You can see the Korean Peninsula written by William Griffith in the United States before the Japanese rule of Korea.
2022-01-26
Category:The Joseon dynasty I'm participating in the ranking.Please click and cheer for me.
William Griffith's Joseon
The Dutchmen escorted to Seoul looked as beasts of prey.Crowds flocked to see the foreigner with a white face and a red beard.Women are more desperate than men to get a better view of themselves.Everyone wanted to see the Dutch drink.It was believed that Westerners picked up their noses above their ears when they drank.
Korea is likened to a man, the king to his head, the nobility to his torso, and the people to his feet.The chest and abdomen are swollen, while the head and lower limbs are thin.The nobles not only slurp the blood of the people, but also infringe on the king's authority.The country is suffering from congestion and bureaucratic edema.
The abundance of torture is enough to show that Korea is still a semi-civilized country.The inventions of courts and prisons include iron chains, bamboo for hitting the back, paddle-shaped instruments for hitting the bottom, whip for beating the calf until the meat is torn, rope for choking meat and internal organs, handcuffs and cane, and boards for hitting the knees and shins.
It's impossible to have contact with a woman after marriage.A woman is almost always confined to her inner chamber and cannot even look out of the house without permission.Because isolation is too strict, fathers kill their daughters, husbands kill their wives, and wives kill themselves just because outsiders touch them.
Joseon's architecture is in a very primitive state.Castles, fortresses, temples, monasteries and public buildings are no match for the grandeur of Japan and China.Despite its long history, this country has few stone remains.The house is either a tile-roofed house or a straw-roofed house, with almost no exceptions.Small cities are not arranged in regular streets, but scattered everywhere.Even in large cities and capital cities, the streets are narrow and winding.
The Korean people are generally illiterate.Four out of ten peasant men may be able to read Chinese or Korean, but about ８５ percent of them cannot read or write if women are counted in.However, regional differences are large.
There are no samurai in Korea.What Korea lacks in Japan is a well-trained body and mind, a soldier, a scholar, and a cultural group with high ideals of loyalty, patriotism and self-sacrifice.
POINT There are several books that convey the Korean Peninsula at that time, but the contents are common, and the tyranny, bureaucratic corruption, and culture of the aristocrats are barbaric.Lee is the only one who draws a different world from Korea.
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be not originally an independent country Is it true that Japan has taken over the independence of the Korean Peninsula?After the Sino-Japanese War, Japan gained independence on the Korean Peninsula and became a substantial protectorate.Korea say that this is the first step in Japanese colonialization, but the reason why it became a protectorate is simple: the Korean Peninsula had no military defense, administrative organization, or tax management.
Japan's goal of make Korea become an independent country through various reforms was frustrated coused by the sudden escape of Gojong. King Gojong will be under Russian pressure and his interests on the Korean Peninsula will be transferred to Russia.As Russia's rights and interests expanded, Ito Hirobumi resigned as prime minister in 1901 after being held responsible for conciliatory policies on the Korean Peninsula.
Even after King Gojong returned, Russia's policy toward the south did not stop, and after the Uiwa War, Russia stationed in Manchuria, it developed into a Russo-Japanese War.Japan had deprived the Korean Peninsula of its diplomatic rights.After the Russo-Japanese War, King Gojong continued to sell his country by connecting with Russia.He seemed to have thought that he could exclude Japan by Russian side.In the end, Japan gave up its independence from the Korean Peninsula and headed for the annexation of Japan and South Korea.
At first period, the Korean Peninsula was independent for the first time under Japanese protection.The Korean Peninsula government abandoned its efforts to achieve substantial independence and approached Russia.Russia's demands for interests have intensified, and Japan has concluded a treaty of annexation with Korea.
The history of China and the peninsula was continuously invaded by northern peoples. The peninsula ultimately failed to maintain its independence.
