The Study On The Bidirectional Tributary Of The Jianzhou Jurchens In Fitfeenth Century

It is a pivotal period of establishing a state of the Jianzhou Jurchens in the15thcentury. Under the leadership of outstanding heads, like Ahachu, MenggetiemuerBaerxun and Dongshan, the state of the Jianzhou Jurchens survived and developed ina crevice which between the Ming Dynasty and Korea. In the late of the Yuan Dynasty,they gradually migrated from Hei Longjiang and Song Huajiang which lived forgenerations to southward area and settled in the valley of Tumen River and Yalu Riverin the north of the Korean Peninsula. After successively establishing of states of theMing Dynasty and Lee Korea, both of them competed to draw the Jurchens over totheir respective side. In this case, some Jurchen leaders had to pay tribute to the MingEmperor and to Korea as well. In this research, there are three sections of thisbehavior in bidirectional tributary will be explained as follows:The Chapter One mainly indicates that the Jianzhou Jurchens had to pay tributeto the Ming Emperor. Because of the obstruction from Mongolia and North Korea, atthe beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the Emperor tried to pacify the Jurchens and setup the relationship of tributary between two states, but in vain at last. Until YongleEmperor, he achieved Hongwu Emperor’s desire and set up the Wei tributary in thecountry of the Jurchens. It is the start of the Jurchens to pay tribute to the MingEmperor in this period, and under this influence, more and more Jurchens were insuch tributary and they gradually attached to the statehood with Jianzhou Wei.Afterwards, more and more tribute was paid and this tributary gradually becameinstitutionalized.The Chapter Two mainly introduces a tributary between the Jianzhou Jurchensand Korea. Korea was established by Li Chenggui who inherited the policy ofexpensing northwards from Corea and all previous rulers positively intent on aligning with the leaders of Jianzhou Jurchens who lived in the valley of Tumen River. Thus,the Jianzhou Jurchens was in bidirectional tributary after they aligned with the Ming.After the conflict with Korea, the Jianzhou Jurchens migrated to the direction in thecountry of the Ming and meanwhile the tributary to Korea was interrupted twice.When the leaders of Li Manzhu and Menggetiemuer respectively commanded theJurchens migrated to the rive basin of Po Zhujiang and Amu River, they were againon the Korean tributary. And after the three Weis of the Jianzhou Jurchens livedtogether, the ruler of Korea once aligned with Dongshan who consequently inbidirectional tributary as well. Moreover, the Ming Emperor accused this privatecontact between the Jianzhou Jurchens and Korea.The Chapter Three primarily analyzes the differences and discusses the possiblereasons of this bidirectional tributary in Jianzhou Jurchens. Seen from the outside,although the behavior of bidirectional tributary in Jianzhanou Jurchens was similar,actually, it essentially had a significant difference. And there are many internalreasons caused in such situation of the Jurchens, such as the geographic location,social development level, the people’s idea of themselves; in addition, other externalcauses should be concluded, for instance, the deviation of the policy towardsnationalities, the ineffective administration of remote areas in the nation of Ming, andthe policy of expensing northwards and the petty Chinese consciousness in the nationof Korea.From the process of the tributary to the Ming and to Korea, the JianzhouJurchens began to accept the civilization in agriculture, change the social formationand also arouse the national consciousness. In a certain period of time, thebidirectional tributary maintained the stability of the border, gained time fordeveloping the state of the Jianzhou Jurchens and strongly impacted on thedevelopment of the relationship and the boundary division between the Ming andKorea.