China's perception of India has dramatically shifted from a "holy land" during the Gupta era, as described by Faxian over 1,600 years ago, to a nation of indifference or contempt today. This change is evident in contemporary Chinese works like "The Three-Body Problem," which envisions global cooperation against an alien threat but omits India, despite its space achievements.
This shift began after the Tang dynasty, when Buddhism assimilated into Chinese culture and Confucianism was resurgent, reducing the idolization of India. By the 15th century, Zheng He treated Indian kingdoms as Chinese tributaries. Modern Chinese attitudes are primarily shaped by the belief that India failed to learn from its colonial-era humiliation by the West, unlike China. Qing dynasty visitors like Kang Youwei viewed India as a failed state for not resisting the British. Therefore, China's indifference stems from a perception of India's historical failure to modernize and compete, rather than solely from contemporary geopolitical rivalry or the 1962 Sino-Indian War.
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