Rethinking the Traditional East Asian Regional Order The Tribute System as a set of Principles, Norms, and Practices

Title

Rethinking the Traditional East Asian Regional Order The Tribute System as a set of Principles, Norms, and Practices

Author

Bongjin KIM

Page

119-170

DOI

10.6163/tjeas.2017.14(1)119

Abstract

Despite the limits of its traditional usage, the concept of the tribute system captures a prominent feature of historical East Asian foreign relations and politics. As such, with revision and elaboration, the tribute system could still represent a useful model. Therefore I will create an elaborated model, constitutive of the tribute system as international society, and scrutinize its organizing principles, norms and practices. First, taking a multi-dimensional view, I examine an elaborated model of the tribute system including its subsystems. Second, I describe the Korean sadaekyorin (C: shida, serving the big; jiaolin, the interrelationship with neighboring countries) system as a semi-tribute system, and ＂the way of kyorin＂ (Mencius) as a principle. Third, I examine the system as a set of principles, norms and practices based upon Confucian or Neo-Confucian ideas and concepts, focusing on two of them, gong tianxia (All-under-Heaven as, or for, the public) and li (principle, law, or reason) as the basis of li* (rites), to understand the organizing principles of the traditional East Asian regional order. Fourth, I explore the distinctive meaning of two dichotomies: hierarchy/parity in Daoist discourse and inequality/equality in Confucian discourse. Noting that ＂Sovereignty can be - and is - divisible＂, I explain the significance of the ＂endemic＂ sovereignty of the tributary states. I conclude with several reasons for the collapse of the tribute system in the modern era, and observations on China's approach to global governance and strategy, speculating a new East Asian regional order in the future.

Keyword

Tribute System, Semi-Tribute, Principles, Hierarchy, Sovereignty

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