors of Alexander Farnèse, the malign Spanish governor in charge of occupying Flanders.

Farnèse, who actually organized the successful assassination of the father of the Netherlands, the erasmian humanist William the Silent in 1584, nominated Venius as his court painter and as engineer of the Royal armies.

Furthermore, Venius will be the man who opened Rubens mind on Antiquity and together they will read and comment classical authors in Latin. Especially, he will show Rubens that an artist, if he wants to attain glory during his lifetime, must appeal a little bit to his talent and a very much to the powerful.

In Italia

In may 1600, Rubens rides his horse to Venice. In June, during Carnival he encounters the Duke of Mantua, Vincent of Gonzague, who is the cousin of archduke Albert who is ruling then Flanders with Isabella since 1598.

The duke of Mantua, the oligarchic type Mozart portrays in his « Don Giovanni » and Verdi explicitly in « Rigoletto », was very fond at the idea to add a « fiamminghi » to his stable.

The court of Mantua, in a competition of magnificence with other courts, notably those of Milan, Florence or Ferrare, employed once the painter Mantegna, the architect Leon Battista Alberti and the codifier of courtly manners Baldassare Castiglione. At the times of Rubens, the court paid the living of poet Torquato Tasso and the composer Monteverdi which wrote in Mantua his « Orpheus » and « Ariane » in 1601.

Galileo was also one of the guests for a short period in 1606. But especially, the Duke had in his possession one of the largest collections of works of art of that period, and his agents in Italy and all over the world were in charge of identifying new works worth becoming part of the collection.

Circle of friends in Mantua, Rubens.

An inventory of 1629 lists three Titian’s, two Raphael’s, one Veronese, one Tintoretto, eleven Giulio Romano’s, three Mantegna’s, two Corregia’s and one Andrea del Sarto amidst others. Similar to Giulio Romano who became the mere instrument of the « scourge of the princes » Pietro Aretino, our Flemish painter became just another Leporello, an obligingly « valet » enslaved by the Duke.

When we look to his self-portrait with his Circle of friends in Mantua, we see a fearful man, who « became somebody » because surrounded by « people who made it » and recognized by the powerful.

In Espagna

Immediately the Duke gave Rubens a truly Herculean task: transport a quite sophisticated present to Philippe III and his prime minister the Duke of Lerma from Mantua to Madrid. On top of a little chariot specially designed for hunting and several boxes of perfume, the core of the present consisted of not less then forty copies of the best paintings of the Duke’s private collection, notably some Raphael‘s and Titians. On top, Rubens’ mission was « to paint the fanciest women of Spain » during his trip. While his patron in Mantua whines for his return, Rubens will deploy his seductive capabilities at the Spanish court which looked far more promising to his career.

Back in Italy, his immediate going to Rome seems an opportune move, since in these days Barocci was held for to old, Guido Reni for to young. Also, Annibale Carracci appeared out of order since suffering from melancholic apoplexies while Caravagio, accused of murder, was hiding on the properties of his patrons, the Colonna’s.

But essentially, Rubens goes to the holy city because he’s enthusiastically promoted there by the Genovese cardinal Giacoma Serra, very impressed by the « splendid portraits » of women Rubens painted for the Spinola-Doria dynasty in Genoa.

Nevertheless, hearing about the imminent death of his mother, Rubens rushes to Antwerp, and after much a hesitation settles his workshop there, far at a distance from the centers of power, but close to the fabulous privileges he obtains from the Spanish regents over the Netherlands, Albrecht and Isabella.

In Antwerpia

Rubens house in Antwerp (reconstruction of 1910)

These advantages were such that conspiracy-theorist see them as sufficient proof that there was a blueprint to kill the soul of the Erasmian spirit in Christian painting in the region.

First, Rubens will receive 500 guilders per year without any obligation concerning his artistic output except the double portrait of the rulers, any supplementary order necessitating separate payment.

Next, Rubens obtains a status permitting him to bypass the regulations and obligations of the Saint-Luc painters guild, particularly the rule that limits the number of pupils and the amount of their salary. And since a lot is never enough, Rubens obtains a tax-exemption status in Antwerp! As a real patrician he orders the building of his palace.

Broken down long time ago, and for whatever reasons, one has to observe that it was during the times of Flemish collaboration with Hitler’s Germany (from 1938 to 1946) that his Genovese modeled resort, temporarily recreated in 1910 for the Universal Exposition in Brussels, will be entirely rebuild after the engravings of Jacobus Harrewijn of 1692, decorated as the original and the interior filled with fitting old furniture (*14).

It is true that his enthusiasm for opulent blondes and violent action was interpreted by Nazi historians as the expression of profound sympathy for the Nordic races, while his visual energy was seen as the antithesis of « degenerated » art. The Rubens cult in Antwerp might tell us something interesting about the recurrent rise of rightwing extremism in that city.

Propaganda Genius

Rubens feat was to « merchandize » the ruling taste of the oligarchy of his time. Similar to the German filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl under Hitler, Rubens became the genial producer of their propaganda. Precocious child and brilliant draughtsman, he had spent hours and hours working after Italian collections and bas-reliefs in the ruins of Rome.

Since the « Warrior-pope » Julius II and Leo X took over the Vatican, art had to submit to the dictatorship of the degenerated taste of imperial Rome. Eight years of work, from 1600 to 1608, in Genoa, Mantua, Florence, Rome, without forgetting Madrid, with free access to nearly all the great collections of antiquities and paintings of the old families, enabled Rubens to constitute a « data-base », whose fructification will generate the bulk of his fortune.

Specialists do point easily to the unending stream of visual quotes identified in his works. A group of Michelangelo in « The Baptism of Christ » (Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp); a pose of Raphael’s Aristotle in the School of Athens in his « St-Gregory with St-Domitilla, St-Maurus and Papianus » (Gemäldegalerie, Berlin) or one of his Madonna’s in « The fall of man » (Rubenshuis, Antwerp), without forgetting a head of the Laocone in the « Elevation of the Cross » (Cathedral, Antwerp) or the « contraposto » of a Venus coming straight away from a roman statuary in « The union of Earth and Water » (Hermitage, Saint-Petersburg). (*11).

The Tulip, Seneca plus Ultra

The four philosophers, Rubens.

The desire to be accepted by the ruling oligarchs becomes even clearer when we discover his admiration for Seneca.

Through his education and under the influence of his brother Philippe, Peter Paul Rubens will become a fanatical follower of the Roman neo-stoic Seneca (4 BC – 65 AC). In his painting The four philosophers, Rubens paints himself standing, once again « on the map » with those who got a chair at the table.

With a view on the palatine hill in the background, site of the Apollo cult considered the authentic Rome, we see his brother Philippe, a renowned jurist, sitting across the leading stoic ideologue of those days, Justus Lipsius and his pupil Wowerius, all situated beneath a niche filled with a bust of Seneca honored by a vase with four tulips, two of them closed, and the other two opened.

Originally from Persia, the tulip bulb was brought from Turkey to Europe by an Antwerp diplomat in 1560. Its culture degenerated rapidly from a hobby for gentleman-botanist into the immense collective folly known as the Tulip Mania and « tulip-bubble » or « Windhandel » (wind-trade).

That gigantic speculative bubble bursted in Haarlem on February 2, 1637, while some days earlier, a tulip with the name of « vice-roy » went for 2500 guilders, paid in real goods being two units of wheat and four of rye, four fat calves, eight pigs, a dozen of sheep, two barrels of wine, four tons of butter, a thousand pounds of cheese, a bed and a silver kettle drum (*14).

« Rubens in his garden with Helena Fourment »

As can be seen in his painting Rubens in his garden with Helena Fourment, Rubens was not indifferent to that highly profitable business. Behind the master and his spouse, appears discretely behind a tree in Rubens garden a rich field of tulips!

But in the « Four philosophers », the tulip is nothing else than a metaphor of the « Brevity of life », an essay of Seneca.

The latter, tutor of Nero, preached a Roman form of sharp cynicism known under the label of fatum (fatality): to rise to (Roman) grandeur, man must cultivate absolute resignation. By an active retreat of oneself on oneself and by a obstinate denegation of a threatening and absurd world, man discovers his over-powerful self. That power even increases, if the self decides that death means nothing.

At the opposite of Socrates, who accepted to die for giving birth to the truth, Seneca makes his suicide his main existential deed. Waiting for his hour, his job is to steer his boredom by managing alternating pleasures and pains in a world where good and bad have no more sense.

As all cases of radical Aristotelianism, that philosophy, or « art of life » steers us in the hell of dualism, separating « reason », cleaned from any emotion, from the unbridled horses driving our senses. These two ways of being unfree makes us a double fool. Rubens fronts for that philosophy in his work Drunk Silenus.

Drunk Silenus, Rubens.

The excess of alcohol evacuates all reason and brings man back to his bestial state, a state which Rubens considers natural. Instead of being a polemic, the painting reveals all the complacency of the painter-courtier with the concept of man being enslaved by blind passion. Instead of fighting it, as Friedrich Schiller outlines the case repeatedly and most explicitly in his « On the Esthetical Education of Mankind », Rubens cultivates that dualism and takes pleasure in it. And sincerely tries to recruit the viewer to that obscene and degrading worldview.

Peace IS war

Peace and War, Rubens.

As an example of « allegories », let us look for a moment at Rubens canvas Peace and War.

Above all, that painting is nothing but a glittering « business-card » as one understands knowing the history of the painting. At one point, Rubens, who had become a diplomat thanks to his international relations, organized successfully the conclusion of a peace-treaty between Spain and England (which collapsed fairly soon).

Repeating that for him « peace » was based on the unilateral capitulation of the Netherlands (reunification of the Catholic south with the North ordered to abandon Protestantism), he succeeded entering the Spanish diplomatic servicesomething pretty unusual for a Flemish subject, in particular during the revolt of the Netherlands.

Following this diplomatic success, the painter is threefold knighted: by the Court of Madrid to which he presents a demand to obtain Spanish nationality; by the Court of Brussels and also by the King of England!

Before leaving that country, he offers his painting « Peace and War » to King Charles. The canvas goes as follows: Mars is repelled by wisdom, represented as Minerva, the goddess protecting Rome. Peace is symbolized by a woman directing the flow of milk spouting out of her breast towards the mouth of a little Pluto. In the mean time a satyr with goat hooves displays the corn of abundance…

On the far left, a blue sky enters on stage while on the right the clouds glide away as carton accessories of a theatre. Rubens main argument here for peace is not a desire for justice, but the increase of pleasures and gratifications resulting from the material objects which men could accumulate under peace arrangements! Ironically, seen the cupidity of the ruling Dutch elites, which Rembrandt would lambaste uncompromisingly, it seems that Rubens might have succeeded in convincing these elites to sell the Republic for a handful of tulips. If only his art would have been something else then self-glorification! Here, his style is purely didactical, copied from the Italian mannerism Leonardo despised so much.

Instead of using metaphors capable to make people think and discover ideas, the art of Rubens is to illustrate symbolized allegories. The beauty of an invisible idea has never, and can not be brought to light by this insane iconographical approach. His « style » will be so impersonal that dozens of assistants, real slave laborers, will be generously used for the expansion of his enterprise.

King Christian IV’s physician, Otto Sperling, who visits Rubens in 1621 reported:

« While still painting he was hearing Tacitus read aloud to him and at the same time was dictating a letter. When we kept silent so as not to disturb him with our talk, he himself began to talk to us while still continuing to work, to listen to the reading and to dictate his letter, answering our questions and then displaying his astonishing power. »

« Then he charged a servant to lead us through his magnificent palace and to show us his antiquities and Greek and Roman statues which he possessed in considerable number. We then saw a broad studio without windows, but which captured the light of the day through an aperture in the ceiling. There, were united a considerable amount of young painters occupied each with a different work of which M. Rubens had produced the design by his pencil, heightened with colors at certain points. These models had to be executed completely in paint by the young people till finally, M. Rubens administered with his own hand the final touch.

« All these works came along as painted by Rubens himself, and the man, not satisfied to merely accumulate an immense fortune by operating in this manner, has been overwhelmed with honors and presents by kings and princes ». (*15).

We know, for example, that between 1609 and 1620, not less than sixty three altars were fabricated by « Rubens, Inc. ». In 1635, in a letter to his friend Pereisc, when the thirty years war is ravaging Europe, Rubens states cynically « let us leave the charge of public affairs to those who’s job it is ».

The painter asks and obtains a total discharge of his public responsibilities the same year while retiring to enjoy a private life with his new young partner.

Painter of Agapè, versus painter of Eros

Being a human, Rembrandt correctly had thousand reasons to be allergic to Rubens. The latter was not simply « on the wrong side » politically, but produced an art inspiring nothing but lowness: portraits designated to flatter the pride of the mighty by making shine and glitter some shabby gentry; history scenes being permanent apologies of Roman fascism where, under the varnish of pseudo-Catholicism, the alliance of the violent forces of nature and iron-cold reason dominated. Behind the « art of living » of Seneca, there stood the brutal methods of manipulation of the perfect courtier described by Baldassare Castiglione in his « Courtier ». For courtly ethics, everything stands with balance (sprezzatura) and appearance, and behind the mask of nice epithets operates the savage passions of seduction, possession, rape and power-games.

On the opposite, Rembrandt is the pioneer of interiority, of the creative sovereignty of each individual. To show the beauty of that interiority, why not underline paradoxically exterior ugliness?

In the « Old man and young boy » of Domenico Ghirlandajo, an imperfect appearance unveils a splendid beauty. The old man has a terribly looking nose, but the visual exchange between him and the boy shows a quality of love which transcends both of them. At the opposite of Seneca, they don’t contemplate the « brevity of life », but the longevity or « immortality of the soul ».

Martin Luther King, in a sermon tries equally to define these different species of love. After defining Eros (carnal love), and Philia (brotherly love), he says:

« And then the Greek language comes out with another word. It’s the word agape. Agape is more than Eros; it’s more than an aesthetic or romantic love; it is more than friendship. Agape is understanding, creative, redemptive goodwill for all men. It is an overflowing love which seeks nothing in return. Theologians would say that it is the love of God operating in the human heart. And so when one rises to love on this level, he loves every man, not because he likes him, not because his ways appeal to him, but he loves every man because God loves him, and he rises to the level of loving the person who does an evil deed, while hating the deed that the person does. » (*17)

Then, King shows how that love intervenes into the political domain:

« If I hit you and you hit me and I hit you back and you hit me back and go on, you see, that goes on ad infinitum. It just never ends. Somewhere somebody must have a little sense, and that’s the strong person.

The strongperson is the person who can cut off the chain of hate, the chain of evil. And that is the tragedy of hate, that it doesn’t cut it off. It only intensifies the existence of hate and evil in the universe. Somebody must have religion enough and morality enough to cut it off and inject within the very structure of the universe that strong and powerful element of love. »

You probably understood our point here. Martin Luther King, in his battle for justice, was living in the same « temporal eternity » as Rembrandt and Comenius opposing the thirty years war. Isn’t that a most astonishing truth: that the most powerful political weapon at man’s disposal is nothing but transforming universal love, over more available to everyone on simple demand? But to become a political weapon, that universal love cannot remain a vague sentiment or fancy romantic concept. Strengthened by reason, Agapè can only reach height with the wings of philosophy.

Rembrandt and Comenius knew that « secret », which will remain a secret for the oligarchs, if they remain what they are. »

The Little Fur

Another comparison between two paintings will make the difference even more clearer between Eros and Agapè: Het pelsken (the little fur) of Rubens (left) and Hendrickje bathing in a river of Rembrandt (right).

That comparison has a particular significance since the two paintings show the young wives of both painters. At the age of fifty-three Rubens remarried the sixteen year old Helena Fourment, while Rembrandt settled at the age of forty-three with the twenty-two year old Hendrickje Stoffels.

The naked Helena Fourment, with staring eyes, and while effecting an hopeless gesture of pseudo-chastity, pulls a black fur coat over her shoulders. The stark color contrast between the pale body skin and the deep dark fur, a typical baroque dramatic touch of Rubens, unavoidably evokes basic instincts. No wonder that this canvas was baptized the « little fur » by those who composed the catalogues.

However, paradoxically, Hendrickje is lifting her skirt to walk in the water, but entirely free from any erotic innuendo! Her hesitating, tender steps in the refreshing water seem dominated by her confident smile. Here, the viewer is not some « Peeping Tom » intruding into somebody’s private life, but another human being invited to share a moment of beauty and happiness.

Suzanne and the Elderly

Another excellent example is the way the two painters paint the story of Suzanne and the elderly. Comenius, was so impassioned by this story that in 1643 he called his daughter Zuzanna in 1646 his son Daniel. This Biblical parable (Daniel 13) deals with a strong notion of justice, quite similar to the one already developed in Greece by Sophocles Antigone. In both cases, in the name of a higher law, a young woman defies the laws of the city.

In her private garden, far from intruding viewers, the beautiful Suzanne gets watched on by two judges which will try to blackmail her: or you submit to our sexual requests, or we will accuse you of adultery with a young man which just escaped from here! Suzanne starts shouting and refuses to submit to their demands. The next day, Suzanne gets accused publicly by the judges (the strongest) in front of her family, but Daniel, a young man convinced of her innocence, takes her defense and unmasks the false proofs forged by the judges. At the end, the judges receive the sentence initially slated for Suzanne.

Suzanna and the Elder, Rubens.

In the Rubens painting, a voluptuous Suzanne lifts her desperate eyes imploring divine help from heaven. The image incarnates the dominant but
insane ideology of both Counterreformation Catholicism and radical Protestantism: the denial of the free will, and thus of the incapacity to obtain divine grace through one’s acting for the good. For the Calvinist/protestant ideologues, the soul was predestinated for good or evil. Reacting by a simple inversion to the crazy indulgences, it was « logical » that no earthly action could « buy » divine grace. So whatever one did, whatever our commitment for doing the good on earth, nothing could derail God’s original design. The Counterreformation Catholics thought pretty much the same, except that one could claim God’s indulgence in the context of the rites of the Roman Catholic Church, especially by paying the indulgences: « No salvation outside the church ».

Suzanne and the elderly, Rembrandt.

In a spectacular way, Rembrandt’s Suzanne and the elderly reinstates the real evangelical Christian humanist standpoint: a chaste Suzanne looks straight in the eyes of the viewer which is witnessing the terrible injustice happening right under his nos. So, will you be the new Daniel? Will you find the courage to intervene against the laws of the State to defend a « Divine » justice? Hence, agapè is that infinite love for justice and truth, that leads you to courageous action and makes you a sublime personality capable of changing history, in the same way Antigone, Jeanne d’Arc, or Suzanne did before.

Plato versus Aristotle

The fact that Rembrandt was a philosopher is regularly put into question, even denied. The inventory of his goods, established when his enemies forced him into bankruptcy in 1654, doesn’t mention any book outside a huge bible, supposedly establishing a legitimate suspicion of him being near to illiteracy. While romanticized biographies portray him as an accursed poet, a narcissistic genius or the simple-minded mystical visionary son of a miller, a comment in 1641 from the artist Philips Angel underscores, not his painting, but Rembrandt’s « elevated and profound reflection ».

Aristotle contemplating Homer’s bust, Rembrandt.

It is Aristotle contemplating Homer’s bust, which demonstrates once and for ever how stupid the Romantics can be. Ordered by an Italian nobleman, the painting shows Aristotle as a Venetian aristocrat, as a perfect courtier: with a wide white shirt, a large black hat and especially carrying a heavy golden chain.

In short, clothed as Castiglione, Aretino, Titian and Rubens… Rembrandt shows here his intimate knowledge of the species nature of Plato’s enemies of the Republic, that oligarchy to whom Aristotelianism became a quasi-religion.

With great irony, the canvas completely mocks knowledge derived from the « blind » submittal to sense perception. Here Rembrandt seems to join Erasmus of Rotterdam saying « experience is the school of fools! ».

Equipped with empty eyes, incapable of perception, Aristotle is groping with an uncertain hand Homer’s head of which he was supposedly a knowledgeable commentator. Homer, the Greek poet who turned blind, stares worriedly to Aristotle with the open eyes of mind.

That inversion of the respective roles of Aristotle and Homer is dramatized by situating the source enlightening the scene as a tangent behind the bust of the poet.

Light reflections illuminating Aristotle’s hat underneath make appear the ironical « ghost image » of donkey ears, the conventional attribute widely used since the Renaissance to designate the stubbornness of scholastic Aristotelianism.

To this Aristotelian blindness, Rembrandt, whose own father became blind, opposes the other clear-sightedness of Simeon, as seen in his last painting, found on Rembrandt’s easel after his death.

All during his life, Simeon had wished to see the Christ with his own eyes. But, growing old, that hope quitted him with along with his sight. As he did every day, Simeon went one day to the temple. There, Maria asked him to keep her child in his arms. Suddenly, an infinite joy
overwhelmed Simeon, who, without seeing Christ with his mortal eyes, saw him much more clearly with his mind than all the healthy seers. Rembrandt wanted us to reflect on that conviction: don’t believe what you see, but act coherently with God’s design and you might see him. On Simeon’s hands, a series of dashes of paint suggest some kind of crystal ball, an image which only « appears » when our minds dares to see it, underlining Simeon’s prophetic nature.

Jesus Christ healing the sick

Christ healing the sick, etching, Rembrandt.

Rembrandt’s anti-Aristotelian philosophy is also explicitly manifest in an engraving known as Christ healing the sick, an exceptionally large etching on which he worked passionately over a six year period. In order to « sculpt » the ambiguous image of the Christ, son of both God and mankind, Rembrandt executed six oil portraits featuring young rabbi’s of Amsterdam. But it was Leonardo’s fresco, the Last Supper, which Rembrandt extensively studied as shown by drawings done after reproductions, that seems to have been his starting point.

Scientific analysis of his still existing copperplate indicate that the Christ’s hands were originally drawn as an exact imitation of Leonardo’s « Last Supper » fresco.

Completely different from the kind of « spotlight theatrics » that go from Caravagio to Hitchcock, the work reminds the description of the myth of the cavern in Plato’s Republic. But here stands the Christ blessing the sick.

Transfigured, and akin to the prisoners in Beethoven’s opera Fidelio, the sick people walk from right to left towards Christ. Encountering the light transforms them into philosophers!

One generally identifies easily, amidst others, Homer and Aristotle (who’s turning his head away from Christ), but also Erasmus and Saint-Peter, which according to some possesses here the traits of Socrates.

The etching brings together in a single instant eternal several sequences of Chapter XIX of Saint Mathew:

“Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

In a powerful gesture, Christ brushes aside even the best of all wise wisdom to make his love the priority, where Peter desperately tries to prevent the children from being presented to Jesus.

Sitting close to him we observe the image of an undecided young wealthy man plunged in profound doubts, since he desired eternal life but hesitated to sell his possessions and give it all to the poor.

When he left, Jesus commented that it was certainly easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the his kingdom.

Above simple earthly space situated in clock-ticking time, the action takes place in « the time of all times », an instantaneous eternity where human minds are measured with universality, some kind of « last judgment » of divine and philosophical consciousness.

The healing of the sick souls and bodies is the central breaking point which articulates the two universes, the one of sin and suffering, with the one of the good and happiness. Christ’s love, metaphorized as light, heals the « sick » and makes philosopher-kings out of them. They appear nearly as apostles and figure exactly on the same level as the apostles of Leonardo‘s milan fresco The last Supper. Brought out of darkness into the light, they become themselves sources of light capable of illuminating many others.

That « light of Agapè » is the single philosophical basis of Rembrandt’s revolution in the techniques of oil-painting: in stead of starting drawing and paint on a white gesso underground or lightly colored under-paint (the so-called priming, eventually adding imprimatura), all the later works are painted on a dark, even black under-paint!

The « modern » thick impasto, possible through the use of Venetian turpentine and the integration of bee wax, are revived by Rembrandt from the ancient « encaustic » techniques described by Pliny the Elder. They were employed by the School of Sycione three hundred years before Christ and gave us Alexander the Great‘s court painter Apelles, and the Fayoum mommy paintings in Alexandria, Egypt (*17).

Building the color-scale inversely permitted Rembrandt to reduce his late palette to only six colors and made him into a « sculptor of light ». His indirect pupil, Johannes Vermeer, systemized Rembrandt’s revolutionary discovery (*18).

Deprived of much earthly glory during their lives, Rembrandt and Comenius were immediately scrapped from official history by the oligarchic monsters that survived them. But their lives represent important victories for humanity. Their political, philosophical, esthetical and pedagogical battles against the oligarchy and its « valets » as Rubens, makes them eternal.

They are and will remain inexhaustible sources of inspiration for today’s and tomorrows combat.

NOTES:

  1. Karel Vereycken, « Rembrandt, bâtisseur de nation« , Nouvelle Solidarité, June 1985.
  2. The treatises of Westphalia (Munster and Osnabruck) of 1648, and the ensuing separate peace accords between France and the Netherlands with Spain, finally shred into pieces every political, philosophical and juridical argument serving as basis of the notion of empire, and by doing so put an end to Habsburg’s imperial fantasy, the « Thirty years war ». As some had outlined before, notably French King Henry IV’s great advisor Sully in his concept of « Grand Design », making the sovereign nation-state the highest authority for international law was, and remains today, the only safe road to guaranty durable peace. Empires, by definition, mean nothing but perpetual wars. If you want perpetual war, create an empire! Hence, through this revolution, small countries obtained the same rights as those held by large ones and the notions of big= strong, and small=weak, went out of the window. The Hobbesian idea that « might makes right » was abolished and replaced by mutual cooperation as the sole basis of international relations between sovereign nation-states. Hence, tiny Republics, as Switzerland or the Netherlands,the latter at war with Spain for nearly eighty years, finally obtained peace and international recognition. Second, and that’s undoubtedly the most revolutionary part of the agreements, mutual pardon became the core of the peace accords. For example paragraph II stipulated explicitly « that there shall be on the one side and the other a perpetual Oblivion, Amnesty or Pardon of all that has been committed since the beginning of these Troubles, in what place, or what manner soever the Hostilitys have been practis’d, in such a manner, that no body, under any pretext whatsoever, shall practice any Acts of Hostility, entertain any Enmity, or cause any Trouble to each other; » (translation: Foreign Office, London). Moreover, several paragraphs (XIII, XXXV, XXXVII, etc.) stipulate (with some exceptions) that there will be a general debt forgiveness concerning financial obligations susceptible of maintaining a dynamic of perpetual vengeance. In reality, the Peace of Westphalia was the birth of new political order, based on the creation of a new international economic and monetary system necessary to build peace on the ruins of the bankrupt imperial order.
  3. Footnote, p. 77 in Comenius by Olivier Cauly, Editions du Félin, Paris, 1995.
  4. Brochure dealing with that painting published by the Nationalmuseum of Stockholm.
  5. To put to an end to the politically motivated financial harassment which was organized by the family of his deceased wife, Saskia van Uylenburgh, Rembrandt submits on July 14, 1656 to the Dutch High Court a cessio bonorum (Cessation of goods to the profit of the creditors), accepting the sale of his goods. In 1660, Rembrandt abandons the official management of his art trading society to his wife Hendrickje Stoffels and his son Titus.
  6. p. 105, Henriette L.T.de Beaufort, in Rembrandt, HDT Willinck & Zoon, Harlem, 1957.
  7. p. 358, Samuel Hartlib and Universal Reformation, Cambridge University Press, 1994.
  8. p. 12-13, Bob van den Bogaert, in « Goethe & Rembrandt », Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam 1999.
  9. p. 25, Marcelle Denis in Comenius, pédagogies & pédagogues, Presse Universitaire de France, 1994.
  10. Constantijn Huygens (1596-1687), was an exceptional precocious erudite. Politician, scientist, moralist, music composer, he played the violin at the age of six, wrote poems in Dutch, Latin, French, Spanish, English and Greek. His satire, « ‘t Kostelick Mal » (expensive folly), opposed to the « Profijtelijk Vermaak » (profitable amusement) makes great fun of courtly manners and the then rampant beaumondism. His son, Christiaan Huygens was a brilliant scientist and collaborator of Leibniz at the Paris Academy of sciences.
  11. One has to outline shortly here that contrary to the rule of the Greek canon of proportions (height of man = seven heads and a half), the Romans, as Leonardo seems to observe sourly in his drawing reworking Vitrivius, increase the body size up to eight and sometimes many more heads. It was the Greek canon established after the « Doryphore » of Polycletius, which settled the matter much earlier after many Egyptian inquiries on these matters. Leonardo, who wasn’t a fool, realized Vitruvius proportions (8 heads) are wrong, as can be seen by the two belly-buttons appearing in the famous man bounded by square and circle. Hence, the proportional « reduction » of the head was an easy trick to create the illusion of a stronger, more powerful musculature. That image of a biological man displaying « small head, big muscles » supposedly stood as the ultimate expression of Roman heroism. Foreknowledge of this arrangement permits the viewer to identify accurately what philosophy the painter is adhering to: Greek humanist or Roman oligarch? That Rubens chose Rome rather than Athens, leaves no doubt, as proven by his love for Seneca.
  12. « The holy Council states that it isn’t permitted to anybody, in any place or church, to install or let be installed an unusual image, unless it has been approved so by the bishop »; « finally any indecency shall be avoided, of that sort that the images will not be painted or possess ornaments of provoking beauty… » P. 1575-77, t. II-2, in G. Alberigo, « The ecumenical Councils », quoted by Alain Taton (p. 132) in « The Council of Trent », editions du CERF, Paris, 2000.
  13. p. 172, Simon Schama, in his magnificent Rembrandt’s eyes, Knopf, New York, 1999.
  14. For a more elaborate description of the tulip-bubble, Simon Schama, p. 471, « L’embarras de richesses, La culture hollandaise au Siècle d’Or », Gallimard, Paris, 1991.
  15. p. 117, Otto Sperling, Christian IV’s doctor, quoted by Marie-Anne Lescouret in her biography Pierre-Paul Rubens, J.C. Lattès, Paris, 1990.
  16. « Love your enemies », sermon of Martin Luther King, November 17, 1957, Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Montgomery, Alabama. Quoted in Martin Luther King, Minuit, quelqu’un frappe à la porte, p.63, Bayard, Paris 1990.
  17. p. 87-88, Karel Vereycken, in The gaze from beyond, Fidelio, Vol. VIII, n°2, summer 1999.
  18. Johannes Vermeer of Delft was a close friend of Karel Fabritius, the most outstanding pupil of Rembrandt, who died at the age of thirty-four when the powderkeg of Delft exploded. Vermeer became the executor of his last will, a role generally reserved for the closest friend or relative. Anthonie van Leeuwenhoek, the inventor of the microscope and Leibniz correspondent, will become in turn the executor of Vermeer’s last will. That filiation does nothing more than prove the constant cross-fertilization of the artistic and scientific milieu. The Dutch « intimist » school, of which Vermeer is the most accomplished representative, is the most explicit expression of a « metaphysical » transcendence, transposed for political reasons, from the domain of religion, into the beauty of daily life scenes.

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY:

  • Baudiquey, Paul, Le retour du prodigue, Editions Mame, 1995, Paris.
  • Bély, Lucien, L’Europe des Traités de Westphalie, esprit de la diplomatie et diplomatie de l’esprit, Presses Universitaires de France, Paris, 2000.
  • Callot, Jacques, etchings, Dover, New York, 1974.
  • Castiglione, Baldassare, Le Livre du Courtisan, GF-Flammarion, 1991.
  • Cauly, Olvier, Comenius, Editions du Félin, Paris, 1995.
  • Clark, Kenneth, An introduction to Rembrandt, Readers Union, Devon, 1978.
  • Comenius, La Grande Didactique, Editions Klincksieck, Paris, 1992.
  • Denis, Marcelle, Comenius, Presses Universitaires de France, Paris 1994.
  • Descargues, Pierre, Rembrandt, JC Lattès, 1990.
  • Goethe Rembrandt, Tekeningen uit Weimar, Amsterdam University Press, 1999.
  • Grimberg, Carl, Histoire Universelle, Marabout Université, Verviers, 1964.
  • Haak, B., Rembrandt, zijn leven, zijn werk, zijn tijd, De Centaur, Amsterdam.
  • Hobbes, Thomas, Le Citoyen ou les fondements de la politique, Garnier Flammarion, Paris, 1982.
  • Jerlerup, Törbjorn, Sweden und der Westphalische Friede, Neue Solidarität, mai 2000.
  • King, Martin Luther, Minuit, quelqu’un frappe à la porte, Bayard, Paris, 2000.
  • Komensky, Jan Amos, Le labyrinthe du monde et le paradis du cœur, Desclée, Paris, 1991.
  • Lescourret, Marie Anne, Pierre-Paul Rubens, JC Lattès, Paris, 1990.
  • Marienfeld Barbara, Johann Amos Comenius : Die Kunst, alle Menschen alles zu lehren. Neue Solidarität.
  • Rembrandt and his pupils, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 1993.
  • Sénèque, Entretiens, Editions Bouquins, Paris, 1993.
  • Schama Simon, Rembrandt’s Eyes, Knopf, New York 1999.
  • Schama, Simon, L’embarras de richesses, La culture hollandaise au Siècle d’Or, Gallimard, 1991.
  • Schiller, Friedrich, traduction de Regnier, Vol. 6, Histoire de la Guerre de Trente ans, Paris, 1860.
  • Sutton, Peter C., Le Siècle de Rubens, Mercatorfonds, Albin Michel, Paris, 1994.
  • Tallon, Alain, Le Concile de Trente, CERF, Paris, 2000.
  • Tümpel, Christian, Rembrandt, Fonds Mercator-Albin Michel, 1986.
  • Van Lil, Kira, La peinture du XVIIème siècle aux Pays-Bas, en Allemagne et en Angleterre, dans l’art du Baroque, Editions Köneman, 1998, Cologne.


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How Jacques Cœur put an end to the Hundred Years’ War

The life of Jacques Cœur (1400-1456), a simple shoemaker’s son who became the King’s treasurer and whose motto was « A vaillans cuers, riens impossible » (To a valiant heart, nothing is impossible),
has much to inspire us today.

