Tributary System of China

Fudan Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences, 2017

In recent years, the Chinese leadership has openly argued that the international community has to exceed the dominance of the Western-based rules in international relations. Since in the last two centuries these rules have become globally accepted, China's claim seems to be a hardly imaginable vision. However, according to some scholars' view, there is a possible historical alternative for the international order, the so-called Chinese Tributary System, which once bounded the East and Southeast Asian states together. The present study examines whether the mainstream schools of the International Relations Theory provide an appropriate tool to understand the characteristics of this system. The study argues that the culturally based "guanxi model" can supply a better explanatory framework to understand the inner logic and the working mechanism of the Tributary System.

With growing Chinese power and influence on the global stage, scholars in several disciplines have developed a new interest in the 'tribute system.' This course will examine the history of Ming and Qing dynasty foreign relations, beginning with maritime diplomacy directed by the eunuch Zheng He in the early fifteenth century and ending with the Qianlong Emperor's responses to the British Macartney mission in 1793. Following an initial discussion of tributary structure, its ideological origins in classical texts, and the principles and practices associated with long-term maintenance, weekly readings and analysis will be devoted to the following topics: the expansion of cartographic knowledge and textual representations of the world; 'vassal' (i.e., Japanese, Korean and Ryukyu) negotiations on the periphery; envoy pictures in the "Imperial portraits of tributaries" handscroll; European competition for recognition; the impact of Japanese sakoku 'closed country' edicts on Sino-Japanese relations; and questions related to discontent over gifts, guests and imperial rituals. Students will develop, research, write, and present a substantial research paper using primary and secondary sources.

Asia Major, Third Series, 28.1 (2015): 61-114., 2015

""The common understanding of early Chinese diplomacy largely is informed by the term 'tributary system:' during the Han period, foreign entities mainly engaged with the Chinese empire in order to secure economic profit. This view is based on the assumption that the rendition of tribute (gòng 貢) usually was reciprocated with 'counter-gifts' by the court. Accordingly, to the eyes of all foreigners, delivering tribute was only a 'cloak for trade' devoid of any notion of submission. On the other hand, the Chinese court is believed to have silently tolerated this kind of 'economic exchange' because receiving tribute was equalled with at least nominal acceptance of Chinese suzerainty and as a manifestation of its claim to universal power. The situation as it is depicted in the transmitted sources, however, is far more complex. By retracing different methods of diplomatic interaction to Chunqiu and Zhanguo times, I shall demonstrate that Han diplomacy was far from having been an ideological exercise. I am also going to show that the Han court continued to use established strategies of diplomatic interaction by adapting them to the necessities of the time.""

4th AAWH congress, 2019

This conference paper focuses on “the Chinese World Order” established by the Song Dynasty and reconsiders the historical meaning of the various elements, such as the tributary (chaogong 朝貢) and vassalage (cefeng 冊封) systems that embodied it. Previously, based on the general “either or” argument, of either “belonging” or “independence,” the tributary and vassalage systems were nervously evaluated as “a superficial form” of relations with China within the China-centric international order. However, he points to the aspect that various groups in Southeast Asia and Southwest China independently “used” the tributary and vassalage systems while attracting the political order established by the Song Dynasty to their respective political and economic contexts, and he argues that they functioned as one kind of “public goods” in the Eastern Eurasia.

In the diplomatic canon, where the field has been demarcated by a central distinction drawn between suzerain and parity-based state relations, Imperial China has squarely been designated to the former category, and thereby as inherently alien to the diplomatic tradition. However, this image of a monolithic 2000-year-long rigid, hierarchical system betrays a too shallow assessment of Chinese history, and fails to acknowledge a noteworthy strain of parity-based relations running through Imperial Chinese foreign policy. This strain was at its most pronounced during the four centuries of the Song Dynasty, where China's relations with a set of important neighbouring states were handled on egalitarian terms that were far more reminiscent of a full-fledged diplomatic multi-state system than what is popularly acknowledged. Based on a case study of the diplomatic relations of the Song Dynasty, this article argues that Imperial Chinese foreign policy on a set of occasions showed itself to adhere to principles immanent to classical diplomacy, and that these eras thus should naturally, and beneficially, belong to the historical canon of diplomacy.

