From To "under Heaven" To A Nation-state: The Spatial Reconstruction Of View On The Chinese World Order Being At The End Of The Nineteenth Century

The ancient Chinese "the view of under heaven" was the foundation of idea on the Chinese world order. In the world order, China was located in the center of world, surrounding by barbarians in the rim of world. But from 1600s, the Chinese view of the world order had been shocked with the coming of the western learning. Especially after the opium war, the Chinese view of the world was strongly challenged. Facing the western powerful military force, after many Chinese defeats in the wars, the Chinese elites began to change their traditional idea on the world order. Their view was transformed from the "under heaven" to modern nationalism. But the rise of the Chinese nationalism was different from the others. Generally, nationalism need the people's loyalty to the national polity. But in the rise of nationalism in China, the Chinese people were still loyal to the multi-ethic empire. The Chinese only changed their space construction that was same as the nation-state's space. The new Chinese spatial construction still had the traditional traits, but the transformation of idea was great.