A letter of credence is a letter submitted by a country when sending an ambassador to another country.

Most of what is written in the credentials is to express the intention of coming, or to serve as some letters of introduction. Sometimes it is a document that is negotiated simultaneously between two countries when dealing with each other.

At the same time, letters of credence can also be used as a written letter signed by the leader of the country and submitted to the leader of the country where the ambassador is located when a country dispatches or recalls its own ambassador or envoy.

In the records of our historical material "Sui Shu·Dongyi Zhuan·Japanese Kingdom", it is written that "in the third year of Daye, his king Dorisbi sent an envoy to pay tribute... His national book said: 'The sun rises from The emperor wrote a letter, "The emperor is safe and sound"

This is the letter of credence that was actually recorded in history. It can be seen from its content that the letter of credence is mostly used to communicate the diplomacy between the two countries. , most of them express goodwill.

It was recorded in "History of the Yuan Dynasty Shizu Ji III": "Hei, the Minister of the Ministry of War, and Yin Hong, the Minister of the Ministry of Rites, were ordered to return to Japan with the credential." This shows that in history, the credential was exchanged with each other. This is also a way to visit other countries.

When it came to the Qing Dynasty, there was also a record of his credentials in the Qing history manuscript: "Henry, Prince of Germany, came to the throne and handed over his credentials, and the emperor expressed condolences to him."

At the time of the Qing Dynasty The German prince came to our country as an envoy and brought Germany's credentials in order to establish diplomatic relations with our country. It is also to enable smooth travel to and from our country.

However, there are two types of credentials in history, one is sending credentials and the other is recalling credentials.

First of all, let’s talk about the letter of credence. This letter of credence is a diplomatic document submitted by the ambassador or minister of another country to the national leader of that country.

According to historical records, envoys who generally conduct diplomacy can only be formally received by the leader of that country after submitting documents from their own country, thus playing their diplomatic role.

If envoys from two countries come to submit documents at the same time, the order of reception will be arranged according to the time order of submission of documents from that country.

Recalling letters of credence and sending letters of credence are different. It is customary for the recall letter of credence to be submitted to the new envoy or other minister when submitting the letter of credence for dispatch. There are no more details to examine for many specific historical submissions of credentials.

In history, most countries that have formally established diplomatic relations will exchange etiquette and credentials between the two countries.

Historically, credentials were divided into originals and duplicates. The original was signed and retained by the country that accepted the credentials, while the duplicate was given to the envoy to take back to his country and hand it over to his country's leader.