It was once believed that the defeat in the Nieruos battle had such a great impact on China for a thousand years. First of all, after losing control over Central Asia, Islamic culture continued to develop eastward, and in the following 500 years, the Central Plains civilization was at a disadvantage in its confrontation with other ethnic groups. In fact, it is wrong to simply attribute the competition of cultures to military victories or defeats like the Nieruos battle, because Buddhism had already been introduced to the Central Plains during the Western Han Dynasty.
But now, I am even thinking that, in terms of the millennia-spanning confrontation between Eastern and Western cultures, China has also failed. What do you think?
The root of the problem lies in the fact that Confucian thought in China has basically not crossed the Western Regions to spread to the Western world. It could only be transmitted eastward to Korea and Japan, where it had a significant influence and formed the East Asian cultural system that has persisted from ancient times to today. But Buddhism, Islam, and European culture up to today have come one after another, and their influence on China's politics, culture, and society in any period has been quite profound. I think the most fundamental reason is still determined by the military advantage of nomadic culture over agrarian culture throughout the era of cold weapons. The Central Plains civilization has been surrounded by nomadic peoples since ancient times. Unlike modern civilizations, advanced civilization does not necessarily mean being able to withstand the invasion of nomadic tribes where everyone is a soldier. This point has been argued by many people, so I will not elaborate here. Therefore, Chinese history basically follows this pattern: that the nomadic peoples of the west or north have generally been in an advantageous position in their continuous suppression of Central Plains civilization. Dynastic changes in China are mostly due to this, which is the biggest reason why Confucianism could not spread westward. Of course, there are other important factors too. Confucianism itself is not an expansionist religion and cannot easily expand to places reachable by military force like Islam or Christianity through promoting ethnic expansion.
Therefore, what I want to say next is that military capability plays a very important role in the spread of culture in human history. But I am not saying that China's military capability is weak. Due to its developed economy, China's military is built on its strong economic foundation and is also very powerful. This can be concluded from history: the Xiongnu, who were on equal footing with the Han Dynasty, migrated westward after being defeated, causing panic among the barbarians of Central Europe, and the Great Migration of the Germanic peoples ultimately led to the collapse of the most powerful country in the West, the ancient Roman Empire. A thousand years later, there were also the Turks defeated by the Tang Dynasty. Their companions, after herding in Western Asia, took over from the Arabs and continued to exert a strong impact on Europe. And the Mongols, Turks, etc., all had absolute military superiority over the entire West in the medieval period. So, China's military advantages in the era of cold weapons should not be underestimated. However, China's military backwardness began with the Tang Dynasty. The confrontation between the prosperous Tang Dynasty and the Arab Empire, although it was just a small part of the Eastern camp guarding the borders against the elite troops of the Abbasid Caliphate, had a huge impact. I personally believe that this is a key factor in the competition of Eastern and Western cultures over the past thousand years. First, the papermaking technique transmitted to the West by Chinese prisoners of war greatly accelerated the development of Western civilization until the later European Renaissance. The Anshi Rebellion that followed made the Tang Dynasty unable to care about the situation in the west, and Central Asia inevitably became Islamized. The nomadic peoples that rose successively in the west and north appeared powerfully on the historical stage, and Confucianism was thus restricted to the area within the Central Plains.
But why did such a powerful armed force fail to interrupt China's thousands of years of culture? Let me put it this way: science, technology, and economy are the standards for measuring whether a country or nation is advanced. China's strongest aspect should be its economy, followed by technology, and lastly science. The strength of the economy determines two key factors that ultimately guarantee China's main civilization. One is the powerful military capability mentioned earlier, ensuring that the Han people maintained their ethnic orthodoxy until the Song Dynasty of the thirteenth century, and was eventually destroyed by the militarily super-strong Mongols, a rare occurrence in history. The same fate befell the Arab civilization of Western Asia. But why did the Yuan Dynasty adopt Confucianism after conquering China? This is the second point I want to make, which is the population factor. Because of China's strong economy, it decisively promoted the large-scale growth of China's population, and the population factor played an indelible role in the continuation of ancient Chinese civilization. The population of the ancient Roman Empire was much smaller compared to the Han Dynasty, and the entire population of Europe was not enough. Both the Southern and Northern Dynasties and the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms were able to assimilate other ethnic groups due to China's absolute population advantage. The Jurchens, Mongols, and Manchus were also unable to eliminate Chinese culture because of China's strong economy and large population, forcing them to use Confucianism, the best tool of the Han people, to rule the Han people themselves. Only in this way could they indirectly maintain their ruling status, but in essence, it was the continuation of ancient Chinese civilization, and they were ultimately assimilated by China. Therefore, this is why I say that the strength of the economy allows Chinese culture to remain uninterrupted and instead accepts wave after wave of new arrivals.
The last point I want to make is that although the rule of other ethnic groups continued China's Confucian culture, it inevitably strengthened increasingly autocratic ruling thoughts. A significant example is the ethnic oppression of the Yuan Dynasty and the slave mentality of the Qing Dynasty, along with the subsequent policy of isolationism, which stifled the capitalist sprouts and early democratic thoughts of classical Chinese philosophy that had already appeared during the Song and Ming dynasties. This caused the development of Chinese civilization to stagnate, losing the creativity and discovery ability of classical China, and ultimately leading to the relative backwardness of Chinese culture compared to global civilization. I personally believe that the commodity economy developed during the Song Dynasty, especially the emergence of the cabinet and political parties in the corrupt monarchy of the Ming Dynasty, were opportunities for Chinese civilization to surpass the West. After all, until the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, China's economy was not inferior to the rest of the world. Therefore, I personally believe that Confucian thought after the Ming Dynasty had already become corrupt, greatly differing from the thoughts of Confucius and Mencius in the Spring and Autumn period and early China, and had become a necessary means for the corrupt Ming imperial family and the foreign Manchu rulers to govern China, losing the possibility of renewal. Thus, it created the illusion that China's backwardness was caused by the backwardness of Chinese culture, which is indeed a tragedy of modern national history!
In summary, I have reached this conclusion: the continuous invasion of nomadic peoples into the Central Plains Han people prevented the spread of Eastern civilization to the West. However, the failure of civilization confrontation and the advancement of civilization are two different propositions. The strength of Confucian civilization is beyond doubt. The mainstream countries of the contemporary world are basically in line with the original meaning of Confucian thought, which is very different from the ideas of competing for spheres of influence and colonies that dominated modern history.
Although I am a Han person, this article aims to objectively analyze our history with a materialistic and dialectical perspective, without involving opinions or objections regarding any ethnicity or religion. Due to limited knowledge, there may be biases, so please criticize and correct as needed!
It's already four o'clock in the morning, and if there are any unclear or inadequate parts in the article, please forgive me! Thank you!