The Tribute System and the World Imagined in Early Modern East Asia
| Author | Ji-Young Lee |
| Published date | 01 September 2021 |
| Date | 01 September 2021 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/03058298211050678 |
| Subject Matter | Book Forum |
https://doi.org/10.1177/03058298211050678
Millennium: Journal of
International Studies
2021, Vol. 50(1) 256 –266
© The Author(s) 2021
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DOI: 10.1177/03058298211050678
journals.sagepub.com/home/mil
1. Yŏnhaengnok sŏnjip [Selected Works: Korean Envoys’ Visits to Beijing], comp. vol. 1 (Seoul:
Sŏnggyun’gwan University Press, 1976), 76.
The Tribute System and the
World Imagined in Early
Modern East Asia
Ji-Young Lee
American University, USA
Abstract
The field of international relations has long treated the Westphalian system and states in the
territorial sovereign sense as the standard or ‘normal’ in IR. The World Imagined by Hendrik
Spruyt boldly challenges this habit as the biases of our times and instead brings non-European
historical international systems into their rightful place in our study of international order and
international relations theorising more generally. Unpacking Spruyt’s discussion of ‘the East
Asian interstate society’, the article argues that an in-depth examination of what is known as
a ‘tribute system’ and early modern East Asian historical orders richly illuminates the book’s
arguments on the heterogeneity and diversity of order-building practices. It also argues that from
a practice-oriented approach, the experience of early modern East Asia presents a compelling
case that legitimation holds the key to explaining order building processes at both the domestic
and international levels, with legitimation at these two levels working in tandem.
Keywords
tribute system, East Asia, international order
In 1488, Korean official Ch’oe Pu, when he and his party were adrift on the sea, wished
that their boat could dock in the Ming empire in China, because ‘the Ming [China] was
the parent country.’ When he finally made it to the Ming, a Ming official asked, ‘Is the
ruler of your country also called the emperor?’ Ch’oe responded, ‘There cannot be two
Suns in Heaven, how can there be two emperors? Our king only serves the Ming with
utmost sincerity’.1 About three centuries later, Pak Chi-wŏn’s China travelogue written
Corresponding author:
Ji-Young Lee, School of International Service, American University, 4400 Massachusetts Ave. NW,
Washington, DC 20016, USA.
Email: jiyoungl@american.edu
1050678MIL0010.1177/03058298211050678Millennium – Journal of International StudiesLee
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