The foreign policy of the Tang, Song and Yuan dynasties of Chinese civilization was actively open, and foreigners in the Tang Dynasty could come to Chang'an as officials, and they also actively expanded their territory in Central Asia; During the Song and Song dynasties, although the country did not achieve great unification, it actively carried out foreign exchanges, expanded more waterways, and carried out technical, cultural and economic exchanges within a limited capacity, and the "Maritime Silk Road" appeared in the Song Dynasty; Not to mention the Yuan Dynasty, foreign conquests, east, west, north and south, as long as horses could reach on the Eurasian continent, they were the land of Yuan or other khanates.
The Ming Dynasty period can be said to be a turning point for Chinese civilization to change from active foreign exchanges to passive self-control, the period when the growth rate of Western civilization began to be higher than that of Eastern civilization, and the late Ming Dynasty was also the beginning of the backwardness of the East and the West. The negative foreign policy of the Ming Dynasty was inextricably linked to the later China, which was overtaken by the West over the East in an all-round way.
From the 15th to the 16th century, it was the era of "great exploration" of human civilization, along with the barbaric expansion of modern productive forces in the West, which greatly changed the face of the world. Until the arrival of Western state forces and religious figures in the Central Plains, our dynastic rulers still did not realize that a new era had arrived. However, in the face of strong national strength, even the Western countries, which had increased their strength by plundering colonial resources, did not dare to fight the idea of the Ming Empire at that time, so they could only gradually accumulate strength in the tributary system under the Ming Empire.
As a political order system with the longest history of Chinese civilization, it may have begun to take shape in the Shang Dynasty at the earliest, and the details added in the Zhou Dynasty became more standardized. The Tang Dynasty was the highlight of the tributary system, including the "canonization", which was supported by many Asian countries, and the tributary system of the Ming Dynasty reflected more of the "restraint policy".The founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty "did not conquer the barbarians" and explicitly included 15 countries, including Japan, as "these barbarian countries are not allowed to conquer unless they take the initiative to provoke." ”At the same time, there is also an ancestral precept that has influenced to this day, I believe you have also guessed, that is, "thick and thin", from which it became the principle of the tributary system, and finally became the common international norm in the Eastern world.
The tributary system of China in the Ming Dynasty was based on tributary, and the long-term implementation of the maritime ban policy in the Ming Dynasty made the legal exchanges between overseas countries and the Ming Dynasty limited to tributary activities.
Regarding the negative point mentioned above, the Ming generation also has a positive switchThat is, during the Longqing period, the state announced the liberalization of customs, and the state made most profits in the early stage, and then it was controlled by the pirate group, and then the country was in crisis, and it was passively closed again.
In general, the Ming Dynasty's consistent policy towards foreign countries was to show the emperor's own face in the feudal era, and the latter to maintain the rule. The feudal emperor spent other people's money and made his own friends through the tributary policy。This kind of psychological thinking that it is good to settle without spending money has made Chinese emperors happy to pay only losses but not earn "fake tribute". It is the face of the "domestic animal" that is swollen, and the "glorious" is its own face.
At the height of the Ming Dynasty, as many as 148 countries came to pay tribute. However, in the Ming Dynasty, there were three main countries that came to the Ming Dynasty to pay tribute, one is North Korea, the second is Japan, and the third is Vietnam。Today, let's take these three countries as examples to get a general understanding of the foreign relations of the Ming Dynasty.
The relationship between China and Korea in the Ming Dynasty was extremely close, and Korea, which was also a country with Chinese characters and Confucianism, admired the Central Plains Dynasty very much, so soon after the Ming Dynasty, the pro-Ming and anti-Yuan Li Joseon regime quickly asked the Ming Dynasty to become its own suzerain, so the Ming Dynasty established a suzerain-vassal relationship with itChina and North Korea have always been good-neighborly and friendly in the Ming Dynasty, North Korea satisfies the vanity of the rulers of the Ming Dynasty "tribute from all directions, and all countries come to the dynasty", and North Korea satisfies its own economy, cultural development and development
The most powerful history of the Ming guarantee of Korea is the conquest of Japan, which invaded Korea, one of the three major expeditions of the Ming Wanli, and guaranteed the existence of the Lee regime in Korea. Therefore, after the death of the Ming Dynasty, North Korea still used the official uniform of the Ming Dynasty to express its reminiscence of the Ming Dynasty. (How dare he...)But that's for another time. In short, the relations between China and the DPRK are relatively harmonious in the Ming generation.
In the Ming Dynasty, China's relations with Japan were generally negative, although the "Ancestral Teachings" left by Ming Taizu clearly demanded that Japan not be conquered, but the Japanese on the southeast coast repeatedly troubled China, and even the situation deteriorated into "Southern Japanese and Northern Captives", threatening the rule of the Ming DynastyIn the end, the country was forced to send troops to quell the southeast troubles, which also greatly consumed the national strength of the Ming Dynasty.
The deterioration of Sino-Japanese relations began with the Ningbo tribute incident during the Jiajing period, which brought shame to the empire, although the main perpetrators of the incident were sanctionedBut this incident also ended nearly 100 years of tributary relations between China and JapanAt the same time, it was also a prelude to the appearance of a large number of Japanese pirates. It was not until the Wanli period that Toyotomi Hideyoshi of Japan launched the Korean War twice, and the Ming Dynasty sent troops to drive it out of the ocean.
The relationship between the Ming Dynasty and Vietnam mainly depended on the Vietnamese side, and the Tran regime in Vietnam was willing to submit, and at this time Sino-Vietnamese relations were good, peaceful tribute, and China also gave Vietnam great benefits and personnel. AnnanAfter the Li regime seized the throne of the Chen family, it deceived the Ming Dynasty, and the empire could not hold on to face because of the deception, so it sent troops to intervene, conquered Vietnam, and set up a political envoy, but the Vietnamese side continued to resist, MingThe army left their homeland, labored and moved the people, and the burden was huge, and they finally retreated back to the country during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong. With the rebels as kings, the relationship between the clans and vassals was restored.
The above briefly mentioned the "Age of Discovery" in the West, in fact, there was also an Age of Exploration in the early Ming Dynasty, yes, Zheng He went to the West, developed relations between the countries of the West and the South Seas, invited him to join the tributary system, and at the same time carried out a regional war to maintain the security of the sea. But the great voyage of the Ming Dynasty is not as adventurous as the great voyage of the West, just sailing along the coastline, and the purpose is completely different, the voyage of the Ming Dynasty is like an entrepreneur going to the countryside, and the great voyage of the West is like a hungry wolf entering the flock of sheep, grabbing a large number of resources and property in new places.
It is worth mentioning that Portugal possessed Macao on the coast of Guangdong in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, which can be said to be the first outpost of Western colonialism in China, and it is also the transit point for the Chinese side to observe the West in this way, but it failed to change the outcome of the West surpassing the East in the end.
The exchange between the East and the West is a great promotion and integration of human civilization and culture, and it is a collision of different values of feudalism and capitalism; it is a fact that backward feudalism is inferior to advanced capitalism in both the East and the West, but in addition to ism, we must also see the gap, use the method of promoting and discarding, actively absorb the advantageous side of the advanced, and also abandon the backward and barbaric side.
It is necessary to take a correct view of the differences between China and the West, and in the period of its heyday, China left behind ancestral teachings even for some small countries, such as not to conquer and interfere with legitimate political powers, and only to show the mind of a great power in the form of tribute. On the other hand, the methods of the so-called advanced people in the West are shameful. And it is a great irony that the descendants of those people are now shouting humanitarianism everywhere.