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China people tend to look at Japan from the overall situation and the surface. First of all, we can see that Japan is an overseas island country and a small country. Secondly, we can see that China has learned a lot from Japan, which has benefited us a lot. It can be said that these two kinds of impressions have become unconscious stereotypes in the minds of the Japanese people, and the deep-rooted contempt mentality derived from them has also caused the Japanese people to be unable to really understand Japan, and it is even more difficult to maintain a peaceful mentality in their contacts with Japan.
China's ancient historical books are extremely rich, but for neighboring Japan, which has communicated with us for more than 1000 years, detailed and accurate accounts are really rare. On the contrary, there are too many superficial and hearsay rumors.
According to the historical records of China, the exchanges between the two countries began in BC 108, and Japanese tribes paid tribute to Le Lang County in the Han Dynasty. In 240 AD, the Wei delegation went to Japan for the first time to "visit the Japanese king". One of the motives for Wei to establish diplomatic relations with Japan is said to be to contain Wu, because it mistakenly believes that Japan's geographical location is "the east of Huiji and Dongye". (Biography of Wei Zhi/Japan) Under the limitation of early navigation ability, it is natural for China to misunderstand the Japanese situation. Therefore, although Japan was nominally included in China's canonization system (at that time, Japan was still in a state of division), the exchanges between the two sides were not close. During the Liu and Song Dynasties in the Southern Dynasties, Japan, which had initially completed its political reunification, put forward the title of General Baekje and Silla for the first time, which was the beginning of Japan's ambition on the Korean Peninsula, and it is worth noting. Liu Song's response to this is to refuse, but he is obviously not interested in understanding the changes in the Japanese situation. Liang Shu said: "The country of Dongyi is as big as North Korea." This shows that in China's canonization system, Japan is not as important as North Korea, and its attempt to get its hands on the Korean Peninsula is not allowed. In the following hundreds of years, China people's understanding of Japanese basically stagnated. Although the Japanese Biography has been preserved in the history books, the contents of the Japanese Biography have not deviated from the pattern of Wei Zhi/Japanese Biography.
Sino-Japanese communication reached its first climax in Sui and Tang Dynasties: Japan sent 18 envoys to the Tang Dynasty, and the envoys of the Tang Dynasty also crossed Japan eight times. However, Wang Zhenping pointed out in the History of Sino-Japanese Relations in Han and Tang Dynasties that the imperial court in China "never treated Japanese tribes before the fifth century differently from Japan after political reunification". He said that the Japanese ambassador visited China for 600 years, but he did not ask Emperor Yangdi for a title as in the past. "This move is an important diplomatic signal: the relationship between the monarch and the minister between China and Japan has been shaken, and Japan no longer regards itself as a subsidiary country of Japan." This indicates that Sino-Japanese relations have entered a new era.
However, the Tang Dynasty, which replaced the short-lived Sui Dynasty, behaved strangely in its relations with Japan. The Battle of Baijiangkou was the first war between China and Japan, and Tang Jun defeated the Japanese army. After the war, Japan's ambition to spy on the Korean Peninsula and its obstinacy in the canonization system led by China were exposed, but Tang Ting did not delve into it. Neither the Book of the Old Tang Dynasty nor the Book of the New Tang Dynasty mentioned the battle of Baijiangkou, but it was mentioned in the biography of Liu who commanded the battle. On the contrary, Tang Ting also highly respected the Japanese mission of "a country at war with the enemy". In 753, Japanese envoys were dissatisfied with their lower status than Silla envoys, and there was a dispute over the length in Tangting. Although there is controversy about the true situation of this incident, the ranking of Japanese envoys in the ceremony is indeed ahead of many foreign countries (second only to Tubo in the west). Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty once called Japan "the country of scholars". In the accounts of the Tang Dynasty, Japan was "prosperous and polite", and its adoption of "Han system" was also praised. In fact, Japan has generally established the concept of "Yi Xia", which is a replica of "Japan-centered theory". In the internal documents, there are even decrees calling "Tang State" an alien land, while North Korea regards it as a "near subordinate" and Tang as a "far subordinate". It is not hard to imagine that if the truth of this attitude is known to Tang Ting, it will fly into a rage. However, Tang Ting doesn't seem to realize this. Not only did he not let bygones be bygones, but he also sent Japanese envoys to the Tang Dynasty to come and go freely, absorbing the cultural essence of China and strengthening himself.
