Tianxia: Traditional China and the World

Catalog description

China at the Center? An Exploration of Chinese Foreign Relations from Pre-imperial to Late Imperial Times The main title of this course is an allusion to a book authored by Mark Mancall in 1984. However, there are some crucial differences between his approach to Chinese foreign relations and the subject of this course. Mancall has claimed – as have so many scholars before and after him – that Chinese interactions with the outside world were dictated by an ideology that saw China’s culture as superior to the surrounding ‘barbarians.’ This concept is now widely known as the so-called ‘tributary system.’ We are going to explore whether such assertions indeed have any merit. One little hint: things might not have been as easy as they appear at first glance. Over the course of the semester we will be tracing Chinese foreign relations from roughly the 6th century BCE (was there even a ‘China’ that could set itself apart from the ‘other’?) through the 19th century CE, that is to say the period when the Qing dynasty (1644-1911) was forced to interact with western powers such as the British Empire. Even today when there seems to be an abundance of media coverage, the meanings of bilateral or multilateral exchanges take quite some effort to deduce; too many details remain hidden from the public eye. The (ancient) past, of course, is even less generous with data. Nevertheless, there is plenty of information to be had; we just have to look for it. Thus, participants in this course will have the opportunity to immerse themselves in various kinds of sources: historiographical records, material culture, or personal diaries to name but a few. In doing so, our main objective will be that we develop a critical, analytical attitude toward said sources that will ultimately lead us to a more nuanced understanding of Chinese dealings with the outside world. Prerequisites: at least one GCS…