325
BOOK REVIEWS
China Among Equals: The Middle Kingdom and Its Neighbors, 10th-14th Centuries, edited by Morris Rossabi, Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 1983, xiv + 419 pages.
This book is intended to show that China's long accepted self-view of its traditional foreign relations is not true: China did not always devise its own world order, neither did she rule out equality with any nation, the editor argues. Also, Professor Rossabi points out that China did not always treat foreign rulers and their envoys as subordinates or inferiors. It is the editor's explicit purpose to show that China was capable of conducting modern diplomatic negotiations and could accept the reality that China was only one among the many equals, at least during the Sung and Yuan periods.
Working under this general thematic guide, eleven authors set out to study different aspects of China's foreign relations during the period. The general impression one derives from reading these essays is that the relations between the Sung and other states covered a full-range of activities, and with the comprehensive nature of such relations, the Sung had to be realistic and rational, and had to abandon the time-honored myth that China, being the center of all-under-heaven, should play the key role of determining the terms of foreign relations. In general, China seemed to be quite willing to reverse such a “suzerain-vassal” relationship and readily to accept its neighbours as high in the hierarchy of the contemporary world order. This was especially true of China's uneasy relations with the state of Liao, carefully documented by Tao Jing-shen. That China was willing to accept the, to her, often humiliating arrangements was mainly because she benefited from a favourable balance of trade, a factor particularly evident from the pattern of its commercial relations with other states, studied in depth by Professor Shiba Yoshinobu.
Actually, the Sung was in the great tradition of ancient China's "multi-state system". As pointed out so eloquently by Professor Herbert Franke, the Sung was not unique in adopting "the bilater-
325
BOOK REVIEWS
China Among Equals: The Middle Kingdom and Its Neighbors, 10th-14th Centuries, edited by Morris Rossabi, Berkeley, Los An- geles, London: University of California Press, 1983, xiv + 419
pages.
This book is intended to show that China's long accepted self- view of its traditional foreign relations is not true: China did not always devise its own world order, neither did she rule out equali- ty with any nation, the editor argues. Also, Professor Rossabi points out that China did not always treat foreign rulers and their envoys as subordinates or inferiors. It is the editor's explicit pur- pose to show that China was capable of conducting modern diplo- matic negotiations and could accept the reality that China was only one among the many equals, at least during the Sung and Yuan periods.
Working under this general thematic guide, eleven authors set out to study different aspects of China's foreign relations during the period. The general impression one derives from reading these essays is that the relations between the Sung and other states cov- ered a full-range of activities, and with the comprehensive nature of such relations, the Sung had to be realistic and rational, and had to abandon the time-honored myth that China, being the center of all-under-heaven, should play the key role of determining the terms of foreign relations. In general, China seemed to be quite willing to reverse such a “suzerain-vassal” relationship and readi- ly to accept its neighbours as high in the hierarchy of the contem- porary world order. This was especially true of China's uneasy relations with the state of Liao, carefully documented by Tao Jing- shen. That China was willing to accept the, to her, often humilitating arrangements was mainly because she benefited from a favourable balance of trade, a factor particularly evident from the pattern of its commercial relations with other states, studied in depth by Professor Shiba Yoshinobu.
Actually, the Sung was in the great tradition of ancient China's "multi-state system". As pointed out so eloquently by Professor Herbert Franke, the Sung was not unique in adopting "the bilater-
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