What was the reason for the leniency of the Tang Dynasty? Is it the vanity of "Tiankhan" that leads to complacency by asking Japan to create the illusion of "foreigners serving four clothes"? Or is it simply sloppy and has no time or intention to understand the actual situation in Japan? From the analysis of historical data, both of them have components. Either way, as Shi Xiaojun said in the book "Changes in Mutual Understanding between China and Japan", it shows that "people in the Tang Dynasty ignored Japan. "
The Tang dynasty sent envoys to Japan several times, but it seems that they didn't understand the truth about Japan. In the historical materials of Japan, there is even a humiliating record of the Tang envoy saying goodbye to the emperor a few days ago, saying that he was "fortunate to have this honor" (he went to the embassy in 779). Although we can suspect that these descriptions may be boasted by the Japanese side, it is certain that the envoys of the Tang Dynasty did not see through and expose Japan's imperial dream. There may be two reasons why these envoys hide what they have seen and heard after returning home. First, going to Japan, although far away at sea, is not very important. It is purely a formality and risky task. Therefore, it is better to "do as the Romans do." For example, Pei Shiqing, as Wang Zhenping said, "It seems inappropriate to salute according to Japanese customs when meeting the emperor", is actually just "flexibility"; Second, the Japanese side has also taken some confusing measures to avoid freezing the situation and directly challenge Tang. For example, when Sun Jinxing visited Japan, some Japanese ministers also advised them not to call themselves the Emperor. Despite their general opposition, the emperor resigned and accepted his credentials. Japan's "Hua Yi Lun" lamented: "However, I fell to the throne, alas!" (See Wang Zhenping's History of Sino-Japanese Relations in Han and Tang Dynasties for the visit of the Tang delegation to Japan. )
In the book, Wang Zhenping also carefully analyzed the diplomatic documents exchanged between China and Japan, and pointed out that Japan used the differences in Japanese pronunciation and reading training in the documents, which effectively maintained its equal or even higher status with the Tang Dynasty, without losing its self-esteem. For example, the word "emperor" in the document is written in Japanese as "to be beautiful", which hides the true meaning of "emperor". In 735, the credentials to Japan drafted by Zhang Jiuling, the famous prime minister of the Tang Dynasty, began with "Japanese king respected virtue", which was the title of the vassal, and "Japanese king respected virtue" was obviously named after this. The same language, expressed in two ways, is a cunning idea when the direct book "The Sun Source is the Son of Heaven" is easy to get into trouble. However, Wang Zhenping believes that, in the final analysis, the root cause of this phenomenon lies in the fact that the officials who handled Sino-Japanese relations in Sui and Tang Dynasties "had a little knowledge of Japanese culture and mistakenly believed the rumor that China and Japan belong to the same species and the same language". Starting from the Chinese mentality, they were only satisfied with maintaining formal vanity, but did not know that the real information of Japan had been ignored and distorted.
With more contact, clues will inevitably leak out. The Book of the Old Tang Dynasty records that Japan came to make "those who entered the DPRK were arrogant and untrue", but the Tang government did not take this "vassal state" to heart. This is a very unwise beginning of China people's view of Japan. In fact, the carelessness of China people is really excessive. In the book Old Tang Dynasty, which was completed in the Five Dynasties, there is an absurd phenomenon that the biography of Japan and the biography of Japan are juxtaposed. The length of the two articles is only a few hundred words, and what is the relationship between Japan and Japan is unknown.
