DHIS 22A11 - The past (and present) of China's Tributary Empire

This seminar explores the so-called tributary empire, a system of hierarchical international relations centred around the Chinese empire during the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1912) dynasties and shaping most notably Chinese relations with Korea and Vietnam but also Japan during this period. Students will familiarise themselves with the historic realities of international relations practice in East Asia before the ‘advent of the West' as well as issues relating to diplomacy, trade, frontier contact, conflict, inter-state war and peace. Building on these bases, students will critically engage with various conceptualisations of this shared East Asian past and the role of this shared history as a precedent and in present-day political discourse in the region. Additionally, this seminar aims to provide students the opportunity to develop a basic familiarity with research methods in East Asian history, by including one dedicated session on research methods and historiography respectively.
Alban SCHMID
Séminaire
English
Autumn 2024-2025
Reading review: 15% Oral presentation: 35% Final examination: 40% In-class participation: 10%
Lecture-style introduction to new topics Student presentations In-class debate of concepts introduced
Clark, Donald. Sino-Korean Tributary relations under the Ming'. In The Cambridge History of China, edited by D. Twitchett and F. Mote, 272-300. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
Kang, David. East Asia before the West: Five Centuries of Trade and Tribute. New York: Columbia University Press, 2010.
Lewis, James B. ed. The East Asian War, 1592-1598: International relations, Violence and Memory. Abingdon, Oxon.: Routledge, 2015.
Larsen, Kirk W. Tradition, Treaties, and Trade: Qing Imperialism and Chosŏn Korea, 1850–1910, Harvard East Asian Monographs 295, 2011.