Yüan Shih-k'ai's Residency and the Korean Enlightenment Movement (1885-94)
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 19190204 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Young Ick Lew (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1984 |
| Volume | 5 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 63-107 |
| Publication date | 1984-01-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The journal of Korean studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0731-1613 • E-ISSN: 2158-1665 |
| Publisher | Rowman & Littlefield (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1353/jks.1984.0000 |
| OpenAlex | W2045309957 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 8 |
Yuan Shih-k'ai's Residency and the Korean Enlightenment Movement (1885-94) YOUNG ICK LEW INTRODUCTION Uuring the years 1880 to 1884, Yi Korea, under reform-minded leadership, belatedly embarked on a vivacious program of reform, euphemistically called the Enlightenment Movement (kaehwa undong ). This movement featured Korea's entrance into treaty relations with Western powers; active institutional and cultural borrowing from Ch'ing China, Meiji Japan, and the United States; and the emergence in the Seoul political arena of a Progressive party (Kaehwadang ) imbued with modern nationalistic ambitions. From a close examination of each of these aspects of the movement, it is clear that this nascent reform movement, if properly sustained without interruption , could in time have put the "hermit kingdom" on the road to full-fledged membership in the family of nations while enriching and strengthening the country sufficiently to maintain her independence . Unfortunately for Korea, however, it became a truncated experiment with limited historical impact. The momentum of this movement was arrested after the abortive pro-Japanese coup d'état in December, 1884, and Korea did not witness the revival of a reform movement ofsimilar proportion until after the outbreak ofthe SinoJapanese War in 1894. Korean failure to develop the Enlightenment Movement into a more enduring movement, analogous to Meiji Japan's "movement for civilization and enlightenment" (bummei For a list of abbreviations used in notes, see page 106. 63 64Journal of Korean Studies kaika), probably made Korea easy prey for Japanese imperialism at the turn of the century, not to mention retarding Korean modernization . Scholarly opinion is divided over the question ofwhy the important Enlightenment Movement failed to continue developing during the crucial decade of 1885 to 1894. One one hand, historians who emphasize Korean domestic intellectual and institutional history point to the resurgence of xenophobic conservatism including the deep-rooted Korean animosity toward Japan, in the wake of the kapsin (1884) coup and the.entrenchmentofa group ofuninnovative, career-seeking officials in positions of power during the decade as the key factor detrimental to the progress of the movement.1 On the other hand, historians with a penchant for Korean foreign affairs are inclined toward the view that the unfavorable international milieu surrounding Yi Korea during the period constituted the major cause for the decline of the movement.2 The latter viewpoint seems more valid, since the Enlightenment Movement owed its inception to foreign stimuli. The increasing volume of scholarly literature on Korean history during the second half of the nineteenth century tends to corroborate this assumption, although no cogent and convincing argument has yet been advanced to vindicate it.3 This study intends to demonstrate that Ch'ing China's anachronistic policy of intervention toward her tributary state, Korea, which was put into practice during the 1885-1894 decade, indeed constituted the primary cause for the hiatus in the Korean reform movement. Because the Chinese policy toward Korea was imple1 .For the view representing the former, see Yi Kwang-nin [Lee, Kwang-rin], Kaehwadang yön'gu (Seoul: Ilchogak, 1973), p. 173, and for the latter, see Sin Yong-ha [Shin, Yong-ha], Tongnip hyöppoe wa kaehwa undong (Seoul: Sejong taewang kinyöm saöppoe, 1976), p. 11. 2.See, for example, Yi Sön'gün [Lee, Sun-keun], Han'guksa: ch'oe künse-p'yön (Seoul: Üryu munhwasa, 1961), pp. 925ff; Payson J. Treat, "China and Korea, 1885-1894," Potóica/ Science Quarterly 49 (1934): 543. See also Dalchoong Kim, "Korea's Quest for Reform and Diplomacy in the 1880's: With Special Reference to Chinese Intervention and Control" (Ph.D. diss., Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, 1972), pp. iii, 540. 3.Among others, the following studies on Yiian's career in Korea were particularly useful in preparing this treatise: Lin Ming-te, Yuan Shih-k'ai yix Chao-hsien (Taipei: Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica, 1970); Yi Yangja, "Ch'öng üi tae-Chosön chöngch'aek kwa Wön Segae," Pudae sahak 5 (February 1981): 75-120; Fujioka Kikuo, "Chösenjidai no En Sei-gai," Töyö gakuhö 52, no. 4 (March 1970): 1-51; Ching Young Choe, "Yuan Shih-k'ai: His Role in Korea
China · Civilization · Communism · Economic history · Enlightenment · Meiji Restoration · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Reform movement · Sociology · Theology · Asian Culture and Media Studies · Chinese history and philosophy · History · Japanese History and Culture · Law · Philosophy
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Diplomatic Relations between the United States and Korea, 1866-1887
Mandarins, Gunboats, and Power Politics
The Korean Special Mission to the United States of America in 1883
The Last Phase of the East Asian World Order
China and Korea, 1885-1894
| Citations per year | 0.11 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2008 - 2016 (9) |
| Highly cited | No |