F rom C onvergence to D ivergence   229

FIGURE 7.2  ​The Han, Tang, Northern Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing empires.

in the early modern period but remained incomplete. In 1900, what had
once been the Roman empire was—in a conservative count—­divided
among twenty-­three states, all but two of them located on Eu­ro­pean
soil. The current tally is at least forty, depending on how we define
Roman rule and what qualifies as a state.11
The First G
­ reat Divergence brought about an enduring contrast be-
tween serial reconstitution of empire and the resultant absence of a
stable state system in China and the lack of any comparable scaling-up
and the resultant formation of a highly resilient ecol­ogy of po­liti­cal
polycentrism in Eu­rope. This does not mean that China was always uni-
fied: the figures in chapter 1 graph the extent to which this was not the
case. Metrics vary, depending on how we define “China” or “unity.” By
one count, “core China”—­defined as the territory held by the Qin state
at its peak in 214 BCE—­was unified ­under one ruler for 947 of the past
2,231 years, or 42 ­percent of the time (figure 7.2).12
Imperial per­sis­tence in China was thus relative—­that is, compared
to conditions in other parts of the world—­not absolute. A dif­fer­ent