Without waiting for the end of the Hundred Years’ War (1337-1453), Jacques Cœur, an intelligent and energetic man of whom no portrait or treatise exists, decided to rebuild a ruined, occupied and tattered France.


Not only a merchant, but also a banker, land developer, shipowner, industrialist and master of mines in Forez, Jacques Coeur was a contemporary of Joan of Arc (1412-1431), who lived in 1429 in Coeur’s native city of Bourges.

First and foremost, he entered into collaboration with some of the humanist popes of the Renaissance, patrons of the scientific genius Nicolaus Cusanus and the painter Piero della Francesca. With Europe threatened with implosion and chaos, their priority was to put an end to interminable warfare and unify Christendom.

Secondly, following in the footsteps of Saint-Louis (King Louis IX), Cœur was one of the first to fully assume France’s role as a naval power. Finally, thanks to an intelligent foreign exchange policy and by taking advantage of the maritime and overland Silk Roads of his time, he encouraged international trade. In Bruges, Lyon and Geneva, he traded silk and spices for cloth and herring, while investing in sericulture, shipbuilding, mining and steelmaking.

Paving the way for the reign of Louis XI, and long before Jean Bodin, Barthélémy de Laffemas, Sully and Jean-Baptiste Colbert, his mercantilism heralded the political economy concepts later perfected by the German-American economist Friedrich List or the first American Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton.

We will concentrate here on his vision of man and economy, leaving aside important subjects such as the trial against him, his relationship with Agnès Sorel and Louis XI, to which many books have been dedicated.

Jacques Cœur’s palace in Bourges, a residence where he rarely stayed.

Jacques Cœur (1400-1454) was born in Bourges, where his father, Pierre Cœur, was a merchant pelletier. Of modest income, originating from Saint-Pourçain, he married the widow of a butcher, which greatly improved his status, as the butchers’ guild was particularly powerful.

The Hundred Years’ War

The early XVth century was not a particularly happy time. The « Hundred Years’ War » pitted the Armagnacs against the Burgundians allied with England. As with the great systemic bankruptcy of the papal bankers in 1347, farmland was plundered or left fallow.

While urbanization had thrived thanks to a productive rural world, the latter was deserted by farmers, who joined the hungry hordes populating towns lacking water, hygiene and the means to support themselves. Epidemics and plagues became the order of the day; cutthroats, skinners, twirlers and other brigands spread terror and made real economic life impossible.

Jacques Cœur was fifteen years old when one of the French army’s most bitter defeats took place in France. The battle of Agincourt (1415) (Pas-de-Calais), where French chivalry was routed by outnumbered English soldiers, marked the end of the age of chivalry and the beginning of the supremacy of ranged weapons (bows, crossbows, early firearms, etc.) over melee (hand-to-hand combat). A large part of the aristocracy was decimated, and an essential part of the territory fell to the English. (see map)

King Charles VII

Portrait of King Charles VII by Jean Fouquet.

In 1418, the Dauphin, the future Charles VII (1403-1461), as he is known thanks to a painting by the painter Jean Fouquet, escaped capture when Paris was taken by the Burgundians. He took refuge in Bourges, where he proclaimed himself regent of the kingdom of France, given the unavailability of his insane father (King Charles VI), who had remained in Paris and fallen to the power of John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy.

The dauphin probably instigated the latter’s assassination on the Montereau bridge on September 10, 1419. By his ennemies, he was derisively nicknamed « the little King of Bourges ». The presence of the Court gave the city a boost as a center of trade and commerce.

Considered one of the most industrious and ingenious of men, Jacques Coeur married in 1420 Macée de Léodepart, daughter of a former valet to the Duke of Berry, who had become provost of Bourges.

As his mother-in-law was the daughter of a master of the mints, Jacques Coeur’s marriage in 1427 left him, along with two partners, in charge of one of the city’s twelve exchange offices. His position gave rise to much jealousy. After being accused of not respecting the quantity of precious metal contained in the coins he produced, he was arrested and sentenced in 1428, but soon benefited from a royal pardon.

Yolande d’Aragon

Yolande d’Aragon in front of the Virgin and Child.

Although the Treaty of Troyes (1420) disinherited the dauphin from the kingdom of France in favor of a younger member of the House of Plantagenets, Charles VII nonetheless proclaimed himself King of France on his father’s death on October 21, 1422.

The de facto leader of the Armagnac party, retreating south of the Loire, saw his legitimacy and military situation considerably improved thanks to the intervention of Joan of Arc (1412-1431), operating under the benevolent protection of an exceptional world-historic person: the dauphin’s mother-in-law Yolande of Aragon (1384-1442), Duchess of Anjou, Queen of Sicily and Naples (Note 1).

Backed and guided by Yolande, Jeanne helped lift the siege of Orléans and had Charles VII crowned King of France in Reims in July 1429. In the mean time Yolande d’Aragon established contacts with the Burgundians in preparation for peace, and picked Jacques Coeur to be part of the Royal Court (Note 2).

The contemporary chronicler Jean Juvenal des Ursins (1433–44), Bishop of Beauvais described Yolande as « the prettiest woman in the kingdom. » Bourdigné, chronicler of the house of Anjou, says of her: « She who was said to be the wisest and most beautiful princess in Christendom. » Later, King Louis XI of France recalled that his grandmother had « a man’s heart in a woman’s body. »

A twentieth-century French author, Jehanne d’Orliac wrote one of the few works specifically on Yolande, and noted that the duchess remains unappreciated for her genius and influence in the reign of Charles VII. « She is mentioned in passing because she is the pivot of all important events for forty-two years in France », while « Joan [of Arc] was in the public eye only eleven months. »

Journey to the Levant

In 1430, Jacques Cœur, already renowned as a man « full of industry and high gear, subtle in understanding and high in comprehension; and all things, no matter how high, knowing how to lead by his work » (Note N° 3), with Barthélémy and Pierre Godard, two Bourges notables, set up,

« a company for all types of merchandise, especially for the King our lord, my lord the Dauphin and other lords, and for all other things for which they could provide proof ».

In 1431, Joan of Arc was handed over to the English by the Burgundians and burned alive at the stake in Rouen. One year later, in 1432, Jacques Cœur went to the Levant. A diplomat and humanist, Cœur went as an observer of customs as well as economic and political life.

His ship coasted from port to port, skirting the Italian coast as closely as possible, before rounding Sicily and arriving in Alexandria, Egypt. At the time, Alexandria was an imposing city of 70,000 inhabitants, bustling with thousands of Syrian, Cypriot, Genoese, Florentine and Venetian ships.

Port of Alexandria in the XVIth century.

In Cairo, he discovered treasures arriving from China, Africa and India via the Red Sea. Around the Sultan’s Palace, Armenian, Georgian, Greek, Ethiopian and Nubian merchants offered precious stones, perfumes, silks and carpets. The banks of the Nile were planted with sugar cane and the warehouses full of sugar and spices.

Selling Silver at the Price of Gold

« Gros de roi », a silver coin made in Lyon, issued in 1447.

To understand Jacques Coeur’s financial strategy, a few words about bimetallism. At the time, unlike in China, paper money was not widely used. In the West, everything was paid for in metal coins, and above all in gold.

According to Herodotus, Croesus issued silver and pure gold coins in the 6th century BC. Under the Roman Empire, this practice continued. However, while gold was scarce in the West, silver-lead mines were flourishing.

Added to this, in the Middle Ages, Europe saw a considerable increase in the quantities of silver coinage in circulation, thanks to new mines discovered in Bohemia. The problem was that in France, national production was not sufficient to satisfy the needs of the domestic market. As a result, France was obliged to use its gold to buy what was lacking abroad, thus driving gold out of the country.

According to historians, during his trip to Egypt, Coeur observed that the women there dressed in the finest linens and wore shoes adorned with pearls or gold jewels. What’s more, they loved what was fashionable elsewhere, especially in Europe. Coeur was also aware of the existence of poorly exploited silver and copper mines in the Lyonnais region and elsewhere in France.

Historian George Bordonove, in his book Jacques Coeur, trésorier de Charles VII (Jacques Coeur, treasurer of Charles VII), reckons that Coeur was quick to note that the Egyptians « strangely preferred silver to gold, bartering silver for equal weight ». whereas in Europe, the exchange rate was 15 volumes of silver for one volume of gold !

In other words, he realized that the region « abounded in gold », and that the price of silver was very advantageous. The opportunity to enrich his country by obtaining a « golden » price for the silver and copper extracted from the French mines must have seemed obvious to him

What’s more, in China, only payments in silver were accepted. In other words, the Arab-Muslim world had gold, but lacked silver for its trade with the Far East, hence its huge interest in acquiring it from Europe…

Lebanon, Syria and Cyprus

Umayyad Mosque in Damascus.

Cœur then travels via Beirut to Damascus in Syria, at the time by far the biggest center of trade between East and West.

The city is renowned for its silk damasks, light gauze veils, jams and rose essences. Oriental fabrics were very popular for luxury garments.

Europe was supplied with silk and gold muslin from Mosul, damasks with woven motifs from Persia or Damascus, silks decorated with baldacchino figures, sheets with red or black backgrounds adorned with blue and gold birds from Antioch, and so on.

The « Silk Road » also brought Persian carpets and ceramics from Asia. The journey continues to another of the Silk Roads’ great maritime warehouses: Cyprus, an island whose copper had offered exceptional prosperity to the Minoan, Mycenaean and Phoenician civilizations.

The best of the West was bartered here for indigo, silk and spices.

Genoa and Venice

Genoese trade expansion.

During his voyage, Coeur also discovered the maritime empires of Venice and Genoa, each enjoying the protection of a Vatican dependent on these financial powers.

The former, to justify their lucrative trade with the Muslims, claimed that « before being Christian », they were Venetians…

Like the British Empire, the Venetians promoted total free trade to subjugate their victims, while applying fierce dirigisme at home and prohibitive taxes to others. Any artist or person divulging Venetian know-how suffered terrible consequences.

Venice, outpost of the Byzantine Empire and supplier to the Court of Constantinople, a city of several million inhabitants, developed fabric dyeing, manufactured silks, velvets, glassware and leather goods, not to mention weapons. Its arsenal employs 16,000 workers.

Port of Genoa.

Its rival, Genoa, with its highly skilled sailors and cutting-edge financial techniques, had colonized the Bosphorus and the Black Sea, from where treasures from Persia and Muscovy flowed. They also shamelessly engaged in the slave trade, a practice they would pass on to the Spanish and especially the Portuguese, who held a monopoly on trade with Africa.

Avoiding direct confrontation with such powers, Cœur kept a low profile. The difficulty was threefold: following the war, France was short of everything! It had no cash, no production, no weapons, no ships, no infrastructure!

So much so, in fact, that Europe’s main trade route had shifted eastwards. Instead of taking the route of the Rhône and Saône rivers, merchants passed through Geneva, and up the Rhine to Antwerp and Bruges. Another difficulty was soon added: a royal decree prohibited the export of precious metals! But what immense profits the Kingdom could draw from the operation.

The Oecumenial Councils

Council of Constance (1414-18).

On his return from the Levant, France’s history accelerated. While preparing the economic reforms he wanted, Jacques Cœur also became involved in the major issues of the day. Through his brother Nicolas Cœur, the future bishop of Luçon, he played an important role in the process initiated by the humanists to unify the Western Church in the face of the Turkish threat.

Since 1378, there had been two popes, one in Rome and the other in Avignon. Several councils attempted to overcome the divisions. Nicolas Cœur attended them. First there was the Council of Constance (1414 to 1448), followed by the Council of Basel (1431), which, after a number of interruptions, was transferred to Florence (1439), establishing a doctrinal « union » between the Eastern and Western churches with a decree read out in Greek and Latin on July 6, 1439, in the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, i.e. under the dome of Florence’s dome, built by Brunelleschi.

The central panel of the Ghent polyptych (1432), painted by the diplomatic painter Jan Van Eyck on the theme of the Lam Gods (the Lamb of God or Mystic Lamb), symbolizes the sacrifice of the Son of God for the redemption of mankind, and is capable of reuniting a church torn apart by internal differences. Hence the presence, on the right, of the three popes, here united before the Lamb. Van Eyck also painted portraits of Cardinal Niccolo Albergati, one of the instigators of the Council of Florence, and Chancellor Rolin, one of the architects of the Peace of Arras in 1435.

The Peace treaty of Arras

Proclamation of the Peace of Arras in Reims.

To achieve this, the humanists concentrated on France. First, they were to awaken Charles VII. After the victories won by Joan of Arc, wasn’t it time to win back the territories lost to the English?

However, Charles VII knew that peace with the English depended on reconciliation with the Burgundians. He therefore entered into negotiations with Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy.

The latter no longer expected anything from the English, and wished to devote himself to the development of his provinces. For him, peace with France was a necessity. He therefore agreed to treat with Charles VII, paving the way for the Arras Conference in 1435.

This was the first European peace conference. In addition to the Kingdom of France, whose delegation was led by the Duke of Bourbon, Marshal de La Fayette and Constable Arthur de Richemont, and Burgundy, led by the Duke of Burgundy himself and Chancellor Rolin, it brought together Emperor Sigismund of Luxembourg, Mediator Amédée VIII of Savoy, an English delegation, and representatives of the kings of Poland, Castile and Aragon.

Although the English left the talks before the end, thanks to the skill of the scholar Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini, at that cardinal of Cyprus (and futur Pope Pius II) and spokesman for the Council of Basel, the signing of the Treaty of Arras in 1435 led to a peace agreement between the Armagnacs and the Burgundians, the first step towards ending the Hundred Years’ War.

In the meantime, the Council of Basel, which had opened in 1431, dragged on but came to nothing, and on September 18, 1437, Pope Eugene IV, advised by cardinal philosopher Nicolaus Cusanus and arguing the need to hold a council of union with the Orthodox, transferred the Council from Basel to Ferrara and then Florence. Only the schismatic prelates remained in Basel. Furious, they « suspended » Eugene IV and named the Duke of Savoy, Amédée VIII, Felix V, as the new pope. This « anti-pope » won little political support. Germany remained neutral, and in France, Charles VII confined himself to implementing many of the reforms decreed in Basel by the Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges on July 13, 1438.

King’s Treasurer and Great State Servant

One of the corridors of the Palais Jacques Cœur in Bourges. The roof, in the shape of a ship’s hull, bears witness to his great passion for maritime affairs.

In 1438, Cœur became Argentier de l’Hôtel du roi. L’Argenterie was not concerned with the kingdom’s finances. Rather, it was a sort of commissary responsible for meeting all the needs of the sovereign, his servants and the Court, for their daily lives, clothing, armament, armor, furs, fabrics, horses and so on.

Cœur was to supply the Court with everything that could neither be found nor manufactured at home, but which he could bring in from Alexandria, Damascus and Beirut, at the time major nodal points of the Silk Road by land and sea, where he set up his commercial agents, his « facteurs » (manufacturers).

Following this, in 1439, after having been appointed Master of the Mint of Bourges, Jacques Cœur became Master of the Mint in Paris, and finally, in 1439, the King’s moneyer. His role was to ensure the sovereign’s day-to-day expenses, which involved making advances to the Treasury and controlling the Court’s supply channels.

Then, in 1441, the King appointed him commissioner of the Languedoc States to levy taxes. Cœur often imposed taxes without ever undermining the productive reconstruction process. And in times of extreme difficulty, he would even lend money, at low, long-term rates, to those who had to pay it.

Ennobled, Coeur became the King’s strategic advisor in 1442. He acquired a plot of land in the center of Bourges to build his « grant’maison », currently the Palais Jacques Coeur. This magnificent edifice, with fireplaces in every room and an oven supplying the rest and bath room with hot water, has survived the centuries, although Coeur rarely had the occasion to live there.

Coeur is a true grand state servitor, with broad powers to collect taxes and negotiate political and economic agreements on behalf of the king. Having reached the top, Coeur is now in the ideal position to expand his long-cherished project.

Rule over Finance

On September 25, 1443, the Grande Ordonnance de Saumur, promulgated at Jacques Coeur’s instigation, put the state’s finances on a sounder footing.

As Claude Poulain recounts in his biography of Jacques Coeur:

« In 1444, after affirming the fundamental principle that the King alone had the right to levy taxes, but that his own finances should not be confused with those of the kingdom, a set of measures was enacted that affected the French at every level. »

These included: « Commoners owning noble fiefs were obliged to pay indemnities; nobles who had received seigneuries previously belonging to the royal domain would henceforth be obliged to share in the State’s expenses, on pain, once again, of seizure; finally, the kingdom’s financial services were organized, headed by a budget committee made up of high-ranking civil servants, ‘Messieurs des Finances’. »

In clear, the nobility was henceforth obliged to pay taxes for the Common Good of the Nation !

The King’s Council of 1444, headed by Dunois, was composed almost exclusively, not of noblement but of commoners (Jacques Coeur, Jean Bureau, Étienne Chevalier, Guillaume Cousinot, Jouvenel des Ursins, Guillaume d’Estouteville, Tancarville, Blainville, Beauvau and Marshal Machet). France recovered and enjoyed prosperity.

If France’s finances recovered, besides « taxing the rich », it was above all thanks to strategic investments in infrastructure, industry and trade. The revival of business activity enabled taxes to be brought in. In 1444, he set up the new Languedoc Parliament in conjunction with the Archbishop of Toulouse and, on behalf of the King, presided over the Estates General.

Master Plan


In reality, Jacques Cœur’s various operations, sometimes mistakenly considered to be motivated exclusively by his own personal greed, formed part of an overall plan that today we would describe as « connectivity » and at the service of the « physical economy ».

The aim was to equip the country and its territory, notably through a vast network of commercial agents operating both in France and abroad from the major trading cities of Europe (Geneva, Bruges, London, Antwerp, etc.), the Levant (Beirut and Damascus) and North Africa (Alexandria, Tunis, etc.), in order to promote win-win trade. ), to promote win-win trade, while reinvesting part of the profits in improving national productivity: mining, metallurgy, arms, shipbuilding, training, ports, roads, rivers, sericulture, textile spinning and dyeing, paper, etc.

Mining

Mining sites around Lyon.

Of special interest were the silver mines of Pampailly, in Brussieu, south of l’Arbresle and Tarare, 25 kilometers west of Lyon, acquired and exploited as early as 1388 by Hugues Jossard, a Lyonnais jurist. They were very old, but their normal operation had been severely disrupted during the war. In addition, there were the Saint-Pierre-la-Palud and Joux mines, as well as the Chessy mine, whose copper was also used for weapons production.

Jacques Cœur made them operational. Near the mines, « martinets » – charcoal-fired blast furnaces – transformed the ore into ingots. Cœur brought in engineers and skilled workers from Germany, at the time a region far ahead of us in this field. However, without a pumping system, mining was no picnic.

Under Jacques Cœur’s management, the workers benefited from wages and comforts that were absolutely unique at the time. Each bunk had its own feather bed or wool mattress, a pillow, two pairs of linen sheets and blankets, a luxury that was more than unusual at the time. The dormitories were heated.

High quality food was provided to the laborers: bread containing four-fifths wheat and one-fifth rye, plenty of meat, eggs, cheese and fish, and desserts included exotic fruits such as figs and walnuts. A social service was organized: free hospitalization, care provided by a surgeon from Lyon who kept accident victims « en cure ». Every Sunday, a local priest came to celebrate a special mass for the miners. On the other hand, workers were subject to draconian discipline, governed by fifty-three articles of regulation that left nothing to chance.

The Ports of Montpellier and Marseille

On his return from the Levant in 1432, Jacques Coeur chose to make Montpellier the nerve center of his port and naval operations.

In principle, Christians were forbidden to trade with Infidels. However, thanks to a bull issued by Pope Urban V (1362-1370), Montpellier had obtained the right to send « absolved ships » to the East every year. Jacques Cœur obtained from the Pope that this right be extended to all his ships. Pope Eugene IV, by derogation of August 26, 1445, granted him this benefit, a permission renewed in 1448 by Pope Nicholas V.

At the time, only Montpellier, in the middle of the east-west axis linking Catalonia to the Alps (the Roman Domitian Way) and whose outports were Lattes and Aigues-Mortes, had a hinterland with a network of roads that were more or less passable, an exceptional situation for the time.

In 1963, it was discovered that at the site of the village of Lattes (population 17,000), 4 km south of today’s Montpellier and on the River Lez, there had been an Etruscan port city called Lattara, considered by some to be the first port in Western Europe. The city was built in the last third of the VIth century BC. A city wall and stone and brick houses were built. Original objects and graffiti in Etruscan – the only ones known in France – have suggested that Etrurian brokers played a role in the creation and rapid urbanization of the settlement.

Model of the Etruscan port of Lattara, founded in the 6th century BC and, according to some, the first port in Western Europe. (Today known as Lattes, 4 km south of Montpellier).

Trading with the Greeks and Romans, Lattara was a very active Gallic port until the 3rd century AD. Then maritime access changed, and the town fell into a state of numbness.

In the 13th century, under the impetus of the Guilhem family, lords of Montpellier, the port of Lattes was revitalized, only to regain its splendor when Jacques Cœur set up his warehouses there in the 15th century.

As for the port of Aigues-Mortes, built from top to bottom by Saint-Louis in the XIIIth century for the crusades, it was also one of the first in France. To connect the two, Saint-Louis dug the canal known as « Canal de la Radelle » (today’s Canal de Lunel), which ran from Aigues-Mortes across the Lake of Mauguio to the port of Lattes. Cœur restored this river-port complex to working order, notably by building Port Ariane in Lattes.

The Roman trade axis, Via Domitia.

Over the following centuries, these disparate elements of canals and water infrastructure will become an efficient network built around the Canal du Rhône à Sète, a natural extension of the « bi-oceanic » Canal du Midi (between the Meditteranean and the Atlantic) begun by Jean-Baptiste Colbert (see map).

Coeur had the local authorities involved in his project, shaking Montpellier out of its age-old lethargy. At the time, the town had no market or covered sales buildings. Also lacking were moneychangers, shipowners and other cloth merchants.

Montpellier: remnants of Jacques Cœur’s residence, now the Hôtel des Trésoriers de la Bourse.
Hôtel de Varenne in Montpellier.

In Montpellier, an entire district of merchants and warehouses was erected him, the Great Merchants Lodge, modeled on those in Perpignan, Barcelona and Valencia.

Numerous houses in Béziers, Vias and Pézenas also belonged to him, as did residences in Montpellier, including the Hôtel des Trésoriers de France, which, it is said, was topped by a tower so high that Jacques Cœur could watch his ships arrive at the nearby Port of Lattes.

And yet, as an old merchant and industrial city, Montpellier had long been home to Italians, Catalans, Muslims and Jews, who enjoyed a tolerance and understanding that was rare at the time. It’s easy to see why François Rabelais felt so at home here in the XVIth century.

Port of Marseille

Port of Marseille.

The hinterland was rich and industrious. It produced wine and olive oil, in other words, exportable goods. Its workshops produced leather, knives, weapons, enamels and, above all, drapery.

From 1448 onwards, faced with the limitations of the system and the constant silting-up of the port infrastructure, Coeur moved one of his agents, the navigator and diplomat Jean de Villages, his nephew by marriage, to the neighboring port of Marseille, at that time outside the Kingdom, to the home of King René d’Anjou, where port operations were easier, a deep harbor protected from the Mistral by hills and a port equipped with waterfront shops and storehouses. The boost that Jacques Coeur gave to Montpellier’s port Lattes, Jean de Villages, on Coeur’s behalf, immediately gave to Marseille.

Shipbuilding

Good ports mean ocean-going ships! Hence at that time, the best France could do was build a few river barges and fishing boats.

To equip himself with a fleet of ocean-going vessels, Cœur ordered a « galéasse » (an advanced model of the ancient three-masted « galley », designed primarily for boarding) from the Genoa arsenals.

The Genoese, who saw only immediate profit in the project, soon discovered that Coeur had had the shapes and dimensions of their ship copied by local carpenters in Aigues Mortes!

Furious, they landed at the shipyard and took it back, arguing that Languedoc merchants had no right to fit out ships and trade without the prior approval of the Doge of Venice!


Stained glass window of a ship (a caraque) in the Palais de Jacques Cœur in Bourges.

After complicated negotiations, but with the support of Charles VII, Coeur got his ship back. Cœur let the storm pass for a few years. Later, seven great ships would leave the Aigues-Mortes shipyard, including « La Madeleine » under the command of Jean de Villages, a great sailor and his loyal lieutenant.

Judging by the stained-glass window and bas-relief in the Palais de Coeur in Bourges, these were more like caraques, North Sea vessels with large square sails and much greater tonnage than galleasses. But that’s not all!

Having understood perfectly well that the quality of a ship depends on the quality of the wood with which it is built, Cœur, with the authorization of the Duke of Savoy, had his wood shipped from Seyssel. The logs were floated down the Rhône, then sent to Aigues-Mortes via the canal linking the town to the river.

The crews

One last problem remained to be solved: that of crews. Jacques Cœur’s solution was revolutionary: on January 22, 1443, he obtained permission from Charles VII to forcibly embark, in return for fair wages, the « idle vagabonds and caimans » who prowled the ports.

To understand just how beneficial such an institution was at the time, we need to remember that France was being laid to waste by bands of plunderers – the routiers, the écorcheurs, the retondeurs – thrown into the country by the Hundred Years’ War. As always, Coeur behaves not only according to his own personal interests, but according to the general interests of France.

Connecting France to the Silk Road

Cairo Citadel

Now with financial clout, ports and ships at his disposal, Cœur organized win-win commercial exchanges and, in his own way, involved France in the land and Maritime Silk Road of the time. First and foremost, he organized « détente, understanding and cooperation » with the countries of the Levant.

After diplomatic incidents with the Venetians had led the Sultan of Egypt to confiscate their goods and close his country to their trade, Jacques Coeur, a gentleman but also in charge of a Kingdom that remained dependent on Genoa and Venice for their supplies of arms and strategic raw materials, had his agents on site mediating a happy end to the incident.

Seeing other potential conflicts that could disrupt his strategy, and possibly inspired by Admiral Zheng He‘s great Chinese diplomatic missions to Africa from 1405 onwards, he convinced the king to send an ambassador to Cairo in the person of Jean de Villages, his loyal lieutenant.

The latter handed over to the Sultan the various letters he had brought with him. Flattered, the Sultan handed him a reply to King Charles VII:

« Your ambassador, man of honor, gentleman, whom you name Jean de Villages, came to mine Porte Sainte, and presented me your letters with the present you mandated, and I received it, and what you wrote me that you want from me, I did.

« Thus I have made a peace with all the merchants for all my countries and ports of the navy, as your ambassador knew to ask of me… And I command all the lords of my lands, and especially the lord of Alexandria, that he make good company with all the merchants of your land, and on all the others having liberty in my country, and that they be given honor and pleasure; and when the consul of your country has come, he will be in favor of the other consuls well high…

« I send you, by the said ambassador, a present, namely fine balsam from our holy vine, a beautiful leopard and three bowls (cups) of Chinese porcelain, two large dishes of decorated porcelain, two porcelain bouquets, a hand-washer, a decorated porcelain pantry, a bowl of fine green ginger, a bowl of almond stones, a bowl of green pepper, almonds and fifty pounds of our fine bamouquet (fine balsam), a quintal of fine sugar. Dieu te mène à bon sauvement, Charles, Roy de France. »

Syria was a pioneer in sericulture, so much so that any silk fabric, monochromatic in color with a satin weave, is called « damask », bringing out a contrast of brilliance between the background and the pattern formed by the weave.

To the Orient, Coeur exported furs, leathers and, above all, cloth of all kinds, notably Flanders cloth and Lyon canvas. His « factors » also offered Egyptian women dresses, coats, headdresses, ornaments and jewels from our workshops. Then came basketry from Montpellier, oil, wax, honey and flowers from Spain for the manufacture of perfumes.

From the Near East, he received animal-figured silks from Damascus (Syria), fabrics from Bukhara (Uzbekistan) and Baghdad (Iraq); velvet; wines from the islands; cane sugar; precious metals; alum; amber; coral; indigo; coral; indigo from Baghdad; madder from Egypt; shellac; perfumes made from the essence of the flowers he exported; spices – pepper, ginger, cloves, cinnamon, jams, nutmegs, etc. – and more.

From the Far East, by the Red Sea or by caravans from the Euphrates and Turkestan, came to him: gold from Sudan, cinnamon from Madagascar, ivory from Africa, silks from India, carpets from Persia, perfumes from Arabia – later evoked by Shakespeare in Macbeth – precious stones from India and Central Asia, lapis lazuli from Afghanistan, pearls from Ceylon, porcelain and musk from China, ostrich feathers from the black Sudan.

Manufactures

As we saw in the case of mining, Coeur had no hesitation in attracting foreigners with valuable know-how to France to launch projects, implement innovative processes and, above all, train personnel. In Bourges, he teamed up with the Balsarin brothers and Gasparin de Très, gunsmiths originally from Milan. After convincing them to leave Italy, he set up workshops in Bourges, enabling them to train a skilled workforce. To this day, the Bourges region remains a major center of arms production.

In the early days of printing in Europe, Coeur bought a paper mill in Rochetaillée, on the Saône near Lyon.

Le livre des propriétés des choses, Teinturiers au travail, manuscript copied and painted in Bruges, completed in 1482. London, British Library © The British Library Board/Leemage.

In Montpellier, he took an interest in the dyeing factories, once renowned for their cultivation of madder, a plant that had become acclimatized in the Languedoc region.

It’s easy to understand why Cœur had his agents buy indigo, kermes seeds and other coloring substances. The aim was to revive the manufacture of cloth, particularly scarlet cloth, which had previously been highly sought-after.

With this in mind, he built a fountain, the Font Putanelle, near the city walls, to serve the population and the dyers.

In Montpellier, he also teamed up with Florentine charterers based in the city, for maritime expeditions.

Through their intermediary, Coeur personally traveled to Florence in 1444, registering both his associate Guillaume de Varye and his own son Ravand as members of the « Arte della Seta » (silk production corporation), the prestigious Florentine guild whose members were the only ones authorized to produce silk in Florence.

Coeur engaged in joint ventures, as he often did in France, this time with Niccolo Bonnacorso and the Marini brothers (Zanubi and Guglielmo). The factory, in which he owned half the shares, manufactured, organized and controlled the production, spinning, weaving and dyeing of silk fabrics.

It is understood that Coeur was also co-owner of a gold cloth factory in Florence, and associated in certain businesses with the Medici, Bardi and Bucelli bankers and merchants. He was also associated with the Genevese and Bruges families.

Going International

Jacques Coeur organized a vast distribution network to sell his goods in France and throughout Europe. At a time when passable roads were extremely rare, this was no easy task. Most roads were little more than widened paths or poorly functioning tracks dating back to the Gauls.

Cœur, who had his own stables for land transport, renovated and expanded the network, abolished internal tolls on roads and rivers, and re-established the collection (abandoned during the Hundred Years’ War) of taxes (taille, fouage, gabelle) to replenish public finances.

Jacques Cœur’s network was essentially run from Bourges. From there, on the French level, we could speak of three major axes: the north-south being Bruges-Montpellier, the east-west being Lyon-Tours. Added to this was the old Roman road linking Spain (Barcelona) to the Alps (Briançon) via Languedoc.

From Bourges, for example, the Silverware, which served the Court, was transferred to Tours. This was only natural, since from 1444 onwards, Charles VII settled in a small castle near Tours, Plessis-les-Tours. So it was at the Argenterie de Tours that the exotic products the Court was so fond of were stocked. This did not prevent the goods from being shipped on to Bruges, Rouen or other towns in the kingdom.

Counters also existed in Orléans, Loches, Le Mans, Nevers, Issoudun and Saint-Pourçain, birthplace of the Coeur family, as well as in Fangeaux, Carcassonne, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Limoges, Thouars, Saumur, Angers and Paris.

Orléans and Bourges stocked salt from Guérande, the Vendée marshes and the Roche region. In Lyon, salt from the Camargue and Languedoc saltworks. River transport (on the Loire, Rhône, Saône and Seine rivers) doubled the number of road carts.

The great crane of Bruges. Miniature from the early 16th century.

Jacques Coeur revived and promoted trade fairs. Lyon, with its rapid growth, geographic location and proximity to silver-lead and copper mines, was a particularly active trading post. Goods were shipped to Geneva, Germany and Flanders.

Montpellier received products from the Levant. However, trading posts were set up all along the coast, from Collioure (then in Catalonia) to Marseille (at the home of King René d’Anjou), and inland as far as Toulouse, and along the Rhône, in particular at Avignon and Beaucaire.

A trading post was set up in La Rochelle for the salt trade, certainly with a view to expanding maritime traffic. Jacques Cœur also had « factors » in Saint-Malo, Cherbourg and Harfleur. After the liberation of Normandy, these three centers grew in importance, and were joined by Exmes. In the north-east, Reims and Troyes are worth mentioning. They manufactured cloth and canvas. Abroad, Geneva was a first-rate trading post, as the city’s fairs and markets had already acquired an international character.

Coeur also had a branch in Bruges, bringing back spices and silks from the Levant, and shipping cloth and herring from there.

Member cities of the Hanseatic League.

The fortunes of Bruges, like many other towns in Flanders, came from the cloth industry. The city flourished, and the power of its cloth merchants was considerable. In the 15th century, Bruges was one of the lungs of the Hanseatic League, which brought together the port cities of northern Europe.

Bruges in the XVth century. On the left, the Genoese factorie; on the right, opposite, the Florentine factorie.
Hof Blandelin in Bruges. Built in 1435, the building housed the branch of the Medici Bank in 1466.

It was in Bruges that business relations were handled, and loan and marine insurance contracts drawn up. After cloth, it was the luxury industries that ensured its prosperity, with tapestries. By land, it took less than three weeks to get from Bruges to Montpellier via Paris.

Between 1444 and 1449, during the Truce of Tours between France and the English, Jacques Coeur tried to build peace by forging trade links with England.

Coeur sent his representative Guillaume de Mazoran. His other trusted associate, Guillaume de Varye, began trading in sheets from London in February 1449. He also bought leather, cloth and wool in Scotland. Some went to La Rochelle, others to Bruges.

