Corea And Its Neighbors
We have thus far followed the course of two distinct streams of history,
that of Japan and that of China, flowing near each other, yet touching
at very few points in their course. Near the end of the nineteenth
century these two streams flowed together, and the histories of the two
countries became one, in the war in which their difference in military
skill was so strikingly displayed. Japan made use of the lessons which
>
it had well learned in its forty years of intercourse with Europe. China
fought in the obsolete fashion of a past age. As a result, the
cumbersome mediaeval giant went down before the alert modern dwarf, and
the people of Eastern Asia were taught a new and astounding lesson in
the art of war.
Between China and Japan lies the kingdom of Corea, separated by a river
from the former, by a strait of the ocean from the latter, claimed as a
vassal state by both, yet preserving its individuality as a state
against the pair. It has often been invaded by China, but never
conquered. It has twice been invaded by Japan, as described in preceding
tales, and made tributary, but not conquered. Thus it remained until the
end of the nineteenth century, when it was to become the cause of a war
between the two rival empires.
During the long history of China and Japan these countries very rarely
came into conflict with each other. Only once has China invaded Japan,
when Kublai Khan, the Mongol emperor, attempted its conquest with a
great fleet, the fate of which we have already told. This effort had its
influence upon Japan, for during the succeeding three centuries pirates
from the island empire boldly raided the coast of China, devastating the
maritime provinces and causing immense loss and suffering. They often
built forts on the shore, from which they sallied forth to plunder and
burn, keeping their ships at hand ready to fly if defeated. Thus they
went on, plundering and destroying, their raids reaching a ruinous stage
in 1553 and the succeeding years. They defeated the Chinese troops in
several battles, ravaged the whole surrounding country, carried off
immense quantities of spoil, sold multitudes of prisoners into slavery,
and in seven or eight years slaughtered over one hundred thousand
soldiers and citizens of China. The raids resembled those made at an
earlier date by the Normans on the coast of France and the Danes on that
of England, the sea-rovers pouncing down at unexpected times and places
and plundering and burning at will.
These forays of the pirates, in which the government took no part, were
followed in 1592 by an invasion in force of the kingdom of Corea. In
this the invaders rapidly swept all before them, quickly overrunning the
southern half of the kingdom and threatening China. The Chinese then
came to the aid of their helpless neighbors, and for six years the war
went on, the Japanese being usually successful in the field, but
gradually forced back from want of supplies, as the country was
devastated and their own land distant. In the end Hideyoshi, the shogun,
died, and the army was withdrawn, Japan holding the port of Fusan as the
sole result of its costly effort. This Corean port it still retains.
And now three hundred years passed away in which Corea remained free and
isolated from the world. It wanted no more intercourse with foreigners.
Once a year a fair was held in the neutral zone between China and Corea,
but any Chinaman found on Corean soil after the fair ended was liable to
be put to death. The Japanese were kept out by laws as severe. In fact,
the doors of the kingdom were closed against all of foreign birth, the
coasts carefully patrolled, and beacon-fires kindled on the hill-tops to
warn the capital whenever any strange vessel came within sight. All
foreigners wrecked on the coast were to be held as prisoners until
death. Such was the threatened fate of some Dutch sailors wrecked there
during the seventeenth century, who escaped after fourteen years'
confinement. Dread of China and Japan induced the king to send envoys
with tribute to Peking and Yedo, but the tribute was small, and the
isolation was maintained, Corea winning for itself the names of the
Hermit Nation and the Forbidden Land.
It was not until within recent years that this policy of isolation was
overthrown and Corea opened to the world. How this was done may be
briefly told. In spite of the Corean watchfulness, some French
missionaries long ago penetrated into the land and made many converts,
who were afterwards severely persecuted. French fleets were sent there
in 1866 and later, and a fight took place in which the French were
repulsed. In consequence the persecution of the Christians grew more
severe. War-ships were sent by different nations to try to open trade,
but in vain, and finally an American trading vessel was destroyed and
its crew massacred.
This affair brought a fleet from the United States to the coast of Corea
in 1871, which, being fired on from the shore, attacked and captured
five Corean forts. The opening of Corea was finally due to Japan. In
1876 the Japanese did what Commodore Perry had done to themselves
twenty-two years before. A fleet was sent which sailed up within sight
of Seoul, the capital, and by a display of men and guns forced the
government to sign a treaty opening the country to trade through the
port of Fusan. In 1880 Chemulpo was also made an open port. Two years
afterwards a United States fleet obtained similar concessions, and
within a short time most of the countries of Europe were admitted to
trade, and the long isolation of the Hermit Kingdom was at an end.
These events were followed by a rivalry between China and Japan, in
which the latter country showed itself much the more active and alert.
Imposing Japanese consulates were built in Seoul, flourishing
settlements were laid out, and energetic steps taken to make Japan the
paramount power in Corea. As a result, the Coreans became divided into
two factions, a progressive one which favored the Japanese, and a
conservative one which was more in touch with the backwardness of China
and whose members hated the stirring islanders.
In 1882 a plot was formed by the Min faction, the active element in the
conservative party, to drive the Japanese out of Seoul. The intruders
were attacked, a number of them were murdered, and the minister and
others had to fight their way to the sea-shore, where they escaped on a
junk. Two years afterwards a similar outbreak took place, and the
Japanese were once more forced to fight for their lives from Seoul to
the sea. On this occasion Chinese soldiers aided the Coreans, an act
which threatened to involve Japan and China in war. The dispute was
settled in 1885 by a treaty, in which both countries agreed to withdraw
their troops from Corea and to send no officers to drill the Corean
troops. If at any future time disturbances should call for the sending
of troops to Corea, each country must notify the other before doing so.
