History Memes

Explanation: In the period of Imperial China, many outlying states were accustomed to sending tribute to the Chinese Emperor. Rather than being solely monetarily important, it was more symbolic - by sending tribute, they acknowledged the Chinese Emperor as their overlord, and China as their rightful ruler. However, during the Ming Dynasty, the Chinese Emperor was expected (by the Chinese court) to send back a gift (consisting of CHINESE goods) that was GREATER than the value of the tribute - in order to demonstrate to the LESSER BARBARIANS the GLORY and MAGNIFICIENCE of China!

... some of the brighter vassal states caught on and started sending constant tribute, resulting in the secretaries of the Emperor demanding they only send annual tribute instead of "Whenever we feel like", as was the previous standard.

Oh, fascinating. This gives context to my latest Crusader Kings 3 campaign with the "All Under Heaven" DLC. I was playing as a Bengali suzerain rather than a Chinese one, but whenever I demanded that a tributary pay tribute, I was unpleasantly surprised to find that most of the reciprocal gifts I could offer cost more than I gained. 😭

But sometimes I could get away with sharing technological secrets instead of a tangible gift, which cost me nothing and helped their culture progress toward an innovation that mine had already discovered. Any historical basis to that?