Beiping City at the end of the 19th century

The walls inside and outside the tall palace walls are strict, and the palaces are heavy.

Outside Qianmen Street, there are many cars and horses, businessmen and civilians wearing melon skin hats, and everyone who sees the children of the Eight Banners carrying bird cages along the street and carrying Hao slaves will bow down and fight thousands from afar, these gentlemen can't afford to offend.

Even in the years of the great wilderness in the north, it is rare to see a large group of hungry people in the important areas of Gyeonggi, not because these people who went north did not want to go to Beijing to seek a way to live, but they were all blocked on the line of the Weijingxiang River in Tianjin, or in the Baoding Mansion in the north of Zhili, and were not allowed to disturb the important land of the imperial city.

The people in Beiping City are noisy, and there is a peaceful and calm atmosphere of a peaceful and prosperous era.

On that day, there was a difficult matter at the military plane, and as a last resort, Erle and Bu entered the palace with Prince Shiduo to meet the queen mother, and explained the reasons in detail.

The palace also made difficulties in how to deal with it, this kind of thing of the king and queen of a foreign vassal country coming to the dynasty together, the Qing Dynasty has not encountered a few times for more than 200 years, and there is no precedent to follow.

The officials of the Ministry of Rites could only dig out the examples of the previous dynasty from the pile of old papers and handle them accordingly.

After a few days of deliberation, the imperial court issued a holy decree, and Zhu Wei, the Earl of Mingyuan, the representative of the Ocean Kingdom who entered Beijing to meet him, received the decree and ordered him to enter the palace on the same day and present his face to the saint.

In fact, at this time, Queen Gu Liuyan and her entourage had already arrived in Guangzhou Mansion to visit Gu Yanchuan, the governor of Liangguang, who was already well.

The imperial court did not explicitly allow it, and the Liangguang Governor's Mansion naturally knew that the queen's private visit was an earth-shattering event, so it was kept secret and unknown to outsiders.

In the Forbidden City alone, there is a lot of trouble about how to deal with this matter.

The vassal state system of the Qing Dynasty lasted for more than 200 years. During these 200 years, the Qing Dynasty adhered to the ancient tributary system of suzerain, but in modern times, due to the weakening of the country, it has not been able to withstand the colonial impact from the West, and the suzerain-vassal system has been crumbling.

The Qing Dynasty's "vassal states" and "vassal states" were quite broad concepts, and the situation varied greatly, some were suzerain-vassal relations, which were subject states in the true sense, and some were general diplomatic and trade relations, which were actually foreign countries.

In the eyes of the Qing Dynasty, "Xianfeng Zhengshuo, diligent tribute", without exception, were all vassal states of the Celestial Empire.

In modern times

The Qing Dynasty had very frequent exchanges with its neighboring countries, such as the imperial court, which regarded neighboring countries such as Korea, Annam, and Ryukyu as "foreign vassals".

The term "outer domain" means "outer barrier".

In the eyes of the Qing Dynasty, the vassal kings or feudal towns guarding the frontier land constituted the barrier of the Jingshi, while the tribes or surrounding countries on the frontier became the frontier of the upper kingdom of the Pingwei Celestial Empire. The meaning of the words "foreign domain" is similar to that of "feudal service", "subject country", "feudal department", "feudal subordination", "feudal state", etc., and can refer to the subordinate frontier ethnic groups and the surrounding neighboring states.

The term "internal domain" refers to the Mongolian, Tibetan, Hui and other frontier ethnic groups in China. The Kokand, Andijan, Burut and other tribes outside the Karen in Xinjiang were collectively referred to by the Qing court as "foreign vassals".

Emperor Qianlong once called Kazakh, Burut and other "foreign tribes", and the "foreign tribes" here are the meaning of "subject country" in the semantics of Emperor Qianlong.

In the course of dealing with countries that had never been vassals, such as Britain, Russia, and Japan, the Qing Dynasty avoided using the titles of "vassals", "vassals", and "vassals", and most of them would use "foreign vassals" to refer to them.