Due to its geographic characteristics as a peninsula, the Korean Peninsula has a topography that is completely covered by mainland China. For this reason, it has a history that cannot be separated from China. What exactly is this victim mentality and hostility toward Japan that many Koreans have? The historical differences between China and Japan seen from South Korea appear to be largely due to geopolitical reasons when viewed from a map, but there are probably other reasons as well.
Let's think about this in terms of the historical dominant and ruled ethnic groups on the continent. Legend has it that there was a country called Dangun Joseon and Minojo Joseon on the Korean Peninsula. Archaeologically, it is said to have existed since the later Ei Dynasty. The legendary Mino Korea is said to have been founded by Mino of the Shang Dynasty in China. The Wei clan Joseon is said to have been founded by the Wei clan of the Yan state in China. Both countries were established as vassal states of China. The point is that, despite the legend, it is already a vassal state of China.
Even after that, Korea continued to be invaded by China. After that, Goguryeo, Baekje, and Silla flourished on the Korean peninsula, and after Goguryeo was victorious, Goguryeo was invaded by Sui and later by Tang. After that, Goryeo established a unified dynasty on the peninsula, but shortly after its founding, it was placed under the control of the Tang Dynasty in mainland China. During the Yuan era, China was invaded by the Mongol Empire and became a vassal state.
As Mongol invaders, the combined forces of Mongolia and Goryeo invaded Japan twice, but failed. Lee Seong-gye, who founded the Joseon Dynasty, is also said to be a Jurchen, and the Jurchen were an ethnic group that lived in the Manchuria region, and later Hong Taiji founded the Qing Dynasty in China.
From the perspective of China, the Korean people are positioned as a different ethnic group living outside the Great Wall of China. Many of the northern peoples lived primarily as nomadic peoples, but the Korean people are thought to have settled down due to their geographical location on the peninsula. Northern ethnic groups such as the Xiongnu, Xianbei, Khitan, Jurchen, Manchu, and Mongolians were a threat not only to the Han Chinese, but also to the Koreans.
Looking at the history of China, there are only a handful of unified dynasties founded by the Han Chinese, who make up the majority of the population. For most of history, other ethnic groups other than the Han Chinese dominated mainland China. When you look at world history, you don't often see explanations that focus on northern peoples, but if you look at it from that perspective, both mainland China and the Korean Peninsula have a history of being continuously invaded by northern peoples. This appears to be a common feature.
The Sui, Tang, and Yuan dynasties that invaded the Korean peninsula are different ethnic states in China if you consider the Han people as the center, and they are also different ethnic states if you look at the Korean peninsula as the center. In addition to direct invasions of the Korean peninsula by foreign ethnic groups, the majority of the history is that dynasties from mainland China, which were dominated by mainland China, invaded the Korean peninsula. It is said that the Korean peninsula has been invaded by neighboring ethnic groups as many as 960 times, both large and small.
If we look at the annexation of Japan and Korea in this sense, the Korean peninsula was the same for China, but it was ruled by a neighboring foreign ethnic nation called Japan. For the Korean Peninsula, they see themselves as being connected to the Chinese mainland, calling themselves Little China, and Japan is a country outside of that, and their sense of superiority centered on China has been historically fixed. doing. In other words, they have never had the concept of nation-building by their own people or an independent nation since the beginning of recorded history. It looks like they had neither the opportunity nor the will.
Even after Japan made the Korean peninsula an independent state after the Sino-Japanese War, Japan did not realize this and continued to sell its interests to Russia one after another, unable to operate the country on its own. In 1910, Japan annexed Korea and Japan, giving up on supporting the independence of the Korean peninsula. South Korea says that Japan stole the independence of the Korean Peninsula, but the Korean peninsula became an independent nation because of the Treaty of Shimonoseki during the Sino-Japanese War, which was ruled by Japan. If they had developed a strong sense of independence after that, there would have been no need for annexation. That is the true opinion of Japan.
