ABSTRACT
Between 300 and 1200 c.e., the Middle Kingdom was embattled. Except for the relatively brief Sui and early Tang (589–755), parts of North China—the original home of Chinese civilization—were in the hands of Turkic or Sino-Turkic “barbarians.” Relative to the dynasties of earlier and later periods, as well as to the challenges they faced, native dynasties were weak and ineffectual. Such political weakness facilitated institutional change, cultural innovation, and economic growth—not least since the existing system was clearly not working as it should. The Qin-Han empires (221 b.c.e.-220 c.e.) had provided Chinese of subsequent ages with a model of the way the world should be. The ruler’s ethnic identity was less important than that he, as a true Son of Heaven, control the Middle Kingdom. Possession of the Mandate of Heaven enabled such a ruler to link mankind to the cosmos. If all was right with the world, barbarians would enter the Middle Kingdom only on Chinese terms and only so that they might “come and be transformed.” For most of the period of trade and the contact of cultures, none of this was true.
