Why didn't China conquer the ancient world? For most of the last 5000 years they were the most advanced culture, but they never reached further than Japan or India.

为什么中国没有征服古代世界？在过去5000年的大部分时间里，中国一直是全世界最先进的文化，但他们从未将国界线越过日本或印度之外的地区。

以下是Quora网友的评论：

Nguyễn Đình Quý

China was not the most advanced culture. And 5000 years is true only when you count the separate cities in 3000 BC. Those cities are not united, so no expansions achievable.

By 2000 BC China first started as a united civilization under a confederacy of chiefdoms later known as “the ia dynasty”. However, archaeology shows that from this time to 1600 BC, China was very small:

中国并不是最先进的文化。只有把公元前3000年零星出现的城市一起算进去，才有5000年的历史。这些城市并没有统一，所以无法实现对外扩张。

到公元前2000年，中国第一次成为一个统一的文明，被称为“夏朝”。但考古学表明，这个时期到公元前1600年的中国，国土面积非常小：

And this confederacy still retained its tribal nature. Conflicts happened for sure between the tribes. And technology was still too primitive for expansions. It didn’t have any strong leaders to command. Also, I think because they were residing in the most fertile land they’d ever seen, there was no need to conquer somewhere else.

By 1600 BC, the purported ia evolved to the first strong government ruling a country: the Shang dynasty.

这个联邦仍然保留着它的部落性质。部落之间必然会发生冲突。而且当时的科学技术对于领土扩张来说还是太落后了。也没有强有力的领导人可以统一指挥。此外，我觉得他们一直居住在他们所见过的最肥沃的土地上，所以没有必要再去征服别的地方。

到公元前1600年，夏朝被第一个有能力统治国家的强大政府商朝取代。

But the Shang was not aggressive. Instead, they were religious and spent most of their time worship their gods. The most aggressive Shang king was Wu Ding, who reigned from 1250 to 1197 BC. This can be seen because we have Shang oracle bones which contain the texts directly written by Wu Ding about wars. But again, he was religious and made a lot of sacrifices, so likely his military campaigns were to obtain materials for sacrifice and to set up more temples.

Wu’s campaigns did not go anywhere near other ancient civilizations, because simply even the nearest one was 4000 miles away. With the Shang technology, going such a distance is impossible.

但商朝并不好战。相反，他们十分虔诚，花费很多时间崇拜他们的神。最有野心的商朝国王是公元前1250年至公元前1197年在位的武丁。因为我们发掘出了商代甲骨文，其中就记载了武丁本人书写的关于战争的文字。但武丁也是一个虔诚的人，准备了丰富的供品，所以他的军事行动很可能是为了获得祭祀所需的供品并建立更多的寺庙。

武丁的征战没有逼近其他文明古国，因为最近的文明古国也隔着4000英里的距离。在商代的科技水平下，军队是不可能跋涉这么远的距离的。

After the Shang, we got the Zhou dynasty which thought China was the center of the world. So basically they held in mind that they’d already had the best land and they’d better solve their own problems than to conquer other people.

By the time China became a true militaristic empire in 221 BC, it still thought that it was the Earth’s center, and it didn’t know anything about any other civilizations. When they learned about Greece and, later, Rome, they sent envoys there but returned because those lands were hell to far away. India was not attractive, all it did was transport Buddhism and knowledge into China.

在商朝之后，是把中国视为世界中心的周朝。周朝认为自己已经拥有了全世界最好的土地，他们解决好自己国内的事务就行了，不需要征服别人。

中国在公元前221年成为一个真正的军事帝国时，依然认为自己是地球的中心，对其他文明一无所知。当他们了解到希腊以及后来的罗马时，他们曾派出使者，但又回来了，因为那些地方对他们来说就是地狱。印度对中国而言没有吸引力，他们只把佛教和知识传入中国。

Later Han Chinese dynasties, other than the Tang which expanded to the Caspian Sea, were not interested in expanding because even within China alone they still had seriously formidable enemies. The Yuan and Qing dynasties do not count, since they were respectively Mongol and Manchu, two aggressive people who fought all the time.

在后来的几个汉人朝代中，除了曾经将领土扩张到里海的唐朝，都对扩张不感兴趣。因为他们在中国境内也面临着难以对付的敌人。元朝和清朝是例外，因为他们是蒙古和满族人建立的朝代，这是两个好斗的民族，征战不断。

SniperSd Sid

(China) china is modern name , Asia (conquer) the ancient world? they went to Africa and Europe !

