对清代朝贡体制地位的再认识

A Recognition of the Status of Tributary System in Qing Dynasty

长期以来朝贡制度被认为是古代中国与边疆民族及周边国家和地区交往的惟一持久而普遍的关系,但却忽视了这一制度本身的发展特点,尤其忽视了朝贡制度在明清两代的差别。本文认为,清代虽然延续了明代的朝贡制度,但实质已经转化为一种处理与周边国家关系的政治方式,剔除了明代中原王朝与边疆民族之间、中国与西洋诸国之间形成的藩属关系,且朝贡中的贸易性质也远不同于明朝。本文对学术界混淆朝贡体制与朝贡贸易体制的观点进行了批驳,阐述了清代朝贡体制的地位与特点。

This paper thinks that the essential of the tributary system in Qing Dynasty changed despite of being inherited from Ming Dynasty. In Qing Dynasty, this system became a political mode to deal with the peripheral states with the eliminating of the vassal tributary relationship between the central dynasty and the frontier ethnical groups. Moreover, the trade in the Qing's tribute was not as important as that in Ming. It rebuts the view confusing the tributary system and tributary trade system and expatiates on the status and characteristics of tributary system in Qing Dynasty.