Korea’s and Vietnam’s Encounter and Reaction towardsWestern Ideas in the Flux of Western Intervention: Focusing on Selective Factors from the Seventeenth tomid- Nineteenth Century

Use your smartphone to scan this QR code and download this article ABSTRACT This paper is a comparative research on how Vietnam and Korea struggled to accommodate and interact withWestern ideas in the advent ofWestern intervention in the East Asian region, based on the closely related cultural and historical background between the two East Asian countries. The author specifically focuses on the rise of Western ideas, i.e. Catholicism in the two countries within the dominant impacts of Confucian Sino-centric perception adopted by Confucian scholars and rulers for centuries. The research indicated significant resemblance in the pattern of Korea and Vietnam's reception and reaction toward the influences and challenges inflicted by theWest, which was predominantly driven by the Sino-centric world view. In this light, both countries struggled through consistent social and political unrest and finally commenced to close the gates to the outside world in an attempt to protect the ruling powers. Vietnamese rulers, however, were by far less conservative and aggressive against the presence of the West in their domains due to their dependence upon Western advanced military technology, particularly during the internal conflicts between the Trinh and Nguyen factions. However, after the unification under the reign of Nguyen family, despite previous contacts with the West, Vietnam gradually become a fervent Confucian state. Meanwhile, in the same period of the Western provocation in East Asia, Korea was a full-fledged and unified kingdom under the rule of Yi family, Choson was more alerted about the rise of new ideas brought in by the West; thus, their reactions toward Western ideas were more brutal and merciless in order to protect the kingdom's correct ideology. Conclusively, nomatter howVietnamese andKorean scholars and rulerswere fascinatedbyWestern advancement in technology, owing to their commitment to the Sino-centric worldview they were reluctant to regardWestern ideas in positive ways; thus, gradually failed to adapt themselves to the road to modernization which historically contributed to the decline of the nations in the following periods.


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Projected by current political worldview of the cen-14 tral government, it is not rare to find history text-15 books, essays and research which were thicken with 16 hatred and negative statements against Western in-17 tervention in Vietnam. However, after the "Doi 18 Moi" renovation policy in Vietnam, coming along 19 with tolerant and open-minded opinions about West-20 ern ideas and lifestyles, studies focusing on colonial 21 modernity sparked new academic trend. For instance, 22 Pham Hong Tung ("Presentation and Interpretation 23 of Colonial History in Vietnamese and French Text-24 books", research paper sponsored by the Academy 25 of Korean Studies (South Korea) (2006)) suggested 26 novel perspectives by which the French colonialism 27 could be reconsidered on how the French influenced 28 Vietnamese lifestyle and ideology in Vietnamese and 29 French history textbooks. Thuy Khue (2015) 1  ready considered spreading the belief system to Korea. 83 Other foreign missionaries outside Japan also strived 84 to introduce Catholicism to Korea but did not achieve 85 much success [ 3 , p.8-9]. This was because, after the 86 Imjin waeran, the Choson monarchy, filled with trepi-87 dation about possible future foreign incursions, delib-88 erately nullified all the channels connecting with the 89 outside world. Hence, it was not until the rise of the 90 Sirhak (/ practical learning) movement in the late 91 seventeenth century did Choson scholars become in-92 formed about the presence of Western civilization [ 4 , 93 p.5]. 94 From the early seventeenth century, Vietnam (known 95 as Dai Viet ()) was in a state of civil war caused by 96 the two powerful lord families Trinh () and Nguyen 97 (), which lasted for more than one hundred years [  By investigating the reception and perception of 111 Western ideas, one can understand the propensity for 112 further modernization process in the two countries, 113 including their fate in relations with the West. In this 114 paper, the author electively selected a variety of his-115 torical incidents happened during the period from the 116 seventeenth and nineteenth centuries for the research 117 base since this span of time undoubtedly evidenced 118 dramatic changes in political and social affairs occur-119 ring in Korea and Vietnam, especially within the ad-120 vent of Western intervention. By examining the ho-121 mogeneity and differentiation of the receptive pat-122 terns of the Western ideas, the write also managed to 123 presume possible correlations between the past and 124 the present in order to argue the underlying forces and 125 themes which evidently drove the relationship pat-126 terns of Vietnam and Korea with Western countries. 127   Korean aristocrats yangban () began to reconsider a 186 variety of internal and external issues in their Confu-187 cian state. They lamented the deteriorating position of 188 their country compared to Japan, the neighbor coun-189 try which Korean people always used to look down 190 upon in terms of its cultural foundation, i.e. Chinese 191 civilization. Adhered to the Chinese worldview in its 192 relations with Japan, Korea regarded itself as the main 193 medium channel by which the Chinese cultural pack-194 age was transmitted to Japan [ 10 , p.15-17].

