Original title: "Bounded and Boundless: A Re-discussion of ma Guangming's Case and the Concept of Heaven and The World in the Qianlong Period of the Qing Dynasty"
Liu Wenpeng
Doctor of History, Professor of the Institute of Qing History, Chinese Min University, Doctoral Supervisor, Deputy Director of the Institute of Qing History, Chief Expert of the National Social Science Foundation of China Major Project "Research on the History of Qing Dynasty Stations". His main research interests are the political history of the Qing Dynasty and the history of frontier nationalities. He has published 4 monographs, edited the collection of papers "National Identity in the Qing Dynasty - Research and Controversy of the New Qing History", and published more than 40 academic papers.
Wang Jue
Master's degree candidate, Institute of Qing History, Chinese University.
This article has been published on the web platform with the author's permission.
Abstract: Starting from three cases involving Ma Guangming, the envoy of Sulu Gong, between the eighth year of Qianlong (1743) and the thirteenth year of Qianlong (1748), this article examines the policy of people entering and leaving the country in the early Qing Dynasty and the writing characteristics of Qing Dynasty diplomatic documents. Through the study of these two, it is found that there is a contradiction between "bounded" and "boundless" in the territorial concept of the early Qing Dynasty. "Bounded" means that the Qing Dynasty's rule of the sea frontier pursued the principle of internal and external management, and "highlighting internal governance" and "refusing external requests" were the characteristics of the Qing Dynasty's control in the southeast sea frontier. "Boundless" refers to the Qing Dynasty's diplomatic documents implicit in the consciousness of the concept of the world characterized by "no outside". "Huairou Yuanren" and "Tianxia Family" were the political principles that the Qing court most often emphasized in handling diplomatic events, and the tributary system was an excellent field for the practice of this principle. This contradictory and complex view of the territory suggests that China was already a precursor to its transformation into a "nation-state" in the early Qing Dynasty. In this regard, since the late Qing Dynasty, the reshaping of the social value system has been forced by the armed invasion of Western powers, and it is also an inevitable choice for Chinese to constantly question their own identity and the nature of the state.
Keywords: Ma Guangming case; sea frontier; identity; tributary system; state
Between the eighth and thirteenth years of Qianlong (1743-1748), Sulu Gong made Ma Guangming involved in three cases. The three cases were ma Guangming's accusation against Zhejiang people Shao Shiqi for defrauding the king of Sulu of tribute, Ma Guangming's accusation against Huang Zhan for stealing tribute, and Ma Guangming's case of inducing the king of Sulu to accuse Huang Of being a mainlander of serving as a servant. Although in these three cases, Ma Guangming's identity involved in the case is different, but the three cases are all arising from this, and the three cases are related before and after, so this article refers to these three cases collectively as the Ma Guangming case.
The academic community has paid much attention to this case, mainly in the article "Analysis of the Identity of Tribute Envoys in the Tributary Trade of the Qing Dynasty: Taking the Case of Tribute Envoys in the Sulu State in the Early 18th Century" written by Lü Junchang. The article details the history of Ma Guangming's case, discusses the Qing Dynasty's identification of Ma Guangming and others, and also pays attention to the "internal and external differences" of the Qing Dynasty's policy, "before the establishment of the modern nation-state, the borders were blurred, the personnel exchanges were frequent, and the so-called tributary state represented by Sulu actually maintained only relatively loose ties with the Qing court." However, such a conclusion is obviously not enough to explain what the difference between the "inside" and "outside" of the Qing Dynasty is, nor does it use this case to explore the "territory" problem in the political ideology of the Qing Dynasty. Feng Jianyong noticed that from Qing Dynasty China to modern China, there was a process of building a modern nation-state from "boundless world" to "limited state", which was accompanied by the gradual shrinking of the historical block-like border area between China and neighboring countries, and eventually became a linear modern state border through the form of boundary agreement and boundary survey. However, Feng's view of the formation of China's territory as the result of the transformation of China into a modern nation-state is inconsistent with the views of researchers of maritime frontier history.
Since the 1980s and 1990s, the history of sea frontiers has been proposed as a relatively independent research topic, and its research contents include the ideas of China's successive dynasties on the governance of sea frontiers, policy research, and special research on sea frontier issues in previous dynasties. He Yu's doctoral dissertation discusses the evolution of the Qing Dynasty's sea frontier policy before the Opium War, compares and analyzes the objectives and basic contents of the Qing Dynasty's sea frontier policy, and explains the ideological roots of the Qing Dynasty's sea frontier policy. This paper is an all-round study from the factual level to the ideological field, and is an earlier work in China on the study of the Qing Dynasty maritime frontier policy system. In addition, Lü Yiran, Wang Rigen, Zhang Wei, Fang Kun, etc. did not hesitate to let go. Although their research may pay more attention to the historical evolution of China's sea frontier policy, the Qing Dynasty sea frontier policy is only used as a chapter discussed in it, or from the perspective of dynastic contrast, summarizing and summarizing the characteristics of the Qing Dynasty's sea frontier management, their exposition still provides a valuable reference for us to understand the qing dynasty's sea frontier rule. Coastal defense research based on the policy of sea frontiers is not popular in the academic circles, but some scholars have carefully cultivated it. In the study of the history of sea frontiers, although scholars have summarized the characteristics of the Qing Dynasty's sea frontier rule, they have reached the following consensus: The core of the Qing Dynasty's sea frontier management policy is to govern the people and land territory, and there is a clear tendency to emphasize people over the sea and land to light islands. In the development of the economy of the sea frontier, maritime trade was carried out in the ceremonial exchanges of the tributary system. Similar to the evolution of overseas policies in the Qing Dynasty based on the study of overseas Chinese, the study of maritime frontier history also tacitly acknowledges the premise that there was already a clear concept of territory in the early Qing Dynasty, not after modern times.
