The Dragon and the foreign devils: China and the world, 1100 BC to the present

China is the most exciting rising power in the world today. The explosive growth of China's economy and the possibility that the People's Republic might soon become the next superpower,dominant in East Asia and influential in every part of the world, have attracted universal interest, admiration and envy -or alarm. It is a dramatic change from China's position a mere half century ago, when she was war-torn, poverty stricken and the object, instead of the subject, of great power politics. These changes, which seem so sudden, nevertheless have deep roots, reaching far back into China's history. And not just China's, but the history of the many tribes, kingdoms, nations and states that have interacted with the Chinese over long periods, with results that have helped to shape the China of today. This book traces that history of relations between the Chinese and the rest of the world, and does so with strong emphasis on the interests and world views of the other peoples and states, not only of the Chinese themselves and their ruling dynasties. It tells that story from its beginnings 3,000 or more years ago. I start with the question of how and when there arose a 'China' that was identifiable and cohesive enough for other peoples to deal with it as a single sovereign entity. The story then continues to the very beginning of the twenty-first century