22 KOREA ever devious Min's methods,his scheme can be seen as yet another KOREA 23 attempt to maintain a balance among the foreign powers in Korea. gotiations continued for nearly two years without an agreement. Summoned by Li to Tientsin to explain his dubious part in the Denny was furious over Yuan's interference,and another quarrel incident,Min delayed as long as possible.Finally,under great broke out between them.Since the U.S.State Department did not pressure,he went to Chefoo in August 1887 to meet with Sheng back Denny strongly in this matter,his position was extremely Hsuan-huai,one of Li's trusted lieutenants.Unable to justify his awkward;and in the end he had to go.He left his post as the actions,Min was exiled to Hong Kong. king's adviser in 1888.Immediately thereafter he published a book, To appease Yuan Shih-k'ai,the king sent a courtier to ask what China and Korea,in which he called Yuan a"smuggler,conspira- could be done to counteract China's suspicion of Korea.Yuan pro- tor,and diplomatic outlaw."a6 posed that Kim Yun Sik be reinstated as foreign minister,and the In 1889,there was another attempt to depose Yuan,but it too king complied.Later,however,Kim and his deputy forged a royal failed.During his ten-year incumbency(1885-95),Yuan worked mandate to borrow 5,000 yen from Japan for themselves.When industriously and resolutely to keep Korea in China's sphere of the deception became known,both culprits were banished. influence.At times he overplayed his hand,making enemies and Korea's attempt to shake off Chinese domination continued after provoking criticism.On the whole,however,Li Hung-chang was the Russian affair.The exiled Min Yong Ik developed a new plan. well satisfied with Yuan's performance and twice had him pro- He advised the king to appoint two plenipotentiaries,one to the moted.Yuan took only two short leaves in this decadeone in United States and the other to Europe.O.N.Denny was to help early 1886 and the other from September 1891 to May 1892,upon secure recognition of these officials.Min's plan was shrewd,since the death of his mother.On both occasions,his assistant,T'ang China herself did not have a representative of this status any- Shao-i,served as his deputy. where in the world.Thus the Korean envoys would hold a higher Besides overseeing Korea's affairs,Yuan worked to increase rank,and presumably be treated with more respect,than their China's economic influence there.He went about this in three Chinese colleagues.Yuan,fully aware of the implications of this main ways.First,in 1885he introduced a telegraph service to com- policy,argued that Korea did not have enough trade with either pete with the submarine cable between Pusan and Nagasaki.As the United States or Europe to justify.the appointments.Li Hung- Korea's only overland line of communication with the outside chang insisted that even if the appointments were necessary,they world,this service had considerable political and strategic sig- must be sanctioned by the Chinese emperor. nificance,and was an important personal triumph for Yuan.(It The Korean court was determined.At midnight on September bedevilled Sino-Korean relations toward the end of the decade, 23,1887,the envoy to the United States left Seoul,stopping on the however,when Korea tried to assume control of.the line by re- outskirts of the city to await further instructions.When Yuan placing the Chinese operators with her own.)Second,Yuan's at- heard this,he demanded that the envoy be recalled.Although the tempt to expand Sino-Korean trade met with some success.He en- king did so a few hours later,he protested Yuan's interference couraged Chinese merchants in Korea to send a petition to Li vigorously and at length to the Chinese government.China even- Hung-chang asking that the Chinese Merchant Steamship Navi- tually agreed to allow the appointments on three conditions:(1)At gation Company run a regular semimonthly service between Che- his assigned capital the envoy should report to the Chinese repre- foo or Shanghai and Inchon.The merchants,then transporting sentative,who would introduce him at the country's foreign min- their goods via Japanese ships at exorbitant rates,proposed to istry;(2)the Chinese representative must accompany the envoy pay 12,o0o yen annually for this service.Sheng Hstan-huai,who to every social event he attended;and(3)the Korean envoy must controlled the Chinese company,rejected the offer,arguing that consult his Chinese colleague on all important matters.The Ko- the sum would not cover expenses.Li mediated an agreement be- rean government found it impossible to accept these terms.Ne- tween Yuan and Sheng by promising to subsidize the venture with another 12,000 yen annually.The service began operation in 1888
