Organizer: Nancy Park, Vassar College
Chair and Discussant: Susan Naquin, Princeton University
The practice of presenting tribute to the Chinese imperial court had a long history and a complex political, economic, and ritual importance. The system had its origins in the pre dynastic Warring States period (403-221 B.C.), when diplomatic relations between rival states were cemented by mutual exchange of gifts. Although Western sinology has traditionally viewed the tribute system as a symbolic expression of Chinese cultural and political supremacy, this interpretation obscures the nuances of the actual system. This session, the second part of a double panel on tribute, seeks to examine several practical implications of the "tribute system" during the Qing dynasty (1644-1911), discussing its contribution to Qing trade and economic expansion; its artistic importance; its economic effect within China proper; and its use as an instrument of state control.
Jim Millward examines the issue of imperial tribute from Xinjiang during the first hundred years of Qing control of the region during the 18th century. Reevaluating the structurally rigid view of the China-Inner Asia tribute relationship that has been reflected in traditional Western historiography, he explains how, in practice, the tribute system served a wide variety of ritual, political, and economic functions. Specifically, he shows how the Qing dynasty utilized the tribute system as a mechanism of colonial expansion and economic control over the Xinjiang region.
Claudia Brown, an art historian, will discuss some of decorative objects that were used for tribute in the late 17th and 18th centuries. She argues that glass vessels and other tribute gifts, which were exchanged between European and Chinese courts, were important not only for their artistic value but also for the technological advances that they spawned. Focusing her attention on the German glassmaker Killian Stumpf, she shows how European examples of glass influenced the Chinese aesthetic in glassmaking.
Nancy Park examines tribute from provincial officials to the Throne during the reign of the Qianlong emperor, arguing that the economic burden of providing tribute gifts was directly related to the rise of official corruption during the 18th century. She contends that officials funded their purchases of tribute gifts primarily by resorting to bribery and other forms of corruption and concludes that the imperial demand for tribute contributed to China's political and economic decline in the latter half of the Qing dynasty.
Nicola Di Cosmo looks at the intersecting spheres of trade and tribute between local Qing officials and native people in Xinjiang in the early l9th century. Based on extensive research of Manchu documentary sources, he describes the ritual, economic, and political facets of this relationship and uses them as a basis for a preliminary comparison of the Manchu occupation of Xinjiang with other historical experiences of colonial rule.
While it is undeniable that the Qing tribute system had an important symbolic function, its implications for China's economy, art, and politics should not be ignored. We hope in this panel to reevaluate the dynamics of imperial tribute in late imperial China, illustrating some of its diverse functions and practical effects. Our discussant for this panel, Susan Naquin, brings to bear on this topic an extensive knowledge of Chinese society and politics during the late imperial period, supplemented by an understanding of Chinese popular and material culture, allowing her to highlight the broader themes that emerge from the four papers.
James Millward, University of Arizona
Like other peoples within and outside of the Qing empire, the various people of Xinjiang presented gifts of local products to the Qing imperial court. This paper will examine three aspects of Xinjiang's tribute during the first century of Qing rule over East Turkestan and Zungharia to argue that, rather than being part of a unified "tribute system" per se, the transport and presentation of Xinjiang goods served a variety of ritual, political, and economic functions.
While en route to their first imperial audience as Qing subjects, East Turkestani elites (the "begs") were treated to a succession of feasts and carefully produced entertainments in each principal city along the route from Gansu to Beijing. Although these begs were nominally traveling to the capital to perform ritual obeisance to the Manchu monarch, internal Qing correspondence reveals that the principal purpose of the trip was to impress these Turkic headmen with the prosperity of Chinese urban life and the awesomeness of Qing social and military organization. With Xinjiang newly conquered and Qing control there not yet consolidated, the court employed diplomatic showmanship to help secure the begs' loyalty to the Manchu empire.
Inevitably, as begs' journeys to the capital for imperial audiences (and to present tribute) became routinized in later years, Qing officials grew less fastidious about the services provided. But the missions still served an important political function: because only begs above a certain rank could travel to Beijing and present their melons, grapes, and fruit preserves, the right to an imperial audience (and associated profitable trading) served to distinguish upper and lower echelons of beg officials. The right to wear the queue was likewise bestowed only upon this higher ranked group of East Turkestani functionaries. The court thus rationed out the privilege to visit the emperor, to present tribute, to trade and to affect the Manchu coiffure to those Xinjiang local officials whose loyalty was essential to continued Qing military rule in the region.
A third aspect of Xinjiang's tribute is of a different nature altogether. Manchu officials oversaw the mining and gathering of jade from mountains and rivers in southern Xinjiang. The entire product of this jade industry was delivered to the imperial court by the Qing military, which employed East Turkestan laborers to transport the stones in lots weighing thousands of kilograms. This state monopoly on this costly commodity was the single example of colonial extractive enterprise practiced by the Qing in Xinjiang.
Although local elites were only peripherally involved, the jadestone was delivered to Beijing as tribute.
In Xinjiang then, "tribute" became an element in both ritual demonstrations of imperial power and bestowals of imperial largess designed to enhance control over an outlying region. In addition, however, the concept also served as a euphemism for metropolitan extraction of a valuable product from the periphery. As such, it differs from the notion, implied by the term "tribute system," of a standardized diplomacy involving tribute presenting missions.
