Ancient dynastic diplomacy was influenced by the international landscape
In the diplomatic relations of ancient dynasties, they were all affected by the pattern of international relations. Especially during the Khitan and Song-Liao Jinxia periods, it was an era of great integration, and to the outside world, they were both called China.
Later, the Mongols and Jurchens rose to prominence, and together with the original Chinese civilization, they became an important factor in shaping the new stage of Chinese civilization. Throughout the course of history, the original main area of Chinese civilization and the outside area have collided and merged fiercely with the northern edge of the Great Wall.
Although this has brought war and suffering, at the same time, due to contact and collision, new material, spiritual and institutional factors have been brought through ** and other transactions, making this region a key area for the convergence and development of civilizations, which has continuously stimulated and contributed to the evolution of China's traditional state system and society.
The American scholar Lattimore once analyzed this, and he believed that China's inland frontier in Asia was a very important periphery. The periphery is of special importance in historical geopolitics, and it is often an important area for the convergence and development of civilizations.
The small but capable forces of the marginal groups, which are familiar with both the nomadic and agrarian worlds, are often the decisive forces.
Although China's land periphery is far from the center and its economic development is relatively lagging behind, its unique position cannot be ignored. These marginal areas are not simply symbols of civilization's conquest of barbarism, as in the western colonization of the United States, but areas that require special governance in the development of maritime civilization.
To this end, China has gradually formed a policy of restraint that encompasses border and ethnic governance, as well as diplomatic factors, and flexibly handles these fringe areas according to specific situations, turning these border areas into counties, or military governments, or setting up pacification institutions.
Therefore, these marginal areas are not weak and lightweight factors, but have the function of internal and external connectivity and the function of carrying civilization, which is essential for the development of the country. As Lattimore argues, the Manchu clique before the Qing Dynasty, as well as Russia, which emerged north of the Qing and Mongol borders, were important marginal forces in China.
Russia, as a former vassal of the Mongol Khanate, was a huge country that brought together many civilizations. It inherited the Mongol and other North Asian nomadic powers' understanding of the East Asian hinterland, but also their ambitions.
We cannot ignore the fringes of the maritime frontier. Many people believe that the era of sea power was dominated by European countries, and European civilization with maritime genes is a symbol of sea power.
However, China's history teaches us that China attaches equal importance to the sea, only in different forms and impacts due to different environments and lifestyles. The Tang, Song, and Yuan dynasties were all periods of high development of maritime civilization, with openness, tolerance, and full development of material and spiritual factors.
Although the Ming and Qing dynasties imposed a ban on the sea, this was only for a period of time, and China did not cut off its connection with the outside world through the sea, while the Qing dynasty established a policy of fixing treaty ports and methods in order to maintain stable management.
The marginal zone of the sea is mainly connected to the outside world through key sea ports, such as Shanghai and Ningbo at the mouth of the Yangtze River and Qiantang River, Tianjin at the mouth of the Haihe River, and Guangzhou at the mouth of the Pearl River.
Most of these seaports are the entrances of large rivers into the ocean, bringing together the material and human resources of Chinese mainland, and maintaining long-term exchanges with the outside world.
Haikou's internal and external exchanges are dominated by the first, followed by culture, and less political and other factors, which is mainly due to China's objective geographical conditions. As a country on the western Pacific coast, China is a relatively closed and intact sea area, and external forces mainly communicate through entrepots, and there are relatively few personnel exchanges.
The main reason is that China's maritime neighbors around it are mainly vassal states or small states, and they are far away from each other, so it was difficult for outside political forces to reach such a distant area in ancient times.
However, this situation began to change in the middle of the Ming Dynasty. With the expansion of Western shipping routes, Portugal established a foothold in Macao, and Spain and the Netherlands came to the island of Taiwan one after another.
Western forces began to get involved in the East Asian system from the periphery, which had an important impact on the political situation at the time of the Ming and Qing dynasties, international and monetary relations, and national unification in the early Qing Dynasty.
During the Qing Dynasty, China and Russia conducted trade, territory, and cultural exchanges mainly by land, and although there were some contacts by sea, they were limited in number and scale. In the Daoxian period, ** began to attach great importance to China's Haikou with Guangzhou as the focus, and formulated an overall strategy towards China with both land and sea.
In contrast, the Qing Dynasty lacked the vision to go out, and was hastily brought into the rhythm of the West, and began to enter the historical evolution process of difficult transformation. The special institutional arrangements of the Qing Dynasty made it subject to a combination of external factors in the periphery.
As a dynasty that developed from the periphery, the Qing Dynasty attached great importance to the role and role of the periphery, and on the basis of the previous generations, adopted special institutional and institutional arrangements that not only inherited the tradition, but also had its own innovation.
