Research On The Ming Dynasty's Military Aid And The Choson Dynasty's Request For Military Aid In Early Imjin War

The Imjin war(1592-1598)was an international war in East Asia,which had a profound influence on Japan,the Choson Dynasty,the Ming Dynasty and the international order in Modern East Asian.In the early days of the Imjin war,the Choson Dynasty quickly collapsed,losing all three capticals and almost all eight provinces.Forced by the war situation,the Choson Dynasty successively reported an emergency to the Ming Dynasty,requesting military aid and seeking refuge with the Ming Dynasty.In this period,the Choson Dynasty's request for aid could be divided into the two stages in terms of time,and also be divided into going to Beijing and going to Liaodong in terms of space.Once receiving the emergency,the Ming Dynasty actively responded with a series of measures from the local level to the central level.It sent troops to the Choson Dynasty twice,namely emergency troops and formal troops.The Ming Dynasty's timely military aid turned the Imjin war from a war of aggression and anti-aggression between two countries into a regional international war between three countries.The Ming Dynasty's military aid and the Choson Dynasty's request for aid were also the main aspects of the relationship between the two countries in the early days of the Imjin war.Researching on this problem helps to understand the typicality of the "Feng Gong(??)" relationship(the relationship between conferring titles and tributing),as well as the specific operation mode of the security cooperation mechanism between the two countries.According to the historical data,there are still some questionable conclusions in the existing studies of the relationship between requesting military aid and seeking refuge,as well as the role of the request of aid in the process of sending troops.Therefore,by sorting out,comparing and verifying the official and personal records of two countries,this paper clarifies the decision-making process of two sides,revises the internal logic between events and re-examines the issue of the Ming Dynasty's military aid and the Choson Dynasty's request for aid.After sorting out the decision-making process of the two sides,this paper finds that there were several stages in the discussion,introduction and implementation of reporting an emergency to the Ming Dynasty,requesting military aid and seeking refuge.However.their decision-making processes were independent and they were not the relations of ends and means.To be specific,the process of requesting military aid also had several stages.It can be seen that the Choson Dynasty was somewhat reserved when using the principle of "Shi Da Zi Xiao(????)" principle(the principle of the small state waiting upon the big one and the big state cherishing the small states)to cope with the crisis,and the essence was to safeguard its own security interests.The Ming Dynasty had the initiative and flexibility in responding to the Choson Dynasty's emergency,request for aid and seeking refuge.The emergency deployment of troops was not attributed to the first stage of the request for aid,nor was the formal one attributed to the second stage.Faced with the request for military aid and refuge,both the Liaodong region and the central government of the Ming Dynasty actively dealt with the problem based on the practical interests to alliviate the situation in the Choson Dynasty and safeguard its own security interests.Thanks to the information transmission mechanism under the "Feng Gong"relationship and its own intelligence collection,the Ming Dynasty had a rough idea of the war,so its decision-making process was relatively rapid and systematic.The emergency deployment of troops was part of the Ming Dynasty's overall plan to aid the Choson Dynasty,not separate from the formal troops.It can be considered that the Ming Dynasty had strong ability to deal with regional security affairs in terms of the decisions of sending troops during this period.