A Critical Study on the “Oriental” Paradox of Western Universal Narrative

The Western world has a long-term prejudice against Eastern countries. This prejudice was systematized in the age of enlightenment and formed the intellectual tradition of oriental absolutism. Marx’s discussion of “Asiatic mode of production” inherited this prejudice. In order to correct and develop Marxism, Samir Amin replaced the “Asiatic mode of production” with the concept of “tributary society”, so as to develop a new discourse on the evolution of human society. With the turn of “state” and “empire” in Western social theory, “tributary society” has been transformed into “tributary empire”, which has become a general concept of pre-modern ruling mode. With this transformation, the Eurocentric historiography was abandoned, and the modernity narrative of nation-state and capitalism was replaced by a more integrated “empire” discourse which became the core concept of global history.