Sadae: Attendance to the Great

"A shrimp among the whales” described Korea’s position in East Asia, especially being caught between 2 East Asian power - China and Japan. To survive, the Koreans relied on diplomacy by courting the immediate and closest power - China. Such became the cornerstone of Korea’s centuries-old doctrine known as Sadae (Attendance to the Great).

East Asian Geopolitics

Korea sits next to China with only the Yalu River as the natural boundary between the 2 countries. For centuries, China exerted tremendous cultural, religious, economic, and political influence over peninsula. It also overwhelming outmatched the Koreans in population and resources. Thus, maintaining cordial relations with China for the Koreans meant life or death.

On the other hand, in the east of Korea laid Japan. The Straits of Tsushima and Korea Strait separated the 2 countries by miles. Nevertheless, Korea served as a bridge for Chinese culture to reach the East Asian archipelago. Japan, unlike China, failed to exert greater political influence on Korea due to the infighting and civil wars it experienced. Between China and Japan, Korea chose to lean towards closer relations with the former. The Koreans saw a closer ally and threat in the Chinese than the Japanese. It also provided them closer opportunities and benefits rather than the country across the straits. Hence, the Koreans paid tribute as vassals of the Chinese for peace and stability.

King Taejo and Neoconfucianism

The Joseon Dynasty ruled Korea from 1392 to 1910. Its founder King Taejo began special relations with the Chinese to legitimize his regime and a pillar of its survival. It brought both blessing and curse to Korea. Nevertheless, the set up lasted until the 20th century.

In 1392, Yi Songgye founded the Joseon Dynasty ruling as King Taejo. He staged a coup that overthrew the last Koryo King and established himself as the new sovereign of the Kingdom. As a founder of a new dynasty, he faced the challenge of legitimacy and consolidation of power. In this matter, he sought China’s support.

To gain China’s recognition meant peace, security, and stability for Taejo’s new regime. He sought to maintain the longtime alliance between the Korean kingdom and the Celestial Empire. Even prior to the late Koryo Kings, China supported Silla in its quest for the unification of the Three Kingdoms in the Peninsula. It continued during the reign of the Koryo Kings. Korean rulers in practicing "realpolitik" accepted their role as vassals of the Chinese Emperors and Taejo hoped to gain the Son of Heaven’s mandate by maintaining the status quo. Succeeding in this endeavor meant to prevent any Chinese invasion or support towards any rebellions by Koryo-loyalist nobles.

Moreover, a closer relationship with China aimed towards maintaining support from the followers of Neo-Confucianism. A movement which King Taejo championed. Neo-Confucianism highly regarded order and hierarchy. Furthermore, it viewed China as its Holy Land just as Mecca for the Muslims and Jerusalem for Christians. Therefore, the Korean Neo-Confucianists viewed China as its big brother or more in blunt terms - its leader.

King Taejo made initial overtures to China immediately after his coronation. In 1392, he sent envoys to Nanjing requesting an audience with the Ming Hongwu Emperor. The envoys presented King Taejo’s request to the Chinese Emperor to choose the name of the new Kingdom. They presented 2 options: (1) Joseon, the Korean pronunciation of Chao-hsien meaning morning calm; and (2) Hwaryong, Taejo’s birthplace. The Emperor choose the former for its beauty and poetic meaning and Korea came also to be known as the Land of the Morning Calm.

Despite the Hongwu Emperor naming the Kingdom, the Ming refrained from completely recognizing Taejo as a ruler. Taejo yet to receive a golden seal which symbolized legitimacy and China's recognition. He also yet to be titled as King instead of the derogatory label of “the man in-charge of Koryo.” His relations with the Jurchens irritated the Chinese who feared the revival of a threat in the northeast just as Parhae and Goguryeo in the past. Some embassies Taejo sent also suffered humiliation by being turned away due to petty reasons. Such reasons include the small sizes of the horses being presented as a tribute.

The Korean King, nevertheless, persisted. Initially, embassies went to Ming China once every 3 years before gradually becoming 3 regular embassies annually. Korean embassies went to Nanjing during the Hajongsa (New Year), Songjolsa (Emperor’s Birthday), and Ch’onch’usa (Crown Prince Birthday). Additional embassies also traveled during Tongjisa (Winter Solstice), the death of an Emperor, or the appointment of an Empress in Ming or a Queen in Joseon. These embassies affirmed the Sadae and secured the peace between the 2 countries for centuries to come.

The missions served beyond political matters. Korean envoys brought with them a caravan of goods bringing not only tributes to the Emperor but wares to sell in Chinese markets. They brought horses, ginseng, furs, ramie cloth, and straw mats with floral designs for the Emperor and for Chinese consumers. During their return, they brought back with them silk, medicines, porcelains, and books. Intellectuals and Neo-Confucian scholars also went with the embassies to visit and study in China. They brought back with them to updates in the teachings of Neo-Confucianism. Hence, Sadae resulted in economic, cultural, as well as an intellectual exchange.

Testing the Sadae

Despite being a key foreign policy of the Joseon Kings, Sadae faced extreme challenges during its run. Controversies and wars soured in several occasions the relation between the 2 countries. How did the Attendance to the Great fare in these troubling times?