In 894, Emperor Yudo abolished the envoy to the Tang Dynasty by imperial decree, and the Tang Dynasty was also caught in internal troubles and foreign invasion for a long time. Then the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms chaos, Sino-Japanese relations once again entered the silent stage. Until the Song Dynasty, there were still few official exchanges between the two countries. Although folk trade and monks' exchanges have developed more than before, coastal businessmen who only pursue profits and monks who aim at spreading religious ideas cannot fundamentally improve China's ignorance of the Japanese.
The rise of the Mongol Empire changed the political pattern in East Asia, and Japan became their conquest object, but the Yuan Army's two sea-crossing attacks were frustrated one after another. What I want to point out here is that if you know more about Japan's natural environment, geographical features, domestic garrison and other information, the Yuan Army will not be defeated again, at least pay attention to the choice of landing place and combat date. Of course, the low morale of the surrender servants of the Southern Song Dynasty and North Korea is also a factor that cannot be ignored.
The characteristics of Sino-Japanese relations in the Yuan Dynasty were that official contacts were cut off and non-governmental trade was increasing. Especially with the improvement of navigation technology and economic development, some commercial groups specializing in maritime trade have been formed, which have benefited both countries and become "Sino-Japanese joint venture multinational companies". Once threatened or hindered, business groups may turn into an armed force, which is the origin of the so-called "enemy".
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In the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang, Emperor Taizu of Ming Dynasty, in order to thoroughly crack down on the remnants of separatist forces such as Zhang Shicheng and Fang Guozhen, and realize the ideal of "long-term stability" of an agricultural empire, quickly introduced the policy of sea ban. At the same time, Zhu Yuanzhang claimed to expel Land Rover and help China, and he was also determined to rebuild the "Hua Yi" international order with China as the axis. These two points can be called the cornerstone of the decisive influence on Sino-Japanese relations in the Ming Dynasty.
As in the past, the Ming court headed by Zhu Yuanzhang made little progress in understanding Japan. Zhu Yuanzhang rashly listed Japan as the second place in the "land without expropriation", rather than a potential opponent who needs to be careful. What is particularly puzzling is that Zhu Yuanzhang was "particularly angry with Japan" because Japan was suspected of being involved in the Hu rebellion. In Zuxun, he also pointed out that Japan was "cheating", but he didn't mean to condemn it, but just "decided to give up", that is, cut off contacts with Japan. Some people think that Zhu Yuanzhang's handling method was influenced by Kublai Khan's two disastrous conquests against Japan, but the most important reason is explained in detail in his imperial edict issued in Hongwu four years. The imperial edict said: "In overseas barbarian countries, people who suffer from China must ask them; If you are not China's patient, don't try your best. As the ancients said, vast territory and abundant resources are not a long-term solution, and people's labor is the source of chaos. For example, Emperor Yang Di launched a division brigade, conquered Ryukyu, killed foreigners, burned his palace and captured thousands of men and women. Land is not enough for supply, and people are not enough for command. I admire false reputation, and I feel ashamed. The records in history books are for future generations. I used barbarian countries to close mountains and cross the sea, and I was isolated in a corner. If I wasn't a patient in China, I would never cut them. But Hu Rong in the northwest, suffering from China in the world, must be prepared. " ("A Record of Ming Taizu")
The imperial edict showed that Zhu Yuanzhang, who was born in a poor peasant, undoubtedly had no sense of sea power and held a negative attitude towards the policy of imperial expansion abroad. His strategic thinking is based on defensive "caution", with emphasis on the northern inland. Based on this position, even if the Japanese pirates are rampant along the coast and Japan is unruly, his countermeasures only emphasize "taking coastal defense as a service."
