Southern And Northern Dynasties Evolution Of International Relations In East Asia

There is no doubt that China has played a decisive role in the development of the whole world of East Asia.The establishment of ancient Chinese dynasties were always followed by a series of particular foreign policies including Tributary System, Path System(道),the practices of subinfudation(册封),tie-up[羁縻),tributation(朝贡)upon other ethnic groups (tribes), and the implementation of punitive invasions and political intermarriages(和亲),all of which reflect the core principle of central government to culturally assimilate the surrounding forces, melt them into the circle of Chinese culture, and, as being the ultimate purpose, construct such an international order the core of which are the relationships between emperors and their subjects.This thesis takes Korean Peninsula, Japan Archipelago and some other North-Eastern ethnic groups as a whole, focuses on collection, pectination and generalization of the evolution of subinfudation and tie-up relationships between Chinese Dynasties and the above-mentioned areas, and offers a temporally and spacially solid penetration of China-Korea-Japan intercourse structures during the period of Wei, Jin and the Northern and Sourthern Dynasties.It is argued that the subject period of this thesis is the most important phase of the process of origination, development and variation of East Asia international relationships between Han and Tang dynasties. A directviewing knowledge of the ancient Chinese-East Asia international system can be acquired by investigating and systematizing the above-mentioned process of the subject period. Horizontally, to acquire a more comprehensive understanding of the overall history during the subject period, it is also helpful for us to know more about the interactions of events in and out of China, namely the influence of Chinese demestic developments upon East Aisa and in reverse.Direct control of the northern part of Korea Peninsula from centural government starts from the suppression of Wei Korea(卫氏朝鲜)by Emperor Wu of Han dynasty(汉武帝),followed by the establishment of Four-Counties, namely Lelang(乐浪),Zhenfan(真番),Lintun(临屯)and Xuantu(玄菟)After several changes, Zhenfan county and Lintun county were cancelled, and Xuantu county was withdrawn out of the peninsula. Thus only Lelang county had effective control on the northern part of Korea Penninsula. At the end of East Han, Procurator of Liaodong(辽东太守)Gongsun Kang(公孙康)established Daifang(带方)country at the southern part of Lelang. The alleged Three-Han:三韩),namely Ma Han(马韩),Chen Han(辰韩)and Bian Han[弁韩),lived in the southern part of the peninsula. The first record of Japan Archipelago occurs in Han Book((汉书).In Wei-Jin period, Japan Archipelago started to pay tribute to Chinese centural government and thus entered into the China-headed international system. During the Sixteen Kindoms(十六国),China proper fell into chaos. Therefore centural government's control of surrounding areas kept declining, and became insufficient for the master of international affairs. The rising Koguryo(高句丽)occupied Lelang and Daifang, which marked the beginning of seperation of the peninsula from centural government. Besides Koguryo which rised in Xuantu country, there were another states such as Shilla(新罗),Baikje(百济)and Gaya(伽耶)which originated from Three-Han groups. Generally tripartite confrontation of Koguryo, Shilla and Baikje occurred in the peninsula. Of course Gaya, located in the southern end of peninsula near Japan, had some influence on the history too.During the period of the Northern and Sountern Dynasties, both northern dynasties and southern dynansties had made efforts to retrieve the international system. However, because of the pressures from both demestic and foreign situations, both northern and southern dynansties had given up some rights previously belonging to centural dynansties only, which decreased their prestige as centural dynansties seperately. Of the southern dynasties, Liang(梁) was reletively capable to pectinate the international system under its control. During this period, Kugoryo mainly contacted with northern dynasties, Baikje mainly contacted with southern dynasties, while Shilla was reletively independent. Japan kept a connection with China, via Baikj'r or directly, and studied Chinese culture and imported technology.Finally, this thesis argues that the experience of Wei, Jin and the Northern and Southern Dynasties handling international affairs is a very important lesson for subsequent times, and indeed, provided a reletively not bad international structure. Hence Sui and Tang dynansties, after their unification, could construct a wide range international system in which China was the core and Chinese culture acted as the vinculum. Particularly within the East Asian world, there was an inheritation relationship between the international relationships of Sui-Tang period and those of the period of the Northern and Southern Dynasties.