Late Fifteenth-Century Envoys Dispatched between Đại Việt and China: The Case of the Đại Việt Mission to Yunnan in 1475
Year: 2016
Type: article
Abstract: Because the Ming dynasty forbade private sector trade under its unified tribute system (朝貢一元体制), official envoys were the only formal connection between China and its surrounding states. According to recent studies on relationships between China and other states, such as Korea and Japan, these envoys played many kinds of roles, such as conducting trading activities or gathering information. Đại Việt in the earlier period of the Lê dynasty (1428-1527) dispatched as many as 65 envoys to China. China also sent 29 envoys to Đại Việt during this period. However, the importance of the frequent dispatch of envoys between Đại Việt and China has been overlooked. The purpose of this article is to focus on the activities of envoys and the intentions of those who were involved in dispatching envoys between Đại Việt and China through considering the case of a Chinese mission that reached Đại Việt via Yunnan and a Vietnamese mission that journeyed as far as Yunnan in 1475. In 1474, an attendant of a eunuch named Qianneng (銭能), who was stationed in Yunnan, was ordered to carry an edict of the Ming emperor to the Lê dynasty. Through the attendant's mission, the eunuch presented large amounts of commodities such as jewels and silk products to the Lê emperor. Meanwhile, the Lê emperor also presented silver, agalloch and fans to the Ming mission. When this Chinese mission returned to Yunnan in 1475, the Lê emperor sent a tributary mission to accompany it, but the Ming court did not permit the Vietnamese to proceed to Beijing via Yunnan. During the same period, hereditary chiefs at Pingxiang (憑祥) and Longzhou (龍州) in Guangxi often exploited Đại Việt missions. Đại Việt missions brought large amounts of goods to exchange for Chinese products, causing friction with hereditary chiefs, who were in charge of overland trans portation of Đại Việt mission commodities. Thus, during the late fifteenth century, the eunuch, the Lê emperor and hereditary chiefs in Guangxi attempted to earn profits in their own ways through envoys dispatched between Đại Việt and China. It was in this way that within the Ming dynasty's unified tribute system, the dispatch of official envoys presented many parties with profitable commercial opportunities.
Author: YOSHIKAWA, Kazuki
Language: Japanese
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7145580809