China's Hegemony is a jewel of a book. Utterly clear-headed, it deals with a broad swath of history by focusing on carefully selected episodes. Its overall argument is compelling.
Peter J. Katzenstein, Cornell University In this refreshing study of the tribute system, Ji-Young Lee adopts an interactive approach. The system may have allowed China to set norms and assert ... Read moreregional hegemony, but the compliance of lesser states was contingent upon their domestic politics-and served to hold China to account. By looking at the other side of the tribute relationship, Lee moves us past the current logjam between cultural and realist explanations of Chinese diplomacy.
Timothy Brook, author of The Troubled Empire: China in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties China's Hegemony makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the Sinocentric tribute system. Contrary to explanations that focus on China's material power, Lee shows how Korean and Japanese rulers, to varying degrees, sought to enhance their domestic legitimization by seeking the approval of the Chinese emperors. By symbolic submission and reciprocal recognition, they enhanced their own domestic standing but also simultaneously reinforced the hierarchy that placed the Chinese empire at the apex of this system.
Hendrik Spruyt, author of The Sovereign State and Its Competitors: An Analysis of Systems Change Lee makes a powerful and new argument about an important issue. She provides a wealth of new information about how Korea and Japan dealt with China over four hundred years. This book will be a major contribution to scholarly debates about hierarchy, hegemony, and historical East Asian international relations.
David C. Kang, author of East Asia Before the West: Five Centuries of Trade and Tribute Show Less