As East Asia's traditional international system, the China-centered tribute system has typical ideologies that are essentially based upon Chinese culture, especially the Confucian teachings and principles. The pillar ideologies of this international system consist of three inherent associated ideas-Confucian Ren and Li, Tianxia idea and Chinese-Barbarians order (Huayi Zhixu), with which the system functioned well as an effective mechanism by granting domestic political legitimacy for rulers of both China and its neighboring states (vassals), profiting neighboring states economically and keeping regional stability in security. The function of this system based on Chinese culture to effectively keeping regional stability by peaceful approach rather than by force or coerce has significant implications for contemporary international relations in East Asia.

The Journal of Asian Studies, 2014

China and the World -the World and China Volume 2 Transcultural Perspectives on Late Imperial China, 2019

A wide range of topics is covered in this collection of four volumes of essays in honor of Rudolf G. Wagner. The expansive time frame from pre-modern to contemporary China in China and the World-the World and China reflect the breadth of his own scholarship. The essays are also testimony to his ability to connect with scholars across the globe, across disciplines and generations. The first volume (Transcultural Perspectives on Pre-modern China) brings together a set of contributions relating to the pre-modern period which reveals thematic clusters that correspond to the three main periods of Chinese pre-modern history. While the first six contributions on the early China period focus on conceptual questions of text interpretation and reconstruction, the following five on medieval China all deal with religious topics whereas the last four contributions, covering the late imperial period, address issues of the entangled relationship between the self and the exterior. The contributions in the second volume (Transcultural Perspectives on Late Imperial China) are linked by a common interest in questions of transculturality, hybridity, contact zones and third spaces. These are concepts and ideas quite central to Rudolf G. Wagner's scholarly oeuvre. Each of the contributions addresses these notions in their own particular manner, sometimes more, sometimes less explicitly. But there is more: the authors in this volume also share an interest in the hidden, the unsaid, the unknown-forgotten people and objects become main protagonists. In addition, the importance of translation as a cultural practice and new perceptions and understandings of the role of translation in Late Qing cross-and transcultural interactions and the significant impact of particular actor networks involved in these translations emerge as two more common questions addressed throughout this volume. The studies in the third volume (Transcultural Perspectives on Modern China) span a long twentieth century of cultural production in China. All of them, each in a different manner, deal with one crucially important set of questions, one that has been very much at the heart of Rudolf G. Wagner's work: questions of readership and reception, and, related to this, of persuasion, legitimation and trust: how does one successfully draw an audience in China; how does one convince; what is an effective rhetorics or argumentation? The fourth and last volume (Transcultural Perspectives on Global China) is testimony to the imprint Rudolf G. Wagner has made beyond many borders, with contributions from Indo logy to Egyptology and Theology, from world history, to world literature, to Esperanto as a world language, and talking about travelling concepts and objects such as tea, comics, and knowledge. This volume also contains a number of reminiscences about Rudolf G. Wagner, the border-crosser: his radical bonmots, his role as great master-teacher for people from many different walks of life, in short, his expansiveness, … and more.

International relations scholars have recently taken increased interest in empire. However, research has often focused on European colonial empires. This article aims to evaluate imperialism in a non-Western historical setting: Late Imperial China. The article first compares extant international relations (IR) accounts of empire (one broad and one narrow) to theories of the East Asian hierarchical international system. Second, to further specify analysis, I evaluate IR theories of empire against the historical record of the Ming and Qing dynasties, addressing Chinese relations with surrounding ‘tributary’ states, conquered imperial possessions, and other neighboring polities. I argue that while IR theories of empire capture much of the region's historical politics, they nonetheless underspecify it. Theories of East Asian hierarchy suggest additional mechanisms at work. The historical cases suggest extensive variation in how empires expand and consolidate. I conclude that there is room for further theory building about empire in IR and suggest possible areas of emphasis.