In this article, the author uses Charles Taylor’s Modern Social Imaginaries, a retelling of the history of Western modernity which ends in a discussion of multiple modernities, to offer a similar retelling of the narrative of modern China. In so doing, suggests that China’s history is part of world history, or at least that there are similarities in the patterns of development followed by important world civilizations. In part, this is a criticism of the many Chinese thinkers who argue for the utter uniqueness of China’s historical experience. At the same time, Xu takes pains to highlight the particularities of China’s past, contrasting traditional China’s “social imaginary” with that of the West. The long discussion of the relationship in China between the “family-state,” tianxia, and the self is meant to educate Xu’s readers in the intricacies of self and social definition under Confucianism, and he takes pains to illustrate both the strengths and the weaknesses of the traditional order.