Try To Talk About In The Evolution Of The East Asia "tributary Relationship" Endogenous Structural Factors

Tributary relation refers to a historially regional model of international relations in East Asian which is Chinese-Empire-oriented and based on the Confucian culture and relevant rituals. This paper attempts to explore the endogenously structural motivation of tributary relations so as to investigate the evolvement, existence and collapse of tributary relations in East Asia.It argued that the weakness of political trust might be a core reason for the collapse of the tributary relations.’Political trust’ refers to the trust to the tributary relations accepted by the various political actors in East Asia region, the trust to the order and arrangement provided by tributary relationship, the trust to the hierarchy that is acknowledged by tributary relations, the trust to the Chinese Empire and the trust to the philosophy of Confucianism ruled by rituals.The outcome of the sharp decline of political trust results in the flat-oriented development of hierarchy structure of tributary relations and the end of tributary relations. The vicissitude of ’political trust’ is relevant to the ’philosophy of Confucianism ruled by rituals ’and the ’tribute trade’. The experience of alien rulers domintating Chinese Empire and the flooding of the consciousness of ’small heaven’ have weakened the legitimacy and cohesion of the ’philosophy of Confucian ruled by rituals’ dramatically. The frequent tribute trades have resulted in the rise of ’economic nationalism’ and the utilization of suzerain-vassal opportunism when the ’philosophy of Confucianism ruled by ritual’ fades away or becomes absent. These two parameters jointly have contributed to the unstablility of the hierarchy structure that is essential to the viability of tributary system and risk of tributary order as well.The thesis has been majorly divided into four sections. The origin, function and definition of ’political trust’ have been discussed in Chapter Two. The two core elements of ’philosophy of Confucian ruled by rituals’ and ’tribute trade’ have been introduced by the case of the ancient relation of China-DPRK and the case of Ryukyu in Chapter Three. The following is Chapter Four which would elaborate the intricate dynamics among the philosophy of Confucianism ruled by rituals, tribute trade, political trust and hierarchy. A conclusion might be drawn in Chapter Five by elucidating serveal supplementary comments on the research by previous chapters based on the concepts and theories of International Relations.