Rethinking the 'tribute system': Broadening the conceptual horizon of historical East Asian politics

Chinese Journal of International Politics

Volumn 2, Issue 4, 2009, Pages 597-626

  Feng, Zhang ^a  

^a TSINGHUA UNIVERSITY   (China)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 70349484201     PISSN: 17508916     EISSN: 17508924     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/cjip/pop010     Document Type: Article

References (124)

1. These include J. K. Fairbank and S. Y. Teng, 'On the Ch'ing Tributary System', Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, Vol. 6, No. 2, 1941, pp. 135-246
2. J. K. Fairbank, 'Tributary Trade and China's Relations with the West', The Far Eastern Quarterly, Vol. 1, No. 2, 1942, pp. 129-49
3. J. K. Fairbank, Trade and Diplomacy on the China Coast: The Opening of the Treaty Ports, 1842-1854 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1953), esp. chapter 2
4. and J. K. Fairbank, ed., The Chinese World Order: Traditional China's Foreign Relations (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1968), esp. chapter 1.
5. John E. Wills, Jr., 'Tribute, Defensiveness, and Dependency: Uses and Limits of Some Basic Ideas About Mid-Qing Dynasty Foreign Relations', American Neptune, Vol. 48, 1988, pp. 225-9, at p. 229.
6. Holding a similar view is Michael Hunt, who wrote in the early 1980s that 'little fresh work [on historical Chinese foreign relations] is appearing and ... the pool of specialists in the field has not been sustained.' Michael H. Hunt, 'Chinese Foreign Relations in Historical Perspective,' in Harry Harding, ed., China's Foreign Relations in the 1980s (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984), pp. 1-42, at p. 37, fn. 14.
7. See, for example, Michael D. Swaine and Ashley J. Tellis, Interpreting China's Grand Strategy: Past, Present, and Future (Santa Monica: RAND, 2000).
8. Alastair Iain Johnston, Cultural Realism: Strategic Culture and Grand Strategy in Chinese History (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995)
9. Victoria Tin-bor Hui, War and State Formation in Ancient China and Early Modern Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005).
10. Brantly Womack, China and Vietnam: The Politics of Asymmetry (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006).
11. Qin Yaqing, 'Quanqiu shiye zhong de guoji zhixu' ('International Order in a Global View') in Qin Yaqing, ed., Zhongguo xuezhe kan shijie: guoji zhixu juan (World Politics - Views from China: International Order) (Beijing: Xin shijie chubanshe, 2007), pp. 11-25
12. and Qin Yaqing, 'A Chinese School of International Relations Theory: Possibility and Inevitability', Shijie jingji yu zhengzhi (World Economics and Politics), No. 3, 2006, pp. 7-13.
13. By the 'tribute system paradigm' I mean a research tradition that has the 'tribute system' as the central organizing concept for conceptual and empirical analysis.
14. These include Joseph F. Fletcher, 'China and Central Asia, 1368-1884' in J. K. Fairbank, ed., The Chinese World Order, pp. 206-24
15. Morris Rossabi, ed., China among Equals: The Middle Kingdom and Its Neighbors, 10th-14th Centuries (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983)
16. John E. Wills, Jr., Pepper, Guns, and Parleys: The Dutch East India Company and China, 1662-1681 (Cambridge: Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard University, 1974)
17. John E. Wills, Jr., Embassies and Illusions: Dutch and Portuguese Envoys to K'anghsi, 1666-1687 (Cambridge: Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard University, 1984)
18. John E. Wills, Jr., 'Tribute, Defensiveness, and Dependency', pp. 225-9
19. Arthur Waldron, The Great Wall of China: From History to Myth (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), p. 31
20. James L. Hevia, Cherishing Men from Afar: Qing Guest Ritual and the McCartney Embassy of 1793 (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1995)
21. James A. Millward, 'Qing Silk-Horse Trade with the Qazaqs in Yili and Tarbaghatai, 1758-1853,' Central and Inner Asian Studies, Vol. 7, 1992, pp. 1-42
22. James A. Millward, Beyond the Pass: Economy, Ethnicity, and Empire in Qing Central Asia, 1759-1864 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998)
23. Peter C. Perdue, 'A Frontier View of Chineseness,' in Giovanni Arrighi et al., eds., The Resurgence of East Asia: 500, 150 and 50 Year Perspective (London: Routledge, 2003), pp. 51-77
24. Peter C. Perdue, China Marches West: The Qing Conquest of Central Eurasia (Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2005)
25. Nicola Di Cosmo, 'Kirghiz Nomads on the Qing Frontier: Tribute, Trade, or Gift-Exchange?' in Nicola Di Cosmo and Don J. Wyatt, eds., Political Frontiers, Ethnic Boundaries, and Human Geographies in Chinese History (London: Curzon Press, 2003), pp. 351-72.