Internationally, Coeur continued to expand, with branches in Barcelona, Naples, Genoa (where a pro-French party was formed) and Florence.

At the time of his arrest in 1451, Jacques Coeur had at least 300 « factors » (associates, commercial agents, financial representatives and authorized agents), each responsible for his own trading post in his own region, but also running « factories » on the spot, promoting meetings and exchanges of know-how between all those involved in economic life. Several thousand people associated and cooperated with him in business.

The Military Reform that saved the Nation

Charles VII’s ordinance of April 8, 1448 created the Franc-Archers (free archers), a popular army that could be mobilized in the event of war.

Cœur used the profits from this lucrative business to serve his country. When in 1449, at the end of the truce, the English troops were left to their own devices, surviving by pillaging the areas they occupied, Agnès Sorel, the king’s mistress, Pierre de Brézé, the military leader, and Jacques Cœur, encouraged the king to launch a military offensive to finally liberate the whole country.

Coeur declared bluntly:

« Sire, under your shadow, I acknowledge that I have great proufis and honors, and mesme, in the land of the Infidels, for, for your honor, the souldan has given me safe-conduct to my galleys and factors… Sire, what I have, is yours. »

We’re no longer in 1435, when the king didn’t have a kopeck to face strategic challenges. Jacques Coeur, unlike other great lords, according to a contemporary account,

« spontaneously offered to lend the king a mass of gold, and provided him with a sum amounting, it is said, to around 100,000 gold ecus to use for this great and necessary purpose ».

Under the advice of Jacques Coeur and others, Charles VII was to carry out a decisive military reform.

On November 2, 1439, at the Estates General that had been meeting in Orleans since October of that year, Charles VII ordered a reform of the army following the Estates General’s complaint about the skinners and their actions.

As Charles V (the Wise) had tried to do before him, he set up a system of standing armies that would engage these flayers full-time against the English. The nobility got in the king’s way. In fact, they often used companies of skinners for their own interests, and refused to allow the king alone to be responsible for recruiting the army.

In February 1440, the king discovered that the nobles were plotting against him. Contemporaries named this revolt the Praguerie, in reference to the civil wars in Prague’s Hussite Bohemia.

Yolande d’Aragon passed away in November 1442, but Jacques Coeur would continue pressuring the King to go ahead with the required reforms.

Following the Truce of Tours in 1444, an ordinance was issued on May 26 announcing no general demobilization should occur; instead, the best of the larger units were reconstituted as “companies of the King’s ordinance » (Compagnies d’Ordonnance),” which were standing units of cavalry well selected and well equipped; they served as local guardians of peace at local expense. This consisted of some 10,000 men organized into 15 Ordonnance companies, entrusted to proven captains. These companies were subdivided into detachments of ten to thirty lances, which were assigned to garrisons to protect the towns’ inhabitants and patrol the countryside. In a territory similarly patrolled by the forerunners of our modern gendarmerie, robbery and plunder quickly ceased.

Crossbowman loading his weapon.

Although still a product of the nobility, this new military formation was the first standing army at the disposal of the King of France. Previously, when the king wished to wage war, he called upon his vassals according to the feudal custom of the ban. But his vassals were only obliged to serve him for forty days. If he wished to continue the war, the king had to recruit companies of mercenaries, a plague against which Machiavelli would later warn his readers. When the war ended, the mercenaries were dismissed. They then set about plundering the country. This is what happened at the start of the Hundred Years’ War, after the victories of Charles V and Du Guesclin.

Then, with the Ordinance of April 8, 1448, the Francs-Archers corps was created. The model for the royal « francs archiers » was probably taken from the militia of archers that the Dukes of Brittany had been raising, by parish, since 1425.

The Ordinance stipulated that each parish or group of fifty or eighty households had to arm, at its own expense, a man equipped with bow or crossbow, sword, dagger, jaque and salad, who had to train every Sunday in archery. In peacetime, he stays at home and receives no pay, but in wartime, he is mobilized and receives 4 francs a month. The Francs-Archers thus formed a military reserve unit with a truly national character.

As writes the Encyclopedia Brittanica:

« With the creation of the “free archers” (1448), a militia of foot soldiers, the new standing army was complete. Making use of a newly effective artillery, its companies firmly in the king’s control, supported by the people in money and spirit, France rid itself of brigands and Englishmen alike. »

At the same time, artillery grandmaster Gaspard Bureau and his brother Jean (Note N° 4) developed artillery, with bronze cannons capable of firing cast-iron cannonballs, lighter hand cannons, the ancestors of the rifle, and very long cannons or couleuvrines that could be dragged on wagons and taken to the battlefield.

As a result, when the time came to go on the offensive, the army went into battle. From all over the country, the Francs-Archers, made up of commoners trained in every region of France rather than nobles, began to converge on the north.

The war was on, and this time, « the gale changed sides ». The merciless French army, armed to the highest standards, pushed its opponents to the limit. This was particularly true at the Battle of Formigny near Bayeux, on April 15, 1450. It was a kind of Azincourt in reverse, with English losses amounting to 80% of the forces engaged, with 4,000 killed and 1,500 taken prisoner. At last, towns and strongholds returned to the Kingdom!

Helping a Humanist Pope

As mentioned above, the Council of Basel had ended in discord. On the one hand, with the support of Charles VII and Jacques Coeur, Eugene IV was elected Pope in Rome in 1431. On the other, in Basel, an assembly of prelates meeting in council sought to impose themselves as the sole legitimate authority to lead Christendom. In 1439, the Council declared Eugene IV deposed and appointed « his » own pope: the Duke of Savoy, Amédée VIII, who had abdicated and retired to a monastery. He became pope under the name of Felix V.

His election was based solely on the support of theologians and doctors of the universities, but without the support of a large number of prelates and cardinals.

In 1447, King Charles VII commissioned Jacques Coeur to intervene for Eugene IV’s return and Felix V’s renunciation. With a delegation, he went to Lausanne to meet Felix V. While the talks were going well, Eugene IV died. As Felix V saw no further obstacles to his pontificate, the Pontifical Council in Rome quickly proceeded to elect a new pope, the humanist scholar Nicholas V (Tommaso Parentucelli).

To make France’s case to him, Charles VII sent Jacques Coeur at the head of a large delegation. Before entering the Eternal City, the French formed a procession.

The parade was sumptuous: more than 300 horsemen, dressed in bright, shimmering colors, bearing weapons and glittering jewels, mounted on richly caparisoned horses, dazzled and impressed the whole of Rome, except for the English, who saw themselves doubled by the French to serve the Pope’s mission.

From the very first meeting, Nicholas V was charmed by Jacques Coeur. Slightly ill, Coeur was treated by the pope’s physician. Thanks to information obtained from the Pontiff, notably on the limits of concessions to be made, Coeur’s delegation subsequently obtained the withdrawal of Felix V, with whom Coeur remained on good terms.

The humanist Pope Nicholas V, fresco by Fra Angelico, one of the painters he protected. Fresco in the Nicoline Chapel in the Vatican.

Nicholas V, it should be remembered, was a happy exception. Nicknamed the « humanist pope », he knew Leonardo Bruni (Note N° 5), Niccolò Niccoli (Note N° 6) and Ambrogio Traversari (Note N° 7) in Florence, in the entourage of Cosimo de’ Medici.

With the latter and Eugenio IV, whose right-hand man he was, Nicholas V was one of the architects of the famous Council of Florence, which sealed a « doctrinal union » between the Western and Eastern Churches. (Note N° 8)

Elected pope, Nicholas V considerably increased the size of the Vatican Library. By the time of his death, the library contained over 16,000 volumes, more than any other princely library.

He welcomed the erudite humanist Lorenzo Valla to his court as apostolic notary. Under his patronage, the works of Herodotus, Thucydides, Polybius and Archimedes were reintroduced to Western Europe. One of his protégés, Enoch d’Ascoli, discovered a complete manuscript of Tacitus’ Opera minora in a German monastery.

In addition to these, he called to his court a whole series of scholars and humanists: the scholar and former chancellor of Florence Poggio Bracciolini, the Hellenist Gianozzo Manetti, the architect Leon Battista Alberti, the diplomat Pier Candido Decembrio, the Hellenist Giovanni Aurispa, the cardinal-philosopher Nicolas de Cues, founder of modern science, and Giovanni Aurispa, the first to translate Plato’s complete works from Greek into Latin.

Nicholas V also made gestures to his powerful neighbors: at the request of King Charles VII, Joan of Arc was rehabilitated.

Later, when he sought refuge in Rome, Jacques Coeur was received by Nicholas V as if he was a member of his family.

The Coup d’Etat against Jacques Coeur

Jacques Coeur’s adventurous life ended as if in a cloak-and-dagger novel. On July 31, 1451, Charles VII ordered his arrest and seized his possessions, from which he drew one hundred thousand ecus to wage war.

The result was one of the most scandalous trials in French history. The only reason for the trial was political. The hatred of the courtiers, especially the nobles, had built up. By making each of them a debtor, Coeur, believing he had made allies of them, made terrible enemies. By launching a number of national products, he undermined the financial empires of Genoa, Venice and Florence, which eternally sought to enrich themselves by exporting their products, notably silk, to France.

One of the most relentless, Otto Castellani, a Florentine merchant, treasurer of finances in Toulouse but based in Montpellier, and one of the accusers whom Charles VII appointed as commissioner to prosecute Jacques Coeur, practiced black magic and pierced a wax figure of the silversmith with needles!

Lastly, Charles VII undoubtedly feared collusion between Jacques Coeur and his own son, the Dauphin Louis, future Louis XI, who was stirring up intrigue after intrigue against him.

In 1447, following an altercation with Agnès Sorel, the Dauphin had been expelled from the Court by his father and would never see him again. Jacques Cœur lent money to the Dauphin, with whom he kept in touch through Charles Astars, who looked after the accounts of his mines.

« Trade with infidels », « Lèse majesté », « export of metals », and many other pretexts, the reasons put forward for Jacques Coeur’s trial and conviction are of little interest. They are no more than judicial window-dressing. The proceedings began with a denunciation that was almost immediately found to be slanderous.

Tomb of Agnès Sorel, Collégiale Saint-Ours, Loches.

A certain Jeanne de Mortagne accused Jacques Coeur of having poisoned Agnès Sorel, the king’s mistress and favorite, who died on February 9, 1450. This accusation was implausible and devoid of any serious foundation; for, having placed all her trust in Jacques Coeur, she had just appointed him as one of her three executors.

Coeur is imprisoned for a dozen equally questionable reasons. When he refused to admit what he was accused of, he was threatened with « the question » (torture). Confronted by the executioners, the accused, trembling with fear, claims that he « relies » on the words of the commissioners charged with breaking him.

A miniature representing Christ (in front of the Palais Jacques Cœur in Bourges) on his way to the Mount of Calvary…

His condemnation came on the same day as the fall of Constantinople, May 29, 1453. Only the intervention of Pope Nicholas V saved his life. With the help of his friends, he escaped from his prison in Poitiers, and took the route of the convents, including Beaucaire, to Marseille for Rome.

Pope Nicholas V welcomed him as a friend. The pontiff died and was succeeded by his successor. Jacques Cœur chartered a fleet in the name of his illustrious host, and set off to fight the infidels. Jacques Coeur, we are told, died on November 25, 1456 on the island of Chios, a Genoese possession, during a naval battle with the Turks.

The great King Louis XI, unloved son of Charles VII, as evidenced by his ordinances in favor of the productive economy, would continue the recovery of France begun by Jacques Coeur. Many of Coeur’s collaborators soon entered his service, including his son Geoffroy, who, as cupbearer, became Louis XI’s most trusted confidant.

Charles VII, by letters patent dated August 5, 1457, restored to Ravant and Geoffroy Coeur a small portion of their father’s property. It was only under Louis XI that Geoffroy obtained the rehabilitation of his father’s memory and more complete letters of restitution.

NOTES:

  1. During the five years between Joan of Arc’s first appearances and her departure for Chinon, several people attached to the Court stayed in Lorraine, including René d’Anjou, the youngest son of Yolande d’Aragon. While Charles VII remained undecided, his mother-in-law welcomed La Pucelle with maternal solicitude, opening doors for her and lobbying the king until he deigned to receive her. During the Poitiers trial, when Jeanne’s virginity had to be verified, she presided over the council of matrons in charge of the examination. She also provided financial support, helped her gather her equipment, provided safe stopping points on the road to Orléans, and gathered food and relief supplies for the besieged. To this end, she did not hesitate to open her purse wide, even going so far as to sell her jewelry and golden tableware. Yolande’s support was rewarded on April 30, 1429 with the liberation of Orléans, followed on July 17 by the King’s coronation in Reims. Although many of her contemporaries praised her simplicity, her closeness to her subjects and the warmth of her court, Yolande d’Aragon was a stateswoman. And whatever sympathy she may have felt for her protégée, she would not hesitate to abandon her to her sad fate when her warlike impulses no longer accorded with her own political objectives : to negociate a peaceful alliance with the Duchy of Burgundy. The Duchess knew how to be implacable, and like her comrades-in-arms, the Church and the King himself, she abandoned La Pucelle to the English, to Cauchon, to her trial and to the stake. For more: Gérard de Senneville, Yolande d’Aragon : La reine qui a gagné la guerre de Cent Ans, Editions Perrin)
  2. Georges Bordonove, Jacques Coeur, trésorier de Charles VII, p. 90, Editions Pygmalion, 1977).
  3. Description given by the great chronicler of the Dukes of Burgundy, Georges Chastellain (1405-1475), in Remontrances à la reine d’Angleterre.
  4. Jean Bureau was Charles VII’s grand master of artillery. On the occasion of his coronation in 1461, Louis XI knighted him and made him a member of the King’s Council. Louis XI stayed at Jean Bureau’s Porcherons house in northwest Paris after his solemn entry into the capital. Jean Bureau’s daughter Isabelle married Geoffroy Coeur, son of Jacques.
  5. Leonardo Bruni succeeded Coluccio Salutati as Chancellor of Florence, having joined his circle of scholars, which included Poggio Bracciolini and the erudite Niccolò Niccoli, to discuss the works of Petrarch and Boccaccio. Bruni was one of the first to study Greek literature, and contributed greatly to the study of Latin and ancient Greek, offering translations of Aristotle, Plutarch, Demosthenes, Plato and Aeschylus.
  6. Niccolò Niccoli built up one of the most famous libraries in Florence, and one of the most prestigious of the Italian Renaissance. He was assisted by Ambrogio Traversari in his work on Greek texts (a language he did not master). He bequeathed this library to the Florentine Republic on condition that it be made available to the public. Cosimo the Elder de’ Medici was entrusted with implementing this condition, and the library was entrusted to the Dominican convent of San Marco. Today, the library is part of the Laurentian Library.
  7. Prior General of the Camaldolese Order, Ambrogio Traversari was, along with Jean Bessarion, one of the authors of the decree of church union. According to the Urbino court historian Vespasiano de Bisticci, Traversari gathered in his convent at San Maria degli Angeli near Florence. There, Traversari brought together the heart of the humanist network: Nicolaus Cusanus; Niccolo Niccoli, who owned an immense library of Platonic manuscripts; Gianozzi Manetti, orator of the first Oration on the Dignity of Man; Aeneas Piccolomini, the future Pope Pius II; and Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli, the physician-cartographer and future friend of Leonardo da Vinci, whom Piero della Francesca also frequented.
  8. Philosophically speaking, reminding the whole of Christendom of the primordial importance of the concept of the filioque, literally « and of the son », meaning that the Holy Spirit (divine love) came not only from the Father (infinite potential) but also from the Son (its realization, through his son Jesus, in whose living image every human being had been created), was a revolution. Man, the life of every man and woman, is precious because it is animated by a divine spark that makes it sacred. This high conception of each individual was reflected in the relationship between human beings and their relationship with nature, i.e., the physical economy.

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The Congress for Cultural Freedom: How the CIA « weaponized » Modern Art

Painting of Jackson Pollock

This article, first published in 2006, came as a book review of the book Who Paid the Piper of British researcher Frances Stonor Saunder, published in French Article under the title Qui mène la danse? La CIA et la guerre froide culturelle, 506 pages, Editions Denoël, Paris, 2003.

This book, which caused a stir in Germany, England and the Hispanic world, is literally appalling. Not only for what it reveals, but above all for what it leaves unsaid.

After years of meticulous research, interviews and archival work, the young writer Frances Stonor Saunders, producer of historical documentaries for the BBC, delivers an uncompromising account of the Anglo-American cultural Cold War against the Soviet Union from 1947 onwards.

Congress for Cultural Freedom

At the heart of this secret « Kulturkampf », a veritable cultural Cold War, was the Paris-based Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF), headed from 1950 to 1967 by CIA agent Michael Josselson.

Josselson, who spoke four languages, along with music composer Nicholas Nabokov, was a former member of the psychological warfare division of the Office for Strategic Services (OSS), which US President Harry Truman replaced with the CIA in 1945.

The first thing that strikes the reader is the analogy between the language of the Cold War and the narrative of today’s war hawks to justify a new crusade « against terrorism. »

Back then, under the guise of a merciless struggle against the horrors of Stalinism, the Anglo-American imperial faction deployed whole swathes of the CIA in an attempt to impose Bertrand Russell‘s utopian vision of « world government. »

From left to right: Raymond Aron and his wife Suzanne, Michael Josselson of the CIA and Denis de Rougemont promotor of regionalism.

The CIA described itself as an « Order of Knights Templar » charged with « saving Western freedom from Communist darkness ». Its principal theoretician was George Kennan, Director of the Policy Planning Staff at the State Department.

Like the « Noble Lies » employed today by the neo-conservatives, followers of Leo Strauss, Kennan asserted in 1947 that the Communists had gained a position of prominence in Europe,

« through the shameless and skillful use of lies. They fought us with the weapon of unreality and irrationalism. Can we triumph over this unreality with rationalism, truth, honest and well-intentioned economic assistance? »

Obviously not! And the most formidable weapon for world domination will be, as always: the soft power of « culture ».

Indeed, « you can’t be a great power if you don’t have the art to go with it, it’s like Venice without Tintoretto or Florence without Giotto ».

So, ironically, while American public opinion was held hostage by the McCarthyite psychosis for whom « all modern art is communist », to the point of suspecting certain abstract paintings of indicating the exact location of American military bases (sic), the oligarchs saw in « lyrical abstract » expressionism the virtues of a specifically anti-communist ideology.

By a simple logic of inversion, everything that Nazis and Stalinists considered « degenerate art » automatically became emblematic of the values of freedom and free enterprise, and therefore got massively financed… in the greatest secrecy.

With a wealth of detail, the author documents the mesh of this operation over some five hundred pages. It is, of course, impossible to summarize here the descriptions of the lives of dozens of men, women, musicians, authors, magazines, networks and foundations, each page of which delivers a few pearls.

Some of the details shed a special light on contemporary French history.

The CIA in Paris

From left to right: Arthur Koestler, Irving Brown and James Burnham.

In Paris, it was Irving Brown (1911-1989), a representative of the powerful AFL-CIO union (with free access to secret Marshall Plan funds), who offered the CCF in Paris a suite in the Hôtel Baltimore on Avenue Kléber to set up its temporary headquarters, before paying the rent for a permanent office on Boulevard Haussmann.

On behalf of his boss Jay Lovestone (1897-1990), himself a helper of the CIA’s James Jesus Angleton, Irving Brown financed anything that might weaken France’s resistance to the utopia of world government, i.e. anything that might harm Gaullism and, to a certain extent, Communism.

Josselson and his wife met him quite often in a gay bar, « L’Indifférent ». One evening, they find him handing over a large sum of money to a Marseille mobster. A fan of the big boys, Brown was heavily involved in anything that could reduce the influence of the Communists.

It was from that perspective that he helped former members of the Vichy government, as well as Trotskyites. He controlled French ports, broke strikes and financed the new Force Ouvrière union to split the CGT communist union, all the while promoting modern art!*

Alongside Irving Brown, the CCF board included Michael Josselson, Lawrence de Neufville (his CIA recruiter, later appointed to Radio Free Europe), Arthur Koestler, Melvin Lasky, former Trotskyist James Burnham, as well as Carlo Schmid of the German SPD, Haakon Lie, leader of the Norwegian Labour Party, and David Rousset of the French Parti Socialiste.

In his book The Machiavellians, Burnham used Machiavelli to « challenge egalitarian political theory and show the persistence and inescapability of the elite, even in an age of equality ».

In 1953, Burnham played a crucial role in the CIA’s Operation AJAX, which overthrew Dr. Mossadegh in Teheran and replaced him with the Shah.

Later, « more presentable » funding sources than Irving Brown came into play: CIA front organizations such as the Farfield Foundation, headed by Julius Fleischman, or the Hoblitzelle Foundation, but also classics like the Ford, Carnegie or Rockefeller brothers’ foundations.

Thanks to these generous donors, the CCF made millions of dollars available to literary magazines such as

  • Encounter, edited by former Trotskyite Irving Kristol (father of current neo-conservative William Kristol) in London;
  • Preuves, edited in Paris by François Bondy of the European Union of Federalists;
  • Der Monat, edited by Melvin Lasky in Berlin;
  • Tempo Presente, edited by Ignazio Silone in Rome;
  • Soviet Survey, edited in Israel by historian Walter Laqueur.

After the OSS’s (reciprocal) expressions of sympathy for Hemingway or Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, these magazines opened their columns to authors such as Jorge-Louis Borges, Raymond Aron, Arnold Toynbee, Bertrand Russell, Arthur Schlesinger Jr., Herbert Read or Hugh Trevor-Roper, or contributed to the publication of their writings.

In 1950, the CIA commissioned the production of a cartoon based on George Orwell’s Animal Farm (real name Eric Blair).

Also in Paris, CIA man Peter Matthiessen helped found the Paris Review run by John Train, a far-right liberal New York billionaire.

CIA Culture

Destruction of the well tempered music

The CCF also financed major musical events to promote « modern » twelve-tone serialism (dodecaphony), such as the April 1952 festival organized by Nicolas Nabokov in Paris.

Nabokov believed that « dodecaphony abolishes natural hierarchies » and allows us to free ourselves from the internal logic of music.

Anne C. Shreffler argues that the « compositional avant-garde » was politicized more by its advocacy of personal freedom than by political influence. Shreffler goes on to argue that both the Soviet Union and the United States sent out messages that dealt with « freedom. » However, Western Europe and the United States claimed a « moral high ground » in the struggle for individual freedom, a high ground that made certain artistic aesthetics (e.g., cubism, surrealism, dodecaphony, and existentialism) almost « obligatory » for artists.

The promotion of « liberated » music as a counterpoint to « Social Realism« , which essentially « marginalized » the populist Soviet musical aesthetic, was explicitly a politically calculated move by the Congress for Cultural Freedom.

The festival opened with « The Rite of Spring » of Igor Stravinsky, new convert to twelve-tone dodecaphonic system.

Among the participants from the USA: Leontyne Price, Aaron Copland, Samuel Barber, the New York City Ballet (Balanchine‘s troupe), the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the New York Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), James T. Farrell, W.H. Auden and Gertrude Stein.

European participants included Jean Cocteau, William Walton, Laurence Olivier, Benjamin Britten, the Vienna Opera, Covent Garden Opera, Czeslaw Milosz, Denis de Rougemont and Guido Piovene, to name but a few.

Appointed Eisenhower’s special advisor on Cold War strategy, American Vice-President Nelson Rockefeller played a fundamental role in promoting the CIA’s modernist painting. Supporting left-wing artists practicing abstract expressionism was commonplace for the Rockefellers.

Nelson’s mother, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, had founded the Museum of Modern Art in New York – the Modern Art Museum (MoMA) – asserting that reds would stop being reds « if we gave them artistic recognition ». Several MoMA trustees were also trustees of the Farfield Foundation, as indicated, a CIA front.

As Donald Jameson of the CIA put it:

« We understood that this was the kind of art that has nothing to do with social realism and makes it even more stylized, rigid and confined than it was. »

MoMA bought works by Diego Riviera, Jackson Pollock, Arshile Gorky, Alexander Calder, Robert Motherwell, Stuart Davis, Edward Hopper and others.

By attributing the « success » of an impressive number of contemporary cultural actors to the will of an imperial elite, motivated by a more than suspect ideological blindness and endowed, what’s more, with unparalleled financial resources and communication strategies, Stonor Saunders’ book immediately casts deep discredit on all post-war artistic creation.

Most of these « artists » were chosen because they conveyed an ideology deemed compatible with the totalitarian designs of the high priests of world order.

Only the reactionary Peregrine Worsthorne titles his book review of Saunders’ Who Paid the Piper, « How Western Culture was saved by the CIA », nostalgically lamenting the Machiavellian genius of the Anglo-American elite in its heyday.

Of course, some artists weren’t necessarily aware of the source of the funds, but they all expected them to fill their pockets… And perhaps most shockingly of all, the CIA took art more seriously than many citizens or critics of the time.

So, perhaps this survey does posthumous justice to all those talents sacrificed on the altar of illusory power. Think of all those crushed hopes, sabotaged careers and stifled seeds of genius. For in this delirious tournament of the Cold War, the great priesthood ruling over the art world would only saddle those willing to bend the knee, while with a wave of the hand, send others to the deadly silence of oblivion.

NOTE:

*In his book Les Trotskistes (Fayard, 2002), Christophe Nick states, with regard to the non-communist student union UNEF, that at one time, « thanks to Irwing Brown‘s good offices, the U.S. Embassy was able to cover the student union’s end-of-month budgets ».
In Secrets de famille (Fayard, Paris 2001), Serge Raffy reveals that « Lionel Jospin, then First Secretary of the Socialist Party, met in Washington on April 14, 1982 with leaders of the American AFL-CIO union to reassure them that the Mauroy government would include Communist ministers. The man who organized the meeting was a CIA agent, Irving Brown, the same man who founded and financed the French trade union Force Ouvrière to combat the Communist CGT financed by Soviet Russia. Irving Brown is also said to have constantly maintained links between the Trotskyites, and in particular the OCI, and FO. »

On the right, the student union, Union Inter-Universitaire (UNI), which made the career of so many politicians on the right, was also backed by CIA agent of influence Irving Brown and received $575,000 between April 1984 and April 1985 from the government of the United States through the National Endowment for Democracy.

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Van Eyck, a Flemish Painter using Arab Optics?

What follows is an edited transcript of a lecture by Karel Vereycken on the subject of “Perspective in XVth-century Flemish religious painting”.

It was delivered at the international colloquium “La recherche du divin à travers l’espace géométrique” (The quest for the divine through geometrical space) at the Paris Sorbonne University on April 26-28, 2006, under the direction of Luc Bergmans, Department of Dutch Studies (Paris IV Sorbonne University).

Introduction

« Perspective in XVth-century Flemish religious painting ». At first glance, this title may seem surprising. While the genius of fifteenth-century Flemish painters is universally attributed to their mastery of drying oil and their intricate sense of detail, their spatial geometry as such is usually identified as the very counter-example of the “right perspective”.

Disdained by Michelangelo and his faithful friend Vasari, the Flemish « primitives » would never have overcome the medieval, archaic and empirical model. For the classical “narritive”, still in force today, stipulates that only « Renaissance » perspective, obeying the canon of « linear », “mathematical” perspective, is the only « right », and the “scientific” one.

According to the same narrative, it was the research carried out around 1415-20 by the Duomo architect Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446), superficially mentioned by Antonio Tuccio di Manetti some 60 years later, which supposedly enabled Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472), proclaiming himself Brunelleschi’s intellectual heir, to invent « perspective ».

Leonardo da Vinci, Codex Madrid II, examination of the Albertian model

In 1435, in De Pictura, a book entirely devoid of graphic illustration, Alberti is said to have formulated the premises of a perspectivist canon capable of representing, or at least conforming to, our modern notions of Cartesian space-time (NOTE 1), a space-time characterized as « entirely rational, i.e. infinite, continuous and homogeneous », « in one word, a purely mathematical space [dixit Panofsky] » (NOTE 2)

Long afterwards, in a drawing from the Codex Madrid, Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) attempted to unravel the workings of this model.

But in the same manuscript, he rigorously demonstrated the inherent limitations of the Albertian Renaissance perspectivist canon.

Leonardo da Vinci, Codex Madrid II, f°15, v°, critical examination of the Albertian system.

The drawing on f°15, v° clearly shows that the simple projection of visual pyramid cross-sections on a plane paradoxically causes their size to increase the further they are from the point of vision, whereas reality would require exactly the opposite. (NOTE 3)

With this in mind, Leonardo began to question the mobility of the eye and the curvilinear nature of the retina. Refusing to immobilize the viewer on an exclusive point of vision (NOTE 4), Leonardo used curvilinear constructions to correct these lateral deformations. (NOTE 5) In France, Jean Fouquet and others worked along the same lines.

But Leonardo’s powerful arguments were ignored, and he was unable to prevent this rewriting of history.

Despite this official version of art history, it should be noted that at the time, Flemish painters were elevated to pinnacles by Italy’s greatest patrons and art connoisseurs, specifically for their ability to represent space.

Bartolomeo Fazio, around the middle of the 15th century, observed that the paintings of Jan van Eyck, an artist billed as the « principal painter of our time », showed « tiny figures of men, mountains, groves, villages and castles rendered with such skill that one would think them fifty thousand paces apart. » (NOTE 6)

Such was their reputation that some of the great names in Italian painting had no qualms about reproducing Flemish works identically. I’m thinking, for example, of the copy of Hans Memlinc‘s Christ Crowned with Thorns at the Genoa Museum, copied by Domenico Ghirlandajo (Philadelphia Museum).

But post-Michelangelo classicism deemed the non-conformity of Flemish spatial geometry with Descartes’ « extended substance » to be an unforgivable crime, and any deviation from, or insubordination to, the « Renaissance » perspectivist canon relegated them to the category of « primitives », i.e. « empiricists », clearly devoid of any scientific culture.

Today, ironically, it is almost exclusively those artists who explicitly renounce all forms of perspectivist construction in favor of pseudo-naïveté, who earn the label of modernity…

Robert Campin, Mérode Altarpiece (c. 1427)

In any case, current prejudices mean that 15th-century Flemish painting is still accused of having ignored perspective.

It’s true, however, that at the end of the XIVth century, certain paintings by Melchior Broederlam (c. 1355-1411) and others by Robert Campin (1375-1444) (Master of Flémalle) show the viewer interiors where plates and cutlery on tables threaten to suddenly slide to the floor.

Nevertheless, it must be admitted that whenever the artist « ignores » or disregards the linear perspective scheme, he seems to do so more by choice than by incapacity. To achieve a limpid composition, the painter prioritizes his didactic mission to the detriment of all other considerations.

For example, in Campin’s Mérode Altarpiece, the exaggerated perspective of the table clearly shows that the vase is behind the candlestick and book.

Jan van Eyck, central panel of the Lam Gods [Mystic Lamb], (1432).
Robert Campin, detail of shadows, Merod Altarpiece (c. 1427)

Jan van Eyck’s Lam Gods (Mystic Lamb) in Ghent is another example.

Never could so many figures, with so much detail and presence, be shown with a linear perspective where the figures in the foreground would hide those behind. (NOTE 7)

But the intention to approximate a credible sense of space and depth remains.

If this perspective seems flawed by its linear geometry, Campin imposes an extraordinary sense of space through his revolutionary treatment of shadows. As every painter knows, light is painted by painting shadow.

In Campin’s work, every object and figure is exposed to several sources of light, generating a darker central shadow as the fruit of crossed shadows.

Van Eyck influenced by Arab Optics?


Roger Bacon, statue in Oxord.

This new treatment of light-space has been largely ignored. However, there are several indications that this new conception was partly the result of the influence of « Arab » science, in particular its work on optics.

Translated into Latin and studied from the XIIth century onwards, their work was developed in particular by a network of Franciscans whose epicenter was in Oxford (Robert Grosseteste, Roger Bacon, etc.) and whose influence spread to Chartres, Paris, Cologne and the rest of Europe.

It should be noted that Jan van Eyck (1395-1441), an emblematic figure of Flemish painting, was ambassador to Paris, Prague, Portugal and England.

I’ll briefly mention three elements that support this hypothesis of the influence of Arab science.

Jan van Eyck, Arnolfini couple (1434)

Curved mirrors

Robert Campin, detail of the left panel of the Werl triptych (c. 1438)

Robert Campin (master of Flémalle) in the Werl Triptych (1438) and Jan van Eyck in the Arnolfini portrait (1434), each feature convex mirrors of considerable size.

It is now certain that glaziers and mirror-makers were full members of the Saint Luc guild, the painters’ guild. (NOTE 8)

But it is relevant to know that Campin, now recognized as having run the workshop in Tournai where the painters Van der Weyden and Jacques Daret were trained, produced paintings for the Franciscans in this city. Heinrich Werl, who commissioned the altarpiece featuring the convex mirror, was an eminent Franciscan theologian who taught at the University of Cologne.


Artistic representation of Ibn Al-Haytam (Alhazen)

These convex and concave (or ardent) mirrors were much studied during the Arab renaissance of the IXth to XIth centuries, in particular by the Arab philosopher Al-Kindi (801-873) in Baghdad at the time of Charlemagne.

Arab scientists were not only in possession of the main body of Hellenic work on optics (Euclid‘s Optics, Ptolemy‘s Optics, the works of Heron of Alexandria, Anthemius of Tralles, etc.), but it was sometimes the rigorous refutation of this heritage that was to give science its wings.

After the decisive work of Ibn Sahl (Xth century), it was that of Ibn Al-Haytam (Latin name : Alhazen) (NOTE 9) on the nature of light, lenses and spherical mirrors that was to have a major influence. (NOTE 10)

Robert Grosseteste, illustration from De Natura Locorum, refraction of light in a spherical glass filled with water


As mentioned above, these studies were taken up by the Oxford Franciscans, starting with the English bishop of Lincoln, Robert Grosseteste (1168-1253).

