Vietnam Envoys’ Views On The Society Of Qing Dynasty Inthe Period Of Qianlong

During the most period of Qing Dynasty, Vietnam as a vassal state made a frequent envoys exchange with Qing Dynasty. Those Vietnamese envoys were fluent in Chinese and had a deep understanding of Chinese culture. They carried out a detailed investigation and recorded the political and economic conditions, geography and local customs of the regions they walked past when they envoyed to china. The Vietnamese Yan Xing Literature Integration(Collection in Vietnam) which was newly published provided new historical records for us to study the society of Qing Dynasty in the period of Emperor Qianlong. On the basis, this paper systematicly reviewed the relevant records the Vietnamese envoys made, trying to make a systematic research on the society of Qing Dynasty in the period of Emperor Qianlong in the perspectives of Vietnamese envoys.The thesis is divided into four parts, the first part introduces the suzerain-vassal relation between China and Vietnam from 1667 to 1885, foucs on Qianlong dynasty during which there were conflicts and wars at times between the two countries, but rapprochement was still the mainstream. This part also reviewed the literature of Vietnam envoys in the period of Emperor Qianlong. The second part focuses on the study of the problems related to the Vietnam envoys when they served in China, including the selection and appointment of the envoys, the classification of the envoys and the route Vietnam envoys took to China. It indicates that Vietnam attached great importance to the envoys. whether acquired a high quality of Chinese cultural attainment is the key factor for Vietnam to select the envoys. Vietnam intended to display their high level of Chinese culture. The third part introduces the economy, politic, religion, social life, science and technology and so on in the period of Qianlong which the Vietnamese envoys "narrated", trying to outline a complete outlook of society conditions of Qing Dynasty in the period of Qianlong. In this period envoys of Vietnam had already begun to record the ills of society, and from then on, the Vietnam envoys paid more and more attention to record the social ills of Qing dynasty. In the fourth part, the thesis tries to summarize the Vietnamese envoys’ view about China through their records. Vietnam agreed with Qing Dynasty in the level of culture, but excluded in the level of nation, which highlighted the awakening of national consciousness in Vietnam.In short, the Vietnamese Yan Xing Literature Integration has a very high historical and literary value. On the basis of the envoys’ records, we can make a detailed research on the society of Qing Dynasty. Though it’s not comprehensive enough to observe Chinese society, it offers different perspectives for our research.