Yesterday's Answer Is Not Enough

The Warring States Period eventually ended.

After centuries of political fragmentation and warfare, the Qin dynasty unified China in 221 B.C. Its rule lasted only fourteen years. The Han dynasty then gained control in 202 B.C. and ruled China for nearly four centuries.

The contrast with the Warring States Period was enormous.

An established political order had returned. The early Han also developed a worldview that explained how that order fit into the nature of reality.

Confucianism became the official ideology of the Han dynasty in 136 B.C. One of its important thinkers, Dong Zhongshu, taught that Heaven had established rulers to help people live properly.

The early Han outlook was fundamentally optimistic.

The world made sense. Heaven's will could be understood. Human behavior mattered. If people lived virtuously and fulfilled their responsibilities within their families and society, the world would function as it should.

After centuries of disorder, this was a remarkable achievement.

In Toynbee's terms, we might think of this as a successful response to a challenge. China had experienced political disintegration and developed new political and intellectual structures capable of producing a long period of stability.

But Toynbee also warns us about what happens after a successful response.

A response that works can become an institution. The institution becomes a tradition. Eventually people can begin assuming that the response that solved yesterday's problem will solve tomorrow's problem as well.

But challenges change.

By the end of the first century A.D., conditions within the Han Empire were changing. Prosperity had diminished. Droughts, famines, and floods damaged the economy. Wealthy families accumulated increasing amounts of land and power. Small farmers became increasingly dependent upon powerful landowners.

The established Han understanding of the world had difficulty explaining what was happening.

People had been taught that the universe was rational and that proper conduct would produce order. But what happens when people follow the established rules and disorder continues?

That is a dangerous moment for any civilization.

It is also a dangerous moment in an individual life.

We all develop successful responses to problems. A child learns how to avoid conflict in a difficult home. A young adult discovers that working harder produces success. Someone learns to remain emotionally guarded after being hurt. Another person develops a strong sense of responsibility because other people cannot be depended upon.

These responses may work.

The problem comes when yesterday's successful response becomes today's automatic response.

Working harder does not solve every problem. Avoiding conflict does not preserve every relationship. Emotional distance may protect us from hurt while also preventing intimacy. Taking responsibility for everything may eventually become a way of controlling everything.

Success itself can therefore create a new challenge.

Toynbee's challenge-and-response model suggests that growth requires more than finding good answers. It requires remaining capable of finding new answers when circumstances change.

The Han had developed an order that worked remarkably well for centuries.

Eventually, however, China faced challenges that the established response could no longer adequately address.

Yesterday's answer was not enough.