24 KOREA KOREA 25 but had little success.Third,Yuan negotiated two loans for the signment of returning the king,and he had long been planning his Korean government from a Cantonese firm in Seoul,T'ung-shun- revenge.After winning Kim's trust,Hong traveled with him from t'ai;the government used the money,some 200,000 taels of silver, Japan to Shanghai,where the shooting occurred.Acting on Li to pay for a ship it had bought on credit from a German company. Hung-chang's instructions,the Shanghai authorities arrested Hong Japan was China's chief economic rival in Korea at this time, and sent him to Seoul,along with Kim's body.The king immedi- although the abortive coup of 1884 had somewhat curtailed Japa- ately gave Hong a high post in the government and had Kim's nese activity in Korean politics.Japan was the principal buyer of body displayed publicly in eight provinces,then quartered-all Korean commodities,accounting for 95 percent of Korea's exports against the advice of Li,Yuan,and the British minister to China, in 18g1.She exported cotton goods to Korea in exchange for rice, N.R.O'Conor.3 At about the same time in Tokyo,a Korean soybeans,and gold.The rice was important in alleviating Japan's tried,unsuccessfully,to assassinate Pak Yong Hio,another promi- chronic food shortage;when Korea prohibited its export in188g nent leader of the 1884 coup.Later the man confessed that he because of a poor crop,Japan protested vigorously.Korean gold had acted on his king's orders.In a subsequent debate,many mem- was also important to Japan,enabling her to adopt the gold stan- bers of the Japanese Diet charged that these attacks were hostile dard.Japan established banks in Pusan and other Korean trading acts against Japan,and urged the government to take action.How- ports.She not only lent money to the Korean government but also ever,both Premier Ito and Foreign Minister Mutsu Munemitsu minted some of its coinage.By 1892,the Japanese population in refused to be provoked into a premature confrontation.3 Korea had reached 10,000.As Table 1 shows,however,China was The incident that finally brought the Sino-Japanese rivalry to gradually challenging Japan's economic supremacy.Chinese ex- a head was the Tong Hak Rebellion.The Tong Hak Society was ports to Korea rose continuously from 1886 to 18g2,a develop- a religious sect founded in Korea in 1860.Its tenets,a mixture of ment that Japan could not watch without apprehension.She be- Confucianism,Buddhism,and Taoism,envisioned the purification came even more determined to sever Korea from China.Events of society through the purification of individuals.As its name sug- were soon to provide the opportunity she had been awaiting. gests--tong hak means“Eastern learning”一the sect was strongly In April 1894,Kim Ok Kiun was murdered by the son of Hong antagonistic to Western culture,especially Roman Catholicism. Yong Sik,the postmaster-general whom the Chinese had executed After 1864,the society swung radically toward political activism, after the attempted 1884 coup.Hong's son bitterly resented the organizing protests against excessive taxation,government corrup- other pro-Japanese leaders for giving his father the dangerous as- tion,and.foreign encroachment.In 18g2 and 1893,it expressed these views in two petitions,which the government ignored.The Table 1.Chinese and Japanese Goods Imported at Inchon, Wonsan,and Pusan society continued to grow.The famine of 1893 drove many hungry people into the sect and led to a short-lived revolt.The next year, Value in U.S.dollars Percentage the exorbitant taxes imposed on the people in the south lent more Year Chinese goods Japanese goods China Japan force to the Tong Hak appeal;another revolt occurred.s This 1885 331342 1,377,342 19% 81% time the insurgents,with substantial popular support,had some 1886 454,015 2,064,353 17 83 success--to the point where the Korean army was unable to put 1887 742,661 2,080,787 26 74 1888 860,338 2,196,115 28 down the rebellion.At a loss,the king turned to China for help.40 1889 1.101585 2299,116 2 68 The 1885 treaty between China and Japan stipulated that if 1890 1660.075 3,086,897 6 either nation sent troops to Korea,the other must be informed. 1891 2,148,254 3,226,468 40 60 1892 2,055,555 2,555675 45 55 The king requested aid at the end of May 1894.On June 2,an interpreter from the Japanese legation called on Yuan to express souRcE:Li Ch'ing-yuan,Ch'ao-hsien chin-tai-shih (A history of modern Korea),Chinese trans.by Ting Tse-liang and Hsia Yu-wen (Peking,1955),p.73. Japan's anxiety over her trade and the safety of her people in
