[2023-05-16]Reddit评论区：为什么古代的中国没有像欧洲人那样，在强大的时候殖民世界？

CHITOWN8
The goal of a Confucian society is to achieve peace and harmony within the nation. In general, once rulers consolidated power to form a new dynasty, there was no interest in subjugating neighbors by force—only tributes as a sign of reverence were required.
The ultimate goal is to achieve and maintain the Chinese idiom ("Live & work in peace & contentment"), or direct translation "peaceful living happy work". This attitude is much different from Western empires that wanted world domination.

儒家社会的目标是实现国家内部的和平与和谐。一般来说，一旦统治者巩固了权力，形成了新的王朝，就没有兴趣通过武力征服邻国了——只需要进贡作为尊敬的标志。
最终目标是实现和保持中国成语中的“安居乐业”。这种态度与想要统治世界的西方帝国大不相同。

meido_zgs
Well let's first ask why the Europeans did do that. The general explanation I've heard is that the Ottomans made East-West trade more difficult (I think they demanded a huge tax or something). In response, the Europeans started frantically looking for alternative trade routes to India and China. This resulted in them discovering lots of land, which they then decided to exploit. So why didn't India and China do the same? My guess is that we were less dependant on their goods, so we were satisfied as is. I think Asia itself had enough wealth already.

首先，让我们问问欧洲人为什么要这么做。我听到的一般解释是，奥斯曼帝国使东西方贸易更加困难(我认为他们要求巨额税收之类的)。作为回应，欧洲人开始疯狂地寻找通往印度和中国的替代贸易路线。这导致他们发现了大量的土地，然后决定开发这些土地。那么，为什么印度和中国没有这样做呢？我的猜测是，我们不太依赖他们的货物，所以对现状很满意。或许那时亚洲本身已经拥有足够的财富了。

izaak-d
Im not sure how accurate this is but I read while ago that the Ming dynasty destroyed their massive fleet of ships because the emperor was worried the merchant class was becoming to powerful

我不确定这是否准确，但我不久前读到过，明朝摧毁了他们庞大的船队，因为皇帝担心商人阶级变得越来越强

Sartorial_Groot -> izaak-d
The landowning bureaucrats who passed the imperial exams also had a game in the trades and was afraid of Ming emperor taxing them. Somehow, they were able to convince the emperor to give up on sea faring + merchants. Compared to Southern Song w only 1/2 of the Ming territory that thrived on commerce, Ming had very limited taxes, that came into play at the end of Ming when they couldn’t pay their troops to fight against rebels internally and the Manchus from NE

通过科举考试的地主官僚们也在贸易中耍花招，害怕明朝皇帝向他们征税。不知怎么的，他们说服了皇帝放弃航海和商人。与南宋相比，明朝只有1/2的领土依靠商业繁荣起来，明朝的税收非常有限，这一点在明末开始产生了影响，他们无法支付军队对抗国内叛军与东北的满族。

theycallmerondaddy -> izaak-d
The book to read is "When China Ruled The Seas"

需要阅读的书是《当中国统治海洋》

ghepzz
nothing of interest outside during that time, before the industrial revolution, not interested in Gold, i remember they did bring a Giraffe to the emperor

在工业革命之前的那段时间里，他们对外界不感兴趣，对黄金不感兴趣，我记得有人带了一头长颈鹿给皇帝。

theycallmerondaddy -> ghepzz
From Kenya I believe.

我想是从肯尼亚带来的。

ghepzz -> theycallmerondaddy
not so sure, but i bet the emperor was happy. They did it with a super big fleet