The concept of national boundaries became clear after the Sino - Japanese War, an area where the Korean people spread across northeastern China.
Korean people distributed over a wide area
Liaodong Peninsula is subject to triple intervention
The north was not suitable for agriculture
Koreans who wanted a Japanese name
Manchukuo aimed at five-family harmony
Agreed between the Japanese and Korean governments
The Korean people (Korean language group) are scattered in China's Jilin, Heilongjiang, and Liaoning provinces. The reason is simple: Historically, Koreans lived in this area. It was an area outside the Great Wall of China, and there was no concept of strict borders at the time. It is still fresh in my memory that Koreans, an ethnic minority in China, performed at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics wearing chimajeogori.
During the Goguryeo period, the Korean ethnic group lived as far as the Liaodong Peninsula. At the time of the Sino-Japanese War, Japan claimed possession of the Liaodong Peninsula. This idea was based on the idea that the Liaodong Peninsula was Korean territory and had strategic implications for China, but this was abolished due to trilateral intervention by France, Germany, and Russia, who felt threatened by the fact that it was too close to Beijing. I decided to abandon it.
It can be said that this was the first time that the concept of Korean territory and borders was created. During the Japanese colonial period, northern Korea was unsuitable for agriculture and was developed mainly for industry. Southern Korea is mainly agricultural.
Farmers from the north migrated to Manchuria in search of farmland. Manchuria received plenty of rain and was better suited for agriculture than northern Korea. The Manchurians were the landowners in this area, and many troubles occurred frequently.
Therefore, Koreans in the north wanted Japanese names very much. This is because if you use your Japanese name, you won't be bullied by Manchurians.
After that, the state of Manchukuo was established after the Liuzhou Lake Incident. The founding principle of Manchukuo was the harmony of the five ethnic groups: Japanese, Han, Korean, Manchurian, and Mongolian.
As a result, Koreans were safe from persecution and their agricultural land was greatly expanded. If you compare the residential areas of Manchukuo and the Korean people, you will find that they are roughly the same.
Joseon Dynasty, where slaves accounted for 40% of the population.The annexation of Korea and Japan abolished the slave system that had lasted for 2,000 years.
Slavery system that lasted for 2,000 years
Rangban called for mass production of slaves
Ryoban opposed the policy of reducing slaves
The slavery system was abolished through the Kogo Reform and the annexation of Japan and Korea
Who on earth held a grudge against Japanese rule
In Korean academic circles, it is estimated that when the population during the Joseon Dynasty was around 10 million people, around 4 million people, or about 40%, were slaves.
In 695, during the Unified Silla period, a document from a survey of four villages in Nishiwongyeong (near present-day Cheongju) records that 28 people out of a population of 460 were taken as slaves. The ratio is just over 6%.
Similar records can be found in the fiefdom that Lee Seong-gye received in 1391, just before the opening of Korea. Of the 162 people living there, only 7 people, or about 4.3%, were slaves. This will increase to 40% of the population in 100 years.
During the Goryeo period, if one of the parents was a slave, the child was also a slave, and marriage between a slave and a yangban adopted child was illegal. Since it was only inherited by slaves, it did not increase significantly.
In Japan, the slave system was abolished with the end of the Ritsuryo system. The period is the beginning of the 10th century.
With the advent of the Joseon Dynasty, the system of the Goryeo Dynasty was gradually loosened, and the Yangban began actively promoting marriages, believing that it would be better to increase the number of slaves by marrying slaves and adopted children instead of marrying slaves to each other. He recommended marriages between adopted children and slaves. This is because the yangban were able to increase their wealth by using slaves who were almost unpaid.
Since slaves are not required to serve in the military or pay taxes, the increase in the number of slaves is not a positive phenomenon for the nation. For this reason, some Korean kings implemented policies to reduce the number of slaves.
