[China Query] - How to cultivate a HRE-like China?

As seen above. A situation where perhaps during the Qin Unification or thereafter in the Qing-Ming period or any other period you can think of, where "China" is like the Holy Roman Empire, comprising a multitude of varied city-states, theocratic fiefdoms, republics, kingdoms, principalities, duchies, etc... of varying ethnicities that aren't all sinicized and over time might even drop out of the China sphere.
 
No. Not without Feudalism you can't. The HRE only makes sense when viewed through a feudal context and in the later years only made sense when viewed through its own context.

China abandoned feudalism long ago. The emperor was not the first among equals because he had no equals. There was just him, his government, and the massive bureaucracy that oversaw everything.
 
No. Not without Feudalism you can't. The HRE only makes sense when viewed through a feudal context and in the later years only made sense when viewed through its own context.

China abandoned feudalism long ago. The emperor was not the first among equals because he had no equals. There was just him, his government, and the massive bureaucracy that oversaw everything.

China had feudalism, just not in the sense that Western Europe did. And that vaunted massive bureaucracy was never very large. In reality, most villages were heavily self-sufficient.

That said a HRE is impossible, as China requires a single centralized state to manage its irrigation infrastructure. If you want an Asian HRE, look towards Japan and its history of warring clans.
 
China's feudal period occurred hundreds of years (literally) before Europe was done being tribal city-states. The modern bureaucracy of the Chinese state prevents such nonsense. It's been a centralized body since before the rise of Rome. It's simply not possible to create a feudal state out of them after a certain period and even then, overmighty tiny-lords brought to an end said feudal era so...
 
The Rebellion of The Seven States in the 150's BCE is about the closest we can get to a "feudalist" nobles' rebellion in China, but, even then, i doubt it can lead to something different from yet another autocratic dynasty in the long term.
 
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