「中國崛起」是當今舉世矚目的時代主題。崛起的中國究竟會如何行事？是否會對武力使用自我克制？中國是否是獨特的，以致於無法以一般通用的理論來理解，而非得進入中國的歷史文化脈絡之中？一方面來說，中國的確是獨特的，中國是史上唯一一個反覆處於唯一超強地位的政治單元。強大的中國穩固地居於權力位階的頂端，允許了一種不同於多強並列而彼此競爭的對外行為模式，與今天美國霸權及其所標榜的「軟權力」其實是異曲同工。易言之，中國並非是獨特的，獨特的只是中國所處在的情境，當其他政治單元也處在這樣類似的情境中，也會產生類似的表現。中國的獨特性，其實是另一種通則的典型。然而，若依循此一邏輯，中國的強大與「軟權力」的施展應有高度的相關，中國強大時光的對外行為模式，也應該要有高度的一致性，但仔細檢視中國各朝代之間的差異，卻會發現實情並非是如此。這於是將研究的焦點導向中國不同朝代的文化特殊性。本研究嘗試比較唐朝、元朝、與清朝對外行為模式的異同，並集中以清朝為案例，探查特定文化對中國對外行為的影響。 The “rise of China” is the major theme of this era. How exactly will China behave after its rise? Will China itself restraint its use of force? Is China so unique that it can not be explained by general theories? Do we have no choice but entering into China's historical and cultural context? On the one hand, China is indeed unique because China is the only superpower recurrently rebuild its hegemony. A powerful China standing firmly at the top of the power hierarchy allows a different pattern of behavior from those Western great powers competing with each other in a multipolar world. This pattern is exactly the “soft power” proclaimed by the US today. In another word, what is unique is not China but China's position. When other political unit has a similar position, it will behave similarly. China's uniqueness is in fact another generalization. However, if this is the truth, the strength of China and China's adoption of “soft power” should have a high degree of correlation, which is not the case. Thus, cultural specificity of different Chinese dynasties becomes the focus. This study attempts to compare the behavioral patterns of the three strongest Chinese dynasties, Tang, Yuan, and Qing, and conduct in depth case study of Qing Dynasty to verify the influence of specific culture on China's foreign behavior.