不太确定，但我打赌皇帝一定很高兴。他们派出了一支超大的舰队

zobaleh
Chinese civilization started in the Yellow River, so there is no way it reached (or maintained) its present size without military means.
Part of the reason we don't hear about this side of Chinese history too much is simply because Chinese history is poorly understood in the West in general.
Another reason is that China generally did not seek expansion as a means onto itself. China did not have a dominant Abrahamic religion that compelled spreading the faith to all corners. Its state ideology demanded that rulers benefit the people and not bring them harm. Combined with the intense difficulties of governing a large populous area with premodern means and it just was not feasible to mobilize for anything other than defense.
This contrasts with Europe in which Europe for the most part was the most removed from the lucrative Eurasian trade. At one point monopolized by the Venetians and the Genoese, one of many reasons for the launch of the Renaissance in Italy of all places, once the Ottomans seized control of the Crimea, the Levant, and Egypt as well as turned the Eastern Mediterranean into its backyard pond, the Europeans were completely cut off from the Eurasian trade. Thus the voyages of exploration, to find a way around the Ottomans to Asia. When they landed on a different continent instead, it created powerful incentives to race to expand.
Another reason is that in many cases the way China "expanded" was through "diplomacy".
Present day China considers 1247, the year of the Liangzhou Alliance, as the beginning of China's sovereignty over Tibet. It basically was an ultimatum by the Mongols for Tibet to submit to the Empire.
In many cases, China merely enfeoffed local hereditary leaders, especially in the Southwest. These were called enfeoffed locals. Later however, starting in the 18th century, they engaged in reforms called "reforming enfeoffed locals into the mainstream", basically revoking hereditary rights from these local leaders. In this way, wide swaths of the Southwest became firmly part of China's sovereignty, mostly without mass bloodshed.
In many other cases, such as today's Xishuangbanna on the border with Myanmar and Taxkorgan on the border with Pakistan, the Qing merely asked for formal submission but otherwise left the locals alone. The Qing would come to the defense of the Shi'a Nizari Tajiks of Taxkorgan against the fundamentalist Yaqub Beg, who launched an almost-successful invasion of Xinjiang from today's Uzbekistan/Kyrgyzstan, making Taxkorgan firmly part of Qing's sovereignty. Likewise, disputes between the local notables of Xishuangbanna often required Qing intervention, again cementing Qing's sovereignty in the region.
In sum, (1) there were colonies ran by the Chinese in limited circumstances, and China's military prowess is necessary to explain its current large land area under its jurisdiction; (2) state ideology and lack of incentives for extensive and expensive expansion overseas, and; (3) the way China expanded was often through "diplomacy" - China was simply too powerful and rich to resist, even joining it was too attractive a prospect to just pass up. Why raid for the short-term when you could join a system that promised long-term prosperity?

中华文明发源于黄河，所以如果没有军事手段，它不可能达到(或保持)现在的规模。
我们很少听到关于中国历史这一面的部分原因，仅仅是因为西方对中国历史了解甚少。
另一个原因是，中国通常不寻求扩张作为一种手段。中国没有一个占主导地位的亚伯拉罕宗教，迫使信仰传播到各个角落。它的国家意识形态要求统治者造福人民而不是伤害人民。再加上用前现代手段治理一个人口众多的地区极其困难，除了防御以外，动员其他任何东西都是不可行的。
这与欧洲形成了鲜明的对比，大部分欧洲地区都远离利润丰厚的欧亚贸易。一度被威尼斯人和热那亚人垄断，这也是意大利文艺复兴运动兴起的众多原因之一，一旦奥斯曼人控制了克里米亚、黎凡特和埃及，并把东地中海变成了它的后院池塘，欧洲人就完全与欧亚贸易隔绝了。于是就有了探险之旅，绕过奥斯曼帝国去往亚洲。当他们登陆到另一个大陆时，就产生了强大的动机促使他们竞相扩张。
另一个原因是，在许多情况下，中国的“扩张”是通过“外交”实现的。
今天的中国把1247年定为中国对西藏拥有主权的开始，即凉州会盟的一年。这基本上是蒙古人向西藏发出的最后通牒，要求其臣服于帝国。在许多情况下，中国只是分封地方世袭领袖，尤其是在西南地区。这些人被称为土司。但后来，从18世纪开始，他们进行了名为 "改土归流 "的改革，基本上取消了这些地方领袖的世袭权利。通过这种方式，西南地区的大片土地就成为了中国主权的坚实组成部分，而且大多没有发生大规模流血事件。
在很多其他情况下，例如今天与缅甸接壤的西双版纳，以及与巴基斯坦接壤的塔什库尔干，清政府只是要求正式归顺，其他方面则不会干涉当地人。清政府将为塔什库尔干的什叶派尼扎里塔吉克人提供保护，反对原教旨主义者雅库布·贝格，后者从今天的乌兹别克斯坦/吉尔吉斯斯坦差点成功入侵了新疆，因此塔什库尔干成为清政府主权的一部分。同样的，西双版纳当地名流之间的争端也往往需要清政府的干预，这再次巩固了清政府在该地区的主权。
总而言之：
(1)在有限的情况下，中国有过殖民地，中国的军事实力是解释其目前管辖下的大片土地的必要条件；
(2)国家意识形态，缺乏广泛而昂贵的海外扩张的动机；
(3)中国的扩张方式往往是通过“外交”方面——中国实在是太强、太富有了，根本无法拒绝，甚至加入中国的前景太诱人了，让人无法拒绝。当你可以加入一个承诺长期繁荣的体系时，为什么还要为短期利益冒险呢？

