Dr.

Robert Hickson
15 November 2014
Saint Albert the Great (d. 1280)
Saint Leopold the Good (d. 1136)
Allowing Polyandry in China:
A Development of Doctrine and of Mercy
--Epigraphs-Oh what a tangled web we weave
When first we practice to deceive!
(Sir Walter Scott, Marmion, Canto VI-Stanza 17)

***
The Moral is, it is forsooth,
You mustn't monkey with the truth.
(A Variation upon Hilaire Belloc's Poem, The Example)

***
Editor's Note: This article was originally written in November 2014
At a recent unashamedly Catholic Traditionalist Conference in New Hampshire (a part of which
was held concurrently with the 5-19 October 2014 Synod in Rome on Marriage and the Family),
I began to write my own Retractationes (Retractations), in imitation of Saint Augustine (the
Bishop of Hippo), since I discovered at the Conference reliably that Pope John Paul II made
none, nor did Pope Benedict XVI, at least not yet. (John Paul II at least apologized for his
predecessors.
One of the things I immediately proposed to retract was my lifelong writings against, and even
formidable moral resistance to, Polyandry: i.e., the state or practice of having more than one
husband at the same time. That is to say, a Woman's concurrently having more than one Man as
a Husband. It is sort of the converse of traditionalist Islamic Polygamy (i.e., Polygyny) and the
Historical Turkish Harem. In other words, after my Retractation, my New Proposal to be
discussed at the 2015 Follow-Up Synod in Rome would be a sort of consolidated (or even welldistributed) Male Harem this time, with a Real Woman on top!
For, the Synod Fathers of 2014 apparently did not consider this clearly merciful and progressive,
polyandrous structure of a Family at least for the greater good of some countries and
marginalized minority cultures although the Synod Cardinals spoke quite enough about
homo-sexual men, it seems, and about their enduring and purportedly loyal bonds to each other
to include their maybe having, in their open generosity (as distinct from any undifferentiated
promiscuity), more than one man partner at a time. However, we dare not we should not
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call this kind of pluralistic openness in any way anything pejorative. We must be merciful and
non-judgmental (though we must vote or choose at last).
Nonetheless, women, too, should have the opportunity, in justice, not just out of mercy, to have
more than one man at the same time! i.e., more than one husband under their sway and
feminine sovereignty, and building upon the indispensable example and lusty experience of
Chaucer's own irrepressible Wife of Bath, whose Christian name was Alice! (Thinking of
the diverse set of Cardinals gathered and extensively confabulating at the recent Synod on the
Family and Marriage in the Modern World made me mirthfully think also of Chaucer's own
artful Mock Heroic Epic and Beast Fable, entitled The Nun's Priest's Tale! That memorable
Parable (or Apologue) especially concerns a barnyard couple, Chanticleer and Pertelote: the
Strutting, but Hen-Pecked, Rooster and his Favorite Hen, Lady Pertelote. Pertelote is clearly
shown to be more competent and dominant, but she is deceived by her uxorious husband,
Chanticleer, because she does not know Latin! She appears not even to know Italian, though
Chaucer himself did! In any event, Lady Pertelote could operate and firmly rule a Sustainable
Form of Polyandry, I believe, even if it meant the Herding of many Strutting and Blustering
Macho Roosters, not just Chanticleer though, I admit, she should now learn Latin!)
Admittedly, there is such a thing as Serial Polyandry which means that your many men are
not under feminine control concurrently, but only seriatim. Analogously, just as King Henry VIII
was a Serial Wife-Killer, he did not do it all at once; and he indeed so vividly practiced his
Serial Polygamy that, as a consequence of one such public act of defiance to the (Illiberal and
Astigmatic) Catholics, he thus also founded his own church! And this Creative Maneuver is still
to be found today for those men who have such vitality (as well as quite impressive endurance
and forbearance). For, they, too, can now live a rumbustious life of Serial Polygamy within the
Positive Law as long as they do not have all those sequential wives at the same time, nor
overlapping in any way! The Mormons have had some historical difficulties with such a
predicament, I hear; but they, too, together with the growing number of Immigrant (and now
Legitimately Resident) Muslims who still want to imitate the virile Mohammed, might soon have
their earlier polygamous allowances restored: a truly Concurrent Polygamy. Nonetheless, our
growing patterns of divorce and re-marriage in the United States are now admittedly making
Serial Polygamy a much more fashionable form of Domesticity, especially given our current
economic (hence usurious financial) difficulties. But, I want to go even further; and, to return to
the original and mercifully constructive proposal, what about Polyandry and the desirability
of its pastoral implementation, at least in China (especially in Mainland China), where there is
such a shortage of Chinese women?!
The recent Catholic Synod of Bishops in Rome (with the Pope himself pulling some good strings
behind the scenes, I think) has greatly helped me to make not only my just Retractation, but also
this deepening polyandric conversion of thought, so as to effect, finally and with pastoral
sensitivity, this proposed experiment with Polyandry in China, at least by beginning with China.
The Synod has also inspired me to assist their own Paramagisterial Developments of Doctrine
concerning Inculturation and Mercy or, in other words, both Misericordia and Cultural
Pluralism (as distinct from cultural and historical Relativism). The Demography of China
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certainly calls out for our further Mercy.

