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Foreword
I
A sustainable civilization is one that can examine itself, tolerate and accommodate others, coexist in harmony with others, and learn from others this is a common wisdom of both the Chinese civilization and the Greek civilization. It is the wisdom very much needed in todays world, where challenges we face are global, and we need more than ever to work together, to learn from each other, and to focus on common values. Pan Yues book makes an important contribution to the civilizational dialogue between the East and the West, and helps to bring us to the common ground, or Agora as I would call it, to enrich each other via debate, to move forward together, and to create a shared future for us all.
H.E. George Papandreou,
182nd Prime Minister of Greece,
President of the Socialist International
Foreword
II
The West has been the primary author of global history for the last two centuries. As a result of its dominance, the world sees history through a Western prism, based on an underlying assumption that the Western experience is universally relevant. The classic example is the nation-state. It has become the pre-condition for the recognition of polities. When a vast number of countries won their independence from their colonial masters after the Second World War, they were required to become nation-states. It was a condition of their independence. Yet the invention of the nation-state was an entirely European affair dating back to the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. The global dominance of Europe, and then the West more generally, imposed on the world a European-designed international system at the heart of which was the nation-state. It was not until the late 19th century that China was finally forced by its state of abject weakness to adapt to the European norms of the international system and begin the process of becoming, at least in part, a nation-state.
But China had never been a nation-state. It was a product of an entirely different history that was rooted in the Chinese civilization. China was a civilization-state. It is still primarily a civilization-state, although, being secondarily a nation-state, it might be described as a hybrid. And China is not alone. As Pan Yue points out, there are many other nation-states that are the product of civilizational histories such as Iran, Turkey, and Russia. But it is China that concerns us here. It is impossible to make sense of China unless its history as a civilization is recognized and understood. Alas, the West is in denial. It sees the world, and China, in narrowly Western terms. As a result, in a most fundamental way, the West does not understand China. It requires China to be Western, but China does not conform to the Western paradigm, never has and never will. During Chinas long history of weakness, this did not matter. China could be used, abused, and ignored. But Chinas rise makes this position unsustainable. The West is now obliged to understand China as it is not how it thinks it should be.
Pan Yues book is a book for our time. He shows how profoundly different the histories of Europe and China have been over more than two millennia and how this has resulted in the very different societies we see today. This is not a reason for regret but embrace and celebration: It is testimony to the richness of human history and the diversity of human experience. A knowledge of history, and a resulting respect for difference, opens up the possibility of a new kind of creative dialogue between the West and China based on mutual respect and understanding.
I cannot recommend this book highly enough. The fundamental problem in the West is that it does not understand China, or even know how to understand China. The ideas in this book are the path of enlightenment.
Martin Jacques,
British Scholar of China Studies
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