Chapter 1：The Singulari ty of China

“Ssuma Ch'ien's Historical Records-Introductory Chapter,” trans. Herbert?J. Allen, ?The ?Journal ?of ?the ?Royal Asiatic ?Society ?of ?Great ?Britain ?and ?Ireland (London：?Royal Asiatic ?Society, ?1894), ?278–80 ?(“Chapter ?I：?Original ?Records ?of the Five Gods”).

Abbé ?Régis-Evariste ?Huc, ?The ?Chinese ?Empire ? (London：?Longman,?Brown, Green & Longmans, 1855), as excerpted in Franz Schurmann and Orville?Schell, ?eds., Imperial ?China：?The ?Decline ?of ?the ?Last ?Dynasty ?and ?the ?Origins ?of?Modern China, The 18th and 19th Centuries (New York：Vintage, 1967), 31.

?Luo ?Guanzhong, ?The ?Romance ?of ?the ?Three ?Kingdoms, ?trans. ?Moss?Roberts (Beijing：Foreign Languages Press, 1995), 1.

?Mao ?used ?this ?example ?to ?demonstrate ?why ?China ?would ?survive ?even ?a?nuclear war. Ross Terrill, ?Mao：A Biography (Stanford：Stanford University Press,?2000), 268.

?John ?King ?Fairbank ?and ?Merle ?Goldman, ? China：?A ?New ?History , ?2nd?enlarged ed. (Cambridge：Belknap Press, 2006), 93.

?F. W. ?Mote, Imperial ?China：?900–1800 ? (Cambridge：?Harvard ?University?Press, 1999), 614–15.

Ibid., 615.

Thomas ?Meadows, Desultory ?Notes ?on ?the ?Government ?and ?People ?of?China (London：W. H. Allen & Co., 1847), as excerpted in Schurmann and Schell,?eds., Imperial China, 150.

?Lucian ?Pye, ?“Social ?Science Theories ?in ?Search ?of ?Chinese ?Realities,”?China Quarterly 132 (1992)：1162.

Anticipating ?that ?his ?colleagues ?in ?Washington ?would ?object ?to ?this?proclamation ?of ?Chinese ?universal ?jurisdiction, ?the American ?envoy ?in ?Beijing?obtained an alternate translation and textual exegesis from a local British expert. The?latter ?explained ?that ?the ?offending ?expression—literally ?“to ?soothe ?and ?bridle ?the?world”—was a standard formulation, and that the letter to Lincoln was in fact a (by?the Chinese court's standards) particularly modest document whose phrasing indicated?genuine ?goodwill. ?Papers ?Relating ?to ?Foreign Affairs Accompanying ?the Annual?Message of the President to the First Session of the Thirty-eighth Congress, vol. 2?(Washington, D.C.：U.S. Government Printing Office, 1864), Document No. 33 (“Mr.?Burlingame to Mr. Seward, Peking, January 29, 1863”), 846–48.

For a brilliant account of these achievements by a Western scholar deeply?(and perhaps excessively) enchanted by China, see Joseph Needham's encyclopedic?multivolume Science and Civilisation in China ?(Cambridge：Cambridge University?Press, 1954).

Fairbank and Goldman, ?China , 89.

Angus Maddison, ?The World Economy：A Millennial Perspective ?(Paris：?Organisation ?for ?Economic ?Co-operation ?and ?Development, ?2006), Appendix ?B,?261–63. It must be allowed that until the Industrial Revolution, total GDP was tied?more closely to population size; thus China and India outstripped the West in part?by virtue of their larger populations. I would like to thank Michael Cembalest for?bringing these figures to my attention.

?Jean-Baptiste ?Du ?Halde, Description ?géographique, ?historique,?chronologique, ?politique, ?et ?physique ?de ?l’empire ?de ?la ?Chine ?et ?de ?la ?Tartarie?chinoise (La Haye：H. Scheurleer, 1736), as translated and excerpted in Schurmann?and Schell, eds., ?Imperial China , 71.

Fran?ois Quesnay, Le despotisme de la Chine, as translated and excerpted?in Schurmann and Schell, eds., Imperial China, 115.

For an exploration of Confucius's political career synthesizing classical?Chinese accounts, see Annping Chin, The Authentic Confucius：A Life of Thought?and Politics ?(New York：Scribner, 2007).

?See ?Benjamin ?I. ?Schwartz, ?The ?World ?of ?Thought ?in ?Ancient ?China?(Cambridge：Belknap Press, 1985), 63–66. 18. ?Confucius, The Analects, ?trans. William ?Edward ?Soothill ?(New York：?Dover, 1995), 107.

See Mark Mancall, “The Ch'ing Tribute System：An Interpretive Essay,”?in ?John ?King ?Fairbank, ?ed., ?The ?Chinese ?World ?Order ?(Cambridge：?Harvard?University Press, 1968), 63–65; Mark Mancall, China at the Center：300 Years of?Foreign Policy (New York：Free Press, 1984), 22.

Ross Terrill, The New Chinese Empire ?(New York：Basic Books, 2003), 46.

