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53-568: There are three different theories as to how the Dan River got its name: The Dan River Basin is located between 109°30'-112°00' East and 32°30'-34°10' North. Roughly 2,000 metres (6,600 ft) wide, the river flows for 287 kilometres (178 mi) through a basin covering 16,812 square kilometres (6,491 sq mi). According to the Yu Gong , the geography section of the Book of Documents ,

106-477: A "token of conformity to the Chinese world order". The Ming founder Hongwu Emperor adopted a maritime prohibition policy and issued tallies to "tribute-bearing" embassies for missions. Missions were subject to limits on the number of persons and items allowed. The Old Book of Tang and New Book of Tang recorded Silla sending women, 4 in total, all rejected, gold, silver among other things as tribute to

159-680: A 2018 study in the Journal of Conflict Resolution covering Vietnam-China relations from 1365 to 1841, "the Vietnamese court explicitly recognized its unequal status in its relations with China through a number of institutions and norms." Due to their participation in the tributary system, Vietnamese rulers behaved as though China was not a threat and paid very little military attention to it. Rather, Vietnamese leaders were clearly more concerned with quelling chronic domestic instability and managing relations with kingdoms to their south and west." From

212-524: A compilation of 55 titles dating from the Song to the Qing dynasties. Notable amongst the volumes included in the collection are: Tribute (China) The tributary system of China ( simplified Chinese : 中华朝贡体系, traditional Chinese : 中華朝貢體系, pinyin: Zhōnghuá cháogòng tǐxì), or Cefeng system ( simplified Chinese : 册封体制 ; traditional Chinese : 冊封體制 ; pinyin : Cèfēng tǐzhì ) at its height

265-467: A flexible practice with multiple meanings into an overly formalized ritual system" in which gong always had the same meanings and gong ritual was exclusively and predominately a marker of foreign relations, whereas the Qing conducted "many diverse forms of tributary ritual". The "tribute system" is often associated with a "Confucian world order", under which neighboring states complied and participated in

318-490: A foreign court sending envoys and exotic products to the Chinese emperor. The emperor then gave the envoys gifts in return and permitted them to trade in China. Presenting tribute involved theatrical subordination but usually not political subordination. The political sacrifice of participating actors was simply "symbolic obeisance". Nor were states that sent tribute forced to mimic Chinese institutions, for example in cases such as

371-538: A move out of necessity, we may still say that they have been able to correct their mistake Goryeo's rulers called themselves "Great King" viewing themselves as the sovereigns of the Goryeo-centered world of Northeast Asia. They maintained their own Imperial style, in their setup of government institutions, administrative divisions and own tributary system. As the struggle between the Northern Yuan and

424-494: A set of rituals from the tributary states whenever they sought relations with China as a way of regulating diplomatic relations. The main rituals generally included: After the completion of the rituals, the tributary states engaged in their desired business, such as trade. Tributary relations emerged during the Tang dynasty , under the reign of Emperor Taizong , as Chinese rulers started perceiving foreign envoys bearing tribute as

477-433: Is a Western invention. There was no equivalent term in the Chinese lexicon to describe what would be considered the "tribute system" today, nor was it envisioned as an institution or system. John King Fairbank and Teng Ssu-yu created the "tribute system" theory in a series of articles in the early 1940s to describe "a set of ideas and practices developed and perpetuated by the rulers of China over many centuries." The concept

530-676: The Ashikaga shogunate again became a tributary of China under the Ming dynasty in 1401. As a result, in 1404, Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu , who held most of the de facto power in Japan, accepted the title "King of Japan" from the Ming, despite the nominal sovereign of Japan still residing in Kyōto . Yoshimitsu was the first and only Japanese ruler in the early modern period to accept a Chinese title. During

583-453: The Jin dynasty and its successors and were appointed as "King of Wa ". The Emperors of China commonly referred to the ruler of Japan as 倭寇 王 wōkouwang ( wakuō ) meaning "King of Wa", while they themselves styled themselves as ōkimi , meaning "Great King" in relation to the Chinese emperor. Internally 天皇 tennō meaning "heavenly king" also used to put the ruler of Japan on the same level as

