Download Chinese Identity (Sino-Centrism/Sino-Centrism

Chinese Identity (Sino-Centrism/Sino-Centrism and the Chinese Identity)
Chinese people call their country ‘Zhongguo (中國/中国)’ in Chinese. The character zhong
(中) means middle or central whilst guo (國/国) means land, kingdom or country; therefore
zhongguo could be translated as “middle kingdom”. The name Zhongguo first appeared in
documents relating to the late Zhou dynasty (1027-221 BC) in the Classic of History (shujing,
書經) and reflects the Zhou dynasty belief that China was the centre of civilization. Ruled by
the dynasties that had obtained the Mandate of Heaven since ancient times, the Chinese
tended to view themselves as indeed being at the centre of the world while the rest of the
world consisted of barbarians, and they looked on the people in neighbouring countries as
vassals.
According to ancient Chinese political beliefs, the Emperor of China was considered the ruler
of “all under heaven” (tianxia 天下), a phrase which was used to refer to the whole world.
Although in practice there would have been some areas of the known world which were not
under the control of the Emperor, it is believed that the political rulers of those areas derived
their power from the Emperor of China.
This traditional perspective is known as Sino-centrism (zhongguo zhongxin
zhuyi 中國中心主意), which regards China as the central or unique relative to other countries.
Sino-centrism was also strongly evident in China’s response to the first map of the world in
Chinese, composed by the Jesuit Matteo Ricci (1552-1610) in Zhaoqing, Guangdong
province in 1584 during the Ming Dynasty, as follows:
“Lately Matteo Ricci utilised some false teachings to fool people, and scholars unanimously
believed him...take for example the position of China on the map. He puts it not in the centre
but slightly to the west and inclined to the north. This is altogether far from the truth, for
China should be in the centre of the world, which we can prove by the single fact that we can
see the North Star resting at the zenith of the heaven at midnight. How can China be treated
like a small unimportant country, and placed slightly to the north as in this map?”
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Later on, another Jesuit, Guilio Aleni (1582-1649) modified Ricci’s earlier work and
published the Complete Map of All the Countries (Wanguo Quantu 萬國全圖) in the 1620s
by responding to China’s demands to have the Chinese Empire located in the centre of the
world map, which resulted in the Sino-centric configuration.
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