In the discussion of the Qing Dynasty's sea ban and the policy of people entering and leaving the country, Zhuang Guoguo's "Relations between China and Nanyang in the Early Qing Dynasty", "The Policy of Overseas Chinese Entering and Leaving the Country in the Middle Of the Qing Dynasty", "The Qing Dynasty's Policy on the Entry and Exit of Overseas Chinese in Nanyang during the Shunzhi and Kangxi Dynasties", and "The Qing Dynasty's Policy on the Departure of Overseas Chinese from the Southwest Frontier Before the Opium War" were self-contained. In addition, Guo Chengkang, Li Weimin and others have also been involved in this issue. Most of these studies believe that the Qing Dynasty's strict policy of sea ban and the policy of people entering and leaving the country were the product of the Qing Dynasty's rulers' precautionary and suspicious mentality towards the Han people, and the best proof that the Han people maintained a high degree of vigilance against their interactions with overseas forces. In addition, the academic discussion about the Red Creek massacre touches on this issue. Although scholars have disputed the details of the tragedy, a basic consensus has been formed on the issue of "the Attitude of the Qing Dynasty toward Overseas Chinese": in the middle of the Qing Dynasty, overseas Chinese were regarded as "abandoned people of the country", and the Qing Dynasty's overseas Chinese policy was not for the purpose of protecting overseas Chinese. Whether it is the study of the "sea ban policy" and the "policy of entering and leaving the country", or the proposal of the "theory of abandoning the people", it implies that overseas countries, whether they pay tribute or not, are regarded as the premise of foreign discourse.
However, another problem that must be faced in the study of the history of maritime frontiers is the idea of "no outsider" expressed in China's extremely developed "tributary system" during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Should tributary states like Sulu be within or outside the qing dynasty? Did the Qing Dynasty have a clear sense of territory? The inherent contradictions between these issues have not yet been rationally and profoundly explained.
The Ma Guangming case and the Qing Dynasty's handling of a series of Sulu tributes and nanyang issues provide us with very vivid examples of rethinking these important issues about qing ideology.
Tributary envoys or troublemakers?
In May of the seventh year of Qianlong (1742), Shao Shiqi, a native of Cixia County, Ningbo Province, returned home from Sulu with his Fan people, Wanda Mountain. The alien appearance of Wanda Mountain attracted the attention of local officials, and Shao Shiqi was frequently questioned by Ningbo officials. The follow-up lasted more than a year, and Shao Shiqi was unable to convince Ningbo officials that the Fan who carried the return home was the son of his wife in Sulu.
In August of the eighth year of Qianlong (1743), the tribute mission of the Sulu Kingdom with Ma Guangming as the tribute was completed, and the south also passed through Zhejiang. In order to clarify the identities of Shao Shiqi and WandaShan, Ningbo Fu wanted to take the opportunity of the Sulu state tribute to transit and let the two sides "confront the virtual reality". Shao Shiqi was then escorted to the province. On August 16, before the confrontation, the tribute mission of the Sulu Kingdom took the lead in reporting: "Shao Shiqi has been living in the other country for a long time, and the lord of the other country has given the post of Jiabidan, because of the act of asking for tribute, he delivered Shao Shiqi bird's nest, pearls and other goods, a total of 3730 taels of silver, so that he first went to Suzhou and Hangzhou to sell the goods, and Shao Shiqi actually fled back to his hometown with the silver rolls of each goods and begged for interrogation." After receiving the report from the Sulu tribute mission, Zhejiang Governor Chang An attached great importance to it and quickly tried the case. Zhejiang officials, who insisted on Shao Shiqi's confession that "one-sided words are difficult to trust", quickly adjudicated the case on the basis of the one-sided words of the Sulu tribute mission. After being tried by the two divisions, Shao Shiqi was convicted of "theft." The Qing court ordered it to compensate the tribute mission of Sulu.
Although the extant records of the case of the Sulu Tribute Envoy suing the Zhejiang people Shao Shiqi for defrauding the king of Sulu of tribute, although brief, the context is clear and there is nothing strange. What is slightly surprising is the aftermath of Zhejiang Inspector Chang'an. The literature shows that since Shao Shiqi could not come up with enough silver two, Chang An used the treasury silver two to make up for it:
Seeing that the people of Shaoshiqi Zhejiang Province have lived in Sulu for a long time, now they are abducted and escaped, and the interrogation is real, and they should be tracked out of the original silver and brought back by the tribute envoys, which is the way of gentle distance. However, it is reported that Shao Shiqi has spent more than two silver sellers, and it is really difficult to recover for a while. The subject Yu Fu Si I Emperor Ende Qin Shi, is a small foreign country dedicated to the cultivation of tribute, now the country of Sulu has been deceived because of the tribute, the Sacred Heart of the Emperor will be deeply remembered, the situation all the way to supply, send and reward silver satin and other things, grace is very much, should not be here three or four thousand two silver number, I would like to discuss with the two divisions, the Treasurer Cheng Fei Silver moved three thousand seven hundred and thirty-two, to the Ming Zheng Tribute to Ma Guangming, the deputy tribute envoy Tou Du Shout Min and all other people.
Regardless of the amount of money in silver, there is a political risk in using state funds to make up for the people's deception. However, Chang An used HuaiRouyuan as an excuse in the compromise and appeared to have no scruples: "With the emperor's kindness, sympathy for foreign countries, no different from the interior, so the subordinates dare to return the national treasury and use the Zhaotian Dynasty to rule without foreignity." The envoys and other envoys were eager to thank him, and the courtiers still prepared a text to publicize the holy grace to inform the king of his case. Qianlong greatly appreciated Chang An's behavior and remarks. The literature does not see the Qing court reviewing the record of compensating with state funds, and it seems that the amount of more than 3,000 yuan is not within the consideration of the Qing rulers. Chang An summoned tribute envoys, did his utmost to publicize the power of divine grace, and repeatedly reiterated the Qing Dynasty's practice of ruling the world as a "heavenly dynasty" and ruling the world with "rule without exception", but it was praised by the Qianlong Emperor for "what Ru did in this matter is very commendable".
It can be seen from chang'an's compromise that it was the deputy envoy Who shouted min to Shao Shiqi, but at this time, the envoy of the Sulu mission was Ma Guangming. In other words, Ma Guangming is likely to be behind the case. Even without direct instructions, Ma Guangming could not escape the responsibility of leadership. Shao Shiqi returned home with Wandashan, and Wandashan's alien identity attracted the attention of local officials, and the follow-up was fruitless for more than a year. The accusations of the Sulu Ambassador acted like a catalyst, hastening the verdict of this light and heavy case. It is not easy to say that the Sulu Gong envoys found a strong basis for the trial of this case that has been interrogated for more than a year in order to curry favor with the Zhejiang officials, or whether the Sulu envoys took advantage of the Zhejiang officials' suspicions of Shao Shiqi to profit from it. In May of the thirteenth year of Qianlong (1748), the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, Khar Jishan, played the "Chama Guangming Borrows Tribute to Make Fraudulent Township Affairs", which contains such a confession, which can be used as a supplementary evidence for the above conclusion:
Just as Ma Guangming made tribute to fandom in the year of his envoys, he passed through Zhejiang, and in the inspector's office, he sued Shao Shiqi, a native of Ningbo, Zhejiang, for more than three thousand taels of silver, and immediately chased him. Ma Guangming and other villagers often boasted in front of his fellow villagers, always he was a tribute, and the Heavenly Dynasty naturally gave him favors.
