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UCLA UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Fraught Collaboration: Diplomacy, Intermediaries, and Governance at the China-Vietnam Border, Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/58n5q141 Author Herr, Joshua Publication Date 2017 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Fraught Collaboration: Diplomacy, Intermediaries, and Governance at the China-Vietnam Border, Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in History by Joshua C. Herr 2017 © Copyright by Joshua C. Herr 2017 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Fraught Collaboration: Diplomacy, Intermediaries, and Governance at the China-Vietnam Border, Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries by Joshua C. Herr Doctor of Philosophy in History University of California, Los Angeles, 2017 Professor Richard Von Glahn, Chair Scholarship and opinion on the history of international borders have tended to think of them as modern institutions that originated in Europe and were imposed globally through colonial expansion in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Historians, moreover, have focused predominantly on the process of border genesis. My study of the China-Vietnam border in the seventeenth and eighteenth century takes a different tack. The subject of my study is an international border in Asia that existed well before significant European involvement in the region and, in fact, well before the period covered in this study. Rather than border genesis, my interest is in the nature of a pre-European, pre-nineteenth century border in Asia and how this “old” border changes over time. ii This dissertation is structured chronologically as well as thematically. In my chapters, I trace the evolution of the China-Vietnam border in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in three aspects: diplomatic relations, local society in the borderlands, and border governance. In varied measure, the chapters reflect three perspectives, namely the view from the two courts, the view from local and translocal society, and the view from state representatives on active service in diplomacy and the border. To reflect these various perspectives, I have combined the use of conventional as well as underused sources. In addition to the familiar court chronicles such as the Chinese Shilu and the Vietnamese Dai Viet Su Ky Toan Thu, I have mobilized embassy accounts, a tusi-domain local gazetteers, and Vietnamese local history sources such as local gazetteers and temple inscriptions to complicate and enrich my narrative. In contrast to many studies of premodern international relations in East Asia, I argue here for the significance of horizontal, lateral dimensions within a hierarchical, asymmetric diplomatic relations. Specifically, I argue that border governance became a crucial area of common interest and collaboration between the Chinese and Vietnamese courts. Moreover, border governance and regulation of transborder movement grew in importance not only as a result of court policy, but also in relation to change in local society and crises in the neighboring state. iii The dissertation of Joshua C. Herr is approved. Sanjay Subrahmanyam George Edson Dutton Richard Von Glahn, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2017 iv For my teachers, Lau Yin Hung 劉燕虹 and Wong Hoi Kit 王海傑 v Table of Contents Page Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1: The beginnings of the Le-Qing diplomatic relationship: The Le-Mind détente of the 1590s and the Qing assumption of the Ming tributary portfolio in the seventeenth century ........................................................................................................................ 26 Chapter 2: The borders of authority: ideology and inter-state relations in routine Qing embassies to Annan, 1664-1761 ................................................................................................. 77 Chapter 3: Political change in the borderlands: the tusi of Western Guangxi and gaitu guiliu, 1600-1730 ................................................................................................................ 141 Chapter 4: Boarder as diplomacy and governance: Qing responses to the Annan crisis of the 1740s ........................................................................................................................ 183 Chapter 5: Cross-border trade and the passport system, 1744-early nineteenth century ........... 236 Chapter 6: Inland entrepot: Local and translocal society at the border town of Lang Son, 17th-18th century ...................................................................................................................... 258 Chapter 7: Tension within collaboration: border regulation and diplomatic incidents, 1740s- 1780s ........................................................................................................................ 283 Chapter 8: Closing of the border: Qing and Le approaches to the mining frontier and the end of the passport system, 1760s-1780s ............................................................................ 304 Epilogue ................................................................................................................................... 330 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 338 Appendix I: Ruling dynasties, significant reign periods, and key dates ................................. 349 Appendix II: Naming practices .................................................................................................. 350 Bibliography .............................................................................................................................. 352 vi Figures and Tables Figures Page (All figures are images in the public domain. See the bibliography for full citation.) Figure 1. Map of China-North Vietnam Boundary Area, created by CIA, 1967. From Library of Congress. ..................................................................................................................... 4 Figure 2. 1886 Chinese map of Taiping prefecture, Guangxi; 1886. LOC ................................. 6 Figure 3. Detail, Guangxi map, Ming Atlas (Da Ming yu di tu), 16th c. LOC. ....................... 15 Figure 4. Map of Siming prefecture. Wanli 27 Guangxi gazetteer. ....................................... 157 Figure 5. Detail, 1886 Chinese map of Taiping Prefecture (inset). LOC. .............................. 158 Figure 6. Detail, 1870 Chinese map of China-Vietnam border. LOC. ................................... 178 Figure 7. Detail, 1988 CIA map of China-Vietnam border. LOC. ......................................... 186 Figure 8. China-Vietnam border, 1967 CIA map. LOC. ........................................................ 260 Figure 9. Detail, Lang Son & environs, China-Vietnam border, 1967 CIA map. LOC. ........ 261 Tables Page Table 1. Qing embassies to Annan, 17th-18th centuries. ........................................................ 81 vii Acknowledgments This dissertation took many years to research and write and rests on years before that of study. Along the way, many people opened doors and helped me along the road. I would like to acknowledge my training at the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign), Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, where I first learned the ropes of professional scholarship. Kai- Wing Chow was a great advisor, who shared of his wide knowledge and guided me in shaping a research agenda. James Welker, Rebecca Nickerson, Jing Jing Chang, Lane Harris, and Lawrence Chang, among many others, supported and taught me as graduate student colleagues. At UCLA, I benefitted from an all-star cast of historians. Richard von Glahn was my dissertation advisor and lent his vast knowledge of the Chinese past to save me from many Sinological and historical blunders. Andrea Goldman helped me in thinking about my scholarship in the light of professionalization; moreover, I am grateful for her timely encouragement even when I stopped believing in myself. Sanjay Subrahmanyam has never ceased to inspire in me a fascination with ideas and world history beyond my narrow field of specialization. George Dutton was one of the reasons I decided to come to UCLA; after 10 years of learning Vietnamese history from him, I am hard-pressed to think of any scholar in the field who would have made a better guide. In particular, I am grateful for his unflagging enthusiasm for Vietnam and its history. It did not work out to have Bin Wong on my committee, but classes with him and occasional comments from him have nudged my work in directions here and there. In fact, the earliest inspiration for this border study was the History 214 World History class he co-taught with Sanjay in Winter 2008 at UCLA. Thanks also to Geoffrey Robinson, for his encouragement and conversations about Southeast Asia; to Hadley D. Porter, for always catching the ball when I wasn’t even aware I had viii dropped it; to Karen Wilson, Muriel McClendon, and Stephen Aron, for helping me to think inside and outside the box; and to Su Chen and Hong Cheng, for their enthusiastic support at the East Asian Library at UCLA. In carrying