A Symbol of Self-Understanding or a System of Self-Assertion?: Comparing Eric Voegelin and Zhao Tingyang’s Interpretation of Tianxia

Muen Liu

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A Symbol of Self-Understanding or a System of Self-Assertion?

Comparing Eric Voegelin and Zhao Tingyang’s Interpretation of Tianxia

In: The Unity of Mankind and the Conversation of Civilizations

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Muen Liu

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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 271–294

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.30965/9783846769607_012

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Abstract

In the past two decades, the concept of Tianxia has been widely discussed within China’s intellectual circles. This review essay seeks to interpret this phenomenon by examining Zhao Tingyang’s “Tianxia System,” one of the most representative and provocative studies on Tianxia, through the lens of Voegelin’s approach. The rationale for this analysis is twofold: first, from an external perspective, Voegelin’s methodology, which emphasizes the interpretation of self-understanding of order experience and symbols, offers a coherent hermeneutic-empirical paradigm for analyzing ancient Tianxia and its contemporary revival. Second, from an insider’s perspective, Zhao’s thesis represents a significant self-assertion of Chinese order. By comparing the self-understanding of Tianxia with its modern self-assertion, this essay aims to explore the complex meanings of Tianxia and to uncover the underlying motivations driving its revival. The comparison focuses on the premise, implication, methodology, structure, and intention of both thinkers’ analysis. Ultimately, this essay argues that the revival of Tianxia, as represented by Zhao’s “Tianxia System,” constitutes a major intellectual response to the centuries-long encounter between traditional Chinese order and Anglo-American modernity. This revival is largely driven by the existential and ontological anxiety over the lack of a legitimate self-identity. While this anxiety was undoubtedly triggered by China’s interaction with Western order, it is also rooted in deeper, more fundamental issues within Chinese spirituality and its political-civilized relationships. The Tianxia revival, therefore, represents an intellectual attempt to rebuild order in the face of the rapidly changing reality. It can be understood as a distinctive manifestation of the Chinese pattern of modernity – whether positive or negative – within the broader framework of “multiple modernities.”

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The Unity of Mankind and the Conversation of Civilizations

Reflections on the Basis of Eric Voegelin’s The Ecumenic Age

Series: Eric Voegelin Studies: Yearbook, Volume: 4

Cover The Unity of Mankind and the Conversation of Civilizations

E-Book ISBN:: 9783846769607

Publisher:: Brill | Fink

Print Publication Date:: 22 Jul 2025

Subjects
- Philosophy
  - Social & Political Philosophy

Front Matter

Part I The Unity of Mankind and the Conversation of Civilizations. Reflections on the Basis of Eric Voegelin’s The Ecumenic Age

Part II Voegelin’s Intellectual Environment

Part III Selected Book Reviews

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A Symbol of Self-Understanding or a System of Self-Assertion?

Comparing Eric Voegelin and Zhao Tingyang’s Interpretation of Tianxia

Abstract

Citation Info

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The Unity of Mankind and the Conversation of Civilizations

Reflections on the Basis of Eric Voegelin’s The Ecumenic Age

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