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Yes, but because they talked about it using proxies of ethnicity, such as religion, geography, or nation*, we are to believe they were completely race-blind.

* The word nation came from the Old French [8th-14th century] word nacion – meaning "birth" (naissance), "place of origin" -, which in turn originates from the Latin word natio (nātĭō) literally meaning "birth". - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nation

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How does simply lacking a more exacting term for race mean that they had no concept of people who were different? In historical context is a nation not usually comprised of a phenotype?

They absolutely did have a concept of people who are different, it just did not mean what “race” means today per se. A list of some of the ethnic groups or nationalities can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_groups_in_Chinese_histo.... The authors larger and more interesting point is that the all encompassing “Han” ethnic group that is said to make up a majority of people in mainland China is mostly a myth.

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