All Under Heaven: The Tianxia System for a Possible World OrderIn this succinct yet ample work, Zhao Tingyang, one of China’s most distinguished intellectuals, provides a profoundly original philosophical interpretation of China’s story and also develops a Chinese worldview for the future. Over the past few decades, the question Where did China come from? has absorbed the thoughts of many of China's best historians. Zhao, keenly aware of the persistent and pernicious asymmetry in the prevailing way scholars have gone about theorizing China according to Western concepts and categories, has tasked both Chinese and Western scholars to "rethink China." Zhao introduces what he terms a distinctively Chinese centripetal "whirlpool" model of world order to interpret the historical progression of China’s tianxia (All under Heaven) identity construction. In this book, Zhao forwards a compelling thesis not only on how we should understand China, but also on how China until recently has understood itself. |
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actually ancestral Ancient China basic become Beijing benefits Central Plain Chinese political coexistence conflict Confucian Confucius cooperation culture democracy domination Duke of Zhou dynamic economic Erlitou establish ethical Exalted Documents existence future global Guan Zhong harmony hegemonic human ideal imperialism individual rationality institutional order international politics interpretation James Legge kind Laozi Legge legitimacy Mandate of Heaven means military mode modern politics moral governance mutual myriad narrative nation-states nature optimal peace persons political order political power political problems possible principle Qing dynasties realize realm regions relational reasoning ritual and music rules SDX Joint Publishing seeking Shang social sovereignty spiritual world stag hunting stag hunting game strategies theory things thinking tian tianming tianxia concept tianxia system tion tradition transformation translation Translator's note University Press vassal virtuosity Wang whirlpool world order world politics Xianbei Xiongnu Xunzi Yin-Shang Yuan Yuan dynasty Zhao Zhou dynasty