The foreign relations of Imperial China from the Qin dynasty until the Qing dynasty encompassed many situations as the fortunes of dynasties rose and fell. Chinese culture had influenced neighboring and distant countries, while being transformed by outside influences as well as being conquered. During the Western Han dynasty, the Silk Road trade routes were established and brought Hellenistic Central Asia, Persia under the Parthian Empire, and South Asia into contact with the Chinese empire. During the 2nd century BC, Zhang Qian became the first known Chinese diplomat to venture deep into Central Asia in search of allies against the Mongolic Xiongnu confederation. Han Chinese attempts were made at reaching the Roman Empire and although the mission led by Gan Ying in 97 AD was a failure, Chinese historical records nevertheless maintain that the Romans traveled to southern China and Vietnam via the Indian Ocean. Buddhism from India was introduced to China during the Eastern Han period and would spread to neighboring Vietnam, Korea, and Japan, all of which would adopt similar Confucian cultures based on the Chinese model.
Following the collapse of the Yuan dynasty and the formation of the Ming dynasty by the Hongwu Emperor in 1368, imperial Chinese power was projected abroad with the 15th-century Chinese treasure fleet of Admiral Zheng He. As representatives of the Yongle Emperor, Zheng's fleet sailed throughout Southeast Asia, the Indian Ocean and to East Africa exacting tribute, granting lavish gifts to vassal states, and even invaded Sri Lanka. However, the fleet was later dismantled and the Ming emperors thereafter fostered Haijin isolationist policies that limited international trade and foreign contacts to a handful of seaports and other locations. These policies saw a gradual reversal after the arrival of European explorers such as Jorge Álvares (the first foreigner to travel to China by sea) and Rafael Perestrello and, although a war was initially fought against the Portuguese Empire, the Portuguese were granted a colonial settlement at Macau in the 16th century. Catholic Jesuit missions in China were also introduced, with Matteo Ricci being the first European allowed to enter the Forbidden City of the Ming emperors in Beijing. During the subsequent Qing dynasty Jesuits from Europe such as Giuseppe Castiglione gained favor at court until the Chinese Rites controversy and most missionaries were expelled in 1706.
The dissolution of the Mongol empire in the fourteenth century made Central Asian trade routes dangerous and forced Western European powers to explore ocean routes. Following the Portuguese and Spanish Empire, Protestant powers such as the Dutch Empire and the British Empire began trading with China in the early 17th century. The Kingdom of Great Britain granted a monopoly of trade with China to the British East India Company in 1600, and Qing court moved to control this burgeoning trade with the West by creating the Canton System in 1756, granting a monopoly of trade to the merchants of the Thirteen Factories and restricted it to Canton (as Guangzhou was then known) in the south. The British Macartney Embassy of 1793 failed to convince the Qianlong Emperor to open northern Chinese ports for foreign trade or establish direct relations. The growing British importation of goods such as tea was offset by the illicit British sale of opium to smugglers. However, the Qing unilateral banning of the sale of opium led to the Opium Wars and Chinese defeat. The 1842 Treaty of Nanking replaced the Canton system with a series of treaty ports, ending the tributary system as well.
In premodern times, the theory of foreign relations of China held that the Chinese Empire was the Celestial Dynasty, the center of world civilization, with the Emperor of China being the leader of the civilized world. This view saw China as equivalent to "all under heaven". All other states were considered to be tributaries, under the suzerain rule of China. Some were direct vassals. Theoretically, the lands around the imperial capital were regarded as "five zones of submission", - the circular areas differentiated according to the strength of the benevolent influence from the Son of Heaven.
There were several periods when Chinese foreign policy took on isolationist tones, because of the view that the rest of the world was poor and backward with little to offer.
Nevertheless, China was a center of trade from early on in its history. Many of China's interactions with the outside world came via the Silk Road. This included, during the 2nd century AD, contact with representatives of the Roman Empire, and during the 13th century, the visits of Venetian traveler Marco Polo.
Chinese foreign policy was usually aimed at containing the threat of so-called "barbarian" invaders (such as the Xiongnu, Mongols, and Jurchen) from the north. This could be done by military means, such as an active offense (campaigns into the north) or a more passive defense (as exemplified by the Great Wall of China). The Chinese also arranged marriage alliances known as heqin, or "peace marriages."
