The concept of ancient superpowers and the different origins of Eastern and Western civilizations

Yue Shixuan (Yu Sheng)

The ancient superpowers referred to in this article are those nations far larger than others in the world known to ancient people at the very beginning of civilization. These superpowers, lacking equally powerful rivals, were able to introspect and seek direction, following the natural order and guided by human nature, resulting in peaceful superpowers. Due to their limited geographical knowledge, ancient people may have mistakenly believed themselves to be the center of the world, considering their nation to represent all of humanity, and these perceptions led to their humanist governance. This differs from the city-states of ancient Western civilizations, which were established through competition and conflict. Therefore, the existence of ancient superpowers marks different paths in the evolution of Eastern and Western civilizations, and this article intends to discuss in detail the relationship between this concept and the development of ancient civilizations.

The creation of Chinese civilization originated in a superpower and continued for thousands of years until the Song Dynasty, when northern ethnic minorities established a grand and complex state system. The first dynasty in China, the Xia Dynasty founded by Yu the Great, had a division of the land into five regions, with the surrounding areas called the “wildlands,” which can be understood as undeveloped wilderness without a state structure. The author believes this is the reason why my country’s Taoist tradition has a long history, and why ancient texts repeatedly emphasize virtuous governance and following the natural way.

The Book of Changes (Yi Jing), in the hexagram Guan, states, “Observe the divine ways of the world, and the four seasons will not err. The sage uses the divine to establish teachings, and the world submits.” The Book of Changes, in the section on the Appended Phrases, further states, “In ancient times, when Bao Xi ruled the world, he looked up to observe the celestial phenomena, and looked down to observe the patterns of the earth. He observed the markings of birds and beasts, and the suitability of the land. He drew inspiration from his own body and from all things, and thus created the Eight Trigrams to understand the virtues of the divine and to categorize the feelings of all things.” These words illustrate that when humanity first entered civilization, it still considered itself a member of the peaceful great nation of nature and wanted to imitate the divine and all things to guide human society.

Taoist texts idealize the human world as a peaceful and great nation. Lao Tzu said, “Hold fast to the great image, and all under heaven will come to you. They will come without harm, and there will be peace and great prosperity.” (Chapter 35) Here, “holding fast to the great image” means practicing the principles of the Great Way, letting everything follow nature, and all people will submit to it, living in peace and harmony. Therefore, there will be a peaceful and great result, characterized by tranquility, harmony, and grandeur. The last word may be “太” (tài), which still means “great,” and is the same as the “Great Peace and Prosperity” advocated by later Taoists.

Lao Tzu didn’t specify the exact size of this peaceful great nation, but since it is peaceful and natural, there’s no need to distinguish between “yours” and “mine” national borders. Therefore, the ideal peaceful great nation should encompass the entire world, even larger than the current United Nations, including those countries and peoples not yet members of the UN. However, the people of each village could still live in the small, sparsely populated society described in Chapter 80 of Lao Tzu. Whether this peaceful great nation has a government is also unclear to Lao Tzu, but even if it does, its existence would be imperceptible to the people. As it is said, “The highest ruler is one whose existence is unknown to the people” (Chapter 17). Before the advent of civilization, Earth was precisely such a peaceful great nation for humankind.

Carl Jung (1875-1961) first proposed the concept of the collective unconscious, that is, the unconscious that humans are born with. The existence of this unconscious is unrelated to national culture, era, or region; it is an unconscious that everyone possesses after reaching a certain age or having certain life experiences. For example, a one-year-old infant knows to be afraid of strangers, while a five- or six-year-old child, seeing two objects of different sizes side by side, might perceive the larger object as male and the smaller as female. Jung’s concept of the collective unconscious can be used to explain early human social behavior.

Modern psychologists believe that the Taoist ideals of the unity of heaven and humanity, and the oneness of all things, are simply a natural expression of our ancestors’ subconscious introspection. Religious psychologists have clearly shown that this state of mind, the unity of heaven and humanity, is precisely the inner religious experience of mysticism sought by religions (Spilka et al., 1985). Needless to say, this experience is pleasant and sacred. Modern geneticists can even confirm that it is related to certain genes (Kluger et al., 2004). Although we cannot be certain that the Taoist concept of a peaceful and great nation originated from the ancient Chinese subconscious idea of the unity of heaven and humanity, the two share a consistent direction of thought. Before the dawn of civilization, people lived in tribes. At that time, people were aware of other tribes around them and could infer that the world was full of human tribes, including animals. In other words, prehistoric humans were aware of the existence of peaceful and powerful states. Early humans may have had a concept of viewing humanity as a unified whole.