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The country of Confucian literati that Choson had 196 longed to build was unable to defend itself against 197 the expansionist aggression of its archipelagic neigh-198 bor. After a hundred years of enjoying peace and in-199 dulging in Neo-Confucian precepts, Choson became 200 less afraid of the threat of foreign invasion, thus ne-201 glectful of strengthening military forces. Due to the 202 large devastation during the Imjin war and the royal 203 family's irresponsibility, the populace explosively ex-204 pressed their infuriation about the government's in-205 competence. At the peak of the war, people in low-206 born classes, mostly slaves, rose up to destroy the reg-207 istry where slave rosters were stored [ 11 , p.144-145], 208 which implied that the war worsened the conflicts un-209 derlying Choson social class inequality and discrim-210 ination. Evidently these rebellions caused turmoil 211 and discontinuity in social traditions. Korea's Neo-212 Confucian state obviously failed to run political and 213 social affairs properly, as it did more efficaciously in 214 previous centuries [ 12 , p.1003-1019]. In other words, 215 the Japanese invasion of Korea in the late sixteenth 216 century was the "melting point" of class' conflicts 217 which began to challenge the Choson Confucian-led 218 social system.

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Furthermore, the Confucian hierarchical social sys-220 tem, i.e. "scholars-farmers-artisans-merchant " 221 () that the rulers had built for centuries became 222 no longer competent with social changes in the late 223 Choson period. The literati class, during war with 224 the Japanese, lost their fame as moral representatives 225 among other classes. They barely cared about the mis-226 erable life of other fellow countrymen, and behaved 227 cowardly and selfishly throughout the hard times. A 228 number of manufacturers and merchants began to 229 hold large amounts of property, which allowed them 230 to engage more with political affairs; while in contrast, 231 a lot of yangban family gradually lost their social sta-232 tus as a result of their insistent refusal of economic in-233 volvement. Those newly emerging manufacturer and 234 merchant classes craved social reforms so that they 235 could pursue more profit and rights, whose existence 236 exposed a potential challenge to the status-quo of the 237 society. Sirhak is interpreted as "revised" or "reformed" Neo- which encouraged scholars to look thoroughly into 291 their social problems, heartened to nurture and em-292 brace Korean culture while rebutting the sycophan-293 tic ideas of Sadae ("serving the great/ serving China") 294 and Sohwa ("being a small China"). In order to en-295 rich and enhance the "Korean identity", Sirhak schol-296 ars started to study new technology and ideology from 297 the West, hinting that China was not the only source 298 of civilization in the world. In that process, they were 299 attracted by the superiority in technology of the West 300 [ 14 , p.229-241].