Chinese officers distinguished between "matured/familiar barbarians" (foreigners influenced by Chinese culture) and "raw barbarians".[citation needed]
In many periods, Chinese foreign policy was especially assertive. One such case was exemplified by the treasure voyages of Admiral Zheng He during the Ming dynasty.
Although many kings of the Shang and Zhou dynasties ruled beforehand, in 221 BC, the ruler of the Qin state, Ying Zheng (Qin Shi Huang), was the first to conquer the different vassal states under the Zhou dynasty, as well as other non-sinicized states. He was able to transform these different states into a relatively unified and uniform empire, the Qin Empire. Under his leadership and a society modelled around strict adherence to legalist philosophy, his once backwater western frontier state conquered all of the rivaling Warring States in ancient China. The Chinese domain was also extended into Inner Mongolia and Manchuria to the north, and with naval expeditions sent to the south, the indigenous Baiyue of modern-day Guangdong and northern Vietnam (the latter called Jiaozhi, and then Annam during the Tang dynasty) were also quelled and brought under Chinese rule.[1]
The time of the Han dynasty (202 BC–AD 220) was a groundbreaking era in the history of Imperial China's foreign relations, during the long reign of Emperor Wu of Han (r. 141–87 BC), the travels of the diplomat Zhang Qian opened up China's relations with many different Asian territories for the first time. While traveling to the Western Regions in order to seek out an alliance with the Yuezhi against the Xiongnu, Zhang Qian was imprisoned by the Xiongnu for many years, but he brought back detailed reports of lands that had been previously unknown to the Chinese. This included details of his travels to the Greek-Hellenized kingdoms of Fergana (Dayuan) and the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom (Daxia), as well as reports of Anxi (Persian Empire of Parthia), Tiaozhi (Mesopotamia), Shendu (India), and the Wusun Central Asian nomads. After his travels, the famous land trading route of the Silk Road leading from China to the Roman Empire was established. Emperor Wu was also known for his conquests and successful campaigns against the Xiongnu. He warred against the Kingdom of Wiman Joseon in order to establish the Four Commanderies of Han in Manchuria, one of which was established in northern Korea, the Lelang Commandery. The empire began expanding into southern China and northern Vietnam, then the territory of the Baiyue kingdoms. The Han Empire absorbed Minyue after defeating the state, and annexed the Dian in Yunnan. By 111 BC, Emperor Wu conquered the Nanyue kingdom in the Han–Nanyue War. Nanyue was ruled by the Triệu dynasty since the Qin naval officer Zhao Tuo had broken ties with mainland rule in the fall of Qin and establishment of Han.[2][3]
The Han dynasty in 87 BC, after the territorial expansion and establishment of the Silk Road during the reign of Emperor Wu.
Yet Chinese trading missions to follow were not limited to travelling across land and terrain. During the 2nd century BC, the Chinese had sailed past Southeast Asia and into the Indian Ocean, reaching India and Sri Lanka by sea before the Romans. This sea route became well traveled not only by merchants and diplomats, but also Chinese religious missionaries in search of further Indian Buddhist texts to translate from Sanskrit to Chinese. In AD 148, the Parthian prince known as An Shigao was the first to translate Buddhist scriptures into Chinese. There were many other Buddhist missionaries as well, including Yuezhi missionaries and Kushan Buddhist missionaries from northern India who introduced Buddhism to China. Emperor Ming establishing the White Horse Temple in the 1st century AD is demarcated by the 6th-century Chinese writer Yang Xuanzhi as the official introduction of Buddhism to China. Also by the 1st century AD, the Chinese made sea contacts with Yayoi Japan, inhabited by what the Chinese termed as the Wa people. By the 1st century, the Chinese also established relations with the Kingdom of Funan, centered in what is now Cambodia, but stretched partly into Burma, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam.[1]
Statues of the Yungang Grottoes, one of many cultural symbols displaying China's embracement of Buddhism.
