Since the Qin and Han Dynasties, the imperial dominion contained both the Chinese imperial domain and other countries. So it is not rational to regard the border ethnics within the dynasty as equivalent to the neighboring countries within the imperial dominion owing to their cultural and ethnical differences from the Chinese. Those ethnics and regimes living on the borders within the traditional form of state protractedly received the political governance of the dynasty, which went through a process from indirect to direct administration. Those northern nationalities who founded regimes and even dynasties in different periods of Chinese history had in long terms received indirect governance of the central dynasty and played a very important role in advancing the transformation of mechanism of borderland governance. Therefore, the belief that “China has been a multiethnic nation ever since ancient times” is first established based on political governance and then on other factors such as economy, culture and whatever, which allows no reversion or confusion.

the “imperial dominion”; traditional state form; detaining system; border ethnics