26 KOREA KOREA 27 Korea.He asked why China had not sent troops to pacify the re- drawal at this point would mean the surrender of China's suzer- bellion,adding that Japan had "no other designs if China dis- ainty over Korea,thus exposing China's frontier to Japanese pene- patched her troops."The next day,the Japanese charge d'affaires tration.Li became irresolute. assured Yuan that Japan wanted China to intervene in Korea. Facing the dilemma of how to protect China's interests and still In response to these requests,Li Hung-chang sent 1,500 men of avoid a war,Li turned to diplomatic channels.First he made di- his Hwai Army to Korea and informed the Japanese government rect contacts with Japan to try to secure a withdrawal of all troops. of his decision.On the very day the troops sailed,the Japanese When this failed,he asked the British and.Russian ministers to consul in Tientsin urged Li to dispatch Chinese soldiers to Korea. China,O'Conor and Cassini,to try to mediate a modus vivendi. Li did not know that Japanese forces were also.on their way to On June 28,representatives of Britain,Russia,the United States, Inchon on the pretext of protecting Japanese nationals and prop- and France sent joint notes to.the Japanese and Chinese ministers erty.When Yuan learned this,he was alarmed and went to the requesting simultaneous troop withdrawals.China agreed,but Japanese charge for an explanation.The charge once more as. Japan did not.Count Mutsu,recalling this diplomatic failure in sured him that Japan had no designs. his memoirs,said that it"gave my country a free hand and per- The presence of both Chinese and Japanese forces in Korea sonally I was pleased."4 overshadowed the local rebellion.On June 10,as the tension rose On the day the diplomats delivered their notes,Japan demanded sharply,the Russian and French legations began to evacuate their that the king of Korea declare his country independent and re- staffs.Two days later,with 1,000 Japanese soldiers in Seoul,Japa- form his government.In response,the king appointed Kim Hong nese Minister Otori told Yuan that Japan intended to participate Chip premier to negotiate with Japan.Mutsu again recorded,"The in the campaign against the rebels.She would withdraw her men issue of political reform was in fact devised to settle the complex as soon as the rebellion was quelled and peace and order were re- problem between Japan and China....We intended to use it stored.Li Hung-chang,who had no thought of waging a war either to promote a peaceful solution...or,if that was impossible, against Japan,now realized how precarious the situation was.He to hasten a final showdown."4 Conducted under extreme duress, ordered his troops to halt at Kwangju,south of Pyongyang,and the negotiations showed little progress.On July 22,Japanese Yuan and Otori entered into a verbal agreement to the effect that troops broke into the palace,seized the king,the queen,and their neither country would send more troops to Korea.The Korean children,and imprisoned them at the Japanese legation.In place government,faced with this explosive situation,now requested Li of the kidnapped monarch,Japan reinstated the aged Tai Won to withdraw his troops,explaining that"the rebels,having heard Kun as regent. of the arrival of the troops from the Celestial Empire,are terrified In China,members of the Grand Council-especially Grand and know that their days are numbered."4 Secretary Weng T'ung-ho,who served as both the imperial tutor Through shrewd maneuvering,Japan had by now seized the and the president of the Board of Revenue-launched a relentless initiative from Li Hung-chang.Her troops in Korea had increased attack on Li Hung-chang's bungling appeasement.The scholar from 1,ooo on June 12 to 15,000 on June 21,outnumbering the Chang Chien,Yuan's friend,advised Weng and the war party. Chinese two to one.Moreover,they were deployed at strategic Yuan himself advocated a strong policy toward Japan.In despair, points,including Inchon,Pusan,and Seoul.China found herself Li resolved to fight and dispatched more soldiers to Korea.On in an extremely awkward position.Her soldiers had come to July 25,the British steamer Kowshing,carrying 1,220 Chinese Korea to suppress the rebels in the south;but this was now im- soldiers,was intercepted and sunk off the coast of Korea by the possible because Japanese troops were blocking the way.A with- The Grand Council opposed settling the Korean situation with the help of .Yuan to Li,in Li Hung-chang,Telegrams,chian 15.p.34a.Because of a third power.See CJCC,581 and 4:480,and Li Hung-chang,Telegrams, these reports,Yuan was blamed for leading Li into a disastrous war. chiian 16,p.a3b
