In 1597, two men met at the Jade River Hostel in Beijing.
Both were diplomats and scholars, well-versed in Confucian literature and political ideas.
The two men spoke different languages, but they communicated through “brush talks.”1 In other words, they spent hours “talking” by writing messages and poems to one another in literary Chinese calligraphy. This was not unusual. Literary Chinese, written in classical Chinese characters, was the common diplomatic language of the region. Scholar-diplomats throughout the region were familiar with a shared body of Classical Chinese literature and shared Confucian philosophies. The Jade River Hostel was a place where diplomats from all over Asia met each other, gathered important information for their respective leaders, and engaged in extremely lucrative trade with both local people and other guests at the Hostel.
What was so special about Beijing?
Phùng Khắc Khoan was in Beijing on behalf of the recently established Lê government, which ruled over the territory that we now call Vietnam.
Back then it was called either Dai Viet or Annam/Annan, depending who was talking and who the audience was. The Lê government and the Ming government disagreed on the status of both the region and its leader.
In diplomatic communication both governments called the region Annam (or Annan), but privately they had very different perspectives. Internally and with their less powerful neighbors, the Lê dynasty called their realm Dai Viet - meaning Great Viet. The name suggested that Dai Viet and Da Ming (China) were parallel great powers, each fully independent of the other.
By contrast, the Ming government used the name Annan, which referred to their own history of military and political influence over the area. In their view, the region was not fully independent and its leaders were not kings. On top of that, Lê Duy Đàm had only recently reclaimed leadership after a civil war with the Mac dynasty and China questioned Lê’s claim to leadership.
Yi Sugwang, from Joseon (Korea), was on his second diplomatic mission to China.
In 1592, right after his first mission, Japan - led by Toyotomi Hideyoshi - invaded Joseon. After some debate about what to do, Chinese troops helped the Koreans repel the Japanese invaders and then attempted to negotiate a peace settlement with Japan - without much Korean input. The negotiations failed and Japan reinvaded the Korean peninsula. Yi Sugwang’s second visit to Beijing was not specifically related to the war but it happened in the midst of this brutal conflict, which modern Korean historians call the Imjin War.
Tribute Giraffe with Attendant, 16th century via Philadelphia Museum of Art https://www.philamuseum.org/collection/object/181783
Foreign dignitaries visiting Dai Viet, 16th century via Wikimedia Commons
If you’re learning (or teaching) about imperial China, you have probably heard about something called the tributary system, in which leaders from across Asia sent valuable goods (tribute) to the Chinese emperor. In exchange for this tribute and other symbolic acts affirming the Chinese emperor as the Son of Heaven, the emperor officially recognized the person who sent the gifts as the legitimate leader of a particular place. According to many textbooks, this tributary system was well-established during the Ming Dynasty and continued up until 19th century imperialist European powers introduced the idea of territorial sovereignty, defined by international law.
The reality was much more complicated.
From the 14th to 17th centuries, the regions that are now Japan, Korea, and Vietnam had extensive interactions with China. Chinese government ministers debated who they should accept tribute from and what China’s relationship to those leaders should be.2 Neighboring leaders negotiated over how frequently they could send tribute missions. In their communications, they often portrayed themselves one way to the Ming government and a different way to their own people.3
But it wasn't all about China all the time. East Asian polities also interacted with each other and with people from Central Asia, from other parts of Southeast Asia, and beyond. These contacts took many forms: diplomacy, trade, and scholarship, but also smuggling, piracy, and war. The contacts happened by land and by sea. The interactions included everyone from monarchs, diplomats, and elite scholars to the thousands of common people working as porters - that is, the people who actually carried the valuable tribute items from one place to another.
The stories of Phùng Khắc Khoan and Yi Sugwang hint at this complex network of foreign relations.
After waiting for more than a month at the Jade River Hostel, Phùng Khắc Khoan presented his government’s tribute goods to the Ming court. He wrote scholarly poems in praise of the Ming emperor, proving that he was cultured and civilized according to Confucian standards. However, the Ming refused to give Lê Duy Đàm the title of king. Instead they called him the “Pacification Commander of the Pacification Commission of Annan.”4 In other words, someone who was less than a king ruling over a region that was less than a true kingdom. It was not the official recognition they wanted.
Despite this, Phùng Khắc Khoan returned home to a job promotion and was remembered as a hero who represented his people with dignity and eloquence. The Lê leadership accepted the title of “Pacification Commander of the Pacification Commission of Annan” in diplomatic interactions with the Ming, but at home they continued to refer to their realm as Dai Viet - not just a kingdom, but an empire like their Chinese neighbor to the north. Speaking to their own people and non-Chinese neighbors, the Lê family claimed to hold a separate, parallel Mandate of Heaven. They even accepted tribute from other leaders in Southeast Asia. Clearly, the Ming view of the world was not the only view.
Phùng Khắc Khoan brought Yi Sugwang’s brush talk poems home with him and shared them widely. We know this because another Korean scholar, Cho Wan Byeok, was captured by Japanese pirates and taken to Vietnam, where locals recited Yi’s poems for him. Once he made his way back to Korea, he wrote about his experiences in Vietnam and his account eventually reached Yi Sugwang.5 Years later, in 1611, Yi made a third trip to China to meet other diplomats and scholars and collect books. When he returned to Joseon he published an encyclopedia featuring information about Japan, Vietnam and other parts of Southeast Asia, Europe, and Catholicism - among other topics. The lives of both these men illustrate the extensive interactions taking place across East Asia in this period.
In the United States today, China dominates news about East Asia. But all of East Asia is important in modern foreign relations. Everything from trade, to addressing climate change, to avoiding nuclear conflict depends on successful international communication and negotiation with all the countries in this region. Effective diplomacy between countries requires a deep understanding of domestic and regional issues, both current and historical.
The modern countries of East Asia have long histories with one another that extend back before our current international system, to a period when borders and government systems were different than they are now. Along with pivotal events of the 20th century, echoes of these complex historical relationships, diplomatic practices, and ideas still affect foreign policy today.
Examining these earlier interactions and perspectives can help you better understand the complexity of modern foreign relations. Learning about the past will help you ask more productive questions about the present and imagine more creative diplomatic solutions to current challenges.