ABSTRACT
The Chinese character for ‘law’ fa consists of the parts ‘water’ and ‘movement’. Control of the movement of water, keeping within their banks the big rivers and organizing the irrigation systems used for rice production, has been for many centuries the raison d’etre of a centralized government in China. Control of the movement of people has been another goal of all Chinese governments, indigenous or foreign. Over most of the more than 2,000 years of history of Imperial China, foreigners were welcomed in China to present wares, tribute, ideas, religions and technologies for possible adaptation in a sinocized form.
