The Study On Inoue Kaoru’s Policy To Korea Before And After The Gapsin Coup

Since the mid-19th century,the East Asian has entered a period of social transformation.The international order in Asia has gradually changed from the traditional Chinese order to the modern treaty system.During the period of social transformation in East Asia,China and Japan launched a fierce competition around the Korean issue in Northeast Asia.Japan’ s power growth and decline on the Korean issue is also a miniature of its transition to modern capitalism and imperialism after the collapse of the Mufan system.After "The Yunyang incident",Japan began its expansion policy towards Korea.The Gapsin coup launched by the Kaihua faction in 1884 was a confrontation between Chinese and Japanese forces on the Korean Peninsula.After the failure of the Gapsin coup,Japan’ s power in Korea was greatly weakened.In addition,the Japanese government slowed down its policy of confrontation with China under the influence of Korean and Russia’ s secret appointment and the Juwen Island incident.Inoue Shin took office as foreign minister in 1879 until he left office in September 1888.For eight years,he dealt with Japan’ s foreign negotiations,and his handling of the Korean issue was adjusted accordingly with the situation in Northeast Asia at that time.After the Gapsin coup,Inoue Kaoru turned to actively support Li Hongzhang to preside over Korean affairs.Its essence is to use the Qing Dynasty to suppress Russia’ s influence in Korea.The eight foreign affairs measures of Korea presented by Inoue Kaoru to Li Hongzhang had a certain impact on the Qing Dynasty’ s overall interference in Korean affairs.This paper,starting from Inoue’ s policy towards the Korea,makes a deep analysis of Inoue’ s diplomatic activities after the Gapsin coup,and probes into Japan’ s foreign policy towards the Korea and its influence on the situation in Northeast Asia during the Meiji period.