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Character of the traditional tributary relation between Korea and China in the second half of the 19th century

  • The Review of Korean History
  • 2005, (80), pp.71-100
  • Publisher : The Historical Society Of Korea
  • Research Area : Humanities > History

Koo Sun-hee 1

1국사편찬위원회

Candidate

ABSTRACT

Opening of Korea in 1876 was that of having change of the Korean international relations instead of the problem of the simple opening of a country. While Korea maintained a tributary relation as international relations of pre-modern East Asia, Japan and the West connected the treaty relation which carries out a basis to modern international law. Thus, Korea had to promote a enlightenment policy for independent modernization, while different international order lived together. Consequently promotion of a Korean enlightenment policy became the cause by which China could interfere in Korean internal affairs, conversely by this. China gave strong pressure in the direction of politics and military affairs to Korea from the military-civilian riots in 1882 to China retreated from Korea by the Sino-Japanese War. This became the decisive external factor which blocks that Korea shifts to modern society in such reasons. Like a wide-ranging agreement of Korea and China in 1882, it became the foundation of the basis of this external factor. Although the traditional tributary relation between Korea and China collapsed as a result of the agreement, the problem that Korea was the tributary of China traditionally became the thesis used by Korea, China, and Japan for each country. Consequently, the view that abandonment of the traditional tributary relation between Korea and China was originating in defeat of China from the Sino-Japanese War appeared. It is a wilful distortion of facts. In short, after the farmer war in 1894 broke out by failure of the internal affairs of the Korean government, the argument whether Korea is the tributary of China or to be an independence country was one in the example in which three nations used the traditional tributary relation for conventionality. This purpose was that China tended to maintain modern colony-control as it was in Korea, the Japan side tended to seize it.

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.

This paper was written with support from the National Research Foundation of Korea.