{"id":17958,"date":"2024-09-09T01:56:04","date_gmt":"2024-09-09T01:56:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/snuac.snu.ac.kr\/eng\/?p=17958"},"modified":"2024-09-09T01:56:04","modified_gmt":"2024-09-09T01:56:04","slug":"korea-china-relations-in-the-19th-century","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/snuac.snu.ac.kr\/eng\/index.php\/2024\/09\/09\/korea-china-relations-in-the-19th-century\/","title":{"rendered":"Korea-China Relations in the 19th Century: The Heavenly Empire and the Dilemma of the Vassal Autonomy"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wpb-content-wrapper\">[vc_row][vc_column width=&#8221;1\/4&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;17959&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221;][\/vc_column][vc_column width=&#8221;3\/4&#8243;][vc_column_text]\n<ul>\n<li><strong><strong><strong><strong>Author:\u00a0<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>Hyoung-chong Kim<\/li>\n<li><strong>Publication Date: <\/strong>August\/ 2024<\/li>\n<li><strong>Publisher:<\/strong>\u00a0SNU Press<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The book particularly organizes the characteristics of the diplomatic relationship between Joseon (Korea) and Qing in the late 19th century using the concept of &#8220;expedient diplomacy.&#8221; Qing, which regarded itself as the &#8220;Heavenly Empire&#8221; (\u5929\u671d\u4e0a\u570b) and considered Joseon as a &#8220;vassal state,&#8221; was forced to accept the modern diplomatic system based on equal and independent sovereign states due to the challenges posed by Western powers after the mid-19th century. However, Qing, unable to abandon its attachment to the notion of being the &#8220;Heavenly Empire,&#8221; continued to seek &#8220;expedient&#8221; approaches that exploited the gaps between traditional tributary relations and modern diplomacy in its dealings with Joseon, which remained its last tributary state.<\/p>\n<p>Examples of this include Joseon\u2019s &#8220;vassal autonomy&#8221; theory, which claimed that while Joseon was a vassal, it had traditionally managed its own internal and foreign affairs, and the &#8220;vassal notification&#8221; requirement, which Qing imposed whenever Joseon signed treaties with Western countries. These practices reflected Qing&#8217;s attempt to transform Joseon, its vassal state, into a modern colony or protectorate. This behavior also demonstrated Qing&#8217;s ongoing obsession with maintaining the &#8220;dignity&#8221; of being the superior state in its diplomatic relations with Joseon. Professor Hyung-chong Kim&#8217;s analysis illustrates that Qing had significant limitations in fully accepting the modern diplomatic system and the ideas that supported it. This, he argues, was a fundamental reason for the failure of modernization efforts in both Joseon and Qing.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Author<\/p>\n<p>Hyung-chong Kim is a professor at the Department of History at Seoul National University. He graduated from the Department of Asian History at the same university and earned his master&#8217;s and doctoral degrees specializing in modern Chinese history. His publications include co-authoring <em>Atlas of Chinese History<\/em>, <em>A Study on the Reform Period at the End of the Qing Dynasty<\/em>, and <em>A Study of the Korea-Qing Joint Border Delimitation and Border Talks in the 1880s<\/em>. His translations include <em>A New History of China<\/em>, <em>Essays on Modern Chinese Thought<\/em>, <em>Jin Yinge: The Last 20 Years<\/em>, <em>Selected Translations of Materials Related to the Korea-Qing Border Talks in the 1880s<\/em>, <em>Chinese Historical Thought Through Prefaces<\/em>, <em>The Comprehensive Collection of Blessings<\/em> Vols. 1-3, and <em>National Translation of the Historical Materials on Sino-Japanese-Korean Relations of the Qing Dynasty<\/em> Vols. 1-5.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[vc_row][vc_column width=&#8221;1\/4&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;17959&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221;][\/vc_column][vc_column width=&#8221;3\/4&#8243;][vc_column_text] Author:\u00a0Hyoung-chong Kim Publication Date: August\/ 2024 Publisher:\u00a0SNU Press [\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The book particularly organizes the characteristics of the diplomatic relationship between Joseon (Korea) and Qing in the late 19th century using the concept of &#8220;expedient diplomacy.&#8221; Qing, which regarded itself as the &#8220;Heavenly Empire&#8221; (\u5929\u671d\u4e0a\u570b) and considered Joseon as a &#8220;vassal state,&#8221; was forced to accept the modern diplomatic system based on equal and independent sovereign states due to the challenges posed by Western powers after the mid-19th century. However, Qing, unable to abandon its attachment to the notion of being the &#8220;Heavenly Empire,&#8221; continued to seek &#8220;expedient&#8221; approaches that exploited the gaps between traditional tributary relations and modern diplomacy in its dealings with Joseon, which remained its last tributary state. Examples of this include Joseon\u2019s &#8220;vassal autonomy&#8221; theory, which claimed that while Joseon was a vassal,&#8230;&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17959,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-publications","category-snuac-series-in-asian-studies-kor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/snuac.snu.ac.kr\/eng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/snuac.snu.ac.kr\/eng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/snuac.snu.ac.kr\/eng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/snuac.snu.ac.kr\/eng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/snuac.snu.ac.kr\/eng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17958"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/snuac.snu.ac.kr\/eng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17958\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17960,"href":"https:\/\/snuac.snu.ac.kr\/eng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17958\/revisions\/17960"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/snuac.snu.ac.kr\/eng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/snuac.snu.ac.kr\/eng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/snuac.snu.ac.kr\/eng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/snuac.snu.ac.kr\/eng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}