After the Industrial Revolution, Europe dominated the world and was the first to form a nation-state, and until today, Europe is a pivotal pole in the world. Among the permanent members of the UN Security Council, Europe has 2 seats (United Kingdom, France). In the G7, Europe holds four places (UK, France, Germany, Italy). So it's interesting to draw an analogy between Europe and China.
However, there has always been a misunderstanding of analogy, that is, to make simple and mechanical analogies. For example, the figure below.
To make a simple analogy, let's say that China's southwest region is like Spain, northern China is like Germany, northwest China is like France, etc., completely ignoring the geographical differences between China and Europe, for example, China is high in the west and low in the east, and rivers generally flow east. Europe is bounded by the Alps, while Western Europe is low in the west and high in the east, with rivers flowing westward. This is the complete opposite.
In addition, there are many peninsulas in Europe and their geographical fragmentation, which is why it has been difficult to unify Europe since ancient times.
So such an analogy is complete nonsense and does not make the slightest sense.
I think that since European geography is almost the opposite of China, it is better to reverse the map of China, and here I choose the regional map of China to facilitate the discussion below.
This is a map of China, divided into seven regions, namely Northeast, North, East, Central, South, Southwest, and Northwest.
We rotated the map 180 ° and it became like this, forgive me for desecrating the Chinese map.
If you do this, you can make an analogy, and the analogy between this map and the map of Europe is more illustrative.
1
Much like Spain and Portugal, the northeast has long been outside mainstream European history, but there have been periods of relatively strong force, Spain and Portugal colonized the world in the Age of Discovery, and the northeast gave birth to the Later Jin Kingdom and the Qing Dynasty, and finally entered the Central Plains and unified China.
The Qing Empire and the Spanish Empire
2
East China + North China is very similar to France, Belgium, and the Netherlands, where Beijing, China's main political center, and Shanghai, the economic center, have always been known as the Paris of the East. Brussels, the capital of Belgium, is the political center of the European Union. France has the Breton Peninsula, and North China also has the Shandong Peninsula, both have a peninsula. Meanwhile, eastern China, especially northern Jiangsu, has the largest wetland mudflats in China, as does the Netherlands.
Shanghai and Paris
Shandong Peninsula and Brittany Peninsula in France
East China Beach and the Netherlands
3
South China + Central China is very similar to Germany and Denmark, with the Leizhou Peninsula in South China and Jutland Peninsula in northern Germany. Germany is Europe's economic center of gravity and the engine of Europe's economy. Guangdong in southern China, especially Shenzhen, is China's current economic engine. Historically, some people have referred to Hunan as the "Prussia of China", which is quite similar.
The Rhine is almost the boundary between Germany and France, and the Yangtze River is also the main river in South and East China, so it is also quite similar.
Shenzhen and Frankfurt
Yangtze and Rhine
4
Shaanxi in the northwest and regions such as Gansu and Ningxia are very similar to Italy. The narrow landscape of Gansu is very similar to Italy. Xi'an, Shaanxi and Rome, Italy are one of the four ancient capitals of the world, and they are also the birthplace of Chinese and Western civilizations, and there are Qin-Han Empires and Roman Empires standing east and west at the same time, which can be said to be quite similar.
Gansu and Italy
Xi'an and Rome
5
The southwest region is very similar to Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and even Austria in Eastern Europe. The scenery here is beautiful, the same as Eastern Europe, and Yunnan is very similar to Switzerland, are mountainous places, and tourism is developed, ravines and mountains have led to a rich national culture, Yunnan has more than 30 unique ethnic minorities, Switzerland also retains the French, German, Italian, and even Romansh areas, the speakers of this language live in the mountains, using the language handed down by the Roman Empire thousands of years ago, it can be said that only surrounded by mountains, there are such living fossils.
Yunnan and Switzerland
Sichuan and Poland
6
Tibet, Qinghai and Xinjiang are much like Russia, sparsely populated, but the lifeblood and water towers of China. The importance is self-evident.
Tibet and Russia
7
So, as China's neighbor for millennia, which country is the equivalent of the Korean Peninsula?
If you can see from this picture, the Korean Peninsula is a lot like the British position in Europe.
It has been circled in the picture, and for Chinese, Japan + South Korea is more like the United Kingdom + Ireland. Japan, as an island country next to China, has played more of a role as a continental spoiler, similar to the role of the United Kingdom as a spoiler on the European continent, and the three Nordic countries are also similar to Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia in the Indochina Peninsula.
According to the famous British historian Mackinder's theory of land power, he pointed out that whoever rules Eastern Europe controls the heartland; Whoever rules the heartland controls the world island; Whoever rules the world island controls the whole world. Eastern Europe here refers to the vast area including the European part of Russia, and the Tibetan region also belongs to the category of Inner Asia that has been hot recently, and land power and Inner Asia overlap here.
This is just my family's words, but since everyone has accepted this setting, it is better to have a more interesting one.
China's Seven Kingdoms Era, Three Kingdoms Era, Southern and Northern Dynasties Era, Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Era, Song and Jin Era, etc., if compared with Europe, what kind of country is it equivalent to?
