Empire and world order: Qin and Han
The Qin dynasty re-established two things crucial to the Chinese
worldview: the political unity of the Chinese culture area; and the
exalted role of the emperor as the Son of Heaven. The significance of
political unity lay in the concentration of power (de) it made possible.
But the concept of dealso carried the ancient sense of ‘virtue’, and so
included a moral dimension. Internally debrought about good govern-
ment; and it was this example, later thinkers agreed, that led barbarian
rulers freely to acknowledge Chinese suzerainty.^5 The notion of dewas
reinforced by the concept of dao. This term has complex meanings, but
as the core concept of the Taoists it denotes the ‘way’ of the natural
world, and so refers to the unitary natural order of things. Once differ-
entiated, daogives rise to the contending forces of yinand yang, the
universal principles of, respectively, female and male, dark and light,
cold and heat, and so on. Equilibrium between these forces produces
harmony (ho) within both the individual and society.
The synthesis of all the various elements contributing to the
Chinese worldview was achieved during the Han dynasty. The core
belief is that Heaven, humankind and Earth ideally constitute a
single, harmonious, natural order. This order is both balanced,
through the interaction of yinand yang, and moral, in that its ideal
harmony rests on an ethical basis. The central figure in this scheme
of things—the point, as it were, where Heaven and Earth con-
verge—was the emperor.^6 As the Son of Heaven, he was the point of
contact between the macrocosm and the microcosm. By the sacrifices
he performed at the temples of Heaven and Earth, he ensured cosmic
balance and harmony; by his personal behaviour he ensured, or failed
to ensure, Heaven’s blessing. Any moral failure on the part of the
emperor, any failure of de, would provoke Heaven’s displeasure,
made known by signs and portents, in the form of such remarkable
and unseasonable events as the appearance of shooting stars,
The Chinese view of the world