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Though many missionaries in Japan and from other 302 foreign countries tried to spread Catholicism into Ko-303 rea from as early as the late sixteenth and early seven-304 teenth centuries, owing to the country's xenophobic 305 policy and containment, not many scholars and com-306 moners had any chance to approach Western ideol-307 ogy in a thoroughly open way. For instance, Vincent 308 Kwon, who was abducted to Japan as a war slave, was 309 evangelized by Western missionaries there and later 310 returned to Korea in an attempt to convert his fel-311 low countrymen. His journey home for a religious 312 cause was no more fruitful than other foreign mis-313 sionaries' [ 15 , p.8-9]. In reality, not until the late 314 eighteenth century did people in the Choson dynasty 315 have direct contact and obtain rigorous understand-316 ing of Catholicism. The major source of Western ideas 317 for scholars in Korea    In order to reconstruct and strengthen its governmen- in the archipelagic country. Following the achieve-496 ment of Francis Xavier, in 1601 Matteo Ricci com-497 menced his missionary in China. As a "buffer coun-498 try" in the middle of the two more powerful coun-499 tries in the region, fearing further foreign aggression 500 and interference, the Choson monarchy and Confu-501 cian literati tried to preserve their power and national 502 traditions by isolating the kingdom, refusing to have 503 any diplomatic relations with other foreign countries. 504 When China and Japan had already been known to 505 the West, Korea remained the "Hermit Kingdom". As 506 a result, contrary to Vietnam which was not a com-507 pletely closed society during the same period, few 508 scholars and members of the ruling class in Korea ac-509 quired chances to familiarize themselves with West-510 ern ideas inside their country's barricade.

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From the very beginning of Western ideas emerg-512 ing in Korea, the Choson upper classes considered 513 Catholicism as Western heterodoxy that challenged 514 the status quo of the kingdom. Ideological collision 515 between Catholicism and Confucianism peaked in 516 1785 when chesa rites (/ Confucian ancestral cer-517 emonies) were forbidden by the Catholic church and 518 ancestral tablets were burnt within the community of 519 followers [ 24 , p.10-12]. Abandonment of ancestral 520 rituals was censured by the government and Confu-521 cian literati. Neo-Confucianism during the Choson 522 period emphasized the role of chung (/ loyalty) and 523 hyo (/ filial piety) as pivotal social ethos, thus per-524 forming ancestral rituals played a significant role in 525 the Choson dynasty to tie family and village mem-526 bers which strengthened the sense of community and 527 ideas of social status. By practicing ancestral rituals, 528 each member of the society became acquainted with 529 the ideas of loyalty and filial piety to their ancestors, 530 which thus ensured that they would act the same way 531 toward the king.

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After the Imjin war, the presence of Choson war slaves 533 in Japan informed Westerners more of the existence 534 of the kingdom on the Korean peninsula [ 16 , p.106]. 535 Notwithstanding, few efforts to approach the hermit 536 kingdom turned out to be successful. As the very 537 first Westerners in Japan, the Dutch were believed 538 to have learned about Korean peninsula geography 539 and culture whose knowledge was later shared with 540 other Western countries [ 5 , p.   than that, in political aspects Catholicism was equated 602 with pernicious ideas, since it incited people to seek 603 for social equality, which was totally contrast to Cho-604 son's social stratification and its status-quo. 605 Starting from the late eighteenth century, though 606 Choson scholars had the opportunity to learn about 607 Western ideas, a lot of them failed to deviate their 608 perception from the Sino-centric perception in which 609 they were brought up and educated. However, the 610 shadow of Confucianism did not hinder them from 611 appreciating Western advancements in science and 612 technology. In Vietnam, the war between Trinh and Nguyen im-621 poverished and immiserated people, which presum-622 ably left spatial room for Vietnamese commoners dur-623 ing that arduous time to acquaint with Catholicism 624 as a way to conciliate their sufferings emotionally. 625 The accommodation of Catholicism happened quite 626 smoothly, since commoners who spent their life dur-627 ing a turbulent period of the country must obtain 628 shallow understanding of Confucian studies. Con-629 spicuously, there was no influential ideological barrier 630 that could restrain them from accepting new ideas. 631 As stated by McHale in his research, only few Viet-632 namese commoners at that time were able to under-633 stand enough basic Chinese characters for everyday 634 usage and not many of those were sufficiently adept 635 at reading sophisticated characters in Confucian clas-636 sics.

