Hugh R. Clark (Ursinus College)

“China” seems a self-evident term, and indeed it has been for the past half-millennium. But historians routinely present courses titled “History of China” that delve back into an ancient past. The goal of this talk is to challenge the idea that in that context “China” is an
appropriate geo-political concept. Before the final collapse of the Southern Song and the full consolidation of the Mongol Empire over Song territories late in the 13th century, the area we call “China” was composed of disparate polities that often were overtly hostile. Before the universalization of culture that took shape under the Song dynasty, the northern Yellow River basin was culturally, linguistically, and ethnically distinct from regions further south, even at times of unified empire. This talk explores the relationship between the North, the middle and lower drainage basin of the Yellow River, and the regions that lay to its south to argue there was no such thing as cultural China before the Song dynasty.