ABSTRACT
How does one distinguish between Western history and Chinese history? What is the single most determinate factor differentiating the two? The answer that Mark Elvin gave us in The Pattern of the Chinese Past was China’s historical unity as a civilization. His explanation depended upon a kind of technological determinism, whereby military weapons and political tools decided the extent and duration of the empire. This interpretation works well enough for Han China (206 b.c.e. to 220 c.e.), if one thinks of it as roughly parallel to the Roman Empire, but it does not sufficiently explain the divergences between China and the West after the fourth century c.e. That is to say, by stressing technological factors above all, Elvin dismissed the ideological or normative notion of “unity” (tongyi), which was such a powerful cultural notion in traditional China.