26. Paul M. Evans, John Fairbank and the American Understanding of Modern China (New York: Basil Blackwell, 1988).
27. Ibid., p. 56.
28. I am grateful to Paul Evans for this information during a conversation in June 2009, Singapore.
29. Mark Mancall, 'The Ch'ing Tribute System: An Interpretive Essay' in J. K. Fairbank, ed., The Chinese World Order, pp. 63-89, at p. 63.
30. J. K. Fairbank and S. Y. Teng, 'On the Ch'ing Tributary System', pp. 137, 139.
31. See J. K. Fairbank, 'A preliminary Framework', pp. 1-2. Also see C. P. Fitzgerald, The Chinese View of Their Place in the World (London: Oxford University Press, 1964)
32. and John Cranmer-Byng, 'The Chinese View of Their Place in the World: An Historical Perspective', The China Quarterly, No. 53, 1973, pp. 67-79, at p. 68.
33. J. K. Fairbank, 'A preliminary Framework', p. 2.
34. Ibid., p. 9.
35. Ibid., p. 4.
36. J. K. Fairbank and S. Y. Teng, 'On the Ch'ing Tributary System', pp. 140-1.
37. J. K. Fairbank, 'Tributary Trade', p. 137.
38. Ibid., p. 145.
39. J. K. Fairbank, 'A preliminary Framework', p. 10.
40. Evans, John Fairbank, p. 5.
41. I am grateful to Chen Jian for this point.
42. This is the clearest in Li Yunquan, Chaogong zhidu shilun: Zhongguo gudai duiwai guanxi tizhi yanjiu (A History of the Tribute System: Research on China's Premodern Foreign Relation Institution) (Beijing: Xinhua chubanshe, 2004).
43. Li Yunquan, A History of the Tribute System.
44. Hedley Bull, The Anarchical Society: A Study of Order in World Politics (London: Macmillan, 1977), p. 74.
45. Robert O. Keohane, International Institutions and State Power (Boulder: Westview, 1989), p. 3.
46. English School theorists claim that their definition is 'deeper' than that of the neoliberalists. Barry Buzan, The United States and the Great Powers: World Politics in the Twenty-First Century (Cambridge: Polity, 2004), p. 79.
47. Yongjin Zhang, 'System, Empire and State in Chinese International Relations,' in Michael Cox et al., eds., Empires, Systems and States: Great Transformation in International Politics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), pp. 43-63, at p. 57.
48. For an attempt in the European context, see Christian Reus-Smit, The Moral Purpose of the State: Culture, Social Identity, and Institutional Rationality in International Relations (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999).
49. Gan Huaizhen, Huangquan, liyi yu jingdian quanshi: Zhongguo gudai zhengzhishi yanjiu (Imperial Power, Etiquette and Interpretation of Classics: The Study on the History of Politics in Ancient China) (Taipei: Himalaya Foundation, 2003), p. 508.
50. Gao Mingshi, Dongya gudai de zhengzhi yu jiaoyu (The Politics and Education in Ancient East Asia) (Taipei: Himalaya Foundation, 2003).
51. For a masterful discussion on the evolution of the Chinese idea of superiority, see Wang Gungwu, 'Early Ming Relations with Southeast Asia: A Background Essay', in J. K. Fairbank, ed., The Chinese World Order pp. 34-62.
52. Wang Gungwu, 'The Rhetoric of a Lesser Empire: Early Sung relations with Its Neighbors', in Morris Rossabi, ed., China among Equals, pp. 47-65, at p. 62.
53. Ibid., p. 57.
54. Wang Gungwu, 'Early Ming Relations with Southeast Asia', p. 36.
55. John E. Wills, 'Tribute, Defensiveness, and Dependency', p. 226.
56. Lien-sheng Yang, 'Historical Notes on the Chinese World Order', in J. K. Fairbank, ed., The Chinese World Order, pp. 20-33, at p. 20.
