Acknowledgement

Note on Earlier Versions

List of Figures

Introduction: Inside the Shadow of Tianxia

Part I - The Order of Tianxia

1. What is Tianxia?

2. Tianxia versus Nomos of the Earth: The Material Basis of Tianxia’s Colonial Character

Part II - Beyond Empire: The Persistence of Tianxia Structures in the Modern Nation-State

3. When Enlightenment Mutates: The Great Transformation of Tianxia and the Semiotic Syncretism of Knowledge

4. Mental Force and Ethical Political Economy: John Fryer between Enlightenment and Confucian Political Theology

5. Waves upon Waves: Confucian Revivals and the Authoritarian Desire for Legitimacy

6. Heaven and Humanity as One: Civilisational Fallacies and the Afterlife of Tianxia

Part III - Digital Tianxia: The Algorithmic Empire and the Return of Harmony

7. The Rise of China in the Twenty-First Century and the Transformation of the Tianxia Order

8. The Digital Tianxia and the Upgrading of Colonial Despotic Techniques

9. The Darker Side of Tianxia and Its Underground Rhizomes

Part IV - Outside of Tianxia? Cracks, Surplus, Beginnings

10. The Struggle between Confucianism and Legalism: Rethinking the Limits of Confucian Theology and the Possibility of Internal Critique

11. The Antinomy of Tianxia and Coexistence: Fang Yi-Zhi’s Continuous Critique from Within

12. Artistic Decolonization: Xu Bing, Wu Tien-Chang, Chen Chieh-Jen

Epilogue - Coexistence Without Capture

References

Index