The Prehistory of the “Sino-Barbarian Dichotomy”: The Awareness of “Self” and “Others” during the Shang and Zhou Periods

Abstract

This paper studies the prehistory of the “Sino-barbarian dichotomy” which, many scholars believe, seems to have been created in the Spring and Autumn period. The widespread Erligang ritual bronzes began to show the homogenized Chinese cultural representation during the early Shang period. In the late Shang oracle bone inscriptions, the Shang distinguished themselves from the other marked by the suffix fang 方. But the fang was not a fixed concept, as many fang polities appear to have developed flexible relationships with the Shang. BR Unlike the Shang, the Western Zhou, originally one of the fang polities of the Shang, seems to have invented more inclusive concept of bang 邦 which coexisted with the Zhou under the Mandate of Heaven (tianming 天命). Locating in the center of the numerous bang, the Zhoubang 周邦 distinguished themselves from the other bang (tabang 他邦). But the numerous other bangs were under the cosmology of the Zhou, as more peripheral polities adopted the Zhou style ritual bronzes. In addition to the ideological and political concept of the Zhoubang, Man Yi Rong Di 蠻夷戎狄 began to represent cultural and ethnic others in the Western Zhou period.