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636-563: The Manchu -led Qing dynasty , which invaded Joseon and forced it to become a tributary in 1636, in the same way as the Han -led Ming dynasty. Joseon had continued to support the Ming in their wars against the Qing despite incurring military retaliation from the latter. The Manchus were viewed as barbarians by the Korean court, which, regarding itself as the new "Confucian ideological center" in place of

689-479: The Muromachi period Japan accepted the Ming led worldview. This relationship continued until 1549 (except the 1411-1432 period) when Japan chose to end its recognition of China's regional hegemony and cancel any further tribute missions. Membership in the tributary system was a prerequisite for any economic exchange with China. In exiting the system, Japan relinquished its trade relationship with China. Under

742-526: The Yu Gong is traditionally dated to the Xia dynasty ( c.  2070  – c.  1600 BCE ), most modern scholars agree that the work is considerably more recent. Tradition dictates that Confucius (551–479 BCE) compiled the Book of Documents and included the Yu Gong , although it is more likely that this was done later. Wang Guowei suggested in his New Confirmation of Ancient History (古史新证) that

795-643: The Yu Gong was written at the start of the Zhou dynasty , but most scholars now agree with the view of Gu Jiegang that it is a product of the Warring States , Qin or Early Han periods. References to maritime history in the Analects of Confucius and the Yu Gong suggest their origin in a single culture while the appearance of the West River (西河) and South River (南河) in the latter indicate that

848-603: The Yuan dynasty during the reign of King Ram Khamhaeng , and Thailand remained a tributary of China until 1853. Wei Yuan , the 19th century Chinese scholar, considered Thailand to be the strongest and most loyal of China's Southeast Asian tributaries, citing the time when Thailand offered to directly attack Japan to divert the Japanese in their planned invasions of Korea and the Asian mainland, as well as other acts of loyalty to

901-399: The "tribute system" to secure guarantees of peace, investiture, and trading opportunities. One member acknowledged another's position as superior, and the superior would bestow investiture upon them in the form of a crown, official seal, and formal robes, to confirm them as king. The practice of investing non-Chinese neighbors had been practiced since ancient times as a concrete expression of

954-401: The 1962 "Cut off the tail of capitalism" policy (割掉资本主义尾巴) halted part-time shipping activities by the farming community. Thirdly, with deforestation and the construction of reservoirs the water sources for the Dan River declined. Large quantities of silt in the river bed increased the number of dangerous reefs so that parts of the waterway became impassable. The following are recorded amongst

1007-469: The Dan River included kerosene, tobacco, chinaware, silk, medicinal ingredients, walnuts, peach kernels (used in Chinese medicine) and specialty products from the mountains. During the 1940s onwards, waterborne trade on the Dan went into decline. Three primary factors account for the decline in trade on the Dan River during the previous century. Firstly, wooden sailboats were a relatively backward technology. On

1060-629: The Dan River joined the Han River at a place called Laohe Kou (老河口 literally: old river mouth ). Later on during and after the Tang dynasty (618–907 CE) under the Fan Zhen (藩镇) or "Buffer Town" system of administration, the Dan River area had the power to block transport on the Huai and Bian Rivers. As a result, the Dan became an important waterway in the Yangtze and Huai River region. At

1113-867: The Dan River to Longju Village. A decade later on 16 February 1731, the Yongzheng Emperor ordered grain to be dispatched from Hubei and Guangdong to Shangzhou , Shaanxi as a contingency against food shortages. In 1737, during the Qianlong Emperor 's reign, crops failed in Shangzhou and grain prices rocketed. To keep down prices and provide disaster relief, the authorities in Liguanqiao Town (李官桥镇) and Dengzhou City in Xichuan County, Henan procured 1880 dan , equivalent to 188 cubic metres (6,600 cu ft), of foodstuffs which

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1166-853: The Dan River. In 1693, during the reign of the Qing Kangxi Emperor , both Xi'an and Fengxiang County on the Guanzhong Plain suffered crop failure bringing famine to the region. Ding Sikong (丁思孔), governor general of the provinces of Hubei and Guangdong with the assistance of others, sent relief aid from Xiangyang via the Dan River into Shaanxi Province after carrying out dredging operations. Famine reoccurred later during Kangxi's reign in 1720 when 100,000 dan (石), equivalent to 10,000 cubic metres (350,000 cu ft), of rice were shipped to Shaanxi from warehouses in Jingzhou , City, Hubei Province and other locations by boat along

