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This is a list of states that paid tribute to the Imperial dynasties of China under the tributary system. It encompassed states in Central Asia, East Asia, North Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Europe.[1]
From the 5th century onwards, a status hierarchy was an explicit element of the tributary system in which Korea and Vietnam were ranked higher than others, including Japan, the Ryukyus, Siam and others.[2] All diplomatic and trade missions were construed in the context of a tributary relationship with China,[3] including:
During Wang Mang's reign, relations with many of the empire's allies and tributaries deteriorated, due in large part to Wang Mang's arrogance and inept diplomacy.
In the 5th century the Wa (Japan during the Kofun period) sent five tributes to the Jin and to the Liu Song dynasty and the emperors promoted the five kings to the title like Supreme Military Commander of the Six States of Wa, Silla, Mimana, Gaya, Jinhan and Mahan.
According to the Xīn Táng shū the kingdom of Zhēnlà had conquered different principalities in Northwestern Cambodia after the end of the Yǒnghuī (永徽) era (i.e. after 31 January 656), which previously (in 638/39) paid tribute to China.[66]
The Chinese retaliated against Cham which was raiding the Rinan coast around 430s-440s by seizing Qusu, and then plundering the capital of the Cham around Huế. Around 100,000 jin in gold was the amount of plunder. Lin Yi then paid 10,000 jin in gold, 100,000 jin in silver, and 300,000 jin in copper in 445 as tribute to China. The final tribute paid to China from Lin Yi was in 749, among the items were 100 strings of pearls, 30 jin gharuwood, baidi, and 20 elephants.[67]
Enslaved people from tributary countries were sent to Tang China by various groups, the Cambodians sent albinos, the Uyghurs sent Turkic Karluks, the Japanese sent Ainu, and Göktürk (Tujue) and Tibetan girls were also sent to China.[68] Prisoners captured from Liaodong, Korea, and Japan were sent as tribute to China from Balhae.[69]Tang dynasty China received 11 Japanese girl dancers as tribute from Balhae in 777.[70]
The Song dynasty received 302 tribute missions from other countries. Vietnamese missions consisted of 45 of them, another 56 were from Champa. More tribute was sent by Champa in order to curry favor from China against Vietnam.[71] Champa brought as tribute Champa rice, a fast-growing rice strain, to China, which massively increased Chinese yields of rice.[72][73]
In 969 the son of King Li Shengtian named Zongchang sent a tribute mission to China. According to Chinese accounts, the King of Khotan offered to send in tribute to the Chinese court a dancing elephant captured from Kashgar in 970.[74]
The Mongols extracted tribute from throughout their empire.[75] From Goryeo, they received gold, silver, cloth, grain, ginseng, and falcons.[76][77] The tribute payments were a burden on Goryeo and subjugated polities in the empire.[76][77][78] As with all parts of the Mongol Empire, Goryeo provided palace women, eunuchs, Buddhist monks, and other personnel to the Mongols.[79]
Just as Korean women entered the Yuan court, the Korean Koryo kingdom also saw the entry of Mongol women.[80] Great power was attained by some of the Korean women who entered the Yuan court.[81] One example is the Empress Ki (Qi) and her eunuch Bak Bulhwa when they attempted a major coup of Northern China and Koryo.[82] King Ch'ungson (1309–1313) married two Mongol women, Princess Botasirin and a non-royal woman named Yesujin. She gave birth to a son and had a posthumous title of "virtuous concubine". In addition 1324, the Yuan court sent a Mongol princess of Wei named Jintong to the Koryo King Ch'ungsug.[83]
The entry of Korean women into the Yuan court was reciprocated by the entry of Yuan princesses into the Goryeo court, and this affected relations between Korea and the Yuan. Marriages between the imperial family of Yuan existed between certain states. These included the Onggirat tribe, Idug-qut's Uighur tribe, the Oirat tribe, and the Koryo (Korean) royal family.[84][85]
Under the Ming dynasty, countries that wanted to have any form of relationship with China, political, economic or otherwise, had to enter the tribute system. As a result, tribute was often paid for opportunistic reasons rather than as a serious gesture of allegiance to the Chinese emperor, and the mere fact that tribute was paid may not be understood in a way that China had political leverage over its tributary.[86] Also some tribute missions may just have been up by ingenious traders. A number of countries only paid tribute once, as a result of Zheng He's expeditions. As of 1587, in Chinese sources the following countries are listed to have paid tribute to the Ming emperors:[87]
The Hongwu Emperor started tributary relations in 1368, emissaries being sent to countries like Korea, Vietnam, Champa, Japan, of which Korea, Vietnam, and Champa sent back tribute in 1369. During Hongwu's rule, Liuch'iu sent 20, Korea sent 20, Champa sent 19, and Vietnam sent 14 tribute missions.[88] The tribute system was an economically profitable form of government trade, and Korea requested and successfully increased the number of tributes sent to Ming from once every three years to three times each year starting in 1400, and eventually four times each year starting in 1531.[89]
The 1471 Vietnamese invasion of Champa and Ming Turpan Border Wars were either started by or marked by disruptions in the tribute system.
