Reproduced from the Science of International Politics, with kind permission of the authors and the Institute of International Studies, Tsinghua University
The Role of Ideational and Material Factors in the Qing Dynasty Diplomatic Transformation
* Corresponding author. Email: zhoufangyin@gmail.com
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
The Qing was China's last centralized dynasty. During its almost three-hundred-year-long reign, it achieved regional supremacy before sliding into a decline that occurred contemporaneously with the West's rise to global pre-eminence. The expansion of the Western world inevitably led to the disintegration of China's centuries-old tribute system, and changes in the way the Qing government interacted with its foreign counterparts. The establishment of a foreign ministry in the 1860s and the assignment of the first permanent diplomatic envoys abroad in the 1870s signalled the Qing dynasty's gradual adoption of a Western, more modernistic, system of diplomacy.
Researchers raise several explanations for China's diplomatic clashes with Western countries and the ultimate changes in its foreign policy behaviour. They include the shift in the balance of power from East to West, fundamental changes in Qing ideals, sense of identity and preferences and the conflicting systems of these two, quite different civilizations.1 The
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Distinctions Between Ideational and Material Explanations |
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Purely Material Explanations
Cognitive Material Explanations
Purely Ideational Explanations
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Disputes over Protocol upon the Entry into China of Western Envoys |
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The Dutch Diplomatic Envoy Goes to China
The Dispute over Sino–Russian Diplomatic Protocol
McCartney Goes to China
The Matter of Greeting the Emperor
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The Disappearance of the Tribute System and the Construction of the Modern System of Diplomacy |
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Conclusion |
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