Chinese administration and progressively sinicised. Those beyond the
empire’s frontiers were under no such pressure, though the Chinese
could pretend that eventually these too would come to accept the
superiority of Chinese civilisation.
Han conquests brought new barbarian peoples within the empire.
These included the southern Yue, whom we now know as the Viet-
namese. It did not include the peoples of Yunnan, where the later
kingdoms of Nanzhao then Dali retained their independence until
conquered by the Mongols in 1253 CE. While most of the peoples
incorporated into the Han empire became sinicised over the centuries,
some stubbornly maintained their own cultures, including the Viet-
namese, the Miao (Hmong) and other mountain tribes and minorities.
Some, including the Tai, migrated south, away from Chinese domin-
ation, to establish their own independent principalities. No kingdom
on China’s frontiers to the south, however, ever posed an equivalent
military threat to the steppe peoples of the north.
In summary, therefore, by the time of the later Han dynasty, when
expansion of the Chinese cultural area had brought Chinese peoples
increasingly into contact with those of Southeast Asia, a specifically
Chinese view of the world was already firmly established, though the
institutions by which foreign polities were ritually incorporated into
this worldview (the tribute system) were not yet fully in place. The key
elements of this worldview included the unity of Heaven, Earth and
humankind; the notion of Heaven as a moral force imposing a moral
order; social harmony as Heaven’s way; and the emperor as Son of
Heaven at the apex of, and presiding over, a hierarchical social world
in which all were assigned their status, including non-Chinese. The
Middle Kingdom comprised the Chinese cultural area whose superior
civilisation was available to less cultured peoples. Eventually, the
Chinese were convinced, barbarian peoples would be drawn by the
virtue of the emperor to recognise the superiority of Chinese civilis-
ation and voluntarily to embrace it. In the meantime, they were
expected symbolically to recognise that superiority, and along with it
The Chinese view of the world