Although scholars do not agree on when Chinese civilization began, they generally agree that China’s dynastic system, spanning thousands of years, began with the Xia Dynasty. The Yellow River basin, the origin of ancient Chinese civilization, is flat and lacks the deserts and mountains of ancient Greece found in Mesopotamia. Western anthropologists list the conditions for the emergence of a state as follows: 1) a population density exceeding 20-30 people per square mile, or a village or town population reaching several thousand; 2) highly developed agriculture, with surplus food that can be stored for a long time; 3) geographical barriers, or the presence of surrounding states, making it impossible for dissatisfied individuals to escape (Harris, 1988).

Modern scholar Song Zhenhao estimates the population of the Xia Dynasty to be between 2.4 and 2.7 million (Song Zhenhao, 2005). Even though the exact territory of the Xia Dynasty is difficult to determine, its population density certainly did not reach 20-30 people per square mile, though this does not preclude the possibility that some areas did. Due to the lack of geographical barriers, high-density areas could easily disperse in all directions, thus the population conditions for the emergence of a state were not yet present. The Taosi site in Shanxi, considered the capital of Yao and Yu, covers an area of over two million square meters and has yielded more than 1,300 tombs. The number of residents at Taosi likely did not reach several thousand or even tens of thousands, and other villages and towns were even less likely to have reached such a population level. Therefore, it seems that during the time of Yu the Great, the population density in China may not have reached a level that would have caused widespread conflict leading to the establishment of a state. Western civilization followed a path of widespread violent conflict leading to escalating military confrontations and ultimately, unification by force. This situation only emerged in my country during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods. Consistent with this, the capital of the Xia Dynasty moved multiple times, and scholars believe that agriculture at that time, like that of the later Shang and Western Zhou dynasties, was primitive slash-and-burn agriculture, requiring relocation every few years. In short, when China’s first dynasty emerged, the land was likely sparsely populated, and while violent social conflict may have existed, it was not widespread or large-scale.

The Yellow River basin in China is frequently plagued by droughts and floods. Natural disasters undoubtedly lead people to unite, as evidenced by the historical fact that Yu the Great controlled the floods and established the first dynasty. However, I believe that natural disasters causing food shortages in some areas, leading to small-scale violent conflicts over existing food supplies, was also one of the reasons for the establishment of the Chinese state. This differs from the population pressure created by the high concentration of population in river valleys in the Middle East. In the former, the connections between tribes in the original society constituted the social activity space of the secondary society, but were insufficient to replace the social relations within the original society; in the latter, population concentration broke down the original clan system, and the secondary society occupied a dominant position. The Records of the Grand Historian begins by saying, “The feudal lords invaded and attacked each other, tyrannizing the people, and Shennong could not subdue them,” indicating that preventing violent conflicts between tribes was another reason for the establishment of the Chinese state. Violent conflicts are evidenced by the dozens of prehistoric city sites with walls discovered in recent years. The *Huainanzi* mentions that Yu the Great ordered the destruction of city walls, indirectly confirming that one of the functions of the first state was to prevent violent conflicts between tribes. Therefore, I believe this was one of the functions of ancient Chinese state power, much like the United Nations today, maintaining peace and punishing aggressors. This stemmed from the ancient ideal of a peaceful nation, which involved fighting against actions that violated this ideal. Thus, the *Huainanzi* states, “In ancient times, the Son of Heaven ruled over one region, and the feudal lords ruled over one region, each keeping to their own territory and not encroaching upon each other. Those who did not practice the Way of the King, who were tyrannical and cruel to the people, who fought for land and encroached upon territory, who disrupted the government and violated prohibitions… then armies were raised to attack them… and their descendants were chosen to replace them.”

It is said that Yu convened the feudal lords at Mount Tu, where there were ten thousand states. This suggests that these states were primitive societies, or tribes, with fewer than a few hundred people. Even within the Xia territory, villages and tribes simply paid taxes directly to the dynasty. According to Wang Yuzhe, ancient Chinese states were merely scattered points, lacking a broader concept (Wang Yuzhe, 2004, pp. 73-80). This indicates that when Chinese civilization emerged, the land was vast and sparsely populated, minimizing opportunities for violent conflict. This differs from our current social situation and from the situation in the ancient West. This also aligns with the general descriptions of Xia culture in ancient Chinese texts. Ancient texts state that the Xia valued loyalty, frugality, and respected but kept a distance from spirits and gods—characteristics consistent with the Daoist description of primitive society. Although the Xia Dynasty government was a secondary society, it was built upon the original society and still used the original society as its model, which was also the only social model they knew.

