The "Tianxia" according to Zhao Tingyang

Abstract

This article presents the new book by Zhao Tingyang, Professor at the Institute of Philosophy
of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences: “A Possible World of All-under-heaven System“, Citic
Press, Beijing, 2016. The book defines the concept of Tianxia as a system of governance juxtaposing the Earth, the psychology of peoples and an inclusive global institution. Zhao Tingyang draws on the historical experience of the Zhou Dynasty (1046-256 BC). From the classical Chinese and
foreign writings, he restores and analyzes the historical conditions of the advent and decline of
the Tianxia system of the Zhou dynasty, which in its conception of an inclusive world was ahead
of its time. Subsequently, the Tianxia inspired the Chinese political system, which Zhao described
as a veritable vortex formed by the continually renewed conquest of the Central Plain and which
brought people and ethnic groups attracted by the natural and spiritual resources of this Central
Plain. Zhao opposes the Tianxia system erected in political theory to the modern political theories
of the nation-states coming from the West. He proposes the Tianxia system as a new policy that
would take the world and its sovereignty as subjects.