Joseon-period Confucian doctrines do not stop at the nation's boundary but also inform a foreign policy known as "serving the great" (sadae), meaning China.

Joseon lives within China's world order, radiating outward from Zhongguo (the Middle Kingdom) to associated states, of which Korea is the most important.

It is China's little brother, a model tributary state, and in many ways the most important of China's allies.

Koreans revere things Chinese, and China responds by being for the most part a good neighbor, giving more than it takes away.

Exercising a light-handed suzerainty, China assumes that enlightened Koreans will follow it without being forced.

Absolutely convinced of its own superiority, China indulges in a policy that might be called benign neglect of things Korean, thereby allowing Korea substantive autonomy as a nation.