sickof50 -> zobaleh
Even the journey of Maro Polo is in huge dispute in Academic circles, now only to be believed that he never made it to China, and only got his info from trader's.

甚至连马可波罗的游记也在学术界引起了巨大的争议，现在人们只相信他从未去过中国，只是从商人那里得到了信息。

RespublicaCuriae
Well, western colonialism was partly inspired from the Doctrine of Discovery by the Catholic Church.

西方殖民主义的部分灵感来自天主教会的“发现原则”。

jorvis_nonof -> RespublicaCuriae
Western colonialism dates back much further than even the founding of the Catholic Church.
The Phoenicians (from present-day Syria and Lebanon) colonised Libya (Carthage) and southern Spain since around 800 BC.
The ancient Greeks established colonies in Italy, southern France, and southern Spain.
The Vandals (from present-day Germany) colonised Libya and Sicily as well.

西方殖民主义甚至比天主教会的建立还要早得多。
腓尼基人(来自今天的叙利亚和黎巴嫩)自公元前800年左右，就开始殖民利比亚(迦太基)和西班牙南部。
古希腊人在意大利、法国南部和西班牙南部建立了殖民地。
汪达尔人(来自今天的德国)也殖民了利比亚和西西里。

xerotul
Few factors why the Chinese didn't go around the world for plunder, massacre, subjugation, conquest, exploitation, and colonization.
Throughout most dynasties, they were self-sufficient.
Chinese culture emphasizes peace and harmony. Changan, capital of several dynasties, means "long or forever peace", and modern name Xian "western peace". Beijing was one time name Beiping or "northern peace". There are many places and monuments in China which promote peace and harmony. The Great Wall is the biggest monument symbolizing Chinese non-violent approach to hostile outsiders.
During the Ming dynasty, Zheng He exploration could had changed the course of history, instead the Ming spent building most of what we see as the Great Wall. Since Zheng He was a Muslim, this influenced him to head towards west Asia to Mecca. His voyages were costly and his returns showed no benefit for Ming officials. Ming officials might had thought differently if Zheng He sailed northward and discovered the Americas.
For Europe, advancement in ship building allowed Europeans to sail farther. Instead of trying to conquer each other, there were places beyond Europe easier to conquer. Spain started in 1402 with conquest of the Canary Islands. During this period, Europeans had known about the Far East and China through tales and products such as silk, porcelain and tea. With the invention of the printing press, books became widely accessible like fictional Marco Polo book which embellish China's great wealth. However, the Ottoman Empire was in the way, and Europeans needed other routes in order to bypass. Portugal and Spain tried to go around Africa. Columbus tried westward route to reach China.

以下是为什么中国人没有去世界各地进行掠夺、屠杀、征服、剥削和殖民的几个因素。
在大多数朝代，他们都是自给自足的。
中国文化强调和平与和谐。长安，是几个朝代的首都，意味着“长久或永远的和平”，现代名称西安是“西部和平”。北京曾一度被称为北平或“北方和平”。中国有许多促进和平与和谐的地方和纪念碑。长城是最大的纪念碑，象征着中国以非暴力的方式对待敌对的外来者。
在明朝，郑和的探险本可以改变历史的进程，但明朝却花了很多时间建造我们如今看到的长城。由于郑和是穆斯林，这促使了他前往西亚的麦加。他的航行成本高昂，而且他的归来也没有给明朝官员带来任何好处。如果郑和向北航行，发现了美洲，明朝官员可能会有不同的想法了。
对欧洲来说，造船技术的进步使得欧洲人能够航行得更远。与其试图征服对方，欧洲以外的地方更容易被征服。西班牙于1402年开始征服加那利群岛。在此期间，欧洲人通过故事和产品，如丝绸，瓷器和茶叶，了解了远东和中国。随着印刷机的发明，书籍变得普及，像虚构的马可波罗游记，美化了中国的巨大财富。然而，奥斯曼帝国挡住了去路，欧洲人需要其他的路线来绕过它。葡萄牙和西班牙试图绕过非洲。哥伦布试图向西到达中国。

