Qing (Ch’ing) tributary system court He was also an avid collector, who added a vast array of arts to the imperial collection A great literary project that distinguished his reign was the compilation of the Complete Library of the Four Treasuries It contained more than 36,000 volumes consisting of 10,230 titles divided into four categories: the classics, history, philosophy, and belles-lettres Seven complete sets of the compilation were printed and deposited in different libraries throughout the realm However the emperor also had an ulterior motive in sponsoring this project—to weed out works that were hostile to the Manchus Qianlong’s reign both saw the culmination of Qing greatness and was the forerunner of dynastic decline because of corruption during his later years He abdicated in 1796 but continued to wield power until his death in 1799 even as his son was nominally in control The long and successful reigns of three great and ambitious emperors took the Qing dynasty and China to the height of power and prosperity While the monarchs were of nomadic Manchu origin, they had almost totally assimilated to and identified with Chinese culture The Manchu written script, proclaimed as one of two official languages of the empire (together with Chinese), was soon relegated to the background All of the three rulers considered themselves cultured Chinese rulers and patrons of the arts Despite certain favoritism shown to Manchus in the highest ranks of government, Chinese occupied the bulk of the civil service positions and most gradually became reconciled to Manchus for sharing and honoring their culture and traditions However splendor bred complacency that led to degeneration By the beginning of the 19th century, changing world conditions and the accumulation of domestic problems would lead to rapid decline of the Qing dynasty See also Jesuits in Asia; Kaikhta, Treaty of; Ming dynasty, late; Nerchinsk, Treaty of; rites controversy in China Further reading: Crossley, Pamela K The Manchus Cambridge, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 1997; Ho, Ping-ti The Ladder of Success in Imperial China: Aspects of Social Mobility, 1368–1911 New York: Columbia University Press, 1962; Hsu, Immanuel C.Y The Rise of Modern China New York: Oxford University Press, 2000; Kahn, Harold L., ed Monarchy in the Emperor’s Eyes, Image and Reality in the Ch’ien-lung Reign Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1971; Peterson, Willard J., ed The Cambridge History of China, Vol 9, Part 1, The Ch’ing Empire to 1800 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002 Jiu-Hwa Lo Upshur 323 Qing (Ch’ing) tributary system The Chinese tributary system dated to the Han dynasty (202 b.c.e.–220 c.e.) It reflected the Chinese worldview that China was the center of the civilized world, and that all lands desiring relations with China must be tributary states The Qing (Ch’ing) tributary system was inherited from its predecessor Ming dynasty (1368–1644) with additions and modifications The basis of the tributary system was acceptance of Chinese cultural superiority Non-Chinese or barbarians, if willing to travel to court and perform the prescribed rituals, could be accepted into the Confucian sphere of states Rulers or envoys of vassal states offered tribute or gifts and received in return the Chinese emperor’s seal of recognition and return gifts, generally much in excess of the tribute There were four main functions of the tribute system First, it maintained the preeminence of China among the peripheral peoples Second, it was a political means of self-defense Third, it was a means of trade Fourth, it was a way of conducting diplomacy Through early Ming China’s strength on land and sea it became the suzerain of many tributary or vassal states They included Korea, the Ryukyu Islands, Annam (Vietnam), Burma, Siam, and a host of other states in Southeast and Central Asia from Bengal to the Philippines to Samarkand The Reception Department, a bureau of the Chinese government, regulated the size, frequency, and reception of the tribute missions that depended on each’s importance to and distance from China For example Korea paid tribute four times a year; Annam once every two years; Siam every three years; and Laos and Burma every 10 years While in China, all expenses of the tribute missions were paid by the Chinese government Regulations also governed the number of merchants and amount of trade allowed to accompany each tribute mission As the Ming dynasty declined, the newly established, and as yet regional Qing or Manchu dynasty set up an office called Lifanyuan (Li-fan Yuan) or Court of Colonial Affairs in 1638 Its mission was to manage affairs relating to Mongolia, Tibet (including dealing with the Dalai Lama), the Western Regions (presentday Xinjiang [Sinkiang]), and Korea It kept track of titles and defined the domains of Mongol chiefs to prevent tribal wars and regulated the Mongols’ relations with their spiritual leaders in Tibet After 1644, its functions were enlarged to supervising the semiabsorbed tribal peoples of southwestern China in Yunnan, Guizhou (Kweichow), and Sichuan (Szechuan) provinces