In De Natura Locorum, for example, Grosseteste shows a diagram of the refraction of light in a spherical glass filled with water. And in his De Iride he marvels at this science which he connexts to perspective :

« This part of optics, so well understood, shows us how to make very distant things appear as if they were situated very near, and how we can make small things situated at a distance appear to the size we desire, so that it becomes possible for us to read the smallest letters from incredible distances, or to count sand, or grains, or any small object.« 

Annonciation (detail), painting of Rogier van der Weyden (or his workshop). The spherical vessel filled with water, letting through the light, is a metaphore of the immaculate conception.

Grosseteste’s pupil Roger Bacon (1212-1292) wrote De Speculis Comburentibus, a specific treatise on « Ardent Mirrors » which elaborates on Ibn Al-Haytam‘s work.

Flemish painters Campin, Van Eyck and Van der Weyden proudly display their knowledge of this new scientific and technological revolution metamorphosed into Christian symbolisms.

Their paintings feature not only curved mirrors but also glass bottles, which they use as a metaphor for the immaculate conception.

A Nativity hymn of that period says:

« As through glass the ray passed without breaking it, so of the Virgin Mother, Virgin she was and virgin she remained… » (NOTE 11)

The Treatment of Light

In his Discourse on Light, Ibn Al-Haytam develops his theory of light propagation in extremely poetic language, setting out requirements that remind us of the « Eyckian revolution ». Indeed, Flemish « realism » and perspective are the result of a new treatment of light and color.

Ibn Al-Haytam:

« The light emitted by a luminous body by itself -substantial light- and the light emitted by an illuminated body -accidental light- propagate on the bodies surrounding them. Opaque bodies can be illuminated and then in turn emit light. »

Jan van Eyck, Madonna to Canon van der Paele (1436)

This physical principle, theorized by Leonardo da Vinci, is omnipresent in Flemish painting. Just look at the images reflected in the helmet of St. George in Van Eyck‘s Madonna to Canon van der Paele (NOTE 12).

In each curved surface of Saint George’s helmet, we can identify the reflection of the Virgin and even a window through which light enters the painting.

The shining shield on St. George’s back reflects the base of the adjacent column, and the painter’s portrait appears as a signature. Only a knowledge of the optics of curved surfaces can explain this rendering.

Ibn Al-Haytam:

« Light can penetrate transparent bodies: water, air, crystal and their counterparts. »

And :

« Transparent bodies have, like opaque bodies, a ‘receiving power’ for light, but transparent bodies also have a ‘transmitting power’ for light.« 

Isn’t the development of oil mediums and glazes by the Flemish an echo of this research? Alternating opaque and translucent layers on very smooth panels, the specificity of the oil medium alters the angle of light refraction.

In 1559, the painter-poet Lucas d’Heere referred to van Eyck‘s paintings as « mirrors, not painted scenes.« 

Binocular perspective

Diagram of binocular vision, Witelo, Perspectiva, III, 37.

Before the advent of « right » central linear perspective, art historians sought a coherent explanation for its birth in the presence of several seemingly disparate vanishing points by theorizing a so-called central « fishbone » perspective.

In this model, a number of vanishing lines, instead of coinciding in a single central vanishing point on the horizon, either end up in a « vanishing region » (NOTE 13), or align with what some call a vertical « vanishing axis », forming a kind of « fishbone ».

French Professor Dominique Raynaud, who worked for years on this issue, underscores that « all medieval treatises on perspective address the question of binocular vision », notably the Polish scholar Witelo (1230-1280) (NOTE 15) in his Perspectiva (I,27), an insight he also got from the works of Ibn Al-Haytam.

Witelo presents a figure to defend the idea that

« the two forms, which penetrate two homologous points of the surface of the two eyes, arrive at the same point of the concavity of the common nerve, and are superimposed at this point to become one » (Perspectiva, III, 37).

A similar line of reasoning can be found in Roger Bacon‘s Perspectiva Communis, written by John Pecham, Archbishop of Canterbury (1240-1290) for whom:

« the duality of the eyes must be reduced to unity »

So, as Professor Raynaud proposed, if we extend the famous vanishing lines (i.e., in our case, the « fish bones ») until they intersect, the « vanishing axis » problem disappears, as the vanishing lines meet. Interestingly, the result is a perspective with two vanishing points in the central region!

The « primitive » « fishbone perspective » (left), in reality hides a sophisticated binocular perspective construction that Panofsky refused to see.

Suddenly, the diagrams drawn up to demonstrate the « empiricism » of the Flemish painters, if viewed from this point of view, reveal a legitimate construction probably based on optics as transmitted by Arab science and rediscovered by Franciscan networks and others.

Two paintings by Jan van Eyck clearly demonstrate that he followed this approach: The Madonna with Canon van der Paele of 1436 and the Dresden Tryptic of 1437.

Jan Van Eyck, Madonna with Canon van der Paele (1436)
Jan van Eyck, central panel of the Dresden Triptych (1437).

What seemed a clumsy, empirical approach in the form of a « fishbone » perspective (left) turns out to be a binocular perspective construction.

Was this type of perspective specifically Flemish?

A close examination of works by Ghiberti, Donatello and Paolo Uccello, generally dating from the first half of the XVth Century, reveals a mastery of the same principle.

Cusanus

But this whole demonstration is merely a look into the past through the eyes of modern scientific rationality. It would be a grave error not to take into account the immense influence of the Rhenish (Master Eckhart, Johannes Tauler, Heinrich Suso) and Flemish (Hadewijch of Antwerp, Jan van Ruusbroec, etc.) « mystics ».

This trend began to flourish again with the rediscovery of the Christianized neo-Platonism of Dionysius the Areopagite (Vth-VIth century), made accessible… by the new translations of the Franciscan Grosseteste in Oxford.

The spiritual vision of the Aeropagite, expressed in a powerful imagery language, is directly reminiscent of the metaphorical approach of the Flemish painters, for whom a certain type of light is simply the revelation of divine grace.

In On the Heavenly Hierarchy, Dionysius immediately presents light as a manifestation of divine goodness. It ennobles us and enables us to enlighten others:

« Let those who are illuminated be filled with divine clarity, and the eyes of their understanding trained to the work of chaste contemplation; finally, let those who are perfected, once their primitive imperfection has been abolished, share in the sanctifying science of the marvelous teachings that have already been manifested to them; similarly, let the purifier excel in the purity he communicates to others; let the illuminator, gifted with a greater penetration of spirit, equally fit to receive and transmit light, happily flooded with sacred splendor, pour it out in pressing streams on those who are worthy…  » [Chap. III, 3]

Let’s think again of the St. George in Van Eyck‘s Madonna to Canon van der Paele, which indeed pours forth the multiple images of the Virgin who enlightens him.

This theo-philosophical trend reached full maturity in the work of Cardinal Nicolas of Cusa (Cusanus) (1401-1464) (NOTE 16), embodying the extremely fruitful encounter of this « negative theology » with Greek science, Socratic knowledge and Christian Humanism.

Face of Christ.

In contrast to both a science « without a hypothesis of God » and a metaphysics with an esoteric drift, an agapic love leads it to the education of the greatest number, to the defense of the weak and the humiliated.

The Brothers and Sisters of the Common Life, educating Erasmus of Rotterdam and inspiring Cusanus, are the best example of this.

But let’s sketch out some of Cusanus’ key ideas on painting.

In De Icona (The Vision of God) (1453), which he sent to the Benedictine monks of the Tegernsee, Cusanus condenses his fundamental work On Learned Ignorance (1440), in which he develops the concept of the coincidence of opposites. His starting point was a self-portrait of his friend « Roger », the Flemish painter Rogier van der Weyden, which he sent together with his sermon to the monks.

This self-portrait, like the multiple faces of Christ painted in the XVth century, uses an « optical illusion » to create the effect of a gaze that fixes the viewer, regardless of his or her position in front of the altarpiece.

In De Icona, written as a sermon, Cusanus asks monks to stand in a semicircle around the painting and watch this gaze pursue them as they move along the segment of the curve. In fact, he elaborates a pedagogical paradox based on the fact that the Greek name for God, Theos, has its etymological origin in the verb theastai (to see, to look at).

As you can see, he says, God looks at you personally, and his gaze follows you everywhere. He is therefore one and many. And even when you turn away from him, his gaze falls on you. So, miraculously, although he looks at everyone at the same time, he nevertheless establishes a personal relationship with each one. If « seeing » for God is « loving », God’s point of vision is infinite, omniscient and omnipotent love.

Arnolfini portrait (detail), Van Eyck, 1434.

A parallel can be drawn here with the spherical mirror at the center of Jan van Eyck’s painting The Arnolfini portrait, painted in 1434, nineteen years before this sermon.

Firstly, this circular mirror is surrounded by the ten stations of Christ’s Passion, juxtaposed by a rosary, an explicit reference to God.

Secondly, it reveals a view of the entire room, an image that completely escapes the linear perspective of the foreground. A view comparable to the allcompassing « Vision of God » developed by Cusanus.

Finally, we see two figures in the mirror, but not the image of the painter behind his easel. These are undoubtedly the two witnesses to the wedding. Instead of signing his painting with « Van Eyck invent. », the painter signed his painting above the mirror with « Van Eyck was here » (NOTE 17), identifying himself as a witness.

As Dionysius the Aeropagite asserted:

« [the celestial hierarchy] transforms its adepts into so many images of God: pure and splendid mirrors where the eternal and ineffable light can shine, and which, according to the desired order, reflect liberally on inferior things this borrowed brightness with which they shine. » [Chap. III, 2]

The Flemish mystic Jan van Ruusbroec (1293-1381) evokes a very similar image in his Spiegel der eeuwigher salicheit (Mirror of eternal salvation) when he says:

« Ende Hi heeft ieghewelcs mensche ziele gescapen alse eenen levenden spieghel, daer Hi dat Beelde sijnre natueren in gedruct heeft. » (And he created each human soul as a living mirror, in which he imprinted the image of his nature).

And so, like a polished mirror, Van Eyck’s soul, illuminated and living in God’s truth, acts as an illuminating witness to this union. (NOTE 18)

So, although the Flemish painters of the XVth century clearly had a solid scientific foundation, they choose such or such perspective depending on the idea they wanted to convey.

In essence, their paintings remain objects of theo-philosophical speculation or as you like « intellectual prayer », capable of praising the goodness, beauty and magnificence of a Creator who created them in His own image. By the very nature of their approach, their interest lay above all in the geometry of a kind of « paradoxical space-light » capable, through enigma, of opening us up to a participatory transcendence, rather than simply seeking to « represent » a dead space existing outside metaphysical reality.

The only geometry worthy of interest was that which showed itself capable of articulating this non-linearity, a « divine » or « mystical » perspective capable of linking the infinite beauty of our commensurable microcosm with the immeasurable goodness of the macrocosm.

Thank you,

NOTES:

  1. Recently, Italian scholars have pointed to the role of Biagio Pelacani Da Parma (d. 1416), a professor at the University of Padua near Venice, in imposing such a perspective, which privileged only the « geometrical laws of the act of vision and the rules of mathematical calculation ».
  2. Erwin Panofsky, Perspective as Symbolic Form, p.41-42, Les Éditions de Minuit, Paris, 1975.
  3. Institut de France, Manuscrit E, 16 v° « the eye [h] perceives on the plane wall the images of distant objects greater than that of the nearer object. »
  4. Leonardo understands that Albertian perspective, like anamorphosis, condemns the viewer to a single, immobile point of vision.
  5. See, for example, the slight enlargement of the apostles at the ends of Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper in the Milan refectory.
  6. Baxandall, Bartholomaeus Facius on painting, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 27, (1964). Fazio is also enthusiastic about a world map (now lost) by Jan van Eyck, in which all the places and regions of the earth are depicted recognizably and at measurable distances.
  7. To escape this fate, Pieter Bruegel the Elder used a cavalier perspective, placing his horizon line high up.
  8. Lionel Simonot, Etude expérimentale et modélisation de la diffusion de la lumière dans une couche de peinture colorée et translucide. Application à l’effet visuel des glacis et des vernis, p.9 (PhD thesis, Nov. 2002).
  9. Ibn Al-Haytam (Alhazen) (965-1039) wrote some 200 works on mathematics, astronomy, physics, medicine and philosophy. Born in Basra, after working on the development of the Nile in Egypt, he travelled to Spain. He is said to have carried out a series of highly detailed experiments on theoretical and experimental optics, including the camera obscura (darkroom), work that was later to feature in Leonardo da Vinci’s studies. Da Vinci may well have read the lengthy passages by Alhazen that appear in the Commentari of the Florentine sculptor Ghiberti. According to Gerbert d’Aurillac (the future Pope Sylvester II in 999), Bishop of Rheims, brought back from Spain the decimal system with its zero and an astrolabe, it was thanks to Gerard of Cremona (1114-c. 1187) that Europe gained access to Greek, Jewish and Arabic science. This scholar went to Toledo in 1175 to learn Arabic, and translated some 80 scientific works from Arabic into Latin, including Ptolemy’s Almagest, Apollonius’ Conics, several treatises by Aristotle, Avicenna‘s Canon, and the works of Ibn Al-Haytam, Al-Kindi, Thabit ibn Qurra and Al-Razi.
  10. In the Arab world, this research was taken up a century later by the Persian physicist Al-Farisi (1267-1319). He wrote an important commentary on Alhazen’s Treatise on Optics. Using a drop of water as a model, and based on Alhazen’s theory of double refraction in a sphere, he gave the first correct explanation of the rainbow. He even suggested the wave-like property of light, whereas Alhazen had studied light using solid balls in his reflection and refraction experiments. The question was now: does light propagate by undulation or by particle transport?
  11. Meiss, M., Light as form and symbol in some fifteenth century paintings, Art Bulletin, XVIII, 1936, p. 434.
  12. Note also the fact that the canon shows a pair of glasses…
  13. Brion-Guerry in Jean Pèlerin Viator, sa place dans l’histoire de la perspective, Belles Lettres, 1962, p. 94-96, states in obscure language that « the object of representation behaves most often in Van Eyck as a cubic volume seen from the front and from the inside. Perspectival foreshortening is achieved by constructing a rectangle whose sides form the base of four trapezoids. The orthogonals thus tend towards four distinct points of convergence, forming a ‘vanishing region' ».
  14. Dominique Raynaud, L’Hypothèse d’Oxford, essai sur les origines de la perpective, PUF, Paris 1998.
  15. Witelo was a friend of the Flemish Dominican scholar Willem van Moerbeke, a translator of Archimedes in contact with Saint Thomas Aquinas. Moerbeke was also in contact with the mathematician Jean Campanus and the Flemish neo-Platonic astronomer Hendrik Bate van Mechelen. Johannes Kepler‘s own work on human vision builds on that of Witelo.
  16. Cusanus was above all a man of science and theology. But he was also a political organizer. The painter Jan van Eyck fought for the same goals, as evidenced by the ecumenical theme of the Ghent polyptych. It shows the Mystic Lamb, symbolizing the sacrifice of the Son of God for the redemption of mankind, capable of reuniting a church torn apart by internal differences. Hence the presence of the three popes in the central panel, here united before the lamb. Van Eyck also painted a portrait of Cardinal Niccolo Albergati, one of the instigators of the great Ecumenical Council organized by Cusanus in Ferrara and then moved to Florence. If Cusanus called Van der Weyden « his friend Roger », it is also thought that Robert Campin may have met him, since he would have attended the Council of Basel, as did one of his commissioners, the Franciscan theologian Heinrich Werl.
  17. Jan Van Eyck was one of the first painters in the history of art to date and sign his paintings with his own name.
  18. Myriam Greilsammer’s book L’Envers du tableau, Mariage et Maternité en Flandre Médiévale (Editions Armand Colin, 1990) documents Arnolfini’s sexual escapades. Arnolfini was taken to court by one of his victims, a female servant. Van Eyck seems to have understood that the knightly Arnoult Fin, Lucchese financier and commercial representative of the House of Medici in Bruges, required the somewhat peculiar presence of the eye of the lord.
Merci de partager !

Et si on corrigeait les erreurs de Marx?

Transcription éditée de la présentation de Karel Vereycken, 14 juin 2018.

Chers amies et amis, bonjour,

Ce soir je vais vous amener sur la planète Marx, la planète rouge ! Non pas parce qu’il y a quelques métaux rares à ramasser mais simplement parce qu’à partir de cette planète vous allez mieux voir ce qu’il se passe sur terre !

Vous allez aussi mieux comprendre pourquoi l’économiste américain Lyndon LaRouche (1922-2019), qui est depuis quarante ans l’inspirateur de notre mouvance au niveau international, a fait de Karl Marx (1818-1883) son « point de départ » pour élaborer sa propre contribution à la science économique, en partant d’une réfutation de tout ce que Marx a de gravement problématique dans sa conception de l’homme et de l’économie.

Alors que tout le monde disait qu’on avait enterré le vieux barbu en 1991, après la dislocation de l’Union soviétique, le voici de retour et en pleine forme, surtout depuis la crise de 2008 ! Voyons ensemble si c’est une bonne ou une moins bonne nouvelle.

Enfin, il y a des prétextes plus immédiats :

  1. 2018, année du bicentenaire de sa naissance.
  2. Sur la crise financière, Marx a vu juste, nous disent certains. Une note de février 2018 de l’économiste Patrick Artus pour la banque Natixis a surpris ses lecteurs. Dans ce document intitulé « La dynamique du capitalisme est aujourd’hui bien celle qu’avait prévue Karl Marx », l’économiste observe, dans les pays de l’OCDE, la succession d’évolutions que Karl Marx avait déjà anticipées : baisse tendancielle du profit, compression des salaires, spéculations boursières… Or, si les banquiers nous disent que Marx avait raison, il y a un problème, soit chez les banquiers, soit chez Marx, soit chez les deux… On va regarder ça.
  3. Certaines pensées de Marx sont toujours vivaces dans les esprits : la lutte des classes perdure et certains nous disent que « puisque les capitalistes ramassent des profits record, prenons l’argent là où il est », ou bien : « La crise, quelle crise ? Il n’y a pas de crise ! les riches deviennent plus riches et les pauvres plus pauvres, c’est la nature même du capitalisme », ou encore : « La régulation ne sert à rien, il faut changer de système. »

Bicentenaire de Marx, mini-bio

Hegel devant ses élèves

Karl Heinrich Marx est né à Trèves en 1818, c’est-à-dire il y a 200 ans. Son père, un avocat issu d’une famille de marchands et de rabbins, s’est converti au protestantisme pour exercer sa profession.

Après avoir étudié à Bonn, Karl obtient son doctorat en philosophie à Iéna.

Le philosophe allemand Hegel meurt du choléra en novembre 1831. Ses élèves et disciples se divisent en hégéliens de droite (conservateurs) et hégéliens de gauche, qui retiennent son message révolutionnaire.

Réunion d’un club d’hégéliens à Berlin, dessin de Friedrich Engels.

A Berlin, Marx fréquente les clubs d’hégéliens « de gauche » et y adhère. Considéré comme des fauteurs de troubles potentiels, ils n’ont pas la faveur du régime. Marx, hégélien de gauche et juif, se voit empêché d’exercer sa profession de professeur d’université.

En 1842, comme alternative, il devient alors journaliste et crée à Cologne La Gazette rhénane, dont il est le rédacteur en chef à l’âge de 24 ans. Jeune journaliste, il milite pour la liberté de la presse et défend le libre-échange. Alors que sous l’Empire français, les libertés individuelles avaient progressé en Rhénanie, c’en est fini depuis l’occupation des Prussiens.

Marx et Engels, éditeur et journaliste.

Ainsi, en 1843, bien que Marx démissionne de son poste, son journal est fermé.

Jenny von Westphalen, contre l’avis de sa famille aristocratique, se marie avec Marx la même année. Ils auront sept enfants. Avec sa femme, Marx part en exil en France, où il rencontre le poète Heinrich Heine, lui aussi fâché avec les Prussiens.

Il y rencontre également un autre hégélien de gauche, l’allemand Friedrich Engels installé en Angleterre et qui a fait des études sur la classe ouvrière anglaise.

Sous la pression des Prussiens, Guizot, le ministre français de l’Intérieur, ordonne l’expulsion de Marx qui s’exile en Belgique. Il écrit alors à son ami, le poète allemand Heinrich Heine : « De tous ceux que je laisse en partant, c’est la perte de Heine et du patrimoine qu’il représente qui m’est le plus pénible (…) J’aimerais vous emporter dans mes bagages. »

Marx se révolte contre l’idéalisme allemand et l’hypocrisie des intellectuels de son époque, et se plaint que « les philosophes n’ont fait qu’interpréter diversement le monde. Or, ce qui importe, c’est de le transformer ».

Expulsé à son tour de Bruxelles, Marx est de retour à Paris début 1948, puis, après le déclenchement de la révolution de mars, à Cologne. Expulsé de nouveau d’Allemagne, il revient à Paris qu’il doit finalement quitter pour Londres, où il restera définitivement en exil. Plusieurs de ses enfants meurent de façon précoce et ce n’est que grâce à l’argent d’Engels, qui a repris l’usine familiale à Manchester, qu’il arrive à joindre les deux bouts.

Enfin, c’est en 1867 qu’il publie le premier chapitre du Capital, ce qu’il affirme être le « missile le plus terrible » jamais lancé contre la bourgeoisie.

Jacques Attali, avec sa délectation habituelle, note pour sa part :

« La police britannique surveille cet apatride aux relations planétaires, mais ne s’intéresse pas spécialement à lui. Elle sait que, depuis son arrivée quinze ans auparavant, l’Empire britannique n’est pas son principal sujet de préoccupation, ni la Couronne sa principale ennemie. L’organisation internationale qu’il dirige, et à laquelle les syndicats britanniques sont si largement associés, n’est pas considérée comme hostile à la monarchie ; quant à ses livres, si rares, ils ne se vendent pas.

« Et même s’il a critiqué violemment, dans la presse américaine, Palmerston et la politique de Londres, il ne fait jamais le moindre appel à la violence ni ne remet en cause les institutions du pays. « 

Cela n’a pas empêché Xi Jinping, pourtant considéré comme l’ennemi n°1 de l’Empire britannique, d’offrir à la ville de Trèves une énorme statue en bronze de Karl Marx en l’honneur de sa contribution !

Fondement de sa doctrine

Marx résume sa critique de l’exploitation capitaliste dans son œuvre principale, Le Capital, une critique de l’économie politique, publiée en quatre tomes. Le Tome I est publié en 1867, les trois autres seront publiés par son ami Friedrich Engels en 1885 et 1894, donc après la mort de Marx en 1883.

Pour tenter de combattre les énormes écarts de richesse de son époque et expliquer que le capitalisme engendre les conditions de sa propre destruction, Marx définit plusieurs concepts clés qui forment un tout cohérent.

Je ne prends ici que les principales :

  1. Comme socle philosophique : « le matérialisme dialectique » de Hegel.
  2. Enquête sur l’origine de « la plus-value ».
  3. Enquête sur le « coût du travail ».
  4. « Contradictions internes » du capitalisme dont la « baisse tendancielle du profit ».
  5. Solution : la « lutte des classes ».

1. Le matérialisme dialectique et historique

Il reprend le « matérialisme dialectique » du philosophe allemand G.W.F. Hegel, pour qui l’histoire obéit à une transformation dialectique qui engendre une nouvelle réalité.

Ce qui séduit le jeune Marx c’est la notion de dialectique que Hegel reprend de Platon : une marche de la pensée procédant par contradictions surmontées en allant de « l’affirmation » à « la négation », et de la négation à « la négation de la négation » (on dit parfois : thèse, antithèse, synthèse).

Pour sa démonstration, Hegel pervertit le concept de l’Idée chez Platon. Pour Hegel, c’est le dynamisme de l’Esprit qui se réalise dans l’histoire du monde. Le devenir s’opère par dépassements successifs des contradictions. Dépasser, ici, c’est nier mais en conservant, sans anéantir.

On pourrait dire qu’il s’agit d’une lecture aristotélicienne de la fameuse « coïncidence des opposés » développés par le cardinal Nicolas de Cues lors des débats théologiques sur la Trinité précédant le concile de Florence.

En 1807, dans son œuvre principale, La phénoménologie de l’Esprit, Hegel donne un exemple de sa démarche avec sa « dialectique du maître et de l’esclave ».

WHF Hegel

Tout homme, pour connaître et se connaître, a besoin de reconnaissance. Dans une première phase, dans un duel à mort, c’est le maître qui accepte le risque de mourir pour arracher la reconnaissance de l’autre qui lui, y renonce. Or, celui qui refuse ce risque se rend esclave de celui qui prend ce risque.

Ensuite, dans un processus dialectique, on assiste à une inversion des rôles. Car, contrairement au maître, l’esclave travaille. Et en travaillant à transformer, il va se transformer lui-même et donc s’ouvrir la voie de l’autonomie. Le maître, lui, ne travaille pas, il fait réaliser l’objet consommable, puis s’en approprie la jouissance. Ainsi, puisque le maître dépend du travail effectué par l’esclave, les rôles s’inversent et le maître devient l’esclave de son esclave. Enfin, lorsque l’esclave accepte de risquer sa propre vie, c’est lui et non pas le maître qui devient l’agent de la révolution historique.

Cette dialectique a largement de quoi séduire les jeunes rebelles de la génération de Marx !

Dans la préface de la deuxième édition du Capital (1867) Marx indique sa filiation avec la pensée de Hegel tout en précisant sa différence :

Sa différence avec Hegel :
« Ma méthode dialectique ne diffère pas seulement quant au fondement, de la méthode hégélienne : elle en est le contraire direct. Pour Hegel, le processus de la pensée, dont il fait même, sous le nom d’idée, un sujet autonome, est le créateur de la réalité qui n’en est que le phénomène extérieur. Pour moi, le monde des idées, n’est que le monde matériel, transposé et traduit dans l’esprit humain.« 

Sa filiation avec Hegel :
« (la dialectique) est un scandale et un objet d’horreur aux yeux des bourgeois (…) et cela pour différentes raisons : dans l’intelligence positive des choses existantes, elle implique en même temps l’intelligence de leur négation, de leur destruction nécessaire ; elle conçoit toute forme en cours de mouvement et, par conséquent, d’après son côté périssable ; elle ne se laisse imposer de rien et est, de par son essence, critique et révolutionnaire.« 

Soulignons qu’aujourd’hui, Hegel est une des grandes références des néoconservateurs anglo-américains pour la simple raison qu’il arrive à la conclusion que l’historicité de l’existence humaine est impossible sans la violence. Un monde entièrement pacifique est en contradiction avec la nature de cette historicité. L’existence humaine est, par conséquent, mieux comprise en termes de lutte à mort pour la reconnaissance que de recherche d’harmonie, comme le prônent les moralistes.

La dialectique chez Marx

Marx reprend la dialectique du maître (le capitaliste) et de l’esclave (le travailleur). Mais plutôt que de la situer sur le plan de l’esprit, il la situe sur le plan économique.

Selon lui, c’est l’évolution du travail qui va transformer les hommes et les rapports sociaux. Car par le travail, l’homme se produit lui-même et produit la société. Car pour Marx, « ce n’est pas la conscience des hommes qui détermine leur existence, c’est au contraire leur existence sociale qui détermine leur conscience ».

L’histoire, en gros, se résume à une succession « logique » de modes de production : communautés primitives, esclavagisme, féodalisme, capitalisme et communisme.

Cependant, comme le note Jacques Cheminade dans La faille du marxisme,

« le pire aspect de Marx est qu’il falsifie l’histoire de l’économie politique. Il la fait partir de la publication de La Richesse des nations d’Adam Smith (Londres, 1776), véritable manifeste de la Compagnie des Indes orientales britannique, qui avait pris le contrôle de la monarchie anglaise à la fin de la guerre de Sept ans, en 1763. Plus d’un siècle et demi après la publication de Société et Economie de Leibniz (1671), Marx n’a rien à dire d’intéressant sur le colbertisme ou le mercantilisme, rien sur Lazare Carnot et sa théorie des machines, rien sur l’Ecole polytechnique et les travaux de Chaptal ou Dupin, rien sur les fondateurs économiques de l’Etat-nation, rien de passionnant sur Laffemas, Montchrestien ou Sully, rien de sérieux sur le développement industriel des Etats-Unis contre le régime impérial britannique.« 

Pour Marx, le capitalisme naît exclusivement avec la naissance du salariat et pas avant.

A cela, précise Cheminade, il faut ajouter que:

« Marx découple toute morale de son analyse historique. Pour lui, l’esclavage – malgré l’ouvrage que lui a adressé Henry Carey [sur cette question] et ce qu’il sait des Etats-Unis – est une étape nécessaire dans l’accumulation du capital, et c’est grâce à l’accumulation produite par l’esclavage que le passage au féodalisme a été possible, de même que c’est grâce à l’accumulation produite par le servage que le capitalisme a pu apparaître. Il s’agit pour Marx d’étapes sans doute tragiques, injustes, mais nécessaires, fatales.« 

Comme chez Hegel, l’histoire se déroule (presque) en dehors de toute intervention humaine. Pourtant, Marx n’a pas tort lorsqu’il constate que le progrès scientifique et technologique change les rapports sociaux :

« Les rapports sociaux sont intimement liés aux forces productives. En acquérant de nouvelles forces productives, les hommes changent leur mode de production, et en changeant le mode de production, la manière de gagner leur vie, ils changent tous leurs rapports sociaux. Le moulin à bras vous donnera la société avec le suzerain ; le moulin à vapeur, la société avec le capitalisme industriel.« 

En 1848, dans Le Manifeste, Marx et Engels, pour nous convaincre de cette dialectique historique, se félicitent de la façon dont la bourgeoisie (c’est-à-dire le capitalisme) a liquidé la féodalité et le nationalisme (ce que nous appelons la mondialisation aujourd’hui) :

« Par l’exploitation du marché mondial, la bourgeoisie donne un caractère cosmopolite à la production et à la consommation de tous les pays. Au grand désespoir des réactionnaires, elle a enlevé à l’industrie sa base nationale. Les vieilles industries nationales ont été détruites et le sont encore chaque jour. Elles sont supplantées par de nouvelles industries (…) qui n’emploient plus de matières premières indigènes, mais des matières premières venues des régions les plus lointaines, et dont les produits se consomment non seulement dans le pays même, mais dans toutes les parties du globe. (…)

« À la place de l’ancien isolement des provinces et des nations se suffisant à elles-mêmes, se développent des relations universelles, une interdépendance universelle des nations.« 

Ainsi, autant la féodalité a créé les conditions de sa propre destruction en accouchant du capitalisme, autant elle crée les conditions pour l’enfantement d’une société nouvelle. Par exemple, en concentrant les moyens de production dans d’énormes unités, les capitalistes créent les conditions où la classe ouvrière peut prendre conscience de son rôle en tant que classe et le cas échéant, renverser le système.

Sa vision dialectique l’amène à voir le système de son époque comme mourant, tout en étant optimiste sur celui qui peut émerger.

« À grands traits, les modes de production asiatique, antique, féodal et bourgeois moderne peuvent être qualifiés d’époques progressives de la formation sociale économique. Les rapports de production bourgeois sont la dernière forme contradictoire du processus de production sociale (…) Cependant les forces productives qui se développent au sein de la société bourgeoise créent en même temps les conditions matérielles pour résoudre cette contradiction. Avec cette formation sociale s’achève donc la préhistoire de la société humaine.« 

Cependant, ces passages d’une plateforme sociétale inférieure à une plus élevée ne sont pas le résultat d’idées, mais la conséquence mécanique du matérialisme historique et d’une « lutte des classes » érigée en moteur exclusif de l’histoire dont elle accélère le déroulement.

Et pour expliciter que les idées n’y changent rien, il dira :

« À toute époque, les idées de la classe dominante sont les idées dominantes ; autrement dit, la classe qui est la puissance matérielle dominante de la société est en même temps la puissance spirituelle dominante.« 

2. La plus-value et l’exploitation

La plus grande contribution de Marx à la science économique, nous dit-on, est son analyse de la plus-value.

Or, comme nous allons le montrer, elle est non seulement inopérante mais fondée sur des méthodes comptables, c’est-à-dire des axiomes erronés où l’on cherche à mesurer le monde vivant et en expansion avec des critères gouvernant le monde des objets morts et finis.

Dès qu’il parle macro-économie, en adoptant les méthodes comptables des physiocrates, Marx, tout comme hélas Rosa Luxemburg, se déleste de sa dialectique et de son amour pour un monde en transformation permanente…

Au lieu de provoquer une révolution axiomatique, Marx s’acharne à vouloir « prouver » qu’il a raison dans les mêmes termes utilisés par ceux qu’il conteste. Une approche suicidaire et fortement déconseillée !

Or, comme le disait un jour l’économiste américain Lyndon LaRouche : un vrai révolutionnaire, c’est quelqu’un qui, comme Einstein, commence par démontrer que tout ce qu’il a appris à l’école est totalement erroné et à le jeter à la poubelle de l’histoire ! Ce n’est, hélas, pas le cas de Marx, qui fait les poubelles de l’histoire pour alimenter sa théorie.

Une histoire de petits pois

A force de les étudier, Marx s’est fait infecter par ce que j’appellerais le « virus physiocrate ».

François Quesnay

En économie politique, le plus connu de cette école était l’un des médecins de Louis XV, le Dr François Quesnay (1694-1774), membre de l’Académie des Sciences et de la Royal Society britannique, qui présenta en 1758 son « Tableau économique ».

Ses disciples, très nombreux, se réunissaient souvent. Parmi eux, Dupont de Nemours et Mirabeau notamment.

Or, pour Quesnay et les physiocrates, qui défendent la propriété privée et la liberté d’entreprendre, seule la terre est productive et source de richesse : c’est elle seule qui peut fournir un surplus.

Selon eux, la nation se réduit à trois classes :

  • la « classe productive » constituée par les exploitants agricoles,
  • la « classe des propriétaires fonciers », qui vivent de la rente et collectent la dîme,
  • la « classe stérile », composée des artisans, manufacturiers et marchands.

Considérée comme utile et nécessaire, l’industrie est qualifiée de « stérile » car accusée de ne créer aucune « vraie » richesse.

