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Confucian Gentlemen and Barbarian Envoys: Opening of Korea, 1875-85

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The title of this book alone provides the two categories in the Korean world-view, Korean Confucianists and barbarians. This history dissertation ably isolates the important decade from 1875 to 1885, when Choson negotiated treaties with Japan, China, Russia, the United States, and France. Also, Pusan, Inchon, and Wonsan would become international trade centers. And, domestic crises, such as the Confucian protests and return of the Taewongun in 1882, Kim Ok-kyun's 1884 coup attempt, and Sino-Japanese hostilities, are sketched and analyzed.

The author portrays King Kojong as an ineffectual, but enlightened monarch constrained by Choson's economic weakness and bureaucratic and aristocratic conservatism. Kojong's father, the Taewongun, and his wife's family, the Yohung Min, are also criticized for self-serving machinations that China and Japan exploit. Choson, weakened by aristocrats and Confucianism, was unable to modernize, as had Meiji Japan, and fell prey to its geographical neighbors.

The book has valuable appendices and elucidates the various treaties as negotiated and finalized. Although the author does not delve deeply into the various personalities involved, major players, including foreign diplomats, like Li Hung-chang, Yuan Shih-kai, Paul Georg von Moellendorff, Takezoe Shinichiro, are introduced. The strength of the book is its organization and clarity.