Hiflory of
International
Relations
⑤
, China
BEFORE 1000 BCE
Another region with imperial heartland was in the North China Plain. By the beginning of the Iron Age, most of the
forest that once covered this plain disappeared and came farmland
• Divided lands: lots of different polities like the Wei, the Qi, The Qin, and some barbarian tribes
- The Wei and Qi had large river plains which caused competition
- Qin and Zhou had power basis in valleys that gave on to the plains
• Further out lived barbarian peoples like the Xirong, the Beidi, and the Nanman
Just like Egypt and Mesopotamia, the main concern of people was to get food. Some surpluses allowed the Chinese to
grow settlements, expand their borders, wage war, and specialise in different craftmanship
We often praise China for its long imperial history, but for long periods it has been fragmented and ravaged by war →
the China we know of today, was not united until the 18th century CE
Large part was unified for the first time by the Shang kingdom around 1600 BCE
• Dynasty’s rulers were buried with slaves, unadorned bronze vessels, and primitive jade sculptures
• There was a world of permanent war against the ‘devil’s lands’ and ‘man-savages’
• The lack of any further evidence, was perhaps a sign of the decline of the dynasty
• The Zhou state and its allies eventually overthrew it at the Battle of Muye in 1046 BCE → Zhou would later unify a
bunch of states in empire
Duke Dan of Zhou, advisor of first king of Zhou Dynasty, refined this theory of legitimization down to its essence: the
king was the son of heaven, and he ruled with the Mandate of Heaven (tian ming)
• The King was the son of heaven and ruled with the mandate of heaven; if the king had power, harvest would be
good, and peace and prosperity would reign
• Justified the overthrow of the Shang Dynasty as being mandated by heaven, because the latter had let the country
slip into corruption, drunkenness, and insecurity
• The notion of China as ‘the Middle Kingdom’ was born (‘we’re the centre of the world’)
• The ideal of the Tian Ming was the Great Peace, the idea that the son of heaven should conduct his affairs
imperially, non-tyrannically, upholding the way of heaven
• The political landscape at the end of Iron Age was comparable to Mesopotamia and Egypt. Grew big → Iron Age →
divided
• Fenghao as the capital of the Zhou kings, became one of the first states to bring some degree of unity to the
region and to establish an imperial ideology based on the mandate of heaven
The North China Plain and Western European coastal plain, depended on the Holy Trinity of resources: water, fertile
soil, and a temperate climate.
• China had vast and fertile land of over 400,000 square kilometres, irrigated by the Yellow River
• The large fertile plain allowed the population to expand to around 10 million, yet still separated and protected by
3000 kilometres of forests, mountains, and glaciers from the Indo-Gangetic Plain
, 1000 TO 750 BCE
Immediately after the Battle of Muye, the Zhou rule came under scrutiny. As soon as the first king died, envious uncles
rebelled against his son, Prince Cheng of Zhou, who thanks to his uncle Duke of Zhou, survived and became king in
1042
Cheng of Zhou and his successors were forceful leaders. They ruled from a large new capital, Chengzhou, consolidating
power over the North China Plain, but also campaigning in the central flatlands of China.
The Book of Rites offers a fascinating view of the institutions that kept the Zhou Kingdom together
• Regional leaders were divided in five ranks going from Duke to Baron
- At this court, the king was assisted by minister, but the regions too had their administration, who
often visited the capital to report
• The king acted as a supreme arbiter, where he held long inspection tours once every five years and summoned
regional leaders to visit his court regularly
• This is the way to cherish the princes of the states: to make time for their visits, and to send them away after
liberal treatment
• To maintain relations there was a grand minister of war, but also a grand peace maintainer
- There were 3 inspectors and a grand minister of instruction to supervise the ceremonies
The Book of Rites also promoted external trade
• There were markets at the border and the book of rites advised limiting charges at the frontier gates → they build
markets and trade routes
• To support trade with foreigners, the kingdom dispatches envoys, and interpreters
• Cheng of Zhou also advised on continuing to invest in diplomacy
The main rivals of the Zhou were, the Dongyi who continues to resist the Zhou power from their stronghold around
Shandong, Xianyun in the Ordos region, Guifang and the Chu at the Yangtze River
• Around 1000 BCE, the King Kang of Zhou launched two campaigns against the Guifang and dispatched eight armies
against the Dongyi
• He won the fights, however, soon thereafter, the Zhou suffered a series of setbacks
• In 970, the Zhou attacked the Chu (the most powerful barbarian), and King Zhao of Zhou was defeated
• In 956, King Mu of Zhou started an offensive against the Xianyun and Dongyi
- This provoked opposition at the Zhou court because both states already paid tribute
- Although Mu won his war, the Xianyun and Dongyi never paid tribute again
• During the 9th century things got worse as the Zhou’s enemies forged alliances against them
- The Chu formed an alliance with 36 different states to attack the Zhou, from which the Zhou
spiralled into a century of military defeats, barbarian incursions and revolts
It was not before 828 BCE that royal authority and social order were restored by King Xuang of Zhou
• In 780, Xuang was succeeded by King You of Zhou, however, in 771 the King was killed and barbarians sacked the
capital – the Zhou’s heavenly mandate was challenged
• In the decades to follow the Zhou capital was relocated to Luoyang, while more and more vassals turned their
backs on the king
• While the Zhou retained nominal power, the dream of unity gave way to naked anarchy
• The North China Plain became an arena of relentless competition and fighting between states, an era known as the
Spring and Autumn (771-476) and Warring States (476-221) periods
The capital also got hit by an earthquake just before the coronation of You of Zhou, wherein the profits predicted
calamity and disaster and they were right – China descended into anarchy after the death of You.
