Himalayan Times (1962)

Eight

Himalayan Times

December 3, 1962

CHINA'S PASTIME OF EMPEE BUILDING

Chinese expansiousm
is not an accident. It is
a deep-rooted tnaiady
from which China has
suffered throughout her
long history.

Even in the 4th Cei).
tury B. C. China claimed
to be an Empire rather
than a State. To the
Chinese and their ruiers
the word "ChiiV iiid :iot
esisi. 'hey deser;b-.-d
their ooantry a* Chang
Kao, that is, the "Mid.
tili Kingdom " Their
Kingdom was the centre
of the universe: thp Chi-
nese Emperor was the
"Sou of Heaven"; and he
w:s to be the sole, legi-
timate ruler of civilized
mankind.

The Chinese Empire,
like other Empires, hud
of course built itself by
conquest.

'the rrinco of Chin,
■who called himself Shib
Huang i-'i. toe first Em
p'r>r, hid the resolution
nod ruthbianeis to give
rudimentary shape to the
conception of the Kmperer
for the civiiizvd mankind.
H 1 constructed fortresses
barriers: a part of
the gLt.it Chinese Wall
was 6o«« meted by him,
fs'.id iii' gvea (Treat im-
pstuis to what became a
tradition in military stra-

tegy. He unified China
and added extensively to
the territories controlled
by ti'- Chinese.

Tin' welter of civil
Btrife which followed the
deo'.ii ot criia Huang Ti
in 210 B.C, did not'en-
tiraly destroy the wotk
which was carried over
by ch" Hun dynasty rulers.

With the downfall of
the Haue, a prolonged
period of weakness ensued.
Bwt as soon aB the po-
werful » afg dynasty emer-
ged the imperial spirit
reasserted itself, and the
Chinese empire acquired
more arei;s than under
the Hun rulers This em-
braced at one time, almost
ali of China proper and
extended southward into
Iudo Chin*.

Under the J-'ongoIa
again China became the
largest land empire of
that time

Kubiai was the grand
Khan of a territory that
extended frcm what is
now Soviet Central Asia,
Iran, Mesopotamia in the
West to the China Sea
in the East.

But China under the
Manchus reached its wi-
dest extent. libel wag
subdued, Burma was com-
pelled to s:-ud periodical

tribute, Amman came un-
der Chinese suzerainty
aud Formosa become a
part of the Empire

A sense of Chinese
superiority and arrogance
marked the official rela- '
tionship batween the Chi- '
nese court and vassal
States

In the documents ex-
changed between the Em-
peror and the vassal, for
example, the. Emperors
name wee always placed
higher. In family tetms,
this relationship was com-
pared to that of Gider
and younger brotbere. In
practical terms, the vas-
salage did not mean much.
The "tribute'1 which the
vassal States used to send
were largely offset by
compensating "re t urn
gifw", which had resem-
blances to a batter or
exchange system.

Military co-opcratioii
between the suzerain po-
wer and the vassals were
always greatly modified
by distance and limited
by political conditions. It
remained, aa lustroiiaas
nut i;, "more a principle
of policy, occasionally ex-
ploded, than a rub which
was regularly upplitd."

The Mai'.ehu empire
tottered eg its fell at the
beginn ng of this century
and was swept a vay fay
a political revolution. The
Cheese then embarked
upon the experiment- of
a Republic.