Sino-Japanese relations in Hongwu period were restored in Chengzu period after being interrupted for more than 20 years. Coincidentally, during the Yongle period of the Ming Emperor who was keen to show his maritime power, the situation in the Northern and Southern Dynasties changed, and General ashikaga yoshimitsu, who admired China culture, came to power. This general, who is well-known by many people in China because of the cartoon "Smart Rest", has a rare respect for the Ming Empire and took the initiative to pay tribute. At the request of Cheng Zu, he also destroyed the pirates in his own country, and his envoys steamed all 20 pirate leaders dedicated to the Ming Dynasty in Ningbo. But ashikaga yoshimitsu's "pro-China" is a special personal case, which lasted for a short time. After his death in the sixth year of Yongle (1408), his son Ashikaga Yoshimochi's regime stopped paying tribute in the sixth year of Yongle (14 1 1). As for the changes in Japan's political situation at this time, from the Southern and Northern Dynasties to the Muromachi shogunate and then to the Warring States, the Ming Empire knew nothing about it. The Ming dynasty's understanding of Japan can be seen from Yu Shiqi, assistant minister in Yongle four years, in Yu Ming. As the saying goes, "Japan has a great country, and its eastern coast ... is fluent in languages, but its good customs are different from each other ..." (Shen Defu compiled by Wan) The move of establishing Yi as the king of Japan shows that China has no understanding of Japan's political system at all and lacks a basic grasp of the difference between the emperor and the general.
In the seventh year of Xuande (1432), the worship of Lufeng resumed, but the troubles caused by the Japanese delegation's visit to China continued, which became the most special phenomenon among foreign envoys in the Ming Dynasty. There were even more letters in the Ming Dynasty than in the Tang Dynasty, which was almost inexplicable, unprincipled and even timid. The Ming dynasty had regulations on the number of Japanese envoys, the quantity of goods and the prohibition of carrying weapons, but the Japanese side did not abide by them. In the fourth year of Jingtai, the Japanese mission robbed and injured local officials in Linqing, and Emperor Jingtai spared them on the grounds of not "losing people's hearts". (Ming History/Biography of Japan) In the fourth year of Chenghua, members of the Japanese mission killed people in Beijing. Emperor Chenghua still refused the official request to arrest the murderer and only ordered the Japanese side to pay 12 taels of silver to show China's generosity. In the ninth year of Hongzhi, members of the Japanese mission killed people with knives in Jining. The solution of the Ming dynasty was to reduce the number of people entering Beijing to 50. During this period, Japanese missions often tried to take advantage of the Ming Dynasty by asking exorbitant prices and shoddy goods, and sometimes publicly blackmailed and threatened them with "the heart of losing the country". As far as nature is concerned, the motives of Japanese missions in this period were purely for profiteering, and different vassals tried to get their hands on them, which eventually led to the vicious violence in the tribute struggle in Ningbo.
In the second year of Jiajing, after the event of Ningbo's struggle for tribute, Zhang Yi said that Japan "looked at China, and when it got there, Zhang Qi was arrogant and took robbery as a matter; If you can't, Chen Qi's square object will be honored. Robbery is beneficial to the people and enrich the people, and tribute is beneficial to the country. If you can't have both, you will have all the benefits. This is also a great feeling for slaves. " It should be said that what Zhang Chu is talking about here is the true face of Japan's so-called "tribute", and it also points out the basic characteristics of Japan's China policy since the Sui and Tang Dynasties, namely, "not taking sincerity as truth" and "not taking what is often the opposite", and the principle behind the characteristics is to take advantage of China's weakness and obtain benefits by various means. Regrettably, despite seeing through the Japanese mask, Zhang Chu's solution is nothing more than "never closing the door and never paying tribute". (Ming Jing Shi Wen Bian)
Officials like Zhang Xian should be regarded as people with vision, but there are few people. The Ming Dynasty was still not interested in learning about Japan, but Zhang Yi's ambition of "spying on China" in Japan soon became a reality. The Wanli War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea was another struggle between China and Japan, and the ignorance of the Ming court towards Japan was exposed completely. Shi Xing, the minister of the Ministry of War, doesn't know the past relationship between the two countries, and he doesn't know what "Guan Bai" is. He even fantasized that Japanese aggression was to gain recognition from China. The most ridiculous thing in the world is that Shi Xing once boasted and went to Japan to meet Shen Weijing, a charlatan in Toyotomi Hideyoshi. As a result, this man "fobbed off China and flattered the Japanese" and made a farce of posing as Toyotomi Hideyoshi to give gifts to the Ming court. It's a great shame to make diplomatic setbacks with a glib liar.
