Reforms and Opening

Transcription

1 Reforms and Opening

2 Choson politics The equilibrium could shift from strong monarch to bureaucratic-aristocratic domination, but there was balance of forces; monarch and aristocracy depended on each other The balance was asset for maintaining stability, but became hurdle when Korea faced the need to strengthen central power to mobilize resources The king controlled access to bureaucracy by the examination system and appointment of officials

3 In the 14 th and the 15 th century a series of strong kings, but in the next centuries the power of the throne was checked by yangban bureaucracy Yangban lineages dominated the throne: queens were selected among yangban families; some kings did not have male hairs and other kings were either infants or youths

4 Normative restraints on royal despotism were institutionalized in two ways: Censorate (to exercise both surveillance and remonstrance functions) modeled after Chinese system, and daily royal lectures by which young kings were tutored in Confucian learning

5 Korea in the Universal Order Preeminence of man s pursuit of moral perfection in Neo-Confucianism; the Great Learning (eight steps for sagehood) reaffirmed man as moral being and his role in the moral universe Thus the importance of individual effort; man should strive for sagehood because he is fallible To be moral is a matter of mind and attitude The rectification of imperial mind was focal point, source of national well-being and harmony between the moral universe and the ethical and social order in the kingdom

6 Fan Tsu-yu, 11 th c. scholar in Sung China: Order and disorder in the world all depend on the heart-and-mind of the ruler. If his heart-and-mind is correct, the myriad affairs of the court will be not incorrect. The authority of the Choson king was first and foremost based on the rhetoric of the ideal Confucian kingship The vision of the founding group of Choson (Yi) dynasty was creation of a new Confucian moral order

7 The investiture (komyong) of the Korean king by the Son of Heaven, the Chinese emperor mediator between Heaven and civilized world Investiture symbolized the tributary status of Choson Korea to China (Korean king was subject to the emperor), peace and good will, mutual protection Most importantly investiture symbolized a definite and secure place of Korean monarchy in the hierarchy of the orderly universe

8 Choson statehood as cultural identity: in the Confucian world China was civilized, relegating other countries to various degrees of barbarism Koreans regarded Confucian norms as universal standards by which society is judged as either civilized or barbarous Choson Korea was to become member of civilized world, even better than China, by excelling by these standards Confucianism was projected as rediscovery of native tradition initiated by sage Kija and which had been lost

9 The demise of Ming dynasty in 1644 and the replacement of the ruling house by the barbarian Manchus in the Central Kingdom disturbed the Choson dynasty's sense of the Confucian world order Choson Koreans became the defenders of the authentic Confucian tradition, which resulted from the Korean commitment to Chu Hsi orthodoxy Perception that now Korea was the only bastion of Confucian civilization; as a sole carrier and custodian of the civilized tradition, the Choson monarchy had to be guarded with greater zeal

10 Korea in the early 1860s Powerful aristocratic lineages dominated political and economic life Threat of foreign invasion and peasant rebellion Eastern Learning (Tonghak) challenged the ideological orthodox unity In 1864 an eleven year old boy (known for his posthumous title Kojong) ascended the throne Major effort in the next years under boy-king s father Yi Ha-ung, known as the Grand Prince or the Taewongun

11 The heyday of the factions was the 17th and the 18th centuries; by 1864 factionalism was no longer the most important basis of bureaucratic politics. It was replaced by cleavages over issues of policy Struggle between Taewongun and Min faction (some scholars argue) Yangban proved to be much more formidable opponent of the throne in competition for resources than the Chinese gentry

12 The Taewongun reforms, Yi Hwa-ung: the Grand Prince or Taewongun

13 Reforms objectives The Taewogun was pragmatist, not modernizer Restoration the prestige and power of the throne to earlier levels (early Choson) Preserve the country and the dynasty by removing some of the reasons for peasants discontent: bureaucratic corruption, illicit taxation, and usury Increase central government control over finances Eliminate heterodox and subversive doctrines Build military strength by traditional means

14 Reforms Greatest fund-raising effort in the dynasty: imposed land surtaxes; river, boat, commercial transit, and gate taxes; voluntary contributions for special purposes like palace construction Reduced tax-exempt sector by curtailing autonomy the palace estates and private academies; but did not raise taxes on large landowners or reduce taxes on small holdings

15 Authorized cloth tax on all households for military defense; an act which was far easier in 1870 than 1750 because the tax-exempt yangban had increased in size out of proportion to what was tolerable in a fiscal sense Precedent of relatively equal tax distribution at the village level under the village cloth system (tongp o); by the middle of the 19th century yangban households were already sharing in the payment of military cloth taxes in many villages