It all go’s on what you think and told really !

中国是现代的国家名，亚洲(征服)古代世界？中国连非洲和欧洲都去过了好么！

一切都看你自己怎么想，看别人怎么跟你说了！

Is China an Egyptian colony or is Egypt an Asian colony ??

Anatolia, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey

中国是埃及的殖民地？埃及是亚洲的殖民地？

安纳托利亚，又称小亚细亚，是亚洲西部的一个大半岛，也是亚洲大陆最西端的突出部分。它构成了现代土耳其的主要领土。

Li in

It's not easy to occupy a place. the people need to trust and admit the government,or they will try to fight.You know the Japan and India have the culture and military in the ancient,which is the first things that it’s not easy to conquer.And their is plenty of mountains between India and China,ocean between japan and China,so it need a large effort to move military. In the past China tried to invade Japan,but failed.

攻占别人的领地并非易事。人民必须信任和承认这个政府，否则他们会反抗斗争的。你知道日本和印度自古就有文化和军队，这是阻挡其他国家入侵的首要条件。印度和中国之间横亘着许多山脉，日本和中国之间隔着广阔的海洋，所以调遣军队非常困难。历史上中国曾经试图入侵日本，但最终失败了。

Edmund Shen

China prefers a tribute system which other states acknowledged it and establish relations. The tribute is usually a token and the benefits are great.

That is why when the European invade Asean, they found literally dozens of countries.

中国更喜欢朝贡制度，让其他国家承认中国并建立关系。贡品通常都只是象征性的，但可以换来极大的好处。

这就是为什么当欧洲入侵亚洲时，他们发现亚洲居然存在着几十个国家。

Qi Chen

Ancient empires has a limit of expansion decide by their transportation and communication technology. This is why great empires such as Roman or Chinese all have aggressive road building projects.

Many of the remote area is simply too far for the government to administrate. This limit is only reduced (but not removed completely) with the invention of radio and railroad.

古代帝国的扩张是有局限性的，这是由交通和通讯技术决定的。这就是罗马或中国等伟大帝国都积极修建道路的原因。

许多偏远地区对政府来说太遥远了，鞭长莫及。随着无线电和铁路的发明，这种限制才有所减少(但也没有完全根除)。

Chinese, like many empires, has a set of core territories (the central plateaus between Yellow River and Long River), a set of outer administrative regions (such as injiang, Tib, Guangx, Northeast China, Mongolia, etc) and finally vassal/tributary state such as Korea and Vietnam.

和许多帝国一样，中国有一些核心领土(黄河和长江之间的中央高原)，一些外围的行政区域(如新疆、xz、广西、东北、蒙古等)，最后是附庸国/朝贡国，如朝鲜和越南。

In Japan’s case, it was a tributary state in its early history. The issue is that the Sea of Japan is much more volatile than Mediterranean. So China never had any close control over Japanese islands.

In India’s case, the Himalayan mountain range is tough to cross even in 21st century, let alone in the ancient times.

以日本为例，在历史早期日本曾是中国的朝贡国。但日本海比地中海更不稳定。所以中国从未对日本岛屿进行过任何严密管控。

以印度为例，即便在21世纪，喜马拉雅山脉也是难以跨越的天堑，更不用说古代了。

In Northern case, the cold tundra and desert of the Siberia is harsh even for the likes of USSR.

In Southeast, the heavy rainfall soil is low in crop yield and prone to disease. However, it was easier to access than the other I mentioned, hence why ancient Chinese has a lot more influence on this region.

北方的西伯利亚，只有酷寒的苔原和沙漠，就连苏联等国家也觉得环境太过恶劣。

东南多雨，土壤的肥力不足，作物产量低，易患病。但比起北方，东南地区更容易得手，所以古代中国对这一地区的影响要大得多。

Jo Fo

Unfortunately, for every Chinese emperor and general who wanted to see what was over the next horizon or across the ocean, there were nine emperors who cared for nothing else except for the affairs of state, any raiders on the borders, and scheme and plan against those who plotted to take over the Middle Kingdom.

This attitude was maddening to the Brits who grew tired of their failures in enticing the Chinese royalty to accept other forms of payment instead of silver and gold for trade for Chinese goods. China often had the attitude that everything that was needed was already there in the Center of the World.

