The Qing Emperors’ Eastern Inspection Tours To Shengjing And The Relationship Between Qing Dynasty And Choson Dynasty

In Qing Dynasty, emperors often leave the capital city to make inspection tours. According to the different direction, the patrol activities are divided into eastern inspection tours, southern inspection tours, western inspection tours, northern inspection tours. Among them, eastern inspection tours to Shengjing are most special. There are several reasons for this. Firstly, Shengjing is not only the birthplace of the Qing Dynasty but also the place where the ancestors of the Qing Dynasty were buried. Secondly, Shengjing is the political center for Qing Dynasty to maintain control in the northeast. Thirdly, in Qing Dynasty, emperors’ eastern inspection tours are the longest duration and the activities which involve most emperors.In the period of emperor Shunzhi, the emperor wanted to go back to hometown to worship ancestors, but this desire has not been realized. In Qing Dynasty, there are four emperors had held eastern inspection tours and the total ten times. Emperor Kangxi had held three times. Emperor Qianlong had held four times. Emperor Jiaqing had held two times. Emperor Daoguang had held one time. Qing emperors’ eastern inspection tours are diverse from each other. This is because that the four emperors in different objective historical conditions and their subjective understanding are not identical. But, whenever the emperor held the eastern inspection tour, Choson Dynasty all sent envoys to Shengjing, expressing greetings and sincerities. The emperors always give them preferential treatment. Both sides of the intimate contact promote the development of the friendly relationship between the two countries. However, in the early Qing Dynasty, because of the Qing Dynasty levied war on Choson Dynasty, the relationship between the two countries is very nervous. Furthermore, there are "Worship Zhou and Miss Ming" in Choson Dynasty and the influence is persist. For those reasons, when Choson Dynasty sent the envoys in the period of emperor Kangxi, Choson Dynasty took the position of "Polite to Power". In the period of emperor Qianlong, Choson Dynasty began take the position of "Sincere to Power".It is very rare in the history of the political relationship between China’s feudal dynasties and foreign counties that Chinese emperors made inspection tours in their own country and foreign countries sent envoys specially to express greetings. On the one hand, this phenomenon shows that the Qing Dynasty’political influences for Choson Dynasty. On the other hand, this phenomenon shows that Choson Dynasty is good at combine Confucian diplomatic etiquette with its own security and profit.On the basis of previous studies, this paper tries to through analyze and compare the communications of Qing Dynasty and Choson Dynasty during the emperors’ eastern inspection tours to explore the influences of the emperors’ eastern inspection tours for the relationship between Qing Dynasty and Choson Dynasty, so as to show the relationship between Qing Dynasty and Choson Dynasty from a new angle.