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First of all, during the Warring States Seven Heroes period, Qin annihilated the Six Kingdoms, and we also rotated the map by 180°.
If the State of Qin was the Italian part of the Roman Empire, then the State of Yan was the Spanish Province, the State of Chu was the Gallic Province, and the Three Jin Dynasties, Han, Zhao, and Wei were all Germania.
Then, the Qin and Han Empire is very similar to the Roman Empire, and the Western Regions and other regions opened up by Emperor Wudi of Han are Asia Minor and other regions.
9
The Three Kingdoms era is also very similar to the Three Kingdoms era of the Roman Empire. Also reverse the map of the Three Kingdoms.
Compared to the Three Kingdoms era of the Roman Empire, it does not seem to be so similar.
If compared with the Three Kingdoms era divided by Charlemagne's empire, it is very similar.
The state of Wu resembled France, the Shu Han very much like Germany, and the central region and formed Italy resembled Cao Wei. Both Cao Wei and Italy insisted on their orthodoxy, while both the Shu Han and the Germans challenged orthodoxy.
10
So, the era of the Sixteen Kingdoms, how to draw an analogy?
In the era of the Sixteen Kingdoms, there were many countries, and there were different countries in different periods, there were east-west confrontations between Former Zhao, East-West confrontations between Former Qin and Former Yan, and here the Northern Wei and Xia Kingdoms periods were chosen. Also upside down.
The analogy is interesting, the Roman Empire is very similar to the Eastern Jin Dynasty, which is only half of the country.
Just like the Great Migration of Peoples, Northern Wei resembled the Franks, Later Qin like the Saxons, Daxia like the Burgundians, Northern Liang like the Alemannis, and Southern Liang like the Thuringians. It can be said that Central Europe during the same period was a period of great ethnic migration.
11
So, what about the Northern Wei Dynasty that finally unified the North, the Southern and Northern Dynasties?
It can be seen that Southern Liang resembled the Eastern Roman Empire, while Northern Wei resembled the Frankish Empire.
Northern Qi was very similar to the Western Frankish kingdom, and Northern Zhou was very similar to the Eastern Frankish kingdom, and eventually Northern Zhou unified the north, although it made a wedding dress for the Sui dynasty. The East Frankish Kingdom as the main body also formed the only orthodox empire in the European Middle Ages, the Holy Roman Empire.
12
The Tang Dynasty and the Holy Roman Empire were both the largest countries in Central Europe at the time.
The Tang Dynasty is much larger than the Holy Roman Empire, which is equal to the Holy Roman Empire plus the Byzantine Empire at that time, and it can be compared with the Tang Dynasty.
It can be seen that the Holy Roman Empire, plus the Byzantine Empire, plus the Seljuk Empire, may be comparable to the Tang Dynasty, not to mention the Spanish region occupied by the Arab Empire.
However, the scale of peasant uprisings in ancient China was also ahead of its time.
For example, the Green Forest Chimei Uprising, the Yellow Nest Uprising, etc., the former is equivalent to fighting from France to Italy, and the latter is equivalent to fighting from France to Germany, and the scale is unprecedented.
Green Forest Chimei Uprising
Yellow Turban Uprising
Peasant uprising at the end of the Sui Dynasty
Yellow Nest Uprising
Peasant uprising at the end of the Yuan
Peasant uprising at the end of the Ming Dynasty
Taiping Rebellion
A map analogy for Europe, equal to the area within a circle
For example, Li Zicheng's peasant uprising is equivalent to a peasant uprising throughout France and Germany, and these peasant uprisings are basically equal to the area within the circle if on the map of Europe. Compared with such a large-scale peasant uprising, the peasant uprising such as Minzel in Germany was too small.
13
However, no matter how strong the Tang Dynasty was, the late Tang Dynasty also shrank greatly, and after the collapse, it formed five generations and ten countries, and the five generations and ten countries can be compared with Europe.
There are quite a few small countries here, and it seems that an analogy can be drawn.
The Northern Han Dynasty is similar to Switzerland, which relied on the advantages of the mountains and rivers in Shanxi to resist the attacks of the Central Plains many times, and Switzerland also relied on the Alps to defeat the attacks of the Holy Roman Empire and gained independence as early as the 13th century.
The Central Plains of the Five Dynasties is very similar to Austria, although it is the main body of imperial power, but it has always been relatively limited, and the Holy Roman Empire is also a loose country, not sacred, nor Roman, nor imperial.
Houshu was very similar to the Kingdom of Bavaria, surrounded by mountains, but Houshu Mengchang failed to stop the Song army, and Bavaria also built Neuschwanstein Castle in the course of peace, but lost its hegemony, and became a Prussian fiefdom after the Austro-Prussian War.
The Southern Tang is very similar to the Kingdom of Hanover, and has always regarded itself as orthodox, but the lord of the Southern Tang Kingdom changed his surname from Xu, and Hanover was only a king in England, in fact, it was not orthodox, and it was eventually destroyed.
As for small countries such as Wuyue and Minguo, they are very similar to small countries such as Baden and Württemberg, although rich, they do not have much strength.