This confession was obtained during a large-scale review of the Huang clan in Tong'an County, Fujian Province, in connection with his case. It can be seen from this that Ma Guangming, in his capacity as a tribute envoy, made profits, gained both obvious economic benefits and invisible political capital, enabling him to bully his fellow villagers. The Shao Shiqi case occurred in Zhejiang, and its impact has affected at least other southeast coastal areas such as Fujian.
On the other hand, Ma Guangming's presentation of Shao Shiqi's compensation for cheating the tribute to the court became the best annotation for the imperial court to flaunt "rule without foreignity". The Qing court's preferential treatment of tribute was the fundamental guarantee for the success of Ma Guangming's submission. In order to better publicize the Qing court's policy of Huairou yuanren, Zhejiang Governor Chang'an urgently needed a step to complete the original intention of expelling foreign tribes and end this trial out of thin air.
The Qing Shilu has a brief record of the case, focusing on Chang'an's use of state funds to compensate the Sulu tribute:
Zhejiang Governor Chang An song, Cixi County people Shao Shiqi has been in the Sulu kingdom for a long time, the lord of the other country entrusted the post of Jia Bidan, because of the act of asking for tribute, delivered Shao Shiqi bird's nest pearls and other goods, a total of more than 3,700 silver, ordered to go to Suzhou and Hangzhou to sell goods, Shao Shiqi actually turned the goods into silver, fled back to his hometown, and the tribute envoy pleaded to investigate. Now that Shao Shiqi was being interrogated, the silver had been spent, and the minister would move the treasury's taxes and silver twice, and according to the number, Ma Guangming and others would be brought back. And proclaim the grace of the Lord, and consult the king. As for Shao Shiqi's goods and silver, Rong successively chased out the return items, and got the purpose: This matter is very commendable. Got it.
It can be argued that the record represents the qing court's official characterization of the event, and the difference in detailed records shows the focus of the imperial court's attention to the event. The actual record does not record the verdict against Shao Shiqi, but spends a lot of ink and ink in Chang'an through the case to publicize the heavenly dynasty's prestige. Shao Shiqi's act of defrauding the king of Sulu of goods was even used as the background and reason for Chang'an's act of compensating the Sulu tribute with state funds. The Qing court recorded the purpose of the case. In the narration of the record, Ma Guangming's accusation against Shao Shiqi was not so much a case of deception as a show runway for the Qing court to preach "rule without exception". Ma Guangming effectively cooperated with Qing officials and met the needs of the Qing Emperor to preach "rule without exception", and naturally he was able to easily obtain great benefits.
Ma Guangming and his party set off from Zhejiang to Fujian on August 26, 1743, the eighth year of Qianlong (1743). On February 15, 1744, the ninth year of Qianlong (1744), Zhou Xuejian, the governor of Fujian, ordered him to return to China from Xiamen on a merchant ship of Ma Jincheng, a native of the mainland. Both itineraries were reported by the Inspector General. In July of the same year, the King of Sulu sent Fan Ding Ran and others to Xiamen on a merchant ship to inquire about the reason why the tribute envoys had not returned. Zhou Xuejian, the governor of Fujian, ordered Xiamen tongzhi Liang to inquire about merchant ships in Yanghui and to consult the coastal provinces to check the traces of Ma Jincheng's ships. Soon, Liang Suyu reported that Ma Jincheng's ship had been swept by the wind at sea to The Bang Tsai Yucca for renovation, "and it was ascertained that the Bang Tsai Yucca belonged to Luzon, not far from the Sulu Kingdom."
On August 13, 1746, the eleventh year of Qianlong (1746), Zhang Tianjun, the admiral of the Admiralty, received a thank you note from An Li, a military cook of Sulu, and Ma Guangming, a former tribute envoy, detailing Ma Guangming's encounter after he drifted into the Bangzai Yucca:
Due to the return of Ma Guangming and other things in the ninth year of Qianlong's tribute, the ship was hit by the wind in the ocean and drifted into the Bangzai yucca. The office was under the jurisdiction of Luzon, and was detained by the Luzon Yi people, including Ma Guangming and others, and all the edicts in the ship were given colored satin and goods and silver money, and they were detained. Later, after the king sent his eyes to Luzon to retrieve it, the edict had been demolished, the colored satin had been exchanged, and the silver goods were incomparable. Embezzlement of goods, the matter is meticulous, the destruction of the edict, do not dare to conceal, consult the referee to send.
Unlike the Xie'en table, which usually declares the heavenly pilgrimage in ornate prose, ma Guangming presents this form in plain language and is written in two things: the tribute to Ma Guangming and others were detained by the Luzon people; the edict was demolished, and the reward of silver goods was embezzled. In his speech, the king of Sulu was obedient and disturbed by the destruction of the edict, so the request for a decision highlighted the crime of Luzon in demolishing the edict and desecrating the heavens.
Soon, however, Ma Guangming's identity was called into question, and an important turn in the review of the case took place. In December of the eleventh year of Qianlong (1746), the identity of Ma Guangming's inland people was exposed. In February of the following year (1747), the identity of Ma Guangming's original inland shipwright was finally confirmed by the Sulu King Gui's Xie En fold. Since then, Ma Guangming has been reduced from a tributary envoy to a troublemaker, and his experience as a sailor in the interior has been subjected to more severe scrutiny. Qianlong not only issued a decree questioning his violation of the policy of people entering and leaving the country, but even held that "using the people of the interior as tributes to foreign countries, especially with regard to the state system," should be punished with a first degree, and "should be severely punished to show his recourse." At the same time, the defendant Huang Zhan, however, was not held responsible for the robbery because the imperial court still adhered to the principle of "doing things in foreign countries and not interfering". After discovering the fact that Ma Guangming had been defrauding, in May of the twelfth year of Qianlong (1747), the Qing Dynasty made the following ruling on the Ma Guangming case:
Chama Guangming, Chen Wu, and Chen Chaosheng were people of Fujian Province, but they dared to go overboard privately, offer flattery, pay tribute to envoys and communicate with each other, travel between Sulu and Luzon, take advantage of the provocations, and successively return to the interior, under the guise of Fanguo, the three of them were in cahoots with adultery, chose Yin and devoured, defrauded the merchants, slandered and harassed, and moved to intimidate the king's advice. Whoever hears of his name is terrified. Children and servants run rampant in the countryside, all kinds of lawlessness, and they are especially traitors, and it is really difficult to indulge. The investigation is contained in the following examples: befriending foreign countries, buying and selling each other, borrowing and deceiving, provoking border provocations, endangering local people, asking questions and sending people from afar to charge the army. Ma Guangming and Chen Wuwei should, as usual, be sent to the far away, and each of his golden wives should be dispatched. Chen Chaosheng echoed the compliance, as usual, reduced by one class, a hundred staffs, and three years of discipleship. It's not a waste. The foreign firms and silver owed by each of the names shall be pursued to the Lord.