Ecoutons le physiocrate italien Paoletti :

« L’industrie ne crée rien ; elle donne des formes, modifie. Mais, me dira-t-on, puisqu’elle crée des formes, elle est productive. Entendu. Mais elle ne crée pas de richesse, elle en dépense au contraire… L’économie politique suppose et étudie une production matérielle ; or, celle-ci ne se rencontre que dans l’agriculture qui, seule, multiplie la matière et les produits qui constituent la richesse… L’industrie achète à l’agriculture les matières premières pour les façonner ; en donnant à ces matières une forme déterminée, elle ne leur ajoute rien, ne les augmente pas… Remettez à un cuisinier des petits pois pour qu’il vous prépare un repas. Il vous les apportera sur la table, bien cuits et bien assaisonnés, mais la quantité n’aura pas changé. Donnez une égale quantité de petits pois à un jardinier avec ordre de les semer. Le moment venu, il vous en rendra pour le moins le quadruple. Voici la seule, l’unique production.« 

Le Tableau économique de François Quesnay

Ainsi, le Tableau économique de Quesnay, véritable début de la macro-économie, tente de démontrer du point de vue comptable que c’est grâce à la classe productive (l’agriculture) que la société parvient à se reproduire comme un tout.

Quesnay donne comme exemple un royaume dont la production agricole rapporte chaque année 5 milliards. Cette somme est d’abord partagée entre la classe productive qui reçoit 3 milliards et la classe des propriétaires qui en reçoit 2. Cette dernière dépense les 2 milliards qu’elle reçoit en donnant un milliard à la classe productive et un autre à la classe stérile.

Cependant, la classe stérile reçoit un autre milliard de la classe productive ce qui fait deux en tout, une somme qu’elle va à son tour employer à la classe productive en achats pour la subsistance de ses agents et les matières premières de ses ouvrages. Et puisque la classe productive dépense elle-même les deux milliards restants en production, on retrouve la somme totale des 5 milliards de la richesse annuelle.

Pour enrichir la nation il faut donc donner primauté absolue à l’agriculture, seule source de plus-value, et réduire l’intervention de l’Etat, notamment en supprimant les réglementations qui entravent l’agriculture et le commerce. Si pour les physiocrates, la source de la richesse c’est la nature, pour les économistes classiques (Ricardo, Smith, etc.), c’est le libre-échange.

Ricardo n’est, au fond, qu’un post-physiocrate :

« Le produit de la terre, c’est-à-dire tout ce que l’on retire de sa surface par l’utilisation conjointe du travail, des machines et du capital, est réparti entre trois classes de la communauté : les propriétaires de la terre, les détenteurs du fonds ou capital nécessaire à son exploitation, et les travailleurs qui la cultivent. (…) Déterminer les lois qui gouvernent cette répartition, constitue le principal problème en Économie politique.« 

La plus-value chez Marx

Regardons maintenant dans Le Capital de Marx comment il analyse le « procès » de production de la plus-value :

Le capital C se décompose en deux parties : une somme d’argent c dépensée pour les moyens de production, et une somme d’argent v dépensée pour la force de travail ; c représente la partie de la valeur transformée en capital constant, c la partie transformée en capital variable.

A l’origine, nous avons donc : C = c + v

Par exemple, le capital avance 500 livres sterling = 410 (c) + 90 (v)

A la fin du processus, il résulte de la marchandise, dont la valeur est c + v + pl (plus-value) ;

Nous avons donc : 410 (c) + 90 (v) + 90 (pl)

Le capital primitif C ou 500 livres sterling est devenu C’ ou 590 livres sterling. La différence est pl, soit une plus-value de 90 livres sterling.

Enfin, Marx appelle « composition organique du capital » (co) le rapport entre c et v.

Avec l’accumulation du capital, la co du capital augmente, c’est-à-dire que la part du capital variable diminue, et que celle du capital constant augmente. Le travail humain sera de plus en plus remplacé par le travail des machines et des robots.

Cependant, Marx persiste à soutenir que le « travail salarié » est la source exclusive de plus-value (Pl).

En réalité, copiant Adam Smith, il réduit v au seul travail « salarié », c’est-à-dire produisant une plus-value… financière et non pas une plus-value physique :

« Seule la forme sous laquelle [le] surtravail est extorqué au producteur immédiat, l’ouvrier, distingue les formations sociales économiques, par exemple la société esclavagiste de celle du travail salarié.« 

Parmi les économistes, une blague circule qui se moque des méthodes comptables employées pour calculer le Produit intérieur brut (PIB) : « Si tu veux faire chuter le PIB, épouse ta femme de ménage ! »

3. Le coût du travail

Les raboteurs (1875), tableau de Caillebotte.

Par contre, Marx analyse bien deux phénomènes : le coût du travail et la dérive de ce que nous appelons aujourd’hui le capitalisme financier.

Alors qu’il ne voit la plus-value produite que sous la forme de la conversion de la marchandise produite en valeur monétaire, il refuse, avec raison, de réduire le coût de production au simple coût du travail fourni pour une production donnée.

L’idée de base consiste à distinguer la valeur du travail (valeur, en temps de travail, des marchandises vendues par le capitaliste) et la valeur de la force de travail (salaire reçu par le salarié, supposé égal au temps de travail nécessaire pour reproduire sa force de travail). Ce que le capitaliste doit payer, dit Marx, ce n’est donc pas le coût « du travail », mais le coût « de la force de travail », c’est-à-dire les conditions de son existence dans la durée en tant que force productive.

C’est la différence entre la plus-value et le coût de cette « force de travail » qui définit la marge du profit du capitaliste.

Or ce dernier ne pense plus qu’à s’enrichir à tout prix. Marx constate que, déjà à son époque, le capital financier prend le dessus sur le capitalisme industriel. Si avant, en convertissant la marchandise en argent, un producteur pouvait acheter une autre marchandise, le but final n’est plus désormais la production ou la consommation, mais l’accumulation primitive du capital, c’est-à-dire faire plus d’argent avec de l’argent.

Ce qu’on peut faire avec le fer en Northumbrie (Angleterre), tableau de William Bell Scott. 1861

A partir de cette théorie de la valeur-travail, Marx va déduire sa théorie de l’exploitation de la force de travail. Pour ce faire, Marx affirme que les ouvriers vendent non pas le produit de leur travail, mais leur « force de travail ».

Ce que le propriétaire de l’entreprise achète, c’est leur capacité physique et intellectuelle à faire un travail : c’est leur force de travail. La force de travail est donc une marchandise. Pour Marx, c’est une marchandise exceptionnelle car elle permet de créer plus de valeur qu’elle n’en a coûté (c’est la plus-value).

Exemple : si le salarié travaille 9 heures par jour et que le salaire ne représente que 4 heures de travail, la plus-value sera de 5 heures. Ce temps de « surtravail » est à l’origine du profit du capitaliste.

Le capitalisme ne peut donc vivre sans l’exploitation du prolétariat. Les relations entre classes sociales ne peuvent être qu’antagonistes puisque l’une (capitaliste) n’existe que par l’exploitation de l’autre (prolétaire).

« Le capital est du travail mort, qui ne s’anime qu’en suçant tel un vampire du travail vivant, et qui est d’autant plus vivant qu’il en suce davantage.« 

C’est sur cette base que le socialiste français Paul Lafargue élabore son Droit à la Paresse. Une fois que le salarié a produit ce qu’il faut pour la simple reproduction de la société, il peut renoncer sans danger à produire la plus-value pour les capitalistes. (Note 1)

Les moyens d’accroître la plus-value

Les capitalistes cherchent toujours à accroître la plus-value. Ils disposent à cet effet de deux moyens :

  • accroître la pl absolue en augmentant les cadences ou la durée du travail et par conséquent « le travail gratuit » ;
  • accroître la pl relative en développant la productivité ou en diminuant le temps de travail nécessaire à la production des biens et services destinés à la reproduction de la force de travail.

Pourtant, Marx reste optimiste, car:

« le capitalisme contribue au progrès de la civilisation en ce qu’il extrait ce surtravail par des procédés et sous des formes qui sont plus favorables que ceux des systèmes précédents (esclavage, servage, etc.) au développement des forces productives, à l’extension des rapports sociaux et à l’éclosion des facteurs d’une culture supérieure. Il prépare ainsi une forme sociale plus élevée, dans laquelle l’une des parties de la société ne jouira plus, au détriment de l’autre, du pouvoir et du monopole du développement social, avec les avantages matériels et intellectuels qui s’y rattachent, et dans laquelle le surtravail aura pour effet la réduction du temps consacré au travail matériel en général.« 

4. Les « contradictions internes » du système capitaliste

Pour Marx, le capitalisme est un système historiquement daté et fondé sur l’exploitation de la force de travail, appelé à disparaître à cause de ses contradictions internes qui ne peuvent se résoudre qu’en passant à un régime fondé sur la propriété collective des moyens de production.

Ces contradictions sont au nombre de trois :
a) baisse tendancielle du taux de profit
b) paupérisation de la classe ouvrière
c) crise de surproduction

Marx cherche à montrer qu’avec le développement du capitalisme, on assistera à une opposition croissante entre une majorité misérable (prolétaires) et une minorité de riches propriétaires des moyens de production. La condition de la classe ouvrière doit se dégrader davantage avec le progrès technique et la concentration du capital. Cette dégradation débouchera un jour sur la révolte « expropriation des expropriateurs ».

a) Baisse tendancielle du profit

Le taux de profit selon Marx s’écrit : Pl/c+v

Comme nous l’avons indiqué, le rapport entre C et V définit ce que Marx appelle la « composition organique » du capital. Aujourd’hui on dirait que cette fonction indique s’il s’agit d’une économie « à faible intensité capitalistique » ou « à faible intensité de main d’œuvre ». Le premier modèle est celui du tiers-monde, le deuxième celui des pays avancés.

Pour Marx, la logique veut que si la composition organique augment, c’est-à-dire si le capitaliste investit dans l’amélioration de l’appareil productif (l’utilisation de la machine à la place de l’homme), par simple effet mécanique la part de v par rapport à c baissera. Et puisque selon son dogme, c’est exclusivement v (c’est-à-dire le travail salarié) qui est source de Pl, le taux de profit subira logiquement une baisse tendancielle.

b) Paupérisation de la classe ouvrière

L’augmentation de c, c’est-à-dire le remplacement de l’homme par la machine, conduit donc à des licenciements et une paupérisation de la force de travail. Or, faute de travail, le pouvoir d’achat de la force de travail chutera, provoquant une baisse de la consommation.

c) Crise de surproduction

Bien que cette baisse soit perçue par la classe capitaliste comme une « crise de surproduction », il s’agit en réalité d’une crise de sous-consommation puisque les besoins élémentaires des populations ne sont pas satisfaits.

« La contradiction de ce mode de production capitaliste réside dans sa tendance à développer de manière absolue les forces productives, qui entrent sans cesse en conflit avec les conditions spécifiques de la production dans lesquelles se meut le capital.

Car, « l’expansibilité immense et intermittente du système de fabrique, jointe à sa dépendance du marché universel, enfante nécessairement une production furieuse suivie d’un encombrement des marchés dont la contraction amène la paralysie.

« La raison ultime de toutes les crises réelles, précise Marx, c’est toujours la pauvreté et la consommation restreinte des masses. (…) C’est une pure tautologie de dire : les crises proviennent de ce que la consommation solvable ou les consommateurs capables de payer font défaut. (…). Dire que les marchandises sont invendables ne signifie rien d’autre que : il ne s’est pas trouvé pour elles d’acheteurs capables de payer, donc de consommateurs.« 

Ainsi la « baisse tendancielle du profit » crée un cercle vicieux :

  • concurrence grandissante
  • surexploitation
  • paupérisation
  • crise de surproduction
  • baisse tendancielle du profit
  • spéculation boursière

Ces contradictions peuvent être freinées par la conquête de débouchés extérieurs. Marx pense bien sûr aux puissances européennes qui, pour compenser la baisse tendancielle du profit, se lancent dans le colonialisme en Afrique, en Asie et ailleurs.

Marx contre le protectionnisme

Le protectionniste américain et conseiller du président Lincoln, Henry C. Carey.

Aux Etats-Unis, Marx était totalement enthousiasmé à l’idée d’écrire pour le New York Tribune, surtout qu’il avait vraiment besoin d’argent. Le journal lui permettait d’enseigner le socialisme aux capitalistes. A cela s’ajoute qu’entre 1852 et 1854, presqu’un demi million d’Allemands ont émigré vers les Etats-Unis via New York, dont certains avaient participé à la révolution de 1848.

La Tribune était également le porte-voix des transcendentalistes américain, de sentiment assez opposé au capitalisme.

Le journal a publié 487 articles de Marx, 350 écrits de sa main et 12 en coopération avec Engels, les autres 125 étant signés par Engels tout seul. Un quart des articles ont été publiés comme des éditoriaux non signés.

A un moment donné, Marx dit à Engels que « depuis deux mois, l’équipe Marx-Engels a fonctionné quasiment comme l’équipe éditoriale de la Tribune », tellement leurs écrits furent utilisés.

Henry Charles Carey, le plus grand économiste protectionniste de l’époque et conseiller de Lincoln, était alors considéré comme « le patron virtuel » du journal. En 1852, il envoie à Marx deux de ses livres, dont L’harmonie des intérêts où, reprenant les doctrines d’Alexander Hamilton et de Henry Clay, il résume les doctrines de ce que les historiens appellent le Système américain d’économie politique.

Marx n’était pas particulièrement emballé par les écrits de Carey. Ainsi, dans une lettre à Engels, il note que Carey a « changé de camp ». Avant de devenir protectionniste et faire l’éloge de l’Etat, « Carey se plaignait d’un Etat trop interventionniste dans les affaires ». Ensuite, Carey, comme l’indique le nom de son livre, semblait sur une autre planète en termes de « lutte des classes ».

Dans sa lettre du 5 mars 1952 à Weydemeyer, Marx se lâche :

« H.C. Carey (de Philadelphie), le seul économiste d’importance, est la preuve éclatante que la société civile américaine manque de maturité pour fournir une réponse claire et cohérente à propos de lutte des classes.« 

Et il poursuit :
« Il (Carey) s’en prend à Ricardo, le représentant le plus classique de la bourgeoisie et l’adversaire le plus stoïque du prolétariat, accusé d’être un homme dont les œuvres sont un arsenal pour les anarchistes, les socialistes et tous les ennemis du système bourgeois. Il en veut, pas seulement à lui, mais à Malthus, Mill, Say, Torrens, Wakefield, McCulloch, Senior, Whately, R. Jones et d’autres, les économistes les plus en vogue d’Europe, pour morceler la société et préparer la guerre civile parce qu’ils montrent que les bases des différentes classes tendent à faire naître des antagonismes croissants entre eux. Il tente de les réfuter (…) en montrant que les conditions économiques (la propriété), le profit (capital) et les salaires (travail salarié), au lieu d’être des conditions de combat et d’antagonismes, sont plutôt des conditions d’association et d’harmonie. La seule chose qu’il prouve, évidemment, c’est qu’il prend les conditions ‘sous-développées’ des Etats-Unis pour des ‘conditions normales’.« 

« Même Carey lui-même est frappé par le début de disharmonie aux Etats-Unis. Quelle est la source de ce phénomène étrange ? Carey l’explique par l’influence destructrice de l’Angleterre, par son désir d’arriver à un monopole industriel sur le marché mondial (…) L’Angleterre crée une entorse à toutes les relations économiques du monde (…) L’harmonie des relations économiques repose, selon Carey, sur la coopération harmonieuse des villes et de la campagne, de l’industrie et de l’agriculture. Ayant dissout cette harmonie fondamentale chez elle, en Angleterre, dans une concurrence, elle procède à la détruire sur le marché mondial, et elle est donc l’élément destructeur de l’harmonie générale. La seule défense sont les tarifs protecteurs – la barricade nationale contre l’industrie anglaise de grande taille (…) Ainsi, toutes les relations qui lui apparaissent comme harmonieuses à l’intérieur des frontières nationales spécifiques ou autrement, dans la forme abstraite des relations générales de la société bourgeoise, (…) lui apparaissent comme disharmonieuses là où elles apparaissent dans leur forme la plus développée : le marché mondial.« 

Le 14 juin 1853, il écrit à Engels : « Ton article sur la Suisse était évidemment une gifle indirecte contre la ligne qui domine la Tribune et son Carey. J’ai continué cette guerre cachée (hidden warfare) dans mon premier article sur l’Inde, dans lequel la destruction de l’industrie domestique indienne par l’Angleterre est décrite comme révolutionnaire. Ce sera drôlement choquant pour lui.« 

Tout en rajoutant : « Les Britanniques, soit dit en passant, ont géré l’Inde comme des porcs, et cela perdure jusqu’aujourd’hui.« 

Contre Carey, on vient de le voir, Marx mènera, comme un idéologue et surtout comme un journaliste, à moitié sérieux, à moitié pour rire, une « guerre de l’ombre ».

En 1841, Friedrich List, un autre père fondateur du protectionnisme intelligent (inspiré par le Français Chaptal), publie son Système national d’économie politique. Engels incite alors Marx à écrire au plus vite une réfutation des thèses protectionnistes.

Marx s’acquitta de la tâche, sans toutefois faire publier son analyse. Elle le sera bien plus tard sous le titre Notes critiques sur Friedrich List.

Marx y traite List de « philistin » : « Au lieu d’étudier l’histoire réelle, M. List cherche à deviner les mauvais buts secrets des individus.« 

Pour Marx, les nations appartiennent à tout le monde : « La nationalité du travailleur n’est pas française, anglaise, allemande, c’est le capital. L’air qu’il respire chez lui n’est pas l’air français, anglais, allemand, c’est l’air des usines (…) ». Pour en conclure que « l’argent est la patrie de l’industriel« .

Du point de vue de la dialectique, Marx estime que, de toute façon, l’extension du capitalisme à la terre entière allait susciter la naissance de l’Internationale ouvrière.

Le 7 janvier 1848, dans son « Discours sur la question du libre-échange« , Marx déploie sa dialectique sophiste :

« Il faut choisir : soit on refuse l’ensemble de l’économie politique, telle qu’elle existe à présent, soit il faut admettre que la liberté des échanges entraînera une sévérité accrue des lois de l’économie politique à l’égard des classes laborieuses. Est-ce dire que nous sommes contre le libre-échange ? Non point, nous sommes partisans du libre-échange parce qu’avec le libre-échange, toutes les lois de l’économie, avec leurs étonnantes contradictions, peuvent s’exercer à une plus grande échelle, et s’étendre à un vaste territoire, voire la terre entière. L’accumulation de ces contradictions résultera en un combat final qui permettra l’émancipation des prolétaires.« 

Certes, ce discours venait deux ans après l’abolition des lois protectionnistes sur la production céréalière (corn laws), défendue par les Chartistes anglais. Marx y fait référence lorsqu’il dit : « En général, si l’on veut le libre-échange, c’est pour soulager la condition de la classe laborieuse ( …) Frapper de droits protecteurs les grains étrangers, c’est infâme, c’est spéculer sur la famine des peuples… »

Et surtout, au « protectionnisme national et bourgeois », Marx préfère un « libre-échange étendant à la totalité du monde les contradictions du capitalisme ». Point de vue cynique, en un sens, puisqu’il s’agissait pour Marx de pousser les ouvriers à participer à leur propre défaite : cessons de vouloir domestiquer un capitalisme qu’il faut accompagner à la destruction !

Le protectionnisme intelligent défendu par Carey et List est donc systématiquement combattu par Marx sur des bases idéologiques et économiques. « L’illusion » d’une solution gagnant-gagnant prônée par L’harmonie des intérêts de Carey n’est considérée que comme une fausse solution, retardant la fin du capitalisme inscrite dans le code génétique de la dialectique historique. Aujourd’hui Marx dirait sans doute la même chose de la Chine lorsqu’elle propose une coopération gagnant-gagnant et des politiques économiques « inclusives », tout en disant éventuellement que l’extension du capitalisme là-bas porte les promesses de son éradication.

C’est pour cette opposition viscérale à toute idée d’Etat-nation moderne, que l’extrême-gauche actuelle déteste autant le président Franklin Roosevelt.

L’Etat s’éteindra avec le capitalisme

Au-delà de la régulation économique, Marx dira tout et son contraire sur l’Etat. Marx et Engels voient avant tout l’Etat comme un instrument aux mains de la classe dominante (la bourgeoisie), destinée à dominer la classe des prolétaires. Mais pour assurer sa domination, la bourgeoisie confie à l’Etat la gestion de ses intérêts généraux et peut lui confier une certaine autonomie. Bien que l’Etat s’élève parfois « au-dessus des classes » pour rétablir un ordre social menacé, il ne peut jamais agir pour « l’intérêt général », car ce concept n’est qu’une invention des capitalistes pour endormir les masses.

Pourtant, le 5e point du Manifeste de 1848 exige « la centralisation du crédit entre les mains de l’Etat, par une banque nationale à capital d’Etat et à monopole exclusif ».

Pour Marx et Engels, la dictature du prolétariat est une phase transitoire vers une société sans classes, où l’Etat « s’éteindra ».

Engels précise cette dialectique dans L’origine de la famille, de la propriété privée et de l’Etat, dont une sixième édition parut à Stuttgart dès 1894 :

« Le prolétariat s’empare du pouvoir d’Etat et transforme les moyens de production d’abord en propriété d’Etat. Mais par là, il se supprime lui-même en tant que prolétariat, il supprime toutes les différences et oppositions de classes, et également en tant qu’Etat. La société antérieure, évoluant dans des oppositions de classes, avait besoin de l’Etat, c’est-à-dire, dans chaque cas, d’une organisation de la classe exploiteuse pour maintenir ses conditions de production extérieures, donc surtout pour maintenir par la force la classe exploitée dans les conditions d’oppression données par le mode de production existant (esclavage, servage, salariat). (…) Quand il finit par devenir effectivement le représentant de toute la société, il se rend lui-même superflu.

Dès qu’il n’y a plus de classe sociale à tenir dans l’oppression ; dès que, avec la domination de classe et la lutte pour l’existence individuelle motivée par l’anarchie antérieure de la production, sont éliminés également les collisions et les excès qui en résultent, il n’y a plus rien à réprimer qui rende nécessaire un pouvoir de répression, un Etat.

Le premier acte dans lequel l’Etat apparaît réellement comme représentant de toute la société, – la prise de possession des moyens de production au nom de la société -, est en même temps son dernier acte propre en tant qu’Etat. L’intervention d’un pouvoir d’Etat dans des rapports sociaux devient superflue dans un domaine après l’autre, et entre alors naturellement en sommeil. Le gouvernement des personnes fait place à l’administration des choses et à la direction des opérations de production. L’Etat n’est pas ‘aboli’, il s’éteint.« 

Ainsi, pense Marx, lutte de classes aidant, le capitalisme est condamné à disparaître et avec lui, cet outil de répression qu’est l’Etat.

5. La lutte des classes

D’après la dialectique matérialiste reprise par Marx de Hegel, comme nous l’avons vu plus haut, ce ne sont pas les idées qui changent le monde, mais le changement des rapports de classes résultant des changements dans les rapports de production. Et ce changement est sa propre cause.

Car, « À un certain stade de leur développement, les forces productives matérielles de la société entrent en contradiction avec les rapports de production existants, ou, ce qui n’en est que l’expression juridique, avec les rapports de propriété au sein desquels elles s’étaient mues jusqu’alors. De formes de développement des forces productives qu’ils étaient, ces rapports en deviennent des entraves. Alors s’ouvre une époque de révolution sociale.« 

Précisons qu’avant Marx, on qualifiait de classe chaque profession ayant un revenu différent : les propriétaires fonciers vivaient de la rente, les entrepreneurs, du capital investi, et les travailleurs de leur salaire. Or, Marx et Engels, un brin complotistes, décrètent, notamment dans Le Manifeste, que désormais le monde se réduit à deux classes : la bourgeoisie (les capitalistes) et le prolétariat (qui vend sa force de travail), dont l’une ne peut prospérer qu’en détruisant l’autre.

Philosophiquement, Marx et surtout Engels introduisent donc ce fameux gagnant-perdant qui est l’essence même des forces qu’ils prétendent combattre. Si aujourd’hui vos enfants sont inondés de jeux vidéos, c’est bien parce que ces « jeux » permettent aux grands sorciers du GAFAM de leur imposer les mêmes « valeurs » et le « paradigme » d’un monde où le « gagnant-gagnant pour tous » est tout simplement impossible.

« Maintenant, dit Marx, en ce qui me concerne, ce n’est pas à moi que revient le mérite d’avoir découvert l’existence des classes dans la société moderne, pas plus que la lutte qu’elles s’y livrent. Des historiens bourgeois avaient exposé bien avant moi l’évolution historique de cette lutte des classes et des économistes bourgeois en avaient décrit l’anatomie économique. Ce que j’ai apporté de nouveau, c’est : de démontrer que l’existence des classes n’est liée qu’à des phases historiques déterminées du développement de la production ; que la lutte des classes mène nécessairement à la dictature du prolétariat ; que cette dictature elle-même ne représente qu’une transition vers l’abolition de toutes les classes et vers une société sans classes.« 

Jaurès contre Marx

Jean Jaurès, en 1901, dans son introduction aux Etudes socialistes, tout en rendant hommage à Marx pour ses contributions, ne va pas hésiter à faire quelques mises au point notamment en disant : « Je dirai presque que Marx avait besoin d’un prolétariat infiniment appauvri et dénué dans sa conception dialectique de l’histoire moderne. »

Car:
« c’est sous une transposition hégélienne du christianisme que Marx se représente le mouvement moderne d’émancipation. De même que le Dieu chrétien s’est abaissé au plus bas de l’humanité souffrante pour relever l’humanité toute entière, de même que le Sauveur, pour sauver en effet tous les hommes, a dû se réduire à ce degré de dénuement tout voisin de l’animalité, (…) de même dans la dialectique de Marx, le prolétariat, le Sauveur moderne, a dû être dépouillé de toute garantie, dévêtu de tout droit, abaissé au plus profond du néant historique et social, pour relever en se relevant toute l’humanité.« 

De là, précise Jaurès, « chez Marx, une tendance originelle à accueillir difficilement l’idée d’un relèvement partiel du prolétariat. De là une sorte de joie, où il entre quelque mysticité dialectique, à constater les forces d’écrasement qui pèsent sur les prolétaires.« 

Jean Jaurès, peinture à l’huile de Karel Vereycken.

« Marx se trompait, dit Jaurès. Ce n’est pas du dénuement absolu que pouvait venir la libération absolue. Quelque pauvre que fût le prolétaire allemand, il n’était pas la pauvreté suprême. D’abord dans l’ouvrier moderne il y a d’emblée toute la part d’humanité conquise par l’abolition des sauvageries et des barbaries premières, par l’abolition de l’esclavage et du servage. Puis, quelque médiocres que fussent en effet à ce moment les titres historiques propres des prolétaires allemands, ils n’en étaient point tout à fait démunis.

« Leur histoire, depuis la Révolution française, n’était pas tout à fait vide. Et surtout, par leur sympathie pour l’action émancipatrice des prolétaires français, des ouvriers du 14 juillet, des 5 et 6 octobre, du 10 août, des sections parisiennes, ils avaient une part dans les titres historiques du prolétariat français, devenus des titres universels, comme la Déclaration des droits de l’homme avait été un symbole universel, comme la chute de la Bastille avait été une délivrance universelle.

Au moment même où Marx écrivait pour le prolétariat allemand ces paroles de mystique abaissement et de mystique résurrection, les prolétaires allemands, comme d’ailleurs Marx lui-même, tournaient leur cœur et leurs yeux vers la France, vers la grande patrie des titres historiques du prolétariat.

« Mais quoi d’étrange que Marx, avec cette conception dialectique première, ait accordé la primauté dans l’évolution capitaliste à la tendance de dépression ? Quoi d’étonnant que dans Le Capital encore il ait écrit que ’l’oppression, l’esclavage, l’exploitation, la misère, s’accroissaient’, mais aussi ’la résistance de la classe ouvrière’ (…)« 

« Les socialistes, précise Jaurès, les uns ouvertement, les autres avec des précautions infinies, quelques-uns avec une malicieuse bonhomie viennoise, tous déclarent qu’il est faux que dans l’ensemble la condition économique et matérielle des prolétaires aille en empirant. Des tendances de dépression et des tendances de relèvement, ce n’est sont pas au total, et dans la réalité immédiate de la vie, les tendances dépressives qui l’emportent.

« Dès lors il n’est plus permis de répéter après Marx et Engels que le système capitaliste périra parce qu’il n’assume même pas à ceux qu’il exploite le minimum nécessaire à la vie. Dès lors, il devient puéril d’attendre qu’un cataclysme économique menaçant le prolétariat dans sa vie même provoque, sous la révolte de l’instinct vital, ’l’effondrement violent de la bourgeoisie’. Ainsi, les deux hypothèses, l’une historique, l’autre économique, d’où devait sortir, dans la pensée du Manifeste communiste, la soudaine révolution prolétarienne, la Révolution de la dictature ouvrière, sont également ruinées.« 

Marx, admirateur de Darwin

Bien que Marx ait développé sa conception de la lutte des classes lors de son exil en Belgique, il se trouve conforté par la publication de L’origine des espèces de Charles Darwin, qu’il lira en décembre 1860 sur les conseils de son ami Engels. Le 19 décembre de la même année, il lui écrit : « Voilà le livre qui contient la base, en histoire naturelle, pour nos idées. »

Et s’adressant à Ferdinand Lasalle le 16 janvier 1861 : « Le travail de Darwin, lui dit-il, est d’une grande importance et sert mon but dans la mesure où il fournit dans les sciences naturelles une base pour la lutte de classe historique.« 

Marx finit par réviser quelque peu son jugement. A Engels, il confie le 18 juin 1862 :

« Il est remarquable de voir comment Darwin reconnaît chez les animaux et les plantes sa propre société anglaise, avec sa division du travail, sa concurrence, ses ouvertures de nouveaux marchés, ses inventions et sa malthusienne ‘lutte pour la vie’. C’est la ‘guerre de tous contre tous’ de Hobbes.« 

Pourtant, à l’automne de la même année, il assiste à six conférences de Thomas Henry Huxley, surnommé « le bouledogue de Darwin ».

En 1873, dans le second livre du Capital, Marx définit la sélection naturelle darwinienne comme « l’histoire d’une technologie naturelle, c’est-à-dire la formation d’organes dans les plantes et les animaux, qui servent d’instruments de production pour le maintien de leur vie ».

Il envoie à Darwin une copie de son livre avec ce message : « A M. Darwin de la part de son admirateur sincère Karl Marx. »

Jacques Attali, qui semble ignorer les documents historiques, se trompe donc lourdement lorsqu’il écrit que « Marx ne croit pas que les idées de Darwin soient transposables à l’analyse sociale.« 

Pour Attali, Sadi Carnot, Marx et Darwin sont « les trois géants de ce siècle ». Pour le premier, découvreur de la seconde loi de la thermodynamique, le temps s’écoulerait irréversiblement vers le désordre [c’est-à-dire vers l’entropie que Sadi Carnot réserve uniquement aux systèmes fermés et d’aucune façon à l’histoire de l’homme ou de l’univers comme un tout], pour le second (Marx) vers la liberté et enfin pour le troisième vers le mieux adapté…

Abraham Lincoln

Lors de son allocution de 1861, Lincoln, dont l’élection fut soutenue par Karl Marx, semble tenir un discours quasi-marxiste lorsqu’il déclare :

« Le travail précède le capital et en est indépendant. Le capital n’est que le fruit du travail et n’aurait jamais pu exister si le travail n’avait pas existé avant lui. Le travail est supérieur au capital et mérite une considération bien plus haute. Le capital a des droits qui doivent être défendus comme les autres droits. Enfin, il ne s’agit pas non plus de nier qu’il existe, et qu’il existera toujours, une relation entre le capital et le travail dans la production de bénéfices mutuels.« 

En réalité, il se base sur l’approche hamiltonienne et dénonce la lutte des classes en plaidant pour « l’harmonie des intérêts » cher à son conseiller Henry Carey :

« L’erreur consiste à croire que toutes les relations de la société s’inscrivent exclusivement dans cette relation [de lutte des classes]. (…) Dans la plupart des Etats du Sud, une majorité de gens, toutes couleurs confondues, ne sont ni des esclaves ni leurs maîtres, alors que dans le Nord, une vaste majorité n’est ni employée ni employeur. (…) Beaucoup de gens indépendants habitant dans tous ces Etats étaient des journaliers. Le débutant sans un sou travaille un temps pour un salaire, obtient un surplus et l’utilise pour acheter des outils et un lopin de terre à cultiver. Il travaille alors à son compte et finit par employer d’autres débutants pour l’assister. C’est le système juste et généreux qui ouvre la voie à tous, leur donne l’espoir et l’énergie pour progresser et améliorer les conditions de vie de tous. Aucun homme ne mérite plus notre confiance que celui qui a surmonté la pauvreté.« 

Lettre de Marx à Lincoln

En dépit de sa différence, le 30 décembre 1864, Marx écrit, au nom de l’Association internationale des travailleurs, une lettre au président Abraham Lincoln le félicitant de sa réélection :

« Si la résistance au pouvoir des esclavagistes a été le mot d’ordre modéré de votre première élection, le cri de guerre triomphal de votre réélection est : mort à l’esclavage !

« Depuis le début de la lutte titanesque que mène l’Amérique, les ouvriers d’Europe sentent instinctivement que le sort de leur classe dépend de la bannière étoilée. La lutte pour les territoires qui inaugura la terrible épopée, ne devait-elle pas décider si la terre vierge de zones immenses devait être fécondée par le travail de l’émigrant, ou souillée par le fouet du gardien d’esclaves ?