Portablela
Simple, China has land, Europeans do not. Most Colonial empires (Portuguese/Spanish/Dutch/British etc.) started out land-scarce, resource-starved and life was cheap on the European continent. What this mean is that they were desperate for land (Trade is just an excuse).
So like thieves, once they see an unguarded abundance, they take it or in this case colonize and drive out the Natives. They can't do it in Europe or in the Levant/Volga where the Regional Powers are too well-established and strong militarily to subjugate so they had to go farther by sea to exploit the natives who were not as well-armed.
Unlike these colonial empires, China already had a network of tributaries and trade links since Ancient times that stretched from SEA to Africa to the Levant. There is no real incentive nor impetus for them to go on a maritime offensive or expansion. Proto-industrial revolution China wasn't resource-starved nor lacked land at least not in the way Western Europe was.
There was also the Dovish Anti-war faction that existed in China since time immemorial that actively sabotages these attempts.

很简单，中国有土地，欧洲没有。大多数殖民帝国(葡萄牙/西班牙/荷兰/英国等)在欧洲大陆上最初都是土地稀缺，资源匮乏，生活水平落后。这就意味着他们迫切需要土地（贸易只是借口）。
所以就像小偷一样，一旦他们看到了不设防的丰富资源，他们就会拿走，或者在这种情况下开拓殖民地，把原住民赶出去。他们不能在欧洲或者在黎凡特/伏尔加地区这样做，因为这些地区势力和军事力量太强大，所以他们不得不走更远的海路，去剥削那些装备不那么精良的原住民。
与这些殖民帝国不同，中国自古以来就有从东南亚到非洲再到黎凡特的朝贡和贸易网络。他们没有真正的动机或动力去进行海上进攻或扩张。工业革命前的中国并不像西欧那样缺乏资源，也不缺少土地。
还有自古以来就存在于中国的鸽派反战派，他们积极地破坏这些尝试。

skyanvil
Because Chinese rulers understood from Daoist and Confucius teachings, that it is nearly impossible to keep control of distant land filled with people who are very different in culture.
Also risks becoming corrupted by chaos abroad, while costing the people of China great expense just to maintain the colonies.
Additionally, China had very early advancements in agriculture, and thus was extremely self-sufficient. (This was actually 1 main reason why China itself was constantly threatened by invasions and raids from barbarians).

因为中国的统治者从道家和孔子的教义中明白，要控制那些文化迥异的遥远国度几乎是不可能的。
还有可能被国外的混乱腐蚀，仅仅为了维持这些殖民地中国人就得付出巨大的代价。
此外，中国在农业方面很早就取得了进步，因此非常自给自足。(这实际上是中国自身经常受到野蛮人入侵和袭击威胁的主要原因之一)。

meido_zgs
I'm not sure how true this is, but I've heard an opinion that China was already on the brink of an industrial revolution in the Song dynasty, but it got cut short by the Mongol invasion.

我不确定这是不是真的，但我听说过一种观点，认为中国在宋朝已经处于工业革命的边缘了，但由于蒙古人的入侵打断了中国的工业革命。

MeiXue_TianHe
Without all the rose tinted views and "retroactively" applying modern values to ancient societies, the answer is simple; to do that you need a combination of advanced sailing techniques, a huge seaborne trade network, some sort of mercantile society that sees such ventures as profitable, and means to fund it.
China had all of those during the Song, but it was always pressed down by massive civilizations bogging it down and eventually fell. The Ming had its shots but conservatism took its way and the Qing was already born into such mentality.
Post Song neo-confucianism, disdain for trade, diminished role of merchants and the lack of proper institutions justify.
Same can be said about post Toyotomi Sengoku era Japan.
The lack of real global trade severed inputs of knowledge and given its exponential growth after the modern printing press and scientific revolution, China slept to woke up to a Western dominated globe.