每一位中国皇帝和将军都想了解地平线的另一面或大海的另一端是什么样儿的，但有九位皇帝除了关心国家事务，关心边境入侵者，关心企图篡夺中央王国的阴谋之外，对其他一切概不关心。

这种态度惹恼了英国人，他们因为没能诱使中国皇室接受除了用黄金和白银来交易中国商品之外的其他付款形式而不满。中国长期秉持这样的态度，认为他们作为世界的中心，已经拥有一切需要的东西了。

Unfortunately, in my opinion, China did not acknowledge and address the weaknesses in its military that was clearly exposed in the First Opium War. China did not move to modernize its war capacities and capabilities as Japan did after the USA forced Japan to open itself up to western trade. If China had moved forward with resolve and urgency to modernize its weaponry, equipment, and tactics, China likely would have avoided the Second Opium War as well as forced Britain to avoid any further conflicts.

In addition, if China had seriously undertook this modernization of its military, weapons, equipment, and tactics, then Japan would have been deterred from its invasion of China which would have prevented Japan from committing the many atrocities and annihilations Japan did cruelly enacted on China and the Asian world.

不幸的是，在我看来，中国并不承认、也并未解决在第一次鸦片战争中暴露出来的军事弱点。在美国迫使日本向西方开放贸易后，中国没有像日本那样对作战能力和军事力量进行现代化升级。如果中国有推动武器、装备和战术现代化升级的决心和紧迫感，中国极有可能避免第二次鸦片战争，迫使英国放弃进一步的挑衅。

另外，如果中国认真地推动军事、武器、装备和战术的现代化升级，那么也能阻止日本对中国的侵略行为，进而避免日本对中国和亚洲世界实施的众多暴行。

David Farnsworth

I can give another possible answer.

China was the Middle Kingdom, the center of the Earth. Why bother conquering the rest of it when all the most important parts were under its control, and the Near Beyond (Korea, Japan, Vietnam, India, Samarkand, etc.) all did obeisance through embassies, etc.

When the Dutch and the British showed up in the 17th and 18th centuries, China just assumed that they were like all the rest of the Near Beyond.

我可以说说另一个可能的答案。

中国曾经是“中央王国”，是地球的中心。既然中国已控制了最重要的土地，周边的(韩国、日本、越南、印度、撒马尔罕等)都派出大使馆向中国表示臣服，中国为什么还要费力征讨其他地方呢？

荷兰和英国在17和18世纪创立之初，中国只把他们当成和附近的其他国家一样。

Eddie Cho

Because China was normal.

They are not crazy as warcrime countries like a Japan.

However the warcrime countries attacked China and the other countries and change them to a monster.

因为中国是正人君子。

他们不像日本这种战犯国家那么疯狂。

但战犯国家侵略中国和其他国家，让这些国家陷入灾难。

Wayne Rutledge

Why didn't China conquer the ancient world? For most of the last 5000 years they were the most advanced culture, but they never reached further than Japan or India.

Geography, logistics and resources.

China the Middle Kingdom has excellent food resources communications and labor. Moving armies to far away regions was both difficult, expensive and returned much less than was used to do so.

为什么中国没有征服古代世界？在过去5000年的大部分时间里，中国一直是全世界最先进的文化，但他们从未将国界线越过日本或印度之外的地区。

因为地理位置、物流运输和资源等原因。

中国拥有丰富的粮食资源和劳动力。将军队调遣到遥远的地区既困难又昂贵，而且能顺利回到中国的兵力也会大幅减少。

To the south China faced mountainous jungle, heat and disease, to the east the great ocean, and small islands, north desert and vast forests plus hard winters and to the west desert and little water.

From central china it is 4,500 km or 2,500 miles to say Samarkand. It would take - not taking terrain, enemy resistance and weather into effect about three months to march there, etc. Now China did go west but could hold those areas only intermittently.

中国南面是多山的丛林、酷热和疾病，东面是大洋和众多小岛，北面是沙漠和广阔的森林，加上严冬，西面是沙漠和缺水。

从中国中部到撒马尔罕有4500公里（2500英里）。在不考虑地形、敌人的抵抗和天气的情况下，需要行军大约三个月才能到达当地。现在，中国确实向西面挺进，但也只能断断续续地控制这些地区。

Avun Jahei

In the Ming dynasty they had the best ships. When there ever was a time when China could have conquered the world it was that time. But then an emperor ordered the fleet to be abolished, I think he was afraid destabilizing China by bringing outside influence into the country. They literally burnt their own ships.

明朝时，中国有最先进的船只。如果中国曾经可以征服世界，就只能是那个时代了。但后来一位皇帝下令废除舰队，我猜他是担心外来势力会破坏中国社会的稳定。他们烧毁了自己的船只。