(East-West Question) Lin Chaomin: Why does China form a unified country while the European continent has many countries?
China News Agency, Kunming, May 15th, Question: Why does China form a unified country while the European continent has many countries?
——Interview with Lin Chaomin, consultant of the Chinese Society of Ethnic History
China News Agency reporter Hu Yuanhang
The ancient European continent and the Chinese land with a similar area, one developed into a pattern of multiple small countries, and the other became a unified multi-ethnic country.
What are the deep-seated reasons behind this difference?
What kind of imagination can China bring to the world in the future?
China News Agency's "East and West Questions" column exclusively interviewed Lin Chaomin, consultant of the Chinese Ethnic History Society, president of the Yunnan Sinology Research Association, the first doctor of Chinese ethnic history, and professor of historical ethnology.
The following is a summary of the interview transcript:
China News Service reporter: Most countries in the world are multi-ethnic countries, but not many have formed a "grand unification" pattern. China is one of them. From the perspective of historical context, how did this pattern in China come into being?
Lin Chaomin:
In the ancient land of China, in addition to the Huaxia, there were also many ethnic groups, which were collectively referred to as Rong, Di, Yi, and Man in pre-Qin classics, that is, the "four barbarians".
"Huaxia" and "Siyi" form a "five-party republic" pattern, and "Zhuxia" and "Siyi" together constitute the ancestors of the Chinese nation.
In 221 BC, Qin unified the six kingdoms and established the first unified multi-ethnic state in Chinese history, and implemented "the same text, the same track, the same measure of quantity, and the same class of conduct".
This series of policies laid the foundation of China's feudal social system for more than 2,000 years, boosted the national economic integration and the formation of a common culture, ethics, and spirit, and laid a solid foundation for the formation of the Chinese national community.
Folk art with the theme of "Qin Shi Huang unified the six kingdoms".
Photo by China News Agency reporter Liao Wenjing
During the Han Dynasty, China initially formed the Chinese nation with the Han nationality as the main body; during the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, the great integration of ethnic groups promoted the development of the Chinese nation community; during the Sui and Tang dynasties, the exchanges, exchanges and integration of various ethnic groups entered a new stage; during the Five Dynasties, Liao, Song, Xia, Jin and Yuan Dynasties In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, under the unified regime, the economic and cultural ties between the people of all ethnic groups were strengthened, and the unified multi-ethnic country situation was further consolidated.
In terms of time, in China's long history, the separation of regimes is temporary, and the political unity is permanent.
The so-called "split" is only the opposition of the regime, while China's economic structure, social system, and cultural heritage are still a whole; the Central Plains and the frontier, the Han nationality and various ethnic minorities, history and reality are still a community.
Judging from the development trend, the time of division is getting shorter and smaller and the scale is getting smaller and smaller; while the time of unification is getting longer and more consolidated.
It can be said that each division is a transition to a higher level of unity.
China News Agency reporter: Compared with ancient China, why did ancient Europe not become a unified country?
Lin Chaomin: In
ancient China, there was once a situation in which there were thousands of states, one city and one country, similar to the Greek city-state world.
But slowly, these city-states gradually formed regional kingdoms in the fusion, and later developed into a unified dynasty in the Qin Dynasty.
In fact, ancient Europe has always been in a state similar to that of China's Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.
The reason why the two places show differences in unity and division is related to their respective geographical conditions, economic structure, political system, and cultural heritage.
China is located at the eastern end of the Eurasian continent, with the vast Pacific Ocean to the east, the Pamirs, Altai Mountains and other plateau barriers to the west, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau known as the "roof of the world" to the southwest, and Mongolia to the north The plateau, and the tundra to the north, form a semi-closed geographical unit, allowing the ancestors of the Chinese nation to have a relatively stable living space.
But at the same time, as a relatively independent geographical unit, its internal natural environment is very different, forming different economic types such as farming and nomadism.
The Yangtze River, Yellow River, Pearl River, Lancang River and other large rivers and giant rivers connect the ethnic groups in the southeast and northwest together.
Such geographical conditions make people living in Sri Lanka have a high degree of recognition and appeal for "he".
After hundreds of years of melee in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Qin unified the six countries, abolished the system of feudal feudal feudalism since Yin and Shang, and implemented the centralized system of prefectures and counties to achieve great unification.
Since then, during the Qin and Han Dynasties, China has formed a unified Han nation, and has a unified ideological and ethical consensus on "removing a hundred schools of thought and revering only Confucianism".
This regional, national, and cultural trend toward "unity" has created a super-stable unified state structure, the overall consciousness of the Chinese nation, and the collectivism of Chinese civilization.
Europe is located in the west of the Eurasian continent, bordered by the Ural Mountains in the east and adjacent to Asia, bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the south and Africa.
The broken horizontal outline is a distinctive feature of European physical geography.