Tribute in the form of servants, eunuchs, and virgin girls came from: Ming's various ethnic-minority tribes, tribes on the Mongolian Plateau, Korea,[90] Vietnam,[91] Cambodia, Central Asia, Siam, Champa, and Okinawa.[92]
There were Korean, Jurchen, Mongol, Central Asian, and Vietnamese eunuchs under the Yongle Emperor,[93][94] including Mongol eunuchs who served him while he was the Prince of Yan.[95] In 1381, Muslim and Mongol eunuchs were captured from Yunnan, and possibly among them was the great Ming maritime explorer Zheng He.[96] Vietnamese eunuchs like Ruan Lang, Ruan An, Fan Hong, Chen Wu, and Wang Jin were sent by Zhang Fu to the Ming.[97]
During Ming's early contentious relations with Joseon, when there were disputes such as competition for influence over the Jurchens in Manchuria, Korean officials were even flogged by Korean-born Ming eunuch ambassadors, when their demands were not met.[98] Some of the ambassadors were arrogant, such as Sin Kwi-saeng who, in 1398, got drunk and brandished a knife at a dinner in the presence of the king.[99][100] Sino-Korean relations later became amiable, and Korean envoys' seating arrangement in the Ming court was always the highest among the tributaries.[98] A total of 198 eunuchs were sent from Korea to Ming.[101]
On 30 Jan 1406, the Ming Yongle Emperor expressed horror when the Ryukyuans castrated some of their own children to become eunuchs in order to give them to Yongle. Yongle said that the boys who were castrated were innocent and didn't deserve castration, and he returned the boys to Ryukyu and instructed them not to send eunuchs again.[102]
Joseon sent a total of 114 women to the Ming dynasty, consisting of 16 virgin girls, accompanied by 48 female servants, 42 cooks (執饌女), and 8 musical performers (歌舞女).[103][104] The women were sent to the Yongle and Xuande emperors in a total of 7 missions between 1408 and 1433.[104] Xuande was the last Ming emperor to receive human tribute from Korea.[98] with his death in 1435, 53 Korean women were repatriated.[105][106] There was much speculation that the Yongle Emperor's real mother was a Korean[107][108][109][110][111][112][113][114][115] or Mongolian[116] concubine.[117][118][119] Relations between Ming China and Joseon Korea improved dramatically and became much more amicable and mutually profitable during Yongle's reign.[111] Yongle and Xuande were said to have a penchant for Korean cuisine and women.[111][120][121]
An anti pig slaughter edict led to speculation that the Zhengde Emperor adopted Islam, due to his use of Muslim eunuchs who commissioned the production of porcelain with Persian and Arabic inscriptions in white and blue color.[122] Muslim eunuchs contributed money in 1496 to repairing Niujie Mosque. Central Asian women were provided to the Zhengde Emperor by a Muslim guard and Sayyid Hussein from Hami.[123] The guard was Yu Yung and the women were Uighur.[124]
It is unknown who really was behind the anti-pig slaughter edict.[125] The speculation of him becoming a Muslim is remembered alongside his excessive and debauched behavior along with his concubines of foreign origin.[126] Muslim Central Asian girls were favored by Zhengde, with Korean girls being favored by Xuande.[127] A Uighur concubine was kept by Zhengde.[128] Uighur and Mongol women were favored by the Zhengde emperor.[129]
This list covers states that sent tribute between 1662 and 1875, and were not covered under the Lifan Yuan. Therefore, Tibet or the Khalkha are not included, although they did send tribute in the period given:[130]
After the Second Manchu Invasion of Korea, Joseon Korea was forced to give several of their royal princesses as concubines to the Qing Manchu regent Prince Dorgon.[138][139][140][141][142][143][144] In 1650, Dorgon married the Korean Princess Uisun (義順).[145] The Princess' name in Korean was Uisun, she was Prince Yi Kaeyoon's (Kumrimgoon) daughter.[146] Dorgon married two Korean princesses at Lianshan.[147]
The tribute system did not dissolve in 1875, but tribute embassies became less frequent and regular: twelve more Korean embassies until 1894, one more (abortive) from Liuqiu in 1877, three more from Vietnam, and four from Nepal, the last one in 1908.[130]
In 1886, after Britain took over Burma, they maintained the sending of tribute to China, putting themselves in a lower status than in their previous relations.[9] It was agreed in the Burma convention in 1886 that China would recognize Britain's occupation of Upper Burma while Britain continued the Burmese payment of tribute every ten years to Peking.[10]
General:
burma was a tributary state of china british forward tribute peking.(Original from the University of California)
tribute china.(Colonial period Korea; WWC-5)(Original from the University of California)
Between 1392 and 1450, the Choson court dispatched 391 envoys to China: on average, seven each year.
thus, between 1637 and 1881, Korea sent 435 special embassies to the Qing court, or an average of almost 1.5 embassies per year.
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The tribute taken to Beijing three or four times a year during most of the Joseon period provides an interesting insight into Korean products at this time.
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This article incorporates text from The National Review, a publication from 1884, now in the public domain in the United States. This article incorporates text from The encyclopædia britannica: a dictionary of arts, sciences, literature and general information, Volume 15, by Hugh Chisholm, a publication from 1911, now in the public domain in the United States. This article incorporates text from China and her mysteries, by Alfred Stead, a publication from 1901, now in the public domain in the United States. This article incorporates text from China's intercourse with Korea from the XVth century to 1895, by William Woodville Rockhill, a publication from 1905, now in the public domain in the United States. This article incorporates text from Mediæval Researches from Eastern Asiatic Sources: Fragments Toward the Knowledge of the Geography and History of Central and Western Asia from the 13th to the 17th Century, Volume 2, by E. Bretschneider, a publication from 1888, now in the public domain in the United States.