Although introduced during the Han dynasty, the chaotic, divisionary Period of Disunity (220–589) saw a flourishing of Buddhism and travels to foreign regions inspired by Buddhist missionaries. There were Indian monks such as Kumarajiva (344–413) from Kucha who traveled to China in order to translate Sanskrit texts into Chinese. There were also many Chinese who traveled abroad in order to obtain and translate Buddhist sutras into Chinese, such as the Chinese monk Faxian (337–422), who in his old age traveled to Sri Lanka, India, and Nepal. From China, Buddhism entered Korea by 372. It was first practiced in the northern state of Goguryeo, and would eventually develop into distinctive Korean Buddhism. As recorded in the Nihon Shoki, Buddhism in Japan was introduced by 552 with a religious mission sent by Seong of Baekje, ruler of one of the three Korean kingdoms.
The Three Kingdoms era (220–280) was a period of Chinese history consumed by incessant warfare amongst a triad of rival claimants to the Han legacy. The triple schism of China into three warring states made engaging in costly conflict a necessity, so they could not heavily commit themselves to issues and concerns of traveling abroad. The state of Shu Han in the west conquered the Hmong people to the southwest, then known as the Nanman. There was another recorded Roman embassy to China that visited the court of Cao Rui (226–239) in the northern state of Cao Wei, most likely sent by Alexander Severus. Another Roman embassy was recorded in 284, most likely sent by Carus; this was the last Sino-Roman contact recorded by the Chinese.
The Jin dynasty was established in 265 (after conquering Shu Han) by the noble Sima family that had once served the state of Cao Wei, and conquered the state of Eastern Wu in 280, thus ending the Three Kingdoms era. However, the state was weakened and left vulnerable with the War of the Eight Princes from 291 to 306. This allowed for sinicized Xiongnu nomads to capture both of China's historical capitals at Luoyang and Chang'an, forcing the remnants of the Jin court to flee south to Jiankang (present-day Nanjing). The Xiongnu then established rule in the north under the Han-Zhao kingdom. The Jin dynasty period saw a continuing flourishing of Buddhism and Buddhist travel.
Prince Shōtoku (574–622) was a regent and a politician of the Imperial Court in Japan.
Yang Jian (Emperor Wen) ruled in northern China from 581, and conquered the Chen dynasty in the south by 589, hence reunifying China under the Sui dynasty (581–618). He and his successor Emperor Yang initiated several military campaigns.
Northern Vietnam was retaken by conquest, while there was a temporary occupation of the Champa kingdom in southern Vietnam. They launched unsuccessful campaigns against the northern Korean kingdom Goguryeo during the Three Kingdoms of Korea, depleting not only troops but ultimately much of the government's revenue.
Prince Shōtoku made his queen Suiko call herself Empress, and claimed an equal footing with the Chinese Emperor who regarded himself as the only Emperor in the world at that time. Thus Shōtoku broke with Chinese principle that a non-Chinese sovereign was only allowed to call himself king but not emperor.
Emperor Yang thought of this Japanese behavior as 'insolent', because it opposed his Sinocentric worldview, but finally, he had to accept it and send an embassy to Japan in the next year as he had to avoid conflict with Japan to prepare for the conquest of Goguryeo.
The Tang dynasty (618–907) represents another high point for China in terms of its military might, conquest and establishment of vassals and tributaries, foreign trade, and its central political position and preeminent cultural status in East Asia.
In a formidable alliance with the Korean kingdom Silla, a combined Tang-Silla fleet made a decisive victory over the Korean kingdom Baekje and her Yamato Japanese allies in the naval Battle of Baekgang in 663. Emperor Taizong also invaded Goguryeo in an effort to help their Unified Silla ally crush its rival, Goguryeo, to the north. Emperor Taizong's other intention in invading northern Korea was to secure territory of Lelang Commandery, an old Chinese commandery in northern Korea that had been lost since Goguryeo captured it from the Jin dynasty in the 313. However, Goguryeo's territory fell into the hands of Silla and Balhae instead of the Tang Empire.
