Chapter 8 7. Barbarian Dirong VS Central Plains Dynasty

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, in addition to the sons and daughters of the Chinese people in the Central Plains of China, there were many powerful enemies around like wolves, tigers and leopards, such as the Xiongnu, Rong, Yue and other sturdy minority regimes.There is a saying that if you don’t fight, you don’t know each other. Fighting is also an active way of communication. It’s better than ignoring each other. A couple who quarrel every day may become more quarreling and more loving.Therefore, through frequent wars and economic and cultural exchanges, the first climax of national integration in Chinese history was ushered in.

The Chinese people in the pre-Qin period thought this way: "The princes use the barbarian rituals to barbarize them, and the barbarians enter China and China will rule."You are a vassal conferred by the Son of Heaven. If you use barbarian etiquette and learn from ethnic minorities, everyone will regard you as a barbarian.For example, Zhao Wuling Wang Hufu riding and shooting was regarded as a barbarian at that time.But objectively speaking, Han people’s clothing used to be the most clumsy. The toga has large sleeves, and the large sleeves can slip into a person. Once wearing that clothing, the hardworking cleaners have to be laid off.Adult men and women also wear crotch pants.Pants, shin coats, and leggings are equivalent to stockings.This clothing design is neither convenient for production nor convenient for combat.People of ethnic minorities have narrow clothes with small sleeves and crotch pants, and their production and combat capabilities are beyond the reach of Han people.

In the end, the Han people still gave up their traditional clothing. Since the Tang Dynasty, the emperor's clothing is no longer the style of the emperor's mianfu in the Han Dynasty. The emperor no longer wears a heavy crown when he goes to court, but wears black yarn , the collar has also become a round neck, a belt is tied at the waist, and the cuffs have also changed from wide to narrow, which is quite fashionable. In addition to clothing, the tastes of Central Plains people have also been adjusted to the direction of ethnic minorities in terms of diet, just like Xinjiang Uighur delicacies such as big plate chicken and pulled strips have become some people's favorites.In terms of behavior, people in the Central Plains used to sit on the floor after entering the house, and South Korea and Japan still maintain this habit.Later, the Central Plains adopted the high tables and chairs of the minority nationalities in the Northwest. It is said that the Chinese people are taller than the people of Japan and South Korea, and this is the main reason.It can be seen from this that the people of the Central Plains have been learning from the ethnic minorities, but the Han people at that time believed that the civilization of the Central Plains was orthodox. It is treated as part of China.That is to say, when the Han people looked at this kind of ethnic integration, they mainly valued cultural identity rather than blood ties.In ancient China, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam were never regarded as foreign countries, because at that time they were exactly the same as China, using Chinese characters and following Chinese rituals.Even up to now, Korea and Japan hold more solemn memorial days for Confucius than China, and Chinese Confucian scholars have always regarded them as two provinces of China, but they are not very obedient.

But the views of European countries on the phenomenon of national integration are different from ours.They value blood relationship rather than cultural identity. For example, if a Chinese has lived in Germany all his life and speaks German more fluently than Germans, he would never want to become a German citizen. Unless your ancestors were Germans in 1750, in this case you If you don't speak a word of German, you can be naturalized in Germany.In the history of China, the Han regime has been invaded or even ended by minority regimes more than once.But every time, the minority regime was finally assimilated by us, so our nation is very tenacious and has not been extinct for five thousand years.It is easy to fight with a fast horse and a scimitar, but it is so difficult to conquer people's hearts, and the cultural development of the Han nationality is what the people want, so in the end, you are conquered like this, and every time someone else is singing.