« Lorsque l’oligarchie des trois cent mille esclavagistes osa, pour la première fois dans les annales du monde, inscrire le mot esclavage sur le drapeau de la rébellion armée ; lorsque à l’endroit même où, un siècle plus tôt, l’idée d’une grande république démocratique naquit en même temps que la première déclaration des droits de l’homme, qui ensemble donnèrent la première impulsion à la révolution européenne du XVIIIe siècle – lorsque à cet endroit la contre-révolution se glorifia, avec une violence systématique, de renverser ‘les idées dominantes de l’époque de formation de la vieille Constitution’ et présenta ‘l’esclavage comme une institution bénéfique, voire comme la seule solution au grand problème des rapports entre travail et capital’, en proclamant cyniquement que le droit de propriété sur l’homme représentait la pierre angulaire de l’édifice nouveau – alors les classes ouvrières d’Europe comprirent aussitôt, et avant même que l’adhésion fanatique des classes supérieures à la cause des confédérés ne les en eût prévenues, que la rébellion des esclavagistes sonnait le tocsin pour une croisade générale de la propriété contre le travail et que, pour les hommes du travail, le combat de géant livré outre-Atlantique ne mettait pas seulement en jeu leurs espérances en l’avenir, mais encore leurs conquêtes passées.

« C’est pourquoi, ils supportèrent toujours avec patience les souffrances que leur imposa la crise du coton et s’opposèrent avec vigueur à l’intervention en faveur de l’esclavagisme que préparaient les classes supérieures et ‘cultivées’, et un peu partout en Europe contribuèrent de leur sang à la bonne cause.


« Tant que les travailleurs, le véritable pouvoir politique du Nord, permirent à l’esclavage de souiller leur propre République ; tant qu’ils se glorifièrent de jouir – par rapport aux Noirs qui avaient un maître et étaient vendus sans être consultés – du privilège d’être libres de se vendre eux-mêmes et de choisir leur patron, ils furent incapables de combattre pour la véritable émancipation du travail ou d’appuyer la lutte émancipatrice de leurs frères européens.


« Les ouvriers d’Europe sont persuadés que si la guerre d’Indépendance américaine a inauguré l’époque nouvelle de l’essor des classes bourgeoises, la guerre anti-esclavagiste américaine a inauguré l’époque nouvelle de l’essor des classes ouvrières. Elles considèrent comme l’annonce de l’ère nouvelle que le sort ait désigné Abraham Lincoln, l’énergique et courageux fils de la classe travailleuse, pour conduire son pays dans la lutte sans égale pour l’affranchissement d’une race enchaînée et pour la reconstruction d’un monde social.« 

Marx contre les tsars

Bien que la Russie soit le premier pays à avoir traduit Le Capital, Marx voua une haine particulière au système tsariste.

En 1852, il se fait même payer par le diplomate anglais David Urquhart pour écrire une série d’articles contre la Russie qui paraîtront dans la Free Press, le journal d’Urquhart. Tout en le considérant comme un fou, Marx reprend sa thèse et accuse Lord Palmerston, le Premier ministre britannique, d’être « à la solde » de Moscou…

Bien que le tsar Alexandre II, un despote éclairé, ait aboli le servage en 1861 et menace l’Empire britannique d’action militaire s’ils interviennent aux Etats-Unis pour défendre « leurs intérêts », c’est-à-dire les esclavagistes, Marx n’en a cure.

Assassinat du tsar Alexandre II.

En 1881, après l’assassinat d’Alexandre II le 13 mars, alors que les auteurs de l’attentat étaient quatre jeunes bourgeois obsédés par la haine de l’autocratie, Marx, dans une lettre à sa fille Jenny Longuet, en parle en ces termes :

« Ce sont des individus foncièrement habiles, sans pose mélodramatique, simples, positifs, héroïques… Ils s’efforcent de montrer à l’Europe que leur manière d’agir est spécifiquement russe, historiquement inévitable, une forme de tremblement de terre de Chio.« 

Bizarrement, Jacques Attali, qui, dans son Karl Marx ou l’esprit du monde, ne tarit d’éloges quand ce dernier défend la mondialisation, prend bien soin de ne pas mentionner ces faits.

Et à l’occasion d’un meeting slave pour la célébration de l’anniversaire de la Commune, Marx et Engels saluèrent l’attentat contre Alexandre II comme « un événement qui, après des luttes longues et violentes, conduira finalement à la création d’une commune russe ».

Consciemment ou pas, Marx apparaît comme l’instrument politique de la géopolitique Britannique pour qui il ne constituait aucune menace.

Résumons les erreurs de Marx :

  • reprend la dialectique de Hegel pour faire pire ;
  • reprend les erreurs des physiocrates, pour qui la nature et le travail salarié sont la seule source de plus-value, et non pas les manufactures ;
  • refuse de reconnaître le rôle du progrès technologique dans la formation du capital ;
  • pense que l’Etat n’est qu’un outil de répression qui s’éteindra avec l’avènement d’une société sans classes ;
  • oppose à un système perdant-perdant (l’exploitation), un autre système perdant-perdant (la lutte des classes), fondé sur la violence inhérente à la dialectique hégélienne ;
  • estime sa doctrine confirmée par Darwin et ignore les naturalistes républicains (Humboldt, Arago, etc.) ;
  • pourfend le protectionnisme de List et Carey ;
  • promeut l’internationalisation du libre-échange pour amener le capitalisme à s’autodétruire ;
  • soutient Lincoln mais combat sa politique économique ;
  • félicite les assassins du tsar Alexandre II de Russie, un allié de Lincoln, qui vient d’abolir le servage ;
  • s’adonne aux mesquineries d’un petit journaliste.

Si le « marxisme » se proclame révolutionnaire, il ne l’est point au niveau des axiomes. C’est sans doute pourquoi, surtout depuis la mort de Marx, la promotion de ce type de « marxisme » a été assurée par certaines forces géopolitiques qui préfèrent de loin les rebelles aux révolutionnaires.

La révolution LaRouche

Dans les années 1970, le penseur et économiste américain Lyndon LaRouche, avec son livre Dialectical Economics (1974), a totalement bouleversé la science de l’économie marxiste en reprenant, sur la base de sa compréhension de la thermodynamique, les catégories identifiées par Marx (c/v/Pl).

Chez LaRouche, il ne s’agit plus de catégories monétaires ou comptables mortes, mais de facteurs dynamiques distincts, évoluant au sein d’une fonction de croissance qui ne définit plus une plus-value financière mais une plus-value de l’économie réelle, c’est-à-dire humaine, sociale et sociétale, mesurable sous la forme du taux d’accroissement du potentiel relatif de densité démographique, ce fameux PRDD dont la presse nous parle à longueur de journée (ironique).

Du coup, revu et corrigé par LaRouche, le modèle marxiste se trouve libéré de sa prison malthusienne et entropique. Un article de mon ami Benjamin Bak vous aidera à comprendre les rudiments de la révolution larouchiste en économie.

Autant Marx accueillait volontiers des ouvriers déconcertés de tout bord dans l’Internationale ouvrière, autant j’ai bon espoir que les marxistes honnêtes nous rejoindront dans la bataille.

Notes :

  1. Paul Lafargue, un des piliers du marxisme, devient le gendre de Marx en se mariant avec sa fille Laura. Il est élu député du Nord en 1891 et prendra parti pour Dreyfus. En 1896, Laura Marx-Lafargue hérite d’une partie de la fortune d’Engels. Paul et Laura achètent alors une propriété à Draveil où ils vivent d’une « manière hédoniste », tout en suivant les affaires du monde. A 69 ans, en 1911, proche de la limite d’âge de 70 ans qu’il s’était fixée, il se suicide à Draveil avec son épouse Laura Marx, en se justifiant dans une courte lettre : « Sain de corps et d’esprit, je me tue avant que l’impitoyable vieillesse qui m’enlève un à un les plaisirs et les joies de l’existence et qui me dépouille de mes forces physiques et intellectuelles, ne paralyse mon énergie, ne brise ma volonté et ne fasse de moi une charge à moi et aux autres.« 
Merci de partager !

The Maritime Silk Road, a history of 1001 Cooperations

Identical reconstruction of one of the ships featured on the bas-reliefs of the 8th-century Buddhist temple of Bonobudur in Indonesia.

Today, it’s fashionable to present maritime issues in the context of a moribund British geopolitical ideology that pits countries and peoples against each other. However, as this brief history of the Maritime Silk Road, drawn mainly from a document by the International Tourism Organization, demonstrates, the ocean has above all been a fantastic place for fertile encounters, cultural cross-fertilization and mutually beneficial cooperation.

The ancient Chinese invented many of the things we use today, including paper, matches, wheelbarrows, gunpowder, the noria (water elevator), sluice locks, the sundial, astronomy, porcelain, lacquer paint, the potter’s wheel, fireworks, paper money, the compass, the stern rudder, the tangram, the seismograph, dominoes, skipping rope, kites, the tea ceremony, the folding umbrella, ink, calligraphy, animal harnesses, card games, printing, the abacus, wallpaper, the crossbow, ice cream, and especially silk, which we’ll be talking about here.

Chinese silk.

The Origins of Silk

Before we talk about silk « routes », a few words about the origins of sericulture, i.e. the rearing of silkworms.

As recent archaeological discoveries confirm, silk production is an age-old skill. The presence of the mulberry tree for silkworm rearing was noted in China around the Yellow River by the Yangshao culture during the Middle Neolithic period in China, from 4500 to 3000 BC.

In general, we prefer to retain the legend that silk was discovered around 2500 BC, by the Chinese princess Si Ling-chi, when a cocoon accidentally fell into her tea bowl. When she tried to remove it, she discovered that the cocoon, softened by the hot water, had a delicate, soft and strong thread that could be unwound and assembled. Thus was born the idea of making cloth. The princess then decided to plant a number of white mulberry trees in her garden to raise silkworms.

The silkworm’s reproductive cycle.

The silkworms (or bombyx) and mulberry trees were divinely cared for by the princess (silkworms feed solely on the leaves of white mulberry trees).

Silk production is a time-consuming process that requires careful monitoring. Silk moths lay around 500 eggs during their lives, which last from 4 to 6 days. After the eggs hatch, the baby worms feed on mulberry leaves in a controlled environment. They have a ferocious appetite and their weight can increase considerably. Once they’ve stored up enough energy, the worms secrete a white jelly from their silk glands and use it to build a cocoon around themselves. After eight or nine days, the worms are killed and the cocoons are immersed in boiling water to soften the protective filaments, which are wound onto a spool. These filaments can be 600 to 900 meters long. Several filaments are assembled to form a thread. The silk threads are then woven into a fabric or used for fine embroidery or brocade, a rich silk fabric embellished with brocaded designs in gold and silver thread.

Chinese treatise on agiculture and silk production (1313).

The Early Silk Trade

Under threat of capital punishment, sericulture remained a well-kept secret, and China retained its monopoly on manufacturing for millennia.

It wasn’t until the Zhou dynasty (1112 BC) that a maritime Silk Road was established from China to Japan and Korea, as the government decided to send Chinese from the port in Bohai Bay (on the Shandong Peninsula) to train local inhabitants in sericulture and agriculture. The techniques of silkworm rearing, reeling and weaving were gradually introduced to Korea via the Yellow Sea.

When Emperor Qin Shi Huang unified China (221 BC), many people from the states of Qi, Yan and Zhao fled to Korea, taking with them silkworms and their rearing techniques. This accelerated the development of silk spinning in Korea.

Korea played a central role in China’s international relations, particularly as an intellectual bridge between China and Japan. Its trade with China also enabled the spread of Buddhism and porcelain-making methods. Although initially reserved for the imperial court, silk spread throughout Asian culture, both geographically and socially. Silk quickly became the luxury fabric par excellence that the whole world craved.

During the Han dynasties (206 BC to 220), a dense network of trade routes exploded cultural and commercial exchanges across Central Asia, profoundly impacting civilizational dynamics. The Han dynasty continued to build the Great Wall, notably creating the commandery of Dunhuang (Gansu), a key post on the Silk Road. Over two centuries B.C., its trade extended to Greece and Rome, where silk was reserved for the elite.

In the IIIrd century, India, Japan and Persia (Iran) unlocked the secret of silk manufacture and became major producers.

Silk Reaches Europe

The Nestorian monks sent by Justinian give the silkworms to the emperor.

According to a story by Procopius, it was not until 552 AD that the Byzantine emperor Justinian obtained the first silkworm eggs. He had sent two Nestorian monks to Central Asia, and they were able to smuggle silkworm eggs to him hidden in rods of bamboo. While under the monks’ care, the eggs hatched, though they did not cocoon before arrival.

A church manufacture in the Byzantine Empire was thus able to make fabrics for the emperor. Later emerged the intention of developing a large silk industry in the Eastern Roman Empire, using techniques copied from the Persian Sassanids.

Another version claims that it was the Han emperor Wu (IInd century) who sent ambassadors, bearing gifts such as silk, to the West.

In the VIIth century, sericulture spread to Africa and Sicily, from where, under the impetus of Roger I of Sicily (c. 1034-1101) and his son Roger II (1093-1154), the silkworm and mulberry were introduced to the ancient Peloponnese.

In the Xth century, Andalusia became the epicenter of silk manufacturing with Granada, Toledo and Seville. With the Arab conquest, sericulture spread to the rest of Spain, Italy (Venice, Florence and Milan) and France. The earliest French traces of sericulture date back to the 13th century, notably in the Gard (1234) and Paris (1290).

In the XVth century, faced with the ruinous import of Italian silk (raw or manufactured), Louis XI tried to set up silk factories, first in Tours on the Loire, then in Lyon, a city at the crossroads of north-south routes where Italian emigrants were already trading in silks.

In the XIXth century, silk production was industrialized in Japan, but in the XXth century, China regained its place as the world’s largest producer. Today, India, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Uzbekistan and Brazil all have large production capacities.

Cultural Melting Pot

Kingdom of Funan

As much as silk itself, the transportation of silk by sea dates back to time immemorial.

For the Chinese, there are two main routes: the East China Silk Road (to Korea and Japan) and the South China Silk Road (via the Strait of Malacca to India, the Persian Gulf, Africa and Europe).

In Vietnam, the Hanoi Museum holds a coin dating back to the year 152, bearing the effigy of the Roman emperor Antoninus the Pious. The coin was discovered in the remains of Oc Eo, a Vietnamese town south of the Mekong Delta, thought to have been the main port of the Funan Kingdom (Ist to IXth centuries).

This kingdom, which covered the territory of present-day Cambodia and the Mekong Delta administrative region of Vietnam, flourished from the 1st to the 9th century. The first mention of the Fou-nan kingdom appears in the report of a Chinese mission that visited the area in the 3rd century.

The Founamians were at the height of their power when Hinduism and Buddhism were introduced to Southeast Asia.

Then, from Egypt, Greek merchants reached the Bay of Bengal. Considerable quantities of pepper then reached Ostia, Rome’s port of entry. All the historical evidence shows that East-West trade was flourishing as early as the first millennium.

Persians and Arabs in India, China and Asia

Island of Failaka (Persian Gulf in front of Kuweit), a meeting place where Greek, Roman and Chinese traders exchanged good.

On the western side, at the entrance to Kuwait Bay, 20 kilometers off the coast of Kuwait City, not far from the mouth of the shared estuary of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in the Persian Gulf, the island of Failaka was one of the meeting places where Greece, Rome and China exchanged goods.

Sassanid Empire.

Under the Sassanid dynasty (226-651), the Persians developed their trade routes all the way to Southeast Asia, via India and Sri Lanka.

This trading infrastructure was later taken over by the Arabs when, in 762, they moved to Baghdad.

Chinese and Indian presidents, Xi Jinping and Narendra Modi, exploring the workings of the weaving wheel, the fruit of exchanges between Arabs, Indians and Chinese.
Arab dhow.

From the IXth century onwards, the city of Quilon (Kollam), the capital of Kerala in India, was home to colonies of Arab, Christian, Jewish and Chinese merchants.

On the western side, Persian and then Arab navigators played a central role in the birth of the maritime Silk Road. Following the Sassanid routes, the Arabs pushed their dhows, or traditional Arab sailing ships, from the Red Sea to the Chinese coast and as far as Malaysia and Indonesia.

These sailors brought with them a new religion, Islam, which spread throughout Southeast Asia. While the traditional pilgrimage (the hajj) to Mecca was initially only an aspiration for many Muslims, it became increasingly possible for them to make it.

During the monsoon season, when winds were favorable for sailing to India in the Indian Ocean, the twice-yearly trade missions were transformed into veritable international fairs, offering an opportunity to transport large quantities of goods by sea in conditions (apart from pirates and unpredictable weather) relatively less exposed to the dangers of overland transport.

The Maritime Silk Road under the Sui, Tang and Song Dynasties

Luoyang Bridge, a masterpiece of ancient architecture in Quanzhou.

It was under the Sui dynasty (581-618) that the Maritime Silk Road set out from Quanzhou, a coastal city in Fujian province in south-east China, on its first trade routes.

With its wealth of scenic spots and historic sites, Quanzhou has been proclaimed « the starting point of the Maritime Silk Road » by UNESCO.

It was at this time that the first printing methods appeared in China. Wooden blocks were used to print on textiles. In 593, the Sui emperor Wen-ti ordered the printing of Buddhist images and writings. One of the earliest printed texts is a Buddhist script dating from 868, found in a cave near Dunhuang, a stopover town on the Silk Road.

Under the Tang dynasty (618-907), the Kingdom’s military expansion brought security, trade and new ideas. The fact that the stability of Tang China coincided with that of Sassanid Persia enabled the land and sea Silk Roads to flourish. The great transformation of the maritime Silk Road began in the 7th century, when China opened up to international trade. The first Arab ambassador took up his post in 651.

Mural fresco executed in 706, of the Tang Emperor’s tomb, with diplomatic emissaries to the Imperial Court. The two figures on the right, carefully dressed, represent Korea, while the one in the middle (a monk?), without a headdress and with a « big nose », represents the West.

The Tang Dynasty chose Chang’an (now Xi’an) as its capital. It adopted an open attitude towards different beliefs. Buddhist, Taoist and Confucian temples coexisted peacefully with mosques, synagogues and Nestorian Christian churches. As the terminus of the Silk Road, Chang’an’s western market is becoming the center of world trade. According to the Tang Authority Six register, over 300 nations and regions had trade relations with Chang’an.

Almost 10,000 foreign families from the west lived in the city, especially in the area around the western market. There were many foreign inns staffed by foreign maids chosen for their beauty. The most famous poet in Chinese history, Li Bai, often strolled among them. Foreign food, costumes and music were the fashion of Chang’an.

After the fall of the Tang dynasty, the Five Dynasties and the Ten Kingdoms (907-960), the arrival of the Song dynasty (960-1279) ushered in a new period of prosperity, characterized by increased centralization and economic and cultural renewal. The maritime silk route regained its momentum. In 1168, a synagogue was built in Kaifeng, capital of the Southern Song dynasty, to serve merchants on the Silk Road.

During the same period, as Islam expanded, trading posts sprang up all around the Indian Ocean and the rest of Southeast Asia.

China encouraged its merchants to seize the opportunities offered by maritime traffic, in particular the sale of camphor, a highly sought-after medicinal plant. A veritable trade network developed in the East Indies under the auspices of the Kingdom of Sriwijaya, a city-state in southern Sumatra, Indonesia (see below), which for nearly six centuries served as a link between Chinese merchants on the one hand, and Indians and Malays on the other. A trade route truly emerged, deserving the name of the maritime « Silk Road ».

Increasing quantities of spices passed through India, the Red Sea and Alexandria in Egypt, before reaching the merchants of Genoa, Venice and other Western ports. From there, they moved on to the northern European markets of Lübeck (Germany), Riga (Lithuania) and Tallinn (Estonia), which from the 12th century onwards became important cities in the Hanseatic League.

After seven years of excavation, over 60,000 porcelain objects dating from the Song Dynasty (960-1279) were discovered on the Nanhai ship (South China Sea), which had been underwater for over 800 years.
A XVth-century junk from the Ming dynasty.

In China, during the reign of the Song emperor Renzong (1022-1063), a great deal of money and energy was spent on bringing together knowledge and know-how. The economy was the first to benefit.

Drawing on the know-how of Arab and Indian sailors, Chinese ships became the most advanced in the world.

The Chinese, who had invented the compass (at least by 1119), quickly surpassed their competitors in cartography and the art of navigation, as the Chinese junk became the bulk carrier par excellence.

In his geographical treatise, Zhou Qufei, in 1178, reports:

« The big ships that cruise the South Sea are like houses. When they unfold their sails, they look like huge clouds. Their rudders are dozens of feet long. A single ship can house several hundred men. On board, there’s enough food to last a year.« 


Archaeological digs confirm this reality, such as the wreck of a XIVth-century junk found off the coast of Korea, in which over 10,000 pieces of ceramic were discovered.

During this period, coastal trade gradually shifted from the hands of Arab traders to those of Chinese merchants. Trade expanded, notably with the inclusion of Korea and the integration of Japan, the Malabar coast of India, the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea into existing trade networks.

China exported tea, silk, cotton, porcelain, lacquers, copper, dyes, books and paper. In return, it imported luxury goods and raw materials, including rare woods, precious metals, precious and semi-precious stones, spices and ivory.

Copper coins from the Song period have been discovered in Sri Lanka, and porcelain from this period has been found in East Africa, Egypt, Turkey, some Gulf states and Iran, as well as in India and Southeast Asia.

The Importance of Korea and the Kingdom of Silla


During the first millennium, culture and philosophy flourished on the Korean peninsula. A well-organized and well-protected trading network with China and Japan operated there.

On the Japanese island of Okino-shima, numerous historical traces bear witness to the intense exchanges between the Japanese archipelago, Korea and the Asian continent.

Excavations carried out in ancient tombs in Gyeongju, today a South Korean city of 264,000 inhabitants and capital of the ancient Kingdom of Silla (from 57 BC to 935), which controlled most of the peninsula from the VIIth to the IXth century, demonstrate the intensity of this kingdom’s exchanges with the rest of the world, via the Silk Road.

Indonesia, a Major Maritime Power at the Heart of the Maritime Silk Road



In Indonesia, Malaysia and southern Thailand, the Kingdom of Sriwijaya (VIIth to XIIIth centuries) played a major role as a maritime trading post, storing high-value goods from the region and beyond for later sale by sea. In particular, Sriwijaya controlled the Strait of Malacca, the essential sea passage between India and China.

At the height of its power in the XIth century, Sriwijaya’s network of ports and trading posts traded a vast array of products and commodities: rice, cotton, indigo and silver from Java, aloe (a succulent plant of African origin), vegetable resins, camphor, ivory and rhinoceros horns, tin and gold from Sumatra, rattan, redwoods and other rare woods, gems from Borneo, rare birds and exotic animals, iron, sandalwood and spices from East Indonesia, India and Southeast Asia, and porcelain, lacquer, brocade, textiles and silk from China.

With its capital at Palembang (population 1.7 million) on the Musi River in what is now the southern province of Sumatra, this Hindu-Buddhist-inspired kingdom, which flourished from the VIIIth to the XIIIth century, was the first major Indonesian kingdom and the country’s first maritime power.

By the VIIth century, it ruled a large part of Sumatra, the western part of Java and a significant part of the Malay Peninsula. It extended as far north as Thailand, where archaeological remains of Sriwijaya cities still exist.

Buddhism on the Maritime Silk Road

The museum in Palembang (today Indonesia) – a town where Chinese, Indian, Arab and Yemeni communities, each with their own particular institutions, have co-prospered for generations – tells a wonderful story of how the Maritime Silk Road generated exemplary mutual cultural enrichment.

Buddhism was closely tied to international or cross-boundary trade. Early inscriptions indicate it was common for seafarers to pray to the Buddha for a safe voyage.

The maritime routes were very challenging as they were often beset with cyclones and typhoons, and piracy was an ever-present danger.

As a consequence, merchant support for Buddhism along these travel routes helped to establish monastic life far beyond India. Monks and nuns also took passage on these trading ships, and the merchants sought good karma by helping them travel to spread the teachings of the Buddha.

Madagascar, Sanskrit and the Cinnamon Road


Map of the expansion of Austronesian languages.


Today, Madagascar is inhabited by Blacks and Asians. DNA tests have confirmed what has long been known: many of the island’s inhabitants are descended from Malay and Indonesian sailors who set foot on the island around the year 830, when the Sriwijaya Empire extended its maritime influence towards Africa.

Further evidence of this presence is the fact that the language spoken on the island borrows Sanskrit and Indonesian words.

Bas-relief from the Buddhist temple of Borobudur (8th century, Indonesia)

To demonstrate the feasibility of such sea voyages, in 2003 a team of researchers sailed from Indonesia to Ghana via Madagascar aboard the Borobudur, a reconstruction of one of the sailing ships featured in many of the 1,300 bas-reliefs decorating the 8th-century Buddhist temple of Borobudur on the island of Java in Indonesia.

Many believe that this vessel is a representation of those once used by Indonesian merchants to cross the ocean to Africa. Indonesian navigators usually used relatively small boats. To ensure balance, they fitted them with outriggers, both double (ngalawa) and single.

Their boats, whose hulls were carved from a single tree trunk, were called sanggara. Merchants from the Indonesian archipelago could reach as far east as Hawaii and New Zealand, a distance of over 7,000 km.

On the Cinnamon Route, the ship made its way from Indonesia to Accra, Ghana, via Madagascar.

In any case, the researchers’ boat, equipped with an 18-meter-high mast, managed to cover the Jakarta – Maldives – Cape of Good Hope – Ghana route, a distance of 27,750 kilometers, or more than half the circumference of the Earth!

The expedition aimed to retrace a very specific route: the cinnamon route, which took Indonesian merchants all the way to Africa to sell spices, including cinnamon, a highly sought-after commodity at the time. Cinnamon was already highly prized in the Mediterranean basin long before the Christian era.

On the walls of the Egyptian temple at Deir el-Bahari (Luksor), a painting depicts a major naval expedition.

On the walls of the Egyptian temple at Deir el-Bahari (Luksor), a painting depicts a major naval expedition said to have been ordered by Queen Hatshepsut, who reigned from 1503 to 1482 BC. Around the painting, hieroglyphs explain that these ships carried various species of plants and fragrant essences destined for the cult. One of these was cinnamon. Rich in aroma, it was an important component of ritual ceremonies in the kingdoms of Egypt.

Cinnamon originally grew in Central Asia, the eastern Himalayas and northern Vietnam. The southern Chinese transplanted it from these regions to their own country and cultivated it under the name gui zhi.

Unsurprisingly, the map of Austronesian language expansion is almost identical to that of the « Cinnamon Road. »


From China, gui zhi spread throughout the Indonesian archipelago, finding a very fertile home there, particularly in the Moluccas. In fact, the international cinnamon trade was a monopoly held by Indonesian merchants. Indonesian cinnamon was prized for its excellent quality and highly competitive price.

The Indonesians sailed great distances, up to 8,000 km, across the Indian Ocean to Madagascar and northeast Africa. From Madagascar, products were transported to Rhapta, in a coastal region that later became known as Somalia. From there, Arab merchants shipped them north to the Red Sea.

The Strait of Malacca

For China, the Strait of Malacca has always represented a major strategic interest. When the great Chinese admiral Zheng He led the first of his expeditions to India, the Near East and East Africa between 1405 and 1433, a Chinese pirate by the name of Chen Zuyi took control of Palembang.

Zheng He defeated Chen’s fleet and captured the survivors. As a result, the strait once again became a safe shipping route.

According to tradition, a prince of Sriwijaya, Parameswara, took refuge on the island of Temasek (present-day Singapore), but eventually settled on the west coast of the Malay Peninsula around 1400 and founded the city of Malacca, which would become the largest port in Southeast Asia, both successor to Sriwijaya and precursor to Singapore.

Following the decline of Sriwijaya, the Kingdom of Majapahit (1292-1527), founded at the end of the XIIIth century on the island of Java, came to dominate most of present-day Indonesia.

This was the period when Arab sailors began to settle in the region.

The Majapahit kingdom established relations with the Kingdom of Champa (192-1145; 1147-1190; 1220-1832) (South Vietnam), Cambodia, Siam (Thailand) and southern Myanmar.

The Majapahit kingdom also sent missions to China. As its rulers extended their power to other islands and sacked neighboring kingdoms, they sought above all to increase their share and control of the trade in goods passing through the archipelago.

The island of Singapore and the southernmost part of the Malay Peninsula was a key crossroads on the ancient maritime Silk Road.

Archaeological excavations in the Kallang estuary and along the Singapore River have uncovered thousands of shards of glass, natural and gold beads, ceramics and Chinese coins from the Northern Song period (960-1127).

The rise of the Mongol Empire in the middle of the XIIIth century led to an increase in seaborne trade and contributed to the vitality of the Maritime Silk Road.

Marco Polo, after a 17-year overland journey to China, returned by ship. After witnessing a shipwreck, he sailed from China to Sumatra in Indonesia, before setting foot on land again at Hormuz in Persia (Iran).

Under the Yuan and Ming Dynasties

Under the Song dynasty, large quantities of silk goods were exported to Japan. Under the Yuan dynasty (1271-1368), the government set up the Shi Bo Si, a trade office, in a number of ports, including Ningbo, Canton, Shanghai, Ganpu, Wenzhou and Hangzhou, enabling silk exports to Japan.

During the Tang, Song and Yuan dynasties, and at the beginning of the Ming dynasty, each port set up an oceanic trading department to manage all foreign maritime trade.

Maritime travel was dependent on the seasonal winds: the summer monsoons blow from the south-west (May to September) and reverse direction in the winter (October to April). As a result, seafaring merchants developed sailing circuits that allowed them to use the monsoon winds to travel long distances, then return home when the wind patterns shifted.

Trade with southern India and the Persian Gulf flourished. Trade with East Africa also developed with the monsoon season, bringing ivory, gold and slaves. In India, guilds began to control Chinese trade on the Malabar coast and in Sri Lanka.

Trade relations became more formalized, while remaining highly competitive. Cochin and Kozhikode (Calicut), two major cities in the Indian state of Kerala, competed to dominate this trade.

Admiral Zheng He’s Maritime Explorations

Map of Admiral Zheng He’s maritime expeditions.

Chinese maritime exploration reached its apogee in the early XVth century under the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), which chose a Muslim court eunuch, Admiral Zheng He, to lead seven diplomatic naval expeditions.

Financed by Emperor Ming Yongle, these peaceful missions to Southeast Asia, East Africa, the Indian Ocean, the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea were intended above all to demonstrate the prestige and grandeur of China and its Emperor. The aim was also to recognize some thirty states and establish political and commercial relations with them.

In 1409, prior to one of these expeditions, the Chinese admiral Zheng He asked craftsmen to make a carved stone stele in Nanjing, the present-day capital of Jiangsu province (eastern China). The stele traveled with the flotilla and was left in Sri Lanka as a gift to a local Buddhist temple. Prayers to the deities in three languages – Chinese, Persian and Tamil – were engraved on the stele. It was found in 1911 in the town of Galle, in south-west Sri Lanka, and a replica is now in China.

Zheng’s armada was made up of armed bulk carriers, the most modest being larger than Columbus’ caravels. The largest were 100 meters long and 50 meters wide. According to Ming chronicles of the time, an expedition could comprise 62 ships, each carrying 500 people. Some carried military cavalry, others tanks of drinking water. Chinese shipbuilding was ahead of its time. The technique of hermetic bulkheads, imitating the internal structure of bamboo, offered incomparable safety. It became the standard for the Chinese fleet before being copied by the Europeans 250 years later. Compasses and celestial maps painted on silk were also used.

The synergy that may have existed between Arab, Indian and Chinese sailors, all men of the sea who fraternized in the face of ocean adversity, was impressive. For example, some historians believe that the name « Sindbad the Sailor », which appears in the Persian tale of a sailor’s adventures from the time of the Abbasid dynasty (VIIIth century) and was included in the Tales of the One Thousand and One Nights, derives from the word Sanbao, the honorary nickname given by the Chinese Emperor to Admiral Zheng He, literally meaning « The Three Jewels », i.e. the three indissociable capital virtues: essence, breath, and spirit.

Statue of Admiral Zheng Ho in front of a mosque built in his honor in Indonesia.

Maritime museums in China (Hong Kong, Macau, Fuzhou, Tianjin and Nanjing), Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia showcase Admiral Zheng’s expeditions.

However, at least twelve other admirals carried out similar expeditions to Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean.

In 1403, Admiral Ma Pi led an expedition to Indonesia and India. Wu Bin, Zhang Koqing and Hou Xian made others. After lightning caused a fire in the Forbidden City, a dispute broke out between the eunuch class, supporters of the expeditions, and the learned mandarins, who obtained the cessation of expeditions deemed too costly. The last voyage took place between 1430 and 1433, 64 years before the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama arrived in 1497.

Japan, for its part, similarly restricted its contacts with the outside world during the Tokugawa period (1600-1868), although its trade with China was never suspended. It was only after the Meiji Restoration in 1868 that a Japan open to the world re-emerged.

Withdrawing into themselves, trade with both China and Japan fell into the hands of maritime trading posts such as Malacca in Malaysia or Hi An in Vietnam, two cities now recognized by Unesco as world heritage sites. H?i An was a major stopover port on the sea route linking Europe and Japan via India and China. In the shipwrecks found at Hi An, researchers have discovered ceramics awaiting their departure for Sinai in Egypt.

History of Chinese Ports

Over the years, the main ports on the Maritime Silk Road have changed. From the 330s onwards, Canton and Hepu were the two most important ports. However, Quanzhou replaced Canton from the end of the Song to the end of the Yuan dynasty. At that time, Quanzhou in Fujian province and Alexandria in Egypt were considered the world’s largest ports. Due to the policy of closure to the outside world imposed from 1435 and the influence of war, Quanzhou was gradually replaced by the ports of Yuegang, Zhangzhou and Fujian.

From the beginning of the IVth century, Canton was an important port on the Silk Road. Gradually, under the Tang and Song dynasties, it became not only the largest, but also the most renowned port of the Orient worldwide. During this period, the sea route linking Canton to the Persian Gulf via the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean was the longest in the world.

Although later supplanted by Quanzhou under the Yuan dynasty, Canton remained China’s second-largest commercial port. Compared with the others, it is considered to have been a consistently prosperous port over the 2,000-year history of the Maritime Silk Road.

The Tributary System of 1368

China’s last imperial dynasty, the Qing, reigned from 1644 to 1912.

Since the arrival of the Ming dynasty, maritime trade with China proceded in two different ways:

  • The Chinese « tributary system » ;
  • The Canton system (1757-1842).

