Reimagining the International: Chinese World Ordering before the West

This book historicizes Chinese world ordering from a cultural and civilizational perspective. It studies Chinese world ordering as a moral, intellectual, political, and institutional pursuit from Axial China to the 19th century before the violent clash between China and the West. Inquiries into the intellectual and moral pursuit engage in the study of the history of ideas and delve into ancient Chinese history and philosophy as critical resources to examine historical articulation of the idea of order and that of the international in Chinese political thought. This re(dis)covering of the international before and beyond the West(phalia) reasserts Chinese international thought as constitutive of the global foundation of international thought. Inquiries into political and institutional pursuit provide grand historical narratives of Chinese world ordering as practices. Macro-historical dynamics of world ordering by this universalistic empire are subject to critical assessment through a reinterpretation of the tribute system to highlight different constitutional structure, institutional designs, and organizing principles of this world ordering as the most long-lasting practices in world history. Taken together, investigations in this book argue for a historical consciousness of the international in different civilizations and cultures and challenge us to reimagine the international for writing the future of the discipline.