China Among Equals: The Middle Kingdom and Its Neighbors, 10th-14th Centuries
Morris Rossabi
Scholars have long accepted China's own view of its traditional foreign relations: that China devised its own world order and maintained it from the second century B.C. to the nineteenth century. China ruled out equality with any nation: foreign rulers and their envoys were treated as subordinates or inferiors, required to send periodic tribute embassies to the Chinese emperor. The Chinese court was otherwise uninterested in foreign lands. Its principal interests were to maintain peace with what it perceived to be barbarian neighbors and to coax or coerce them into admitting China's superiority and accepting the Chinese emperor as the Son of Heaven.
But Chinese foreign policy was not monolithic. Court officials in traditional times were much more realistic and pragmatic than is commonly assumed. They did not scorn foreign trade, nor were ignorant of foreign lands. Challenging the accepted view of Chinese foreign relations, the authors of China among Equals contribute to a clearer assessment of Chinese foreign relations and policy. From the tenth to the thirteenth centuries, China did not dogmatically enforce its own world order. Chinese were eager for foreign trade and knowledgeable about their neighbors. The Sung (960-1279), the principal dynasty during that era, was flexible in its dealings with foreigners. Its officials recognized the military and political weakness of the dynasty, and in general they adopted a realistic and pragmatic foreign policy. They were compelled to accept foreign states as equals, and the relations between China and other states were defined by diplomatic parity. |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
administration army Asia Asian barbarians Besh Balikh biography Central Plain century Ch'ien Liu Ch'üan Chaghadai Chao chih Chin Chinggis Khan Chou CPSL cultural darughachis diplomatic documents East embassy emperor empire Five Dynasties foreign relations frontier hereafter History Hsi Hsia Hsü iduq qut imperial Jurchens K'ai-feng Kereyid Khaidu Khangli Khitans Khocho Khubilai Kim Pusik kingdom Kipchak Koguryo Korean Koryo Later T'ang Liang Liao Manchuria Manchus military Ming mission Möngke Mongol Mongolia MWESC Naiman neighbors North China Northern Sung officials Ögödei Peking period Phags-pa phase Po-hai political princes region reign rhetoric ruler Sa-skya Samguk Sagi sent silk Silla silver SKCC sources Southern T'ang successor Sung court Sung envoys Sung's T'ai-tsung Taipei Tanguts TCTC Temür territory TFYK Tibet Tibetan Tokyo trade trans treaty tribute Turkestan Turks Uighur Uighuristan Wang Western Wu Yüeh WYPS Yüan Yuan Dynasty Yüeh's