China — Understanding the Ancient Giant (Part I)
In order to comprehend modern China, specifically its culture and its people, one must understand China’s history, so brace yourselves, a long read is coming, separated into a few articles.
In China, everything you see today, from the language and the character writing culture, to the way of life combined with a rapid technological and economic development , is connected in a long uninterrupted historical thread of mutually intertwined developments. What makes it interesting is the fact that vast knowledge of an endless list of diverse topics, such as history, science, poetry, models of bureaucratic governance, etc, were passed on from generation to generation for several millennia through an oral and written tradition, which formed the basic core of a culture uniquely shaped through a period of more than 4000 years.
Such unimaginatively long and continuous culture presents a huge challenge to fathom, however, there are ways of understanding the general idea in order to have a picture of how vast the culture actually is and how it all connects perfectly, in ways which are definitely not too exhausting.
The methods which were used for so many centuries in order to create, sustain and produce the cultural giant that is (the People’s Republic of) China are not difficult to understand. As an outsider (lao3wai4 老外), I’ve learned that there is a deep historical reason for just about anything you could encounter in today’s China, reasons which transcend time. Let’s take the most simple example, a common greeting — 你吃了吗 (ni3 chi1 le ma). The rough translation is “Have you eaten?” (and yes, this is a greeting). Why would you ask someone if they’ve eaten, in order to say hello? Well there is a good historical reason for it. Back in the days of imperial China, under pretty much any of the numerous ruling major and minor dynasties, the country faced frequent and occassional wide-spread famine, mostly due to wars, taxation based on food production and natural disasters. By asking someone whether they’ve had something to eat, you show your care for their well-being, as providing such a common thing for the people. Maintaining a steady food supply proved to be a challenging obstacle for a country which throughout its history has had a very large population, and sustaining it was a grueling task.
And this isn’t even a fraction of it.
Here are some of the methods for understanding modern China.
Chinese history in history books
While these can be quite useful, they’re full of Wei’s, Wu’s, and Zhong’s (as most emperors took such names), of glorious battles, and history changing moments, of sorrow and defeat, but also of rise and renewal. What strikes me most with these books is their continuous and uninterrupted stream of the storyline, which is only separated by dynastic and warring periods (or the non-dynastic periods, but those aren’t really popular, as they only serve as a lesson on how not to govern China).
Interpretation of history in Europe is mostly centered on separating history in eras which coincide with different empires, kingdoms, and important historical events. For example, recorded modern history starts with the first civilisations between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, after that it was the Egyptians that dominated the historical stage. With the decline of the Egyptian kingdom, and after the rise and fall of the Persian Empire it was followed by the Ancient Greek era with their early democracy and philosophy. Then came the warmongering and law abiding Romans, who ultimately opened the door to Christianity which swallowed the continent and created an era of dualist rule between Emperor and Pope, governing over the earthy and spiritual realm of feudal Europe. With the fall of Constantinople and the arrival of the Ottomans, the renaissance blossomed in Italy with the arrival of numerous artists and early scientists from the vanquished Eastern Roman Empire (or Byzantium). After this came the era of maritime exploration and plunder, called the the New Ages, which lasted up until the French Revolution, and with it the steady but continuous downfall of feudalism, all the way up to the Great War, upon its completion the world of imperial Europe was turned upside down, with revolutions happening across the continent, while the Allies are trying to reshape the world according to imperialist aims. The interwar period didn’t bring about a better international situation, and became a period in its own right, as it marked a complete failure to prevent another major conflict. A post World War Two world witnessed a 50 year old two-block conflict which heavily influenced almost every part of the globe, that brought us to today’s world. Each period is viewed as a separate entity in its own right, because we love knowing what is what, and what belongs where.
