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The Tributary System in China's Historical Imagination: China and Hunza, ca. 1760–1960*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 September 2009

HSIAO-TING LIN
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Abstract

This article examines over 200 years (1761–1963) of China's relations with the Central Asian tribal state of Hunza. Employing a territorial genealogical approach, this research explores how Hunza, not initially recognised during the high Qing as an inner dependency or vassal, was gradually re-conceptualised by the Qing court as a historical tributary protectorate, and then in the Republican and Nationalist eras became known as a ‘lost territory’ ripe for restoration. It will also argue that the tributary system is not a dynastic legacy that ceased to function after 1911; but rather, it was an instrument of political expediency that continued to be used in the post-imperial era. In a sense, this research offers a new thinking about the ‘tribute system’ which might really be a nineteenth and twentieth century reinterpretation of an older form of symbolically asymmetric interstate relations (common in one form or another throughout many parts of Asia); this reinterpretation was strongly informed by English-language terminology and formulations, including ‘suzerainty’ and the mistranslation of ‘gong’ as ‘tribute’ itself, and both Britain and China manipulated the terminology and claimed to further their respective territorial, diplomatic and strategic interests.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 19 , Issue 4 , October 2009 , pp. 489 - 507
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 2009

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Footnotes

*

An earlier version of this article was presented at the Institute for Chinese Studies, University of Oxford. I wish to thank the following scholars for their helpful comments, criticism and suggestions: Laura Newby, Rana Mitter, David Faure, Hsin-yi Lin, Hsien-chun Wang, Josh Yiu and Shih-jung Tzeng. My colleagues at Stanford University rendered support and encouragement while this research was undertaken: Richard Sousa, Ramon Myers, Tom Mullaney, Tai-chun Kuo, Duan Ruicong, Luo Min, and Lisa Nguyen. Special thanks also go to Charlotte de Blois and the Royal Asiatic Society for constructive advice and useful guidance.

References

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2 Mark Mancall, “The Ch'ing Tributary System: An Interpretive Essay”, in The Chinese World Order, ed. Fairbank, pp. 63–64.

3 Crossley, Pamela, “Review of Cherishing Men from Afar: Ritual and the Macartney Embassy of 1793”, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Society, 57: 2 (1997), pp. 597–611CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Hevia, James L., Cherishing Men From Afar: Qing Guest Ritual and the Macartney Embassy of 1793 (Durham, 1995)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 See Newby, Laura J., The Empire and the Khanate: A Political History of Qing Relations with Khoqand, c.1760–1860 (Leiden, 2005)Google Scholar.

5 See: Millward, James A., “Qing Silk-Horse Trade with the Qazaqs in Yili and Tarbaghatai”, Central and Inner Asian Studies, No. 7 (1992), pp. 1–42Google Scholar; Millward, Beyond the Pass: Economy, Ethnicity, and Empire in Qing Central Asia, 1759–1864 (Stanford, 1998), pp. 45–50; Di Cosmo, Nicola, “Qing Colonial Administration in the Inner Asian Dependencies”, International History Review, 20: 2 (1998), pp. 287–309CrossRefGoogle Scholar. On the discussion of the nature of ‘tribute’ in Qing China, see also Perdue, Peter C., China Marches West: The Qing Conquest of Central Eurasia (Cambridge, 2005), pp. 400–406Google Scholar.

6 See: Suisheng, Zhao, Power Competition in East Asia: From the Old Chinese World Order to Post-Cold War Regional Multipolarity (New York, 1977)Google Scholar; Kim, Key-Hiuk, The Last Phase of the East Asian World Order (Berkeley, 1980), pp. 328–351Google Scholar; Rossabi, Morris (ed.), China Among Equals: The Middle Kingdom and Its Neighbors, 10th-14th Centuries (Berkeley, 1983)Google Scholar.

7 Unlike provinces under imperial China's direct jurisdictions, inner dependencies and vassals usually offered tribute to the Emperor of China and the imperial court did not govern these territories directly.

8 Joseph Fletcher, “Ch'ing Inner Asia c. 1800”, in The Cambridge History of China, Vol. 10, Part I, pp. 58–66.

9 Ibid., pp. 37–38.

10 For the peoples of Central Asia in the mid-eighteenth century borders were still a nebulous concept. Yet though by no means determining the border, the Qing-instituted kalun were generally recognised as the demarcation of the Western Regions and of Chinese imperial control in the northwest. See Newby, Laura, “Xinjiang: In Search of an Identity”, in Unity And Diversity: Local Cultures And Identities In China, eds. Liu, Tao Tao and Faure, David, (Hong Kong, 1996), pp. 68, 76Google Scholar.