Therefore, in the Holy Decree, the Ocean Kingdom is also called "Outer Domain".

Ming Yuan Bo Zhu Wei entered the palace after receiving the order, met with Emperor Guangxu and presented a sincere tribute list, including 20,000 British singles rifles, 2 million bullets, 60 field artillery pieces, 200 Arab horses, 100 Arab beauties, and a number of diamond agate.

Zhu Wei also brought a secret letter from Li Fushou, the king of the Ocean Kingdom, and sent it directly to the Guangxu Emperor.

This was a lucrative tribute, implying that one hand was hard and the other was soft, so that the Manchu court had to be cautious.

An ordinary small country can't afford to spend so much.

Outer domains can be divided into two categories: internal and external domains, which are completely different in nature. The first category is the internal and external vassals of Xinjiang, Tibet and Mongolia.

The second category is the foreign feudal domains located outside the borders of Kazakhstan, Burut, Vietnam, Korea, the Ryukyus, and Burma, which are "foreign feudal domains that do not belong to".

The sense of "inside" and "outside" in the imperial court was relatively strong, among which the Li Fan Yuan "held the decrees of the Inner and Outer Domains and the Mongolian Hui Department, controlled and controlled Fusui, and strengthened the Banghan".

After the Qing Dynasty settled in the Central Plains, it took many specific measures to further strengthen the governance of Tibet. "Today, the soldiers have to hide, and all the outside the border are carefully oriented, and the land of Sanzang and Ali has entered the territory."

"How do you know that our country is unified with China and foreign countries, and the northwest has opened up more than 20,000 miles, and all translations are clear. And the Tibetan lama, long under the Heavenly Empire".

In the fifth year of the Yongzheng Dynasty, the Qing court set up a minister in Tibet to exercise management power on behalf of the imperial court; promulgated 13 articles of the "Regulations on the Aftermath of Tibet"; Article 29 of the "Regulations for the Rehabilitation of the Aftermath of Tibet", these measures enabled the Qing Dynasty to exercise effective jurisdiction over the Tibetan region.

In the Qianlong Dynasty, after the Qing army pacified the Dzungar and Hui tribes, the northwest frontier was all included in the Qing Dynasty's rule, and finally laid the territory of the Qing Dynasty. "Today, all Dzungaria have been flattened, and Ili is all internal subordinates."

The Qing court set up an official office in Ili and stationed troops, whose management was equivalent to that of the inland, and the Qing court stationed ministers, general soldiers, and prime ministers in various cities in southern Xinjiang, and awarded Burke various grades.

The Qing Dynasty regarded tribes and states located outside the borders of the country (i.e., outside the traditional and customary borders) as foreign vassals. For example, Kazakhstan, Burut, Kokand, Aiukhan (Afghanistan), Wendustan and so on outside Xinjiang.

The affairs of foreign vassals are generally under the manager of the Ministry of Rites, and the host and guest are in charge of the affairs of Korea, Ryukyu, Vietnam, Nanzhang, Siam, Sulu, the Netherlands, Burma, and Western countries.

According to the rules of the imperial court, the Ocean Kingdom belonged to foreign vassals, and the affairs of the Ministry of Rites were handled.

Late nineteenth century

The situation at home and abroad in the Qing Dynasty has undergone great changes, and the Western powers began to invade China, and those so-called foreign vassal states in Tongshi became empires in the blink of an eye, and gradually began to encroach and invade the "foreign vassal states" around the Qing Dynasty.

Britain invaded Sikkim, Bhutan, and Gurkha around Tibet, Tsarist Russia invaded Kazakhstan and Burut around Xinjiang, and France invaded Vietnam and Burma outside the southwestern frontier. With the rise of Fuso, the vassal states of the Qing Dynasty, such as Ryukyu and Korea, were gradually invaded or annexed, and the frontiers were frequently warned, which simply made the Qing court anxious.

