Those who are familiar with china's ancient history may find that since ancient times, China has rarely taken the initiative to attack foreign nations, and that wars with foreign countries are almost unanimously foreign aggression against us that leads to our acts of self-defense. Whether this is inevitable or accidental, we will find out today.
First of all, we should be clear that since the beginning of the Han Dynasty, the territory of our country has been very large, and many of the seemingly offensive wars we have done are actually the recovery of lost land. Of course, such military operations can also be largely reduced to self-defense and defense, which is not considered aggression.
In fact, according to ancient times, some wars between the Han nationality and ethnic minorities were counted as aggression and resistance. However, due to the later formation of our Chinese nation, the differences between the various nationalities were very small, and the various nationalities also became different nationalities in a country, so these wars between the two countries in the eyes of the ancients were only part of the conflict in the integration of our nationalities.
The most typical, such as the spring and autumn war, the territory of the Zhou royal family was actually very small, and the races called on all four sides at that time were the Northern Di Nan Barbarians, Eastern Yi Xi Rong, which were incompatible with the Huaxia in the central region. However, with the passage of time, powerful countries have emerged on all four sides of the southeast, south, and northwest, and there have been constant conflicts between various countries, which has led to the great integration of the Huaxia ethnic group, but at that time, this kind of war was definitely a war between countries.
In addition, at that time, in addition to the change of dynasties replaced by the Han nationality, the rest of the dynastic changes could also be regarded as wars between countries. For example, the Mongols overthrew the Song Dynasty to establish the Yuan Dynasty, such as Zhu Yuanzhang overthrew the Yuan Dynasty to establish the Ming Dynasty, and then the Manchus entered the Customs to replace the Han Ming Dynasty. During the Kangxi Dynasty, the war between Zungar and the Manchu Qing dynasty was of course counted as a war between countries, of course, everything was judged by the historical view of the time.
In addition, there are many countries that have invaded other countries or been invaded have disappeared in the long river of history, such as the Han Dynasty and the Tang Dynasty, which have frantically attacked foreign tribes, but let's take a look at which tribes or countries they attacked: Indochina Peninsula, Loulan, Turks, Goguryeo, etc., these countries have long ceased to exist. In the present view, the country is gone, and there is no talk of aggression or being invaded.
Finally, the ancient sense of empire was very strong, and the emperors of all the dynasties in China basically had the idea of the heavenly dynasty and the kingdom, and under the support of such ideas, China's territory continued to expand until the Qing Dynasty reached its peak (the effective territory of the Yuan Dynasty was not large, not in our consideration).
We have also conquered a lot of territory, but when we do, it will become our own territory, rather than a colony like the invasion of the West.
Such differences are not limited to ideological differences, but are embodied in political, economic and other aspects. Think of it as our subjects and our land, and if a nation has been subservient to another nation for more than a hundred years, the nation will rarely rebel and form a sense of belonging.
For example, when the Manchus first came to power, many Han officials could not accept such a change, but with the reuse of Han ministers and the continuous Sinicization of the Manchu qing nobility, the Han people soon formed their own sense of belonging. Under this sense of belonging, it is difficult for anyone to think that the Manchu invasion was an invasion, but rather a simple change of dynasty.