Join the East Asia center as we welcome David Robinson, Robert H.N. Ho Professor in Asian Studies and History at Colgate University, for a speaker series lecture “Chinese Diplomacy on the Ground: Northeast Asia in the Fifteenth Century.”
The most common image of East Asian diplomacy prior to 1800 or so is the tributary system. In essence, East Asia countries organized their diplomatic relations along clear hierarchical lines with the Chinese emperor at the top and lesser leaders arrayed below. The result was a smoothly working international order, it is argued, that ensured stability and peace for centuries, a sharp contrast to the chaos and violence that characterized Westphalian foreign relations in West Europe throughout those same centuries.
But how did Chinese diplomacy really work? Using examples from Northeast Asia in the early fifteenth century, in this talk we explore how, far from the glitter of the capital, recent immigrants of Korean and Manchurian the Ming throne as its envoys abroad, braving unpredictable, often dangerous, conditions to negotiate regional security and project the emperor’s will.
David M. Robinson's most recent monographs include Korea and the Fall of the Mongol Empire: Alliance, Upheaval, and the Rise of a New East Asian Order (2022) and Ability and Difference: A Mongol Family at the Ming Court (2025). His current work explores early modern Chinese diplomatic practice.
The lecture is free and open to the public, and will be held Friday, March 20, from 3:15 - 4:30 p.m. in Monroe 118.