(Translated by Sherwin Lu)
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is a partial translation of a longerrticle by Desheng Meng (孟德声), emeritus professor of the political science department of Donghai (东海) University, Taiwan, entitled “Separatist Federalism vs. China’s Tradition of National Unity”. In view of the facts from the over 2000 years of history and of the present-day threats from inside and outside to China’s national unity and full sovereignty, this presentation of the historical basis of China’s long tradition of national unity is not only convincing but also of topical significance.
THE TEXT
Ancient China was a world of numerous small tribal or ethnic states. Zu Zhuan (《左传》) records: “Yu (禹) met at Tushan (涂山) with clan leaders from ten thousand states all carrying gifts with them.” According to Gu Zuyu (顾祖禹), a late-Ming and early-Qing scholar, “When Yu met with clan leaders, they were from ten thousand states, all carrying gifts with them; When Cheng Tang (成汤) received the mandate, there were over three thousand states still existing; When King Wu (武王) inspected the allied forces, there were eighteen hundred; When the capital was moved eastward, there were still twelve hundred left; but by the end of Spring and Autumn period, the number was reduced to a little over a hundred; and those sovereigns who were recorded as having joined military alliances and expeditions during the Warring States period were about fourteen in number.” (《读史方舆纪要》)
Since ancient times, resources for human livelihood have been limited but not human desires and, so, people were driven to fight with each other for such resources and fight with nature for survival. But they could not fight single-handedly; they had to get united first as clans, then as tribes, then nations, or alliances of nations.
The basic factors that link and keep people together as a nation are lineage, language, custom, spiritual belief, geographical environment, historical tradition etc. The early Zhou patriarchal feudal society was naturally evolved from clans and tribes. But the federal or confederated form of the feudal system was hard to keep for long. Its development through the Spring and Autumn period into Warring States was inevitable as a transition step towards the unification into a vast empire. There were many factors favorable to the unification at that time, such as some personages’ ambition, the flourishing of academic thoughts, the progress in technology and production (invention and use of iron tools), the rise of commerce and cities. But the basic driving force came from the need for survival of the Chinese nation. That was: if all those ethnic groups south of the Great Wall were not unified as one nation, they would not be strong enough to overcome the natural calamities (droughts and floods) and human disasters (invasions and raids from border tribes and internal fighting among themselves).
As essentially pointed out by Joseph Needham (李约瑟), the famous British sinologist, and Ray Huang (黄仁宇), a Chinese-American historian, in their jointly written thesis entitled “The Nature of the Chinese Society: A technological explanation”, it was for the purpose of flood control, disaster relief and defense against invasions from northern nomadic tribes that China had to become a unified nation 2000 years ago with a centralized civilian government. (黄仁宇，《新时代的历史观》，商务，1998，PP. 8-12.)
This conclusion was based on an analysis in terms of geography, geology and astrology. As the Yellow River often overflowed its banks, it was beyond the capability of a regional authority to prevent or control floods but necessitated overall planning by a powerful central government. After the First Emperor of Qin unified China, the historic feats of dredging rivers and building dykes on a nation-wide scale were recorded in inscriptions on stone monuments, being called the “beginning of water-control beneficence” (“水德之始” -- 《史记》). This shows that, to meet the challenges from the natural environment, China chose to be unified around 221 b.c. (Ibid.)
Why was China often visited by droughts and floods? It was because the monsoon that brought rains to China was cyclonic, i.e., the Summer hot wet air from the Philippines could turn into rains over China only when it was met with and pushed up to high altitudes by cyclones from the northwest and cooled down by the cold air there. If the two air currents met too often over one area, that would cause floods, whereas, if they missed each other in some other areas for some time, then there would be droughts in those places. According to historical records over the 2000 and more years, China suffered from either droughts or floods or both almost every year. Only a big government of a vast nation with all necessary resources at its disposal would be capable of dealing with such disasters. Once King Hui of Liang (梁惠王), in an interview with Mencius, said “If the disaster falls north of the Yellow River, we move people to the east of the River and send grains to the north; Or if it falls east of the River, we do the other way round.” This was the geographic and climatic condition that called for the coming into being of the grand Qin empire. (Ibid..)
The other major factor that pushed for the unification of the Chinese empire was the competition for survival between tribal and ethnic groups living on the two sides of the “15-inch isohyet line” and confronting different conditions in geographical resources due to a unique climatic phenomenon on the East Asian continent. The word “isohyet” was derived from the Greek “isos” (equal) and ”huetos” (rain) put together to mean “equal rain”. On the map of China, this line is roughly identical with the Great Wall in the north and then goes through Gansu and Qinghai provinces to the border of Tibet. The area south and east of the line sees a minimum of 15 inches of rain on the average each year, which is favorable to farming, while the yearly rainfall north and west of the line is below this minimum, where the ethnic minorities can only live a nomadic life. Therefore, in the past thousands of years this line geographically divided the Hans and “Hu” peoples (胡人) from each other and witnessed frequent warfare between them, especially when there were droughts or overpopulation.
The nomadic peoples on the borders were ready for fight at any time without the need of mobilization — a herdsman on horse was at the same time a cavalryman. Whereas, the Hans in the agricultural inland had to recruit soldiers, change their order of life, and collect taxes for military needs. All this made a unified empire an indispensable necessity. In other words, the isohyet line was a lifeline for ancient Chinese, and a defense line. Hence the Great Wall going along this very line, which would not be possible if the inland Hans remained divided and continually at war with each other.
In a word, what with frequent natural calamities and what with constant intrusions from border tribes, the great Qin-Han empire was established as soon as the age of copper came to a close. (Ibid.) Based on an analysis of the natural environment (geography and climate) and human conditions (technology and ethnic relations) combined, the conclusion cannot be otherwise than that it was inevitable for ancient China to come towards unification, or in other words, China’s all-embracing national unification as an established historical tradition was the outcome of a natural development and her inescapable fate. In the past over 2000 years, the Chinese nation has come from separation to unity and from separation again to unity again, having no other choice but to get united and unified for survival and freedom. That is why China’s historical tradition of national unity has been firmly established and has stood the test of a long time. |