没有那些玫瑰色的观点和“追溯性地”将现代价值观套用于古代社会，答案很简单；要做到这一点，你需要结合先进的航海技术，庞大的海上贸易网络，以及某种认为这种冒险有利可图的商业社会，并为其提供资金。
宋朝时期，中国拥有所有这些，但它总是被庞大的文明所压制，最终陷入困境走向衰落。明朝有过机会，但是保守主义占了上风，而清朝已经生来就是这种心态。
后宋理学，轻视贸易，弱化商人的作用，缺乏适当的制度都证明了这一点。
后丰臣氏时代的日本也是如此。
缺乏真正的全球贸易，切断了知识的输入，鉴于现代印刷术和科学革命之后的指数增长，中国从沉睡中醒来，面对的是一个西方主导的世界。

maomao05
Europeans wanted land... not the ppl

欧洲人想要土地... 而不是人民

jorvis_nonof
China did have capitalism; even long before Europe did. Joint-stock companies (i.e. investment-based ownership, the foundation of capitalism) existed in China long before they did in Europe. In the Tang dynasty they had one or two investors and one manager, but by the time of the Song dynasty there were very large pools of investors with one manager employed by them - basically, like investors, board, and CEO.
Europe didn't have any investor-owned companies until 1350. This only happened after Marco Polo's journeys, so it's possible that capitalism was learned from China in the first place.

中国确实有资本主义，甚至早于欧洲。股份公司(即投资型所有制，资本主义的基础)早在欧洲之前就存在于中国。在唐朝，他们是一两名投资者和一个经理人，但到了宋朝，投资者人数非常庞大，而只雇佣一个经理人——基本上就是投资者、董事会和首席执行官(CEO)。
欧洲直到1350年才出现投资者拥有的公司。这只发生在马可波罗的旅行之后，所以资本主义有可能是从中国那里学来的。

__Tenat__
Since China has capitalism now, why don't they do it now? Like how the US government coups and installs puppets.

既然中国现在有了资本主义，为什么他们不现在就这么做呢？就像美国政府那样做的，发动政变和安插傀儡。

thrower_wei -> __Tenat__
China went directly from feudalism to socialism. There is a capitalist character, but it is subordinate to the socialist character. This allows China to plan beyond short-term profits. China knows that imperialism might boost short-term profits, but would destroy goodwill and leave them vulnerable to imperial decline. By building domestic productive forces and making genuine friends instead of vassals, they are laying the foundation for long-term prosperity and stability.

中国直接从封建主义走向了社会主义。虽然有资本主义性质，但它是从属于社会主义的性质。这使中国能够在短期利润之外进行规划。中国知道，帝国主义可能会提高短期利润，但会破坏信誉，容易受到帝国衰落的影响。通过建设国内生产力，结交真正的朋友而不是附庸，他们正在为长期的繁荣稳定奠定基础。

Qanonjailbait -> __Tenat__
Because they’re socialist and not of the nationalist kind

因为他们是社会主义，而不是民族主义那种

Low_M_H
This only my opinion
China has been a centralize bureaucratic form of government with the emperor at the pinnacle end since Qin dynasty. In such government system, the ability to transmit the government policy down to the lowest governing hierarchy is very important. China has always expanded to the limit that the communication technology allows during that period. So, there is in a way a limitation on how far the furthest lowest governing hierarchy can be from the governing center. Also, the further away from the governing center, the higher cost of governing will be.
Ancient China economy has always been a form of smallholder economy. Each village is in a way self-sufficient. Chinese philosophy encourages such stable structure and the government always suppress merchants from gaining political power in order to maintain smallholder economy. As such there is much less drive in both the society and government to colonize other area for dumping excess produce goods or exploiting resource for trade.
Unlike in Europe, agriculture is always more dominant than trade in China. China has always been a dominantly an agriculture civilization and way of life even form of government has been evolved around it. As such, Chinese rarely migrate to area with less than 400mm rainfall area or area that is non four seasonal. Basically, throughout history, China has already encompass all reachable area that fit the above descr1ption.
As an agriculture civilization, the cost of invasion is always higher than nomadic or trader base civilizations. As such, plundering and short term occupation is never considered as a good move throughout China history

