明代外交观念的演进

——明太祖诏令文书所见之天下国家观

万明

提要：根据明太祖诏令文书，对明朝初年外交观念进行初步考察，明太祖外交观念的基础不是建立在广义的天下观上，而是建立在国家观上。尽管王朝初建时，也有天下主身份与形象展现，但是在现实中则更多地定位于大国之君。这说明在明朝统治者的认识中，天下国家已经重新定位：从一元天下到多元国家，从天下主到大国之君。所谓从“天下”缩变为“中国”的过程就这样开始了。从传统帝国天下观到国家观，观念重构的过程，也就是历史转折的过程，标志了传统帝国逐步向近代国家转型的趋向。

关键词：明代

诏令 外交 天下 国家

Title:The Vicissitude of the Ming Diplomatic

Reflected by the Imperial Edicts of Ming Taizu

Author:Wan Ming, Research Professor, Institute of

History, the Social Science Academy of China, Beijing,

100732, China

Abstract:According

to the imperial edicts tostudy the diplomatic conception of the early

Ming period, it is clear that Emperor Taizu’s idea of

diplomacy was not based upon the general conceptTianxia(天下，all

underneath the heaven, meaning the whole world) , but

rather, it was based on the concept of state. Although in

the beginning of the Ming dynasty, Emperor Taxis indeed

expressed the tendency of identify himself as the common

ruler of the world, but in reality, he actually positioned

himself as a ruler of a great nation. This suggests that in

the mind of the Ming rulers, the concepts ofTianxiaand state had been repositioned. The general direction of

this change was from a holistic world to a multi-nation

world. The historical significance of this change is that it

signaled the transition of China from a traditional empire

to a modern state.

Key words:Ming

dynasty edicts diplomacy Tianxia nation state