During the Wanli period, the strength of the Ming empire has declined. Although the "three major features" are difficult to win, they consume huge national strength. After defeating Japan's invasion of Korea, the Ming Dynasty believed that Japan "never forgot to show off its ambition for a day" and "it is better to guard against it than to believe it" (A Record of Ming Shenzong). The Ming Dynasty did not have the ambition to pursue hard and plow and sweep holes. On the one hand, it was "67 million yuan" in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, and the economic burden was heavy. On the other hand, the most important thing is that this offensive strategy does not conform to the character of the traditional agricultural empire at all. At this moment, the attitude of the Ming Empire towards Japan is nothing more than a message from an emissary: "When you reach Konka, you must concentrate on learning well. You can't make peace with North Korea, but you have different plans." China has a land and water population of more than one million, "waiting for your country to move." ("A Record of the Xuanzu of Korea")
Of course, the effect of this verbal warning was limited, because at that time, Japan's pursuit of China policy was no longer a simple cultural study or economic profit, and it began to try to challenge the East Asian political system with Ming as the core and the Chinese and foreign order led by China. In the fortieth year of Wanli (16 12), Yang Chongye, the governor of Zhejiang Province, reported that Japan "entered Ryukyu with 3,000 people, took Zhongshan King and moved its weapons". (A Record of Ming Shenzong) Ryukyu, like Korea, is a vassal of China under the Chinese and foreign order. Obviously, the Japanese aggression against Korea and Ryukyu was to turn to China. However, China's response only stayed at the verbal level of "Japan must be prepared". The reason is that although the high-level officials of the Ming Dynasty saw Japan's real threat to the Chinese and foreign order, they did not recognize Japan's real strategic ideal, but only regarded it as a marginal role or "incomplete member" in the Chinese and foreign order, and their treatment should still be based on prevention, supplemented by imprisonment. If you make a big crusade and waste manpower and financial resources on cross-sea expeditions, you may not get any realistic gains. If we fail, we will lose face. Secondly, it violates the traditional guiding principle of China's foreign policy of "Xiu De for the people" and appears to be "arrogant and narrow-minded".
Then, why is Ming, who is still the largest empire in East Asia, so inexplicably conservative and even abnormal in his relations with Japan? First of all, we should look for the reasons from the so-called tribute system. Although scholars have different opinions on the starting point of the tribute system, it is certain that the theory and practice of the tribute system has its own long development process and is closely related to the changes in the domestic and surrounding situation in China. Due to Zhu Yuanzhang's "more thorough implementation of the tributary system and tributary trade than any previous dynasty" (Cao Yonghe's The Relationship between China and Ryukyu during the Hongwu Period of the Ming Dynasty), the tributary system reached a stage of high perfection in theory and high rigidity in practice in the middle and early Ming Dynasty, and this state appeared huge cracks in the late Ming Dynasty, which was restored to a certain extent in the Qing Dynasty.
The essence of tribute system is not so much a foreign policy or a means of trade as a cultural and political belief. As Fei Zhengqing said, Emperor Fengtian ruled the world. "If people around him don't recognize his rule, how can he make the people of China submit?" ? In China, authority is a very important ruling tool, and tribute can produce authority. "("Tribute Trade and Sino-Western Relations ") In other words, the grand occasion of all countries coming to congratulate and receiving guests from all over the world is a powerful proof of the legitimacy of the emperor's sovereignty, which cannot be explained by simple vanity expansion. Emperor Yongle, the founder of Ming Dynasty, is the best example, because the arrival of many foreign countries in Korea helps to create the impression of "the return of destiny" and alleviate the doubts of the outside world about his usurpation by force.
