Quote from forsalenyc:
of course all empires are unified in its own, but was China ever united in full size? Khan's era was the biggest ever. there is a reason TIME voted Khan as the Man of the Millenium.
I don't know what you mean by "full size"... especially since 1500 years ago, people didn't exactly have satellite-based mapping of borders... or even the modern concept of "citizenship". But basically, the regions that the Qin dynasty directly administered 2200 years ago, probably contains 80% of modern China's population.
The north-eastern provinces of China are now highly populated, but this only occurred in the last 80-100 years... during the time of the Qin and Tang, these were still highly nomadic areas with very low population density that no settled government could have "ruled".
btw, Qing Dynasty was ruled by the Manchurians who were viewed as foreigners during most of their reign. just another argument for China never being fully united.
Typical group-speak by people who know nothing about Chinese history. There are a thousand different things that clearly tie each dynasty to the previous dynasty, including the "foreigner" Manchurian Qing to the previous dynasties.
I'll give a few examples:
- It was tradition that the emperors of previous dynasties were considered a form of ancestors by new dynasties... and this clearly continued with the Manchurian Qing. They paid respect to the Tang and Ming emperors accordingly.
- Every dynasty would publish a clear document that served as the "official" history of China from the mythical Yellow Emperor through the previous dynasty. This has been the case for over a thousand years. The Qing court published the "24 History Books" collection 350 years ago. It, in very clear chronological order, included historical records starting from 2550 BC through the end of the Ming. And when the Qing dynasty was destroyed during the 20th century, the "Republican" government that followed it immediately updated it into a 25-book collection by adding a chapter on the Qing.
The idea that China = "Han" is ridiculous. China was always a culture/civilization more than some kind of ethnically pure people. If you argue otherwise... perhaps you also think the British Royalty from 1066 on are actually French, and not English. Even today, Norman French is used for some official court purposes.