Under such circumstances, the original concepts of vassals, foreign vassals, and vassals were all shattered, and the Qing Dynasty fell into a short-term confusion of understanding, and needed to re-understand the world.

In this case

The joint visit of the king and queen of the Ocean Kingdom undoubtedly created a big problem for the Forbidden City.

How do I position it?

This is related to the specifications of the reception, etiquette, as the Heavenly Empire, it is decisive that etiquette cannot be lost, this is related to the dignity of the royal family, it is the top priority.

A few days later, Emperor Guangxu once again met with Count Zhu Wei, the special and plenipotentiary envoy of the Ocean Kingdom, and gave preferential treatment in his words, and issued a clear decree;

Today, there are overseas foreign vassals and ocean kingdoms, admiring Chinese etiquette, coming from thousands of miles to make a pilgrimage, performing respectful and respectful, and being very comforted and warmly praised.

I want to be a treasure of Huaxia and Tianbao, rich in production, and admired by the world for Dunhua etiquette.

Now the foreign feudal kingdom is honored by the tribute to the dynasty, when it is the scene of the prosperous era, I allow it to play, and enshrine the king of the Ocean Kingdom Li Fushou as the "martial king", the prince and the prince, Li Gu is the queen, and his son Li Siyuan is the prince of Feng'en and loyalty, in order to show the emperor's grace.

It is advisable for each to settle down and make good trade and friendly relations.

Remembering that the road was far away, the boat and horses were tiring, and the king and the queen's subordinates did not need to enter Beijing to meet him, and Prince Gong Yi Yi went to Liangguang on the same day to treat him with the courtesy of the king.

The meaning of the imperial court is very clear, I can't stop you from coming, but it's good to see your relatives in the Liangguang area, so don't make trouble in the capital.

In the matter of crowning the king, the Manchu court was very generous, originally in foreign relations, the Manchu court has always had a precedent for crowning the princes of Inner and Outer Mongolia, and it is also very generous to the kings of Korea, Ryukyu, Vietnam and other countries.

This time, Li Fushou, the king of the Ocean Kingdom, wanted the title of "King Zhao", and the court hesitated and considered it for a long time, but finally felt that it was inappropriate.

The Manchu court was not British, and they knew that the title of King Zhao was once owned by Li Shimin, Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, and its significance was so great that it could not be easily granted.

Li Fushou, the lord of the Ocean Kingdom, was originally a descendant of the Li Tang Dynasty, does this mean that he never forgot his homeland of China and had suspicious thoughts?

The matter involves the foundation of the country, and the Manchu court will not easily allow any suspicion, conniving at the improper ambitions of the Ocean Kingdom, let alone giving it an excuse to spy on the Central Plains.

rashly refused, and was afraid of arousing the strong dissatisfaction of the other party, after careful consideration, he finally gave the nondescript prince title of "King Wu".

Really investigated, the title of King Wu has to go back thousands of years to the Shang Dynasty, not as sensitive as Qin, Zhao, Han, Chu, Jin, Lu, and Qi, and it is a prince with an ancient enough origin, and his position is noble enough, and he is worthy of Li Fushou, the lord of this ocean kingdom.

The matter was thus decided, and both parties expressed satisfaction.

Zhu Wei stayed in Beijing for more than ten days, and then signed a treaty of trade with the Qing court on behalf of the Ocean Kingdom, invoking the common practice of trade between Britain and France, which stipulated that the Ocean Kingdom could trade in the four commercial ports of Guangzhou, Huhai, Weihaiwei and Tianjin, and was not allowed to enter the interior without permission.

Later, the Forbidden City issued another holy decree to Gu Yanchuan, the governor of Liangguang, reciting his Yongzhen Nanguo hard work, crowning the crown prince Taibao, Wenhua Pavilion University Scholar, from the first rank, rewarded wearing a yellow coat, and gave Emperor Guangxu a handwritten "Pillar Stone of the Country" plaque, a number of silver.

With the issuance of the holy decrees one after another, this troublesome matter that made the court scratch its head has finally come to an end.