Historical Studies (Chinese Edition)

No.5, 2018

 

The Main Difference between Late Qing Sino-Foreign Treaty Relationships and Tributary Relationships (Abstract)

 

Li Yumin

 

In the late Qing, Sino-foreign treaty and tributary relationships between China and foreign countries reflected international orders that were different in kind. The tributary relationship had shaped the idea of “common rule of all under heaven” (tianxia gongzhu) centered on China, but in a sense it was an illusory construct whose name did not reflect reality, whereas the treaty relationship, based on the idea of national sovereignty and the principles of international law, was a modified and unbalanced international norm. The former aimed at establishing a self-defense framework that used tributary relationships to “make the barbarians form a defensive wall” (shouzai siyi); the latter was keen to secure actual rights and interests, especially economic interests. The inequality of the former was mainly reflected in forms of intercourse that absorbed Sino-foreign relations into the ritual of the sole authority, the Celestial Empire (tianchao); the latter exercised “quasi-rule” over China, which in actuality meant undermining its sovereignty. The former practiced the morality of the kingly way, of “non-rule” and “recognizing the weak”; the latter exhibited to the full the hegemonic way of “military force” and “oppressing the weak”. The connotations and characteristics of the two different types of international order have their own complex elements and factors.