Modern East Asia Asahi Three Countries Social Change Research

In the middle of the 19th century, China, Korea and Japan were all faced with the menace of the colonial invasion of the Western Capitalistic states. In order to be lifted out of the humiliate standing and make their countries rich and build up their military power, Japan, Korea and China carried out the social transformation movements—the Meiji Reformation of Japan of 1868, the Chinese Constitutional Reform and Modernization of 1898 and the Korean Kapshin Incident of 1884. It can be said that these social transformation movements are the first attempts to transform the East Asian countries (China, Korea, Japan) from feudalism to modern capitalism.The Meiji Reformation of Japan took Japan into the threshold of the capital states, by which Japan became the Asian big power and wanted to vie with the Euro-American big powers. On the contrary, the Chinese Constitutional Reform and Modemization and the Korean Kapshin Incident which were blueprinted after the Meiji Reformation of Japan was strangled in the cradle. China and Korea therefore lost a good turning point of achieving rejuvenation, and the social nature of China and Korea didn't changed at all, they were finally reduced to the status of colony and semi-colony. The failure of the Chinese Constitutional Reform and Modernization and the Korean Kapshin Incident made the men of insight at that time and afterwards deeply regret. Then, Why were the results of these transformation movements similar with the time, social conditions and objectivity completely different?This paper centers on the Chinese Constitutional Reform and Modernization, the Meiji Reformation of Japan and the Korean Kapshin Incident, compares these transformations and probes into their commons and differences, explains the relations between these transformations and the modernization of the three countries, sets forth the influences of the modern transformations of the three countries on the course, type and the nature of the modernization, makes further point out the historical necessity of the respective success and failure of the transformations of the three countries.This study uses the comparative and synthetic research methods, focuses on the social transformations of the three countries, compares their common and different grounds, and expounds the historical and cultural backgrounds and reasons of these commons and differences from the macroscopic point of view through synthetic analysis.The text is made up of three parts: introduction, text and conclusion.The text consists of four chapters. Chapter one mainly investigates the situations of the world and the three countries before the social transformations, states the international and the domestic historical backgrounds on the eve of the great social transformations of the modem China, Korea and Japan. In the international situation respect, inquires into the international environment, e.g. external historical conditions in the period of the social transformations, demonstrates the international historical environment unfavorable to China and the Korea transformation movements. In the way of the domestic conditions of the three countries, explains the commons and differences of the economic and political systems and the foreign policies of the three countries. Chapter two states the course of the transformations of the three countries. Through observation the political activities of the reform parties in the social transformations of the three countries, the new political powers they set up and the main contents of the transformations, this chapter compares the purposes, aims, contents of the transformation movements and the strength of the leader groups of the three countries, thereby finding out the reasons of the success and failure of the transformations of the three countries. Chapter three states mainly the results of the transformations of the three countries, makes further analysis of the internal and external reasons of the success and failure of the reforms of the three countries, and summaries the historical reasons of the Japanese's success and Chinese and Korean's failure. Chapter four expounds the relations between the social transformations of the three countries and the modernization, finds the common laws and the respective particularity of the historical development of the three countries. It can be said that the social transformations of the three countries were the first attempts to realize the capitalistic modernization in a relatively complete sense, which accelerated the historical course of the Oriental medieval of the three countries。This paper uses the comparative methods which combines the macroscopic and microcosmic method, firstly compares the three important historic incidents of the modem East Asian countries, finds their commons and differences, makes further ascertain their causes of the success and failure in the course of the modernization, reveals the course, pattern and nature of the modernization development of the East Asia. This paper makes a breakthrough at the way of finding the causes of success and failure of these social transformations from the violent level of the revolution and the class limitation, investigates the social transformations of the three countries as a whole, therefore clarifying the deep reasons for which the China, Korea and Japan had different destiny on the way to the modernization, and from which gains useful practical inspiration. Finally, this paper states the relations between the social transformations of the three countries and the modernization, probes into the commons and particular laws of the development of history of the East Asian three countries, makes further explore the diversity problems on the road to the East Asian modernization, and thus forming the main characteristics of this study.