For, as you know, the professional, scientific field of inquiry known as Demography consists
essentially of three things: Births, Deaths, and Migrations. And, what is more, it is certainly so
that many, many more little boy babies are now being born in China than little girl babies (and
this culturally induced disproportion of Policy, along the deeper Cultural Revolution, has been
going on for a long time, indeed for many years now, at least since 1949). Do we agree? If so, I
have another question of moment: what kinds of sacrifices have these little girls made when they
grew up? Did they think of all those men, all those lonely men who would have very little chance
of finding a Chinese wife? Did they think do they think that captured Korean women are
any substitute? Do they know how difficult Abductions now are, especially Cross-Cultural
Abductions? Moreover, along with Muslim Immigrations into the United States, we may soon be
also seeing greater Chinese Immigrations, at least as searching Visitations, in order to find
Suitable Wives, even though these prospective wives be neither of the Culturally (nor of the
Biologically) Superior Chinese Breed, at least not the Authentic Racially Superior Breed of
Chinese: the Han Chinese. All of this together could well be another National Security Danger
for the Multi-Cultural United States the Chinese being themselves much more formidable
than the Caliphate of ISIS! In any case, as Jean Raspail taught us in his widely admired The
Camp of the Saints (1973), Migrations are not only an elemental part of Demography, but also a
fundamental challenge to Humane Social Ethics. How does one mercifully deal with (or repel)
large numbers of peaceful and materially starving Immigrants? And, a fortiori, what about those
who are Lonely and Spiritually Starving?
Concerning the Concept and Reality of Doctrinal Developments to include those
Discontinuous Developments of Doctrine which are not, thank God, impaired by the Principle
(or Law) of Non-Contradiction I even know of a resourcefully intelligent man who, upon
reflection, extended the Claim for a Baptism by (of) Desire to another Old Sacrament and he
helpfully came up with the new Concept of a Marriage by (of) Desire, which could even lead
to a new Understanding of a Sacrament! Now clearly, there are many possibilities here,
especially to bypass Monogamy and the constrictions of the Indissolubility of Marriage, and
even to offset the all-too-confining Meaning of a Vow! Freedom and Autonomy will certainly
increase here and help gain many unexpected advantages.
We must allow Polyandry in China and thereby have a more Pastoral Form of Mercy for the
Chinese men themselves, who have been for so many years broken down and dispirited under
their historically continuous and preponderant system of Governance originally the autocratic
hybrid of Chinese Legalism, which was a deftly disciplined and receptive preparation for a
dynamic Communism, its even sterner complement, indeed another form of intrusive stifling
Political Culture. As Zhengyuan Fu so well understood, the unique blend of Chinese Legalism
was the preparatory Culture (Vital Medium) indeed, the receptive and further fertilizing
Culture for Communism itself. That is, for Communism's Historical and Dialectical
Materialism (and also that distinctively Chinese blend of Modern Socialism, as well as a
Manifestation of the older forms of Oriental Despotism). In order that we may instill our
Merciful Polyandric Experiment, we should at least read and savor Professor Zhengyuan Fu's
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two profound books: (1) China's Legalists: The Earliest Totalitarians and Their Art of Ruling
(1996); and (2) his deeper and more learned work, Autocratic Tradition and Chinese Politics
(1993Cambridge University Press). Under such an Elitist Autocratic Rule for so long, the
Chinese Men need to be helped!
The forthcoming 2015 Synod in Rome, in ecumenically dealing with the Family (and Marriage
itself) in a Multi-Cultural Context sensitive to the historical and theological differences of the
World's Comparative Religions, must sympathetically examine not only the Progressive
Features of Polygamy (if the women are not to be harmed), but also the even more advanced
arrangements of Polyandry (if the men are not to be harmed). We do hope that the Synod
Fathers in 2015 and perhaps even the Pope will finally also give at least a little
consideration (and even more Mercy) to the Children. For, lest we be unpastorally unmerciful,
we do not want the Little Ones the Parvuli of Christ to be harmed, much less to be
adopted and raised by autocrats or by criminals or by perverts.
--Finis- 2014 Robert D. Hickson