Talk:Civilization state

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2 October 2019 Comment

When looking through the artical it seems that most of the information is very POV heavy, and as stated by Rosquill Jacques's website is used as citation many times, even though it is not clear whether it meets the standards for verifiability. Muffin of the English (talk) 19:49, 2 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]

NPP comment: Undue weight tag

This article appears to be largely based on sources by one or two authors of unclear reliability, and most of its content presents the theory's understanding of China, rather than a historiographic account of the prevalence and usage of the theory. By contrast, consider Nation state. Given these concerns and the fact that the article was created by an editor banned for sockpuppetting following a slew of POV edits, I think that this article needs a thorough looking-over for POV, UNDUE, and FRINGE concerns. _signed,Rosguill ^talk 21:16, 30 September 2019 (UTC)[reply]

I agree with User:Rosguill. But what remedy is appropriate? Should the article exist at all? Adoring nanny (talk) 15:26, 6 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Adoring nanny, at this point I think I've actually cleaned up the worst of it, in that we now at least have an article about how this term is used in academic and political discourse. It could be further improved by expanding the section about countries other than China, and by including criticism of the concept. _signed,Rosguill ^talk 15:31, 6 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]

On Criticism

That section is rightfully a Criticism, but it appears that (from the text, I did not read the citation inside) Journalist Gideon Rachman does not criticize the concept. It seems that he provided more texture on top the concept of civilization-state so that we understand more on their dark side. That is a criticism, but I am not sure whether there is a better word to describe this **enhancement**. --Kittyhawk2 (talk) 06:59, 4 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Kittyhawk2, "Analysis" or "Reception", perhaps? _signed,Rosguill ^talk 15:23, 4 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

The assumption of Chinese civilisation necessarily coalescing as singular states

Although in popular discourse, China might appear to be a singular culture in parallel with a single state, this is historically a very questionable claim. I offer a few reasons:

From the nascent sense of ethnic identity emerging in the early Zhou to the time of Song period (roughly 1054 BCE - 1279 CE), China was arguably more fragmented than a singular state, with only the Han and Tang empires as the only long-lived stable hegemonic states. It was only from the Mongol Yuan onwards (Yuan - Ming - Qing - PRC/Taiwan) where there is any clear continuous succession of empires in China. From this framing, it is quite obvious that the consistency of China as a civilisation-state was only generally true from the late medieval period onwards.
The term 中国 zhongguo (Central Civilized States or Middle Kingdom, or China), was first commonly used during the Warring States period, not to denote a single civilisation-state, but a multiplicity of states which shared the culture of the Zhou. To recast China as a civilization-state would be to redefine how Zhongguo was used in its early context, and hence a very anachronistic claim reflective of modern geopolitical concerns, rather than history.
Perhaps it worth pointing out that peaceful relations between a larger Chinese empire and a smaller sinitic kingdom, did happen throughout history: the Tang empire and Nanzhao, the Song empire and Dali. Again, this doesn't fit neatly into the concept of a civilisation-state.

Perhaps we should include a section that points out how politicized this term is, rather than it being an actual historical term, and even less a reflection of Chinese history. Veryhappyhugs (talk) 21:06, 9 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

There is already a "Criticism" section. And if there is/are scholar(s) who argue that the term is politicized, then I don't see a problem to add it to the section. Such scholarly views can all be presented, without judging if such views are actually correct. But in any case the concept is not limited to China, but also to Egypt etc, and one can similarly argue that Egypt was more fragmented during the ancient period etc. --Wengier (talk) 22:42, 9 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]