In 1511, Peking implemented the Ming Dynasty Administrative Code that placed King Taejo’s lineage in question. Ming officials upon checking of King Taejo’s genealogy traced the Joseon founder’s lineage to Yi In-im, a notorious anti-Ming advocate. This placed Joseon's recognition in jeopardy as the Ming went furious over the genealogy. Hanyang (Seoul) protested over the issue that embarrassed and politically undermined the Joseon Kings. For decades, the issue remained until 1584 when a footnote clarified the controversy once and for all.

Few years after the settlement of the lineage crisis, the Imjin Wars erupted. In Japan, the once-divided country united under the rule of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Hideyoshi dreamt of a Japanese Empire in Asia to satisfy the cravings of his lords for land and battle. He set his sights on China and Korea as his stepping stone. In 1592, Japanese forces landed in Korea and swept north capturing the capital Hanyang. King Seonjo (r. 1567 – 1608) fled while the Koreans resisted the invaders. Military legends such as Admiral Yi Sun-sin galvanized the Koreans' resolve. Joseon sought the assistance of the Ming. They indeed received help as Ming troops poured into the country. At sea, Admiral Yi joined forces with the Ming Fleet in the Battle of Noryang in December 1598 where he gloriously and dramatically fell in battle. The war ended with the passing of Toyotomi Hideyoshi in September 1598.

Siege of Busan, 1592

The Imjin Wars left Korea in ruin, but another problem soon erupted with the rise of the Manchu and their dynasty the Qing. In 1616, Korea received orders from Ming China to dispatch troops to Manchuria. Their orders - to attack the Manchu state of Jin led by Nurchaci. Joseon regent Prince Kwanghae reluctantly agreed to send a contingent force of 10,000 troops under General Kang Hong-nip. The Prince gave secret orders to General Kang to observe the situation and find opportunities to exit the conflict quietly and with little casualties as much as possible. In April 1619, in the Battle of Sarhū, General Kang surrendered to the Manchus and withdrew from the conflict.

The rise of the Manchu complicated Sadae. In 1623, King Injo (r. 1623 – 1649) came to power by deposing Prince Kwanghae. He reversed the former regent’s friendly relations with the Manchu turning hostile and pledging his loyalty to the deposed Ming. This enraged the Manchus and their leader Hong Taiji who then invaded the Land of the Morning Calm in 1627. The Manchu host rode south reaching as far as Pyongsan in Hwanghae Province. King Injo sued for peace and recognized the Manchu as the new "greater brother." In 1636, news reached Hanyang of Hong Taiji’s ascendancy as the first Qing Emperor. Injo once again received demands for his submission to the Qing Dynasty, but once again resisted. His refusal brought another Manchu invasion of Korea led by Hong Taiji himself and this time went further south capturing Hanyang as well as taking hostage most members of the royal family including the Queen. King Injo escaped to the Namhansanseong where his officials pleaded for peace. Injo, ultimately caved in and sued for peace. This time, however, at a cost. He pledged allegiance to the Qing and severed ties with the late Ming Dynasty. 2 of his sons also went to Beijing as hostages. From then on, the Qing held suzerainty over Joseon until the dawn of the 19th century.

The end of Sadae went hand in hand with the decline of the Qing Dynasty. The so-called Century of Humiliation badly damaged the prestige of the Middle Kingdom. In the 1880s, Japan challenged the Qing for Korea culminating in the Sino-Japanese War in 1894. The war ended in 1895 with the Treaty of Shimonoseki that secured Korean independence from Qing suzerainty. 

By 1897, King Gojong's declaration of the establishment of the Great Han Empire in 1897 elevated Joseon and himself as equals to the Gwangxu Emperor and the Qing Empire. The situation, however, lasted only for about a decade when in 1910, the Japanese replaced the Qing as overlords of Korea and began a brutal period of colonization.

King Gojong

Over the course of half a millennium, Korea’s Sadae met difficulties that placed the existence of the Joseon on the brink of the abyss. It saw successes, adjustments, and failures. But everything shifted in the 19th century as China suffered a decline. Eventually, it failed to stop the fall of Korea to Japanese imperialism in 1910.

Legacy of Sadae

Sadae played an integral part in the history of diplomatic relations between China and Korea. Today, China remained a vital part of Korean foreign policy for both the Republic of Korea and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. 

For the North, China truly remained the Great Power from which it gained economic and political support. 

For the South, China served as its biggest trading partner. According to the OECD, ROK mostly export to China, amounting to USD 160 billion while mostly imported goods from the same country with a value of USD 107 billion. China also brought the most tourist to Korea, thus the THAAD issue of 2017 brought a huge slump in the tourism sector of the Land of the Morning Calm. Linguistically, Mandarin rivaled English as the most studied foreign language by Koreans. Though the Koreans ended their kowtowing as vassals of China, the ties between the 2 countries remained vital as ever.

See also:

Nordpolitik

Sunshine Policy

Bibliography:

Books:
Kim, D. The History of Korea. Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2005.

Lee, Ki-baik. A New History of Korea. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1984.

Han, Woo-keun. The History of Korea. Hawaii: The University of Hawaii Press, 1980.

Seth, Michael. A History of Korea. From Antiquity to the Present. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2011.

Website:
“South Korea.” The Observatory of Economic Complexity. Accessed on September 13, 2020. URL: https://oec.world/en/profile/country/kor