This is mainly reflected in two aspects: on the one hand, the new type of central-local relationship constructed under the particularity of the Jurchen leadership group, and on the other hand, the expansion of the Qing Dynasty in the northeast region and the political union with the Mongol tribes.
In the early days of the establishment of the Manchu regime, due to its identity as a minority, it had to face the identity problem of China's orthodox status. At that time, the regimes in Korea, Japan and other places did not recognize the orthodox status of the Manchus, and even considered themselves to be more orthodox than the Chinese civilization of the Manchus.
As for the Central Plains, the Qing Dynasty carried out a process of political and cultural unification for more than several decades. In this case, the primary consideration of the governance of the Qing Dynasty is the consolidation of power.
Therefore, they designed the institutional and operational structure of a two-tier politics. The first level is the leadership system in which the Manchu aristocratic group is the core of leadership and the Mongolian aristocratic group is the auxiliary, and this level has a dominant position.
The Qing Emperor took various measures (such as abolishing the Council of Ministers, removing eunuchs, and establishing attendant institutions such as the Southern Study and the Military Aircraft Department) to strengthen the authority of the monarchy, and at the same time supplemented the Eight Banners nobles in important positions.
Through these measures, the Manchus** succeeded in consolidating power. Under the institutional transformation of the Qing Dynasty, the Mongol tribes gradually settled and lost the most important steppe mobility, and the political power of their nobles was greatly dispersed and weakened under the feudal system and religious system dominated by the Qing court, and they were no longer able to threaten the authority of the Qing court.
The Mongol aristocracy mainly guarded their own territories and guarded the borders for the Son of Heaven. Among them, the outstanding talents were reused by the Qing court for various positions in the local government, especially ethnic affairs, foreign affairs, military affairs and border affairs.
After years of practice, the Qing Dynasty formed the Eight Banners system jointly constructed by the Eight Banners of Manchuria, the Eight Banners of Mongolia and the Eight Banners of the Han Army, which became the core force of its leadership system.
At the same time, it also attaches importance to the traditional Han talent group in the Central Plains, which is an important pillar of the Qing court's governance system. As early as the Guanwai period, the Later Jin Dynasty attached great importance to absorbing Han talents, especially the Eight Banners of the Han Army.
After the political leadership mechanism won the Central Plains, the Qing Emperor represented by the Kangxi Emperor attached great importance to historical experience, opened a konas, and gradually established institutions such as the South Study to envelop and control scholars, and undertake the daily work of national governance with a civil and official system.
Under such a framework, the Qing Dynasty has formed two characteristic political leadership mechanisms. The first is the leadership mechanism with the emperor as the core and the Manchu and Mongolian nobles as the leading, and the Qing court abolished the Council of Ministers of the Parliamentary Prince, which shared the supreme power, but attached great importance to the role of the Eight Banners represented by the members of the clan.
In the setting of the leadership of specific departments, such as the departments of the cabinet, a two-tier mechanism of Manchu and Han Shangshu was set up accordingly. Second, in terms of local governance, although the Qing court inherited it, it did not completely follow the system of the Ming Dynasty.
This is first manifested in the Qing Dynasty, which established different local governance mechanisms in the border areas and in the interior, forming a two-body cycle. Due to the vast territory and complex situation in the border areas, there are many historical attack elements, and the Qing court has established different systems such as generals' offices and ministers in accordance with local conditions.
Generals and ministers, mainly clan members and nobles of the Eight Banners. They are the product of the combination of the county system, the military government system, and the policy of restraint, and they have a certain right to make decisions and dispose of them cheaply.
The Ming Dynasty dominated the provincial system, but the Qing Dynasty gradually fixed temporary systems such as governors and governors, and built a more autonomous local governance mechanism. In the provinces of the Ming Dynasty, the three divisions were directly under the **, containing each other, and the concentration of monarchy reached a historical peak.
In the Qing Dynasty, the system of supervision and supervision was fixed, the power of the province was strengthened, and the decentralization of power was adjusted, which was more conducive to local governance. Qing local officials operate under the leadership of a highly centralized government, but they can also be empowered and decentralized, forming decision-making and execution capabilities, which are reflected in external affairs.
During the Qing Dynasty, especially in the Xianfeng period, frontier leaders had to face a more complicated situation than their predecessors. Since the Ming Dynasty, Western factors have entered the East Asian system, but their influence is weak.
In general, historically, the great unified dynasties such as the Han and Tang dynasties were influenced by the pattern of international relations in their diplomacy, but on the whole, these influences were regional.