Sunwu Thought On Diplomacy

According to the traditional understanding of the history of ancient Chinese thought, ancient Chinese diplomatic thought has hardly gained scholars'attention and systematic work absorbed in the academic documents is still scarce. In fact, in a separatist historical period, diplomatic thinking, as an auxiliary means of state strategy, is usually critical to a regime and even determines the course of historical development in a sense. During the Three Kingdoms Period (about 220– 265), the Suns still had run a state power lasting more than seventy years in an extremely turbulent situation with equitable diplomatic strategies. Thus, the Suns'diplomatic strategies are quite worthy of further studies.The"diplomatic thought"discussed in the thesis is basically focused on the period from the establishment of the Suns'power till its eventual unifying the country. During the development and strengthening of the Suns'political power, the state instruments had established diplomatic relations successively with other political powers represented by Yuan Shao, Cao Cao, Cao Pi, Liu Bei and Liu Chan, with more than thirty other diplomatic figures involved. The diplomatic devices are diversified and the diplomatic relations are also complicated. This thesis offers a new historical perspective to understand and study the characteristics of the certain historical period.The structure of the thesis is as follows. There are five chapters, containing about 30,000 words. Chapter one is the introduction. It first introduces the researching background and generalizes previous academic studies. Then it gives out the researching method, thinking course and relevant academic scopes of the thesis. Finally, it expands the academic meaning and value of the thesis.Chapter two centers on the Suns'diplomatic strategy of setting foothold during its establishment of power. Firstly the chapter introduces the Suns'major diplomatic activities of this period and then analyzes three internal problems affecting its diplomatic strategy– the problem of Local Villains, the problem of Shan Yue (non-Han nationalities) and the problem of Guests (keeping on talented persons from the North China). Finally it concludes and comments on the Suns'diplomatic thinking, means and targets based on the above analysis.Chapter three focuses on the Suns'diplomatic strategy of keeping balance of power when fighting in Chibi (located in Hubei Province, China now). Wu (222-280)'s internal conflicts were brought under rough control after Sun Quan succeeded Sun Ce (his elder brother) as the king. Meanwhile Cao Cao had already unified Central Plains (comprising the middle and lower reaches of the Huanghe River) and coveted Jiangnan aera (Hunan Province now). Therefore, it was a necessity for Sun Quan and Liu Bei to form an alliance to resist Cao Cao. With Sun-Liu's alliance in the War of Chibi as the beginning, Sun Quan concentrated his efforts on establishing a good relationship with Liu Bei and lent Jingzhou to him in order to stabilize Sun-Liu Alliance. However, with the change of Sun's and Liu's strength, Sun Quan lauched two wars in Jingzhou and Yiling. Afer that, Sun-Liu Alliance had always been stabilized with Sun Quan as the lead of their alliance. During this stage, Sun Quan put diplomatic emphasis on establishing Sun-Liu Alliance to keep a relative balance of power with Cao Cao. It is quite worthy of paying attention to the traits and function of Sun Quan's strategy of keeping balance of power.Chapter four analyzes Sun's diplomatic strategy of extending territory. After the founding of the Three Kingdoms– Wei (220-265), Shu Han (221-263), and Wu (222-280), Sun Quan no longer had to worry about"establishing"his state power. Now he could concentrate his efforts on unifying China by way of establishing the line of defense along the Changjiang River and keeping a good relationship with Liu Bei.Chapter five is a conclusive section which gives a general comment on the Suns'diplomatic strategies of three different stages explored in the previous chapters.