Fairbank and Goldman, ?China , 28, 68–69. 22. ?Masataka ?Banno, China ?and ?the ?West, ?1858–1861：?The ?Origins ?of ?the?Tsungli ?Yamen ?(Cambridge：?Harvard ?University ?Press, ?1964), ?224–25; ?Mancall,?China at the Center , 16–17.23. ?Banno, ?China ?and ?the ?West, ?224–28; ?Jonathan ?Spence, ?The ?Search ?for?Modern China ?(New York：W. W. Norton, 1999), 197.

?Owen ?Lattimore, ?“China ?and ?the ?Barbarians,” ?in ?Joseph ?Barnes, ?ed.,?Empire in the East (New York：Doubleday, 1934), 22.

?Lien-sheng Yang, ?“Historical ?Notes ?on ?the ?Chinese World ?Order,” ?in?Fairbank, ed., ?The Chinese World Order, 33.

As excerpted in G. V. Melikhov, “Ming Policy Toward the Nüzhen (1402–1413),” in S. L. Tikhvinsky, ed., China and Her Neighbors：From Ancient Times to?the Middle Ages ?(Moscow：Progress Publishers, 1981), 209.

Ying-shih Yü, Trade ?and ?Expansion ?in ?Han ?China：?A ?Study ?in ?the?Structure ?of ?Sino-Barbarian ?Economic ?Relations ? (Berkeley：?University ?of?California Press, 1967), 37.

Immanuel C. Y. Hsü, ?China's Entrance into the Family of Nations：The?Diplomatic Phase, 1858–1880 (Cambridge：Harvard University Press, 1960), 9.

Thus the extension of Chinese sovereignty over Mongolia (both “Inner”?and, ?at ?various ?points ?of ?Chinese ?history, ?“Outer”) ?and ?Manchuria, ?the ?respective?founts of the foreign conquerors that founded the Yuan and Qing Dynasties.

?For ?enlightening ?discussions ?of ?these ?themes, ?and ?a ?fuller ?explanation?of the rules of wei qi, see David Lai, “Learning from the Stones：A Go Approach?to ?Mastering ?China's ?Strategic ?Concept, ?Shi” ?(Carlisle, ?Pa.：?United ?States Army?War College Strategic Studies Institute, 2004); and David Lai and Gary W. Hamby,?“East ?Meets West：An Ancient ?Game ?Sheds ?New ?Light ?on ?U.S.-Asian ?Strategic?Relations,” ?Korean Journal of Defense Analysis 14, no. 1 (Spring 2002).

A ?convincing ?case ?has ?been ?made ?that ?The Art ?of ?War ?is ?the ?work ?of ?a?later ? (though ?still ?ancient) ?author ?during ?the Warring ?States ?period, ?and ?that ?he?sought ?to ?imbue ?his ?ideas ?with ?greater ?legitimacy ?by ?backdating ?them ?to ?the ?era?of Confucius. These arguments are summarized in Sun Tzu, ?The Art of War, trans.?Samuel B. Griffith (Oxford：Oxford University Press, 1971), Introduction, 1–12;?and Andrew ?Meyer ?and Andrew Wilson, ?“ Sunzi ?Bingfa ?as ?History ?and Theory,”?in ?Bradford A. ?Lee ?and ?Karl ?F. ?Walling, ?eds., ?Strategic ?Logic ?and ?Political?Rationality：Essays in Honor of Michael Handel (London：Frank Cass, 2003).

Sun Tzu, The Art of War, trans. John Minford (New York：Viking, 2002), 3.

Ibid., 87–88.

Ibid., 14–16.

Ibid., 23.

Ibid., 6.

In Mandarin Chinese, “ shi” is pronounced roughly the same as “sir” with a “sh.” The Chinese character combines the elements of “cultivate” and “strength.”

?Kidder ?Smith, ?“The ?Military Texts：The ?Sunzi,” ?in Wm. Theodore ?de Bary ?and ?Irene ?Bloom, ?eds., ?Sources ?of ?Chinese ?Tradition , ?vol. ?1, ?From ?Earliest Times ?to ?1600 , ?2nd ?ed. ?(New York：?Columbia ?University ?Press, ?1999), ?215. The Chinese ?author ?Lin Yutang ?explained ?shi ?as ?an ?aesthetic ?and ?philosophic ?notion of what a situation “is going to become . . . the way the wind, rain, flood or battle looks ?for ?the ?future, ?whether ?increasing ?or ?decreasing ?in ?force, ?stopping ?soon ?or continuing indefinitely, gaining or losing, in what direction [and] with what force.” Lin Yutang, ?The Importance of Living (New York：Harper, 1937), 442.

?See ?Joseph ?Needham ?and ?Robin ?D. ?S. Yates, ?Science ?and ?Civilisation in China , vol. 5, part 6：“Military Technology：Missiles and Sieges” (Cambridge：Cambridge University Press, 1994), 33–35, 67–79. 40. See Lai and Hamby, “East Meets West,” 275.

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, ?The Philosophy of History , trans. E. S. Haldane and Frances Simon, as quoted in Spence, ?The Search for Modern China, 135–36.?