UCLA

Scholarship and opinion on the history of international borders have tended to think of them as modern institutions that originated in Europe and were imposed globally through colonial expansion in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Historians, moreover, have focused predominantly on the process of border genesis. My study of the China-Vietnam border in the seventeenth and eighteenth century takes a different tack. The subject of my study is an international border in Asia that existed well before significant European involvement in the region and, in fact, well before the period covered in this study. Rather than border genesis, my interest is in the nature of a pre-European, pre-nineteenth century border in Asia and how this “old” border changes over time.

This dissertation is structured chronologically as well as thematically. In my chapters, I trace the evolution of the China-Vietnam border in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in three aspects: diplomatic relations, local society in the borderlands, and border governance. In varied measure, the chapters reflect three perspectives, namely the view from the two courts, the view from local and translocal society, and the view from state representatives on active service in diplomacy and the border.

To reflect these various perspectives, I have combined the use of conventional as well as underused sources. In addition to the familiar court chronicles such as the Chinese Shilu and the Vietnamese Dai Viet Su Ky Toan Thu, I have mobilized embassy accounts, a tusi-domain local gazetteers, and Vietnamese local history sources such as local gazetteers and temple inscriptions to complicate and enrich my narrative.

In contrast to many studies of premodern international relations in East Asia, I argue here for the significance of horizontal, lateral dimensions within a hierarchical, asymmetric diplomatic relations. Specifically, I argue that border governance became a crucial area of common interest and collaboration between the Chinese and Vietnamese courts. Moreover, border governance and regulation of transborder movement grew in importance not only as a result of court policy, but also in relation to change in local society and crises in the neighboring state.