From the 14th to the 19th century, the world of East Asia witnessed a series of major successions in rulership that inaugurated its entry into early modern history. In 1368, Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) in China, which along with the following Qing dynasty (1644-1911), led the country to become the center of international order in East Asia. In 1392, Yi Sǒnggye (1335-1408) established the long-lasting Joseon dynasty (1392-1910) on the Korean Peninsula. In the same year, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu (1358-1408) ended the Nanboku-cho period of competing imperial courts and unified Japan. A few years later, the Ryukyu Islands also transitioned from three lines of kings in the Sanzan period to the unified First Sho dynasty in 1429. In this era of new and evolving political landscapes, the alliances, competition, and confrontations between Ming and Qing China, Korea, Ryukyu, and Japan (from the Muromachi to the Meiji periods) shaped the international order of the early modern world in East Asia.
The geography of East Asia comprises the East Asian mainland, the East Asian island arc, and the seas around them, with China, Korea, Japan, Ryukyu, and Taiwan all situated within this region. Culturally, they belong to the “Sinosphere,” sharing similar cultural commonalities based on Chinese writing while also retaining their own unique characteristics. Before the "treaty system" brought the Westphalian notion of sovereignty to East Asia in the 19th century as the underlying principle for a new international order, the so-called “tribute system”(also known as the “tributary system,”“investiture,” or "tributary vassalage") was the diplomatic model for international relations in the region.
This thematic exhibition focuses on changes in international politics in East Asia during its early modern era, first exploring the identity, alliances, and challenges of China upon expanding outward and constructing an international order based on its own tribute system. Through a review of material culture, this exhibit examines a 500-year span of East Asian international relations, from the founding of the Ming dynasty (1368) to the Treaty of Shimonoseki (1895), which brought this system to an end. However, whether the tribute system actually centered solely on China during this period deserves reconsideration and should be readdressed.
In the East Asian landscape of this era, Japan, situated at its easternmost edge, borrowed from Chinese culture. Politically, though, it also sought to establish an international order with itself at the center, eventually vying with China for the status of suzerain in East Asia. Japan dispatched envoys to persuade various states to submit and pay tribute to it, launched the Imjin War (1592-1598) to try and conquer China via Korea, and used the Satsuma Domain to force Ryukyu into submission. In this struggle for power in East Asia, Ryukyu skillfully navigated between China and Japan through a policy of flexible diplomacy, striving for maximum economic benefit via its position along maritime trade routes. Meanwhile, the Korean court of the Joseon dynasty, with its rational and pragmatic foreign policy, insisted on sending envoys to Japan on a principle of equality. And before the Satsuma Domain's invasion of Ryukyu in 1609, Joseon Korea and Ryukyu maintained relations based on the notion of "neighborly relations." Although the relationship between these East Asian states differed on a fundamental level, it generally operated on the mechanisms of the tribute system, allowing for rescuing those stranded by storms, negotiations, and engaging in political, economic, and cultural exchanges. And when national security was threatened, these states resorted to diplomatic maneuvering, alliances, and confrontation.
The exhibit also reflects on the construction of an East Asian cultural order. As Chinese writing formed the common language of the East Asian cultural sphere, educated envoys often communicated and exchanged ideas through Chinese characters. Furthermore, the itineraries of diplomatic envoys not only became arteries for politics and the economy, but also channels for disseminating knowledge and developing a cultural order, presenting a cultural autonomy lying beyond the political sphere.
This special exhibition begins with images that represent the awareness of and diplomacy in foreign affairs among these East Asian countries, offering a retrospective on their complex international relationship at the time. In the process, we can consider these two questions: What was the role of these visual materials, and what kind of historical traces did they leave behind? And Taiwan today, as a hub for East Asia and the seas around it, can contemplate on the contemporary East Asian context from a historical perspective to examine its position and role in responding to future changes within the larger global landscape.