Kazlitin M, defence

1. Adapting Heritage: The Use of the Concepts of 天下 (All under Heaven), 中国 (Middle Kingdom), and 人类命运共同体 (a Global Community of

Faculty of Social Sciences
Master’s programme: Politics. Economics. Philosophy
Adapting Heritage: The Use of the Concepts of 天下
(All under Heaven), 中国 (Middle Kingdom), and 人
类命运共同体 (a Global Community of Shared
Future) in Contemporary Chinese Discourse
Student: Kazlitin Mikhail Dmitrievich
Scientific Supervisor: Ilyin Mikhail Vasilyevich
Moscow 2026

2. Problem: Existing studies often examine these concepts separately, while the mechanism of their discursive linkage remains

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Contemporary Chinese elite discourse combines:
• 天下 (Tianxia) – pre-modern civilisational / universal
vocabulary
• 中国 (Zhongguo) – political and civilisational selfdescription
• 人类命运共同体 (GCSF) – contemporary global
governance formula
Problem: Existing studies often examine these concepts separately, while the mechanism of
their discursive linkage remains insufficiently systematised.

3. RQ: How, within a pilot corpus of contemporary Chinese elite writings, do political elites selectively integrate, hierarchise,

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RQ: How, within a pilot corpus of contemporary Chinese elite writings,
do political elites selectively integrate, hierarchise, and rework the
concepts of 天下, 中国, and 人类命运共同体 in order to construct a
narrative of multi-layered national identity?
Aim: To analyse how historically layered concepts are selectively
rearticulated and linked in contemporary Chinese elite discourse.

4. Theoretical Framework:

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Theoretical Framework:
一 。 Concepts are
not fixed labels,
but
culturally
loaded nodes of
meaning.
二。天下, 中
国 and 人类命
运共同体 are
semantically
multilayered.
Authors: Stepanov, Wierzbicka, Kwong, Cao, Wodak, Krzyżanowski.
三。Identity is
discursively
constructed and
historically
mobile.
四。Political
discourse can
selectively reactivate
older semantic layers
for contemporary
legitimation.

5.

Methodological Model
Discourse Historical Analysis
Nomination, predication, argumentation,
perspectivisation, mitigation/intensification
Discourse Conceptual Analysis
semantic fields / recontextualisation
Frame
analysis
+
LWV
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6.

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Corpus and
selection logic:
Source: Xinhua News
Agency (official
elite/state media
segment).
Nature of Corpus:
Qualitative, conceptdense pilot corpus (6
texts, 2025–2026).
Code
Text type
Function
P01
Xinhua commentary
China’s development,
confidence and global
responsibility
P06
Civilisation-themed text
Chinese wisdom and
world civilisation
L03
Diplomatic press
conference
Foreign policy and global
order
L04
Bilateral diplomatic
report
China-Vietnam relational
framing
S05
Theoretical article
Peacefulness of Chinese
civilisation
S06
Party-theoretical essay
胸怀天下 as ideological
principle

7. Analytical Model: Three Levels of Activation

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Zhongguo-level
Tianxia-level
GCSF-level
China as organising
subject China / CPC /
Chinese civilisation /
Chinese diplomacy
Moral-civilisational
horizon 胸怀天下 / 兼
济天下 / 天下大同 /
协和万邦
Contemporary global telos
shared future / common
development / world
peace / mutual benefit
Types of activation:
- direct activation
- indirect activation
- weak activation

8.

Example of analysis: P01
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中国式现代化
(Chinese-style modernization)
兼济天下
(Benefit to All under Heaven)
天下大同
(Great harmony under Heaven)
China’s modernisation
↓
receives Tianxia-coded moral quality
↓
is presented as beneficial for the world
↓
approaches the logic of GCSF
同世界共享发展机遇
(Sharing Development Opportunities with the World
人类发展
(Human development)
互利共赢
(Mutual benefit and win-win
In P01, China’s development is framed not as narrow
national progress, but as a source of global benefit
and responsibility.

9.

Cross-text findings
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1. No single stable model of
linkage.
3. Tianxia-coded vocabulary
as moral horizon and quality.
The triad is assembled
differently across texts and
genres.
Tianxia is often transformed
into a quality of China’s global
role.
2. Zhongguo-level as
organising subject.
4. GCSF as global telos and
scaling device.
China, the CPC, Chinese
civilisation or Chinese
diplomacy usually acts as the
main subject.
GCSF translates civilisational
vocabulary into the
contemporary language of
global governance.

10.

Recontextualisation Patterns
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Pattern Name
Operational Logic
Empirical Example
Attributive
Recontextualisation
Traditional universal concepts
become inherent moral
attributes of China/CPC.
胸怀天下, 兼济天下, 天下情
怀
Civilisational Translation
Classical formulas are
translated into modern global
vocabulary.
天下大同 / 天下为公 → 世界
/ 人类 / 全球治理 / 共同发展
Global Scaling via GCSF
GCSF scales adapted
traditional values to global,
regional, or bilateral levels.
China’s development /
diplomacy / civilisation →
shared future

11.

Answer to the RQ
Chinese elite discourse selectively adapts historically layered concepts by
assigning them different functions:
1. 中国 provides the organising subject.
2. 天下 provides moral-civilisational depth.
3. 人类命运共同体 provides the future-oriented global framework.
A flexible narrative of multi-layered Chinese identity.
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12.

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Limitations
Future research
1. pilot corpus of six texts;
2. no statistical generalisation;
3. focus on open sources;
4. genre dependence;
5. researcher is not a native
speaker;
6. direct, indirect and weak
activation must be carefully
distinguished.
1. broader corpus;
2. diachronic comparison:
Hu Jintao → Xi Jinping;
3. comparison of Xinhua,
People’s Daily, Qiushi and
MFA discourse;
4. expansion into master’s
thesis.