China's Concept of "Hua Yi" in Hua Yi Thought

Hua Yi thought is the traditional political culture of China, which was formed during the formation of Chinese civilization. The theory of "Hua Yi" originated from the Chinese people who lived in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River in ancient times. Huaxia, also known as "Zhu Xia", is the ancient name of Han ancestors or China. The Huaxia nationality, who took the lead in entering the agricultural civilization, had a sense of superiority because of its higher level of civilization than other nationalities, thus sprouting the concept of dividing "Hua Yi", thinking that the area where they lived and multiplied was the center of the world, calling themselves "Huaxia", and relying on the surrounding areas, they migrated and lived indefinitely. The so-called "endless exchanges between the North and the South" in history books is a reflection of this concept of "dividing China with foreign countries". In fact, the early Chinese nation was a combination of some ethnic groups, so the so-called difference between China people and foreigners is not only a national and regional difference, but also a cultural difference. The ancients often used the symmetry of "Xia" and "Man", or "Hua" and "Yi", that is, culture and race were used as the criteria to distinguish between high and low, thus forming the view that China was superior to Yi. In fact, in the relatively isolated geographical environment of ancient East Asia, China was the only center of civilization, and the degree of China of a barbaric nation largely reflected its civilization. It was against this background that the concepts of China people and foreigners were born.

In the communication with neighboring ethnic groups, the friendly exchanges between Huaxia ethnic groups are the mainstream, and confrontation and collision are inevitable. The Qin and Han dynasties were the formation stage of "Chinese and foreign order". Qin Shihuang established the first centralized feudal empire in the history of China. He attacked the Huns in the north and built the Great Wall to defend them. South to north Vietnam, set up a county to rule it; East of the sea, sent envoys to visit Penglai; West and Zhu Rong to eliminate worries; Wuchi Road is opened in the southwest to communicate the traffic in the southwest. Although the Qin empire fell in the second year, the above-mentioned series of major measures laid the initial framework and foundation for the establishment of the "Chinese and foreign order."

China's ancient civilization reached its first peak of prosperity in the Han Dynasty. When the national strength of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was strong, he vigorously carried out foreign business. In the Han Dynasty, with the opening of land and sea external channels, highly developed Chinese culture spread everywhere. As far as the influence is concerned, countries have sent envoys to the Han Dynasty to offer suggestions. Since Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty "ousted a hundred schools of thought and respected Confucianism alone", the concept of "Hua Yi" has been the principle of foreign exchanges in the Han Dynasty. The ancient international relations system in East Asia, with China as the core and "Chinese and foreign order" as the guiding ideology, began to take shape in the Han Dynasty. The countries initially included in this system include Japanese slave countries in Northeast Asia, three countries in Korea on the Korean Peninsula, and a series of small countries such as Indochina Peninsula and Nanyang Islands in Southeast Asia.

Sui and Tang Dynasties were the development stages of "Chinese and foreign order". Emperor Wendi of the Sui Dynasty established the Sui Dynasty, unified China after a long war and separatist regime, and created conditions for China to prosper again in the Tang Dynasty. Following the establishment of the Li and Tang Dynasties, Chinese civilization entered the second glorious historical peak. Datang Empire is a feudal empire with the most developed material and spiritual civilization and the strongest national strength in ancient East Asia and even the whole world. It has strong attraction and cohesion to all countries and nations on the Eurasian continent. Therefore, many countries admired the civilization and prosperity of the Tang Dynasty, and sent envoys to North Korea one after another for political, economic, trade and cultural exchanges with the Tang Dynasty, and joined the "Chinese and foreign order" system. The "Chinese-foreign order" centered on the Chinese Empire developed by leaps and bounds in the Tang Dynasty. The number of countries, the scale and the richness of contents are unmatched by all previous dynasties. During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, China made great progress in shipbuilding technology, which greatly promoted the development of the Maritime Silk Road, strengthened the ties between China and Southeast Asian countries, and pushed the "Chinese and foreign order" to the south. The foreign exchanges of the Tang Dynasty inherited the traditions of the dynasties since the Qin and Han Dynasties, and the focus was still on managing the western regions. However, when the "Hua Yi Order" was extended to Central Asia and South Asia in the prosperous Tang Dynasty, the Arab Empire (known as the Great History in China's historical records) and its Islamic international relations system, which was in full swing across Europe, Asia and Africa, met and collided with the Tang Empire and its "Hua Yi" system during its eastward expansion. In 75 1 year, the Arab army led by Akka Muslim, Governor of Khorasan in Abbasid Dynasty, fought with Tang Jun led by Gao Xianzhi, the fourth town of Anxi in Tang Dynasty, and Tang Jun was defeated. Since then, the development direction of "Chinese order" has gradually turned to the east and south.

