Korea and the Chinese Tributary System: Will the Past Resemble the Future?

Abstract

Traumatic as the Korean war was in mid-century, the Korean peninsula had had a long and bloody history of war with its neighbors. It was the fate of Korea to be located in an area surrounded, as it were, by Russia to the North, China to the West, and Japan to the South. To the East was the Pacific, and North America was 5,000 miles away. So for well over 2,000 years, Korea was dominated by the aspirations of its neighbors. The principal influence came from China, the earliest and greatest civilization in Asia. Korea was absorbed into the Chinese system of international relations, the tributary system, which was designed by the Chinese to keep their neighbors on the borders or on the periphery of their culture and power. Korea was one of the earliest and most loyal participants in this relationship, which shows in significant ways to this day.¹