More than 1/3 of its total area belongs to peninsulas and islands. The land and the sea are intertwined, and the mountains and rivers are cut, causing the entire European continent to be divided into many geographical units.
Each geographic unit is relatively independent, lacking the inherent needs and actual behavior of union and unity, and has no overwhelming advantage over other units, thus forming a relatively scattered economic structure and a multi-national, mutually exclusive political pattern.
The Roman Empire was the closest period to unification in ancient European history.
Through war expansion, the Roman Empire broke through the narrow political framework of the city-state system, linked many city-states into a unified country, and initially laid the prototype of the European region.
But unfortunately, the Roman Empire failed to realize the unity of currency, the unity of language and characters, and the integration of nations, nor to build a unified cultural ideology, and eventually it was divided.
The long-term continuation of this "divided" state also makes it difficult for people to form a unified consensus, difficult to "aggregate", and even more difficult to "neutralize".
Roman ruins in Italy.
China News Agency issued a group photo of Yan Xiang
China News Service reporter: Why is the Chinese people's awareness of "combination" so strong compared to other countries and regions?
Lin Chaomin:
An interesting phenomenon is that in ancient China, even in the period of division, both the Han nationality and the ethnic minorities pursued "unification of the world" and regarded the dynasties they established as Chinese orthodoxy; Based on the inheritance of the Qin and Han systems, the overall economic, political and cultural structure has not been changed.
Why is this happening?
Because all ethnic groups have lived together for a long time, formed a complementary and integrated production and lifestyle, and nurtured a very inclusive and absorbing Chinese civilization, the Chinese nation has formed a strong cohesion based on "commonality".
Even in the period of division, this way of production and way of life has not changed, the political system has not changed, and the overall consciousness has not changed, and the culture has continued.
This is manifested in the "great unification" of the state and the overall consciousness of the Chinese nation in terms of the state and the nation.
Another interesting phenomenon is that in ancient China, the emperor was called the "Son of Heaven" and unification was regarded as the "mandate of heaven".
Compared with the concept of "country", there is a larger political concept - "the world".
This so-called "heaven" is the sacred expression of the laws of nature and society.
In fact, the state view of the Chinese nation is closely related to the world view and values of "the world is one".
In Wuchuan County, Hohhot City, the site of offering sacrifices to the Emperor of the Northern Wei Dynasty was unearthed.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Liu Wenhua
China News Service reporter: Chinese people want to "take the four seas as the world". At the moment of globalization, can this imagination of taking the whole world as a political unit and calling for a co-existing order bring new possibilities to the world order?
Lin Chaomin:
One of the distinctive features of Chinese culture is the cosmology view of "harmony between man and nature" and the social view of "achieving neutrality".
This kind of culture guides individuals to deal with the harmony between inner and outer, the harmony between self and others, and the harmony between individuals and groups; it guides the harmony among the races in the world, so as to achieve "the world is one, the wind is the same for thousands of miles", "the four seas" Within, it is like a family"; guides human beings to deal with the harmony with nature, and achieves the unity of man and nature; has universal goodwill.
Dance drama "The Great Harmony of the World".
Photo by China News Agency reporter Zhang Yun
It is Chinese culture that regards the individual, society, the world, and the universe as a harmonious and continuous whole in time and space, and achieves "harmony but difference" and greater tolerance, appreciation, reference, and absorption in the whole, so Chinese civilization. To be continuous.
The development and changes in the world today are more than in any previous era, and it seems that there are crises and conflicts everywhere.
But I think that despite the diversity of cultures and politics in the world, the connection and integration of each other are actually strengthening, and civilizations are converging.
Mutual respect, mutual understanding, mutual learning and mutual tolerance are replacing conflict.
Building a "community with a shared future for mankind" is becoming a major trend in world history.
Undoubtedly, a more community-conscious and inclusive Chinese civilization represented by the concept of "world" can play a more important role and provide new ideas or practical ways.
(Finish)
Interviewee Profile:
Lin Chaomin is a professor at Yunnan University and a librarian at the Yunnan Provincial Institute of Literature and History.
He used to be the vice president and inspector of Yunnan University, the vice president of the Chinese Ethnic History Society, the vice president of the Chinese Ethnic Society, and the president of the Yunnan Historical Society.
He is currently the executive deputy director of the Ancient Books Arrangement Committee of Yunnan University, the president of Yunnan Sinology Research Association, and the consultant of the Chinese Ethnic History Society.
Research field: Chinese national history, Yunnan local history.
His works include: Collected Works of Lin Chaomin (four volumes), History of Chinese Ethnic Groups, National History of Tang and Song Dynasties, Survey of Chinese Regional Culture, Yunnan Volume, General History of Yunnan, Volume III, etc.; Generation of Southwest Frontiers, etc.; editor-in-chief of Fang Guoyu's Works Collection, Yunnan University History Series, Yunnan University Ethnic Studies Series, etc.; editor-in-chief of Ethnology Review, Southwest Ancient Book Research and other research collections.