Chinese foreign policy under the Ming, as reflected in the new
regulations on tribute and trade, obviously cannot be understood purely
in economic or commercial terms. The first Ming emperor was not in-
terested in generating wealth through tribute or trade. But he was
interested in reimposing a Chinese world order, in which China was uni-
versally accorded supreme status as the Middle Kingdom, and all
countries acknowledged the power of the emperor’s virtue. Limitations
on foreign travel and trade were designed to impose imperial control
over all Chinese, and to minimise contacts between Chinese and non-
Chinese that might cause friction. Stipulations on tribute were designed
to place foreign relations on a formal footing, regulated by prescribed
ritual (li).
It should be noted that because China stood at the centre of the
world, and because the emperor enjoyed the mandate of Heaven, any
friction that arose in foreign relations was necessarily due to the failure
of vassal kingdoms to act in accordance with Chinese expectations. In
such cases punishment might be necessary—always because China had
been provoked, and always to restore the peace that China desired—on
China’s terms. Given the Chinese conceptions of hierarchy and
harmony, it was always possible to justify aggressive policies in high
moral terms when it was in China’s interest to do so. An example of this
self-serving approach from Hongwu’s reign was the reimposition of
Chinese domination over the non-Chinese people of Yunnan, who in
the later Yuan period had regained much of their former independence.
Ming expansionism
There were good reasons for Ming concern that the southern frontier
should remain peaceful. Unlike the Yuan, the Ming again faced a
hostile coalition of Mongols and Turks on the grasslands to the north
and west. Hongwu did not want any unrest in the south, either in
Yunnan or in Vietnam. In 1380, the decision was taken to reincorporate
A Short History of China and Southeast Asia