David Robinson | Rethinking Chinese Diplomacy: A View from Northeast Asia in the Fifteenth Century

The Moynihan Institute's East Asia Program presents David M. Robinson from Colgate University.

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 descent served the Ming dynasty as its envoys abroad, braving unpredictable, often dangerous, conditions to negotiate regional security and project the emperor’s will.

David M. Robinson is Robert H.N. Ho Professor in Asian Studies and History at Colgate University. His 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.