From the sentence and the results, it can be seen that although Ma Guangming had all kinds of vicious acts of deception and extortion, the reason for his heavy punishment was that he used the people of the interior to serve as tribute envoys, colluded with others, and provoked border provocations. Even though Ma Guangming deserved to be convicted of the numerous crimes of deception and deception, he did not expect that the key to his conviction was that his acting as a tribute envoy as a mainlander angered the sensitive nerves of the Qing Emperor.
2. Waifan Island or Inland People?
As mentioned above, the reason why the Qing Dynasty intervened in the investigation of Ma Guangming's case against Huang Zhan was that the case involved mainland people. When Inspector Chen Dayu of Fujian took over the case, the first question he pondered was also "Were Huang Ling and Huang Han present?" The Wong brothers successfully defended themselves with their claim that they had never been to Luzon:
Yi's father Huang Zi gave birth to Yi brother Huang Zhan in Luzon and Yi brother in the mainland. Huang Zhan grew up in Fan and never returned home. Huang Ling only traded to Tianjin and never to Luzon. Huang Han is not out of physiology... Chen Chaosheng entrusted Zheng Zan and Chen Wu to invite Yi to the ship, and accused Huang Zhan of moving and robbing things, but the fraud failed, so he took revenge.
This confession exposes the truth of Ma Guangming's attempt to use this incident to defraud him, prompting Chen Da to thoroughly investigate Ma Guangming's true identity, which has become an important turning point in Ma Guangming's case. The imperial court also determined that "Huang Zhan grew up in Fan State, and now it is a FanMu, that is, it belongs to The Island Yi". On the grounds that "things are isolated from the outside world, there is no basis for improving quality", the matter of Huang Zhan's removal and robbery of tributes will not be investigated. This confession enabled the Huang brothers to temporarily get rid of Ma Guangming's accusations, but it also laid the groundwork for the future conviction of the Huang clan.
In May of the twelfth year of Qianlong (1747), Ma Guangming was sent to the frontier to charge the army for "befriending foreign countries, buying and selling each other, borrowing and deceiving, provoking border provocations, and endangering the localities". In August of the same year, the Qing Dynasty received a message from the King of Sulu stating:
When the former gong envoy Zhuo Du shouted min in Luzon, he discovered that Jia Li SiYe Huang Zhan, who lived in Shiwei Township, Longxi County, Zhangzhou Province, saw a wife and uncle Huang Zhao, who had previously been in Luzon Jiabidan, and his brothers Huang Ling and Huang Han were also engaged in business in Luzon at that time, and now the three of them have returned home. The former counsel dared to ask the Constitutional Council to decide. If we are not allowed to investigate the homeland, our country dares to repeatedly desecrate your nobles. Wait for the day of the tribute next year, and listen to the heavens.
The king of Sulu's renewed plea for adjudication was undoubtedly a blatant question of the authority of the Qing court. In this regard, the Qing court could not hide its embarrassment. The governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, Khal Jishan, bluntly denounced his absurdity: "Huang Han was the half-brother of Huang Zhan, the luzon Fanmu, who went to the interior and did not go to Fanguo. In February this year, I went to the province to ask questions. The present-day country is said to be still in Luzon, and its message is false. Despite this, the Qing Dynasty was still reluctant to escalate such popular disputes into state contradictions. In order to take into account the face and authority of the Qing court's heavenly kingdom, Khaljishan explained to Qianlong the act of the Sulu kingdom again requesting a cut on the grounds that the king of Sulu was susceptible to being fooled by the Han people:
The Zcha Sulu fan people do not understand words, have a stupid temperament, and are most likely to be fooled by the Han people. However, the traitors in the interior are greedy for profits, flout the law, sneak to incite and induce, and if they do not understand the situation, the country is in the gap between neighboring countries, and the trade is in arrears, and the inland is far beyond control, and there is no punishment.
At the same time, Khalgishan pointed out that Ma Guangming was a traitor who was "pembi for adultery, communicating with the country, having another branch, and trying to drag it down", implying that the king of Sulu was instigated by Ma Guangming. In order to maintain the order of the Heavenly Dynasty, he suggested that the Qing Dynasty use the authority of the Heavenly Dynasty to reaffirm to the Sulu State the principle of non-interference in the affairs of the islands, and asked the Sulu State to carefully select gongyi officials to prevent incidents similar to the Ma Guangming case from happening again:
The country has been fooled by it, and the country should be aware of this matter and clean up at the nearest point. In ordinary times, no envoys shall be sent to or from the exchange of information, resulting in violation of the prohibition. As for each tribute period, the country should carefully select officials, do their best, and may be invited by the holy graces. If a trivia is attached to the table, it is inconvenient to transpose it.
In October of the same year, the Qianlong Emperor approved the "deliberation of the Minister of Military Aircraft" and issued an edict saying, "In the future, if such incidents are encountered, only those who know the great righteousness and know the Chinese system do not dare to ask for anything else." It can be seen that the Qing Dynasty still maintained a relatively moderate attitude and maintained a basic position of not interfering in the affairs of foreign domains.
However, the Sulu King's message inspired Qianlong's determination to investigate the matter thoroughly. To this end, he issued two edicts calling for the clarification of the question of Huang Zhan's birthplace and the clarification of his true identity in order to determine whether he should be punished. For the emperor's questioning, Khalgishan and others did not dare to be sloppy. After more than half a year of investigation, the preliminary results of the investigation were presented in April of the thirteenth year of Qianlong (1748):
It was found that Huang Zhan was the son of the late Huang Zi's stepwife Zheng Shiluan, and was a brother of Huang Ling and Huang Han. In the fifty-eighth year of the Kangxi Dynasty, Huang Zi was taken to Luzon. In the fourth year of Yongzheng, he returned home from Guangdong, married his wife Wang, and returned to Luzon the following year, and has not returned to the interior for more than 20 years. Yi's wife Wang clan adopted a son, a Huang Yan and a Huang Zhuan. His Huang Zhao is the uncle of the Huang Zhan clan, not the uncle, Kangxi has gone to Luzon in fifty-six years, lu song for sixty years, Yongzheng has returned home for five years, and has not been to Luzon for more than twenty years.
