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Mutual Impressions

China's traditional foreign relations were based on a Sinocentric worldview that divided other regions into three zones - Sinic, Inner Asian, and Outer - based on their cultural proximity to China. Continuous clashes occurred as groups sought to control the Chinese empire, with Inner Asian zones often instigating uprisings. In the 19th century, the Opium Wars marked China's entry into the modern world and disrupted the traditional Chinese world order as Western influence grew and China transitioned from a tribute system to treaty relations with Western powers.

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106 views10 pages

Mutual Impressions

China's traditional foreign relations were based on a Sinocentric worldview that divided other regions into three zones - Sinic, Inner Asian, and Outer - based on their cultural proximity to China. Continuous clashes occurred as groups sought to control the Chinese empire, with Inner Asian zones often instigating uprisings. In the 19th century, the Opium Wars marked China's entry into the modern world and disrupted the traditional Chinese world order as Western influence grew and China transitioned from a tribute system to treaty relations with Western powers.

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Chinese World Order: Traditional

Chinas Foreign Relations Overview


Emily Beckmann

Sinocentrism
AKA The far Eastern world
Ideology states all east Asian regions
are significantly impacted by ancient
Chinese culture

China and the East


China is such an imperative
component of the East due to its
age, size, wealth
Sinocentrism tainted Chinese
relationships with outside parties due
to the superiority complex

Foreign Relations
3 Zones:
Sinic (most culturally similar to Chinese
culture)
Inner Asian Zone (those non-Chinese on
the fringe of that culture)
Outer zone (known as outer barbarians)

Foreign Relations
Continued
Continuous clashes between zones
occurred due to the mutual desire to
control the Chinese empire
Control of the empire was not so
easy
The inner asian zone often caused much
uprising within the political system
Instigated war

How did the empire come to


be?

Agrarian-based culture

Steppe Nomads eventually appeared and


began to cause dissent

Unity reaffirmed after feudal age (221 BC)


Hierarchic and Anti-egalitarian

(inequality)

Social order established under Sons of


Heaven
Education
Leadership

Emperor ruling

Personal relationships with subjects

Bureaucratic

Commitment
Exterior vessels -> Interior vessels
following their rule
Non-Chinese rulers now could become
rulers of the empire
Established official terminology
Observation by non-Chinese rulers

Entering the Modern World


China entered the modern world through
adaptation in the 19th century
Opium war of 1840
Tribute -> Treaty era
Brought China to the western world
The transition to domestic order upset the
system
Cultural exchange between the East and West
became more pronounced

Western Conquest
Western conquest of the East was
abortive due to the Westerners
clinging to their own culture rather
than assimilating
Following this, the previously
established Chinese world order
disintegrated

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