The Making Of Korean Supporting Strategy Of The Wanli Count Of The Ming Dynasty

Among the three wars during the Wanli period, the most influential was the onein which Ming soldiers fought alongside Korean soldiers against Japan, and it wasalso the most long-lasting and claimed the greatest number of military supplies andfinancial resources. The Ming Emperor sent troops to Korea at its request to fightcooperatively against Japan. As the war went on, the Ming troops reached a temporarytruce with the Japanese troops, but then resumed hostilities and finally defeated them.It lasted seven long years. The present essay attempts to analyze the reason why theMing Emperor decided to join the war, why the Ming troops resumed hostilities afterthey failed to sign a peace treaty, and after the war, the attitude of the Wanli courtierstoward the decision to first join the war. It tries to detect the intrinsic reasons why theMing Emperor joined the war to help a neighboring country regardless of a series ofcrises the Ming Dynasty was itself faced with, such as the constant civil wars,insufficient financial resources, the threat of the Jurchan People rising in the east, andthe corruption of the Ming government. Furthermore, it tries to interpret how theMing Emperor and courtiers saw Japan’s invasion of Korea and the differencesbetween Sino-Japanese and Sino-Korean relations. At last, it tries to identify thegeographical edge of the tributary system of which China was the center and theflexibility of the system itself, and understand the relationship between East Asiancountries today from a historic point of view.The opinions of the present author are as follows: The more fundamentalreason China helped Korea regardless of the many difficulties and domestic pressureChina faced was due to the nature of the Sino-Korean Suzerain-vassal relation, whichhad been stigmatized in the hearts of the Ming Emperor and the courtiers. Koreashowed full respect and loyalty to China when it asked China for military help. In turn,China highlighted its benevolence to its vassal state by sending troops there. Theintrinsic reason that the Ming rulers decided to help Korea lies in their commoncultural sense of identity. On the one other hand, the decision to join the war wasmeant to protect China’s borders against foreign invasion. However, the Mingcourtiers regarded Japan with distrust and rejected it, not only because it was notunder China’s tributary system, but also because it had invaded and harassed to China.Despite that, the Ming Dynasty never send a punitive expedition against it, showingits status as a great power. The present essay consists of six parts. The introduction elucidates the basis ofthe present topic and research significance, discusses the current research on the“Temple Planning” of the war assisting Korea during the Wanli period, and brieflyintroduces main referential materials used in the present essay. Chapter One gives abrief introduction to the major events of the war. Chapter Two analyzes the courtiers’various propositions regarding the war and illuminates Ming Shenzong’s decision,which together show their respective attitudes toward the war. Chapter Threediscusses the proposed plan of sending more troops to Korea after China had failed tosign a peace treaty with Japan and had finally defeated it, and their discussion onkeeping troops stationed in Korea. Chapter Four explains some representativecourtiers’ attitudes on the fact that Ming had helped Korea with the war through theanalysis of their memorandum to the throne The conclusion makes the Sino-Koreanand Sino-Japanese relations clear through analyzing the “Temple Planning,” whichshowed how the Ming people saw the Ming Dynasty helping Korea in the war. Basedon the Ming peoples’ attitudes toward Korea and Japan, the present author examinesand reaches a conclusion on the difference between being and not being in thetributary system, vis-a-vis Korea and Japan respectively.