China Is Not Rising, but Awakening: From Historical Genes to Civilizational Structure

2/24 Class Note:China’s Rise and Nationality

Will the dragon awaken to its glory?

China’s historical development, as the teacher said in class, is a process of awakening from a deep sleep, and the result of continuous shaking in the waves of globalization. If one fails to catch up with the key nodes, one may lag behind the times. Therefore, understanding China’s historical lineage, national identity, and the dynamics of civilizational development is crucial to thinking about China’s position in the world. After reading Fei Xiaotong’s “The Pattern of Diversity in Unity of the Chinese Nation” , David Reich’s “Who We Are and How We Got Here” , and some insights from the Internet and Guo Jianlong’s “Empires of the Silk Road,” I will supplement my notes with my own to organize the content of today’s lesson and to explain some of my thoughts.

David Reich, through the use of DNA technology, has given a new perspective on the history of migration and integration of civilizations. One of his arguments is that modern nations are not continuing a single lineage, but are the result of continuous hybridization. This is clearly contrary to the traditional view of national identity. This reminds me of Fei Xiaotong’s motivation in writing and even speaking on “The Unified Pattern of Diversity of the Chinese Nation” — the Chinese nation is not simply a collection of multiple ethnic groups, but a gradually coalescing whole in history, something higher. This integration is not static, but has occurred continuously over time to form the cultural commonwealth of today.

However, Reich’s point of view is also subject to disagreement. Some people worry that genetic research may be simplified into racial categorization, or even lead to social prejudice, and that focusing too much on a certain perspective to interpret the whole may lead to a simplistic biological determinism, instead of seeing the forest for the trees. After all, to the common people, language, regional culture, historical memory and other social factors that affect us intuitively and occur around us are often more influential on national identity than genes with a few percent of lineage.

China on the Silk Road, on the other hand, depicts the exchanges and collisions of civilizations on the Silk Road from the perspective of history. I remember that the Sanxingdui culture in the Ba Shu region mentioned by my teacher in class seems to have originated from this book. Its custom of using gold ornaments was very different from that of the Central Plains, and this value is very similar to Babylon, which is where it is hypothesized that they came from. This shows that China has not been closed to the outside world since ancient times, as many people think. Whether it was the trading relationship with the Qin Empire (Rome), or with the Great Eclipse, or even the famous Zheng He’s voyage to the Western Ocean, it proves that China has been in touch with the outside world since ancient times, and it was not until the Qing Dynasty when China was closed to the outside world that it gave rise to the later incorrect impression.

Moreover, at the end of the lesson, the teacher mentioned that the development of civilization often occurs in areas with moderate living conditions, whereas an environment which is too harsh (desert) or too habitable (Central Plains) is not conducive to the development of civilization. This has to do with population. Population growth provided the basis for economic development and expansion of civilization; movement of people led to commerce and trade, maximizing marginal benefits; and conflict and integration facilitated the exchange of civilizations, which in turn led to ideological clashes. Before the end of the class, the teacher asked a question: Are civilizations really good? It is difficult for us to say, because we have not seen how civilization develops, and we do not know how to define “good”. If civilizations don’t develop, they will be swallowed up by more powerful civilizations, so civilization development is a kind of necessity, a kind of gaming behavior similar to the arms race. This is also true for the current AI wave. Can the so-called AI ethics and legal regulations really stop the ever-growing snowball? Unless we go to Lao Tzu’s ideal of a world of small nations and few people, I think the answer is no.