In order to eliminate Qianlong's doubts about the very different results of the interrogation, Khal Jishan described in detail the process and method of the review: First, Yuan Benyuan of Zhixian County, Longxi County, conducted an investigation of the Huang clan in the county, and according to the results of the investigation, Zhang Yao of Qianzhi County took the confession of the patriarch of the Neighbor and the confession of Huang Ling and others. After discovering the entry and exit, he visited the two departments of cloth and government, and ordered XiaFang tongzhi Huge to work with the current Zhixian of Longxi County to strictly examine the facts. Finally, presided over by pan Siyu, the new inspector of Fujian, he sent envoys Yongning and Yan cha to make the news of Yarhashan's visit clear and confirm the facts. In explaining the inconsistencies in the confession, Khalgishan relayed the original words of the Huang brothers without thinking: "During the provincial interrogation last year, because Ma Guangming, Chen Wu, and others relied on the momentum of the king of Sulu, they were frightened and deceived, afraid of their drag, and did not dare to confess directly. In order to hold the Huang brothers responsible for perjury, Khal Jishan punished the Huang brothers and the Huang clan: except for the patriarch Huang Si, who was more than seventy years old and was forgiven according to the law, Huang Ling and Huang Han were both disciplined, and the township protectors and neighbors were punished according to the law.
After a six-month-long interrogation, Huang Zhan, in his absence, was confirmed as a mainland citizen. Although the Qing court was powerless against Huang Zhan, who was in Luzon, it stressed that "if Huang Zhan returns to the interior, it is reported according to the facts, and it is not allowed to repeat the order and consult all."
Huang Zhan, the current Kapidan of Luzon, has a lot of power in Luzon, has not returned home for more than 20 years, and now that he has provoked Ma Guangming's case, it is naturally even more impossible to return home. The imperial court's orders seemed to be firing a gun at the air, and the warning meant more than reality. By confirming Huang Zhan's birthplace, the Qing Dynasty clarified the identity of Huang Zhan's inland people, thus confirming the imperial court's ruling power over him. If we start from the perspective that the Qing court's judgment on Huang Zhan lacks practical effect, this large-scale review by the Qing Dynasty can be described as a laborer. However, in terms of the significance of the Qing Dynasty's rule, it is necessary to strictly distinguish the true identity of the Waifan Island Yi and the people in the interior, and to take different ruling measures accordingly, and the symbolic significance behind this large-scale censorship can be described as far-reaching. This can be seen in Qianlong's continued investigation.
Qianlong responded to the results of the examination that officials in Fujian Province had worked so hard for more than half a year to "know." The word "know" is commonly used in the imperial approval of the Qing emperors, which means both quasi-action and sometimes negation, and in most cases it shows an ambiguous attitude and highlights the unfathomable depth of the emperor's rule. Qianlong did not say that he was satisfied with Khalgishan's performance, nor did he see a reprimand, but intriguingly questioned it, asking Xi'erjishan to continue to examine:
According to the confession, the interrogation in the province last year, because Ma Guangming, Chen Wu, and others relied on the momentum of the king of Sulu, and they were frightened and frightened, afraid of their drag, and did not dare to confess directly, which seemed to be unclear. The coastal provinces border the outer ocean islands, and the people in the interior collude with each other privately, often using China's prestige to deceive the people.
Qianlong reminded Khaljishan that "this case involves foreign countries, and the state system should be carefully ascertained and heard according to the facts." Obviously, Qianlong basically approved of the conclusions reached by Karjishan's April recital, but was quite dissatisfied with his unadorned paraphrasing. By repeatedly pursuing the question of "fear of what momentum," Qianlong tried to make it clear to Khaljishan that the key to the trial of this case lies in carrying forward the authority of the Qing Dynasty's heavenly kingdom.
Xi Erjishan immediately understood his mistake, and in order to make up for the mistake of speaking bluntly, he played it twice and explained to Qianlong the question of "fear of what momentum":
What is there to fear from the king of Sulu? ...... The kingdom of Sulu was a vassal state of the dynasty, and it was originally silent and fearsome. ...... What was offered in the past, fearing its momentum, hoping to avoid drag, was originally afraid of The Chinese Fa, fanwang momentum, what is fearful and so on. After repeated news, there is no other emotion. ...... What momentum is there for the people of the interior to be feared by the people of the interior, such as King Chasu, and the people of The Island of Chuer, who are diligent in their duties? Just as the people of the interior of the holy land borrowed China's prestige and deceived the people, how could they turn to the voice of the king of Sulu? ...... Yi Wait was afraid of its drag, it was Ma Guangming Pingsu who borrowed the grace of the Heavenly Dynasty to benefit the distant people, that is, the deception of the traitors who deceived the left coupons in the township, and the matter may have Huang Ling and other previous offerings to rely on the Sulu King's momentum, it is precisely because of the fear of my Chinese law, there is really no other plot.
In the sonata, Khaljishan repeatedly stressed that "fearing our Chinese law", in addition to reflecting the nervousness and embarrassment of being intimidated by Qianlong's investigation of his improper wording, he also saw his remedy for maintaining the authority of the Qing court.
Ma Guangming instigated the King of Sulu to file a petition in the form of a message against the luzon people who were indeed inland people, and in the whole case of Ma Guangming, it was nearing the end, but it seemed to be a climax. The issue of identity confirmation was explicitly raised to the political level by Qianlong. The Ma Guangming case thus became no longer like a simple economic dispute involving foreign countries, but became a political event related to the authority of the Qing court and the heavenly dynasty.
This emphasis can be seen in the Qing ShiLu's account of Ma Guangming's case against Huang Zhan. "Qianlong Eleventh Year December Gengyin", "Qianlong Twelfth Year First Month Gengzi", "Qianlong Thirteenth Year April Xin You", "Qianlong ThirteenTh Year August Peng Yin" four articles, respectively, ma Guangming case is recorded. The first two articles record the trial process of Ma Guangming's case, emphasizing that Ma Guangming's use of the people as tributes is contrary to the state system, and it should be severely punished as a warning. The latter two detail the two different interpretations of Huang Zhan's birthplace. Qianlong's investigation of "fear of what momentum" is the main point of the "Qing ShiLu" to record this matter.
