The World Outlook of the Ancient People in China
It is necessary to find out how ancient China people viewed the world, or what their "world outlook" was. To discuss this issue, we need to distinguish three concepts related to this issue: "four generations", "the world" and "unique domain". Because these three concepts directly reflect the three levels of people's understanding of the world in ancient China.
First, let's look at the first level: China. There is an old saying in China, "Every man is responsible for the rise and fall of the world." Then, the world is obvious, that is to say, China is the country where the ancients lived and lived, which is what we modern people call "China". Just this area, not just the "world" in geographical position, refers to the place where the ancient emperors of China could directly rule, which has certain political significance.
It's not that ancient China people thought the world was as big as it was. After all, there is an old saying, "There are people outside," isn't it? The second level is the "Four Descendants of China", which refers to the vassal state of China, and the territory of the Central Plains Dynasty itself, which conforms to the "political meaning" mentioned above. The third floor is the area that ancient people in China could not reach because of the traffic conditions at that time, so it is called "exotic" and "unique", and it is the "western" side of "Sino-Western relations".
Let's take the Western Han Dynasty as an example to make a concrete analysis. The ancients of the Western Han Dynasty had divided the world they lived in into three small parts. The first part is where they live. To put it bluntly, the place where the emperor can directly control is called "county". After all, the Western Han Dynasty was a parallel system of "county" and "enfeoffment". The vassal king is the little emperor of his vassal state and has a great position. Only directly subordinate to the emperor's county can the emperor have nothing to say directly.
The second part is outside the agricultural land in Han dynasty, that is, the place where nomadic people live. In these places, there will also be some ancient nomadic regimes, and they established vassal relations with the Han Dynasty by relying on the tributary policy. The former two forms the "world" in the concept of ancient China people. The third level is "beyond the world", which is called "unique domain" and "foreign land". Because it is difficult for people to reach, the son of heaven does not need to control such an area. After all, this is beyond his power. According to these classifications of the Han Dynasty, we can basically get three concepts: "IV", "The World" and "Being Independent", which have constructed the world outlook of the ancient people in China.
China's sense of civilization identity under the world outlook of the ancients.
After understanding the ancient people's understanding of the world, we can analyze the attitude of the ancient people in China towards these areas. Thus, the question of whether China's ancient world outlook was "self-centered" was solved.
The ancient people in China always had a strong sense of identity with the civilization in their living areas. Because, in ancient China, there was a magical concept, which was "convincing people with virtue". And this concept is not only applicable to the concept of human morality. More importantly, it is also reflected in China's ancient national foreign policy, which ruled the Quartet with culture and morality, did not pursue force, and emphasized "intimidating the Quartet", which led the Quartet to come to South Korea.
For example, in the early Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang formulated a national policy of not encouraging sending troops to neighboring countries. Later, Judy sent Zheng He to the Western Seas, and stressed that great powers should not be forced by force, but should use "virtue" to enhance Daming's national prestige. Under the concept of seeking cultural domination, as long as neighboring countries accept China's etiquette culture, they can establish diplomatic relations, or directly become a vassal state according to the above-mentioned "tributary policy". Especially in the Ming Dynasty, the tributary of the vassal states was far less than what was finally brought back to China. Therefore, "paying tribute" was not a policy of the Central Plains dynasty to take advantage of everything.