这只是我的观点。
自秦朝以来，中国一直是一个中央集权的官僚政府，皇帝位于最高层。在这样的政府系统中，能否将政府政策传递到最底层的治理结构是非常重要的。在这一时期，中国一直在通信技术允许的范围内扩张。因此，在某种程度上，最底层的治理层级离治理中心的距离是有限制的。而且，离治理中心越远，治理的成本就越高。
中国古代经济一直是小农经济的一种形式。每个村庄在某种程度上都是自给自足的。中国哲学鼓励这种稳定的结构，政府总是抑制商人获得政治权力，以维持小农经济。因此，无论是社会还是政府，都很少有动力去殖民其他地区，倾销多余的农产品或开发资源进行贸易。
与欧洲不同，在中国，农业总是比贸易更重要。中国一直是一个以农业文明为主的国家，生活方式甚至政府形式都是围绕着农业文明发展起来的。因此，中国人很少迁移到降雨量少于400毫米的地区或非四季的地区。基本上，纵观历史，中国已经涵盖了所有符合上述描述的可触及区域。
作为一种农业文明，入侵的代价往往高于游牧文明或商业文明。因此，在整个中国历史上，掠夺和短期占领从来都不被认为是明智之举。

unclecaramel
Easy because it was fundementally pointless to do so. Remeber china was the source of tea proclean and silk. The rest of the world had nothing to offer to china pre industrialization.
People need to remember that one of the reasonwest started exploring, was because thr silk road acces were block by the arab because the west own barbarism. This led them wanting to find another routr to china. Why do you think they call the native americans indians?

很简单，因为这样做根本毫无意义。要知道，中国是茶叶和丝绸的来源。工业化之前，世界其他国家没有什么可以提供给中国的。
人们需要记住，西方开始探索的原因之一，是由于西方自己的野蛮，导致丝绸之路被阿拉伯人封锁。这让他们想找到另一条去中国的路线。你觉得他们为什么把美洲原住民称为“印第安人(Indians)”？

PerspectiveParking59
According to Google's Bard "There are a number of reasons why ancient China did not colonize the world, like how the Europeans did, when they were powerful.
Geography: China is a large and populous country, with a long history of cultural and economic development. It is surrounded by mountains and deserts, which made it difficult for foreign invaders to reach its heartland. This gave China a sense of security and self-sufficiency, which made it less likely to seek out colonies.
Culture: The Chinese have a long tradition of Confucianism, which emphasizes the importance of harmony and order. This made them less interested in conquest and expansion, and more interested in developing their own culture and civilization.
Technology: China was a technological leader for much of its history. However, it did not develop the same kind of military technology as the Europeans, which made it more difficult for them to colonize other countries.
Economics: China was a wealthy country with a strong economy. This made it less reliant on colonies for resources, and more likely to focus on trade and commerce.
These are just some of the reasons why ancient China did not colonize the world. It is important to remember that history is complex, and there is no single answer to this question. "

据谷歌Bard的说法：“古代中国没有像欧洲人那样，在他们强大的时候殖民世界，有很多原因。
地理：中国是一个人口众多的大国，有着悠久的文化和经济发展历史。它被群山和沙漠环绕，这使得外国入侵者很难到达它的中心地带。这给了中国一种安全感和自给自足感，使其不太可能寻找殖民地。
文化： 中国有着悠久的儒家传统，强调和谐与秩序的重要性。这使得他们对征服和扩张不那么感兴趣，而对发展自己的文化和文明更感兴趣。
技术：中国在其历史上的大部分时间里都是技术领先者。然而，它没有发展出与欧洲人相同的军事技术，这使得他们更难以殖民其他国家。
经济：中国是一个经济实力雄厚的富裕国家。这使得它不太依赖殖民地的资源，而更可能专注于贸易和商业。
这些只是古代中国没有殖民世界的部分原因。重要的是要记住，历史是复杂的，这个问题没有单一的回答。”

Bchliu
It kinda has a slightly different system to colonialism - tributary system from neighbouring countries like Japan/ Korea/ Vietnam etc where the kingdoms would remain "independent" but will provide levies and taxes back into China that way along with consistent trade. They would have some political influence on the other countries, but not quite the same as European colonialism.

它的体系与殖民主义略有不同——与领国的朝贡体系，比如日本、朝鲜、越南等，这些王国将保持“独立”，但会以朝贡的方式向中国提供税收，同时保持贸易往来。他们会对其他国家产生一些政治影响，但与欧洲的殖民主义不太一样。

meido_zgs -> Bchliu
It's significantly different. China give back return gifts that were even greater that their tribute, to show off superior wealth.

区别非常大，中国回馈的礼物甚至比他们的贡品还要多，以展示他们的财富。