1219-508: The Dan as the "Black River", emphasizing the bandit problem. At that time, three relatively large families controlled shipping; those of Ling Laosi (凌老四) from Jingziguan Town (荆紫关镇)，Guo Laopo (郭老婆) from Laocheng Town (老城镇) and Liguanqiao Town's (李官桥镇) Jin Yulou (金玉楼), head of the Red Guild (红帮会). They were all considered leeches and exploiters by the boatmen. Records show that cargoes carried on

1272-613: The Inner Asians, who basically ignored the trappings of Chinese government. Instead they manipulated Chinese tribute practices for their own financial benefit. The gifts doled out by the Ming emperor and the trade permits granted were of greater value than the tribute itself, so tribute states sent as many tribute missions as they could. In 1372, the Hongwu Emperor restricted tribute missions from Joseon and six other countries to just one every three years. The Ryukyu Kingdom

1325-480: The Ming dynasty. Thailand was welcoming and open to Chinese immigrants, who dominated commerce and trade, and achieved high positions in the government. Vietnam was ruled by China for 1050 years. When Vietnam gained independence in 939, it became a tributary of China until 1885 when it became a protectorate of France with the Treaty of Huế (1884) . The Lê dynasty (1428–1527) and Nguyễn dynasty (1802–1945) adopted

1378-548: The Ming, continued to use the Ming calendar and era names in defiance of the Qing, despite sending tribute missions. Meanwhile, Japan avoided direct contact with Qing China and instead manipulated embassies from neighboring Joseon and Ryukyu to make it falsely appear as though they came to pay tribute. Joseon Korea remained a tributary of Qing China until 1895, when the First Sino-Japanese War ended this relationship. The Chinese tributary system required

1431-635: The Red Turban Rebellion and the Ming remained indecisive, Goryeo retained neutrality despite both sides pleading for their assistance in order to break this stalemate. As the Ming eventually gained the upper hand Goryeo paid an enormous tribute to Ming in February 1385 consisting of five thousand horses, five hundred jin of gold, fifty thousand jin of silver and fifty thousand bolts of cotton fabric in order to maintain their neutrality. Early kings of Japan had formal diplomatic inquiries with

1484-460: The Shangluo section of the waterway a maximum of only four tons could be carried upriver and 10 tons downstream. With calm water, the 167-kilometre (104 mi) round trip from Longju Village to Jingziguan took 20 days and involved heavy physical work with little return. However, in transportation terms, wooden sailboats were quite advanced for the time and there was no better option available. With

1537-511: The Tang dynasty. If Silla indeed served China wholeheartedly by dispatching tributary ships one after another, why did King Beopheung use his own reign title? This is indeed confusing! From then on, Silla maintained this erroneous practice for many more years, even after Emperor Taizong had learned about it and reproved the Silla ambassador. Now, they eventually adopted the Tang reign title. Although

1590-572: The author came from the State of Wei . In the preface to his Commentary on the Yu Gong Map (禹贡图注), Ming dynasty Scholar Ài Nányīng (艾南英) (1583–1646) considered the Yu Gong the "progenitor of all geographic texts both ancient and modern." Over the centuries numerous scholars have written interpretations of and commentaries on the Yu Gong . In 2006 the Xi'an Map Publishing Agency (西安地圖出版社) published

1643-410: The death of Emperor Hongwu, the Chinese intervened after a Vietnamese general, Le Qui Ly, usurped the Vietnamese throne. The Malacca sultanate sent envoys to China to inform them that while returning to Malacca in 1469 from a trip to China, their ship had been driven by a storm to the coast of Vietnam and the Vietnamese killed, enslaved and castrated the survivors. The Malaccans reported that Vietnam

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1696-463: The emperor along with his government and army. With the advent of the Republic of China in 1912, a ballad spread amongst the people of Xichuan County featuring the words "The boatmen have three knives stuck in their stomachs: the river pirates, the bandits and the submerged reefs. They have only three choices: starvation, death by drowning or imprisonment." In turn, the boatmen themselves referred to