Chinese trade relations during the Tang dynasty was extended further west to the Arabian Peninsula, East Africa, and Egypt. Many contemporary writers from foreign countries described Chinese ships, Chinese goods brought to foreign ports, as well as Chinese seaports. Amongst the Chinese authors, the writer Duan Chengshi (died 863) described trade in Somalia and between 785 and 805 the Chinese geographer Jia Dan described lighthouses that were erected in the Persian Gulf, confirmed later by Muslim writers al-Mas'udi and al-Muqaddasi. The introduction of Islam in China began during the reign of Emperor Gaozong (r. 649–683), with missionaries such as Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas, a maternal uncle of Muhammad. The seaport at Guangzhou in southern China became one of the largest seaports in the world, hosting foreign travelers throughout maritime Asia. At the time, Guangzhou was a major port along the maritime silk road and involved in heavy trade with Japan.[6] The Tang capital city of Chang'an became well known as a multicultural metropolis filled with foreign travelers, dignitaries, merchants, emissaries, and missionaries. Chinese Buddhist monks such as Xuanzang (died 664) continued to travel abroad to places like India in order to gain wisdom, collect Buddhist relics, and translate additional sutras into Chinese.
Although the reign of Emperor Xuanzong (r. 712–756) is seen as the zenith point of the Tang dynasty, it was during the last years of his reign that one of the most destructive rebellions in Chinese history occurred. The Tang Empire had recruited many Central Asian Turks into their armed forces. One of these was An Lushan (703–757), a Sogdian-Turk who became a military commander and personal favorite of Emperor Xuanzong's concubine Consort Yang. He instigated the An Lushan Rebellion, which caused the deaths of millions of people, cost the Tang dynasty their Central Asian possessions, and allowed the Tibetans to invade China and temporarily occupy the capital, Chang'an. The Tang dynasty recovered under Emperor Xianzong (805–820) but it never achieved its former martial and political strength. The unintended effect of the rebellion, however, was the loosening of government restrictions on trade. Although the 9th century was politically turbulent, the economy of China actually continued to thrive, bolstered still by foreign trade. The Japanese were sending embassies to the Tang Empire as late as 894, which was finally halted by Emperor Uda by the persuasion of Sugawara no Michizane.
The Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms (907–960) period was an age of division and Chinese civil war between the unified Tang and Song dynasties. It is notable for the introduction of Greek Fire (or a formula similar to the original) from Chinese contacts in Arabia. Greek Fire was then applied to the new Chinese invention of the double-piston pump flamethrower, used in battle during the Five Dynasties era and Song dynasty.
The Chinese political theory of China being the center of world diplomacy was largely accepted in East Asia, except in periods of Chinese weakness such as the Song dynasty (960–1279).
The imperial court of the Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279) was then forced to acknowledge the Jurchen rulers of the Jin dynasty as their superiors. The Mongols conquered the Jin dynasty in 1234 with the aid of the Song dynasty, which itself was also conquered by the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty under Kublai Khan by 1279.
With powerful dynasties to its north such as the Tangut-led Western Xia, the Song dynasty was forced to engage in skillful diplomacy. The famous statesmen and scientists Shen Kuo (1031–1095) and Su Song (1020–1101) were both sent as Song ambassadors to the Liao dynasty in order to settle border disputes. Shen Kuo asserted the Song dynasty's rightful borders in the north by dredging up old archived court documents and signed agreements between the Song and Liao dynasties. Su Song asserted the Song dynasty's rightful borders in a similar way, only he used his extensive knowledge of cartography and maps to solve a heated border dispute.
Chinese maritime trade increased dramatically during the Song dynasty, with the bustling seaport at Quanzhou taking the lead. Maritime trade abroad was augmented by a booming shipbuilding industry in Fujian province. It was also enhanced by an economic revolution in Song China and the presence of many wealthy, willing investors of maritime trade missions. There were several notable diplomatic missions sent to China from foreign countries during the Song dynasty. This included the embassy of Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah of Fatimid Egypt to the court of Emperor Zhenzong in 1008, as well as the embassy of Emperor Kulothunga Chola I of the Imperial Indian Chola dynasty to the court of Emperor Shenzong in 1077.
Although the golden age of Chinese Buddhism ended during the Tang dynasty, there were still influential Chinese Buddhist monks. This included the Zen Buddhist monk Wuzhun Shifan (1178–1249), who taught Japanese disciples such as Enni Ben'en (1201–1280). After returning to Japan from China, the latter contributed to the spread of Zen teaching in Japan and aided in the establishment of Tōfuku-ji.
