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Tributary Trade and China's Relations with the West Author(s): J. K. Fairbank Reviewed work(s): Source: The Far Eastern Quarterly, Vol. 1, No. 2 (Feb., 1942), pp. 129-149 Published by: Association for Asian Studies Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2049617 . Accessed: 09/10/2012 18:50 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Association for Asian Studies is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Far Eastern Quarterly. http://www.jstor.org TRIBUTARY TRADE AND CHINA'S RELATIONS WITH THE WEST J.K. FAIRBANK HarvardUniversity UNTIL a centuryago, China's foreign relations were suzerain-vassal relationsconducted through the ancient forms of thetributary system. This traditionalChinese basis fordiplomacy was finallyturned upside down by the "unequal" treatiesof the period1842-1858, but vestigesof the old Chineseway of dealingwith the barbarians survived much longer and today still forma considerablethough latent portion of the heritageof Chinese diplomats.It is ofcourse a truismthat tribute was notexactly what it seemed, and thatboth diplomacy and internationaltrade were conductedwithin the tributaryframework. The followingessay offers a preliminaryinterpretation of theorigin, function, and significanceof thisgreat Chinese institution.' CHINESE CULTURAL DOMINANCE IN EAST ASIA The tributarysystem was a naturalexpression of Chinesecultural ego- centricity.Ever since the bronzeage, when the civilizationof the Shang dynasty(c. 1500-1100 B.C.) had firstappeared as a culture-islandin the Yellow River basin, the inhabitantsof the Chinese state had been sur- roundedby barbarianpeoples of inferiorculture. At no timewere theyin directcontact with an equal civilization,for all of EasternAsia-Korea, Japan,Annam, Siam-became culturallyaffiliated to the Middle Kingdom, while India and the Near East remainedcut offby the arid land mass of CentralAsia. Separatedfrom the West, the Chineseempire grew by the acculturationof its borders.Its expansionwas theexpansion of a way of life. Where theChinese agrarian way of lifecould not be followed,as uponthe aridpasture land of theMongolian steppe, there the expansion of theempire usuallystopped.2 Over the wet rice land towardthe south it continued throughmany centuries. Fromthis age-long contact with the barbarians roundabout, including both thenomads of the northern steppe and the aborigines of the south, the Chinese 1 This articleis chieflybased upon the data presented in J. K. Fairbankand S. Y. Teng,"On the Ch'ingtributary system," Harvardjournal of Asiatic studies, 6 (1941), 135-246. 2 This topichas been analyzed at lengthby Owen Lattimore,Inner Asian frontiers of China(New York,1940). For a bibliographyon tributein generalsee Fairbankand Teng, op. cit.,pp. 238-43. 129 130 THE FAR EASTERN QUARTERLY were impressedwith one fact: thattheir superiority was not one of mere materialpower but of culture.Such thingsas theChinese written language and the Confuciancode of conductwere signsof thisculture and so great was theirvirtue, so overwhelmingthe achievements of theMiddle Kingdom in art and lettersand the art of living,that no barbariancould longresist them.Gradually but invariably the barbarianin contactwith China tended to becomeChinese, by thismost flattering act reinforcingthe Chinese con- victionof superiority.On theirside theinhabitants of theMiddle Kingdom, themselveslargely descendants of barbarians,stood always ready to judgea manby culturalrather than by racialor nationalstandards. After centuries of solitarygrandeur as the centerof EasternAsia, the Chinesedeveloped what may be called, by analogyto nationalism,a spiritof "culturism." Those who did not followthe Chineseway were ipsofacto inferior, and dangerouswhen strong, and thisview was supportedby (or emanatedfrom) an entirecosmology and a well-balancedsystem of ethics. Without venturing too farinto earlier history we maytry to notecertain of theideas which sup- portedthis "culturism." An interpretationof Chinesepolitical theory may well beginwith the dictumthat man is partof nature, not, as in themodern west, in conflictwith nature.Possibly this Chinese view of mankindas subordinateand fittinginto theunseen forces of theuniverse arose fromgeographical environment. On the broadsurface of the NorthChina plain humaninitiative was less im- portantthan the weather,and naturalcalamity, whether drought or flood, could not be avoided as easily as in ancientGreece or WesternEurope, wherethe sea and a woodedterrain usually offered some rewardto human initiativein a timeof