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Qing received tribute from Korea annually, from Ryûkyû once every two years, from Siam every three years, Annam every four years, and from Laos and Burma once in a decade. Though all of these tributary relationships had ''de facto'' ended by the mid-to-late 19th century, an 1899 document still lists all of those polities as tributaries.<ref>Schottenhammer. p31.</ref>
Qing received tribute from Korea annually, from Ryûkyû once every two years, from Siam every three years, Annam every four years, and from Laos and Burma once in a decade. Though all of these tributary relationships had ''de facto'' ended by the mid-to-late 19th century, an 1899 document still lists all of those polities as tributaries.<ref>Schottenhammer. p31.</ref>
==Japan==
Japan is rarely discussed as requesting, or exacting, tribute out of neighboring polities in the way that China did; this is presumably largely because most of those neighboring polities, including Korea and Ryûkyû, were already Chinese tributaries. The Japanese did try, however, in some periods, to craft a Japan-centric world order after the Chinese model, and to exact tribute from others.
In the [[Yamato period]], and into the [[Nara period]], Japan did in fact receive tribute from outlying regions, such as from the Ryukyuan islands of [[Tanegashima]], the [[Amami Islands]], [[Tokunoshima]], and [[Yakushima]] beginning in [[699]], and from the [[Hayato]], a people of southern Kyushu outside of the boundaries of the Yamato state. Korea sent tribute to Japan as well, in this early period; we have the example of Kim Chhyun-chhyu, who gifted a peacock and a parrot to the court in [[647]].
Japan also received tribute from Ryûkyû, Korea, the [[Dutch East India Company|Dutch]] and the [[Ainu]] during the [[Edo period]]. These took the forms of formal missions to Edo performed by [[Ryukyuan embassy|Ryukyuan]] and [[Korean embassy|Korean envoys]] on the occasion of the accession of a new shogun, or of a new king of Ryûkyû or Korea; Ainu chiefs met with the lords of the [[Matsumae clan]] on occasion, though it has been argued that the Ainu did not perceive these meetings to be acts of subordination, nor the gifts they brought to be "tribute" per se. Representatives of the Dutch East India Company (VOC), similarly, made journeys to Edo on occasion, but it is likewise unlikely that they saw these journeys, and gift-exchanges with the shogun, as acts of subordination or as payment of tribute. Tribute or taxes were also paid by Ryûkyû to [[Satsuma han]].
==Ryûkyû==
The Kingdom of Ryûkyû actively engaged in tributary relations with China for nearly the entire period of its existence; however, the kingdom also received tribute from outlying islands within the Ryukyuan archipelago. Even before the formal establishment of "kingdoms" on Okinawa, the island was receiving tribute from the nearby islands of [[Iheyajima]], [[Kumejima]], and the [[Kerama Islands]], beginning in [[1264]].
Prior to the unification of [[Okinawa Island]] and the establishment of the Kingdom, China received tribute from three separate Okinawan polities. [[Chuzan|Chûzan]], the kingdom which controlled the central areas of the island, conquered the other two kingdoms in [[1419]]-[[1429]]. In the intervening time, Chûzan sent 52 missions to China beginning in [[1372]], [[Nanzan]] sent nineteen, beginning in [[1380]], and [[Hokuzan]] sent nine beginning in [[1383]], all of them vying as well for official recognition from the Ming Court as the only rightful king of Okinawa.
Following unification, Ryûkyû generally sent tribute once every two years, though the pattern changed at times along with shifts in Chinese politics. Tribute was sent in a variety of forms, including Southeast Asian trade goods, aromatic woods, sulfur and saltpeter, [[Ryukyuan horses|horses]], and sugar.
Meanwhile, tribute from Ryûkyû was often demanded by the [[Shimazu clan]] of [[Satsuma province]], who laid claims to the islands since the 12th century; however, no tribute was paid, nor any actual direct Japanese dominion exerted, until after the [[1609]] [[invasion of Ryukyu|invasion of Ryûkyû]] by that same samurai clan.
The Kingdom of Ryûkyû, based on Okinawa Island, received ships from the other islands at the port of [[Tomari]], where warehouses stood for storing tribute goods from those islands. The ''[[Tomari satonushi]]'', the chief port official, oversaw in particular the reception of tribute payments and missions from the Amami Islands. Tribute from these outlying islands was sent in a variety of forms; for example, the Miyako and Yaeyama Islands, which had originally begun sending tribute in [[1390]], were permitted to send part of their tribute in the form of ''jôfu'' textiles beginning in [[1659]].
Of course, exacting tribute from the outlying islands did not always go smoothly; there were, at times, revolts and rebellions, such as that of [[Oyake Akahachi]] on [[Ishigaki Island]] in [[1500]], though most of these rebellions were eventually suppressed by royal kingdom forces from Okinawa Island, or those from other islands loyal to the center and acting in its service.
Despite Ryûkyû's tributary relationship with China being an inferior one, i.e. one of subordination, Ryukyuans felt strongly about their strong ties to China, and in the 1870s in particular, when the kingdom's links to China, and indeed the kingdom's very existence, were threatened, many royal officials and political activists, including [[Rin Seiko|Rin Seikô]] and others, took action in support of maintaining (or resuming) tributary relations. Though in the end China took little action to block Japan's overthrow of the Ryûkyû Kingdom and annexation of the islands as [[Okinawa Prefecture]], Beijing did issue formal complaints in the late 1870s against Japanese efforts to put an end to the sending of tribute.
==References==
==References==