Yuan dynasty
Painting of Kublai Khan on a hunting expedition, by artist Liu Guandao, c. 1280.
The Yuan dynasty (1271–1368) of China was the easternmost part of the vast Mongol Empire (stretching from East Asia to Eastern Europe), which became politically separated into four khanates beginning with the succession war in 1260. The Mongol leaders Genghis Khan, Ögedei Khan, Möngke Khan, and Hulagu Khan were able to conquer the Tangut-led Western Xia dynasty and the Jurchen-led Jin dynasty in northern China, as well as invading Korea under the Goryeo dynasty, turning it into a vassal state that was ruled indirectly. The Mongols withdrew after Korean monarchs agreed to move its capital back to the mainland from Ganghwa Island.
It was the Yuan founding emperor Kublai who finally conquered the Southern Song dynasty in 1279. Kublai was an ambitious leader who used ethnic Korean, Han, and Mongol troops to invade Japan on two separate occasions, yet both campaigns were ultimately failures.
The Yuan dynasty continued the maritime trading legacy of the Tang and Song dynasties. The Yuan ship captain known as Wang Dayuan (fl. 1328–1339) was the first from China to travel by sea through the Mediterranean upon his visit to Morocco in North Africa. One of the diplomatic highlights of this period was the Chinese embassy to the Khmer Empire under Indravarman III, led by the envoy Zhou Daguan (1266–1346) from the years 1296 to 1297. In his report to the Yuan court, Zhou Daguan described places such as Angkor Wat and everyday life of the Khmer Empire. It was during the early years of Kublai Khan's reign that Marco Polo (1254–1324) visited China, presumably as far as the previous Song capital at Hangzhou, which he described with a great deal of admiration for its scenic beauty.
The Ming dynasty (1368–1644), after the Han and Tang dynasties, was another high point in Chinese power. The first Ming emperor, the Hongwu Emperor (r. 1368–1398), was the head of the Red Turban Rebellion when he routed the rival rebel Chinese leaders and then forced the Mongols of the Yuan dynasty to flee north, back into the Mongolian steppe. The Ming dynasty made a string of conflicts with the Mongols thereafter, some of which were successful, and others of which were not. An example of the latter would be the Tumu Crisis in 1449, where the Zhengtong Emperor was captured by the Mongols and not released until a year later.
An exotic giraffe brought from Bengal in the twelfth year of Yongle (1414).
The Hongwu Emperor allowed foreign envoys to visit the capitals at Nanjing and Beijing, but enacted strict legal prohibitions of private maritime trade by Chinese merchants wishing to travel abroad. After the death of Timur, who intended to invade China, the relations between the Yongle Emperor's China and Shakhrukh's state in Persia and Transoxania state considerably improved. Both the Chinese envoy to Samarkand and Herat, Chen Cheng, and his opposite party, Ghiyāth al-dīn Naqqāsh, left detailed accounts of their visits to each other's country.
The greatest diplomatic highlights of the Ming period were the enormous maritime tributary missions and expeditions of the admiral Zheng He (1371–1433), a favored court eunuch of the Yongle Emperor (r. 1402–1424). Zheng He's missions docked at ports throughout much of the Asian world, including those in Borneo, the Malay state of the Malacca Sultanate, Sri Lanka, India, Persia, Arabia, and East Africa. Meanwhile, the Chinese under the Yongle Emperor invaded northern Vietnam in 1402, and remained there until 1428, when Lê Lợi led a successful native rebellion against the Chinese occupiers.[7]
Large tributary missions such as these were halted after Zheng He, with periods of isolationism in the Ming dynasty, coupled with the need to defend China's large eastern coastal areas against marauding wokou pirates. Although it was severely limited by the state, trade was overall not forbidden. After 1578, it was completely liberalized. Upon their arrival in the early 16th century, the Portuguese Empire traded with the Chinese at Tamão, despite some hostilities exchanged between both sides.[8] The Chinese also traded avidly with the Spanish, sending numerous trade ships annually to the Philippines in order to sell them Chinese goods in exchange for mita-mined silver from the New World colonies of Spain. There was so much Spanish silver entering China that the Spanish minted silver currency became commonplace in Ming China. The Chinese attempted to convert the silver currency back to copper currency, but the economic damage was done.[9]
In 1524, Beijing was visited by representatives of the Ottoman Empire.[10]
