The Tributary System's Two Possibilities Of Practice In The Ming And Ch'ing Dynasties (before 1840)

China's traditional system responding to outside world is called tributary system. The system itself predicted two possibilities of practice: one is to make a show of conciliation in order to bring other nationalities or states under control; the other is to preserve the right to make one' s own decisions. Before 16 century when the European came to the East, China had been practicing the first possibility and built "hua-yi order' in the Far East Asia. The order can be divided into three modules: learning comprehensively; pursuing tributary trade interest; learning and challenging.In the Ming and Ch' ing dynasties , the second possibility of practical process was begun after European came to the East. Before 1840, China began to confront to Portugal and Britain and that was the prelude of the second practical possibility. The challenge from Portugal and Britain mainly represents in 4 areas: Residency place; Administration rights; Criminal arbitration and Catholicism practice. In the end, Portugal submitted and Chinese government had some compromise of Portugal's requirement. Britain refused to submit and Chinese government refused all the requirements from Britain. We can see that the second practice succeed before 1840.After 1840, Britain continued to challenge Tributary System by the way of war. The second practice of Tributary System enter into the substantially practice period and the theme went through the modern and contemporary history of China.The thesis suggests the view of the Tributary System going into practice. The purpose of this view is to explore the continuity and mainstay of Chinese history.