Introduction

Somewhere, buried deep within a behemoth copy of Mote’s Imperial China, 900-1800, I remember coming across the most romantic of ideas. The historian was describing the activities of some barbarian king out on the periphery of the Chinese empire. While the Chinese themselves were busy knuckling down into one of their declinatory phases, this particular king was vigorously building his own little empire. He was importing scholars, offering pay at good rates, as well as constructing a city for his once nomadic people. He was out there in the wilderness, striving, creating a new world out of thin air. I forget his name, I forget the year, all I remember is the beauty of the idea. How must it have felt for that king to have watched a new world rise up around him?

I wonder if a Chinese—at least one living in a major city—feels something approaching those same feelings. To be living in the country at the moment is to see a new world springing up at every turn.