III. The Aftermath and Impact of Ma Guangming's Case
In the first month of the fourteenth year of Qianlong (1749), the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, Kharjishan, was ordered to conduct a large-scale inventory of the coastal guard. The cause of this large-scale interrogation was Qianlong's determination through the Ma Guangming case that the Qing Dynasty's coastal defense was not strict enough. The purpose of the interrogation is to strictly prevent people from smuggling people from the mainland into the outside world. Follow Qianlong's "no subordinate to the false story"? The inspection focused on the code of conduct of civil and military officials along the coast. This inventory also contributed to the refinement of the rules on coastal defense in Fujian Province. Three specifications have been added to the new statute:
First, if the mainland investigates and prohibits people from going out to the outside world, they should be instructed to have a division, a baojia, and a fang clan, so as to clarify the origins. Second, foreign ship sellers, merchants, and so on should be separately instructed to inspect and release them, so that they can replace them with a substitute. Third, the deserted coastal ports should be ordered to patrol the flood in time to prevent sneaking across the border.
The three new rules constituted a network of officials and people that further strengthened the Qing Dynasty's control over the coast. The Qing Dynasty's review and strengthening of the mainland people's overseas trade was manifested in the normative requirements for the prevention, enforcement and inspection of shoukou wenwu.
Karjishan's large-scale raids on coastal ports and the refinement of coastal defense regulations in Fujian Province were remedial measures for the Qing rulers' lax management of coastal areas triggered by the Ma Guangming case. On the one hand, it reflects the Qing court's reflection and anxiety about the low implementation of the policy of people entering the country; on the other hand, it also reflects the Qing court's accurate grasp of the scope of its rule. There is no record in the literature whether the raid caught the violators, and the only result seems to be a new case based on the revision of the raid. Even if the raid was only a symbolic act to deal with Qianlong's will, the formulation of the treaty fully demonstrated the Qing court's strengthening of coastal control. The most direct impact of this reinforcement was the implementation of a more stringent policy of people entering and leaving the country by the Qing Dynasty.
Although the new regulations stipulate more detailed aspects of the examination of the entry and exit of civilians, this is only a further improvement of the original system, or a stricter requirement for the enforcement of the civil and military officials of shoukou. The follow-up effects triggered by Ma Guangming's case do not stop there. A more serious follow-up effect was that the Qing court made identification the only criterion for judging whether it was illegal for people to enter or leave the country. Specifically, in addition to investigating the number of years of time they have been out of the country, the Qing Dynasty's examination of mainland residents returning from overseas is also the main content of verification, and once the mainland people are found to be serving as tribute envoys, fans, or serving foreign people, even if there is no illegal act (such as Ma Guangming's deception and extortion behavior), it is difficult to escape the punishment of military prisoners.
In August of the fourteenth year of Qianlong (1749), Chen Qialao, a county resident of Longxi County, Fujian Province, returned to his hometown with his wife, children, and a large amount of silver goods, and was arrested and censored as soon as he landed. Its identity as Kapitan is exposed in the Kasper. After reports from Pan Siyu, the governor of Fujian, and Khar Jishan, the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, Qianlong ordered "thorough investigation and handling according to routine" and said that he would continue to pay attention to the case.
In March of the fifteenth year of Qianlong (1750), Qianlong issued an edict severely questioning why Pan Siyu did not report the results of the interrogation. If it were not for Pan Siyu's limited ability to handle cases, then the reason why this case that attracted the attention of the emperor for seven months and still had no results could probably be attributed to Chen Yilao and there was nothing to blame. Obviously, the latter is more likely. Qianlong also seems to understand this, otherwise he would not have explicitly "pointed out" the local officials in Fujian in the upper edict:
It is not known whether such bandits have gone to Fanbang privately, that is, to engage in forbidden practices, and have been lurking for many years, either by intimidating Fanyi or bluffing the situation in the interior, or by not provoking trouble. The Fu received the decree that when a thorough investigation was conducted and the case was decided according to the law, why did it not settle for so long? He wrote an edict to the governor and others to conclude the case expeditiously and to hear how it would be handled.
The chen yilao case is full of false accusations, which fully reflect Qianlong's concern about the collusion between the people in the interior and foreign countries. With the emperor's explicit order, the effectiveness of fujian local officials in handling cases was significantly improved. Within two months, the Ministry of Punishment agreed on the outcome of Karjishan's trial of the case. Elder Chen Yi used the example of "making friends with foreign countries, buying and selling loans to each other, and defrauding property to provoke border provocations", sending out border and distant troops, dispatching concubines and children, and chasing silver goods into officials. The Qing Shilu records Chen Yilao's punishment in accordance with the law, but the reason for his guilt is unclear:
In the first year of Qianlong, Chen Yilao, a citizen of Longxi County, sneaked to trade with Waifan Galaba, and bought Fannu as a concubine, had children, remedited to charge Jiabidan, managed Hanfan goods and housing taxes, etc., dismissed Kabidan in the fourteenth year of Qianlong, took the children of Fan Concubines and Fanyinfan goods to take Xie Dong to ship home, and traveled to Xiamen to seize it. Elder Chen Yi should make friends with foreign countries, buy and sell with each other, borrow money and deceive property, provoke cases of border troubles, send out border and distant troops, send concubines and children to dispatch, and chase silver goods into officials.
According to the description of the Qing Shilu, it seems that the reason for Chen Yilao's guilt was simply to marry Fan nu as a concubine, have children, and seek to serve The Fan people by taking up the position of Kabidan. However, Chen Yilao, who did not have any other acts of deception and fraud, was convicted of the same crime as Ma Guangming, "befriending foreign countries, buying and selling each other, borrowing and defrauding property, and provoking border provocations."
Obviously, the author of the "Qing Shi Lu" does not think that the record of these illegal and criminal facts is too trivial and has nothing to do with the overall situation. Then, comparing the two, the record of Chen Yi's old case conveys the following information to us: The purpose of recording Chen Yi's old case is to show the qing Dynasty's new implementation law for the people's policy of returning to china -- those who serve foreign countries are sentenced to military apprentices. In other words, if Ma Guangming deserved to be sentenced to military criminals, Chen Yilao was the first flag bearer of the Qing Dynasty's New Deal.
Considering that the Qing court often showed its emphasis on and investigation of identity when interrogating Ma Guangming's case, considering the various bad influences that Ma Guangming had planted in the relationship between the Qing Dynasty and Sulu, considering the Qing court's expressed disgust at Ma Guangming's behavior as tribute envoys by the people in the interior, considering that this case lasted for six years, aroused the emperor's great concern, and the time-consuming and laborious efforts of officials in Fujian Province to examine it, it is not difficult to conclude that the Ma Guangming case was the cause of the promulgation of this new law of implementation by the Qing court.