If this analogy is made, Southern Chu should be similar to Prussia, and Yang Du's "Hunan Youth Song" compares Hunan to Prussia, saying that if the Chinese nation dies, unless the Hunan people die. If such an analogy is made, the unification of Germany by Prussia should be similar to the Southern Chu and Northern Expedition, the unification of China.
14
The Song Dynasty had a long confrontation with the Liao, Western Xia and Jin States, and compared it with Europe at that time, what was the situation?
Let's first look at the Northern Song Dynasty, which confronted the Liao State and Western Xia during the Northern Song Dynasty. As an orthodoxy, the Northern Song Dynasty was much like the only orthodox Holy Roman Empire in Europe at that time.
The vast Liao Dynasty, then, was much like the Eastern Roman Empire. The Eastern Roman Empire claimed to have inherited the orthodoxy of the Roman Empire, and if the Liao State claimed to have inherited the aspirations of the Tang Dynasty, but lived outside Serbia, it was no longer orthodox.
Western Xia is very similar to the Magyars in Hungary, with strong force and a pestle in the middle.
15
So, what about the Southern Song Dynasty, which is half of the country?
We chose the Southern Song Dynasty, when the kingdoms were coexisted, and at this time there were also the Jin Kingdom and the Western Xia. Western Liao, formed after the fall of the Liao state, and the rising Mongols.
It can be seen that if the Southern Song Dynasty is very similar to the Holy Roman Empire, it prides itself on being orthodox. The Kingdom of Jin, then, was the Arabs who attacked and looked at the Arabs, who at that time still occupied the Spanish peninsula.
Much like the Kingdom of Hungary, the early Hungarians came as nomads and were destroyers of Europe, but after accepting Christianity, they became the guardians of Europe's eastern gate.
Western Liao is very similar to the surviving Byzantine Empire, all of which were countries formed after the collapse of the Great Empire, but Byzantium is almost invisible in the picture, and even once established by the crusaders of the Eastern Crusades What Latin Empire is a great shame.
Dali is very similar to Poland, and Poland has always been an outlier in Europe, but in addition to Buddhism, Dali has gradually been influenced by Confucianism. Poland was eventually accepted as Catholic.
As for Mongolia, like Russia at this time, rising and the future will shock the continent.
16
The vastness of the Yuan Dynasty was almost nothing comparable in Europe, similar to the unification of Europe and occupying large swathes of territory in West Asia and North Africa. At that time, Europe was divided, and the so-called Holy Roman Empire could not maintain even a superficial unity. And the Mongol Empire also had contact with Europe during this period, the Battle of Ligniz, the Mongols and Poland fought a war, of course, Mongolia was temporarily blocked, soon Meng Ge Khan died, and the Mongols withdrew their troops.
17
Compared with the Yuan Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty, which is a little smaller, will be like what country in Europe?
During the Ming Dynasty, China was unified, but Europe was not, and the Ming Dynasty was probably similar to the Holy Roman Empire, the Kingdom of France, the Kingdom of Spain, the Kingdom of Hungary, the Kingdom of Sweden, etc. united into one country, and this could not be achieved.
As for the Northern Yuan, which still existed during the Ming Dynasty, much like the Ottoman Empire, it repeatedly invaded, and the Northern Yuan had the Battle of Tumu Fort, as well as the Gengxi Change during the Jiajing period, and Tatar invaded Beijing again. The Ottoman Empire also came to Vienna, but it was eventually resolved.
As for the Russian tsarate, it can no longer be ignored.
If we take out the situation map of the late Yuan and early Ming dynasties, it is quite interesting.
The forces of the late Yuan and early Ming dynasties, including Zhu Yuanzhang, Chen Youcheng, Zhang Shicheng, etc., were very similar to European countries. Also upside down.
By analogy, it can be seen that Zhang Shicheng's territory is similar to the Netherlands and Belgium and other lowland regions, Zhu Yuanzhang is similar to France, Chen Youcheng is similar to Germany, Ming Yuzhen is similar to Austria, and the remaining territory of the Yuan Dynasty is very similar to Spain, Italy and other places. Zhu Yuanzhang's Northern Expedition unified China similar to France's unification of Europe, a bit like the feeling of Napoleon's conquest of Europe.
18
This is especially true of the Qing Dynasty, which resembles the whole of Europe, plus the regions of the Ottoman Empire have been unified into one country, even during the Nazi period.
And if you start from the Houjin Kingdom, the expansion speed of the Qing Dynasty is very amazing.
By the time the Qing Dynasty was established, it was already such a territory.
When the Ming Dynasty fell, the Qing Dynasty was at odds with Dashun and Southern Ming.
And half a century later, the Qing Dynasty was already so big.
The Later Jin and Qing dynasties eventually unified China, similar to Spain that eventually unified Europe, including Russia. It's still a bit difficult.
Finally, we turned the picture back and went back to reality.
Compiled, our China-Europe map analogy is over, of course, this is just entertainment, do not have to be taken seriously.
But this analogy tells us one thing: China has been unified since ancient times, unity is engraved in the genes of Chinese culture, all divided chaotic times, China must be weak, any unified era, must be strong, today we are glad that we have unity.