Emperor at home, king abroad
Emperor at home, king abroad was a system of conducting relations between states within the Chinese cultural sphere. Rulers of lesser regimes would adopt the title of emperor (皇帝; or other equivalents) and/or other imperial titles domestically, and adopt the title of king (王; or other equivalents) when dealing with the dominant Chinese regime. Instead of using the styles Imperial Majesty and Majesty (陛下), rulers of lesser realms were styled as Highness (殿下). This system was applicable to Japan, Korea and Vietnam, as well as less powerful Chinese states, among others.
| Emperor at home, king abroad | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chinese name | |||||||
| Chinese | 外王内帝 | ||||||
| Literal meaning | externally wáng, internally dì | ||||||
| |||||||
| Vietnamese name | |||||||
| Vietnamese alphabet | Ngoại Vương Nội Đế | ||||||
| Chữ Hán | 外王內帝 | ||||||
| Korean name | |||||||
| Hangul | 외왕내제 | ||||||
| Hanja | 外王內帝 | ||||||
| Japanese name | |||||||
| Kanji | 外王内帝 | ||||||
| Hiragana | がいおうないてい | ||||||
As China was a hegemonic power in East Asia for a large part of history, surrounding states were compelled to pay tribute to Chinese emperors in exchange for peace and political legitimacy. In this system, lesser regimes accepted the suzerainty of the dominant Chinese power and acknowledged the Chinese emperor as their nominal overlord. Since Chinese emperors claimed to be the Son of Heaven and held supremacy over all under Heaven, rulers of lesser regimes were to use titles subordinate to emperor. The same doctrine also maintained that there could only be one emperor at any given time.