Chapter 11: From “all Under Heaven” to “Humanity’s Common Destiny”: Implications of Conceptions of World-ness in Chinese Traditional and Contemporary Thought for Global Citizenship Education

A growing sense of global precarity has given rise to increasing emphasis on education for global citizenship. To what extent are our conceptions of global citizenship adequately global in themselves? Given the long history of concepts of world-ness in Chinese classical thought and China’s power and influence in contemporary global society, Chinese perspectives on global citizenship are particularly urgent at this time. In this chapter, the authors explore traditional and contemporary Chinese ideals of “world-ness” to strengthen the dimensions of global solidarity and unity within the authors’ conceptualizations of global citizenship. These ideas include the ancient concepts of “all under heaven” (tianxia), the oneness of heaven and humanity (tianren heyi), and the “world as one family” (tianxia yijia). Contemporary versions of these philosophies are the concepts of the “new tianxia” and “Humanity’s Common Destiny.” The authors consider the ways in which these concepts can contribute to the existing frameworks for global citizenship education.