My Take | What ancient China can teach about contemporary China
- A new book re-examines international relations theories to interpret the ‘proto-China’ of the pre-Qin unification periods for world politics today
When I was a child, one of my first books was an anime version of the Spring and Autumn, and the warring states, periods. Many of the most famous political tricks and stratagems were recounted in different chapters. Sadly, that is still, to this day, my only encounter with the Spring and Autumn Annals, a classic history of the period attributed to Confucius by Mencius. Making a serious study of it in the original classical Chinese is on my bucket list.
Chinese have always tried to find wisdom and moral guidance from the canon at the inception of Chinese civilisation before the Qin unification. Children were told about the stories throughout the centuries. Ancient literati and modern scholars have built one of the world’s richest literatures with their interpretations and reinterpretations.
It is not surprising that specialists in international relations (IR) on the Chinese mainland have, in recent decades, been trying to develop a distinctly Chinese IR based on interstate relations during those classical periods.
Walter Lee Wan-fai, an assistant professor at Hong Kong Metropolitan University, formerly the Open University, has written a new book to contribute to this Chinese school(s) of IR. It is both a frustrating and rewarding book. It’s also extremely expensive, the kind of book that is usually found in university and central public libraries rather than popular bookstores.
Dr Lee kindly sent me a free copy. As a testament to his honesty, he listed the real price of almost HK$900, so Canadian customs duly taxed me for almost C$20 (HK$116). It’s well worth the price of admission, I am happy to report.
