Hua-Yi distinction

The distinction between Hua () and Yi (), also known as Sino–barbarian dichotomy, is an ancient Chinese concept that differentiated a culturally defined "China" (called Hua, Huaxia 華夏, or Xia 夏) from cultural or ethnic outsiders (Yi "barbarians"). Although Yi is often translated as "barbarian", other translations of this term in English include "foreigners", "ordinary others" "wild tribes", and "uncivilized tribes".

The Hua–Yi distinction was basically cultural, but it could take ethnic or racist overtones (especially in times of war). In its cultural form, the Hua–Yi distinction asserted Chinese cultural superiority, but implied that outsiders could become Hua by adopting Chinese values and customs. When this "cultural universalism" took a more racial guise, however, it could have harmful effects on those groups not considered 'Hua'.

Ancient China was composed of a group of states that arose in the Yellow River valley. According to historian Li Feng, who lived in Zhou dynasty (ca. 1041–771 BCE), the contrast between the 'Chinese' Zhou and the 'non-Chinese' Xirong or Dongyi was "more political than cultural or ethnic". Lothar von Falkenhausen argues that the perceived contrast between "Chinese" and "Barbarians" was accentuated during the Eastern Zhou period (770–256 BCE), when adherence to Zhou rituals became increasingly recognized as a "barometer of civilization."; a meter for sophistication and cultural refinement. It is widely agreed by historians that the distinction between the Hua and the Yi emerged during that period.

Gideon Shelach claimed that Chinese texts tended to overstate the distinction between the Chinese and their northern neighbors, ignoring many intergroup similarities. He doubted the existence of the Hua–Yi distinction. Nicola di Cosmo doubted the existence of a strong demarcation between the "Zhou Universe" and "a discrete, 'barbarian', non-Zhou universe" and claimed that Chinese historian, Sima Qian's popularized this concept, writing of the "chasm that had always existed between China – the Hua-Hsia [Huaxia] people – and the various alien groups inhabiting the north."

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