The Final Splendour of an Aged Empire: Chinese Thought on International Law in the early Twentieth Century

• Author: Ping Yi
• Pages: 29-30

The Final Splendour of an Aged Empire 29

IX JEAIL 1 (2016)

Ping Yi

∗

Until the late nineteenth century, the history of international law was remarkably

Eurocentric. In the early twentieth century, however, a number of Chinese intellectuals

examined and demonstrated existence of international law through the Spring

and Autumn and Warring States Period in China. They used international law

as a symbol of civilisation to express a gesture of resistance toward the Western

imperial oppression and cultural invasion. In this way, Chinese intellectuals hoped

to maintain, publicise, or even resurrect China’s rich cultural tradition in a global

order governed by the West. Their endeavour represented an important variable in

the European imperialist expansion process and constituted political interaction with

western ideas to create a truly universal discourse. Unfortunately, most of their efforts

have almost been forgotten. What the readers could perceive from these faded writings



Keywords

Ancient Chinese international law, Civilisation, Chinese intellectuals, Spring

and Autumn and Warring States Period, Wanguo Gongfa

∗ Associate Professor of International Law at Peking University (PKU), China. LL.B./LL.M.(PKU), LL.M.& Ph.D.(U.

Tokyo). ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5534-962X. The author may be contacted at: yiping@pku.edu.cn / Address:

Room 203, Law School Building, Peking University, 5 Yiheyuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing, China 100871.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.14330/jeail.2016.9.1.02

The Final Splendour of

an Aged Empire:

Chinese Thought on

International Law in the

early Twentieth Century