| Beijing
has been China's principal capital since the thirteenth
century. For most of that long stretch of time, Beijing
ranked among the largest and most thriving cities in the
world. Under the Ming dynasty, Beijing was home to
the imperial court, the central government, and a populace
that hovered in the neighborhood of one million people.
Because of China's political, economic, military, and cultural
importance, foreign envoys from scores of Asian countries
traveled to Beijing, where they sojourned for weeks and
months at a time.
Arriving at
designated entry points along China's borders, envoy missions
first presented their diplomatic credentials to local authorities,
often military officers charged with security and managing
daily relations with surrounding countries. If their
diplomatic papers were in order (attempts to gain access
to China with false papers, even identities, were common),
foreign envoys were admitted to Ming territory. The
size of diplomatic missions normally ranged from several
dozen to several hundred. On some occasions, their
size reached as many as two thousand men. Most of
the mission personnel would remain in the border cities,
where they would be housed, fed, and entertained at government
expense. Large missions could pose substantial burdens.
In 1445, a large Mongolian mission staying in the northwestern
border garrison of Datong consumed the following during
its month long visit: 3000 head of cattle and goats, 3000
containers of wine, 100 pecks of rice and wheat, "countless
amounts of poultry, fruits and sundry other items."
In addition to eating, visiting envoys also traded goods
in local border markets, and gathered economic, political,
and military intelligence. With a frequency that disturbed
the Ming government, they also caroused and fought.
The elite members
of the mission and their servants would travel from the
border to the capital along imperial highways, using government
transporation (horses, carts, or boats), accompanied by
a Chinese translator/guide under military guard. After a
journey that lasted anywhere from a few weeks to several
months, the envoys arrived in Beijing. After checking into
the diplomatic hostel where they were required to stay,
mission heads were taught the protocol for audiences in
the palace, given a set of Chinese court gowns, and, if
all went smoothly, briefly saw the Son of Heaven. Afterwards,
mission members were allowed to trade in the thriving markets
of Beijing, subject to varying levels of government supervision
and control. Their political and commercial missions complete,
the envoys would return home, again along imperial highways
under military guard.
That is how
things were supposed to go, and generally did. However,
as one might expect, there were problems. Foreign envoys
complained about the shoddy treatment they received at the
official diplomatic hostel where they were required to stay.
Ming regulations carefully stipulated the amount and quality
of food that mission members were to receive, depending
on the relative status of each person. Despite these detailed
instructions, Ming officials discovered that both the quantity
and quality of the food were sometimes embarrassingly substandard.
Sets of dishes, plates, and bowls provided for the envoys'
use were chipped, incomplete, and/or dirty. Complaints about
demands for bribes were common. Investigations confirmed
that some officials at the diplomatic hostel refused to
inform the court of the envoy's arrival in the capital until
a satisfyingly generous bribe was produced. In one case
early in the fifteenth century, an envoy was unable to present
his tribute (and receive reciprocal gifts from the throne)
for nearly a month. In other cases, the gifts from the throne,
especially bolts of silk textiles, were of poor quality
and substandard sizes. Investigation revealed that the Chinese
households that supplied the goods as part of their tax
responsibilities routinely cheated the government. Officials
from the Ministry of Rites, which oversaw much of foreign
relations related protocol, worried loudly in memorials
to the emperor that these various forms of mistreatment
undermined China's reputation as a benevolent and generous
power. Much goodwill would be lost, they predicted. Periodic
crackdowns suggest that such practices, however, continued
throughout the dynasty.
Ming authorities
attempted to limit contact between the foreign envoys and
the people of Beijing. Part of this concern arose from concern
about the safety of mission personnel. For instance, after
drunken fighting among members of a Mongolian mission ended
in one member's death late in 1500, the Ministry of Rites
proposed a number of preventative safety measures. Included
was the following: |
| Perhaps
more of a concern than the well-being of visiting foreigners
were the interests of the Ming state. The same document
quoted above urged public execution for Ming subjects who
sold prohibited varieties of weapons to foreign envoys.
Lesser punishment were to be meted out to those who leaked
intelligence to the envoys or engaged in illicit private
trading.
Repeated injunctions
against these actions suggest a fairly steady contact between
foreign envoys and at least certain segments of Beijing's
population. Periodically, fashions introduced by visiting
envoys swept the city. At different times during the fifteenth
century, first fans and gowns from Korea and then fur and
leather hats from Mongolia were considered the latest thing.
Foreign envoys
were far from angels during their sojourn in China. Drunken
scuffles along the route to Beijing and in the capital itself
were common. When local authorities lodged complaints of
assault, arson, and even murder against envoy personnel,
the cases were referred to the Ministry of Rites and eventually
to the emperor. Mission personnel might have to endure a
scolding at the Diplomatic Hall, or, more seriously, a reduction
of their trading privileges. More often Chinese officials
responsible for the behavior of foreign envoys were punished.
Generally,
the throne preferred to adopt a tone of benevolent indulgene
towards "the men from afar." However, even the Ming court
had its limits. During the first half of the sixteenth century,
large, heavily armed missions from competing interests in
Japan rioted in the streets of the port of Ningbo, put sections
of the city to the torch, stole government ships, and clashed
with imperial navy units. The Ming first curtailed and then
severed formal diplomatic and economic relations with Japan.
The Ming court experienced similar difficulties controlling
even larger missions of rowdy Mongolian envoy personnel
who seized goods, roughed up civil officials, and intimidated
local populations along the route from the northern border
to Beijing.
Such disruptions, however, were the exception. Ming diplomatic
practise was flexible enough to accommodate relations with
people from the four quarters of the world. Representatives
from Muslim potentates, Tibetan Buddhist rulers, and scrupulously
Confucian Korean kings, from landlocked Mongolian leaders
and maritime Ryukyu kings, and from the highly varied polities
of Southeast Asia--all conducted relations with the Ming
in different styles and with different objectives. Imperial
rhetoric that stressed timeless Chinese cultural superiority
and unwavering devotion to Confucianism disguised the great
variation of actual diplomatic practice. |