Meanwhile, the Chinese under the Wanli Emperor (r. 1572–1620) became engaged in a somewhat costly war defending Joseon Korea against Japan. The Japanese regent Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537–1598) and his predecessor Oda Nobunaga (1534–1582) brought about the prosperous Azuchi-Momoyama period in feudal Japan, putting an end to the turbulent era of the Sengoku period. However, the Japanese staged an enormous invasion of Korea from 1592 to 1598. The aim of the Japanese was to ultimately invade prosperous Ming China, but in order to do so it would need to use the Korean Peninsula as a staging ground. Throughout the war, though, the Ming forces suffered significant casualties, and had spent a great deal of revenue sending troops on land into Korea and bolstering the Korean navy in battles such as the Battle of Noryang Point. The Japanese were finally defeated and withdrew.[11]
The decline of Ming China's economy by inflation was made worse by crop failure, famine, sudden plague, and agrarian rebellion led by those such as Li Zicheng (1606–1644), and the Ming dynasty fell in 1644. The Ming general Wu Sangui (1612–1678) was going to side with the rebels under Li, but felt betrayed when his concubine Chen Yuanyuan was taken by Li, and so allowed the Manchus, led by Prince Dorgon, to enter a northern pass and invade northern China from their base in Manchuria.[12]
"Moghul embassy", seen by the Dutch visitors in Beijing in 1656. According to Lach & Kley (1993), modern historians (namely, Luciano Petech) think that the emissaries portrayed had actually come from Turfan (Moghulistan), and not all the way from Moghul India.
The long-lasting Chinese Rites controversy of the 17th and 18th centuries led the pope in 1704 to reverse the Jesuit position and reject any recognition of traditional Chinese rituals regarding ancestors and Confucianism. The Emperor thereupon banished all missionaries who followed the pope's policy.[14] The pope's decision was finally reversed in 1939.[15]
One issue facing Western embassies to China was the act of prostration known as the kowtow. Western diplomats understood that kowtowing meant accepting the superiority of the Emperor of China over their own monarchs, an act which they found unacceptable. In 1665, Russian explorers met the Manchus in what is today northeastern China. Using the common language of Latin, which the Chinese had learned from Jesuit missionaries, the Kangxi Emperor of China and Tsar Peter I of the Russian Empire negotiated the Treaty of Nerchinsk in 1689, which delineated the borders between Russia and China, some sections of which still exist today.[16]
Russia was not dealt with through the Ministry of Tributary Affairs, but rather through the same ministry as the problematic Mongols, which served to acknowledge Russia's status as a nontributary nation. From then on, the Chinese worldview of all other nations as tributaries began to unravel.
Illustration depicting the last European delegation to be received at the court of the Qianlong Emperor in 1795 — Isaac Titsingh (seated European with hat, far left) and A.E. van Braam Houckgeest (seated European without hat).
In 1793, the Qianlong Emperor rejected an offer of expanded trade and foreign relations by the British diplomat George Macartney. A Dutch embassy was the last occasion in which any European appeared before the Chinese imperial court within the context of traditional Chinese imperial foreign relations.[17]
While maintaining foreign relations is crucial in safeguarding economic and political strength, the Imperial Court had little incentive to appease the European nations at the time. Evidenced in the book The Great Divergence by Professor Kenneth Pomeranz, the infrastructure surrounding China's economy was far more durable than its European counterparts. The capability for multiple Chinese markets to satisfy domestic needs and compete globally[18] enabled independent innovation and development outside the European sphere of influence. Given the high quality of life, adequate sanitation, and a strong internal agricultural sector,[18] the Chinese government had no significant motivation to satisfy any demands imposed by western powers.
Representing Dutch and Dutch East India Company interests, Isaac Titsingh traveled to Beijing in 1794–96 for celebrations marking the 60th anniversary of the Qianlong Emperor's reign.[19] The Titsingh delegation also included the Dutch-American Andreas Everardus van Braam Houckgeest,[20] whose detailed description of this embassy to the Chinese imperial court was soon after published in the United States and Europe. Titsingh's French translator, Chrétien-Louis-Joseph de Guignes published his own account of the Titsingh mission in 1808. Voyage a Pékin, Manille et l'Ile de France provided an alternate perspective and a counterpoint to other reports which were then circulating. Titsingh himself died before he could publish his version of events.
