Abstract
What recurring pattern did the interactions between imperial China and the surrounding regimes follow? When imperial China was economically prosperous, what kind of policies did it generally adopt toward others? The “Confucian long peace” continuously proclaimed by many international relations scholars and some historians may not stand up to empirical testing. The research finds that the relationship between the four major dynasties of imperial China, i.e., the Han, Tang, Ming, and Qing dynasties, and their surrounding regimes as well as their relationship with nomadic empires were not always peaceful. During the prosperous age of each dynasty, defensive realism more or less explained the state behavior of imperial China. As its economic power increased, the frequency of China's use of force also increased dramatically. As the frequency of wars greatly decreased with the end of the prosperous age, the long peace between imperial China and the surrounding regimes can be explained by the theory of hegemonic stability. This research helps us understand contemporary China's foreign relations and state behavior.
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Notes
Zhang Feng states, “Imperial Chinese foreign policy, having now been mythologized and presented as an alternative to Western models, is utilized as the most important evidential support for pacifism today (Zhang 2011: 7)”.
IR theorists give different definitions on stability. Waltz’s “stability” refers to the system’s peacefulness, low war frequency or minimal possibility of world war. His “stability” also includes “durability,” but Waltz ineffectively distinguishes it. For details, see Waltz (Waltz 2004: 176–183). However, “stability” here in this article refers to peacefulness, namely, low war frequency.
It should be noted that it is very difficult to differentiate between offensive and defensive sides. Occasionally, attacks were not considered aggression because they were possibly launched to regain lost lands or retrieve the losses of previous war(s). This does not significantly impact our research.
Compared with most of its neighboring states, China always possessed overwhelming superiority. Therefore, we only have to concentrate on the change in China’s power in studying its relations with other states.
The CNW database is openly provided by the author and can be downloaded.
For example, see Shi (2011: 6).
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Weizhan Meng wrote and edited the full draft independently, and he approved the final manuscript. The author thanks anonymous reviewers, and my colleagues Guo Shuyong, He Donghang, Pan Zhongqi, Peng Chengyi for their suggestions for revision. The author takes sole responsibility for his writing.
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Meng, W. From Defensive Realism to Hegemonic Stability: Explaining the Interactions Between the Imperial China and the Surrounding Regimes. Fudan J. Hum. Soc. Sci. 16, 455–475 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40647-023-00385-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40647-023-00385-x