Chen Yilao was the first flag bearer, but he was not the only victim. In February of the nineteenth year of Qianlong (1754), Yang Dacheng, who was listed as a deputy envoy of the Sulu King, was sent to Heilongjiang for the same reason and with the same law. The punishment of Yang Dacheng caused controversy, but the result of the controversy was that the Qing Dynasty consulted the king of Sulu in a written manner, emphasizing him in the posture of a heavenly kingdom: "Anyone who trades in the interior of the country in the foreign country shall not be ordered to be a full envoy." ”
This proposal can be regarded as a reiteration of Qianlong's thirteenth year (1748) Khaljishan's proposal. At that time, Qianlong gave instructions to the Minister of Military Aircraft for discussion, and this time it was proposed again by Chen Hongmou, and finally won the emperor's approval. It can be seen that the rulers of the Qing Dynasty were quite troubled by the endless inland people serving as tribute envoys or serving the Fan people. In addition to using state coercive means to severely punish those who were found to have served as tribute envoys and served as envoys, they also warned the foreign king in the form of a written word, with a view to jointly preventing them. The transcript reads as follows:
The king hereby sent envoys to Min with the words of the Emperor and others. As requested, the husband and horse should be surveyed and sent to Beijing by the members of the committee. The local goods brought with them are subject to the usual trade of the Yi and are exempt from customs duties. Only Yang Dacheng was listed as a deputy envoy in the country. Yang Dacheng was also a martial artist who raised Yang Tingkui, and was reprimanded for his affairs, and he re-lent foreign trade and pretended to be the deputy envoy of the country. If we do not severely punish those who are apprehensive, we will fear the people in the interior, get used to it, and go abroad to make trouble. It should not be handed over only to the control of origin, as the question is. Please reissue Heilongjiang as usual to serve as a drudger. In parallel, the overseer of the text knows the king.
The focus of the record of Yang Dacheng's case is to emphasize once again that it is strictly forbidden for people in the interior to serve as tribute envoys, to serve in the service of others, and to strictly eliminate anyone who is willing to take chances. The interpretation of this historical material can be carried out from two aspects: the people of the interior who go to the sea to trade, who are hired by the king of Waifan as a tribute envoy, or who serve as Kabidan in Waifan, should be a common move, at least in the eyes of the people who trade abroad. However, the imperial court was extremely disgusted by the behavior of the people of the Heavenly Dynasty in serving the Fan kingdom. In the view of the rulers of the Qing Dynasty, the people in the interior served as tribute envoys, which not only confused the internal and external differences between the Qing Dynasty's rule, but also committed a major taboo under the above affairs, the most serious of which was to blur the order of the control of the heavenly kingdom.
After these two cases, it is difficult to see similar cases in the "Qing Shi Lu". Does this indicate that the Qing Dynasty used the coercive power of the state to put an end to the behavior of the inland people who went to sea trade to make huge profits by paying tribute? In fact, since Chen Yi's old case, "the traders and the people who stayed in Fan were suspicious and afraid, and did not dare to return home." According to this, it is not so much the success of the administrative measures of the Qing Dynasty as it is the choice that the people who went to the sea to trade were forced to make under the balance of the two phases.
Conclusion Identity is different from inside and outside
In April of the thirteenth year of Qianlong (1748), the Qing court's trial of Ma Guangming's case was nearing its end. At this time, Ma Guangming was reduced from a tribute envoy to a troublemaker, confessed all the facts of the crime, and handed over to the ministry for detention. Unexpectedly, the case, which should have come to an end, was again tossed after Qianlong reviewed Karjishan's routine report:
In the case of Ma Guangming's complaint against Huang Zhan, the plot was very different from that of Huang Zhan, who was born to Huang Zi in Fan, and later to The Mainland. Although it is clear from the song that Huang Zhan was born to Huang Zi's step-wife Zheng Shi, he was actually in the interior. However, according to the confession, during the interrogation in the province last year, because Ma Guangming, Chen Wu, and others relied on the momentum of the king of Sulu, they were frightened and deceived in every way, fearing their drag, and did not dare to confess directly, which seemed to be unclear. The coastal provinces are divided and bordered by the outer ocean islands, and the people in the interior collude with each other in private, often using China's prestige to deceive the people. Is there anyone in the interior who relies on the voice of the king of Sulu and fears his drag? It can be told that Khaljishan and others that this case involves foreign countries and that the relevant state system should be carefully ascertained and according to the facts.
Through this edict, the pipe peeks into the leopard, which shows Qianlong's superb skill in freely shuttling between two different sets of evaluation systems when handling foreign-related cases. Throughout the trial of the case, the Qing court showed its persistent pursuit of identity confirmation, which paradoxically included a clear and bounded inner and outer concept and a vague sense of the world, which together constituted the Qing Dynasty's territorial view.
So, did the Qing Dynasty have a clear sense of boundaries?
In Nishikawa's definition, a clear national border is the primary difference between "empire" and state. In other words, in the concept of "empire", boundaries are open and unlimited; in the category of "state", boundaries are clear and unambiguous, and the consciousness of "bounds" is an important feature of the existence of the state. Obviously, this conceptual division was not applicable to the Qing Dynasty, and the historical facts left by the ancients and the relevant monographs of the recent people show that the Qing Emperor had a clear definition of its territory. This "clarity" is not only reflected in the delicate demarcation behavior in the modern sense, but also in the Qing Emperor's clear understanding of whether a certain area belongs to the jurisdiction of the Qing Dynasty.
As far as the former is concerned, the clear example is that, represented by the Treaty of Nebuchu signed by Kangxi in 1689 and the Treaty of Kyakhta signed in the sixth year of Yongzheng (1728), china and Russia carried out two demarcation operations with clear purposes. More extensive examples are scattered throughout official or private history books as detailed records of the extent of the territory in the Chronicle of Territories (or Geographies). In the works of recent people, Xiao Yishan, a member of the Qing dynasty, had this ambition: to awaken the national awakening of the Chinese people with a detailed territory of the Qing Dynasty. Contemporary scholar Ge Jianxiong clearly pointed out: "The territory of the Qing Empire refers to the vast area of modern China plus south of Lake Balkhash, east of the Pamir Plains, south of the Mongolian Plateau and the Waixing'an Mountains. It can be seen that the clear territorial scope of the Qing Dynasty has existed since ancient times.