28 KOREA Japanese cruiser Naviwa.Two days later,the imprisoned king was THREE forced to declare war against his suzerain.On July 31,the tenno declared war against China;the Chinese emperor responded with a declaration the next day. The Army,1895-1899 China and Japan fought from July 1894 to March 1895,first in Korea and then in Manchuria and on the Yellow Sea.China was soundly defeated in all three major campaigns.Sir Robert Hart commented,"China has given no offense-has done no wrong does not wish to fight,and is willing to make sacrifices:She is a big'sick man,'convalescing very slowly from the sickening effects of peaceful centuries,and is being jumped on when down by this THE WAR and peace of 1895 ended China's suzerainty over Korea, agile,healthy,well-armed Jap-will no one pull him off?" as well as her sovereignty over Taiwan and Penghu (the Pesca- Early in July 1894,after the failuire of the four-power mediation, dores).In addition,China was to pay Japan an indemnity of 200 Yuan had asked the Tsungli Yamen to recall him,since his pres- million taels of silver in eight installments,a debt that virtually ence in Seoul was no longer necessary.His request denied,the reduced her maritime customs service to a collection agency.for once powerful resident became a pathetic figure.No one called Japan.She was forced to allow Japan to build factories on her on hi,and all his servants deserted him.He soon fell ill,and soil;and by the application of the most-favored-nation clause, T'ang sil ao-i carried on the routine work of his office.Finally, many other countries gained this right as well.A period of intense through Li Hung-chang's efforts,the Tsungli Yamen summoned competition was thus inaugurated-in Lord Salisbury's words,the Yuan to report on the situation in Korea.He was to go directly to "battle of concessions."One of the war's most profound effects was Peking without stopping to see Li in Tientsin,a reversal of nor- the sense of panic that now seized the Chinese mind.The defeat mal procedure that signified Li's declining power.Yuan began had revealed serious defects in the policy of self-strengthening this melancholy journey on July 19 and arrived a week later.On that China had pursued since the 1860's. August 4,Li sent Yuan to Pyongyang as quartermaster of the Chi- Under the self-strengthening policy,new armies had been nese army.47 Before reaching the city,Yuan received news of its trained,a navy established,and arsenals and factories built.With fall.He stayed in Manchuria with Chou Fu and Hu Yi-fen,two. these as security,China had enjoyed peace and order for nearly Chinese officers,supplying provisions and equipment to the forces go years.But the peace was a precarious one.The dynasty's safety fighting there.This gave him another opportunity to witness the depended largely on the strength of the Hwai Army and the North- corruption and utter inefficiency of the Hwai Army-and its shat- ern Fleet.It was because Li Hung-chang knew the real limitations tering defeat.A provocative experience,it may have helped him of those forces that he had accepted the Japanese challenge so re- decide to resume his career as a military instructor.Indeed,even luctantly.Others with less precise knowledge blamed Li for follow- as the Chinese were retreating from Manchuria,Hu Yu-fen sug ing a weak,irresolute policy and urged him to be firmer. gested to Yuan that he organize an army of his own. After his ruin,Li was sent on a long tour.Wang Wen-shao The signing of the Shimonoseki Treaty on April 17,1895, assumed the positions of viceroy of Chihli and commissioner for marked the end of the war and the beginning of a new epoch in trade;but the real power fell into the hands of Jung-lu.Jung-lu's China,indeed in the Far East as a whole.In many ways,it was to immediate task was to secure the imperial capital,not so much be the worst period China had seen since being opened to the West. against a foreign invasion as against a possible internal uprising of those disaffected by the government's policy.Stunned by the defeat of 1895,most government officials-including Chang Chih-
