The Suzerainty Concept in the East and West

Abstract

A groundbreaking study edited by Okamoto Takashi of Kyoto Prefectural University, Sōshuken no sekaishi: Tōzai Ajia no kindai to hon’yaku gainen (A world history of suzerainty: A modern history of East and West Asia and translated concepts; hereafter, A World History of Suzerainty) moves beyond the prevailing perspective on the history of international relations in modern East Asia. Ever since the Treaty of Nanjing was signed in 1842, the scholarship has been dominated by the conventional narrative that the system of Western international law was introduced to the East Asian world and collided with the existing Chinese world order. However, this book’s attempt to understand both Western international law and the Chinese world order through a single concept of suzerainty (zongzhuquan 宗主權) shakes that notion. It is a common perception that Western international law is based on equality whereas the Chinese world order assumes hierarchical order. Nevertheless, A World History of Suzerainty reveals that hierarchical relationships also existed between the suzerain state and the dependent state governed by the suzerainty concept under Western international law, which calls for the need to rethink and begin anew in describing the modern history of East Asian international relations.