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In the central government, occupied with the ongo-638 ing war rulers in North and South Vietnam were not 639 fully cautious about the presence of Western mission-640 aries who were attempting to cultivate the belief in 641 the suffering people. Noticeably, Trinh and Nguyen 642 even warmly welcomed Western merchants, specifi-643 cally Netherlanders and Portuguese to enter Hoi An 644 port city in the hope that they could receive Western 645 arms or any other type of supports for their war af-646 fairs. Unlike the Netherlanders and Portuguese who 647 set their feet on Vietnamese soil for commercial pur-648 poses, the French were to a greater extent keener on 649 religious activities [ 27 , p.266-269].

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Throughout the protracted wartime between the two 705 lord families, in sympathy with the irreconcilable suf-706 ferings of the commoners, the Tay Son group con-707 sisting of three prominent peasant leaders who re-708 belled to wreck the power of Lord Nguyen in the 709 South, and then advanced northward to eliminate the 710 Trinh-Le ally. Tay Son Dynasty by Quang Trung even-711 tually took the power and ruled the country from 712 1770 to 1802, which put an end to Trinh-Nguyen's 713 civil war period. However, taking advantage of Tay  In the beginning of his reign period, King Nguyen 729 (Gia Long) was relatively tolerant toward Western 730 missionaries and the Catholics as a way to main-731 tain amiable relations with the West, particularly with 732 the French for helping him to regain power. After 733 the death of Nguyen Anh, in order to stabilize cen-734 tral power the second king Nguyen insisted on revis-735 ing Confucianism as a core political ideology. The 736 de facto allied relations between France and Viet-737 nam became hostile since Nguyen attempted to pro-738 mote ideas of a unified country, homogeneous people 739 to conciliate regional distrusts existing among peo-740 ple from the North (Tonkin) and the South (Cochin 741 China). Hence along with increasing aggression from 742 the French toward Vietnam, the teachings of Catholi-743 cism threatened the legitimacy of Nguyen royalties 744 which was built on Confucian political ideology.

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It is most evident that Nguyen Anh -the founder 811 of Vietnam's last dynasty, even though was not the 812 first royalty to have contact with Western people, 813 was harshly blamed for filthily cooperating with the 814 French to uproot Tay Son dynasty whose legitimacy 815 was backed by the victorious war against China's 816 Qing. Thus, despite his relentless effort to strengthen 817 and solidify his newly established state, Nguyen Anh's 818 path to enthronement was otherwise controversial. 819 The hostile environment against his rule apparently 820 affected Nguyen Dynasty's foreign policy toward the 821 West in different types of negativity and alienation, 822 which also exposed great implying threats on the for-823 eign policy of his successors.

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Choson, on the other hand, followed a different road 825 of reaction toward Western ideas. Submerging in the 826 factional conflicts, Vietnamese rulers from Northern 827 and Southern Vietnam did not have any space to fully 828 concern about the rise of Western ideas in their do-829 main, yet tried to take advantage of Western advance-830 ment in weaponry technology, which left a relatively 831 broad line for Western missionaries to approach the 832 Vietnamese commoners. Choson, at the same time, 833 regardless of several social unrests and foreign aggres-834 sion, was already a full-fledged unified kingdom for 835 hundred years; hence, the route of evangelization in 836 Korea showed little similarity with Vietnam. In Cho-837 son, the literati and declining noblemen (chanban), 838 not the commoners, played important role to bring up 839 Western ideas into their peninsula through the con-840 tact with China. The negativity and hatred that Cho-841 son and Vietnam's rulers ferociously imposed upon 842 Catholicism was that its teaching encouraged the op-843 pressed commoners to seek for an egalitarian world 844 which directly contrasted and degraded Confucius 845 teachings on social orders built on filial piety.