feudalism and modernization
2021-07-01
Category:The Joseon dynasty
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The Industrial Revolution cannot succeed in the Joseon Dynasty.The existence of proletariat is indispensable for the Industrial Revolution.The goal of defeating the Edo Shogunate, which was a closed-door policy, was not only to open the country, but also to break away from the feudal system and destroy the shogunate system.In other words, as long as people are in feudalism and are bound by land, they cannot secure a fluid labor force.Even in new industrial development, necessary human resources cannot be gathered where they are needed.
In this sense, if you look at the Korean Peninsula at that time, it is not feudalism but servitude, which is from the Middle Ages.In fact, it is said that things that developed in the Middle Ages did not develop and were in a pre-medieval state.Thus the servant was bound not only by the land, but also by his master, and had no freedom.Was it possible to get workers for Industlial Revolusion?
In order to modernize, it is essential to destroy the traditional feudal social system.The Meiji Restoration was the same, and the 1911 Revolution aimed to break away from the Qing dynasty.For this reason, Kim Ok-kyun's way of thinking is correct.Only when the Joseon dynasty is overthrown can social reform be carried out, and the road to modernization begins there.
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[related article]
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 Hague Emissary Incident was tell - all diplomacy - Why was the emissary ignored? Evidence that the world did not recognize Korea, which had given up its sovereignty.
The Korean Empire was founded before the Russo-Japanese War
Japan helped Korea gain independence and eventually stripped Korea of diplomatic rights
The Hague emissary incident is a pathetic diplomatic failure
Main emissary activities
Already surrendered sovereignty before the Hague emissary incident
The southward movement of Russian interests was the cause of the Russo-Japanese War
Kojong made the mistake of causing the head of state to flee and seek asylum in the Russian legation, and the first Russo-Japanese Protocol (Komura-Weber Agreement) and the second Russo-Japanese Protocol (Yamagata-Lobanov Agreement) were concluded, and the premise was He returned to Gyeongun Palace and changed the country's name to the Korean Empire in 1897. Adding the name of an empire to a country's name meant that it was on the same level as Japan and China, and Japan approved of this.
Later, during the Russo-Japanese War that began in 1904, the First Japan-Korea Treaty was concluded, giving Japan the upper hand in the Russo-Japanese War. Under the Second Japan-Korea Treaty concluded in 1905 after the end of the Russo-Japanese War, the Korean Peninsula was stripped of its diplomatic rights.
Although Japan helped establish the Korean Empire on a par with Japan through the Japan-Russia Protocol, Gojong continued to draw in Russian interests. The eventual outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War led to Japan stripping Korea of its diplomatic rights.
The Hague Emissary Incident occurred when Gojong dispatched an emissary to the Hague International Conference in 1907 to appeal for the restoration of diplomatic rights. They were doing the same kind of tell-all diplomacy that is practiced today.
However, Russia, who was supposed to have invited them, betrayed them and was rejected by all the participating countries, and the emissary sent by Gojong was not even able to enter the conference hall. Conversely, Japan's jurisdiction over the Korean Peninsula became internationally recognized.
[Main emissary activities]
He visits Count Nelidov, the chief representative of the Russian Empire, who is the chairman of the conference, but he is refused a meeting.
He visits representatives from the United States, England, France, and Germany, but is refused assistance.
We request a meeting with the Dutch Foreign Minister of the country hosting the conference, but he is refused.
The conference in The Hague, Netherlands recognized Japan's jurisdiction over the Korean Peninsula.
In the first place, in 1896, after the assassination of Queen Min and the Chunshengmun Incident, Go Song, the head of state, fled to the Russian Legation and went into exile (Roguan Transfer). At this point, Korea was no longer recognized by the world as an independent and independent nation.
With the Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895, Korea renounced its sovereignty less than a year after gaining independence from Qing thanks to Japan.
Even if they attempted to exercise remote control from their exile, they were already under Russian house arrest, and Russia gradually gained control over the Korean Peninsula. Even after Gojong returned to Korea and founded the Korean Empire, Russia continued to gain interests in the Korean Peninsula, which led to the Russo-Japanese War.
The Joseon Dynasty cried out to the Qing Dynasty and triggered the Sino-Japanese War, and was invaded by Russian interests due to the transfer of Rokan, leading to the Russo-Japanese War. The Hague Emissary Incident was a case in which a courier was sent to express his dissatisfaction with having been stripped of his diplomatic rights. Japan then gave up on the independence of the Korean Peninsula.
You can see the Korean Peninsula written by William Griffith in the United States before the Japanese rule of Korea.
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.
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.
Technology and knowledge of the Korean Peninsula at that time from pictures of unicycles on the Korean Peninsula.
This photo is often introduced as an interesting ride on the Korean Peninsula, but how about comparing it to the second one in terms of efficiency and cost?The second one is a Japanese rickshaw, but neither is a modern vehicle.The difference is whether it is one wheel or two wheels.
At that time, there was no technology to make wheels on the Korean Peninsula, so it was imported from China.The wheels were expensive, and even though they were aristocrats on the Korean Peninsula, they moved on one wheel.As a result, the biggest difference is the number of people driving the car.In the case of one wheel, it becomes unstable when people ride on top of it and requires two people in front and back.In the case of two wheels, it can be operated by one person for stability.It can be imagined that human costs were much lower than wheels.Or there was no concept of labor costs.If you think about transportation efficiency, you can say everything about agricultural work and transportation of goods.If you need twice as many people to transport things, production efficiency cannot be increased.
It is said that nearly half of the people were slaves at the end of Joseon.If you just order the slaves, there will be no labor costs.
According to Jeong Dong-yu, a Confucian scholar in the Joseon period, "The Sheep, the Car, and the Needle" is not available in Joseon.During the Joseon Dynasty, there was no technology to bend and round wood to make wheels, and there were no horse-drawn carts, cattle carts, rickshaws, or agricultural water wheels.Will this be effective in farming?The absence of needles indicates that metal processing techniques are extremely low.Needles must be made with the technique of sharpening metal and must not be broken.Also, it is necessary to make a hole in the rear part where the thread can be machined.During the Joseon Dynasty, wheels and needles were obtained from China.
You can't make things without those tools.In order to make the tool, we need the tool to make it.Japan's industrial revolution was made possible based on craftsmanship handed down over 1,000 years.They made production facilities and railways that they learned from the West in imitation.
In winter, the Korean Peninsula is cold and warm, but when Japan came to Korea, it was bare and bare.As soon as it rained on the bare mountains, a lot of water flooded the fields and destroyed the crops.Japan planted forests on the mountains of the Korean Peninsula.The number has reached 1 billion in 10 years since 1911.This is a problem unrelated to the Industrial Revolution.This is because it is a matter of improving the efficiency and planning of human resources.During the Joseon Dynasty, no progress was made due to the servitude of the people, and technology and knowledge were lost.
Korea cries out that it was taken away by Japan due to the annexation of Japan and South Korea, but there was nothing on the Korean Peninsula when Japan went there.
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.