China's History: Warfare, Violence, Aggression

China was born around 2000 BC - about 1000 years after India. China's history is similar to India's: many kingdoms fighting many wars with one another. But that is where the similarity stops. The nature of the warfare was completely different in each case.

In India, the armies of the two warring kingdoms would meet at the battlefield and start fighting at sunrise. At sunset, they would stop and evaluate the situation. The army which fared better was declared the winner. Then the losing king would acknowledge the winning king as his overlord - and pay him a tribute every year. Thus it was limited warfare.

In China, the war would be a fight to the finish. The winning king would kill the losing king - even if he surrendered. The winning army would kill the entire losing army - even if they surrendered. Then the winning army would march to the capital of the losing kingdom - and kill every man, woman and child in the city. Thus it was total warfare. And this went on for 4000 years.

Therefore China's history is the most violent and blood-drenched history in the world. And 4000 years of bloody warfare have made the Chinese a very violent and aggressive people. In 1949, the Chinese Communist Party made the country a completely unified state for the first time in its history. As a result, all those inter-kingdom wars came to a stop. But a national character that has developed over 4000 years cannot change overnight. So where will all that violence and aggression go? Simple: outside. That is - the violence and aggression that went into internal wars for 4000 years is now going into the outside world.

Reference: History Of China - John Keay (2008)