ABSTRACT
We explore the general and universal appeal of balance of relationships theory. It also seeks a plausible place for the theory within Western IR, in addition to its multiple and fluid non-Western, Chinese, and non-Chinese identities. Likewise, espousing the ideas of relationality, self-restraint, and non-forward historiography, the notion of tianxia, which is extensively discussed among Chinese scholars, has made its way into the Western literature. However, such a notion has failed to attract sufficient support, and it has even incurred animosity in certain circles. In this chapter, "the West" represents multiple sites informed by the different ways that each adopts to appropriate Oriental intellectual resources. We re-world these sites, as if initially they were all provincial sites, through their encounter with the imagined Orient. We trace the journey of tianxia, along with the classic work The Art of War by Sun Tzu, as two examples of Eastern theories travelling to the West. Four routes of this journey are inducted—outdated, collusive, exotic, and universalist. We argue that Orientalism does not block the West from learning Chinese theory. Paradigmatic ignorance does. Chinese scholars are responsible for providing materials to overcome such paradigmatic ignorance in the West.