1749-402: The hierarchic and nonegalitarian Confucian social order. "Tribute", points out Peter C. Perdue , the historian of Qing dynasty foreign relations, is "the inadequate translation for gong , a term with multiple meanings in classical Chinese," since its "root meaning of gift giving from inferiors to superiors applied to all personal relationships...." Fairbank's concept of tribute system "turned

1802-738: The imperial Chinese system, with rulers declaring themselves emperors on the Confucian model and attempting to create a Vietnamese imperial tributary system while still remaining a tributary state of China. Even though Vietnam was the only sinicized country in Southeast Asia, the Ming dynasty treated it with less respect than Korea or the Ryukyu Kingdom. The Hongwu Emperor was firmly opposed to military expeditions in Southeast Asia and only rebuked Vietnam's conquest of Champa , which had sent tribute missions to China seeking help. After

1855-525: The late 19th century, China had become part of a European-style community of sovereign states and established diplomatic relations with other countries in the world following international law . Some scholars have suggested that the tributary system is a model for understanding international relations in East Asia today, while others argue that the concept is misleading both about relations in early modern times and today. The term "tribute system"

1908-496: The late 14th to early 16th centuries, the Ryukyu Kingdom served an important position in the Ming's tributary order, as they became a key intermediary for the Ming's trade with Northeast and Southeast Asia through goods funnelled into Ming-Ryukyu tribute missions. Ryukyu's intermediary role was also facilitated by Chinese diaspora communities who settled in Ryukyu and served positions in the Ryukyu court. The Sultanate of Malacca and

1961-407: The loose reign policy. The rulers of Joseon , in particular, sought to legitimize their rule through reference to Chinese symbolic authority. On the opposite side of the tributary relationship spectrum was Japan , whose leaders could hurt their own legitimacy by identifying with Chinese authority. In these politically tricky situations, sometimes a false king was set up to receive investiture for

2014-562: The many natural disasters that have occurred through history in the Dan River region: Yu Gong The Yu Gong or Tribute of Yu is a chapter of the Book of Xia ( Chinese : t 夏書 , s 夏书 , Xià Shū ) section of the Book of Documents , one of the Five Classics of ancient Chinese literature . The chapter describes the legendary Yu the Great and

2067-404: The non-Chinese world for two millennia, until the collapse of the system around the end of the 19th century. Other scholars like Odd Arne Westad see a variety of relationships that differed in character, not an overall "tributary system". They suggest a Sinocentric system, in which Chinese culture was central to the self-identification of many elite groups in the surrounding Asian countries. By

2120-744: The one of China. Between 607 and 839, Japan submitted and sent 19 missions to China under the Sui and Tang dynasties (a mission planned for 894 was cancelled). The nature of these bilateral contacts evolved gradually from political and ceremonial acknowledgment to cultural exchanges; and the process accompanied the growing commercial ties which developed over time. Knowledge was the principal objective of each expedition. For example: Priests studied Chinese Buddhism. Officials studied Chinese government. Doctors studied Chinese medicine . Painters studied Chinese painting . Approximately one third of those who embarked from Japan did not survive to return home. Japan under

2173-482: The peace with the more powerful neighbor and be eligible for diplomatic or military help under certain conditions. Political actors within the tributary system were largely autonomous and in almost all cases virtually independent. Scholars differ on the nature of China's relations with its neighbors in traditional times. Many describe a system that embodied a collection of institutions, social and diplomatic conventions, and institutions that dominated China's contacts with

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2226-399: The provinces of his time. Most modern scholars believe it was written in the fifth century BCE or later. The chapter can be divided into two parts. The first describes the nine provinces of Ji (冀), Yan (兗), Qing (青), Xu (徐), Yang (揚), Jing (荊), Yu (豫), Liang (梁), and Yong (雍), with the improvement works conducted by Yu in each province. The second enumerates Yu's surveys of

