Zhangwo: Difference between revisions

'''Zhangwo''' or Mastery of the Material is the guiding national ethos of the [[Daxian people]] and their [[Republic of Daxia|State]]. It is a belief in the superior cultural, moral and racial worth of Daxian people and their special place in the history of not just [[Alshar]] but the world. The term Zhangwo was coined in 680 by the First Minister and philosopher Heian Xiujian in a treatise describing the foreign policies of the Yang dynasty and his justifications of external conquest by claiming the material world as the divinely granted inheritance of the Daxian race. Later intellectuals sponsored by various dynasties would further expound on notions of racial and cultural superiority veering on arrogance and xenophobia, ideas that further seeped into the public consciousness upon contact and conflict with non Daxian polities such as the expansionist Muslim caliphates, nomads from the northern plains and western explorers. In the modern era the [[Party of Daxian Democrats]] has appropiated the concept of Zhangwo and mutated it to serve its own geopolitical ends, using it to justify national involvement in the Deluge as a paramount national effort to neuter hostile and inferior peoples and aggrandize [[Daxia]] at their expense, a vital step on the road to fulfilling the nation's destiny of world conquest.

==Etymology==

WIP

==Development==

The original use of the term Zhangwo come from the treatise ''Considerations of Yang Imperial Expansion'' written in the year 680 by Heian Xiujian, First Minister of the Yang court. Written as a rebuttal to criticism of the aggressive foreign policy posture of the early Yang by the philospher Mei Guan, the original text defended Yang expansion as a divinely ordained rearranging of the world. Mei Guan was executed by burning as a result of his continued opposition to Heian Xiujian. Destructive invasions by the nomads from the Degei confederation over several decades served to ingrain feelings of xenophobia in the average peasant, reinforcing the idea that the foreign was to be opposed and crushed at every available opportunity. ''Considerations of Yang Imperial Expansion'' was used and adapted by the dynasties that succeeded Yang with changes over time such as emphasizing the role of the Emperor in guiding the nation's effort at 'reclaiming' the birthright of the [[Daxian people]]. The ritual humilliation of foreign dignataries and the extraction of tribute from neighboring polities was initiated by the succesors of Yang, the Chen dynasty who defeated a reformed Degei confederation but instead of simply allowing them to lick their wounds in the northern plains, forced them into a tributary relation. The amount of tribute demanded was so exacting that invariably all attempts at lifting their vassalage status by force was crushed by Imperial forces.