ON THE CHING TRIBUTARY SYSTEM J.K.FAIRBANK AND S.Y.TENG HARVARD UNIVERSITY CONTENTS PAGE 1.The traditional role of tribute 185 2.Tributaries of the late Ming. 144 Table 1:Ming tributaries c.1587. 151 3.The Li Fan Yiian (Court of Colonial Affairs)under the Ch'ing 158 4.Ch'ing tributaries from the south and east,-general regulations 163 Table 2:Regular Ch'ing tributaries 174 Table 3:Frequency and routes of tribute 176 5.European countries in the tributary system 178 Table 4:European embassies to the Court of Peking. 188 6.Ch'ing tribute embassies and foreign trade 190 Table 5:Tribute embassies 1662-1911 193 Table 6:Non-tributary trading countries 1818. 02 7.A selected list of Ch'ing works 1644-1860 on maritime relations. e06 8.Index of tributaries listed in six editions of the Collected Statutes 219 Appendix 1:Bibliographical note.. 238 Appendix 2:Additional lists of Ch'ing tributaries. 248 Appendix 3:Author and title index to section 7. 245 1.THE TRADITIONAL ROLE OF TRIBUTE Chinese foreign policy in the nineteenth century can be understood only against its traditional Chinese background,the tributary system. This system for the conduct of foreign relations had been directly inherited from the Ming dynasty (1368-1644)and modified to suit the needs of the Manchus.As a Confucian world-order in the Far East,it continued formally in existence until the very end of the nineteenth century,and was superseded in practice only gradually, after 1842,by the British treaty system which has until recently governed the foreign relations of Siam,Japan,and other states,as well as China.The Chinese diplomatic documents of a century ago are therefore really unintelligible unless they are studied in the light of the imperial tributary system which produced them.1 :We are indebted to Prof.C.S.GARDNER for assistance on several points,par- ticularly regarding the table of western embassies in part 5.This article,like its predecessors,is intended to deal with administrative problems of importance for the study of Chinese foreign relations in the nineteenth century.J.K.FAIRBANK and S.Y.TENG,On the Transmission of Ch'ing Documents,HJAS 4.12-46;On the Types and Uses of Ch'ing Documents,ibid.,5.1-71 (Corrigendum p.59,Shen-ch'eng:for ch'eng呈read ch'en陳)， 135ON THE CH'ING TRIBUTARY SYSTEM J. K. FAIRBANK AND S. Y. TENG HARVARD UNIVERSITY CONTENTS PAGE 1. The traditional role of tribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 2. Tributaries of the late Ming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144 Table 1: Ming tributaries c. 1587. . . . . . . . . . . . . 151 3. The Li Fan Yuan (Court of Colonial Affairs) under the Ch'ing 158 4. Ch'ing tributaries from the south and east,-general regulations 163 Table 2: Regular Ch'ing tributaries . . . . . . . . . . . . 174 Table 3: Frequency and routes of tribute . . . . . . . . . . 176 5. European countries in the tributary system . . . . . . . . . . 178 Table 4: European embassies to the Court of Peking. . . . . . . 188 6. Ch'ing tribute embassies and foreign trade . . . . . . . . . . 190 Table 5: Tribute embassies 1662-1911 . . . . . . . . . . . 193 Table 6: Non-tributary trading countries 1818. . . . . . . . . 202 7. A selected list of Ch'ing works 1644-1860 on maritime relations.. . .206 8. Index of tributaries listed in six editions of the Collected Statutes . . . 919 Appendix 1: Bibliographical note. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238 Appendix 2: Additional lists of Ch'ing tributaries. . . . . . . . . . 243 Appendix 3: Author and title index to section 7 . . . . . . . . . .245 1. THE TRADITIONAL ROLE OF TRIBUTE Chinese foreign policy in the nineteenth century can be understood only against its traditional Chinese background, the tributary system. This system for the conduct of foreign relations had been directly inherited from the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) and modified to suit the needs of the Manchus. As a Confucian world-order in the Far East, it continued formally in existence until the very end of the nineteenth century, and was superseded in practice only gradually, after 1842, by the British treaty system which has until recently governed the foreign relations of Siam, Japan, and other states, as well as China. The Chinese diplomatic documents of a century ago are therefore really unintelligible unless they are studied in the light of the imperial tributary system which produced them.' 'We are indebted to Prof. C. S. GARDNER for assistance on several points, par￾ticularly regarding the table of western embassies in part 5. This article, like its predecessors, is intended to deal with administrative problems of importance for the study of Chinese foreign relations in the nineteenth century. Cf. J. K. FAIRBANK and S. Y. TENG, On the Transmission of Ch'ing Documents. HJAS 4.12-46; On the Types and Uses of Ch'ing Documents, ibid., 5. 1-71 (Corrigendum p. 59, Shen-ch'eng: for ch'eng a read ch'6n A). 135