Born under the Ming in 1368, the « tributary system » reached its apogee under the Qing. It took the refined form of a mutually beneficial, inclusive hierarchy.

States adhering to it showed respect and gratitude by regularly presenting the Emperor with tribute made up of local products and performing certain ritual ceremonies, notably the « kowtow » (three genuflections and nine prostrations). They also demanded the Emperor’s investiture of their leaders and adopted the Chinese calendar. In addition to China, they included Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, the Ryükyü Islands, Laos, Myanmar and Malaysia.

Paradoxically, while occupying a central cultural status, the tributary system offered its vassals the status of sovereign entities, enabling them to exercise authority over a given geographical area.

The Emperor won their submission by showing virtuous concern for their welfare and promoting a doctrine of non-intervention and non-exploitation. Indeed, according to historians, in financial terms, China was never directly enriched by the tributary system. In general, all travel and subsistence expenses for tributary missions were covered by the Chinese government. In addition to the costs of running the system, the gifts offered by the Emperor were generally far more valuable than the tributes he received. Each tributary mission was entitled to be accompanied by a large number of merchants, and once the tribute had been presented to the Emperor, trade could begin.

It should be noted that when a country lost its status as a tributary state as a result of a disagreement, it would try at all costs, and sometimes violently, to be allowed to pay tribute again.

The Canton System of 1757

Port of Canton in 1850 with American, French and British trade missions.

The second system concerned foreign, mainly European, powers wishing to trade with China. This involved the port of Guangzhou (then called Canton), the only port accessible to Westerners.

This meant that merchants, notably those of the British East India Company, could dock not in the port but off the coast of Canton, from October to March, during the trading season. It was in Macao, then a Portuguese possession, that the Chinese provided them with permission to do so. The Emperor’s representatives would then authorize Chinese merchants (hongs) to go on board to trade with foreign ships, while instructing them to collect customs duties before they left.

This way of trading expanded at the end of the XVIIIth century, particularly with the strong English demand for tea.

In fact, it was Chinese tea from Fujian that American « insurgents » threw into the sea during the famous « Boston Tea Party » in December 1773, one of the first events against the British Empire that sparked off the American Revolution.

Products from India, particularly cotton and opium, were exchanged by the East India Company for tea, porcelain and silk.

The customs duties collected by the Canton system were a major source of revenue for the Qing dynasty, even though it banned the purchase of opium from India. This restriction imposed by the Chinese Emperor in 1796 led to the outbreak of the Opium Wars, the first as early as 1839.

At the same time, rebellions broke out in the 1850-60s against the weakened Qing reign, coupled with further wars against hostile European powers.

Sacking of the Summer Palace by the British and French in 1860.

In 1860, the former Summer Palace (Yuanming Park), with its collection of pavilions, temples, pagodas and libraries – the residence of the Qing dynasty emperors 15 kilometers northwest of Beijing’s Forbidden City – was ravaged by British and French troops during the Second Opium War.

This assault goes down in history as one of the worst acts of cultural vandalism of the XIXth century. The Palace was sacked a second time in 1900 by an eight-nation alliance against China.

Today, a statue of Victor Hugo and a text he wrote against Napoleon III and the destruction of French imperialism can be admired there, as a reminder that this was not the work of a nation, but of a government.

By the end of the First World War, China had 48 open ports where foreigners could trade according to their own jurisdictions.

The 20th century was an era of revolution and social change. The founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 led to inward-looking attitudes.

It wasn’t until 1978 that Deng Xiaoping announced a policy of opening up to the outside world in order to modernize the country.

China’s New Silk Roads initiative.

In the XXIst century, thanks to the One Belt (economic) One Road (maritime) Initiative launched by President Xi Jingping, China is re-emerging as a major world power offering mutually beneficial cooperation in the service of a better shared future for mankind.

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The ancient practice of debt cancellation

While anyone with a modicum of rationality knows that a huge proportion of the world’s debts are absolutely unpayable, it’s a fact that today any debt cancellation, however odious or illegitimate, remains taboo.

By Karel Vereycken, December 2020.

Debt repayment is presented by heads of state and government, central banks, the IMF and the mainstream press as imperative, inevitable, indisputable, compulsory. Citizens have elected their governments, so they must resign themselves to paying the debt. For not to pay is more than violating a symbol: it is to exclude oneself from civilization, and to renounce in advance any new credit that is granted only to « good payers ». What counts is not the effectiveness of the act, but the expression of one’s « good faith », i.e. one’s willingness to submit to the strongest. The only possible discussion is how to modulate the distribution of the necessary sacrifices.

It seems that the ultra-liberal, monetarist model that has been surreptitiously imposed on us is that of the Roman Empire: zero debt for states and cities, and no debt forgiveness for citizens!

In his treatise on Duties (De officiis), written in 44-43, Cicero, who had just quelled a revolt by people demanding a debt remission, justifies the radical nature of his policy towards indebtedness:

For Cicero, any debt forgiveness undermines the authority of the State.

« What does the establishment of new debt accounts [i.e., remission] mean, if not that you buy land with my money, that you have this land, and that I don’t have my money? That’s why we have to make sure there are no debts, which can harm the state. There are many ways of avoiding it, but if there are debts, not in such a way that the rich lose their property and the debtors acquire the property of others. Indeed, nothing maintains the State more strongly than good faith (fides), which cannot exist if there is no need to pay one’s debts. Never has anyone acted more forcefully to avoid paying their debts than under my Consulate. It was attempted by men of all kinds and ranks, with weapons in hand, and by setting up camps. But I resisted them in such a way that this entire evil was eliminated from the State. »

What has been carefully concealed is that another human practice has also existed: moratoria, partial and even generalized debt cancellations have taken place repeatedly throughout history and were carried out according to different contexts.

Often, proclamations of generalized debt cancellation were the initiative of self-preservation-minded rulers, aware that the only way to avoid complete social breakdown was to declare a « washing of the shelves » – those on which consumer debts were inscribed – cancelling them to start afresh.

The American anthropologist David Graeber, in Debt, the first 5000 years (2011), pointed out that the first word we have for « freedom » in any human language is Sumerian amargi, meaning freed from debt and, by extension, freedom in general, the literal meaning being « return to the mother » insofar as, once debts were cancelled, all debt slaves could return home.

Debt cancellations were sometimes the result of bitter social struggles, wars and crises. What is certain is that debt has never been a detail of history.

David Graeber sums it up:

« For millennia, the struggle between rich and poor has largely taken the form of conflicts between creditors and debtors – disputes over the justice or injustice of interest payments, peonage, amnesty, property seizure, restitution to the creditor, confiscation of sheep, seizure of vineyards and the sale of the debtor’s children as slaves. And over the last 5,000 years, with remarkable regularity, popular insurrections have begun in the same way: with the ritual destruction of debt registers – tablets, papyri, ledgers or other media specific to a particular time and place. (After which, the rebels generally attacked cadastres and tax registers.) »

And as the great ancient scholar Moses Finley was fond of saying,

« All revolutionary movements have had the same program: cancellation of debts and redistribution of land. »

Let us now examine some historical precedents for voluntary debt forgiveness.


Debt cancellation in Mesopotamia

Urukagina s reform text mentions the cancelling of obligations of indentured families as part of his reforms

The earliest known debt cancellation was proclaimed in Mesopotemia by Entemena of Lagash c. 2400 BCE.

One of his successors, Urukagina, who was the last ruler of the 1st Dynasty of Lagash, is known for his code of rules that includes debt cancelation.

Urukagina’s code is the first recorded example of government reform, seeking to achieve a higher level of freedom and equality by limiting the power of priesthood and a usurous land-owner oligarchy. Usury and seizure of property for debt payment were outlawed. « The widow and the orphan were no longer at the mercy of the powerful man ».

Similar measures were enacted by later Sumerian, Babylonian and Assyrian rulers of Mesopotamia, where they were known as « freedom decrees » (ama-gi in Sumerian).

This same theme exists in an ancient bilingual HittiteHurrian text entitled « The Song of Debt Release ».

The reign of Hammurabi, King of Babylon (located in present-day Iraq), began in 1792 BC and lasted 42 years.

The inscriptions preserved on a 2-meter-high stele in the Louvre are known as the « Hammurabi Code ». It was placed in a public square in Babylon. If it is a long, very severe code of justice, prescribing the application of the law of retaliation (« an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth »), its epilogue nevertheless proclaims that « the powerful cannot oppress the weak, justice must protect the widow and the orphan (…) in order to render justice to the oppressed ».

At the Louvre Museum in Paris, the stele with « The Hammurabi Code »

Hammurabi, like the other rulers of the Mesopotamian city-states, repeatedly proclaimed a general cancellation of citizens’ debts to public authorities, their high officials and dignitaries.

Thanks to the deciphering of numerous documents written in cuneiform, historians have found indisputable evidence of four general debt cancellations during Hammurabi’s reign (at the beginning of his reign in 1792, in 1780, in 1771 and in 1762 BC).

Babylonian society was predominantly agricultural. The temple and palace, and the scribes and craftsmen they employed, depended for their sustenance on a vast peasantry from whom land, tools and livestock were rented.

In exchange, each farmer had to offer part of his production as rent. However, when climatic hazards or epidemics made normal production impossible, producers went into debt.

The inability of peasants to repay debts could also lead to their enslavement (family members could also be enslaved for debt).

The Hammurabi Code obviously wanted to change this. Article 48 of the Code of Laws states:

« Whoever owes a loan, and a storm buries the grain, or the harvest fails, or the grain does not grow for lack of water, need not give any grain to the creditor that year, he wipes the tablet of the debt in the water and pays no interest for that year. »

This ideal of justice is notably supported by the terms kittum, « justice as the guarantor of public order », and « justice as the restoration of equity. » It was asserted in particular during the « edicts of grace » (designated by the term mîsharum), a general remission of public and private debts in the kingdom (including the release of people working for another person to repay a debt).

Thus, to preserve the social order, Hammurabi and the ruling power, acting in their own interests and in the interests of society’s future, periodically agreed to cancel all debts and restore the rights of peasants, in order to save the threatened old order in times of crisis, or as a kind of reset at the beginning of a sovereign’s reign.

Proclamations of general debt cancellation are not confined to the reign of Hammurabi; they began long before him and continued afterwards. There is evidence of debt cancellations as far back as 2400 BC, six centuries before Hammurabi’s reign, in the city of Lagash (Sumer); the most recent date back to 1400 BC in Nuzi.

In all, historians have accurately identified some thirty general debt cancellations in Mesopotamia between 2400 and 1400 BC.

These proclamations of debt cancellation were the occasion for great festivities, usually during the annual spring festival. Under the Hammurabi dynasty, the tradition of destroying the tablets on which debts were written was established.

In fact, the public authorities kept precise accounts of debts on tablets kept in the temple. Hammurabi died in 1749 BC after a 42-year reign. His successor, Samsuiluna, cancelled all debts to the state and decreed the destruction of all debt tablets except those relating to commercial debts.

When Ammisaduqa, the last ruler of the Hammurabi dynasty, acceded to the throne in 1646 BC, the general cancellation of debts he proclaimed was very detailed. The aim was clearly to prevent certain creditors from taking advantage of certain families. The annulment decree stipulates that official creditors and tax collectors who have expelled peasants must compensate them and return their property, on pain of execution.

After 1400 BC, no deeds of debt cancellation have been found, as the tradition has been lost. Land was taken over by large private landowners, and debt slavery returned.

In Egypt

In Ancient Egypt interest-bearing debt did not exist for most of its history. When it started spreading in the Late Period, the rulers of Egypt regulated it and a number of debt remissions are known to have occurred during the Ptolemaic era, including the one whose proclamation was inscribed on the Rosetta Stone.

Now on display at the British Museum in London, the « Rosetta Stone » was discovered on July 15, 1799 at el-Rashid (Rosetta) by one of Napoleon’s soldiers during the Egyptian campaign. It contains the same text written in hieroglyphs, demotic (Egyptian cursive script) and Greek, giving Jean-François Champollion (1790-1832) the key to the passage from one language to another.

This was a decree issued by Pharaoh Ptolemy V on March 27, 196 BC, announcing an amnesty for debtors and prisoners. The Greek Ptolemy dynasty that ruled Egypt institutionalized the regular cancellation of debts.

It was perpetuating known practices, since Greek texts mention that Pharaoh Bakenranef, who ruled Lower Egypt from c. 725 to 720 BC, had promulgated a decree abolishing debt slavery and condemning debt imprisonment.

TRANSCRIPTION OF THE PHARAOH’S DECREE
ON THE ROSETTA STONE:

Assembled the Chief Priests and Prophets there and those who enter the inner temple to worship the gods, and the Fanbearers and Sacred Scribes and all the other priests of the temples of the earth who have come to meet the king at Memphis, for the feast of the Assumption of PTOLEMEE, THE LIVING FOREVER, THE BELOVED OF PTAH, THE GOD EPIPHANES EUCHARISTOS, the successor of his father, All assembled in the temple of Memphis on this day when it was declared:

“that King PTOLEMEE, THE LIVING FOREVER, THE BELOVED OF PTAH, THE GOD EPIPHANES EUCHARISTOS, the son of King Ptolemy and Queen Arsinoe, the Philopator Gods, both benefactors of the temple and those who dwell therein, as well as their subjects, being a god from a god and the goddess loves Horus the son of Isis and Osiris who avenged his father Osiris by being favorably disposed towards the gods, delivered to the revenues of the temples silver and corn and undertook much expenditure for the prosperity of Egypt, and the maintenance of the temples, and was generous to all out of his own resources ;

“and exempted them from some of the revenues and taxes levied in Egypt and alleviated others so that his people and all others could be in prosperity during his reign ;

“and that he cleared the debts to the crown for many Egyptians and for the rest of the kingdom; ”

The existence of this decree therefore confirms that the practice had existed for many centuries.

The Greek historian Diodorus Siculus (Ist Century BC) provides the following rationale for abolishing the debt bondage by Pharaoh Bakenranef:

« For it would be absurd… that a soldier, at the moment perhaps when he was setting forth to fight for his fatherland, should be haled to prison by his creditor for an unpaid loan, and that the greed of private citizens should in this way endanger the safety of all »

As one can see here, one of the very pragmatic reasons for debt cancellation was that the Pharaoh wanted to have a peasantry capable of producing enough food and, if need be, able to take part in military campaigns. For both of these reasons, it was important to ensure that peasants were not expelled from their lands under the thumb of creditors.

In another part of the region, the Assyrian emperors of the 1st millennium BC also adopted the tradition of debt cancellation.

In Greece: Solon of Athens

Solon of Athens

In Greece, the Athenian lawmaker Solon (c. 638 BC–558 BC), in order to rectify the widespread serfdom and slavery that had run rampant by the 6th century BCE, introduced a set of laws nown as the Seisachtheia introducing debt relief.

Before Solon, according to the account of the Constitution of the Athenians attributed to Aristotle, debtors unable to repay their creditors would surrender their land to them, then becoming hektemoroi, i.e. serfs who cultivated what used to be their own land and gave one sixth of produce to their creditors. However, should the debt exceed the perceived value of debtor’s total assets, then the debtor and his family would become the creditor’s slaves as well. The same would result if a man defaulted on a debt whose collateral was the debtor’s personal freedom. The fight for debt relief and the fight to abolish slavery were in practice identical.

Solon’s seisachtheia laws immediately cancelled all outstanding debts, retroactively emancipated all previously enslaved debtors, reinstated all confiscated serf property to the hektemoroi, and forbade the use of personal freedom as collateral in all future debts. The laws instituted a ceiling to maximum property size – regardless of the legality of its acquisition (i.e. by marriage), meant to prevent excessive accumulation of land by powerful families.

In the Torah and Old Testament

Social justice, particularly in the form of forgiving debts that shackle the poor to the rich, is a leitmotif in the history of Judaism. It was practiced in Jerusalem in the 5th century BC.

The writing of the Torah was completed at this time. Deuteronomy, 15 states:

Torah Scroll.

The Year for Canceling Debts

15 At the end of every seven years you must cancel debts.
This is how it is to be done: Every creditor shall cancel any loan they have made to a fellow Israelite. They shall not require payment from anyone among their own people, because the Lord’s time for canceling debts has been proclaimed.
You may require payment from a foreigner, but you must cancel any debt your fellow Israelite owes you.
However, there need be no poor people among you, for in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess as your inheritance, he will richly bless you,
if only you fully obey the Lord your God and are careful to follow all these commands I am giving you today.
For the Lord your God will bless you as he has promised, and you will lend to many nations but will borrow from none. You will rule over many nations but none will rule over you.
If anyone is poor among your fellow Israelites in any of the towns of the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward them.
Rather, be openhanded and freely lend them whatever they need.
Be careful not to harbor this wicked thought: “The seventh year, the year for canceling debts, is near,” so that you do not show ill will toward the needy among your fellow Israelites and give them nothing. They may then appeal to the Lord against you, and you will be found guilty of sin.
10 Give generously to them and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to.
11 There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land.

Thus, the Israelites were obliged to free Hebrew slaves who had sold themselves to them for debt, and to offer them some of the produce of their small livestock, their fields and their wine presses, so that they would not return home empty-handed.

As the law is too rarely applied, Leviticus reaffirms it by modulating it:

The Year of Jubilee

“‘Count off seven sabbath years—seven times seven years—so that the seven sabbath years amount to a period of forty-nine years.
Then have the trumpet sounded everywhere on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement sound the trumpet throughout your land.
10 Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each of you is to return to your family property and to your own clan.
11 The fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; do not sow and do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the untended vines.
12 For it is a jubilee and is to be holy for you; eat only what is taken directly from the fields.
13 “‘In this Year of Jubilee everyone is to return to their own property.

14 “‘If you sell land to any of your own people or buy land from them, do not take advantage of each other.
15 You are to buy from your own people on the basis of the number of years since the Jubilee. And they are to sell to you on the basis of the number of years left for harvesting crops.
16 When the years are many, you are to increase the price, and when the years are few, you are to decrease the price, because what is really being sold to you is the number of crops.
17 Do not take advantage of each other, but fear your God. I am the Lord your God.

Jeremiah contemplating the destruction of Jerusalem. Painting by Rembrandt.

Today, some will tell you that under these conditions, a year before the jubilee date, credit would necessarily be scarce and expensive, and that debt would thus find its limit!

This is a mistake, because to ensure that the law is followed, the codes describe in detail how purchases and sales of goods between private individuals must be carried out according to the number of years elapsed since the previous jubilee (i.e., the number of years remaining before the goods must be returned to their previous owner).

Another passage, this time from the prophet Jeremiah, vividly illustrates the scope of the law on the remission of debts.

King Zedekia

Faced with the advance of enemy armies towards Jerusalem in 587 B.C., Jeremiah supports, in God’s name, the undertaking of King Zedekiah (then ruler of the Kingdom of Judea), who demands the immediate release of all those enslaved for debt from the powerful forces of his kingdom (Jer. 34:8-17).

Jeremiah forcefully recalls the ancient demand for the freeing of slaves… which the king, in fact, needs to patriotically reunite the social classes before the battle, and give himself sufficient troops free of all servile obligations!

The prophet Nehemiah

A passage in the Book of (the prophet) Nehemiah (447 BC), the governor of Persian Judea under Artaxerxes I of Persia (465–424 BC), influenced by the ancient Mesopotamian tradition, also proclaims the cancellation of debts owed by indebted Jews to their rich compatriots.

The social situation Nehemiah discovered in Judea was appalling. To remedy the problem, Nehemiah placed the law of debt relief within a religious framework, the Covenant with Yahweh. From then on, it was God himself who commanded the forgiveness of debts and the liberation of slaves and their land, for the land belonged to God alone.

Nehemiah Helps the Poor

« Now the men and their wives raised a great outcry against their fellow Jews.
Some were saying, “We and our sons and daughters are numerous; in order for us to eat and stay alive, we must get grain.”
Others were saying, “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards and our homes to get grain during the famine.”
Still others were saying, “We have had to borrow money to pay the king’s tax on our fields and vineyards.

Although we are of the same flesh and blood as our fellow Jews and though our children are as good as theirs, yet we have to subject our sons and daughters to slavery. Some of our daughters have already been enslaved, but we are powerless, because our fields and our vineyards belong to others.”
When I heard their outcry and these charges, I was very angry.
I pondered them in my mind and then accused the nobles and officials. I told them, “You are charging your own people interest!” So I called together a large meeting to deal with them

and said: “As far as possible, we have bought back our fellow Jews who were sold to the Gentiles. Now you are selling your own people, only for them to be sold back to us!” They kept quiet, because they could find nothing to say.
So I continued, “What you are doing is not right. Shouldn’t you walk in the fear of our God to avoid the reproach of our Gentile enemies?
10 I and my brothers and my men are also lending the people money and grain. But let us stop charging interest!
11 Give back to them immediately their fields, vineyards, olive groves and houses, and also the money you are charging them—one percent of the money, grain, new wine and olive oil.
12 “We will give it back,” they said. “And we will not demand anything more from them. We will do as you say.”

If we add to these passages the countless verses forbidding the lending of interest to fellow human beings and the taking of property as collateral, we get an idea of what the Israelites in the land of Canaan had put in place to try and maintain a certain social equilibrium.

Alas, in the first century AD, debt forgiveness and the freeing of slaves from debt were swept away from all Near Eastern cultures, including Judea.

The social situation there had deteriorated to such an extent that Rabbi Hillel was able to issue a decree requiring debtors to sign away their right to debt forgiveness.

In the Bible and New Testament

What happened to debt forgiveness in the New Testament?

While the Acts of the Apostles and the writings of the Fathers of the Church sometimes express a great docility, Jesus’ position on the forgiveness of debts, as reported repeatedly and most forcefully in Luke’s Gospel, chapter 4:16-21, appears to be marked by a revolutionary prophetic breath.

Luke places the passage at the beginning of Jesus’ public life. He makes it a key to everything that follows.

16 Jesus went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read,
17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
    because he has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
    and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,

19     to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
20 Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him.
21 He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

Let’s not forget that the « year of the Lord’s favor (Jubilee Year) » to which he called, demanded at once rest for the land, forgiveness of debts and the liberation of slaves.

In the midst of the slave-owning Roman Empire, which fiercely rejected the concept of debt forgiveness, Jesus’ declaration could only be seen as a declaration of war on the ruling system.

Before he was arrested, Jesus made a highly symbolic material gesture: he forcefully overturned the tables of the money-changers in the Jerusalem temple. For the Jewish high priests and the Roman authorities, this was too much.

Peace of Westphalia of 1648

In 1648, after five years of negotiations, led by the French diplomat Abel Servien on the instructions of Cardinal Mazarin, the “Peace of Westphalia” was signed, putting an end to the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648).

Long before the UN Charter, 1648 made national sovereignty, mutual respect and the principle of non-interference the foundations of international law.

But there was more. As we have documented, the peace deal also included the cancelation of debts that had become the very reason for continuing the war.

Unpayable, unsustainable and illegitimate debts, interests, bonds, annuities and financial claims, explicitly identified as fueling a dynamic of perpetual war, were examined, sorted out and reorganized, most often through the cancellation of debts (articles 13 and 35, 37, 38 and 39), through moratoria or debt rescheduling according to specific timetables (article 69).

Article 40 concludes that debt cancellations will apply in most cases, “and yet the Sums of Money, which during the War have been exacted bona fide, and with a good intent, by way of Contributions, to prevent greater Evils by the Contributors, are not comprehended herein. » (Implying that these debts would have to be honored.)

Finally, looking to the future, for Commerce to be “reestablished”, the treaty abolished many tolls and customs established by “private” authorities for they were obstacles to the exchange of physical goods and know-how and hence to mutual development. (Art. 69 and 70).

Signing of the Peace of Westphalia, in Münster 1648, painting by Gerard Ter Borch.

TREATY OF WESTPHALIA (1648)

Art. 13:
Reciprocally, the Elector of Bavaria renounces entirely for himself and his Heirs and Successors the Debt of Thirteen Millions, as also all his Pretensions in Upper Austria; and shall deliver to his Imperial Majesty immediately after the Publication of the Peace, all Acts and Arrests obtain’d for that end, in order to be made void and null.”

Art. 35:
That the Annual Pension of the Lower Marquisate, payable to the Upper Marquisate, according to former Custom, shall by virtue of the present Treaty be entirely taken away and annihilated; and that for the future nothing shall be pretended or demanded on that account, either for the time past or to come.”

During the Cold War

In the United States, Eisenhower was elected in November 1952.

His Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles, otherwise an evil man, noted that, despite the Marshall Plan, Europe, still burdened by a mountain of debt dating from before the First World War and the Treaty of Versailles, was unable to regain momentum.

So much so that it is in danger of turning to the USSR!

Action was called for. In 1953, under the leadership of German banker Hermann Abs, a former Deutsche Bank executive, a major conference was organized in London.

It was decided to write off 66% of Germany’s 30 billion marks in debt.

It was wisely agreed that annual repayments of German debt should never exceed 5% of export earnings. Those wishing to have their debts repaid by Germany should instead buy its exports, enabling it to honor its debts.

In other words, nothing like the madness recently imposed on Greece to « save » the euro!

Although this was done in the name of geopolitical principles, i.e. « in favor of some » but « against others », once again, it was in the name of a better future, i.e. a Europe capable of being the showcase of capitalism in the face of Moscow, that we were able to shed the weight of the past.

 



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On the origins of Modern Art, the problem of Symbolism

“At the turn of this century, painting is in bad shape. And for those who love the fatherland of paintings, very soon there will only remain the closed spaces of museums, in the same way there remains parcs for the amateurs of nature, to cultivate the nostalgia of that what doesn’t exist any longer…”

Jean Clair, Harvard graduate, director of the Musée Picasso
and of the centenary of the Venice Biennale of Contemporary Art in 1995.


Karel Vereycken, April 1998

Something is fairly rotten in the kingdom of Art, and if today (1998), finally some kind of debate breaks out, it is, halas, for quite bad reasons. Since it is uniquely in the context of budget cuts imposed on Europe by the Maastricht treaty that some questions are raised to challenge public opinion on a question carefully avoided till now: can we go on indefinitely subsidizing “modern artistic creation”, or what pretends to be so, with the tax-payers money, without any demand and outside any criteria?

Abusively legitimated by its status as a victim of the totalitarian regimes of Hitler, Stalin and Mao, Modern Art’s value as an act of resistance to totalitarianism watered away with the collapse of these regimes.

While we oppose the current budgetary cuts, since it would finish off the sick patient, we nevertheless propose to examine truthfully the illness and the potential remedies to be administered.

In France, the slightest critique immediately provoked the traditional hysterical fits. Raising a question, formulating an interrogation or even simply expressing a doubt on the holiness of Modern Art continues to be considered tantamount to starting an Inquisition. Even well integrated critiques such as the « left » leaning author Jean Baudrillard, or the director of the Paris Picasso museum Jean Clair and even the modern painter Ben, immediately bombarded by acid counter-attacks from the french and international Art nomenclature, accusing them of being “reactionaries”, “obscurantist” and, to crown it all, of being “fascists”, “nazis” and even “anti-Semites”.

For seasoned observers these attacks remind the simplicity of Stalinist rhetoric: “Anybody discussing the revolution is a fascist”. Modernist musical composer Pierre Boulez even accused a journalist of being a “Vichy collaborator” because unconvinced of the utility of the computers of his musical research foundation IRCAM.

That spark of debate, if any, became rapidly poisoned by the possessive defense of the scarce budget allocations. Why all this noise? Jean Clair already exposed his views fourteen years ago in his book “Considérations sur l’Etat des Beaux-Arts, Critique de la Modernité” (1983) without provoking such a hullabaloo.

But in times of crisis, funds seem to provoke more passion than fundamentals. In any case, we welcome Clair’s courage. His ironical critique of the rampant snobbism of the tiny, incestuous world of contemporary Art makers is totally uncompromising. His defense of the necessary rebirth of the basic skills of drawing and pastel is on the mark.

Clair rightly makes a distinction between « Contemporary » art on one side and « Modern » art on the other side. Contemporary Art, broke with Modern Art from the point it became a systemic apology of “non-sense [absence of meaning] that was elected a system. » Reality, writes Clair, leads him to demand that we return to “meaning” (deliberately banned by « contempory » art) which was the very power of « Modern » Art.

To understand this difference, inspired by the insights and works of my friend, american art historian Michael Gibson, we shall document here that the birth of « Modern » art was nothing but a mutation from figaritive « Symbolism » to non-figurative (abstract) Symbolism, both accepting their role of expressing a symbolic meaning. « Contemporary art », profiting from the confusion of the idea of a « secret » meaning inherent in symbolic artistry, then sneaked in and tried to pretend that any sort of meaning should and could be eliminated from artistic expression.

QUESTION:
« So if I understood you correctly, you claim there exist criteria that are universal, enabling rational man to distinguish with reason between beauty and ugliness which would free art from the arbitrary caprices of taste?”

ANSWER:
« Uh, yes, and even if one cannot establish a catalogue filled with models and instructions enforceable till the end of all times, we firmly think there exists a way of looking at things, a mental attitude which we can prove to have been fruitful since the early cave paintings, as those of Chauvet in southern France dating from 50.000 years B.C., till today. »

To say it differently, there is no such thing as the aesthetics of form, but some kind of aesthetics of the soul.

Any attempt to frame aesthetics, as a set of formal rules of the visible forms is the shortest road to finish in a sterile academic dead end.

By analogy, we could say that such an attempt in the domain of language would make linguistics the science of poetry…

Leonardo da Vinci defined the mission of the painter as the one who has to « make visible the invisible ». So it is up to us to define the aesthetics of the invisible and how they manifest themselves in the visible realm.

How to represent the world

Let’s look at ways of representing phenomena by starting from what appears to be the « most simple ».

A. “Bounded objects” of an inorganic or organic nature: for example stones, a glass bottle, but also a flower or the body of an animal or a man. Their relative finiteness makes their representation easier. But to “make them alive”, one has to show their participation to something infinite: the infinite variations of the color or a stone, the numerous reflections of light shattered by the glass bottle, the relative infinite number of leaves of a tree, the huge number of successive gestures which dictate spirit and life to the bodies of living beings. As you can see now, these so-called “simple” phenomena oblige us to choose, beyond simple sense perception, perceptions that enable us to express the idea of the object rather than its mere form.


B. “Openly unbounded objects”: for example a wave of the ocean, a forest, the clouds in the sky, or the expression of the eyes of a human being. Even more than in A., the Chinese principle of the “li” has to be considered. Instead of imitating their exterior form, and since their sometimes turbulent shapes escape in any case from our limited sense-perceptions, the exterior form has to be regarded as the expression of the idea that was the generating principle and we have to concentrate on choosing elements in the visible realm that indicate that “higher reality”. That makes the difference between the portrait of a living being and the portrait of a wax model…


C. “Ideas free from an object”: for example Love, Justice, Fidelity, Laziness, Cold, etc. How can we build gangways to the visible capable of representing these “higher ideas”?

ANSWER:

  1. Instead of representing the idea, I can try to substitute it with the object of the idea (one of Plato’s favorite subjects). For example I can try to represent the idea of Love by representing a woman. However, she cannot be but the object or the subject of love (She is loved or loves), but she is not Love itself.
  2. Since I’m in trouble having a representation in the visible realm of an idea of a “superior” nature, I decide to designate it by symbol. For example, a little heart to symbolize Love. For a Martian visiting Earth in the context of interplanetary tourism, the little heart has no meaning. By logical deduction, he could arrive at the conclusion the heart indicates heart patients, or cardiologists or eventually the designed victims of an Aztec sacrificial cult. In order to understand what is involved, some earthling has to initiate him into the pre-convened meaning of the symbol to which the inhabitants of earth agreed to. If not, it might take some time before he understands the “secret” meaning of the symbol.
  3. That symbol can be a simple visible element but also a little story we call allegorical. Illustrating an allegory will always remain a simple didactical exercise far underneath the sublime mission of art.
  4. The notion of a parable, as those one finds in the Bible, brings us closer to the wanted solution by its metaphorical character (Meta-poros in Greek meaning: that which carries beyond). The isochronical presence of several paradoxes, provoking surprise and irony by the ambiguities of the painting shakes up the sense certainty of our empirical perceptions that darken so much our natural predisposition for beauty.

SYMBOL and METAPHOR, What’s the difference?

Symbol: designates a thing
Metaphor: carries beyond the thing

Symbol: its only value is expressed by itself
Metaphor: its only value is given to it by implicit analogy.

Symbol: its secret meaning can only be learnt by convention
Metaphor: its meaning can be discovered by sovereign cognition.

Rembrandt’s Saskia

Saskia as Flora Rembrandt van Rijn, 1641, Dresden, Gemäldegalerie.

Let us examine together Rembrandt’s painting “Saskia as Flora” (1641), where she offers a flower to the viewer. Is this a portrait of Rembrandt’s wife along with the portrait of a flower? Or is there a new concept involved that arises in our mind as a result of this juxtaposition that could be called Love or Fidelity (to you I offer my beauty, as I offer you this flower…) The putting into visual analogy of two quite different things make appear a third one, which is in fact the real subject.

The easiest example of a real metaphorical paradox can be seen at work in wordplay or a cartoon drawing. For example if I draw a young couple in love and replace the head of the young man with the head of a dog, a completely different meaning is given to the image. The viewer, intrigued by the love relationship is surprised by the possessive (or submissive) character suggested by the dog head. Variations of the type of dog and his expression will vary the very meaning of the image. Once again, it is by the use of an implicit analogy that an unexpected arrangement gives us the means to grapple an idea beyond the object represented.

The little light bulb that goes on in our heads when we solve a metaphorical paradox gives us a threefold happiness. First the joy to think, since our thought process is precisely based on that unique process. Second to live in harmony with our world, which being a creative process itself “condemns” us to be free. And finally the joy that derives from the sharing of that happiness of discovery with other human beings who get even more creative in turn. Hence, every scientific or artistic discovery becomes a ray of light enlightening the path for humanity to go. The glowing enders of yesterday give us the fire to illuminate tomorrow.

