Tributary system of Imperial Daxia

The tributary system of Imperial Daxia was a structure built and maintained by successive Daxian dynasties to manage their international relations with various states on the periphery of the empire. As the Daxian state expanded throught the centuries it encountered states and peoples who it was deemed inauspicious to absorb because of their customs, their appearance or because they could serve as useful geographic buffers. Tributary nations were required to submit large amounts of tribute, the specific terms of what was required being inscribed in the Imperial Tallies. In addition to the substantial tribute, tributaries were also expected to heed Daxian dictums on their relations with other states and to provide auxiliary troops for the imperial armies when requested. Inclusion in the system was often involuntary, the result of catastrophic military defeat but sometimes states voluntarily acceded to it to gain the military protection and political support of Daxia. The system survived into the early 19th century until the Qian dynasty began to adopt new and more direct extractionist methods on its neighbors. The Xie created idea that neighboring nations were inferior and their subservience was a natural thing was retroactively justified in the writings of the First Minister of Yang, Heian Xiujian, who wrote down treatises on notions of national belief he called Zhangwo. This concept became one of the foundational pillars of the Empire's expansionist mindset and its extraction of tribute.

History

The use of tribute to establish a relation of subordination between states dates back to the Xie dynasty who first formed networks of patronage with proto-Degei and proto-Hurch frontier tribes to its northwest, receiving tributes of warhorses, tin utensils and concubines. The Xie in exchange granted titles such as Marshall of the Great Wastes and Yellow Khan of the North to the nomad chiefs; titles that conferred political credibility to the holders but at the same time were specifically subordinate to the Xie Emperors. When one of these title holders grew too strong the Xie would usually contrive a reason to withdraw the title and award it to a different tribe, playing the nomads against each other. The implosion of Xie into many states did not stop the practice of extracting tribute, only now it was Daxian statelets doing it to one another. The state of Yang who grew to cover most of the historic core lands of Daxia maintained its own tributary system with the minor states of Mung and Chen. In some cases the system used by the Xie was turned on its head, with frontier Daxian states becoming subordinate to nomad kingdoms in hopes of the latter using their military power inside Daxia to alter the balance of forces. The state of Cao that ended up reunifying Daxia also extracted tribute from defeated states but only for a time, the heavy tribute was meant to fatally weaken these states; they were betrayed and conquered within a generation.

The brief Chen dynasty introduced the requirement that tributary states should render military support to their overlord. Chen's difficulty in subjugating the local Oduniyyad successor states made it demand troops from the King of Nasrad to support their campaign. When the last Oduniyyad successor state of Lakdu fell, around two thirds of the invading troops were non-Daxian muslim auxiliaries. This was not without risks of its own, Daxian history is littered with examples of vassal forces switching sides mid battle or abandoning campaigns after heavy defeats. Internal feuds and power struggles often led to a fracturing of the tributary relation as some cliques or rulers rejected Daxian overlordship and asserted their independence and others asked for Daxian military support to wipe out their rivals. Internal Daxian crisis and dynastic infighting could also encourage disgruntled vassals to attack their overlord, this was the case of the revolt of the Degei confederation during which a disgruntled local chief angry at diminishing imperial stipends roused the tribes into rebellion and devastated the Zhong dynasty for four years before being defeated.

The Qian dynasty oversaw a great expansion of the tributary system in the number of states subjugated and in the degree of control and influence the empire had over them. Qian expansionism resulted in very diverse peoples who were not used to Daxian practices being brought into the imperial umbrella, from Crona to Australis and Polynesia.

Practices

Accession

There were two ways to join the tributary system, by applying in peacetime and by being inducted after being militarily defeated. The sending of embassies in times of peace was when foreign rulers were invited to do obeisance to the Emperor of Daxia and offer up tribute. The offer would customarily be made in three separate occasions, if rejected then an imperial punitive expedition would be organized and dispatched (it could take as long as ten years for it to be dispatched, depending on internal factors). If defeated, the now humbled ruler (or the successor if the previous ruler died) was escorted in chains to the imperial capital of Daguo and paraded before the Emperor's court. A team of auditors would determine the outputs of his realm and craft the relevant tribute scroll, to be marked by the captive ruler with his seal before imperial officials.

States could also accede to the system of their own volition and even preempt imperial embassies in order to do so. The kingdom of Chu sent envoys bearing a treasure trove to the court of the Shang dynasty and a wooden tablet bearing the submission of the king of Chu to the Emperor; supplicating for his aid and protection. The king of Chu in this manner gained Shang military support to fight off a challenge for his throne posed by his half brother.

