Sinocentrism
worldview centred on or biased towards Chinese civilisation
Sinocentrism refers to a worldview that China is the cultural, political, or economic center of the world. Sinocentrism was a core concept in various Chinese dynasties. The Chinese considered themselves to be "all-under-Heaven", ruled by the emperor, known as Son of Heaven. Those that lived outside the Huaxia were regarded as "barbarians". In addition, states outside China, such as Vietnam, Japan or Korea, were considered to be vassals of China.
Overview and context
Depending on the historical context, Sinocentrism can refer to either the ethnocentrism of the Han society and culture, or the modern concept of zhonghua minzu, popular among the Korean elites up to the final demise of the Qing dynasty. The concept came to an end in the 19th century and suffered several more blows in the 20th century, and as a result is not as widely popular among Chinese people in the present day.
In pre-modern times, it often took the form of viewing China as the most advanced civilization in the world, and external ethnic groups or foreign nations as being uncivilized to various degrees, a distinction known in Chinese as the Hua–Yi distinction.
Sinocentric system
The Sinocentric system was a hierarchical system of international relations that prevailed in East Asia before the adoption of the Westphalian system in modern times. Surrounding states such as Japan (which cut off its vassal relationship with China during the Asuka period, because it regarded itself as an equal and individual culture), Korea, the Ryukyu Kingdom, and Vietnam were regarded as vassals of China.
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This entry incorporates text from “Sinocentrism” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.