11 Ruyan, Ma and Dazheng, Ma (eds.), Qingdai de bianjiang zhengce [Frontier policy of the Qing dynasty] (Beijing, 1994), pp. 23–55Google Scholar.

12 Clark, John, Hunza: Lost Kingdom of the Himalayas (Karachi, 1956)Google Scholar; Mons, Barbara, High Road to Hunza (London, 1958), pp. 90–97Google Scholar.

13 Wang Shunan (comp.), Xinjiang Guojie Tuzhi [Illustrated gazetteer of the national boundaries in Xinjiang] (Hereafter XGT), 1909, juan 5, pp. 132–133. Wang quoted this piece of information from an imperial memorial submitted by Xin Zhu, then Qing councillor at Yarkand, to Peking in 1761.

14 Apart from the 1761 memorial submitted from Kashgar to Peking, research into Grand Secretariat Archives suggests that the Hunza envoys paid tribute to the Qing officials in Kashgar again in 1792. This is perhaps one of the very few Qing official archival records showing tributary evidence between Hunza and China prior to the Daoguang reign. See Neige Daku Dang'an [Grand Secretariat archives], National Palace Museum, Taipei, registrar nos. 065853 & 091797.

15 See: Da Qing Huidian [Collected statutes of the great Qing dynasty], juan 79, 80; Chinese Academy of Social Science (ed.), Qianlong chao Da Qing huidian zhong de Li Fan Yuan ziliao [Compiled materials of Li Fan Yuan in the Qianlong period] (Beijing, 1988); Jiaqing Yitong Zhibiao [Gazetteer of the unified Great Qing, Jiaqing edition], juan 20, in 1935 reprinted version (Shanghai), Vol. 10; Tuo-jin et al. (comp.), Qinding Huijiang Zeli [Imperially commissioned Substatutes of the Muslim regions], 1842.

16 Huangyu Tu [Comprehensive atlas of the imperial territory], in Da Qing Yitongzhi [Gazetteer of the unified Great Qing], Heshen et al. (comps.), (1790), reprinted (1897), Vol. 1. In the Huangyu Tu, the whole of the Pamir region was drawn ambiguously in between the imperial territories and Qing's outer tributaries in Inner Asia.

17 Wei Yuan, Shengwu Ji [Chronicle of military campaigns] (1846), juan 4, (Beijing, 1984 repr.), Vol. 1, p. 176.

18 Rizvi, Janet, Trans-Himalayan Caravans: Merchant Princes and Peasant Traders in Ladakh (New Delhi, 1999), pp. 184–185Google Scholar.

19 Hamid, Shahid, Karakuram Hunza: The Land of Just Enough (Karachi, 1979), p. 31Google Scholar.

20 Mohomed Nazim Khan, The Autobiography of Sir Mohomed Nazim Khan, K.C.I.E., Mir of Hunza (hereafter The Autobiography), pp. 2–9. Mohomed Nazim Khan succeeded his brother Safdar Ali as Mir in 1892 and ruled Hunza until 1938. The original manuscript was translated from Urdu into Persian and English. The English version was done in 1936 by Khan Bahadur Muhammad Meseh Pal, Indian Assistant in Gilgit. One copy of this unpublished manuscript is currently deposited in the University Library, UC Berkeley (CT 1508 K45 A3).

21 Müller-Stellrecht, Irmtraud, Hunza und China (1761–1891): 130 Jahre einer Beziehung und ihre Bedeutung für die wirtschaftliche und politische Entwicklung Hunzas im 18 und 19 Jahrhundert (Wiesbaden, 1978), pp. 17–21Google Scholar.

22 Skrine, C. P., Chinese Central Asia (London, 1926), pp. 18–24Google Scholar.

23 Stellrecht, Hunza und China, pp. 24–27.

24 The Autobiography, pp. 11–12; Hamid, Karakuram Hunza, p. 46. It should be noted that, in practice, the possession of land by foreigners in this part of the Qing empire was very common.

25 A Persian title of respect that can mean a sufi shaykh (elder). See Soucek, Svat, A History of Inner Asia (Cambridge, 2000), p. 37CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

26 Ibid., pp. 263–268.

27 On the “Great Game”, see Hopkirk, Peter, The Great Game: On Secret Service in High Asia (Oxford, 2001)Google Scholar; Verrier, Anthony, Francis Younghusband and the Great Game (London, 1991)Google Scholar.

