Yuan ShiKai And The Sino-Korean Suzerain-Vassal State Relationship

China and Korea are joined by mountains and rivers and the friendship of the two peoples is of long standing. The Sino- Korean suzerain-vassal state relationship, which had taken its shape in history, was not only a symbol of the political ally of the ruling class in both countries, by also a bridge for the friendly communication of the two peoples. Prior to the middle of 19th century, the Sino-Koreann suzerain-vassal state relationship was, to a certain extent, a matter of form, mainly shown by some rituals, such as "tribute", "confer", etc.. Therefore, the relationship was very loose. However, with the east-coming of western powers and the growing-up of Japan, Korea, once "Hermit Country", began to be entangled in the capitalistic world market. Korea Peninsula became the strategic beachhead for the balance of the powers. The Eastern cultural circle, which centered on Qing Dynasty Government, and the Western cultural, which was represented by Western powers and Japan, clashed on Korean Peninsula. It was under these circumstances that the crisis of the Sino-Korean suzerain-vassal state relationship, as the tie of the Eastern cultural circle, pricked up increasingly, and finally collapsed. The collapse of the Sino-Korean suzerain-vassal state relationship was the result of the effects of both intrinsic factor and extrinsic factor. Herein the intrinsic factor includes both parties that maintained the relationship – the declining Qing Dynasty government and Lee Dynasty of Korea; the extrinsic factor refers to the external factors that threatened the relationship, mainly Western powers and Japan. If the collapse is reviewed from its historical course, the extrinsic factor was active while the intrinsic factor was comparatively passive. The phenomenon rooted in the essential differences between Eastern and Western cultures. The benefit-oriented Western culture was open and strongly characterized by its outward expansion; on the contrary, under the duple strike of Western culture and increasingly deteriorated reign crisis, traditional Confucian culture, whose core was "saint home and king abroad", lost the environment for "home saint" and its expansion as "abroad king" was limited, therefore, it was characterized by its non-expansion and restraint. In this sense, the collapse of the Sino-Korean suzerain-vassal state relationship was an inevitable result of the clashes between Eastern and Western cultures and it is historically ineluctable. In terms of intrinsic factor, the strength of Qing Dynasty government and Korean Lee Dynasty and the extent to which it was integrated, in theory, accelerated or delayed the historical course of the collapse. However, as the ruling blocs of the two countries were too conservative and corrupted, under the impact of Western culture the duality of cultural option and political power structure existed in both countries in different degrees. This undoubtedly crippled the strengths of both countries in their ally to oppugn the invasion; simultaneously, it made their integration very difficult.As a whole, Yuan Shikai was identified as the integrator of the Sino-Korean strength. Therefore, since the moment he landed on Korea, he began his mission to save the increasingly deteriorated Sino-Korean suzerain-vassal state relationship. But as a result, Yuan failed to fulfill this mission and the relationship between the losers of the war disgracefully retreated from the arena of history. How can Yuan's doings in Korea be fairly evaluated? What effect did his doings in Korea take on the Sino-Korean suzerain-vassal state relationship? These are the matters this paper probes into. This paper, divided into four chapters, focusing on the subject of Sino-Korean suzerain-vassal state relationship and taking as clues the events (Renwu Mutiny, Jiashen Coup d'etat and Jiawu War) that are significant to the relationship, analyzes the dynamic development of forces in Korea of Qing Dynasty government, Japan and Western powers. At the same time, it also relates Yuan's activities in the proces...