16 Granary loan system: canceled debts and reduced corruption; loan interest (10%) went to central taxation agency; government could not refinance grain loans except for overvalued currency Minting of large cash (100 times the value of normal copper coin) and importation of Qing cash generated inflation

17 Prejudice against the use of cash (commercial activities), based on orthodox Confucian economics Confucian doctrine emphasized social stability and frowned at social mobility (basic Confucian dogma) especially via business activity The Taewongun tried to control the market to offset the inflation Problems of reforms: the predominance of landed aristocracy, Confucian dogma, and weakness of political leadership

18 King Kojong and his son Sunjong Queen Min

19 King Kojong Surpluses in treasuries were held in depreciated Qing cash King Kojong tried to follow Confucian principles when he came to the throne in 1873: reduced taxes on peasantry and liquidated most of the reserves Confucian economics was concerned with people s subsistence but not with their affluence; agriculture was virtually the only legitimate occupation for none-scholar class

20 Decision-making shifted to state council in 1875 The decade after 1876: the king, the queen, and the government in the centre of political spectrum between the Taewongun with his conservative supporters and radical progressives like Kim Okkyun

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22 Encounters with foreign powers Taewongun s anti-catholic persecution in the 1860s: belief that the missionary movement was the vanguard of foreign imperialism; 1866 persecution In 1866: American ship arrived off Pyongyang; French expedition to Kanghwa; the German adventure (Ernst Oppert) 1871: American punitive expedition, Kanghwa Koreans felt that they won victories over Western barbarians, vindicating Taewongun s policy of resistance

23 Korea and Japan Tokugawa Japan s relations with Choson Korea were conducted through Tsushima daimyo

24 Relations with China, serving a superior (sadae), with Japan, dealing with a neighbor (kyorin) In 1868 Japanese envoy arrived in Korea to report the Meiji restoration; Koreans rejected the communication on the grounds of wording (title emperor) From 1868 to 1873: Japanese attempts to gain Korean recognition of the Japanese government were unsuccessful

25 Seikan Conquer Korea debate in Japan, 1873: retribution for Korean insults and safety valve for discontent among former samurai class, Saigo Takamori Threat of force for diplomatic purposes; Japan did not regard war as feasible policy alternative Saigo Takamori

26 Japanese ship Unyokan, 1875: survey of Korean coastal area; armed confrontation, city of Yongjiong razed To Koreans regarded Kanghwa island was a door to national capital Unyokan

27 Kojong s regime devised a new solution: neutralize the most dangerous military threat (Japan) in order to preserve Korea s defenses against the more distant and more insidious Western menace Western missionaries, Western merchandise, and Western ideas were regarded as the real danger to Korea, not the Japanese

28 Kanghwa Treaty 1876 Japanese navy in Pusan, 1876 Signing the Treaty

29 Korea presented herself as a country dependent on China, and China described her tributary ties; fruitless Sino-Japanese negotiations in 1876 and seeds of conflict over Korea Li Hung-chang: clause one of the 1871 treaty of peace and amity between China and Japan guarded against each other s dependent countries (mutual non-aggression)

30 Mori Arinori: It was incomprehensible that Korea was called dependent country by the Tsungli Yamen (Chinese foreign office) when Korea was in full possession of the administration of her internal and external affairs Kuroda mission to Korea (with two warships) and signing the Kanghwa Treaty in February 1876

31 The treaty recognized Korea as independent chaju (article one); mutual exchange of envoys; trade at Pusan and opening two additional ports; extraterritorial jurisdiction for the Japanese The supplementary treaty was even more unequal than Japan s treaties with Western powers: purchase Korean goods with Japanese money at face value, exemption of tariffs on Japanese exports and imports

32 Mori: Treaties would do only for ordinary commercial relations. But great national decisions are made according to comparative strength, not according to treaties. Machtpolitik Mori Arinori Li Hung-chang

33 Korea s seclusion ended, but Koreans considered the treaty a mere affirmation of traditionsanctioned reality ( diplomacy was right of China) The Japanese intended to use the treaty as a means of isolating Korea from the Chinese tributary system It would take years before exchanging envoys and opening additional ports (Wonsan 1880, Inch on 1883)

34 Up to the early 1880s, Japan was contended herself in seeking the fulfillment of the treaty terms Reasons: little commercial prospects of Korea; frustration over Korean intransigence; Satsuma rebellion (1877)

35 ID Questions 3. Taewongun 4. Kanghwa Treaty

36 Sopyonje Pansori