Since the real meaning of tribute lies in whether the vassal will come or not, the motivation, purpose and performance of his coming to Korea are secondary issues. As long as Japan was willing to pay tribute, the Ming court did not hesitate to let the Japanese mission do whatever it wanted, and was willing to make repeated economic concessions (called "favors"). At the same time, the Ming court also lacks the desire to know the real situation of the other party, even if it knows that it has bad intentions, it is unwilling to pursue it further. Therefore, all this is to render the appearance of "distant people", which is not only the full exposure of China's deformed "face" culture, but also has a profound political and cultural background.
In the eyes of many people in China today, the system of conferring tribute is enough to prove the glory of history, indicating that China once occupied the dominant position in the ancient eastern political structure for a long time, which is a conscious or unconscious confusion between concept and reality. In reality, the system of conferring tribute in China is only a subjective desire in most cases, especially when faced with the threat of powerful nomadic people in the north, it is not unusual to choose relatives, ancient coins or even vassals. It is unfair to accuse the Ming Dynasty of deceiving itself and others in Sino-Japanese relations, as Yu Yingshi pointed out in The History of Qin and Han Dynasties in Cambridge, China: "For the Han Dynasty, the importance of paying tribute to the western regions is mainly as a symbol of political submission, not its real value. On the other hand, for Western countries, gunnar is the official pretext of trade. " Su Te, who is more than 5,000 kilometers away from Chang 'an, "never showed due respect for the authority of the Han Dynasty", but insisted on participating in the gunnar system, "the only purpose is for trade". The characteristic of this kind of trade is that China often suffers losses in real interests, but the political theory and sense of honor of the empire can't be easily lost, so it's like 1 19, "The envoys of the western regions are in an endless stream and insatiable. If you don't do it, you will lose your heart. " The saddest thing is that even the loss-making business has never brought peace to the border, and those "nations" will plunder and invade naked by force whenever they have the opportunity. At this time, the argument of "Guan Yumen" will be put forward, which is similar to the "Jueguan" in the Ming Dynasty.
A keen analysis of the essence of the tribute system, a "political myth" (called a "political monster" by Soviet scholars L. Pellelov and A. Martynov in "Hegemonic Chinese Empire"), is still far from enough in contemporary China, especially in the contrast of modern humiliating history, the ancient "glory" is more easily artificially modified and amplified to fill the sense of inferiority, which has also become an obstacle for China people to understand and adapt to modern international relations.
Back to the question of ancient Sino-Japanese relations, from the beginning of the exchanges between the two countries, China unilaterally brought Japan into the self-centered system of conferring tribute. It must be pointed out that this position is "unilateral"; Unlike North Korea, Ryukyu and other countries, Japan did not willingly position itself in this system after its basic reunification. On the contrary, after absorbing China's concept of "foreign summer", he tried to establish an international system with Japan as the core. In order to avoid a direct conflict with China in the prosperous period, in those periods, Japan generally adopted a double-faced strategy, which not only satisfied China's "face" politically, but also obtained realistic economic and cultural benefits. As mentioned above, even Japanese pronunciation, pronunciation and training have played an effective role in covering up its true intentions.
In short, once in the Ming Dynasty, the fledgling Japanese actually began to show their positive intentions and actions to compete with China in East Asia. In the book Answer to the King of Korea, Toyotomi Hideyoshi even proposed to "take the Ming Dynasty and make its four hundred states perfect their customs, and reign for millions of years". Just because of various reasons, the Ming empire has always been indifferent, and its policy toward Japan can be roughly summarized as: "One side has my capital, but I don't have the capital of the other side. Loyalty is courtesy, and it is not easy to refuse. " (Li, with "Japanese Examination")
This is only part of it.
I hope it helps you.