★Additional Information

According to Chronology of Emperor Yao, a volume of the earliest Chinese history book The Book of History, Emperor Yao was the first emperor who put forward the idea of a“harmonious society”. The book described Emperor Yao as modest, thrifty, observant, understanding, virtuous, gentle and generous. He was also faithful, willing to give up power to talented people and considerate to all the people under the heaven. He promoted great virtue and harmony between big families, different ethnic groups and different kingdoms. In the end, all the people became friendly and harmonious. Tribute of Yu recorded the success of Yu, the Great, in containing the floods and his“five-tier”organizational system. In fact, in early Western Zhou Dynasty, the“five-tier”system was already in place. Zhou rulers put the tribes and states under their control through enfeoffing their sons or brothers, or conferring titles of nobility to the original tribal or state rulers. That system played an important role in the integration of the Chinese nationality with other ethnic groups.

The reunification of China during the Qin and Han dynasties is of historical significance. Qin Shihuang, the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty, ended the division of the country of the Warring States Period. He unified the systems of writing, measurement and currency of different states. The Han Dynasty succeeded the Qin and lasted for over 400 years, during which the Han nationality came into being. It was a country of peace, security, prosperity, virtue, harmony, and power. The two peak periods were the“Wenzhi Era”and“Hanwu Era”.

After the Qin and the Han dynasties, the development of the history of China was mainly about the Han nationality, meanwhile different ethnic groups continued to interact, intermingle and integrate with each other. From the Wei and Jin dynasties to the Opium War, particularly through the two great ethnic integration phases of the Wei-Jin-Southern-Northern-dynasties period, and the period of the Five Dynasties, the Song and Yuan dynasties, China evolved into a mature unified country with multiple ethnic groups.

During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, some northern tribal groups rose and occupied the Central Plain of China. They brought their culture with them and, at the same time, accepted the culture of the Central Plain and they gradually Chinesized. Thus the Chinese nationality became bigger. The establishment of the Sui and Tang dynasties was the outcome of this national integration. The Tang rulers were rather open in ethnic policies. They encouraged the development of economy and international exchanges. Eventually the Tang Empire became the most powerful nation in the world then, and also became the most brilliant chapter in the long history of China. In the Tang Dynasty, China was powerful in military, rich in culture, harmonious in ethnic relations, and friendly with foreign countries. Many talented foreigners gathered in the capital city of Chang'an, which was then an open, enormously prosperous, and hugely international metropolis. Various cultures interacted and mingled there and then spread to other parts of the world.

During the period of co-existing dynasties, whether ruled by the Han nationality or by ethnic minorities, China was politically separated, but it never had national separation. Those dynasties were not countries of different nationalities, but separated feudal states within the Chinese territory. In the Song Dynasty, China was basically unified and regained some stability, but still troubled by ethnic conflicts and wars. It was in the Yuan Dynasty that China finally achieved total reunification after long years of continuous wars through the dynasties of the Liao, Jin, Western Xia, and between the Mongolians and the people in the Central Plain of China. The Yuan Empire was huge in land area covering a large part of the Euro-Asian Continent and was the most powerful country in the world then.

The conflict between the Yuan Dynasty and the later Ming Dynasty was that of ethnic groups within China in the process of reunification of the Chinese nation. After the Yuan rulers retreated to the northern deserts, they became subjects of the Ming Dynasty. During the Ming Dynasty, the ethnic groups basically remained friendly, though there were some conflicts here and there. In the late Ming Dynasty, the government was very corrupted and the society was in turmoil. The peasant uprising army led by Li Zicheng rose and overthrew the Ming Dynasty. Meanwhile, the ethnic group, the Manchu, who had inhabited in the northeastern part of China, started to enter the Central Plain of China. Thus a new dynasty, the Qing Dynasty began. At the beginning, the Manchu rulers were tough in enforcing Manchu life styles and ways of living upon other ethnic groups. For instance, the Han people were forced to have a Manchu-style haircut, or they would be decapitated. At the same time, they absorbed Han culture and promoted Confucius ideas. They also allowed the Han people to join the government. The greatest contribution of the Qing Dynasty in the development of Chinese history was that it realized the reunification of the whole of China and formulated the eventual character of the Chinese nationality.Although the land area of the Qing Dynasty was not as large as the Yuan Dynasty, it covered most of it, including Taiwan. Economically it reached a new high, and socially it re-embarked on a road of peace and prosperity.

To sum up, during the approximately one thousand years of the Sui, Tang, Yuan, Ming and early Qing dynasties, China was unified and prosperous to a high degree. As her territory expanded, economical, cultural and political exchanges and interactions between different regions and ethnic groups greatly enhanced, and the concept of the same motherland evolved.

During the Ming and Qing dynasties, exchanges between China and other parts of the world increased. Western cultures gradually infiltrated into China and the Chinese people were able to have more contacts with foreign cultures. During this process, however, conflicts also occurred. And foreign threat became a problem. At first, it was the Japanese pirates who assaulted the southeast coast of China, then the Western powers began to occupy part of China's coastal areas. Finally the whole country was in danger. Then, all the ethnic groups of the unified nation started the great movement of safeguarding national independence.

The time period between the Qin and Han dynasties and the early Qing Dynasty was important in the development of Chinese patriotism. The so-called traditional Chinese patriotism mainly evolved in this period. That period succeeded and developed patriotism of the pre-Qin era when the Chinese nationality was first formulated. Also in that period, the Chinese patriotism developed with integration, unification and progress of the Chinese nation. The theme of patriotism during that period was promotion of unity, integration, unification and of a powerful nation. To be more specific, it embodies the two following aspects:One was to oppose separatism and to safeguard and strengthen national unity with multiple ethnic groups. The second was to oppose conservatism and retrogress and to promote reform and progress.

The first theme of patriotism during that period was to oppose separatism and safeguard national unity of multiple ethnic groups. During the Qin and Han dynasties, China was unified under a centralized power, and the principal ethnic group of the Chinese nationality, the Han, came into being. After many years of integration and intermingling with other ethnic groups, by early Qing Dynasty, the Chinese nationality as a natural national entity was eventually formulated. Hence, maintaining national unity became the common wishes of all the ethnic groups in China, and also a main feature of patriotism.

In the more than 2000 years of history from the Qin to the Qing dynasties, there had been some separations of the country, but the overall trend of the Chinese history was still in unity and in peaceful co-existence between different ethnic groups:more than 400 years of unity during the Qin and Han dynasties; about 300 years of separation during the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern dynasties; over 300 years of unity of the Sui and Tang dynasties; about 300 years of separation during the Five Dynasties and the North and South Song dynasties; and over 500 years of unity under the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties. Therefore, on the whole, unity was the main trend and was the inclination of most people. Separation could not last long. After some intermittent separations, the country became more united. Furthermore, whenever separation occurred, numerous statesmen, strategists and ideologists would firmly oppose it, which was also a display of patriotism. Early in the Qing Dynasty, there had appeared some separatist uprisings in the northern and northwestern part of China, such as the Junggar Rebellion and the Hezhuomu Brothers Rebellion. Emperor Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong decisively suppressed them, and again maintained national unification. History has proven that separatist movements could never succeed. Anyone who would engage himself in separatist activities would yield no good result but failure because this kind of activities are against the tradition of Chinese patriotism. When the Hezhuomu Brothers fled, they only had their wives and 300 or 400 subordinates with them. （Wei Yuan, Royal Military Records, Vol. 4）It showed that national unity and unification were the wishes of the people, in which patriotism was embodied.