Taizong established that any child born to a male slave (a class other than slaves) and a female slave would qualify as a good person. At that time, yangban often kept female slaves as concubines, so this measure reduced the number of slaves and played a major role in adoption.
When the number of slaves decreased, yangban bureaucrats began to rebel against it, and they demanded its abolition, using the pretext that ``female slaves are disturbing human morals by marrying good men without permission.''
In 1485, during the reign of King Sejong, the ``Geongoku Daten'' made it clear in the law that if one parent was a slave, the child would also be a slave. The number of slaves in Korea increased rapidly again.
In some areas, such as Ulsan and Danseong, the percentage of slaves was close to 50-60% of the population, and in 1663, it was recorded as 73% in the Hanseong family register.
The yangban mass-produced slaves to enrich their own pockets, and the country engaged in a tug-of-war over and over again, as if the number of slaves increased any further, tax revenue would decrease as a national benefit. The power of the Yangban was strong within Korea, and even the king could not ignore it.
As a result, the slave system was nominally abolished by the Kogo Reform of 1885. The Kobo Reforms are the reforms that Japan demanded after the Korean Peninsula became an independent country after the Sino-Japanese War.
Ultimately, after the annexation of Japan and South Korea in 1910, the establishment of the family register system and the change of names to the So family led to the abolishment of status records on family registers, and the systematic slave system came to an end.
With modernization under Japanese rule, the slave system that had lasted 2,000 years since recorded history on the Korean peninsula ended, and as many as 40% of slaves were freed.
A big question arises here. Nearly half of the population was liberated from slavery, gained rights as ordinary people, and began to live a civilized life. Do these people hold a grudge against Japanese rule? "I will not forgive Japan for liberating me, my family, and my future descendants from a life of slavery"...?
The yangban were indeed deprived of the right to abuse slaves and enrich their own pockets. Then, perhaps one day, they suddenly became the same class as the people who had previously been slaves. There is no doubt that the anti-Japanese movement was led by people who were dissatisfied with having their rights taken away from Japan.
South Korea says that Japan colonized the Korean Peninsula, but Japan liberated as many as 40% of its slaves. The Korean peninsula was colonized by the Yangban, a privileged class of Korea.
The blatant lie that Japan stole Korea's independence - Joseon was not an independent nation.
Joseon Dynasty unable to resolve domestic issues
The annexation of Japan and Korea was carried out peacefully
Japan disappears and splits into North and South
Divided constitution that continues today
It is clear that at the end of the Joseon Dynasty, the Joseon dynasty lacked the power to govern the country. The person who put an end to the Imo Army Rebellion was Yuan Shikai. Who did Queen Min rely on to suppress the rebellion of the Donghak Party? This is also pure. This caused the Sino-Japanese War to break out. What happened after Japan became an independent country after the Sino-Japanese War? Next is the division between pro-Russian and pro-Japanese factions. This led to the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War.
The Junsong Dynasty was unable to settle the domestic turmoil through imperial edicts, and wrote that it wanted to entrust the country to His Majesty the Emperor of Japan. Japan and the Korean Peninsula were annexed by treaty. It is said that the Japanese army attacked, but that is not true at all. What is the basis for assuming that the Korean Peninsula was an autonomous nation at the time? If Japan had been an autonomous nation in the first place, there is a possibility that neither the Sino-Japanese War nor the Russo-Japanese War would have occurred.
So what happened to the Korean Peninsula after Japan's defeat? It was divided into north and south. Despite saying that the Japanese Empire had left, the country was divided into pro-Russian, pro-China, and pro-American forces.
What would happen if we looked at present-day South Korea? This is also a pattern of division between pro-China and pro-American factions. Moreover, the previous Moon Jae-in administration pursued a surprising foreign policy of promoting Chinese-led unification with North Korea, an enemy country. Throughout history, the Korean peninsula may have been viewed from the Japanese perspective, but it can also be said that the most stable period on the Korean peninsula was during the Japanese colonial period.