28 Government of India (comp.), A Collection of Treaties, Engagements And Sanads: Relating to India And Neighbouring Countries (Calcutta, 1909), Vol. XI, pp. 295–307; See also Rizvi, Trans-Himalayan Caravans, pp. 202–203.

29 Keay, John, The Gilgit Game: The Explorers of the Western Himalayas, 1865–95 (Karachi, 1990), pp. 152–161Google Scholar; Woodman, Dorothy, Himalayan Frontiers: A Political Review of British, Chinese, Indian and Russian Rivalries (London, 1969), pp. 71–95Google Scholar.

30 Yuan Dahua et al. (comp.), Xinjiang Tuzhi [Illustrated Gazetteer of Xinjiang] (hereafter XT), (Urumqi, 1911), 99/5b-6a; Translation of the Peking Gazette for 1887 (Shanghai, 1888), p. 151.

31 See Hamid, S. Shahid, Karakuram Hunza (Karachi, 1979), pp. 24–29Google Scholar. A concise description of Qing China's relations with Hunza during the Great Game can also be found in Mahnaz Z. Ispahani, Roads and Rivals: The Political Uses of Access in the Borderlands of Asia (Ithaca, 1989), pp. 151–157.

32 The Autobiography, pp. 33–39.

33 British Library (London), Oriental and India Office Collections (OIOC), L/P&S/7/55, British Legation (Peking) to Zongli Yamen (Qing Foreign Office), June 21, 1888, enclosed in India Office secret letter No. 15, October, 1888.

34 OIOC, L/P&S/7/55, Peshawar confidential diary, entry of December 22, 1888; Hamid, Karakuram Hunza, pp. 57–58.

35 OIOC, L/P&S/7/58, India Office memo, September 1889, enclosed in India Office secret letter No. 105, December 3, 1889; Algernon Durand, The Making of a Frontier: Five Years’ Experiences and Adventures in Gilgit, Hunza, Chitral and the Eastern Hindu-Kush (Karachi, 2001 reprint), pp. 226–253.

36 OIOC, L/P&S/7/64, Safdar Ali to Col Durand, September 1891, enclosed in India Office secret letter No. I-C, October 25, 1891; Keay, The Gilgit Game, pp. 197–214.

37 XT, 17/12b-14a; Qing Shilu [Veritable records of the Qing reigns], Dezong reign (hereafter QS/DZ), juan 308, p. 10a; OIOC, L/P&S/7/65, India Office memo, undated, December 1891, enclosed in India Office secret letter No. 8, January 13, 1892.

38 The Autobiography, pp. 48–50.

39 OIOC, L/P&S/7/64, Col Durand to India Office, July 22, 1891, enclosed in India Office secret letter No. I-C, October 25, 1891; L/P&S/7/66, Macartney (British Representative at Kashgar) to Government of India, February 16, 1892, enclosed in India Office secret letter No. 96, May 31, 1892.

40 XGT, juan 6, pp. 145–146.

41 XGT, juan 6, pp. 146–147; Zhao Erxun et al. (comp.), Qingshi gao [Draft standard history of the Qing, hereafter QG], (Peking, 1927), liezhuan 233; QS/DZ, juan 315, p. 3b.

42 Tao Mo, Tao Mo Xinjiang Zougao [Collections of the memorials of Tao Mo regarding Xinjiang affairs] (1894), (Taipei, 1970 reprint), pp. 17–24.

43 Autobiography, pp. 61–62; OIOC, L/P&S/7/66, India Office memo, June 1892, enclosed in India Office secret letter No. 120, July 5, 1892.

44 Ibid; Autobiography, pp. 62–63; A Collection of Treaties, Engagement And Sanads, Vol. XI, p. 292. According to the British document, the two Chinese officials prepared for the new Mir a hat adorned with a button and a peacock feather. These hats were worn by Qing officials and denoted their rank in the Qing official structure. The British thus regarded the Mir's acceptance of the gift “would have unfortunate implications”.

45 Reports on Hunza's recommencement of paying tributes to Qing officials at Kashgar were widely circulated in China proper. See, for example, Translation of the Peking Gazette for 1895 (Shanghai, 1896), p. 64.