Claudia Brown, Phoenix Art Museum
In the late 17th and 18th centuries, the exchange of tribute gifts of glass and other decorative arts between European and Chinese courts led to a lively exchange of technology as well as the development of new aesthetics.
The presence of glass vessels among tribute gifts has long been noted, but thanks to recent art historical studies, particularly studies of objects in the palace collection in Beijing, it is now possible to form a clearer idea of what these objects looked like and how they were regarded by members of the court and high officials. Based on this information, this paper will proceed to examine the ways in which European examples of glass inspired a whole new aesthetic in Chinese glassmaking. Ultimately this transformation paved the way for foreign craftsmen, particularly Jesuit and other missionary artists, to gain access to the Chinese court. Specific attention will be given in the paper to the German glassmaker Killian Stumpf, who was directly commissioned to set up a glassworks within the court grounds, and the activity of European craftsmen in glassmaking at the Chinese court will be traced through to the end of the 18th century.
After examination of this specific area of tribute exchanges and its repercussions, the paper will suggest broader questions and comparisons. How for example were the other arts affected by tribute exchanges? And how were European art forms influenced?
Nancy Park, Vassar College
At least as early as the Tang dynasty (618-907), provincial officials throughout the Chinese empire were required to submit to the Throne an annual gift of "local tribute," featuring the native produce of their regions. By Qing times (1644-1911), the presentation of imperial tribute had become routinized and it was customary for officials to offer tribute on imperial birthdays and major holidays of the lunar year. Theoretically, the value of the offerings was unimportant; ostensibly, they were supposed to be symbolic presents of indigenous fruit, vegetables, or animal products. In actuality, provincial officials spent vast amounts of time and money preparing unique tribute gifts including priceless paintings; porcelains; gem encrusted baubles; Western imports; and other precious objects.
Until now, the scholarly literature on imperial tribute has emphasized its ritual significance and importance as an engine of trade, while the social and economic effects of the system have gone relatively unnoticed. This paper seeks to initiate a new dialogue about the political economy of Qing tribute, arguing that the custom put a significant strain on provincial finances and contributed to a dramatic increase in official corruption in 18th-century China. Throughout the Qing dynasty, the meager governmental salaries provided to officials did not come close to meeting their personal and administrative expenses, much less the additional economic burden of purchasing tribute gifts. Because provincial officials were not authorized to levy taxes, the gap between their income and expenditures had to be covered through private resources or, if these were unavailable, by illegal means. The majority of provincial officials adopted the latter method, resulting in a system of institutionalized corruption though which officials obtained needed funds by irregular solicitation of gifts and customary fees; embezzlement; misappropriation; deficit spending; and bribery.
The economic pressures of presenting tribute reached a new level during the reign of the Qianlong emperor (1735-1976). Perhaps more than any other Qing monarch, the Qianlong emperor appreciated the finer aspects of life-sumptuous feasts, luxurious palaces, and exquisite objets d'art. Although he issued frequent edicts banning officials from spending a lot of money on tribute gifts, in practice, he tended to favor those who ignored his prohibitions. In 1747, for example, the emperor wrote an enthusiastic edict to a Guangdong official who had provided a welcome tribute gift, saying: "The gold plated clock tower decorated with Western pictures is really great! If you find any that are even bigger and better than this, buy some of those too. Don't spare any expense."
The Qianlong emperor must have known that the tribute system had a deleterious effect on provincial finances; nonetheless, his desire for gifts seems to have overshadowed these considerations. The emperor's acquisitiveness placed an intolerable burden on provincial officials, which they met by corruptly increasing the fiscal demands on their subordinates and, indirectly, on the common people. In this way, the Qianlong emperor and his successors contributed to the Qing decline of the late 18th and l9th century, which ultimately helped to bring about the fall of the dynasty.
Nicola Di Cosmo, Harvard University
The intersecting spheres of trade and tribute within the overarching relationship between local Qing officials and native people constitute key issues in the study of Qing colonial rule in Xinjiang. Local documentary sources in Manchu language from the early nineteenth century shed light on the ritual, economic, and political facets of this relationship. Memorials and other documents show that the system of tributes which existed in Xinjiang covered broadly different social and political relations. These included the Qing administrators' relations not only with native peoples, but also with foreign countries, and spanned from the transparently mercenary to the purely ritualistic. In addition, tributary obligations regulated much of the economic and political relationship between Xinjiang and the central government.
This paper argues for the central position that the various types of tribute and the principles that informed them had in the Qing colonization of Xinjiang. The extent to which tribute played a role in different contexts shows the existence of a thick ideological patina which covered all aspects of the local social and political life. Although the existence of such ideological level is often taken for granted, it is seldom analyzed in detail. By showing the function and specific context of different types of tribute it is possible to reveal more of the actual nature of the Qing occupation of the northwest in both its ideological and political aspects.
Finally, by placing the Manchu Chinese administration of Xinjiang within a broad comparative perspective whereby similarities as well as differences with other colonial experiences may be brought to the surface, the study of tribute may open new ground to an analysis of the colonial techniques adopted by the Qing vis-à-vis their Turkestani subjects.
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