The Study Of The Evolution Of Relationship Between China And Korea In Turning Of Yuan And Ming Dynasty

The late Yuan and early Ming Dynasty was a period when the ‘typical tributary relationship' between ancient China and ancient Korea was gradually established.During this period,the Chinese Dynasties suffered the upheaval of Ming Dynasty replacing Yuan Dynasty and Korean peninsula regime also realized its ‘Revolution of Replacing Imperial Power's Family Name' from the Wong's Koryo to Chosun Dynasty.Since then,the political relationship of Sino-Korea has changed many times,even drifting between subordinate relationship and adversarial relationship which became stable gradually until almost after half a century.There are multiple factors behind such a complex process.Besides the factor of strength changing between Yuan Dynasty and Ming Dynasty,such factors as the influence of traditional Yuan-Koryo subordinate relationship,Ming Dynasty's strategic consideration of the peninsula regime from the perspective of territory as well as the royalty's reliance on flunkey policy due to the internal political environments of Koryo and Chosun all of these are important factors that decide the two countries' policies toward each other.The first chapter introduces the Yuan-Koryo relationship before the 1356 when King kongmin of Koryo launched a coup against Yuan Dynasty.First it combs the establishing process of subordinate system between Yuan Dynasty and Koryo,analyzes changes of kingship in Koryo and Koryo's changing status in Emperor Qubilai's strategic layout during this process,investigates the contents of the executive secretary for conquering the East and the bridegroom and King system(only the son of Koryo emperor and his wife,Princess of Yuan Dynasty could inherit the Koryo kingship)which includes its influence on Koryo Emperor's political status as well as the inherent quality in the system which weakened and destabilized the Koryo kingship.Based on some individual cases including the thwarted domestic reform in Koryo,issues about King kongmin's acceding to the throne,Jo Yil-sin's Rebellion,etc.,it gives detailed analysis on the negative influence of Yuan-Koryo relationship system on Koryo's regime,i.e.the internal factor in the breakdown of theYuan-Koryo relationship.The second chapter takes as the main investigation objects changes in diplomatic relations between each power on Central Plains including the imperial court of Yuan Dynasty and Koryo among political changes at the end of Yuan Dynasty.This kind of changes happened since 1356 when King kongmin of Korea launched a coup against Yuan Dynast,it went through several stages including Koryo's repeatedly changing political relationship with Yuan Dynasty for many times,Koryo's private exchanges with strong powers on Central Plains as well as initially established tributary relationship between Ming Dynasty and Koryo,etc.And finally as army forces of Ming Dynasty entered Liaodong region,the original relationship between Ming Dynasty and Koryo changed again when Ming Dynasty and Northern Yuan Dynast started to fight against each other.During the whole process,evolution of Koryo's internal political landscape and changes in its diplomatic strategies interacted with each other,and especially the King kongmin royalty's failure in promoting reform and the emergence of the group of executive secretaries and army generals have close connections with the development of Ming-Koryo relationship in the next stage.Therefore,it is also the focus of this chapter.The third chapter mainly introduces the evolution of relationship between Ming Dynasty and the peninsula regime during the period of Hongwu after 1374.The introduction follows two basic clues: one is changes in strategic situation when Ming Dynasty fought against North Yuan Dynasty in Liaodong and another is changes in Koryo's crown.During this stage,interactions between Ming Dynasty and Koryo(as well as the later regime of Yi Seong-gye)were mainly developed around changes in the two aspects and the two countries also formulated their diplomatic policies according to the two aspects,i.e.Emperor Ming Taizu pursued the non-interference policy of ‘self-rule' due to the demand of making Koryo to be favorable for Ming Dynasty's strategy and curbing the territory expansion of Yi Seong-gye regime,which led to the peninsula's monarch lack of legitimacy for a long time in late Koryo and early Chosun Dynasty;but Koryo-Chosun's unique conditions of politics,culture and regime also decided that both King kongmin and Yi Seong-gye badly wantedrecognition from the metropolitan state to different extent which is the inner reason for frequent unrest in Koryo regime and Yi Seong-gye regime as well as the two powers' several sharply changes in attitudes to Ming Dynasty's policy from honestly following Yuan Dynasty to conducting military confrontations.The fourth chapter introduces the evolution of political relationships between Ming Dynasty and Chosun from the period of Jianwen to the period of Yongle.It mainly takes as the breakthrough point the conferring processes of King of Chosun before and after Jingnan Rebellion and the Chosun's bargaining process around Jurchen tribes' affiliation issues including the tribe of Meng Temu,etc.during the period of Yongle and it analyzes changes in subsidiary relationship between Ming Dynasty and Chosun during the process of dealing with the above issues and it also tries to compare the changed Ming-Chosun relationship with Yuan-Koryo relationship starting from some details including Emperor Ming Chengzu's mothering system for Chosun eunuchs and system of contributing Chosun females to marry with male relatives of Emperor Ming Chengzu as well as Chosun's Yi Bang-won regime's reform of eliminating arrogation among officials and the give-up of marriage with Ming Dynasty and it also discusses characteristics of Ming-Chosun relationship during the period of Yongle in details.Conclusion is made based on the above introduction: the evolution process of China-Chosun relationship from Yuan-Koryo relationship to Ming-Chosun relationship is in essence the process during which peninsula regime's strategic significance to Chinese Dynasties coincided with the political values of Chinese Dynasties to peninsula regime.During this process,Ming Dynasty's strategies in Liaodong territory and the unique politics and cultures in Koryo-Chosun regime are the inner factor.And this phenomenon is also an outward manifested aspect of Asian‘tributary system'.