46 Autobiography, pp. 62–63; Hamid, Karakuram Hunza, pp. 69–70.

47 XGT, juan 6, p. 147; QG, liezhuan 234.

48 XGT, Juan 8, pp. 214–215. It should be mentioned that, in 1911, some British diplomats in China again raised the Hunza issue, proposing that an attempt should be made to exchange the British right in Hunza and Sarikol regions for those of China on the Burma-Yunnan frontier. Policy planners in London, however, seeing a chaotic situation in China after the collapse of Qing rule, did not formalise such an idea. See OIOC, L/P&S/11/6, “Confidential Memorandum on Frontier Affairs”, enclosed in “Report on the Chinese Frontiers of India”, dated October 3, 1911; Sir John Jordan (British Minister to China) to Foreign Office, May 14, 1912, enclosed in Foreign Office to India Office, June 12, 1912.

49 OIOC, L/P&S/10/924, “Frontier between Hunza and the Chinese Dominions”, India Office memo dated November 18, 1911.

50 Qing officials’ insistence on their gossamer right over Hunza was sufficiently revealed in their dealings with not only the British, but also the Russians. See: Archives of the Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica (Taipei), Archives of the Zongli Yamen, 02-10-017-02.004, 015-017, dispatch from the Xinjiang Governor to the Zongli Yamen, November 9, 1902; 02-10-017-02.006, 024-028, Instructions from the Zongli Yamen to the Xinjiang Governor, November 11, 1902.

51 XGT, Juan 1, p. 2. “Boundaries” were of course not marked on maps at the Daoguang period. Wang Shunan might have indicated that Hunza was marked outside the Qing “kalun” in Li Guangting's work. If so, then Wang's analysis regarding the Qing magistrate system is obviously wrong. I am grateful to Laura Newby for reminding me of this point.

52 See, for example, Zhong Yong, Xijiang jiaoshe zhiyao [Comprehensive record of negotiations over the Western frontiers], 1910, (Taipei, 1963 reprint), Juan 4, pp. 22b-26b; QG, Liezhuan 316, shuguo [Qing dependencies] 4.

53 On the history of Republican Xinjiang, see Forbes, Andrew D., Warlords and Muslims in Chinese Central Asia: A Political History of Republican Sinkiang, 1911–1949 (Cambridge, 1986)Google Scholar.

54 See, for example, Jiang Junzhan, Xinjiang Jingying lun [On administrating Xinjiang] (Nanking, 1933), pp. 123–124; Hua Qiyun, Zhongguo Bianjiang [China's frontiers] (Nanking, 1933), pp. 187–188; Li Huan, Xinjiang Yanjiu [The study of Xinjiang] (Chongqing, 1944), pp. 256–260. Even as late as the early 1970s when Chiang Kai-shek's regime had lost China for more than two decades, publications in Taiwan still specify that Hunza (Kanjut) is an inseparable part of Chinese territory. See, for example, Guo Jiqiao, Bianjiang Zhengce zhi Yanjiu [Studies on the frontier policy] (Taipei, 1970), pp. 66–67; and Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission (ed.), Bianjiang yu Guofang [Frontiers and national defense] (Taipei, 1970), pp. 83–84.

55 OIOC, L/P&S/12/2342, “Kashgar Annual Report for the period April 1, 1922 to March 31, 1924”, enclosed in C. P. Skrine (British Consul-General at Kashgar) to Government of India, August 21, 1924.

56 OIOC, L/P&S/10/924, “Translation of a letter from the Daotai of Kashgar to the Mir of Hunza”, enclosed in Gilgit Political Agency Office to Government of India, October 5, 1923. The Chinese magistrate wrote to the Mir in a somewhat politically unsophisticated manner, as if the Chinese recognised Hunza as a foreign state: “. . . .I must say that this is contrary to international law. You, Mir of Hunza, who are their ruler, are hereby asked to order them to vacate Chinese territory. If these men come next year to cultivate land in Chinese territory, our men will turn them out. . . . .”

57 OIOC, L/P&S/10/924, “Foreign Office minutes on Mir of Hunza's Grazing Rights in Sinkiang”, enclosed in Foreign Office to India Office, October 28, 1926; Letter from Political Agent (Gilgit) to Resident in Kashmir, February 26, 1928.

58 OIOC, L/P&S/10/924, British Political Agent (Gilgit) to Resident in Kashmir, April 8, 1931; British Consulate-General at Kashgar to Government of India, July 30, 1931.