THE ARMY 30 THE ARMY 31 tung,the powerful viceroy of Hupei and Hunan-saw no other reorganized and expanded maritime customs service,which pro- answer to China's problems than to intensify the efforts at self- vided more than one-third of the government's annual revenues. strengthening.They continued to regard China's traditional social Now these revenues were pledged against foreign loans raised to and political systems as nearly perfect but admitted her military pay the war indemnity.Without them,the new fighting force and technological weakness.All that she needed,they felt,was a could not be larger than the old one.Further,modernization had modern,efficient army and a developed industrial economy to to be confined to the army.China could not afford to revive her support it.Eventually,their policy led to the establishiment of the dream of becoming a maritime power,which France and Japan Newly Created Army(Hsin-chien Lu-chun). had shattered in the wars of 1884 and 1895.In fact,she could not Outside government circles,however,the self-strengthening pol- really afford to maintain her existing ground forces-the surviving icy now became an object of ridicule.There were many critics- units of the Hwai Army,plus a traditional army of some 800,000 and they did not mince words.Li had become "a laughingstock archers and lancers equipped with a few outmoded Mausers- among all barbarian peoples,"wrote one.Another was less harsh, while training new troops.But the situation at the time demanded just that. but still outspoken: The remnants of the Hwai Army included General Nieh Shih- Have we not seen Li Hung-chang's navy,foreign-style army,and military ch'eng's Tenacious Army and General Sung Ch'ing's Resolute _and medical schools?Have we not seen Chang Chih-tung's colleges,found- Army.Along with General Tung Fu-hsiang's Kansu Army,which ries,and Self-Strengthening Army?Those were the results of Li's efforts was little more than a band of brigands,these forces were respon- for 30 years and Chang's for 15.If we allow other Li's and Chang's to pur- sue the same policy for another 5o years,to proceed at the same snail's sible for the defense of the imperial capital and northern China. pace,...in the end,we shall have another crop of schools and foreign- Although the soldiers showed a certain bloodthirsty bravery,they style troops,who in another emergency will turn and run for their lives numbered only 7o,000,lacked training and discipline,and were as their predecessors did in 1895.2 ill-equipped with guns of various makes and calibers.The des- Far more radical than the official leaders,the partisans of this perate need for a new army was obvious. school of thought advocated the adoption of a constitution and a Late in 1894,at a crucial stage of the war,the German adviser thorough reform of the government.They refused to trust the cor- von Hanneken had submitted a modernization plan to both the rupt,archaic administrative machine with any modernization pro- Grand Council and the Tsungli Yamen.He proposed training gram.To them,the survival of the country was far more impor- 100,000 troops,with Sir Robert Hart in control of the funds.Weng tant than the preservation of Confucian values and imperial pre. T'ung-ho,the grand secretary and imperial tutor,favored the idea, rogatives.Their efforts culminated in the reform of 18g8. considering it "China's only way to survive."Weng's initiative .Yuan Shih-k'ai had a role in both the army modernization and here,as later in the reform movement,was a move to fill the power the reform movement,and he soon realized their incompatibility. vacuum created by Li Hung-chang's downfall.The British Min- As an important military instructor,Yuan's principal duty was to ister O'Conor put forward a similar suggestion on army train- defend the dynasty;as a sympathizer of reform,his principal duty ing;moreover,he thought that Hart was the person best suited was to protect the interests of the nation.From 1895 on,especially to take full control.Under Weng's instructions,with the Grand after 1goo,the interests of the dynasty and those of the nation Council's and Jung-lu's approval,Hu Yu-fen worked out a de- grew further and further apart.Yuan's personal fortune was caught tailed program for army modernization.His plan emphasized uni- up in this larger historical process,and he had to make choices at form equipment,established ranks,and training by foreign in- several critical points in a turbulent era.Let us look at the army structors.Northern China was to be responsible for training 50,000 first. soldiers,southern China for go,o00,and Hupei and Hunan for 20,000-at an estimated total cost of 14 million taels of silver. In the 1860's,self-strengthening had been financed by the newly