Like the Xia Dynasty in my country, the ancient Indus Valley Civilization was an ancient superpower aligned with the Daoist ideal of a peaceful and powerful state. Although the island of Crete in ancient Greece was small, its nation was the only superpower on the island, leaving behind magnificent and complex palace ruins, demonstrating that they had already entered a state-based civilization. Both the Indus Valley Civilization and Crete prioritized peace and lacked the infrastructure for warfare. Even though the Xia Dynasty in my country had an army and weapons during the reign of Yu the Great, it was disproportionate to the size of the state. A conflict arose with the Sanmiao people, which Emperor Shun resolved by having someone perform a dance with feathers on the steps (Shangshu Dayumo); other records state that Yu drove the Sanmiao away. According to scientists’ observations, this is precisely how animals, including apes, resolve conflicts within their species. They usually put on a show of force and intimidate each other, rarely actually resorting to violence. Even when violence does occur, it usually ends with one side withdrawing from the battle.

The era of Yao, Shun, and Yu is revered by later generations as the ideal society in China, a model for future generations. While class divisions existed, they were not severe; while violent conflicts occurred, they were not widespread, and their scale was smaller compared to the Middle East and Europe (Anderson, 2000). Anderson argues that, compared to China, Middle Eastern and European civilizations utilized a large number of slaves, had more organized structures, stronger political authority, higher production surpluses, and consequently, larger-scale wars (Anderson, 2000). Recently, a large-scale ancient battlefield was discovered in Syria, in Mesopotamia. Archaeologists found 1200 elliptical “bullets” launched by catapults and about 120 larger mud balls, which could be considered artillery shells. This occurred approximately 5500 years ago, precisely in the early stages of civilization (World Journal, 2005; University of Chicago, 2005). Thus, the ancient Greek scholar Heraclitus said, “War is the father of all things, war is the king of all things. War makes some gods, some men; some slaves, some free men.” This shows that Middle Eastern civilization was born from violent conflict, a stark contrast to the idealized kingdoms of Yao, Shun, and Yu in Chinese mythology.

Only when social order cannot be maintained in secondary societies does force become the determining factor in social hierarchy. The first states to emerge in Mesopotamia were city-states, while the first states to emerge in China and India were peaceful superpowers, much like the United Nations today. This aligns with the view of scholars like Zhang Guangzhi that China represents the normal course of civilizational evolution, while the Middle East and West experience abrupt changes and breakouts (Lamberg-Karlovsky, 2000). This may explain why Chinese civilization has continued uninterrupted for thousands of years, while Western civilization is discontinuous. It also explains why China constantly touts its ancient period as humanity’s golden age, especially since Taoism idealizes a simple, primitive society. The disappearance of the Indus Valley Civilization may have been due to irresistible natural disasters or foreign invasions. Primitive societies existed in only one form because they were based on human nature. There are countless types of secondary societies, with different structures, purposes, and approaches, which explains the rise and fall of Western civilization. Historically, there have often been efforts to establish superpowers through military conquest, which differ from the ancient superpowers discussed in this article, but share the same concept of the unity of humanity. Western military superpower civilization began with Alexander the Great and ended with the Roman Empire, spanning several centuries.

The two World Wars can also be seen as efforts to create superpowers through military force. Following this model, people peacefully established the United Nations, which has undoubtedly played a decisive role in world peace and stability. While conflicts and wars can occur between nations, cooperation and peace are paramount within the United Nations. The establishment of the United Nations in modern times can be seen as a conclusion drawn from rational thinking, while ancient people, though perhaps lacking today’s rational thinking, still held the same ideal of a peaceful superpower. China during the time of Yao, Shun, and Yu, like the United Nations today, aimed for human peace and welfare. Therefore, we can say that the construction of the United Nations is a re-emergence of the thoughts of our ancient people, whose thoughts were simply a natural expression of human nature. Regardless of how secondary societies change, human nature remains unchanged. Therefore, the progress of humanism is also a process of humanity losing its way in the chaos of secondary societies, then finding itself again, and returning to its primitive state.