57. See also Morris Rossabi, ed., China among Equals.
58. Michael H. Hunt, 'Chinese Foreign Relations in Historical Perspective', pp. 1-42, at pp. 6-7.
59. Song Chengyou, Dongbeiya chuantong guoji tixi de bianqian: Chuantong Zhongguo yu zhoubian guojia ji minzu de hudong guanxi lunshu (The Evolution of the Traditional Northeast Asian International System: Interactions between Traditional China and Its Neighboring Countries and Ethnicities) (Taipei: Academia Sinica, 2002), p. 41.
60. John E. Wills, 'Tribute, Defensiveness, and Dependency', p. 226.
61. John E. Wills, Embassies and Illusions; John E. Wills, 'Tribute, Defensiveness, and Dependency'.
62. J. K. Fairbank, 'A preliminary Framework', p. 11.
63. John K. Fairbank, 'China's Foreign Policy in Historical Perspective', Foreign Affairs, Vol. 47, No. 3, 1969, pp. 449-63, at p. 459.
64. John E. Wills, 'Tribute, Defensiveness, and Dependency', p. 226.
65. As Fairbank says, drawing again on sinocentrism, that 'the uncultivated alien, however crass and stupid, could not but appreciate the superiority of Chinese civilization and would naturally seek to 'come and be transformed' (lai-hua) and so participate in its benefits.' J. K. Fairbank, 'Tributary Trade', p. 132.
66. Paul A. Cohen, Discovering History in China: American Historical Writing on the Recent Chinese Past (New York: Columbia University Press, 1984), p. 189.
67. J. K. Fairbank, 'Tributary Trade', p. 137.
68. Wang Gungwu, 'Early Ming Relations with Southeast Asia', p. 60.
69. J. K. Fairbank, 'A preliminary Framework', p. 13.
70. This 'China bias', however, is a common problem in the literature.
71. Wang Gungwu and Zheng Yongnian, eds., Sino-Japanese Relations: Interaction, Logic, and Transformation (London: Routledge, 2008), p. 15.
72. See also Peter C. Perdue, 'A Frontier View of Chineseness', p. 66.
73. Nicola Di Cosmo, 'Kirghiz Nomads on the Qing Frontier'.
74. James A. Millward, Beyond the Pass, p. 158.
75. J. K. Fairbank and S. Y. Teng, 'On the Ch'ing Tributary System', p. 137
76. Mark Mancall, China at the Center: 300 Years of Foreign Policy (New York: The Free Press, 1984), p. 13
77. John E. Wills, Embassies and Illusions, p. 14.
78. For official statements of the period, see Li Guoxiang et al., eds, Ming Shilu Leizuan: Shewai Shiliao Juan (MSLLZ) (A Compilation of Materials on Foreign Affairs from the Veritable Records of the Ming Dynasty) (Wuhan: Wuhan chubanshe, 1991).
79. Joseph F. Fletcher, 'China and Central Asia, 1368-1884'.
80. In various periods of its history China had 'an utterly pragmatic and flexible approach toward foreign countries'. Wang Gungwu, 'Early Ming Relations with Southeast Asia', p. 43.
81. For these events, see Wang Yi-T'ung, Official Relations Between China and Japan, 1368-1549 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1953)
82. and Edward L. Dreyer, Early Ming China: A Political History, 1355-1435 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1982).
83. It needs to be noted, however, that there are important exceptions to the assertion that all official relations must be tribute-based. Tribute, for example, was not the only way for the Manchu Qing court to arrange official relationships with the nomadic peoples in Inner Asia. Ning Chia, 'The Lifanyuan and the Inner Asian Rituals in the Early Qing (1644-1795)', Late Imperial China, Vol. 14, No. 1, June 1993, pp. 60-92, at p. 80.
84. Wang Yi-T'ung, Official Relations Between China and Japan, pp. 52-3.
85. Zhang Peiheng and Yu Suisheng, eds., Ershisishi quanyi: Ming Shi (The Full Translation of the Twenty-Four Histories-History of Ming) (Shanghai: Hanyu dacidian chubanshe, 2004), p. 6727.