And thus, for nine years, the rivalry of the foreign powers ceased.
Meanwhile internal discontent was rife in the Corean realm. The people
were oppressed by heavy taxes and the other evils of tyranny and
misgovernment, excited by the political questions described, and stirred
to great feeling by the labors of the Christian missionaries and the
persecution of their converts. One outcome of this was a new religious
sect. At the same time that the Tai-ping rebels were spreading their new
doctrines in China, a prophet, Choi-Chei-Ou by name, arose in Corea, who
taught a doctrine made up of dogmas of the three religions of China,
with some Christian ideas thrown in. This prophet was seized as a Roman
Catholic in 1865 and executed, but his followers, known as the
Tong-Haks, held firm to their faith. In 1893 some of them appeared with
complaints of ill usage at the king's palace, and in March, 1894, they
broke out in open revolt, and increased in numbers so rapidly that by
May they were said to be twenty thousand strong.
The government troops drove them back into a mountain region, but here
the pursuers were cunningly led into an ambuscade and routed with severe
loss. This victory of the rebels filled the government with
consternation, which became greater when the insurgents, on June 1, took
the capital of the province of Choella. It was now feared that they would
soon be at the gates of Seoul.
This insurrection of the Tong-Haks was the inciting cause of the war
between China and Japan. The Min faction, then at the head of affairs,
was so alarmed that aid from China was implored, and a force of about
two thousand Chinese troops was sent to the port of Asan. Some Chinese
men-of-war were also despatched. This action of China was quickly
followed by similar action on the part of Japan, which was jealous of
any Chinese movement in Corea. The Japanese minister, who had been
absent, returned to Seoul with four hundred marines. Other troops
quickly followed, and in a short time there were several thousand
Japanese soldiers stationed around the Corean capital.
The sending of troops to Corea was succeeded by disputes between the two
foreign powers. China claimed to be suzerain of Corea, a claim which
Japan sternly denied. On the other hand, the Japanese government
declared that the Tong-Hak movement was a natural result of the
prevailing misgovernment, and could not be overcome unless radical
reforms were carried out. China was asked to take part in instituting a
series of reforms, but declined.
The situation quickly grew serious. The Mins, who controlled the
government, declared that the Japanese troops must be withdrawn before
the reforms could be instituted. The Japanese refused. Neither China nor
Japan would yield, but the latter held the capital and had the
controlling position.
It was not long before a crisis came. On July 20, Otori, the Japanese
minister, made certain demands on the Corean government, and stated that
the presence of the Chinese soldiers was a threat to the independence of
the country, their general having proclaimed that Corea was a vassal
state. On the 22d the officials answered that the Chinese had come at
their request and would stay until asked to leave. The next step of the
Japanese was a warlike one. On the early morning of the 23d two
battalions marched from their camp, stating that they were going to
attack the Chinese at Asan. But they quickly changed the direction of
their march, advanced upon the palace, drove out the Corean guard, and
took possession both of the palace and of the king. They declared they
had come to deliver him from an obnoxious faction and restore his
freedom of action.
The Min party was at once driven out and replaced by new officials
chosen from the progressive faction. With a feeble resistance, in which
only two men were killed and a few wounded, a revolution had been
accomplished and a government which favored Japan established. The new
authorities at once declared the Chinese at Asan to be intruders instead
of defenders, and requested the aid of the Japanese to drive them out.
War between China and Japan was at hand.
Hostilities were precipitated by a startling event. On July 25 three
Japanese men-of-war, cruising in the Yellow Sea, sighted two ships of
the Chinese navy convoying a transport which had on board about twelve
hundred troops. They were a portion of a large force which was being
sent to Corea with the purpose of reinforcing the troops at Asan and
expelling the Japanese.
The Chinese ships were cleared for action, and, though the Japanese were
ignorant of the late event at Seoul, they at once accepted the wager of
battle, and attacked the ships of the enemy with such effect that they
were quickly crippled and put to flight. The Naniwa, the Japanese
flag-ship, now approached the transport, a chartered British vessel
named the Kowshing and flying the British flag. A boat was sent from the
Japanese cruiser to the steamer, her papers were examined, and orders
given that she should follow the Naniwa. This the Chinese generals
refused to do, excitedly declaring that they would perish rather than be
taken prisoners. Their excitement was shared by the troops, who ran
wildly about the deck, threatening the officers and the Europeans on
board with death if they attempted to obey the order of the enemy.
They trusted to the protection of the British flag, but it proved of no
avail, for the captain of the Naniwa, finding his orders defied, opened
fire on the transport, with such effect that in half an hour it went to
the bottom, carrying down with it over one thousand souls. The officers,
the Europeans, and many of the Chinese sprang overboard, but numbers of
these were shot in the water by the frantic soldiers on board. In all
only about one hundred and seventy escaped.
This terrible act of war at sea was accompanied by a warlike movement on
land, the Japanese forces leaving Seoul on the same day to march on Asan
and expel the Chinese. On the 29th they attacked the enemy in their
works and quickly drove them out, little resistance being made. These
events preceded the declaration of war, which was made by both countries
on August 1, 1894.
The story of the war that followed was one of unceasing victory for the
Japanese, their enemy making scarcely an effort at resistance, and
fleeing from powerful strongholds on which they had expended months of
hard labor with scarcely a blow in their defence. Such was the case with
Port Arthur, which in other hands might have proved a Gibraltar to
assailing troops. The war continued until April 17, 1895, when a treaty
of peace was signed, which remarkably changed the relative positions of
the two powers before the world, China having met with utter and
irretrievable defeat. The war yielded but a single event of novel
interest, the famous naval battle of Hai-yang, which we shall describe
more at length.