ONLINE FIRST
published on March 6, 2021
Barend J. ter Haar
https://doi.org/10.5840/jrv20213581
A Word for Violence
The Chinese Term bao ±©
The term bao ±© is only a rough equivalent to the English term violence. Both terms are primarily pejorative judgments and problematic as analytical terms. Bao is a standard term in legitimation propaganda when the victorious party will blame the adversary for being ¡°violent¡± and praise itself for being its positive equivalent ¡°martial.¡± Not everything that we label as violent today was considered as such in China¡¯s past, including vengeance. The label bao was also used for what local people considered excessive violence, such as a former prostitute maltreating servants or concubines, a fisherman intending to kill his mother, or a man plucking the feathers of his prizewinning cock. Again not all forms of behavior that we might consider ¡°violent¡± are labelled as such, but only those where the use of force and resulting harm are considered out of tune with the social or kinship relationship between the parties involved.