Furthermore, King Mu of Zhou concentrated on administrative reforms and established a system based on merit.
External trade was also promoted by Zhou
• The Zhou dynasty also had specific rules for war: do not steal cattle, jump over enclosures or decoy away female
attendants
• Rise and demise of Zhou Dynasty in China coincided with spread of important new technology in East Asia
• Along with the bronze casting, the wet-rice cultivation that had flourished in China, was now gradually adopted in
Japan, Korea, and Southeast Asia
, 750 TO 500 BCE
The Spring and Autumn Period (771 – 476 BCE) was characterized by a lack of peace between all the Chinese states,
where the weakening of the Zhou Dynasty led to anarchy (each state pursuing their own self-interest), and the
oscillation of different hegemons between countless small Chinese states, the most prominent of which are:
• The Lu: controlling the fertile lands of the North China Plain
• The Qi, became rich because of the Salt trade, gained role of fighting barbarians, gaining power & status
• The Song got the role of Ba, the hegemon of the North-Asian plain
- That role was then passed on to the Jin, who fought against the Chu
- After this the Qin and then the Chu became the hegemons
- They all promised to use that title to enforce peace between Chinese Kingdoms and fight barbarians
• The Role of the Zhou was now little more than giving legitimacy to the ambitious of these warring states
• If one border was secure, danger would come from another side: no Chinese state new any form of peace
However, even though there was no sustained peace, this period of anarchy was also an era of consolidation
• China witnessed the rise of large cities where it went from 148 separate states (7th century) to 18 (6th century)
- They would absorb neighbouring city states (Synoecism), focusing less on food production (for the villages), and
more on craftsmanship
• Advisors, craftsmen, soldiers, and ministers would go great lengths to place knowledge and skill for ruler
- New innovative technology, like crossbow also spread rapidly through-out the states
The Spring and Autumn Period was also an era of diplomacy, with hundreds of treaties being signed between states and
multiple national conferences organized throughout the period
• Use of a lot of treaties, bilateral visits, international conferences where more powerful states obliged lesser
states to follow them
• Such conferences could also be used by the Zhou to give another state the Ba and the role of the protector of the
mandate of heaven
- Used to replace the actual hegemon by making treaties with other kingdoms
• The scope of those international meetings and treaties was often much broader than security
- Conferences were used to assemble conventions for the purpose of expelling barbarians, to challenge the current
hegemony and produced economic agreements
- E.g., banning of monopolies, removing barriers from the trade of corn and not storing grain for speculation …
Those treaties could also have other goals than just peace
of politics: “The contracting parties shall not build dikes
on a river; shall not store grain for speculation; shall not
change successors; shall not make concubines as wives;
shall not let women be involved in state affairs.”
• Such as in Mesopotamia, treaties were often made
before the gods or other religious beliefs
- In China, most treaties were made by mingling wine
with blood or slaying hand on sacrificial animal →
ritualistic
• Each state also had a Mengfu = a place to store copies
of treaties (palace of treaties)
However, scepticism about these treaties was already
notable, because first and foremost, rather than achieving
their diplomatic purpose, the treaties were simply
instruments of the strong, nothing more than a reflection
of their military power on paper.
