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Comforting Fictions: The Tribute System, the Westphalian Order, and Sino-Korean Relations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 January 2016

Kirk W. Larsen
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Abstract

Observers and practitioners of Sino-Korean relations in both the pre- and post-nineteenth century have utilized powerful “comforting fictions” to describe and justify power asymmetry. In the pre-nineteenth-century period, the idea of the “tribute system” put a veneer of Confucian benevolence on what a closer examination reveals to have been unequal and coercive relations. Western proponents of the Westphalian system of sovereign equality saw the new norms of international relations as potentially liberating to Korea, a way to free Korea from the Chinese yoke. However, Westphalian equality, too, was a comforting fiction that masked the reality of imperialism—both formal and informal. The Qing empire played a heretofore neglected role in both types of unequal coercive relations between Korea and the outside world.

Keywords

Chosòn Korea (1392–1910)Ming China (1368–1644)Qing China (1644–1910)tribute systemWestphalian systemimperialism
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of East Asian Studies , Volume 13 , Issue 2: Special Issue: International Relations and East Asian History: Impact, Meaning, and Conceptualization , August 2013 , pp. 233 - 257
Copyright
Copyright © East Asia Institute 

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