<Articles>Foreign Policy of the Ming Dynasty and International Order in East Asia : Towards an Understanding of the Tribute System

DOI HANDLE Web Site Open Access

Bibliographic Information

Other Title
  • <論説>明朝の対外政策と東アジアの国際秩序 : 朝貢体制の構造的理解に向けて
  • 明朝の対外政策と東アジアの国際秩序--朝貢体制の構造的理解に向けて
  • ミンチョウ ノ タイガイ セイサク ト ヒガシアジア ノ コクサイ チツジョ チョウコウ タイセイ ノ コウゾウテキ リカイ ニ ムケテ

Search this article

Abstract

Although studies of the international order in East Asia have examined the ranking of tributary states from the point of view bestowal of titles of officials and nobility and princely designations, there have been no studies that consider the international order in terms of its basic principle. Given this circumstance, this study focuses on three types of hierarchical relations that operated in international politics : 1) order based in a system that granted titles of nobility, i.e. noble ranks were bestowed on monarchs in tributary states by Chinese emperors ; 2) order based on the bureaucratic system, i.e. official ranks were bestowed on monarchs of tributary states by Chinese emperors ; 3). order based on the patriarchal clan system, i.e. linking monarchs of neighboring states in pseudo-familial relationships to emperors of the Chinese court. Based on concrete examples, I demonstrate that by using these systems of order selectively Chinese dynasties devised ways to maintain international order in East and Northern Asia. The patriarchal clan system differed from the other two systems of ranking. It was used for large states that could not be subsumed under the rubric of lord and subject and incorporated them into a Chinese logic that was designed to maintain the superiority or equality of China. There was no contradiction between the states outside the framework of the system and the tribute system itself, and it can be said that it was precisely the patriarchal clan system of ranking that allowed the repositioning of them within the sinocentric international order. The role of the patriarchal clan system changed greatly during the Ming dynasty. The Ming dynasty adopted a particularly strict policy of employing a unitary tribute system in which the only permissible relationship with foreign states was the tributary one. However, it was the very ideology of the patriarchal clan system that reinforced this system. Aside from the traditional systems of granting bureaucratic ranks and bestowing titles of nobility, foreign rulers could be bestowed mianfu or pibian guanfu, caps and gowns, that were based on the patriarchal clan system relationships of father and child or grandfather and grandson, and this legitimized the tribute system by envisioning an ideal world of Chinese and barbarian as a single family. The patriarchal clan system of ranking that was applied to states and peoples that could not be included in the tributary system was transformed into a justification of a new tribute system. This allowed the Ming to form a unique system that saw all nations as tributary states. The patriarchal clan system order was internalized in the tribute system as an ideological device that supported the unitary tribute system. However, a change in the situation occurred during the Qing dynasty. Unlike the Ming, the Qing did not bestow the mianfu or pibian guanfu on neighboring states that essentially meant the abandonment of the vision or realization of idealized order of Chinese and barbarian in which the two were one family. During the Qing dynasty, the number of tributary states decreased drastically, and the significance of applying the patriarchal clan system of ranking to the tribute system ceased completely. In contrast, with the collapse of the unitary tribute system, the Qing dynasty came to seek an international order differing from that of the Ming. This meant there was a need to use a different logic to deal with countries outside the framework of the tribute system rather than that of the international order of the tribute system centered on the Qing. In conclusion, one may assume that what was generated from this need was the concept of hushiguo (states, which did not offer tribute, but that conducted trade, hushi) as seen in the Daqing-huidan. This would subsume countries that could not be included in the tribute system in the category of trading states, and thus inserting them within the rubric of a Chinese-and-barbarian

Journal

  • 史林

    史林 92 (4), 635-669, 2009-07-31

    THE SHIGAKU KENKYUKAI (The Society of Historical Research), Kyoto University

Related Projects

See more

Keywords

Details 詳細情報について

Report a problem

Back to top