86. Edward L. Dreyer, Early Ming China.
87. John E. Wills, Embassies and Illusions, p. 4.
88. Mark Mancall, China at the Center, p. 13.
89. Huang Chih Lien, Dongya de liyi shijie: Zhongguo fengiian wangchao yu Chaoxian bandao guanxi xingtai lun (The Ritual and Justice World in East Asia: The Relations between Chinese Feudal Dynasties and Korea Pennsular) (Beijing: Renmin daxue chubanshe, 1994), p. 185.
90. Wang Gungwu, China and the Chinese Overseas (Singapore: Times Academic Press, 1991), p. 112.
91. John D. Langlois, Jr., 'The Hung-wu Reign, 1368-1398', in Frederick W. Mote and Denis Twitchett, eds., The Cambridge History of China, Volume 7: The Ming Dynasty, 1368-1644, Part I (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), p. 166.
92. Donald Neil Clark, Autonomy, Legitimacy, and Tributary Politics: Sino-Korean Relations in the Fall of Koryǒ and the Founding of the Yi Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University, 1978, p. 136.
93. Huang Chih Lien, The Ritual and Justice World in East Asia, p. 280.
94. Edward L. Dreyer, Early Ming China.
95. Huang Chih Lien, The Ritual and Justice World in East Asia, pp. 373-5.
96. L. Carrington Goodrich and Chaoying Fang, eds., Dictionary of Ming Biography: 1368-1644 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1976), pp. 1600-1.
97. Henry Serruys, Sino-Jurchen Relations during the Yong-lo Period (1403-1424) (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrssowitz, 1955).
98. Li Guoxiang et al., A Compilation of Materials on Foreign Affairs from the Veritable Records of the Ming Dynasty, p. 19
99. and Zhang Peiheng and Yu Suisheng, eds., The Full Translation of the Twenty-Four Histories-History of Ming, p. 6862.
100. Zhang Peiheng and Yu Suisheng, eds., The Full Translation of the Twenty-Four Histories - History of Ming, pp. 6836-7.
101. James A. Millward, Beyond the Pass, p. 9.
102. J. K. Fairbank, 'A Preliminary Framework', p. 12.
103. Mark Mancall, China at the Center, p. 30.
104. On this also see John E. Wills, Embassies and Illusions, pp. 177-8, in which Wills notes the 'primacy of domestic audience'.
105. Peter C. Perdue, China Marches West
106. James A. Millward, 'Qing Silk-Horse Trade'
107. James A. Millward, Beyond the Pass
108. Nicola Di Cosmo, 'Kirghiz Nomads on the Qing Frontier'.
109. Peter C. Perdue, 'A Frontier View of Chineseness', p. 66.
110. Morris Rossabi, ed., China among Equals.
111. Wang Gungwu, 'The Rhetoric of a Lesser Empire', p. 62.
112. John E. Wills, Embassies and Illusions, p. 187.
113. Such a characterization may not be accurate even for the mid-late Qing period. Qing policies during this period were not always rigid and sinocentric. Michael H. Hunt, for example, characterizes Qing policymaking as flexible and even opportunistic. See Michael Hunt, The Genesis of Chinese Communist Foreign Policy (New York: Columbia University Press, 1996), p. 31.
114. James L. Hevia, Cherishing Men from Afar.
115. Peter C. Perdue, 'A Frontier View of Chineseness', p. 67.
116. Ying-shih Yü, Trade and Expansion in Han China: A Study in the Structure of Sino-Barbarian Economic Relations (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1967).
117. Wang Gungwu, 'Early Ming Relations with Southeast Asia', p. 62.
118. For a recent work that explicates the logic of institutional explanation, see Craig Parsons, How to Map Arguments in Political Science (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), chapter 3.
119. Wang Gungwu, 'Early Ming Relations with Southeast Asia', p. 61.
120. This way of seeing the tribute system was suggested to me by Brantly Womack, though elements of it have already been mentioned in the preceding sections of this article.
121. Prasenjit Duara, The Global and Regional in China's Nation-Formation (London and New York: Routledge, 2009), p. 99.
122. John E. Wills, Embassies and Illusions, p. 172.
123. John E. Wills, 'Tribute, Defensiveness, and Dependency', p. 225.
124. James L. Hevia, Cherishing Men from Afar, p. xi.