Overseas Chinese On The Korean Peninsula In Qing Dynasty

China and the Korean Peninsula are contiguous with each other through mountains and rivers. Dating back to ancient times, since the conspicuous geographic intimacy there existing frequent as well as close communication between the two districts. During that process, the emigration from China to Korea also occupies a significant status which serves to accomplish the communication history. In Qing dynasty this trend of emigrating of Chinese not only developed a larger scale but rendered different features according to distinct historic back drops which varied with time spans.In the early and middle Qing dynasty, under the basic national policy of nation seclusion implemented by the Qing government, none of emigration toward the Korean Peninsula was permitted officially. However, caused by the social controversies arising from the sovereignty replacement between Ming dynasty and Qing dynasty together with the population boom resulting from the peaceful times later, stowaway phenomenon could not be effectually forbidden. What is more, governments of Qing and Korea turned out incapable to adopt effected procedures of prohibition. Furthermore, as to Chinese who entered the territory in this period, the Korean government discriminated them on the ground of their discrepant identity. On one hand the original officials of Ming dynasty and intellectuals, who refused to living under the rule of Qing regime or sought to evade the catastrophe of the wars or worried about being persecuted by the new rulers, received warm welcome and high respect from authorities of Korea. On the other, general Chinese people who crossed boundary for the purpose of seeking for life were attributed to the objections of expelling and blowing.Then after the medium term of Qing dynasty, intruding by western bourgeois forces, China and Korea stepped into modern times successively and were forced to openness. Moreover, as the openness grew further meanwhile Japan and western forces became more and more intervening on Korea, China and Korea signed the’Chinese-Korean Merchants Trade Regulations’(’Zhongchao Shangmin Shuilu Maoyi Zhangcheng’) in1882. The pact provided allowance for individuals from the two countries to trade and dwell in the opposite side mutually which created opportunities for overseas Chinese on the Korean Peninsula to proceed into the course of rapid development. Yet it still called for certain conditions to achieve the licit entry thus as antithesis to the ones going into Korea by dint of governmental channel, stowaways continued appearing in high frequency. Although the diplomacy of Qing investigated and repatriated these persons all around the years, it tended to be ineffective to prevent from being permeated by illicit enterers.The fast growth of overseas Chinese in Korea, especially the flourishing of overseas Chinese economy made Japan, the other leading trade state to Korea, feel a great sense of menace. Pushed by the expansive attribution of imperialism, in Japan nation wide the Continent Policy which concentrated on invading Korea and China got mature. Under the integrated influences of these multiple elements in the year of1894the Sino-Japanese War broke out and lasted till1895. The fiaso of Qing government in the war decided diminishment of China, in other words, expansion of Japan on the peninsula. During the twenty years around afterward, Japan completed colonization to Korea, bringing overseas Chinese there to another crossing of history.