59 The Xinjiang authorities’ reluctance to deem Hunza a part of provincial territory can also be detected in a 1924 telegram from Governor Yang to Peking, in which the Governor specified expressively that he had no intention to compete with the British Raj over the right in this tiny tribal region. See Archives of the Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica, Archives of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, 03-32-119-02.003, 009-010, Yang Zengxin to Foreign Ministry, March 21, 1924.

60 OIOC, L/P&S/10/924, British Consulate-General at Kashgar to Government of India, May 19, 1930.

61 OIOC, L/P&S/12/97, G. V. B. Gillan (Gilgit) to Government of India, March 1, 1934, enclosed in Government of India to India Office, April 11, 1934.

62 The Hunzakuts’ annual tributes to Kashgar at one point stimulated the curiosity of the new Xinjiang Governor Jin Shuren, who suspected that the gold from Hunza was possibly obtained in Chinese territory. Jin therefore ordered his officials to verify whether there was any gold mine in Rashkam or Sarikol. See OIOC, L/P&S/10/924, British Consulate-General (Kashgar) to Government of India, March 31, 1932.

63 OIOC, L/P&S/12/2332, Kashgar Dairies for the month of April 1935, February & March 1936, enclosed in British Consulate-General (Kashgar) to Government of India, May 2, 1935, March 5 & April 2, 1936; Autobiography, p. 143.

64 Whiting, Allen and Shicai, Shen, Sinkiang: Pawn or Pivot? (East Lansing, MI, 1958), pp. 51–53Google Scholar; Soucek, A History of Inner Asia, pp. 271–272.

65 Forbes, Warlords and Muslims in Chinese Central Asia, pp. 204–208.

66 See Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Taipei), Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (hereafter AMFA), 119/4, Foreign Ministry memoranda, dated October 1, 1947 and April 8, 1948.

67 AMFA, 119/4, Wang Shijie (Foreign Minister) to Chiang Kai-shek, December 4, 1947; Chiang to Wang, December 12, 1947; Ministry of Foreign Affairs to General Zhao Xiguang (Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Xinjiang Garrison Force), December 17, 1947.

68 AMFA, 119/4, “Sino-Hunza modus vivendi”, dated January 7, 1948; General Zhao to Liu Zerong (Foreign Ministry Commissioner in Xinjiang), January 7, 1948, all enclosed in Liu to Foreign Ministry, January 12, 1948.

69 OIOC, L/P&S/13/1860, India Office minute paper, December 11, 1947. On news regarding the revolution in Gilgit and the Mir of Hunza's decision to side with Pakistan, see “The October Revolution in Gilgit”, The Statesman (New Delhi), January 16, 1948, enclosed in OIOC, L/P&S/12/3303, British High Commissioner in India to Commonwealth Relations Office, January 22, 1948.

70 OIOC, L/P&S/13/1860, Commonwealth Relations Office memo, dated February 26, 1948; AMFA, 119/4, North-Western Headquarters to Foreign Ministry, April 4, 1948; letter from the Mir of Hunza to General Zhao, dated February 15, 1948, enclosed in Liu Zerong to Foreign Ministry, May 5, 1948; letter from the Mir of Hunza to General Zhao, dated June 14, enclosed in Liu Zerong to Nanking, August 24, 1948; General Zhao's report to Foreign Ministry, September 1, 1948.

71 AMFA, 119/4, Foreign Ministry memo, September 21, 1948.

72 AMFA, 119/4, Intelligence report from Nationalist Northwestern Headquarters, enclosed in Liu Zerong to Foreign Ministry, October 2, 1948.

73 Dobell, W. M., “Ramification of the China-Pakistan Border Treaty”, Pacific Affairs, 37: 3 (1964), pp. 288–289CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Similar account of Chinese troops having “invaded” Hunza can be found in Chinese works. See, for example, Deyang, Jin, Bianjiang Zengjiang Xinsheng [The proposal of creating new provinces on the frontier] (Taipei, 1967), p. 134Google Scholar.

74 See, for example, Zhonghua Renmin Gonghrguo Fensheng Ditu [Provincial maps of the People's Republic of China] (Shanghai, 1960 reprint), p. 32, and Zhang Qiyun (ed.), Zhonghua Minguo Ditu [National atlas of the Republic of China] (Taipei, 1972), Vol. 2, E 13.

75 Anderson, Benedict, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (London, 1991), pp. 5–7Google Scholar.