The Western Liao envoys nodded repeatedly, as long as Emperor Zhao did not take advantage of the great victory to change the Jinhe Alliance and force the Western Liao to lower its national status.
"As for the Khitan Autonomous Road," Zhao Jiufu pointed at Yelu Yudu. "It is a route under the jurisdiction of the Song Dynasty. However, considering the friendship between the Song and Liao dynasties, the Khitan and Xi tribes of the former Liao Dynasty were properly settled here. Yelu was granted the status of a general and a prince, and was allowed to manage his own internal affairs within the scope of the imperial decree... but he has no autonomy in diplomacy or military affairs."
The Western Liao envoy hesitated for a moment, but soon, as Yelu Yudu took the initiative to lead the leaders of the Khitan tribes and the five leaders of the Xi tribe to stand up and pay their respects to Emperor Zhao, the envoy, who also had the surname Yelu, could only remain silent.
Zhao Jiufu then looked at Taira no Tadamori, who had already been feeling a little uneasy. The latter already knew what was going on thanks to the translation by his son Taira no Kiyomori and his former colleague Minamoto no Tameyoshi.
However, Emperor Zhao remained calm and restrained: "Rest assured, Pingqing. I know that Japan is alone overseas and has its own special national conditions. I have no intention of forcing Japan to accept it... You three can just take a look at this imperial treaty and have an idea in your mind. Only the second article of the Imperial Treaty on Trade and Navigation can be roughly studied. After this matter is over, you can report it when you return to Japan."
Taira no Tadamori was still at a loss, so Taira no Kiyomori and Minamoto no Tameyoshi hurriedly kowtowed to express their gratitude.
After Emperor Zhao specifically pointed out the two exceptions, Lu Benzhong immediately stood up and began to explain the text to Hebula and the others.
It turns out that this imperial edict not only clarified the status of the country, but also set the general rules for titles and official ranks... For example, among royal ranks, a prince is equal to a king, a county prince is equal to the king's eldest son, and below the county prince there are dukes, marquises, earls, viscounts, and barons of the Zhou Dynasty.
How to connect the identities and ensure equal treatment among the contracting countries, among each other, and with the Song Dynasty?
When it came to the communication of titles, Lu Benzhong took out a supplementary text. At this time, everyone finally thought they realized something more crucial - it turned out that Emperor Zhao, in addition to designating the kings of various countries, also directly designated some dukes and earls.
Jin Fushi's title of duke was a duke. The leaders of the six major Jurchen tribes all inherited the title of duke. In the Khitan autonomous region, several major Khitan tribes and the Xiao family of the five Xi peoples all inherited the title of earl.
Mongolia is more complicated.
For example, Kublai Khan of Eastern Mongolia was naturally a king, his brother Ambaghai who controlled the Taichiwu tribe, and the leader of the Merkit tribe inherited the title of duke, while the smaller tribes inherited the title of earl.
As for the Bohai people, they were given a choice... If they were willing to establish an autonomous road to the north between the northern part of Changbai Mountain and Lake Khanka, several large clans could inherit the title of earl and could choose a duke, but if they stayed in the hinterland of Liaodong, only the title of earl would refer to the tribe.
To be honest, Zhao Jiu once hesitated whether to immediately prepare this sensitive supplementary text for the title determination, but interestingly, he still underestimated the current loose ruling model in the northern Xinjiang region and overestimated these people's understanding of the political system.
It was not without controversy, for example, several Mongolian tribes were trying hard to prove that they could be "dukes" instead of earls. Even Kublai himself was a little uneasy, because Mongolia had always had the concept of Ulus, relying on the primitive democratic thinking of the traditional tribal alliance. He thought it was no problem to give the enemy Merkit the title of duke, but although the Jadaran tribe was not strong enough now, it had a long history and should also be given the title of duke.
Of course, Zhao Jiu readily accepted these suggestions.
After the noisy issue of the supplementary text of the title was over, with Lu Benzhong's explanation, they entered the stage of clarifying the national capital and establishing national embassies according to ranks. Then Hebula raised the point a little awkwardly that their Eastern Mongolia was not like Western Mongolia which had a big city built by the Liao Kingdom. Everyone was still nomadic and lived by water and grass.
In response to this, Zhao Jiu remained easy-going and expressed his willingness to send prisoners of war to help Eastern Mongolia build a similar city in the heart of the country.
It's really generous to the extreme.
In short, the first imperial edict, which consisted of about ten articles, was basically to define a concept of China that went beyond the scope of the Song Dynasty and included the Western Regions ruled by the Western Liao Dynasty, including the Song Dynasty, Goryeo, Vietnam, Dali, Mongolia, and Jurchens, and to establish a basic political framework... and because China has had a tributary system of the Celestial Empire since ancient times, this framework did not cause much opposition or confusion.
Until now, many people have simply believed that Emperor Zhao wanted to take advantage of this great victory to re-establish the ancient tributary system.
However, what is interesting is that, looking only at the first imperial edict, it does not directly mention the most basic things about the tribute system. Instead, it emphasizes that everyone belongs to China and that the Emperor of the Song Dynasty is also the Son of Heaven of China.
The only thing worth noting is the supplementary text on the titles, which seemed to have the intention of taking advantage of the situation to weaken some countries and to check and balance them. However, neither Goryeo nor Jurchen dared to resist, and Yelu Yudu had nothing to say about the Khitan Autonomous Road. In the eyes of the Mongols, this thing instead had the intention of strengthening centralization.
As for the empty talk about making Chinese the common language, Chinese characters the common official writing system, unifying the calendar, weights and measures, promoting Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, and allowing scholars to study the original system and become Jinshi, in the eyes of most people, these are just unnecessary and unnecessary talk.
Is it still possible to let people learn English these days? Even if it is the original learning, it is just the emperor Zhao's own use of Confucianism.
Of course, there were still smart people. Kim Bu-sik was somewhat sensitive to the political concept that the Chinese emperor had the power to govern all countries... As a rare national historian of this era, he had been trying to sort out the succession of the Goryeo dynasty, and tried to use the Three Kingdoms turmoil during the Sui and Tang dynasties (Goguryeo, Silla, and Baekje) to give Goryeo a national and ethnic concept... Of course, he was a little worried and frightened at this time.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
