The Research On The Visit To China By The Tributary Missions Of Overseas Countries In Song Dynastry

In Song Dynasty, overseas countries had sent tributary missions to China to pay tribute in succession. There were four reasons for overseas countries to send tributary missions, namely trade interests, political intentions, diplomatic practice and cultural needs, among which trade interests was the most important motivation.The two principle methods of tributary opportunities for overseas countries were the Song recruitment and their applications.The Song court had certain regulations on tributary period, but did not fully implement. The Song court had certain regulations on the number of missions excluding Korea, but the number had often exceeded the approver’s count. The ranking of the missions from high to low in turn was envoy(正使),vice envoy(副使)and assistant(判官).In addition, the missions had some entourage, such as defense office(防援官),sanjierencong(三节人从),interpreter and family dependents, etc. The envoys were officials, businessmen (including Chinese businessmen), local leaders, princes or monks, most of whom were officials. The missions came to China either on Chinese trade merchant vessels or local ones.At that time, the seaway occupied the main position in Sino-Foreign traffics. The missions entered Song through the ports in Guangzhou, Quanzhou, Mingzhou, Qinzhou, Haizhou and Tongzhou and the land crossings in Yongzhou, Qinzhou, Weizhou and Xizhou. The local government of Song court should verify the identities of the overseas envoys. There were two kinds of credentials, one was the decree and certificate of the Song court, the other was the documents of overseas countries. The local government of Song court was responsible for reception and management.The missions must be approved by Song court if they wanted to go to the capital to pay tribute with population restriction except Korea. The Song court dispatched convoy leaders(押伴官)to escort the missions to capital. There were one to three convoy leaders who were usually low-level officials between grade seven to nine. Most of them were central officials such as eunuchs(宦官),audience ushers(閤门衹侯)in central government and warehouse managers(管库)in local government.The Song court ruled the schedule strictly ensuring the missions to reach the capital on time. The local government escorted the missions to the capital alternately and segmentally by every prefecture.In Song Dynasty, the diplomatic inn tended to be specialization and the missions’activities in diplomatic inn were strictly limited. The record on the official of guanbanguan(馆伴官)was mainly concentrated in Korea in Song Dynastry, the grade ranked from vice four to three. The missions were expected to obey certain rules while attending audiences, feasts, tours and cultural activities. Some of the missions’credentials revealed certain diplomatic information. In general, overseas envoy officials which were granted by the Song court included civil service prestige title(文散官),military service prestige title(武散官),jianxiao officer(检校官),officers of the imperial guards(环卫官),salary officer(寄禄官),military rank(武官阶),merit title(勋),nobilit(爵)and so on, and the they had different grades.In terms of the period, the grades were higher during the years between Songtaizu(宋太祖)and Songzhenzong(宋真宗)(960-1022).In terms of the types, the grades of civil service prestige title, military service prestige title, jianxiao officer(检校官),merit title were higher, and the grade of nobility was lower.In terms of the nations, the types of Cochin was most richest, and the countries by the South China Sea were more monotonous, just service prestige title and officers of the imperial guards.The missions must make their adieus to the Emperor before they left. The commissioner-escort(送伴官)was the former envoy, and the rules was also according to those when they escorted the missions to the capital. As for the missions who were not permitted to the capital delivered at the port and then they could go back to their countries when they completed the tributary task. Due to various reasons, the members may have minor variations when they left.The trade activities of missions could be divided into two kinds:the official trade of tributary and the trade of the nongovernmental trade of private(私觌贸易).There were three principal forms of tributary:the state tributary to the Song court, state tributary to the royal family, chancellor or government departments in the Song Dynasty, private tributary of the chief missions to the Song court.There were three kinds of bestowal by the Song court:huicii(回赐)；bieci(别赐),teci(特赐),jiaci(加赐)and ci(赐).The Song court followed certain regulations on bestowing:mainly bestow basing on the valuation, bestow with quota and bestow extra. There were two forms of the nongovernmental trade of private:one was direct transaction, the other was indirect transaction. Local government mainly managed the nongovernmental trade of private. It was very difficult to estimate the profit and loss of the missions in China by the relatively accurate economic data. Inspection with the basic rationalization would help as well as the indirect evidence-the enthusiasm of tributary.The Song court offered different qualification to the missions according to the national strength. Meanwhile, the Song received a same country differently because of the changing geopolitical and diplomatic strategy. There were three sources of reception costs:funding, self-financing and apportionments. As for the amount, there is little historical record. In the process of reception, the Song court usually implemented the practice of China centrism and required the missions to obey to the ceremonial regulation of Song court.There were three kinds of central government agencies of Song court which were responsible for the reception and management of the missions:competent agencies, affairs agencies and auxiliary agencies. The competent agencies played a guiding role consisted of bureau of military affairs(枢密院),secretariat-chancellery(中书门下),department of state affairs(尚书省),ministry of rites(礼部)and the ministry of revenue户部).The affairs agencies performed specific transaction and had obvious characteristics of specialization, consisted of visitors bureau(客省),court of state ceremonial(鸿胪寺),hostel for tributary envoys(四方馆),memorial reception staff(閤门),state finance commission(三司)and court of the imperial treasury(太府寺).The auxiliary agencies assisted and coordinated with the other two agencies. It was constituted by of the institute of academicians(学士院),imperial academy of calligraphy(翰林御书院),historiography institute(史馆),ministry of war(兵部),headquarters bureau(工部),palace eunuch service(入内内侍省),bianchisuc(编敕所),directorate of education(国子监),left storehouse(左藏库),fengzhuangku(封桩库),storehouse of gifts(衹侯库),ruiwuge(瑞物阁),office for elephant care(象院),mounts service(骐骥院).The provincial agencies with foreign functions of Song court mainly were military commission(经略安抚使司),transport office(转运司),maritime trade supervisorate(市舶司), circuit supervisor(监司), yanhaizhizhisi(沿海制置司).Besides, the agencies of various prefectures and counties performed the functions of reception, escorting, information reporting and trade management and so on. The relationship between various government agencies at all levels was complex, both command and order, but also coordination and cooperation; both indepentent, but also intersected; both primarily responsible, but also a secondary auxiliary. In local government, the Guangnanxi province(广南西路)enjoyed greater diplomatic privileges than other local governments. In the process of reception and management, the Song court legislated the tributary ordinance showed in the form of act and tributary convention showed in the form of experience. However, neither of them was fully implementedThe attitude of Song court towards the missions was a double-sided principle of prevention and conciliation.The prevention was foremost and the conciliation was secondary. The all sorts of favor of conciliation which Song court gave to the missions were based on its strict prevention.Under the illusive and conceited grand occasion of tributary, the pointless psychology of the ruling group made destruction to the unrelated disadvantaged. This was a tragedy in the monarchical society.