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7. Weight and Nuances in State Letters
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7 Weight and Nuances in State Letters During the third month of 608, Emperor Yang (r. 605–618) arrived at his audience hall in a good mood to receive ambassadors from Paekche, Japan,1 Chitu (on the Malaysian peninsula), and Jialuoshe (in western Thailand).2 Emperor Yang, the second ruler of the Sui dynasty (581–618), considered the ambassadors’ visits to be the initial results of the active foreign policies he had adopted immediately after ascending the throne—policies whose purpose was the restoration of China’s predominance in Asia. China had enjoyed that predominance during Western Han times but had lost it when the Eastern Han dynasty fell in 220, a fall that cast the long shadow of political disunity over China for the next three centuries. Nevertheless, by the early seventh century China again enjoyed economic prosperity, political unity, and strong military potential. Emperor Yang believed the time was ripe to recover that lost Han glory. With the help of his highest-ranking ministers , he conceived a grand strategy of diplomatic maneuvers and military operations in hopes of realizing his ambition.3 In the northwest, the Sui targeted the Western Turks. Pei Ju, a chief foreign policy adviser to Emperor Yang, shuttled between Wuwei and Zhangye (both located in present-day Gansu province) in the attempt to persuade local tribal chieftains to sever their ties with the Turks. Pei urged them to dispatch ambassadors or to come in person to China, promising them lavish gifts from the Sui court once they had arrived. The court hoped that these valuable gifts would lure them to transfer their loyalty from the Turks to the Sui. Further, to enhance Sui influence in the Western Region, Emperor Yang, himself, toured the northwestern frontiers in 607. There he received Yami (Qimin) Qaghan, the leader of the Eastern Turks, who were the Western Turks’ rivals. These efforts paid off. During the next year, the king of Karakhoja (Gaochang) and chieftains from as many as thirty tribes traveled to the Sui court to establish official ties with China.4 In the northeast, Emperor Yang attempted to subjugate Koguryô. Previously, in 598, Koguryô troops had defeated a Sui expeditionary force, a major military setback for the Sui court that had deeply humil- iated the first Sui emperor. Emperor Yang wanted to settle this old score with Koguryô for his father. It so happened that while touring the northwestern frontiers, he learned from Yami Qaghan that a Koguryô ambassador was staying at the qaghan’s headquarters. Summoning the ambassador, Emperor Yang directed him: “Quickly return home and inform your king that he should come to pay tribute soon. Otherwise, Yami Qaghan and I shall tour his territories!”5 These were not empty words. A quickly assembled force of over one million Sui soldiers conducted three massive military operations in Korea none of which succeeded and all of which would eventually contribute to the fall of the Sui dynasty. In 605, in the South and the Southeast, the adventurous Sui court marched troops to Champa (in central and southern Vietnam) and established three military colonies.6 In addition, in order to look for countries unknown to the court, a low-ranking Sui commandant sailed in 607 to the South China Sea. He arrived at Liuqiu (a spot probably located somewhere in Taiwan, the Philippines, or the southern Japanese islands) and tried to coerce the local ruler into political submission to the Sui court. However, the only tribute he was able to bring back to the Sui ruler was a captured local tribesman. The following year he again traveled to Liuqiu. This time he came home with only a suit of cloth armor.7 In spite of such meager “tribute,” the Sui initiatives in the region proved fruitful. Of the four ambassadors whom Emperor Yang would receive in the third month of 608, two came from Southeast Asia. The emperor considered their visits sufficient evidence that Sui China was regaining the predominance in Asia he desired. This conviction, however , was proved to be but an illusion at Emperor Yang’s reception of the Japanese ambassador. A Letter from the Son of Heaven in the Land of the Rising Sun The audience with Ono no Imoko, the Japanese ambassador, began smoothly enough. Imoko charmed his host by praising Emperor Yang as “a bodhisattva of the sovereign west of the ocean” who “reveres and promotes Buddhism” and by telling the complacent emperor that the flourishing of Buddhism in China had prompted...