2279-537: The purposes of tribute trade. In practice, the tribute system only became formalized during the early years of the Ming dynasty . Actors within the "tribute system" were virtually autonomous and carried out their own agendas despite sending tribute; as was the case with Japan, Korea, Ryukyu, and Vietnam. Chinese influence on tributary states was almost always non-interventionist in nature and tributary states "normally could expect no military assistance from Chinese armies should they be invaded". The "tribute" entailed

2332-457: The rapid growth of rail and road transportation from the early days of the Republic of China the sailboat's days were numbered. The second factor concerns economic changes that occurred from the 1950s onwards. China's implementation of economic regionalization and a state monopoly on purchasing and marketing effectively severed the upstream/downstream trade links on the Dan River. A decade later

2385-423: The rivers of the empire, followed by an idealized description of five concentric domains of five hundred li each, from the royal domain (甸服 Diānfú ) around the capital to the remote wild domain (荒服 Huāngfú ). Later, this would become important in the justification for the concept of Tianxia or "All Under Heaven" as a means to back up the territorial and other claims of successive Chinese dynasties. Although

2438-649: The rule of the Wanli Emperor, Ming China quickly interpreted the Japanese invasions of Korea (1592–1598) which failed as a challenge to the Ming centered predominant worldview and order. Thailand was an important Chinese tributary state from the Sui dynasty (581–618), until the Taiping Rebellion of the late Qing dynasty during the mid-19th century. The Sukhothai Kingdom , the first unified Thai state, established official tributary relations with

2491-546: The time of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) and later, the Dan was used by merchants of the Guanlong Trading Bloc (关陇集团) to transport goods to Xiangyang and Hankou , both in Hubei Province. At the same time many shipping (船帮会馆) and horse-drawn transportation (马帮会馆) guilds were established at Longju Village (龙驹寨) (modern day Danfeng County, Shaanxi Province), illustrating the flourishing trade on

2544-580: Was a network of loose international relations centered around China which facilitated trade and foreign relations by acknowledging China's hegemonic role within a Sinocentric world order . It involved multiple relationships of trade, military force, diplomacy and ritual. The other states had to send a tributary envoy to China on schedule, who would kowtow to the Chinese emperor as a form of tribute, and acknowledge his superiority and precedence. The other countries followed China's formal ritual in order to keep

2597-454: Was developed and became influential after 1968, when Fairbank edited and published a conference volume, The Chinese World Order , with fourteen essays on China's pre-modern relations with Vietnam, Korea, Inner Asia and Tibet, Southeast Asia and the Ryukyus, as well as an Introduction and essays describing Chinese views of the world order. The model presents the tribute system as an extension of

2650-469: Was in control of Champa and that the Vietnamese sought to conquer Malacca, but the Malaccans did not fight back because of a lack of permission from the Chinese to engage in war. Malacca avoided reciprocating hostilities until they received a letter from the Ming dynasty, in which the Ming emperor scolded them, ordering the Malaccans to raise soldiers and retaliate if the Vietnamese attacked. According to

2703-495: Was not included in this list, and sent 57 tribute missions from 1372 to 1398, an average of two tribute missions per year. Since geographical density and proximity was not an issue, regions with multiple kings such as the Sultanate of Sulu benefited immensely from this exchange. After 1435, the Ming dynasty urged foreign delegations to leave and stopped offering transport assistance for visiting missions. The size of delegations

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2756-675: Was restricted from hundreds of people to less than a dozen and the frequency of tributary missions was also reduced. The practice of giving gifts of greater value than the tribute itself was not practiced by the Mongol -led Yuan dynasty court with Goryeo . Gifts conferred by the Yuan were worth a fraction of the tribute offered by Goryeo. Participation in a tributary relationship with a Chinese dynasty could also be predicated on cultural or civilizational motivations rather than material and monetary benefits. The Korean kingdom of Joseon did not treat

2809-607: Was shipped along the Dan River to Shangzhou. The Qing Guangxu Emperor 's reign saw the 1890 occupation of Beijing by the Eight-Nation Alliance following the Boxer Rebellion . The emperor along with Empress Dowager Cixi escaped to Xi'an. Grain taxes from the Jingdai (荆襄) District (south of modern-day Neixiang County , Henan) were forwarded along the Dan River to Longju Village then on to Xi'an for use by

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