Signs of Empire

Arguing that European thought develops with the logic of “outside” whereas Chinese thinking evolves with conceptions of “inside,” this chapter proposes that there is a construct in China that assumes all-inclusiveness in nature and in politics. Chinese thinking regards everyone as interrelated in a vast inside, and, consequently, it conceptualizes statehood as a moral and comprehensive leader of society. Connecting cultural “signs” and political “empire,” this chapter describes three practices – sign systems, signifying surfaces, and constructed things. It ends with a speculation on how this tradition may serve as a critical voice today, with a perspective of “ten thousand things.”