Abstract
The thinker Gong Zizhen in Qing dynasty said, “If you wish to know the Great Way, you must first know history; conversely, to annihilate a country, you must first remove its history.” Our perspective of history shapes the way in which we view the present, and therefore, it dictates what answers we offer for existing problems. As we study the history of a country, we will learn about the challenges and achievements of its people in different historical periods. China has been a unified multi-ethnic state since ancient times, which can be defined as the historical gene of the Chinese nation. Therefore, understanding the formation of China into a multi-ethnic state is a prerequisite to the solution to its ethno-national issues.
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Notes
- 1.
Analects is a collection of sayings and ideas, which is believed to have been compiled and written by Confucius’ disciples.
- 2.
Fustel de Coulanges (2006): 350.
- 3.
The Xiongnu people a confederation of nomadic tribes who inhabited the east Asian steppe from the third century BC to the late first century AD.
- 4.
Voltaire (1995): 308.
- 5.
Lattimore (2005): 45.
- 6.
Wang (2008): 223.
- 7.
Stavrianos (1992): 102.
- 8.
Toynbee (1966): 216.
- 9.
Stavrianos (1988): 137.
- 10.
The Tibetan Empire was called Tubo (or Tufan) in Chinese historical texts and existed from the seventh to ninth centuries.
- 11.
The Western Xia Empire was a regime existent from 1038 to 1227 in what are now the northwestern Chinese provinces.
- 12.
Polo (2000): 278.
- 13.
Wood (1997): 6.
- 14.
Zhang (1977): 213.
- 15.
Liu (2011): 217–218.
- 16.
Weatherford (2006): 207–208.
- 17.
Xiao (2007): 148, 164.
- 18.
Masaaki (2013): 134.
- 19.
Yao (2007): 259, 273.
- 20.
Menzies (2005): 42.
- 21.
Landers (2001): 120.
- 22.
Stavrianos (1988): 120.
- 23.
de Carla (2003): 297.
- 24.
Ibid., p. 474.
- 25.
Ya (1984): 12.
- 26.
Fairbank (2000): 6.
- 27.
Wallerstein (2013): 39.
- 28.
Fairbank J. K., The Great Chinese Revolution: 1800–1985, p. 12.
- 29.
The Torghut was a Mongol clan who were compelled to migrate westward toward the end of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) after repeated attacks by the Zhungaer tribe. They then settled in the lower reaches of the Volga in Russia. There for a long time they were subjected to oppression and plundered by the government of Tsarist Russia and unable to stand this any longer, they finally decided to migrate back to China.
- 30.
Hao (2008).
- 31.
Imperial Collection of Four, Volume VII.
- 32.
Delager (1998): 165.
- 33.
Kennedy (1992): 176.
- 34.
Frank, A. G. Reoirent: the Global Economy in the Asian Age, p. 232.
- 35.
Xiao and Yang (1986): 254.
- 36.
Frank, A. G. Reoirent: the Global Economy in the Asian Age, p. 232.
- 37.
Kennedy (1992): 176.
- 38.
The Canton System arose in 1757 as a response to a perceived political and commercial threat from abroad on the part of successive Chinese emperors and served as a means for the Qing court to control China’s trade with the West by focusing all trade on the southern port of Canton (now Guangzhou).
- 39.
Marx (2009): 632.
- 40.
Fairbank and Liu (1985): 233.
- 41.
Marx (2009): 641.
- 42.
Fairbank J. K. & Liu G. J., The Cambridge History of China: Late Qing 1800–1911, p. 225.
- 43.
Map of the Century of National Humiliation (1997).
- 44.
Marx (2009): 641.
- 45.
Seitz (2007): 63.
- 46.
Stavrianos L. S., Lifelines from Our Past: A New World History, p. 109.
- 47.
Voltaire. On the Spirit and Customs of Various Nationalities, pp. 212–216.
- 48.
Wang (1998): 89.
- 49.
Marx, K., The Collected Works of Marx and Engels. Volume II, p. 679.
- 50.
Ibid., p. 676.
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Hao, S. (2020). The Historical Gene of China: A Unified Multi-ethnic State. In: China's Solution to Its Ethno-national Issues. China Insights. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9519-3_1
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