 | THE HISTORY OF THE FORMER HAN DYNASTY The history of the former Han dynasty |  |
The nature of Chinese external vassalage
Ancient Chinese vassalage did not mean the same as it did in European
medieval practise. The Chinese emperor asserted he was the Son of
Heaven, and consequently the rightful overlord of all earthly rulers. His
territory ideally comprised the whole earth, "all within the four seas."
There grew up, however, a distinction between China proper and foreign
lands. The boundary between these two regions was marked, at the
north, by the Chinese fortifications built to keep out barbarian raids,
which had been called, by the Ch'in dynasty, the Great Wall (ch'ang-ch'eng),
and in Han times, the Barrier (sai). Within China proper there
was sometimes also made a distinction between the central states (chung-kuo
[OMITTED]) and the border commanderies—at times the central states were
asked to provide the court with literary men and administrators, while
the border commanderies provided fighting men and generals. Outside
Chinese territory, the demands made upon vassal states depended upon
their distance from China as well as their size and importance. This
distinction was recognized in Chinese theory by the conception of the
various domains (fu). The imperial domain (tien-fu) was theoretically
surrounded successively by the feudal domain (hou-fu), the tranquillizing
domain (sui-fu), the domain of restraint (yao-fu), and the wild domain
(Book of History, III, i, ii, iv; Legge, pp. 142-151), where different
services are required of the vassal states in different domains. In Han
times, little more than a purely literary use was made, however, of these
"domains."
In practise, the Chinese court secured from surrounding countries
whatever homage it could conveniently get. Vassalage always meant
that:
(1) The vassal ruler must accept and use as a badge of office a seal
furnished him by the Chinese emperor.
(2) The vassal must appear at the Chinese court at the great yearly
reception on New Year's day, either in person or through an envoy,
and bring tribute, in return for which he received gifts from the Chinese
emperor (distant states were allowed to appear less often, but must come
at least once each reign). For the entertainment of these missions, there
was built at the imperial capital a Lodge for Barbarian Princes, just as
there were Lodges for the various feudal kingdoms and commanderies.
(3) Vassal rulers each sent a son to be reared at the Chinese court at
the expense of the Chinese emperor. Such a son was held by the Chinese
as a hostage and was indoctrinated with the might and civilization of
the Chinese.
(4) Vassal rulers were required to keep the peace, in return for which,
such a ruler might actually be given a regular subvention from the
Chinese. The latter was the case with Shan-yü Hu-han-hsieh; the chief
purpose of the unusual treatment given him was to induce him to prevent
the continual border forays that had been made into Chinese territory by
the Huns. At the court of 51 B.C., besides other things, Shan-yü Hu-hanhsieh
was given 15 horses, 20 catties of actual gold, 200,000 cash, 77 suits
of clothes, 8000 bolts of cloth, and 6000 catties of silk floss. After his
return, he was at various times also sent 34,000 hu of grain. Since he
actually stopped the border forays, the payments made him were less
than the losses previously suffered by the Chinese in the Hun raids.
(5) In the rare cases when a military expedition was necessary, each
vassal ruler was required, upon demand, to contribute auxiliary troops,
together with food and forage for the expedition. A set of credentials
(cf. HFHD I, 245, n. 2) were each divided in two lengthwise, and the ruler
was given the left half. The right half was retained in the imperial
capital and was, when necessary, given to an imperial envoy, who
accordingly had the right to command the vassal ruler. The genuineness
of an envoy was tested by matching the two halves of the credential.
Hence an "envoy with credentials" not only bore messages, but also
such as the Protector General of the Western Frontier Regions, had to
secure the imperial consent before calling out troops. Ch'en T'ang's
expedition was composed mostly of auxiliaries from the states in the
Western Frontier Regions, with a core of Chinese trained troops.
(6) With regard to their internal affairs, the foreign vassal states were
usually left alone. Distances were so great and travel so slow that it was
not usually worth while to interfere in the internal affairs of vassal
states. As long as they did not bother the Chinese, they were allowed
to go their own way. At the installation of a new king, an imperial envoy
usually played an important part, although the succession to the vassal
throne was not often interfered with by the Chinese. Imperial envoys
were constantly sent out to vassal states, to keep the Chinese court
informed of happenings in distant countries, to gage the loyalty of vassal
states, to maintain the semblance of Chinese overlordship, and to carry
on trade. Envoys were also sometimes sent to states outside of the
Chinese orbit, bearing gold, silks, etc., in order to induce those states to
declare themselves Chinese vassals. Since the annual tribute from these
states was repaid by imperial gifts worth more to these people than what
they sent, it was really to their own interests to submit. A Chinese
military officer with his men might sometimes be quartered at the capital of
a troublesome state, for the purpose of assuring the free passage of
caravans and the maintenance of peace and Chinese dominance in the
internal affairs of that state. Occasionally, a troublesome ruler might
be dethroned and executed, whereupon a son more favorable to the
Chinese was enthroned in his place (cf. Glossary, sub Fu Chieh-tzu).
There were thus various degrees of subservience among foreign vassal
states. Tribute missions easily became actual trading expeditions.
Since vassal rulers were benefited by paying tribute, it became a deeper
mark of homage for such a ruler to attend the Chinese court in person—
the various Hun Shan-yü had been sending envoys, tribute, and sons
as hostages before Shan-yü Hu-han-hsieh came to court in person.
The Hun people evidently considered the former actions quite in harmony
with actual independence, so that it was necessary for a Shan-yü
to bow before the Chinese emperor in person before the Huns seemed to
to have recognized that their independence had been given up. Thus
vassalage in China was different in spirit and in letter from that in
Europe.
As a special favor, Chinese imperial ladies were in rare cases granted
to rulers of foreign states to be their wives. At first girls of the imperial
clan (sometimes the daughter of a dismissed king) were thus sent; later,
imperial harem who had not seen the emperor, such as the famous Wang
Ch'iang, were sent. Thus foreign princes were attached to the Chinese
by marriage. The granting of an imperial lady for the harem of a
foreign ruler must, however, be considered a matter of diplomacy rather
than one of vassalage, for this practice began before foreign states admitted
any vassalage. Thus Emperor Kao sent a girl of the imperial
clan (at first he had planned to send his own daughter) to the Hun
Shan-yü Mao-tun's harem. The granting of an imperial lady was
considered to be so signal an act of imperial favor, that it was extended
only in rare cases, chiefly to the Huns and the Wu-sun (the latter were
traditional Chinese allies against the Huns). When such alliance by
marriage had been made, there naturally ensued intrigues to have the
sons by such Chinese women elevated to the foreign thrones, in order
to extend Chinese influence. Among the Huns, these attempts were
usually unsuccessful; the Wu-sun kings, however, became in this manner
partly Chinese. Thus there was opened the possibility for some barbarian
invaders of China during the early middle ages to assert that
their ruler was the legitimate heir to the Chinese imperial throne, since
he was descended from a Chinese imperial house whom the Chinese had
dethroned.
| THE HISTORY OF THE FORMER HAN DYNASTY The history of the former Han dynasty | |