In terms of the latter, Guo Chengkang argues in detail in "The Emperor's View of China", on the one hand, he argues the Qing Emperor's firm attitude toward the problem of Dzungar's internal genus and the internal part of Erut, and on the other hand, he also discusses the self-restraint of the Qing Emperor in rejecting the requests of the Left Kazakhs, East and West Brut, BadakShan, and Aiwuhan. In this regard, Zhang Shuangzhi also has relevant explanations in "Research on the Pilgrimage System in the Qing Dynasty". Wang Hui's practice of public opinion geography by Gong Zizhen, Wei Yuan, and others "does not need to argue for the legitimacy of the Qing Empire, nor does it need to provide legitimacy for their own actions within the Empire", and this natural behavior can also be regarded as evidence of the clarity of the interior and exterior of the Qing Dynasty, at least to show that among the intellectuals, the Qing Emperor's cognition of boundaries has been recognized and echoed.
Judging from the several examples commonly noted in the above monographs, it can be seen that there was indeed a different territorial concept inside and outside the Qing Emperor. However, at the same time, a large number of historical records on the ineffectual characteristics of the "view of the world" confuse our understanding. In "The Law of the Frontier: A Historical Investigation of the Qing Dynasty's Border Rule", Du Wenzhong argues that the Qing Dynasty "as a country had a very flexible territory around it, without a strict concept of national territorial sovereignty." He described the Qing rulers' view of the territory as "both clear and vague", as the result of the strong expansion of China's cultural boundaries and the vast and stable geographical conditions. This formulation involves the problem awareness of the article, but does not give a clear answer. In fact, the "clear and vague" characteristics of the Qing Dynasty's territorial view discussed by Du Wenzhong can be summarized as the two questions mentioned above. How to explain the cause of this contradiction is the focus of this article.
It can be found that as far as the tributary system is concerned, the relationship between the inner domain and the Qing Dynasty is relatively clear, and when it comes to the issue of the territoriality of the outer domain, the scholars' arguments are ambiguous. In addition, the Qing Emperor had a clear view of the territory, relying mainly on examples from the northwest frontier. There is relatively little argument for the southeast coast. This is related to the fact that the academic community has long focused the research on the frontier areas on the land frontier areas such as Mongolia, Xinjiang, Tibet and the northeast, and the depth of research on the sea frontier is slightly insufficient.
This article analyzes the Ma Guangming case in detail and puts forward the concept of "identity confirmation", aiming to ask the following two questions: First, why can the "boundless" of the tianxia system and the "bounded" of the territorial consciousness exist at the same time? Second, if the coexistence of "bounded" and "boundless" is not an objective result of unintentional formation, then why should the strict distinction between internal and external domination be interpreted by the ideology of the "tianxia view" characterized by "no outside"? In other words, what are the political considerations of the Qing rulers behind this relative contradiction?
In the trial of Ma Guangming's case, identity confirmation was one of the important features. In fact, through strict investigation of the identities of the people involved, the Qing court clarified its different attitude toward the people of the mainland and the people of Waifandaoyi, on the one hand, emphasizing that the Qing Dynasty had absolute ruling power over the people of the interior; on the other hand, it also reaffirmed the Qing Dynasty's foreign-related principle of non-intervention in The People of Waifandaoyi. After the Ma Guangming case, the Qing Dynasty strictly forbade inland people to serve as tribute envoys and serve as envoys. From the judgments of chen yilao and Yang Dacheng, and the qing court's ban on the king of Sulu, we can see the clear attitude of the Qing Dynasty to strictly prohibit identity confusion. The clear identification and trial attitude inside and outside was an important manifestation of the Qing Dynasty's clear sense of belonging. "Bounded" means that the Qing Dynasty's rule of the sea frontier pursued the principle of internal and external management, and "highlighting internal governance" and "refusing external requests" were the characteristics of the Qing Dynasty's control in the southeast sea frontier. "Boundless" refers to the Qing Dynasty's diplomatic documents implicit in the consciousness of the concept of the world characterized by "no outside".
Compared with the tireless confirmation of the identity of the people in the interior by the Qing court, the Qing court's own emphasis on the identity of the "Heavenly Dynasty and the Kingdom of Heaven" was also more than enough. The act of Zhejiang Governor Chang An embezzling the amount of money owed by Shao Shiqi on the grounds that the emperor was sympathetic to the foreign countries and was no different from the interior was a showy performance of the Qing court in favor of the tribute to the country. In Ma Guangming's complaint against Huang Zhan, Qing officials repeatedly stated that "the dignity of the Heavenly Dynasty and the meaning of the people who cherish the softness and remoteness of the people" repeatedly stated. The purpose of intervening in this case is to "serve the hearts of distant people", and not to interfere in foreign disputes is to maintain the "dignity of the Heavenly Dynasty's system". Regardless of the development of the case, the Qing Dynasty regarded itself as the "Heavenly Dynasty And the Kingdom of Heaven" and described the State of Sulu as an example of "Muyi Xianghua". This characteristic of writing, with the tianxia concept as the core, reveals the Qing Dynasty's self-affirmation of the identity of the heavenly kingdom.
The clear interior and exterior were mixed with the vague view of the world to form the unique territorial view of the Qing court. This was vividly demonstrated in the trial of Ma Guangming's case, but it was also confusing. As long as the matter involved islands, the Qing court always adhered to the principle of non-interference, with the maintenance of stability as the fundamental purpose of the Qing Dynasty's maritime rule. The ruling order described in strict compliance with the tributary system and the traditional view of the world seems to exist only at the pen end of the "imperial" writing. The Qing Dynasty was more inclined to depict the infinite imagination of its territory sitting on the world by resorting to words.
In Cultural Identity, Globalization, and History, George Laren argues that the construction of cultural identity may obscure some cultural differences. In the Ma Guangming case, the two identity confirmations reflected by the Qing court can precisely illustrate this characteristic. The emphasis on the identity of the people in the interior and the differential treatment of the external Fandaoyi were the Qing court's practice of highlighting the internal homogeneity with external heterogeneity. The self-identification of the Heavenly Dynasty reflects the Qing Emperor's adaptation and improvement of the Han family's concept of the world, hoping to achieve internal cohesion and unity through the confirmation of identity.
[Note] The article was originally published in global history review, no. 2, 2019.
Editor-in-charge: Li Jing
![The calligrapher and painter Wang Jue donated 372 volumes of literature and history books to Longdong University[fig]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAP///wAAACwAAAAAAQABAAACAkQBADs=)