Was There a Consistent Strategy in Ancient China Toward Threats?

Abstract

A number of historians continuously discuss the recurrent patterns of ancient China’s state behavior, in particular addressing whether its strategy towards the nomadic tribes or empires to the north was more offensive or more defensive. Relevant studies are abundant but not immune from various drawbacks. In the present article, I plan to provide new answers for the questions above by combining the methodologies from the fields of history and international relations. I maintain that the relations between nomadic and settled states (RNS) are not static; they would change dramatically at different times and spaces. In the history of pre-modern East Asia, two concepts of RNS exist which differ tremendously. The features of China’s strategic behavior also altered greatly throughout history. In order to describe the differences between these two concepts and explain their causes, I will employ Alexander Wendt’s theory of naturalistic constructivism and make distinctions between the Hobbesian and Lockean cultures of anarchy in pre-modern East Asia.