ABSTRACT
The Chinese system of independent states is of great interest for our enquiry. Like
Chinese civilization generally, the structure of authority and relations with non-Chinese
neighbours developed separately from the experience of western Asia which influenced
even the Indian system. The Chinese patterns evolved in virtual isolation. The Chinese
classified all their non-Chinese neighbours as ‘barbarians’, and regarded them as
culturally inferior. So did the Egyptians and the classical Greeks. But educated Egyptians
and Greeks knew that they had to deal with other peoples that were as advanced and
sophisticated as they, and in some respects more so; whereas the communities
surrounding China were still at a more primitive stage of development, sometimes
vigorous and militarily formidable, but pre-literate. Though some other civilizations, for
instance that of Mexico, also developed independently of western Asia and the
Mediterranean, only the Chinese reached a level of sophistication in managing the
relations between different communities held together in a system, and left written
records of their achievement, which we can usefully compare with those discussed in
previous chapters.
