All under Heaven

In this succinct yet ample work, Zhao Tingyang, one of China's most distinguished intellectuals, provides a profoundly original philosophical interpretation of China's story and also develops a Chinese worldview for the future. Over the past few decades, the question Where did China come from? has absorbed the thoughts of many of China's best historians. Zhao, keenly aware of the persistent and pernicious asymmetry in the prevailing way scholars have gone about theorizing China according to Western concepts and categories, has tasked both Chinese and Western scholars to "rethink China." Zhao introduces what he terms a distinctively Chinese centripetal "whirlpool" model of world order to interpret the historical progression of China's tianxia (All under Heaven) identity construction. In this book, Zhao forwards a compelling thesis not only on how we should understand China, but also on how China until recently has understood itself.

Zhao Tingyang is a philosopher of political theory, metaphysics, and philosophy of history. His known theories include tianxia as a philosophy of world order, the ontology of coexistence, human rights as credit rights, and the whirlpool power of China.

Foreword to the Chinese Edition Foreword to the English Edition New Foreword by Odd Arne Westad Translator's Preface Introduction. A Redefinition of Tianxia as a Political Concept: Problems, Conditions, and Methods Part I The Tianxia Conceptual Story 1. Politics Starting with the World 2. The Three-Tiered World of Tianxia 3. Correlating with Tian (peitian 配天) 4. Institutional Layout 5. No Outside (wuwai 无外) 6. Circle of Family and Tianxia 7. Tianming 天命 (Heavenly Invoked Order) 8. Virtuosic Power and Harmony 9. Why Might Good Order Collapse? 10. Tianxia as Method Part II The Encompassing Tianxia of China 11. A Whirlpool Model 12. A Condensed Version of Tianxia 13. Why Go Stag Hunting in the Central Plain? 14. Existing through Change Part III The Future of Tianxia Order 15. A World History Yet to Begin 16. Kantian Questions and Huntington's Problem 17. Two Types of Exteriority: Naturalist and Constructivist 18. Borders and No Outside 19. Materializing Conditions for a New Tianxia 20. New Tianxia: A Vocabulary Appendix. Jizi's Lost Democracy: A Continuing Narration of Tianxia-Toward a Smart Democracy Notes Bibliography of Works Cited Index