Imagining the Future from History: The Tang Dynasty and the “China Dream”

Proposed by Xi Jinping right after his assumption of the Chinese presidency in 2012, the “China Dream” has been a keyword that symbolizes his rule and goal of the present-day PRC. Referring to the “the great revival of the Chinese nation”, such a dream has been widely regarded as the manifestation of Xi’s ambition to restore China’s historical position as a dominant power in Asia or even in the world. This paper focuses on the historical memory of the Tang dynasty in the past and present in China, and it traces the source of inspiration for the “Chinese Dream” in history. It investigates how Chinese rulers over the past millennium have selectively remembered the glorious part of the Tang Empire and formulated a state-centric narrative of the dynasty. Such a narrative defines the Tang as the highest point of the Chinese civilization and a model of imperial rule, and Chinese rulers employ that version of historical memory to justify their expansion campaigns in the name of revival of the Tang historical power. This paper argues that Xi inherits this state narrative from previous regimes and takes the Tang as the goal of “the great revival of the Chinese nation”, indicating the deep historical roots of the “China Dream”.