Obligations

All tributary states were required to submit tribute in the form of crops, alcohol (nomads gave fermented milk known today as Slozo, crafted items (pottery, clothing, utensils, weapons, jewelry), animals (horses, cattle, pigs and exotic beasts such as elephants) and derived products such as skins and valuable tusks, slaves (eunuchs, concubines, mute servants, soldiers), minerals (usually in ingots or as coins) and gemstones (cut ones were preferred but especially large uncut ones that could be shaped by imperial gemcutters were also accepted), spices, salt and any other natural resources as could be found on the land. The tribute was set down on the imperial tallies at the beginning of the year and had to be delivered before the onset of winter. The amount of tribute was subject to changes and variations depending on the specific need of Daxia, tributary rulers had no way of knowing until their delegations looked at the amounts on the tallies the next year. The Qian dynasty mostly phased out tribute in kind, instead requiring tribute be in the form of gold or silver coins. The Grog Fleet began as a convoy of ships transporting the tribute of the tribes of Australis to the mainland before being repurposed for the transport of imperial grog.

During and after the era of the Chen dynasty tributaries also sent troops to assist imperial armies on the field of battle. These auxiliary troops were usually a mix of foot soldiers and light cavalry and as a layer of extra security these troops were led by a member of the tributary state's royal family (commonly a son or a brother of the ruler, sometimes even an heir). In this manner the empire had an important hostage to minimize the risk of treachery while on campaign. Nonetheless even with precautions there are many historical instances of a tributary forces quitting the field without orders or joining the enemy at pivotal moments, due to resentment or opportunism or simply to survive a campaign going badly. Several important figures in nations around Daxia served at one time as auxiliaries with imperial forces, such as Darukh Khan who was a cavalryman and who rose to become the Marshall of the Great Wastes some fifteen years before his famous revolt.

The third obligation was that of formal recognition of the Emperor of Daxia as the overlord of the tributary state. Vassal rulers were forbbiden from using the title of emperor or any local equivalent such as Khagan. To do so was not only a break of the tributary compact but a direct challenge to the primacy of the empire. Tributary states had their own coinage but oftentimes they minted commemorative coins depicting the reigning Daxian emperor; the coins were sent alongside the yearly tribute as an additional form of homage.

The fourth obligation is the most vague and less understood and there was great discrepancy in how each dynasty interpreted it. Tributaries were supposed heed the dictates of the empire in their dealings with third parties. The majority of the dynasties had a very loose interpretation often reduced to a simple mantra of 'do not conspire with our enemies', in all other respects vassal states were free to conduct their affairs as they saw fit.The Qian dynasty conception of this obligation was that they had a right to dictate the foreign policy of all vassal states, including if they could use royal marriages as a tool in foreign policy and with who they could carry them out, or demanding that permission to wage war on a third state first be requested from the imperial court. The Qian interpretation lent itself to much greater involvement (or meddling in the eyes of the tributaries) to the point that some vassals operated more as provinces than independent entities. The Qian even began appointing Imperial Viceroy's to safeguard their interests in some especially important subject states.

Status

In the Zhangwo conception of Daxians as the peerless ideal of humanity, all other nations were lacking and inferior. There are many terms in the Daxian language for outsiders, foreigners and barbarians; epithets applied to most nations that eventually found themselves in thrall to the empire. But giving tribute was seen as a way out, and upwards. Coming under the wing of the greatest civilization and being cognizant of their own inadequacy and inferiority by obeisance and tribute was the first step towards an enlightenment. These nations went from Kakun and Hurd to the Good Barbarians, peoples on the path to joining the Daxians at the pinnacle (a journey that would take them hundreds of thousands of years, by tge most moderate estimates of learned scholars). The Good Barbarians could be lavished with titles of some consecuence and meaning, with resplendent robes and scepters of office, with tablets engraved with solemn declarations of authority and friendship and if worthy and loyal enough, with the strength of arms of imperial armies. The term of the Good Barbarian is tangentially related to the myth of the 'noble savage' espoused by some Levantian authors when discussing the native Cronans, but in the case of the Good Barbarian all of the positive moral attributes of a people seen as innately inferior were entirely dependent on their subservient attitudes, like a light switch they could be turned off if tribute stopped and they would be relegated once more to the offal pile in the eyes of imperial authorities.