If you replace Todorov in the book of the Spaniards by the West and the Aztecs by the Chinese, you find the two terms of the new conquest to an ancient empire with a new civilization. Whatever they say, a thousand years of Western civilization are not worth four thousand years of Chinese culture. Those who know the tradition ethical, moral and religious, which makes only in China, know that the Aztecs believed in the sixteenth century, the Chinese still believe it today.
But if Westerners think that by applying the linguistic difference and the parade of effects they can annihilate the Chinese Empire, they are mistaken. First, the Chinese follow home the Aztec code and outside the Spanish code. Second, the Chinese know the language of the conqueror and do not need translators; on the other hand, Westerners do not know the Chinese language, preferring to rely on bad translations. Third, the Chinese know lie as well as Christians.
Regarding the transgression of the word, especially in business relations, they are the worthy heirs of Cortez. Therefore do anything to conquer the middle of Empire? First, go to the Chinese grammar. Second, go to the Analects , the Chinese code set there are two thousand five hundred years by Kong Zi (otherwise Confucius). The fifth century BC. J.Ch. has been called the century of China five hundred philosophical schools.
In the best-known part, Confucianism, Taoism, Legalism, there was also the language school (if I remember correctly, the current name was the mohism ), which put forward the secrets and power of the language. The Chinese were the first to say, ” A white horse is not a horse . ” A horse , from the standpoint of grammar, it is an article and a name, so that a white horse is an article, an adjective and a noun. Linguistic subtlety of Chinese may explain why their empire will not have the same fate as that of the Aztecs.
If the last two editorials, I have seemed to some as a defender of China and accusing the West, I am not. Instead, I expressed my surprise because both sides do not understand the impossibility of cooperation is due to a lack of communication and a cultural misunderstanding.