The Japanese Position in the Established Process of Early Ming Tributary System

摘要

Ming’s main communicative purpose with Japan always attributes to “prohibit Japanese Pirates”， but by comparing the imperial edicts of the early Ming period, we can find a new probability that is Ming’s main communicative purpose with Japan maybe was to make Japan submitted to Ming Dynasty, “prohibit Japanese Pirates” was only the secondary purpose. Ming took the states’ submittal as the external certification of governmental orhtodoxy. In this respect, Japan was a very important state. Because Japanese unyieldingness to Yuan dynasty had been portrayed as a protective attitude about “The Huayi Order”. The record about Japanese King kaneyosisinnou’s tribute in Hongwu 4th year maybe was a intentional description to satisfy the ertification of Ming’s orhtodoxy. Thereafter, the relations between Ming and Japan had developed around submittal question.