All aspects of war in China were surrounded by religious activities, ranging from rituals to predict the future and guarantee success in war and the safety of its participants to rituals dealing with the bloody aftermath of war.

This chapter looks at the thinking and practice of international relations and world order in China. It opens by setting China’s geopolitical context. In terms of thinking it covers Tianxia, the Mandate of Heaven, hierarchy, face, zhongyong dialectics, yin-yang, collectivism, and relationalism. In terms of practice it covers the warring states and the tribute system. It argues that China was the most different of the three cases in terms of international relations.

Military violence or warfare played a significant role in shaping the culture and society of ancient China. Nonetheless the subject has generated far less discussion than it deserves. This chapter studies the relationship between violence and warfare and their impact on the political, social and cultural trajectory of China in the period between the late third century BCE and the sixth century CE – a period during which the course of Chinese history went through the establishment of the early empires, their collapse, and the ensuing political division that lasted for nearly three centuries. It covers the topics of various notions of ‘just war’, the conduct of warfare, institutions of military mobilisation, military rites and their practices, and the mutual influence of religious beliefs and massive violence. Through an examination of multiple sources of evidence the chapter arrives at a broad understanding of how people in early imperial China conceptualised and justified violence in warfare, as well as the circumstances and purposes to which they resorted to war.