Sinocentrism
From Freepedia
Sinocentrism is the concept that China lies at the center of the world and may be regarded as a kind of ethnocentrism.
Politically, Sinocentrism was a concept of international relations adopted by dynasties of China in their relations with other countries, particularly in East Asia. Under this concept, only China was qualified to call itself a 'state'. Surrounding peoples were referred to as barbarians. Countries such as Mongolia, Korea, Japan, Vietnam and Tibet were regarded as inferior or subsidiary to China and relations between the Chinese Empire and these peoples were interpreted as a tributary relationship under which these countries offered tribute to the Chinese Emperor.
Under this scheme of international relations, only China had an Emperor or 'huangdi' (皇帝), who was the Son of Heaven; other countries only had Kings or 'wang' (王). The Japanese use of the term Emperor or 'tennō' (天皇) for the ruler of Japan was a subversion of this principle. Significantly, the Koreans still refer to the Japanese Emperor as a King, conforming with the traditional Chinese usage.
The era of Sinocentrism in relations among states came to and end in the 19th century when China became the semi-colony of European countries. It was at this time that China lost the Sino-Japanese War and Korea was lost as a tributary. In the 20th century China adopted the Western concept of equal independent states.
Some would argue that the Chinese never really completely abandoned their old ideas of Sinocentrism. The newly-established PRC moved quickly to incorporate previous subsidiary states such as Tibet and Xinjiang into Chinese national territory. Mongolia was only saved by virtue of being a Russian protectorate.
Elements of Sinocentrism have also been identified in China's recent relations with Korea and Japan. The issue emerged as recently as 2004 when Chinese scholars claimed that the ethnically Korean kingdom of Koguryo, which stretched well into present-day Manchuria in the north and encompassed most of what is North Korea in the south, was historically part of China. This understandably caused an outcry amongst Koreans.
In a cultural sense, Sinocentrism refers to the tendency to regard neighboring countries as mere racial and cultural offshoots of China. To the extent that China has a far longer history than neighboring countries, and given the fact that these countries borrowed heavily from the Chinese model at an early stage in their histories, a sinocentric view of East Asia is difficult to argue with. However, Sinocentrism goes beyond this and tries to deny surrounding countries uniqueness or validity as separate cultures.
Sinocentrism has provoked various responses in surrounding countries. Attitudes to China and its dominant role have been a formative influence in developing national identities. Despite resistance to Chinese dominance and attempts to assert their own identity, it is significant that most countries did so within the framework of Sinocentrism. Few actually questioned the Sinocentric system itself.
In Japan, an ambivalent tone was set early in the relationship. Shotoku Taishi (574-622), Prince Regent of Japan, is famous for having sent a letter to the Emperor of China starting with the words: "The Emperor of the land where the sun rises sends a letter to the Emperor of the land where the sun sets". This was the origin of the name Nippon (source of the sun). Not long after this, however, Japan remodeled its entire state and administrative apparatus on the Chinese system under the Taika Reforms, the beginning of a prolonged period of Chinese influence on all aspects of Japanese culture. In the Tokugawa era, the study of Kokugaku arose as an attempt to reconstruct the authentic native roots of Japanese culture, laying the basis for many aspects of modern Japanese nationalism. The Japanese use the dismissive term Chūka shisō (中華思想), loosely meaning 'Zhonghua ideology', to refer to the propensity of the Chinese to place themselves as the centre of the East Asian world at the expense of others.
Vietnam, having been under Chinese rule for approximately 1,000 years until obtaining independence in the 10th century, has a much more intimate relationship with China. Vietnam also persistently identified itself in relation to China, regarding itself as the kingdom of the south as against China in the north, as seen in this line from a poem (in Chinese) by Lý Thường Kiệt (1019-1105): 'Over mountains and rivers of the South reigns the Emperor of the South.'
The name 'Viet' is cognate with Yue, peoples of Southern China who were largely conquered by the north under the Qin and included the Vietnamese. The current name, Vietnam, is derived from Nam Việt, meaning 'Southern Yue'. This was changed to Việt Nam (South of Yue) by the Chinese, who were not willing to recognize Vietnam as a successor to the Yue states.