But to do so, one cannot represent in a formal way the solution found. One is obliged to recreate the context which obliges the viewer to walk the same road we did till the precise point where he discovers himself the poetical concept.

The science of enigmas of Leonardo da Vinci

Saint John the Baptist Leonardo da Vinci, 1513-16, Louvre, Paris.

Renaissance genius Leonardo da Vinci was a specialist of this kind of « organized » enigmas, conspiracies to have us think. Let’s have a look at his painting “Saint John the Baptist”, his last painting and somehow his last will resuming all the best science of his creative mind. The ambiguous character of the person has been often used as “proof” of Leonardo’s alleged homosexuality.

One can indeed ask the question if represented here we see a man or a woman? The strong muscles of the arms plead for male while the gracious face argues for female. Desperate, our mind asks if this is devil or angel? While one finger points to heaven, similar to Raphael’s Plato in the « School of Athens », the other hand rests on the heart, and in the same time a coquette smile meets intelligent eyes

Of course, Saint-John the Baptist, patron saint of Florence served as the symbol of a humanist Platonic current that realized the fact that the « little lights » of classical Greece announced the coming of the « great light » of Christianity.

Scholastical Catholicism of those days pretended that anybody living before Christ could be nothing more than a pagan. So what about Saint John the Baptist? The compositional method here employed is not of a symbolical nature, but that of paradoxical metaphor, i.e. build by enigmas that guide us, if we accept the challenge, to reflect in a philosophical way about the nature of mankind: how is it possible we are finite in some parts and infinite in others? That we are mind, life and matter? Of divine and human nature?

That is in some words what we mean by the method of paradoxical metaphors, the only method which gives sense to the word « classic », since conceived in a universal way for all men in the time of all times.

The opposite approach is the symbolist one, officially named after an artistic current that swept over Europe at the end of the XIXth century.

Together with impressionism that capitulated to positivism, symbolism was the mother of Modern Art and its bastard son Contemporary Art.

The symbol, erected as a method of artistic expression, is characteristic of a society that is incapable of change. It celebrates the banishing of the movement of progress but masks that self-denial with the never-ending multiplication of images and objects, always equal to themselves. Symbolism is nothing but the transformation into an object of a strong emotion or a mystical thought. The increase of its effect through incantation, fetishism, repetition, etc., agitating the symbol for its magical value as such, evokes the same obsessive fixation as pornography. As the American thinker Lyndon LaRouche ironically underscored the point:

“the difference between Beethoven (method of metaphor) and Wagner (method of symbolism) is defined by the level at which emotions are provoked in the audience. In the case of Beethoven, the beauty evoked brings us to tears. In the case of Wagner, it is the chairs that get wet…”

From there on, as we will document in due course, the arising of “Modern Art” reveals itself to be nothing more than a mere linear transposition of “figurative” symbolism to “abstract” symbolism.

These terms are obviously empty shells, since all figuration is figurative, and all figuration is the expression of what could be called an “abstract” concept or idea, conscious or not.

So, contrary to Contemporary Art, whose aggressive meaning is that nothing has, can or has the right to have any meaning, Modern Art claims to possess a sense of meaning, but that meaning is mystical-symbolical and hermetic by nature. We are not saying that symbols should be banned from Art, but we cannot but underline that symbolistical though as a compositional method is incompatible with Art’s nature.

Real Art concentrates on communicating a unique human quality, the Sublime, that expresses freedom and not that of a man enslaved either to his sentiments neither to his principles.

Contemporary Art, as all large scale swindles, needs quite some rhetoric and literature to convince it’s public of its pure absolute relativity. It is said that each of us sees it differently; that we all possess our own criteria and that formulating any judgment is by itself already an act of a totalitarian fascist in germ. It is somehow like the thief who accuses his victim of cupidity and lack of brotherly love when the victim refuses to hand over his purse. But if one claims the right to create something without meaning, one equally revindicates the right to no critique, and therefore ends any form of real debate beyond « it gives me a kick » or « no kick ».

That Art, when it is sincere, by claiming it cannot be apprehended by human cognition, defines itself as egoistical and asocial. It cannot but harvest what it sows: indifference.

Before entering two personalities considered being the godfathers of Modern Art, Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944) and Piet Mondrian (1872-1944), it is necessary to situate the historical context in which they operated. Then we will investigate a high level political operation: the Theosophical Society whose malefic theories exerted great influence on both godfathers of Modern Art.

Symbolism, the final stage of Romanticism

To crush the republican spirit that emerged at the end of the eighteenth century, which saw the American and French revolution, the European oligarchy deployed initially Napoleon Bonaparte.

Then, on the ruins of the Napoleonic wars, they promoted the iron corset of the Holy Alliance and the impotent ideology of regretting: the privilege of the suffering heart. Romanticism, often described as a “movement for the liberation of the me, as a reaction against the regularity of classicism and the rationality of the preceding centuries” became the official culture of the Restoration before being adopted by the Monarchy of July.

Even the talented French poet Baudelaire, prisoner of the zeitgeist stated shamelessly: “What is there more absurd than progress?” or, premonitory:

“Who says romanticism says Modern Art, i.e. intimacy, spirituality, color, aspiration towards the infinite”.

In a way this was the expression of a certain revolt against positivism, a “scientific” materialism which some tried to impose top down and for which the hearts of men were not mobilized.

We are light-years away from the “science for all” approach which radiated Gaspard Monge at the early Ecole Polytechnique, or Lazare Carnot’s “Ode to enthusiasm”. It was the same Holy alliance that forced Carnot into exile and outrooted Monge´s influence at the Ecole, crushing France’s scientific and industrial progress.

In 1871, Louis Pasteur, in a beautiful article “Why France did not find a superior man in the moment of peril” analyzed the dramatic events of those days.

But also Germany was living under a real cultural dictatorship. Prince Metternich, by the Carlsbad decrees forbade any representation of Friedrich Schiller‘s theatre plays. Also, the “sulfurous” poet Heinrich Heine, mocking the Salons of Mme de Stael and all the other nostalgics of the lost glory of the past, became the permanent target of the Holy Alliance’s police operations.

Francesco Goya, who strongly lambasted the massacres of Bonaparte’s Spanish expedition (1810-1814) in his series “The disasters of War”, characterized this particular historic moment in his engraving “The sleep of Reason generates monsters”.

The Great Upheaval

On the economic front, it was only after Abraham Lincoln defeated the British backed pro-slavery Confederacy and the then ensuing industrial buildup (1861-1876), that a little progress was tolerated in Europe.

The oligarchy had to solve the following paradox: How can we counterbalance the rising American power while in the same time prevent the emergence of Republics in Europe, inspired by the American System, on the ruins of the European empires?

What some have called the « Great Upheaval » was nothing less than a profound transformation of daily life in Europe. It was precisely at that time that the Symbolist current got so dominant.

In the “industrial polygon of the Europe of steam” which connected Glasgow, Stockholm, Gdansk, Lodz, Trieste, Florence and Barcelona, it is estimated that of 7 persons from the country side, 1 stayed working the land, another went to the new world or the colonies, and the remaining 5 went working in the cities. The same estimate says that close to 60 million people left Europe. One can imagine the cultural choc for those who quit the magical world of pastoral backwardness.

In that sense, Symbolism was also a means for the oligarchy to deprive these incoming populations from the benefits of urban culture by keeping them in a state of irrationality.

The fear of political takeover by sovereign Nation-States dedicated to industrial and scientific progress was so great that the British Prime Minister, Lord Palmerston (1784-1865), activated through his agent Guiseppe Mazzini (1805-1872), the “Young Europe” movement, uniting most revolutionary currents of those days. Under the auspices of the Foreign Office’s Arab Bureau, the east saw the sudden birth of a whole series of Arab countries, eventually localized on this or that oilfield.

The Theosophical Society

HBP

It is in that context that one has to situate the extraordinary offensive of the Theosophical Society (TS), one of these pseudo-religions rising out of the esoterical swamp of the second half of the nineteenth century. It is useful to zoom in on the life of Helena Petrowna Blavatsky (HPB) (1831-1891), the main front figure of the TS.

Granddaughter of the Prussian General Alexis von Rottenstern-Hahn, HPB was born in 1831 in Ukraine.

At the age of sixteen, her parents married her to an old General with the name of Nicéphore Blavatsky, vice-governor ofprovince of Erivan, which she quitted nearly immediately.

In 1848, she meets a Copt with the name of Paulos Metamon and as early as 1851 she turns up in London, where she meets the “spiritualists” and meets the “revolutionary” Mazzini. In 1856 she affiliates with the Young Europe’s Carbonarist association.

Then, she travels across different continents having become a toy in the hands of her British promoters which she refers to as her “Spiritual masters”, as she called one of her controlling agents “Master Morya”.

As soon as 1851 she travels to the US and Mexico, crossing Texas and Louisiana. After numerous trips in the Caucasus, Syria and Lebanon, we find her on November 3, 1867, riding a horse siding Garibaldi. Severely wounded at the battle of Mentana, she’s left for dead.

While recuperating in Paris, she meets a journalist with the name of Michal, and the founder of French spiritism, Allan Kardec. The former claim they discovered and developed HPB’s faculties as a medium. Deployed in that capacity to Cairo, and in the USA, she’s accused of being a fraudster. It is relevant to situate Edgar Allan Poe’s literary production as the effort of the pro American system faction to ridicule the British offensive in favor of esoteric irrationality.

Colonel Henry Steel Olcott

HBP avec le colonel Olcott.

Around 1874, Blavatsky receives the order to enter into contact with a lawyer and insurance expert: Henry Steel Olcott.

Former officer of the Military Police, he became colonel during the civil war and shared his life in between Masonic lodges and spiritism. Active as a journalist, he was in charge of covering paranormal phenomena for the New York Sun and the New York Graphic.

Olcott got many inroads into the American esoterical scene of those days: John King, William Stainton Moses, Leadbeater, the Miracle Club of Philadelphia and a secret society called The Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor whose members signed their writings with a swastika, symbol of the divinity of Tibet, the immense mountain plateau where supposedly the Aryan race found refuge at the time of the great deluge…

Then, on October 20, 1875 was founded in New York a “Society for Spiritualist investigations”. Its president was Olcott; the two vice-presidents were Felt and Pancoast, while Blavatsky figured as a mere secretary. Without willing to downplay her personal role, it looks she was brought in more for propagandistical reasons than in regard of her proper leadership qualities. As prominent members one can mention William Q. Judge and Charles Sotheran, both high dignitaries of Anglo-American masonry.

Albert Pike, one of the founders of the KKK.

It is also remarkable that the Confederate General Albert Pike, Grand Master of the Scottish Rite of the Southern district based in Charleston, and one of the founders of the Ku Klux Klan met Blavatsky in those days, but seems to have dropped her, considering her to low level. Pike’s spiritual reputation is largely overdone and he has been accused of having extensively plagiarized the French occultist Elipha Levi.

Less than a month later, on November 17, 1875, the Society’s named was changed into “Theosophical Society”. Olcott and Blavatsky immediately started a great project to conquer the minds of India.

Officially, they pretended to establish “The Great Contact”, a bridge between the initiated of the East with those of the West and to fusion them together.

HPB gets without any difficulty the American nationality while Olcott obtains from the president of the United States, Rutherford Hayes, a handwritten clearance, a document requesting American diplomats all over the world to provide them their aid. Also, the US Secretary of State provided Olcott a diplomatic passport, something relatively rare for a non-career diplomat. When they reached ground in India, all this American help will give them the means to establish the “British Theosophical Society” (sic).

The British oligarchy seemed to have preferred Hinduism and its great toleration of the cast system where individuals’ desires for a better life are hoped for in the next one, as a preferential partner for the British oligarchy and its imperial class society.

The fundamental choice of the cultural matrix that defines the particular beliefs, transcending any particular form of regime, has always been the “secret weapon” guaranteeing the survival of the oligarchical system. In this way, it is not any longer necessary to police people’s minds on issues, since you control the underlying axioms shaping their thought process itself.

What the Theosophical Society claims today in regard to its role in the birth of a national consciousness of India is an ugly lie, and maybe without Theosophy India might have gained independence a century earlier!

While it is true that Gandhi, who encountered the TS in a vegetarian club in London, studied their works, he never really adopted their convictions. After having started the TS in India, Olcott, in the same geopolitical strategy, will explore Buddhism going through Asia and settle in Japan to wake up the “sleeping masses”.

Olcott composed a Buddhist catechism, created a multicolor Buddhist flag and a General Committee of Buddhist Affairs that functioned as a kind of Vatican for Buddhism. He also held an extraordinary conference in Japan’s military center, Hiroshima. There he distributes swastikas to the audience to which he predicts the coming of terrible wars will strike humanity and that Hiroshima will become one of the symbols for peace and fraternity in the world (sic)!

Swipe Christianity of the Earth!

Olcott and Blavatsky seemed to be quite effective in performing funny magical tricks. Some of them were described by one of their victims, Mme de Jelihowsky:

  1. Clear and direct answers, of telepathic nature.
  2. Formulas pronounced in Latin, by way of hits, for remedies which resulted always in healing.
  3. Divulgation in public of secrets concerning persons that were present but that hurted Blavatsky by their doubts.
  4. Change of the weight of furniture or persons at will.
  5. Letters written by unknown correspondents with a writing that was not hers. Often, when somebody asked a question she would say: go in your room, and in such or such a place you will find a letter answering your question.
  6. Appearance and disappearance of objects without a plausible explanation.
  7. Faculty to let music be heard at will, wherever and whenever desired.

When depressed, Blavatsky admitted she swindled her admirers.

In their magazine, “The Blue Lotus”, Olcott wrote on November 27, 1895, p. 418:

“Certain days, she was in such a state of mind that she denied the powers by which she had given us carefully controlled demonstrations and pretended to have deceived her public”.

Behind all this cheap mumbo-jumbo reserved for the naïve members of the TS, there was small initiated elite aware of their real geo-strategical imperialism of the mind.

“Our aim”, said Blavatsky, in line with British geopolitics, “is not to restore Hinduism, but to swipe Christianity of the Earth”.

After the cremation of Baron of Palm, a rich donator of the TS, the first one in the history of the United States against which over three thousand people demonstrated, and who’s only aim was to introduce Hinduism to the U.S. population, Olcott and HPB exposed confusedly their doctrine in 1878 in “Isis unveiled”, a 1300 pages book that she called “the work of her life”, available in a more popular version under the name of “The Secret Doctrine”.

From the standpoint of Theosophy (which some called Theosophistry), and in a pure remake of manicheanism, religious beliefs could be classified between male and female religions.

The latter gave preponderance to peace, tranquility, sensuality, fertility and adaptation to the environment, while the male religions gave extensive privilege to the spirit of conquest and undertaking, to proselytism and to the superiority of male virtues.

Of course, Abraham and Moses, founders of the great monotheistic religions in which man does not adapt but intervenes and even discovers his specific harmony by transforming nature and highering its order, were targeted as the animal to be hunted. It was indeed these religions that largely overruled the ancient cult of mother goddess Gaia that became the Isis cult.

Isis cult

Winged Isis

ISIS

Isis is the most illustrious of the Egyptian goddesses, in charge of the home, marriage and fertility. Her power spread throughout the universe after she discovered the secret name of the supreme God, Ra.

She embodied the feminine principle, the magical source of all transformation, and was considered by all esotericists to be the Initiatrix, the one who held the secret of life, death and resurrection.

According to legend, she put back together her husband Osiris, whom the serpent Set had cut into fourteen pieces and scattered across Egypt. Only one piece was missing: the penis. Isis made one in silver. Her marriage to Osiris gave birth to Horus, who triumphed in the battle against the evil spirit, Set, but Isis asked him to spare her in order to maintain the cosmic battle between good and evil…

Often designated by the annealed cross, symbol of millions of years of future life, which is confused with the « Isis knot », symbol of immortality, Isis is also represented by the Ouroboros, or the snake that bites its own tail: sexual union with oneself, permanent self-fertilization, perpetual transformation from death to life.

To dominate the battlefield of the mind, a Machiavellian strategy was conceived:


1. Since the adoration of the mother goddess and the practice of female virtues nearly remained exclusively existent in India and Tibet, archaic Hinduism had to be revived. That is the reason why the Theosophists ran to India in order to prevent the nearby extinction of Hinduism. In France, Blavatsky’s main sponsor in that effort was the wealthy Duchesse de Pomar, a Spanish aristocrat descending from the Marquis of Northampton. For that aim, Orientalism and the practice of Yoga had to be encouraged and popularized.


2. Since the TS on its own was too tiny to weaken Christianity, Judaism and Islam, the TS combined its efforts with anti-progress Fabian Socialism. The just battle for republican secularism, founded on the mutual respect of religious freedom was distorted into a virulent denunciation of the Judeo-Christian philosophical outlook. The socialist inspiration of Jean Jaurès, while criticizing the inherent materialism of financial capitalism and Marxism passionately defended, in the name of a sense of transcendence, the right of entire growth and the pursuit of happiness for every human individual.


3. To fight “male supremacy”, it was decided by speech and action to defend anything that supposedly opposed it. Defend universal peace, to fight for the end of sexual discrimination, to make women free from their body, to make love become stronger than violence. For that reason, the TS always took a woman as its front figure. Annie Besant, an attractive Irish protestant and a member of the Fabian Society took the leadership of the TS after having directed the “Malthusian League” of England in 1877.

Such a project obviously didn’t rally much enthusiasm in those days, especially not in Catholic countries. The opposition was so strong that the TS adapted its outlook into some form of esoteric Christianity designed to penetrate the Christian strata. But for HPB, Judeo-Christian monotheism remained nothing else but a barbaric schism of Buddhism:

“What some called with despise paganism was the ancient wisdom full of divinity; and Judaism with its offshoots, Christianity and Islam took all their inspiration of their ethnic father…”

According to HPB, Jesus the Essenian was persecuted by the Jews because “the Essenian were converts, Buddhist missionaries that had come to Egypt, Greece and even Judea”

So, for her, Christianity had to be “de-judaizised” to make it again compatible with the female principle. The basic postulate behind all this was her fascination for the Aryan civilization whose symbol, the Swastika, of notorious nazi reputation, figures still today in the emblem of the ST.

THE SWASTIKA

A widespread symbol in all ancient civilizations (Asia, Central America, Mongolia, India, Northern Europe, Celts, Basques, Etruscans, etc.), it represents the vortex of creation.

The swastika, which often replaces the wheel, is made of a cross, each branch of which is quadrupled, as in vectorial orientations that define a gyratory direction and then return to the center. Its numerical value is therefore four times four = sixteen. This is the powerful development of reality or the Universe, an expression of extreme secular power. Its appropriation by Hitler was no accident.

The rise of the Nazi movement has been associated with the rise of the famous Thule Society, another esoteric society in the theosophical style, in which we find Karl Haushofer, Adolf Hitler’s real master thinker.

The anthroposophists of Rudolf Steiner, a great admirer of Nietzsche and the eugenicist Haeckel, are a dissident branch of the Theosophical Society, omnipresent today among the German « Grünen » (Greens).

The Nabis (the Prophets)

The Talisman, Paul Sérusier, 1888.

That gives us some elements to situate the historical context into which arrived Modern Art. Esotericism was so much an invading fashion that many painters tried to explore pre-Christian religions to discover “forgotten symbols”.

That was certainly the case of the French symbolist Gustave Moreau when he painted the Gnostic myth of Jupiter and Sémélé. His pupils were the “moderns” Henri Matisse, Georges Rouault and Albert Marquet.

Another young symbolist, Emile Bernard inspired Gauguin, which in turn inspired Paul Sérusier.

Art historian Michael Gibson keenly pointed out the fact that a great number of the founding figures of Modern Art (Kandinsky, Mondrian, Malevitch, Picasso, etc.) have ALL been figurative symbolists at their start.

We are convinced they remained so, but that they deconstructed, i.e. downscaled, the complexity of their symbolic language to more primitive elements of the visual field (a color, a line, a number, a geometry, etc.).

Gibson accurately identified the precise moment of that historical turning point towards modernism with the shift provoked by the group of the “Nabis”.

In 1888, close to Pont-Aven in Brittany France, Paul Sérusier painted one day in the presence of Gauguin a landscape composed of vibrating primitive flat surfaces of colors on the top of his box of cigars.

That work was nicknamed “The Talisman” by his comrades who considered it a revelation of a new approach in painting, the absolute destruction of any reference to physical space by the use of light or perspective. Welcome to the mystical flat space of color and its “interior light”.

Madeleine au bois d’amour, Emile Bernard, 1888, Musée d’Orsay, Paris

Paul Sérusier, Emile Bernard, Paul Gauguin and some friends rapidly called themselves the “Nabis”, which meant prophets in Hebrew.

The loss of virginity, Paul Gauguin, 1891, The Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, U.S.A. Inspired by Emile Bernard’s Madeleine au bois d’amour. The fox is a symbol of sexual potency and renewal. The cut flower in the hand is another symbol no less significant.

They regularly met in a house they called “The Temple” on 22, Boulevard Montparnasse in Paris. The phrasing alone already indicates the messianic mindset of these converts. Hoaxer Sar Joséphin Péladan united in 1892 all these young talents to the Salon of the Rosicrucians.

In the « Amendments of the Esthetical Rosicrucians », Peladan explicitly prescribed history painting, the painting of patriotic or military scenes and also,

« any representation of contemporary life, portraits, rustic scenes, seascapes, oriental scenes, domestic animals, flowers, fruits, accessories and other exercises painters insolently dare to expose ».

On the contrary « and to privilege the ideal of Catholicism and mysticism, the Rosicrucian order will welcome any work founded on legend, myth, allegory, dream, etc. »

One sees here, how Catholicism, as much as its opponents, if stripped from its content and reduced to its bare symbols could coexist peacefully with these insanities.

One ends up wondering why a World War didn’t break out earlier with elites espousing such follies! And when it did break out in 1914, Jacques Emile Blanche declared,

« Very often during this chemical and scientific ‘cubist’ war, in the night damaged by the air raids, I dreamt about Stravinsky’s Sacre du Printemps ».

Peladan’s Salon brought together symbolists from Belgium, Holland, Germany, such as Ferdinand Hodler, Carlos Swabe, Jan Toorop, Ferdinand Knopff, Jean Delville, Georges Minne and Xavier Mellery, with « Nabis » like Emile Bernard, Félix Valloton and Charles Fillinger.

A great part of this came into France from across the Channel where a real revolt was going on against the Academicism of Sir Joshua Reynolds.

Under the auspices and protection of the very popular John Ruskin, a real nostalgic fanatic willing to bring humanity back to a pre-Renaissance mystical feudal order, appeared the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, the PRB, that one of it’s degenerate founders, Dante Gabriel Rosetta, with sincere self irony called « Penis Rather Better »...

Kandinsky: from positivism to mysticism

Wassily Kandinsky with his mother.

The life path of the Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky, universally identified as the official godfather of Modern Art, gives us even more insight in the subject matter.

Kandinsky was born on December 4, 1866 amidst a wealthy orthodox family of aristocrats that made it as tea merchants. As Henri Matisse, he enters the University to study law and political economy.

In 1889 he’s sent on a mission by the Imperial Society of Natural Sciences and Ethnography to study the criminal law of the Finish community, the syrjaenen, a non-christianized tribe living in the province of Vologda, five hundred kilometers north of Moscow.

Kandinsky admitted in 1937:

« To be honest, the origin of my abstract painting has to be looked for in the popular Russian painting which I discovered for the first time during my trip to Northern Russia. »

Obtaining the post of law professor in 1896, another event that takes place the same year will completely “blow” his mind and decide him to quit his academic career entering a profound
mystical crisis.

That event was the discovery of radioactivity by the French physician Antoine-Henri Becquerel:

« For me, the disintegration of the atom, was the same thing as the disintegration of the entire world. The most solid walls suddenly collapsed. Everything became precarious, unstable and floppy. I wouldn’t any longer be astonished to see a stone melt in the air in front of me and become invisible. Science seemed to be annihilated: its most solid bases were a delusion, an error of scientists who were not building in a transfigurated light their work with a solid hand stone by stone, but grappling in the darkness. There, looking for truths by chance, and in their blindness, they confounded one object for the other. »

Kiss of the Sphinx by Franz von Stück. Attracted by beauty, man in reality embraces death, a remake of the classical Eros/Thanatos theme.

Kandinsky’s transition from “materialistic positivism” to “mystical spiritualism” is a clinical study case of the point we want to demonstrate.

Ecstatic after the discovery of a Wagner opera performance in Moscow, he leaves Russia to go live in Munich. He gives the following description of that experience:

« Lohengrin seemed a perfect realization of Moscow. The violins, the profound bases and particularly the wind instruments personify for me the splendid power of the twilight hours. »

In 1900, after a first refusal, he is admitted, together with Paul Klee, to enter the Academy of Franz von Stück, a well-referenced symbolist of Munich.

Von Stück’s painting, the « Kiss of the Sphinx » takes up the same theme as Moreau’s « Jupiter and Sémélé. » Attracted by (female) beauty, man in reality embraces death (a woman), a remake of the classical Eros/Thanatos theme.

Der Blaue Reiter to defeat materialism

One year later, the pupil becomes himself a teacher and creates the group “Phalanx”, symbol of the fight against Academicism.

Kandinsky reveals himself as an able organizer of art exhibits, throwing in his personal fortune and capable of convincing other sponsors.

Very rapidly he gives the exhibits an international dimension and the presence of foreign artists reinforces the illusion that the new tendency in art possesses a universal character. In the theosophist tradition, he rightly opens his academy to women, excluded till then from art academies!

His admiration for Blavatsky is limitless.

« Blavatsky was certainly the first to establish, after living for years in India, a solid link between these so-called « savages » and our culture. At that point, there came into being one of the greatest spiritual movements uniting a great number of people, materializing that union under the form of a « Theosophical Society ». That society is composed of lodges, who try to approach the questions of the spirit by the way of interior knowledge. »

Uniting the group of « Die Brücke » with his own efforts and those of Franz Marc and Paul Klee, he called into being the almanac of the “Blaue Reiter” (Blue Cavalier), in reality a reworked image of a Byzantine icon of Saint-Georges defeating the dragon of evil transposed into a bleu cavalier defeating materialism.

In his ground text of 1909, Concerning Spiritual in Art and painting in particular, Kandinsky builds up a theoretical system where every color possesses its own separate identity:

« Red, as one imagines oneself, as a color without border, typically warm, acts interiorly as a very living color, vivid and agitated, which does not possess the thoughtless character or yellow that gets dispersed to all sides, but gives the effect, despite all its energy and intensity, of the powerful note of immense force nearly conscious of its aim.

« There is in that effervescence and that eagerness, principally in itself and scarcely turned towards the exterior, some sort of male maturity. »

« When it is medium, as cinnabar, the red gets more permanent and increases its sharp sensibility: it is like a passion that burns with regularity, a force certain of itself, which is not easy to overlay, but which can be extinguished by the blue as red iron by water. That red tolerates nothing cold that makes it lose its resonance and its meaning. Or more exactly, that tragic, brutal cooling down produces a tone that painters, especially today, avoid and outlaw as « dirty ». They are wrong. Dirt, through its material form, represents materially, as a material being, possesses its interior resonance as any other material being. That why the attempt to avoid dirtiness in painting is as unjust and arbitrary as yesterday’s fear in front of « pure » color.

« One does not have to forget that all the means derived from the interior necessity are pure. Said differently, that what is dirty from the outside is pure from the inside. If not, what is pure from the outside is dirty inside. »

« The six colors, who, by couples, form three major contrasts, present themselves to us as a great circle, as a snake which bites its tail (symbol of infinity and eternity). And on the right and on the left we find the two great possibilities for silence; the one of death and the one of birth. »

One sees here the splendid rigor of a law professor, charmed by the “sense of construction of Roman law”, applying his science zealously to mysticism. Kandinsky’s writings are always inhabited with references to music, such as resonance, harmony, rhythm, etc.

In the same way musical ideas got freed of the presence of text and words, Kandinsky and argue that the same thing can be done in the visual domain using merely color, rhythm, form, etc. taken as entities on themselves.

But what music is he talking about, beneath Wagner? In Kandinsky’s immediate entourage we find the atonal composer Arnold Schönberg, who exploded the well-tempered system according to the same mystical principles, making it as such incapable of transmitting ideas.

From Mondrian to Breker

The famous Dutch cubist, Piet Mondrian, was another original product resulting from the mixture of Theosophy and Calvinist rigorism.

At that time, the TS launched a recruitment drive calling on those desiring to “have a place amidst the pioneers of the coming thinking”.

The unique picture decorating the wall of Mondrian’s studio in Laren was a large picture of Blavatsky. The artist was in frequent discussion with the Dutch theosophist writer Schoenmakers whose books Mondrian was distributing.

In 1892, he starts studying Theosophy and joins the TS in 1909.

His triptych, “Evolution” expresses the three stages of spiritual evolution: on the left, the mother goddess with triangles pointing down, the lowest level. In the middle, a female figure, with triangles pointing up, stage of activity and awakening. On the right the synthesis of both, the crossing triangles forming a David star.

Evolution, Piet Mondrian, 1910, Gemeentemuseum, Den Haag.

Let us not forget talking about the official art of the Third Reich, with the figurative symbolism of the outright pagan sculptor Arno Breker.

Breker was Hitler’s personal pet sculptor and realized in 1936 the infamous incarnations of the Ubermensch (superior man) for the Nazi’s Olympic Stadium in Berlin.

As proven by interviews after the war, the so-called “apolitical” Breker was very well aware for what kind of power he was working.

His work “Bereitschaft” (readiness) of 1939 proves the case.

Mascot of the Parisian elites, since trained by a Frenchman, his personal exhibit at the Orangerie in Paris in 1942 drew over 80.000 visitors. He shared the fascist ethics of filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, always ready to popularize nazi symbology.

Breker was befriended with Jean Cocteau, Vlaminck and Derain, and turned down Stalin’s offer to work for the USSR after the war.

A cubist in his early days (1922), he was disappointed by the meeting he had with Paul Klee and the Bauhaus, and invested himself in the total deification of the human body. Breker confirmed: “I always tried to give a meaning with symbols”.

In all his spirituality, Breker did not hesitate in his “Vision of Europe” to transpose an eagle’s heads on human bodies, making them into Horus, son of Isis.

On the right, Arno Breker’s sculpture, “Young Europe”, 1980, 70cm, Düsseldorf.

The inversion of these symbolisms, restating the supremacy of male values over female values was nothing less than the creation of esthetics of war.

In 1980, Breker explained in an interview how he saved the life of Picasso and that of Aristide Maillol’s Jewish companion, Dina Vierny using his direct position as an intimate of Adolph Hitler.

The Italian futurists are another obscene example. Many proudly joined the fascist movements and some were really chocked Hitler condemned their modernism at a Nuremberg rally.

Marinetti, who published his “Futurist Manifesto” in Le Figaro in 1909 claimed proudly:

« Point 3: Literature being up till now an apology of contemplating immobility, ecstasy and sleep, we want to exalt the aggressive movement, the fevery insomnia, the gymnastic step, the dangerous jump, the slap in the face and the punching.

« Point 7: There is no beauty outside struggle. There are no masterpieces without aggressive character. Poetry must be a violent assault on unknown forces, to summate them to lie down before man…

« Point 9: We want to glorify war –the unique hygiene of the world, militarism, and patriotism, the destructive gesture of the anarchists, the nice ideas that kill, and the disdain of women…

« Point 10: We want to demolish the Museums and Libraries, fight moralism, feminism and all of opportunistic and utilitarian cowardness. »

As we have demonstrated, this modernism is nothing less than the restoration of the most backward values of ancient civilizations, deprived of their dynamic and reduced to caricatures of their worst defaults.

What we defend here is on the contrary a Renaissance, that is a universal but authentic process of artistic creation fertilized by the best contributions of all cultures, be them Indian, African, Asiatic, American or European.

Our critique of Modernism is not based on any nostalgic longing for a supposedly perfect Golden Age that is no more, but on the commitment to valorize mans dignity and mind.

If you really want to use the word modern, talk about the Mummy portraits of the Fayoum of the second and third century after DC.

Theosophy today

Even if there still exists today an international network of Blavatsky lodges from Antwerp to Philadelphia or Saint Petersburg, it has been in the recent days mainly the radical green current who is leading the fight to destroy the humanist cultural paradigm.

As the Theosophists yesterday, the Greens which have replaced the mother goddess (sounds too religious) with Mother earth (Gaia) express the same messianic zeal in their commitment to sweep the earth and often rally de facto the forces of race, soil and blood.

As yesterday, the green current gets supported by the highest spheres of Anglo-American aristocratic gangsterism.

Deceased financial angel of French archconservative Philippe de Villiers, Jimmy Goldsmith, has a brother, Teddy, who happens to be one of the main funders of Greenpeace!

Documents and articles consulted:

  • Chaitkin, Anton, Tarpley, Webster, The Palmerston Zoo, Executive Intelligence Review, Vol. 21, nr.16, Apr.15, 1994.
  • Cheminade, Jacques, Time to destroy the myth of Napoleon Bonaparte, Executive Intelligence Review, Vol. 23, 42, Oct.18, 1996.
  • Clair, Jean, Considérations sur l’Etat des Beaux Arts – Critique de la Modernité, Gallimard, Paris 1983.
  • Gibson, Michael, Le Symbolisme, Editions Taschen, Paris, 1994.
  • Kandinsky, Nina, Kandinsky et moi, Flammarion, Paris 1978.
  • Kandinsky, Wassily, Concerning the Spiritual in Art, and painting in particular, Dover Editions, New York, 1977.
  • Lantier, Jacques, La Théosophie, Editions Culture, Art, Loisirs, Paris.
  • LaRouche, Lyndon, How Cauchy ruined France, EIR, Vol.24, nr. 24, June 20, 1997.
  • Noël, Bernard, Arno Breker et l’Art officiel, Jacques Damase Editeur, Paris 1981.
  • Prampolino, Enrico, Stile Futuristica, nr. 3, Turin 1933.
  • Parmelin, Hélène, Peinture, pierre de touche de la liberté, L’Unité nr. 416, 1978.
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