Was China a super power in ancient times?
古代中國(guó)是超級(jí)強(qiáng)國(guó)嗎？

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獲得48.7k好評(píng)的回答@Pun Anansakunwat：

China has been a global superpower in almost every historical period.
中國(guó)幾乎在每一個(gè)歷史時(shí)期都是全球范圍的超級(jí)強(qiáng)國(guó)。

The only exception was the century of humiliation (1850–1949), or during the imperialism era.
唯一的例外就是屈辱的一個(gè)世紀(jì)(1850–1949)，或者叫帝國(guó)主義時(shí)代。

In Pre-Qin dynasties, China was ruled (nominally) by Shang and Zhou rulers. Their territories, despite being small compared to present-day China, was larger than its contemporary civilization, such as ancient Greece and ancient Egypt. The technology was at least equal to both civilizations. Almost every nomadic tribe in China proper was subjugated by Chinese states under the Zhou dynasty. The tribal people were sinicized, and became “Chinese.” During this age, Chinese culture flourished. Many ideological groups (Confucianism, Legalism, etc.) spawned in this era.
先秦時(shí)期，中國(guó)在名義上被商周統(tǒng)治者統(tǒng)治。他們的疆域雖然比今天的中國(guó)小，但也比當(dāng)時(shí)其他的文明古國(guó)都大，比如古希臘和古埃及，技術(shù)也不低于這兩種文明。幾乎當(dāng)時(shí)中國(guó)每個(gè)游牧部落都隸屬于周朝時(shí)期的中國(guó)，游牧民族被同化，變成了“中國(guó)人”。這一時(shí)期中國(guó)文化繁榮起來(lái)，許多思想派別（儒家思想、法家思想等）都在這一時(shí)期蓬勃發(fā)展。

春秋時(shí)期的中華文明

Chinese civilization in the Warring States period, notice that the entire territory of Chinese civilization increased because of the colonization of the outer areas by states, especially Qin and Chu. Qin defeated as many as 25 tribes, and annexed the areas once controlled by nomads.
戰(zhàn)國(guó)時(shí)期的中華文明，值得注意的是中華文明整體疆域的擴(kuò)張是由于國(guó)家對(duì)外的吞并，尤其是秦國(guó)和楚國(guó)。秦國(guó)打敗了多達(dá)25個(gè)部落，吞并了曾被游牧部落控制的地區(qū)。

In Qin dynasty and Han dynasty, China became a unified, centralized empire (completely in the reign of Emperor Wu of Han). China became the end destination of the silk road. Trade and economy were flourished. Unlike Rome that was defeated by the nomads, Han Dynasty managed to defeat the mighty Xiongnu confederacy at its homeland, and repelled these nomads from the Chinese border. Furthermore, the eastern part of Central Asia, and Korea was conquered by Han Dynasty as well.
中國(guó)在秦朝和漢代變成統(tǒng)一的中央集權(quán)的帝國(guó)（完全受漢武帝統(tǒng)治）。中國(guó)成為了絲綢之路的終端，貿(mào)易和經(jīng)濟(jì)繁榮發(fā)展。不像被游牧民族打敗的羅馬，漢朝成功地在匈奴地區(qū)擊敗了強(qiáng)大的匈奴聯(lián)軍，在中國(guó)邊境擊退了這些游牧民族。此外，中亞的東部地區(qū)和朝鮮也被漢朝占領(lǐng)。

漢代地圖：國(guó)家地理雜志

Han Dynasty later defeated the Yue people in Fujian, and sinicized them.
漢朝后來(lái)打敗了福建的粵族，并將其同化。

China (In red) had a large economy since?antiquity. Notice that the share of world GDP decreased sharply during the century of humiliation (1849–1949), which paralleled to the imperialist era. The only country that had a larger share of world GDP in antiquity than China was India. However, since AD1, ancient India was not united into a single state as China (Han Dynasty). The closest ones were the Gupta Empire (320CE–550CE).
中國(guó)（紅色區(qū)域）從古代起就很富庶。值得注意的是中國(guó)在那屈辱的一個(gè)世紀(jì)(1849–1949)也叫帝國(guó)主義時(shí)代中在世界GDP中所占份額驟降，唯一在古代比中國(guó)所占全球GDP份額大的國(guó)家是印度。然而，從公元1年起，古印度不像中國(guó)（漢朝）一樣是統(tǒng)一國(guó)家，距離現(xiàn)在最近的是笈多王朝（公元320年—550年）。

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（翻譯：菲菲）