Chinese history books are remarkably focused on China (who would’ve guessed?). And this can simply be acknowledged from the name China uses for itself: 中国 (zhong1guo2), which roughly translates as the ‘Middle Kingdom’. China has always perceived itself as the center of the world, as the “middle kingdom between Earth and Heaven”, ruling over the world by the sheer radiance of its culture. To be civilised was measured by how much you were integrated in and were part of China. Peoples and cultures too remote to be influenced by China were considered barbaric and not worth wasting time on. This is most obvious in the meeting between the first British envoy Lord George Macartney (who was referred to as the “red-haired barbarian”) and the Son of Heaven, the Emperor of China himself, in which the British envoy stressed the importance of opening ports to British trade with China for ‘mutual’ benefit, and establishing a permanent embassy in Beijing. The conclusion of the first meeting was expressed in an edict by the Emperor to the British Sovereign, which definitely does not fall short of showing the full meaning of the ‘Middle Kingdom’ cosmology.
Parts of the edict go as follows:
“You, O King, live beyond the confines of many seas, nevertheless, impelled by your desire to partake of the benefits of our civilisation, you have dispatched a mission respectfully bearing your memorial.”
…
“If you assert your reverence for Our Celestial Dynasty fills you with a desire to acquire our civilisation, our ceremonies and code of laws differ so completely from your own that, even if your Envoy were able to acquire the rudiments of our civilisation, you could not possibly transplant our manners and customs to your alien soil.”
…
“…the lonely remoteness of your island, cut off from the world by intervening wastes of sea.” But the Chinese capital was “the hub and center about which all quarters of the globe revolve. …The subjects of our dependencies have never been allowed to open places of business in Peking (Beijing).”
As we can see, the superiority of China’s culture is a given fact, other countries only come to China when they want to acquire and take part in its culture and civilisation, and to offer tributes as the loyal subjects and dependencies of the Celestial Court.
Chinese history is full of diverse events and dynastic intrigues, but what connects them all in one long storyline is that each following dynasty took over and applied the useful practices of the preceding one. The most shining example is the imperial bureaucracy. It is the most important cog in the imperial cog-wheel of state governance. Each successful dynasty enforced, strengthened and improved the bureaucracy, which played a crucial role in governing a country with as large a population as China’s.
One of the most striking events in Chinese history are the successful foreign invasions (numerous ancient nomadic peoples, the Khitans, the Mongols, the Manchus, etc.). Because of the sheer size and immensity of the local Han culture, invading warlords and their armies were over time simply drawn in and incorporated in the dominant local culture, and eventually became Chinese. The Great Qing (1644–1912), the last ruling dynasty of China was founded by the Manchu Aisin Gioro clan in Manchuria. Such events demonstrate the strength, resilience and the overwhelming size of the Chinese culture.
One thing that I noticed while reading one of the history books on China, originally in English, but written for a Chinese audience, stressed the importance of mentioning which technologies were first invented and used in China rather than in Europe. Information such as this is used to highlight the ‘unquestionable’ dominance of Chinese ingenuity and craft (which is definitely noticeable and important).
Learning about history in China is not taken lightly. The modern Chinese government rests its legitimacy on history, more specifically — their victory in the Chinese Civil War against the nationalist forces. Additionally, confucian principles and values of self-restraint, good governance, and propriety still take center place in questions of societal morality and ethics. Crucially, foreign and domestic policy is modelled by historical experience.
One of the most favourite books of the late Chairman Mao Zedong was the ‘Romance of the Three Kingdoms’. Romance of the Three Kingdoms is a 14th-century historical novel believed to be written by Luo Guanzhong. It is set in second and third centuries, at a time of the Han dynasty and the, what was called the — Three Kingdoms period, in Chinese history, starting in 169 AD and ending with the reunification of the land in 280 AD. The story — part historical, part legend, and part mythical — romanticises and dramatises the lives of feudal lords and their retainers, who tried to replace the dwindling Han dynasty or restore it. While the novel follows hundreds of characters, the focus is mainly on the three power blocs that emerged from the remnants of the Han dynasty, and would eventually form the three states of Cao Wei, Shu Han, and Eastern Wu. The novel deals with the plots, personal and military battles, intrigues, and struggles of these states to achieve dominance for almost 100 years. Certain tactics in statecraft and foreign policy used in the novel were and are still applied today in modern-day Chinese politics.
