Historicizing tianxia: political primacy and teleology in the theory of All- Under-Heaven

Chutao Zhang

doi:10.54254/2753-7080/2025.26475

Research Article

Open Access

Historicizing tianxia: political primacy and teleology in the theory of All- Under-Heaven

Chutao Zhang ^1*

¹ Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

^*Corresponding author: chutao.zhang@mail.utoronto.ca

Published on 8 September 2025

AHR Vol.12 Issue 6

ISSN (Print): 2753-7099

ISSN (Online): 2753-7080

Download Cover

Abstract

Recent scholarly attempts to instill contemporary relevance in the ancient concept of tianxia (All Under Heaven) have reinvigorated interest in its rich meaning, multifaceted nature, and historical transformations. Yet the teleological reinvention of tianxia as a “Chinese theory of world politics” risks taking the words of the ancients out of context without a sound historical approach and interpretive sensitivity. This paper aims to historicize this intellectual project by first providing a coherent narrative of the historical transformations of tianxia during the classical and imperial periods—one that demonstrates the primacy of its political nature. It traces how the political-spatial configuration of tianxia evolved along the line of the yi-xia distinction, and how political unity and universalism gradually became entrenched as its core underpinnings. Having established the historical transformations of tianxia, the paper then critically examines the extrapolation and generalization of the concept into a contemporary theory of world order, exposing the teleology, anachronism, and essentialism embedded in this process. It concludes by considering how to reconcile the need for a philosophical foundation for theory with a historically grounded approach that avoids flattening or distorting the meaning tianxia in its original context.

Keywords:

tianxia, yi-xia distinction, Great Unity, universalism, historical transformation, teleology, Chinese international relations theory

View PDF

References

[1]. Levenson, J. R. (1952). T'ien-hsia and Kuo, and the “Transvaluation of Values”.The Journal of Asian Studies,11(4), 447-451.

[2]. Pines, Y. (2002). Changing views of" tianxia" in pre-imperial discourse.Oriens Extremus,43, 101-116.

[3]. Pines, Y. (2012). The everlasting empire: The political culture of ancient China and its imperial legacy. Princeton University Press.

[4]. Wang, M. (2012). All under heaven (tianxia) Cosmological perspectives and political ontologies in pre-modern China.

[5]. Pines, Y. (2021). Limits of all-under-heaven: ideology and praxis of 'great unity’in early Chinese Empire.The Limits of Universal Rule: Eurasian Empires Compared, 79-110.

[6]. Liu, J. (2006). The evolution of tianxia cosmology and its philosophical implications.Frontiers of Philosophy in China, 1, 517-538.

[7]. Zhao, T. (2006). Rethinking empire from a Chinese concept 'All under Heaven’(Tian-xia, ).Social Identities, 12(1), 29-41.

[8]. Mo, X. (2017). The "Tianxia–Tribute" system and its worldview of order. “天下—朝贡”体系及其世界秩序观, China Social Sciences Press.

[9]. Pines, Y. (2005). Beasts or humans: pre-imperial origins of the “Sino-barbarian” dichotomy. InMongols, Turks, and others(pp. 59-102). Brill.

[10]. Lewis, M. E. (2009). The early Chinese empires (Vol. 1). Harvard University Press.

[11]. Luo, Z. (2008) From “tianxia” (all under heaven) to “the world”: changes in late Qing intellectuals' conceptions of human society,Social Sciences in China, 29: 2, 93-105, DOI: 10.1080/02529200802091276

[12]. Zhang, F. (2012). The Tsinghua approach and the inception of Chinese theories of international relations.Chinese Journal of International Politics,5(1), 73-102.

[13]. Zhao, T. (2009). A Political World Philosophy in terms of All-under-heaven (Tian-xia).Diogenes,56(1), 5-18.

[14]. Cox, R. W. (1981). Social forces, states and world orders: Beyond international relations theory.Millennium: Journal of International Studies, 10(2), 126–155.