A Study Of Palace Foreign Affairs Of The Mid And Late Ming Dynasty

The court foreign affairs in the middle and late Ming Dynasty refers to the activities of the emperor as the core,including empresses,concubines and eunuchs in the palace to participate of foreign contact,and the foreign affairs with the purpose of serving the royal court in the middle and late Ming Dynasty.It is an important part of Ming Dynasty's foreign relations and an indispensable part of the study of the history of Sino-foreign relations in the Ming Dynasty.The paper mainly studies the court foreign affairs in the middle and later period of the Ming Dynasty from the aspects of the tributary activities in the middle and late Ming Dynasty,the activities of the western missionaries in the court and the eunuch foreign-related activities.The paper is divided into five parts:The first part discusses the establishment of the tributary system in the early Ming Dynasty?After established the Ming dynasty,the Ming emperor Zhu Yuanzhang used the tributary system,widely dispatched ambassadors to attract countries tribute,and actively establish friendly relations with neighboring countries.Therefore,Korea,Annan,Japan,Ryukyu and other countries have sent envoys to pay tribute to the emperor of Ming Dynasty.During the reign of Ming Emperors Zhu Di and Zhu Zhanji,,they adopted a more active foreign policy,sending Zheng He sail to West Ocean,and the tributary system reached its peak.Ming emperor Zhu Yuanzhang also developed with the tributary policy in line with the ban on maritime trade policy and tributary rituals.The ban on maritime trade policy has played a role in maintaining the tributary system.Tortuous and strict tribute rituals are the external manifestations of the suzerain-vassal relationship under the tributary system.The second part discusses the tributary activities in the middle and late Ming Dynasty.The tribute activities of the main tributary countries in the middle and late Ming Dynasty and the changes of tribute period,tribute route and tribute frequency were discussed.In the number of tributary,tributary state quantity,tributary area,etc,comparedwith the Ming's early tribute activity,it is concluded that the change of the mid and late Ming dynasty tribute activity.And analyzes the reasons for the changes in tributary activities.The third part discusses the interaction between the Ming court and Western missionaries.During the Tang and Yuan Dynasties missionaries began to communicate with the court,pay attention to the development of friendly relations with the royal court in order to achieve the purpose of promoting its mission.Catholics in the late Ming Dynasty also actively seek to enter the Ming court in order to obtain the emperor for Catholic missionary recognition in China.After the efforts of Matteo Ricci and others,Western learning and Catholicism began to spread in the Ming court.The fourth part discusses the eunuchs' foreign exchange activities in the middle and late Ming Dynasty.In the middle and late Ming Dynasty,the power of eunuch gradually expanded,and the phenomenon of the intervening politics was common,and there was also a great deal of involvement in foreign affairs.The eunuch not only mastered the power of the Department of Shi Bo Si,but also served as envoy to the other country.Finally,the fifth part of the conclusion,discusses the late Ming Dynasty court foreign exchange activities compared with the previous period,with inheritance,age,recession characteristics.