Dr Ming Tak Ted Hui (University of Oxford)

The relationship between the Mongol Yuan dynasty and the Kingdom of Annam (northern Vietnam) in the 13th and 14th centuries was previously believed to have been defined by the tributary system of foreign relations inherited from preceding Chinese dynasties. While scholars are aware of the necessity to incorporate historical accounts from Annam when discussing the diplomatic relations of the period, there is less emphasis on how these diplomatic relationships were represented by documents crafted in accordance with Chinese literary conventions. This presentation argues that Chinese linguistic conventions determined how foreign relations were negotiated and recorded, creating an illusion of continuity that ignores the multilingual dimension of the Mongol Empire.