The history of China spans several millennia across a wide geographical area. Each region now considered part of the Chinese world has experienced periods of unity, fracture, prosperity, and strife. Chinese civilization first emerged in the Yellow River valley, which along with the Yangtze basin constitutes the geographic core of the Chinese cultural sphere. China maintains a rich diversity of ethnic and linguistic people groups. The traditional lens for viewing Chinese history is the dynastic cycle: imperial dynasties rise and fall, and are ascribed certain achievements. Throughout pervades the narrative that Chinese civilization can be traced as an unbroken thread many thousands of years into the past, making it one of the cradles of civilization. At various times, states representative of a dominant Chinese culture have directly controlled areas stretching as far west as the Tian Shan, the Tarim Basin, and the Himalayas, as far north as the Sayan Mountains, and as far south as the delta of the Red River.
The history of Asia can be seen as the collective history of several distinct peripheral coastal regions such as East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia and the Middle East linked by the interior mass of the Eurasian steppe. See History of the Middle East and History of the Indian Subcontinent for further details on those regions.
East Asia generally encompasses the histories of China, Japan, Korea, Mongolia, and Taiwan from prehistoric times to the present. Each of its countries has a different national history, but East Asian Studies scholars maintain that the region is also characterized by a distinct pattern of historical development. This is evident in the relationships among traditional East Asian civilizations, which not only involve the sum total of historical patterns but also a specific set of patterns that has affected all or most of traditional East Asia in successive layers.
The Silk Road was a network of Eurasian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over 6,400 kilometers, it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and religious interactions between the East and West. The name "Silk Road," first coined in the late 19th century, has fallen into disuse among some modern historians in favor of Silk Routes, on the grounds that it more accurately describes the intricate web of land and sea routes connecting Central, East, South, Southeast, and West Asia as well as East Africa and Southern Europe.
Sinocentrism refers to the worldview that China is the cultural, political, or economic center of the world.
Heqin, also known as marriage alliance, refers to the historical practice of Chinese monarchs marrying princesses—usually members of minor branches of the ruling family—to rulers of neighboring states. It was often adopted as an appeasement strategy with an enemy state that was too powerful to defeat on the battlefield. The policy was not always effective. It implied an equal diplomatic status between the two monarchs. As a result, it was controversial and had many critics.
For most of its history, China was organized into various dynastic states under the rule of hereditary monarchs. Beginning with the establishment of dynastic rule by Yu the Great c. 2070 BC, and ending with the abdication of the Xuantong Emperor in AD 1912, Chinese historiography came to organize itself around the succession of monarchical dynasties. Besides those established by the dominant Han ethnic group or its spiritual Huaxia predecessors, dynasties throughout Chinese history were also founded by non-Han peoples.
Buddhism entered Han China via the Silk Road, beginning in the 1st or 2nd century CE. The first documented translation efforts by Buddhist monks in China were in the 2nd century CE via the Kushan Empire into the Chinese territory bordering the Tarim Basin under Kanishka. These contacts transmitted strands of Sarvastivadan and Tamrashatiya Buddhism throughout the Eastern world.
Chinese expansionism is an expansionism that has been identified with different phases of territorial expansion in Chinese history.
The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, founded by the peasant rebel leader Zhu Yuanzhang, known as the Hongwu Emperor, was an imperial dynasty of China. It was the successor to the Yuan dynasty and the predecessor of the short-lived Shun dynasty, which was in turn succeeded by the Qing dynasty. At its height, the Ming dynasty had a population of 160 million people, while some assert the population could actually have been as large as 200 million.