The Song Dynasty was the further enrichment stage of "Chinese and foreign order". Song dynasty has been threatened by the northern Liao, Jin and Xixia regime and has been on the defensive. However, in the Song Dynasty, the economy and science and technology developed highly, and the focus of economic and social development moved south. The development of foreign relations in the Song Dynasty to the southeast was the inheritance and transcendence of the Tang Dynasty. Due to the constant invasion of nomadic people such as Khitan, Nuzhen and Mongolia in the north, the Southern Song Dynasty, which was biased towards safety, relied on seagoing ships, which promoted the development and prosperity of maritime trade and the prosperity of southeast coastal ports. Foreign exchanges in the southeast region have also expanded, further enriching the "Chinese and foreign order."

Mongolia entered the Central Plains and established the Yuan Dynasty. The Mongol-Yuan Empire has a vast territory. It was in full swing. They are blind to militarism. In the war, he conquered Korea seven times, made two expeditions across the sea to Japan, and sent troops to attack Myanmar. However, although the Mongolian rulers in Yuan Dynasty kept the external framework of "Chinese and foreign order", they failed to really understand the connotation of this system and seriously deviated from the "Chinese and foreign order" with profound cultural connotation.

The Ming Dynasty was the heyday of "Chinese and foreign order". Judy, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, was also a talented feudal emperor. From the third year of Yongle (A.D. 1405) to the eighth year of Xuande (A.D. 1433), Zheng He led the world's largest and most technologically advanced ocean-going fleet to the Western Ocean for seven times, passing through the southwest Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean, reaching the east coast of Africa as far as possible, and visiting three countries and regions in Asia and Africa. This feat expanded the political influence of the Ming Empire overseas and promoted the economic and cultural exchanges between China and Asian and African countries. Wherever Zheng He's fleet went, many countries sent tribute envoys to the Ming Dynasty. The Ming Empire gave gifts according to the principle of "favoring one over the other", which attracted almost all countries and regions along the Maritime Silk Road to join the "Chinese and foreign order", thus making the international relations network in East Asia develop to an unprecedented scale.

The collapse of "Chinese and foreign order" in the late Qing Dynasty. During the Manchu Dynasty, China failed to follow the social pattern dominated by China, the Han people suffered unprecedented oppression, and the rulers who had just entered the civilized society were ignorant. The Manchu rulers who claimed to be "China's great power" deviated from the trend of world historical development, making China, the oldest empire, increasingly backward in self-isolation. At that time, modern capitalism rose in western Europe in the16th century. 17-19th century, European and American countries successively completed the bourgeois political revolution and industrial revolution, and the capitalist political and economic system centered on western Europe and expanded to the whole world. Under this historical background, which lasted about 2000 years in the history of the ancient world, the "Chinese-foreign order", which was once the largest, the highest level and the strongest vitality, also gradually declined. /kloc-at the end of 0/9, the stormy Manchu empire became the object of dismemberment by the great powers. /kloc-In the last year of 0/9, with Eight-Nation Alliance's invasion of Beijing, the capital of the Qing Dynasty, and the subsequent signing of the Treaty of Xin Chou, China became a semi-colony of the great powers.

In short, in this East Asian world system based on the Chinese cultural circle, "the general relationship is that the Chinese empire is the center, and the neighboring countries accept the knighthood, while the latter pays tribute to the former, and the former fetters the latter. Among them, there is no direct relationship between countries, but it is completely composed of the unified upper and lower order stipulated by the direct relationship with the Chinese empire. "

This "Chinese-foreign order" system is like an atom, China is the nucleus, and neighboring countries are electrons moving around the nucleus. The stronger China's national strength, the more attractive it will be to neighboring countries. These "electrons" from neighboring countries are more centripetal to China. This international order changed with the rise and fall of the Central Plains dynasty, sometimes stable and sometimes lax. For thousands of years, this concept has been challenged repeatedly, but invisibly, it has gradually accumulated into a very heavy psychology, which has been affecting the foreign policy of the rulers.