trouble.Conceivably this may account for the passive acceptanceof naturalcalamity on thepart of theChinese farmer and it may also have somethingto do withthe lack of anthropomorphismin Chinese religion.At all eventsthe early religion of theChinese appears to havebeen animistic,concerned with the spirits of land,wind, and water.The activity of naturewas observed,and it was but a shortstep to the conclusionthat theactivity of manmust be madeto harmonizewith it. The harmonyof manwith nature in thepresent had its obviouscorollary in thecontinuity between the present and thepast. This senseof continuity, so evidentin thegreat tradition of Chinese historical writing, must probably be associatedwith the highdegree of influenceascribed to the ancestors. Each generation,as it passedfrom the scene, was believedto havejoined the unseenforces of nature which continued to influencehuman life. It was inthis beliefthat the oracle bones were used in the Shang period to ask theancestors' CHINA'S RELATIONS WITH THE WEST 131 guidance.The reverenceand respectpaid to one's forebears("ancestor worship")is one ofthe best known features of Chinese society. With it went a deep respectfor the exampleof the ancestors,with which,as with the forcesof nature,one's presentconduct should accord. THE ETHICAL BASIS OF THE EMPEROR S POWER Fromthis point of view thefunction of theruler clearly emerges. Being in his persononly human but in his officesomething more, the Son of Heaven mediatedbetween the peopleand theunseen forces of whichwe have been speaking.This is notthe place fora documentedanalysis of theposition of the Chineseemperor and it mustnot be thoughtthat his positioncan be easilydescribed in Westernparlance. But, as a roughinterpretation, it may be saidthat the emperor's position was midwaybetween the mass of mankind and theuniversal power of Heaven. It was his functionto maintainthe all- importantharmony between them. This he did firstof all in a ritualistic manner,by conductingsacrifices like thoseperformed annually until a short timeago at theAltar of Heaven in Peking,and by a multitudeof other cere- monialacts. This activityof theruler is an unbrokentradition from the earli- est timeand is mostspectacularly demonstrated in themodern period in the institutionof ritualresponsibility. According to this doctrineit was felt thatnatural calamity-in other words, disharmony between man and nature -was the resultof the emperor'sinattention to the rites.When calamity occurred,the emperortherefore was quick to issue a penitentialedict-a customwhich has seemedto uncomprehendingEuropeans certainly quaint and perhapssilly. This ritualresponsibility was a doctrinewhich held to accountnot the person but the office. In otherwords the emperor must play his ceremonialpart in the cosmos and in playingthis part he represented all mankind;and since the activitiesof man and naturewere so closely related,any failure in theemperor's ceremonial observances was soon likely to be manifestin an irregularityof naturalprocesses. Ceremonial conduct was thereforeall-important. Intention, being less tangible,mattered little. This Chineseview of responsibility pervaded the entire administrative system and madeits activitiesoften unintelligible to foreigners. To thisancient idea of theruler's ritual function was addedthe idea of his rightconduct as a basis forhis authority.This development,associated with thename of Confucius(b. 551 B.C.), in realityfirst arose at the beginning of theChou dynasty(c. 1122 B.C.) to justifythe establishment of itscontrol in succession to the alleged degenerate last king of the preceding Shang dynasty. A theoryof rightwas sought as a sanction for a new exercise of 132 THE FAR EASTERN QUARTERLY might.Confucius, among others, sought to supplya new rationaland ethical basis for the ruler.Unlike the impersonallegalist doctrine by whichthe WarringStates were finallyregimented into a unifiedempire in 221 B.C., Confucianismsought to makeuse of thepower of moralexample. Right con- ductfor all personsconsisted in theperformance of theproper rites and cere- moniesand the preservationof theproper social relationshipsaccording to status.Thus it was theduty of theminister to be loyal,and of theson to be filial,and of each personin societyto preservethe social orderby actingas demandedby etiquette.It was thereforeparticularly the dutyof the ruler as theone manwho representedhis peoplebefore Heaven to set themodel forthe restof mankind.There was feltto be a certainvirtue or powerin rightconduct such thatit could move others. The
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