The Ming dynasty considered Tibet to be part of the Western Regions. While the Ming dynasty at its height had some degree of influence in Tibet, the exact nature of their relations is under dispute by modern scholars. Analysis of the relationship is further complicated by modern political conflicts and the application of Westphalian sovereignty to a time when the concept did not exist. The Historical Status of China's Tibet, a book published by the People's Republic of China, asserts that the Ming dynasty had unquestioned sovereignty over Tibet by pointing to the Ming court's issuing of various titles to Tibetan leaders, Tibetans' full acceptance of the titles, and a renewal process for successors of these titles that involved traveling to the Ming capital. Scholars in China also argue that Tibet has been an integral part of China since the 13th century and so it was a part of the Ming Empire. However, most scholars outside China, such as Turrell V. Wylie, Melvyn C. Goldstein, and Helmut Hoffman, say that the relationship was one of suzerainty, Ming titles were only nominal, Tibet remained an independent region outside Ming control, and it simply paid tribute until the Jiajing Emperor, who ceased relations with Tibet.
The Yuan dynasty, officially the Great Yuan, was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after its division. It was established by Kublai, the fifth khagan-emperor of the Mongol Empire from the Borjigin clan, and lasted from 1271 to 1368. In Chinese history, the Yuan dynasty followed the Song dynasty and preceded the Ming dynasty.
The Northern Yuan was a dynastic regime ruled by the Mongol Borjigin clan based in the Mongolian Plateau. It existed as a rump state after the collapse of the Yuan dynasty in 1368 and lasted until its conquest by the Jurchen-led Later Jin dynasty in 1635. The Northern Yuan dynasty began with the retreat of the Yuan imperial court led by Toghon Temür to the Mongolian steppe. This period featured factional struggles and the often only nominal role of the Great Khan.
During the late Zhou dynasty, the inhabitants of the Central Plains began to make a distinction between Hua and Yi, referred to be some historians as the Sino–barbarian dichotomy. They defined themselves as part of cultural and political region known as Huaxia, which they contrasted with the surrounding regions home to outsiders, conventionally known as the Four Barbarians. Although Yi is usually translated as "barbarian", other translations of this term in English include "foreigners", "ordinary others", "wild tribes" and "uncivilized tribes". The Hua–Yi distinction asserted Chinese superiority, but implied that outsiders could become Hua by adopting their culture and customs. These concepts were not unique to Ancient China, but were also applied by the Vietnamese, Japanese, and Koreans, all of whom considered themselves at one point in history to be the "Central Kingdom" in imitation of China.
Various nomadic empires, including the Xiongnu, the Xianbei state, the Rouran Khaganate (330–555), the First (552–603) and Second Turkic Khaganates (682–744) and others, ruled the area of present-day Mongolia. The Khitan people, who used a para-Mongolic language, founded an empire known as the Liao dynasty (916–1125), and ruled Mongolia and portions of North China, northern Korea, and the present-day Russian Far East.
The tributary system of China, or Cefeng system at its height was a network of loose international relations centered around China which facilitated trade and foreign relations by acknowledging China's hegemonic role within a Sinocentric world order. It involved multiple relationships of trade, military force, diplomacy and ritual. The other states had to send a tributary envoy to China on schedule, who would kowtow to the Chinese emperor as a form of tribute, and acknowledge his superiority and precedence. The other countries followed China's formal ritual in order to keep the peace with the more powerful neighbor and be eligible for diplomatic or military help under certain conditions. Political actors within the tributary system were largely autonomous and in almost all cases virtually independent.
The history of Sino-Korean relations dates back to prehistoric times.
The Yuan dynasty in Inner Asia was the domination of the Yuan dynasty in Inner Asia in the 13th and the 14th centuries. The Borjigin rulers of the Yuan came from the Mongolian steppe, and the Mongols under Kublai Khan established the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368) based in Khanbaliq. The Yuan was a Chinese dynasty that incorporated many aspects of Mongol and Inner Asian political and military institutions.
The Ming dynasty in Inner Asia was the expansion of the Ming dynasty's realm and influence in Inner Asia between the 14th and the 16th centuries. The Ming dynasty overthrew and succeeded the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty and sought to avert further incursions by a regime originating from Inner Asia. Wars were fought against the Northern Yuan, which existed as a rump state after the collapse of the Yuan dynasty in 1368, but also against other states in Inner Asia including the Oirat Confederation and Moghulistan. As a result, Ming China at the height incorporated Manchuria, much of the regions of Inner Mongolia and Qinghai, and parts of Xinjiang into its realm, and also had some degree of influence in Tibet especially during the reign of the Yongle Emperor.
References
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