Tribute, Asymmetry and Imperial Formations: Rethinking relations of power in East Asia

Since John K. Fairbank’s classic formation of the tribute system model to explain traditional or pre-modern Chinese foreign relations, the discussion of these relations has circulated around the extent to which the model was useful for explaining all of Chinese history.  Other explanations have focused on situations that did not fit the model or have relied on interpretative frameworks drawn from international relations theory, the most recent example of which is Brantley Womack’s asymmetric power relations model.  It is the argument of this paper that these models are insufficient for explaining these relations because they eliminate from consideration the metaphysical elements that would have animated historical actors.  Drawing on the philosophy of R.G. Collingwood and the writings of Ronald Inden, I conclude by offering an interpretation that considers alternative views of agency and of ordering principles related to constituting imperial formations.

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