It Is Manifest That, By
This Agreement, China, Practically, Acquiesced In Japan's Assertion Of An
Equal Right To Control The Hermit Kingdom.
Thenceforth, it was impossible
to speak of Corea as being a vassal state of the Celestial Empire.
For some nine years, nevertheless, after the conclusion of the Tientsin
agreement, there were no dangerous disturbances in the Peninsular Kingdom.
In the early part of 1894, however, Kim-Ok-Kiun, a reformer, and the
leader of the Corean uprising in 1884, was assassinated at Shanghai, and
it subsequently transpired that the murder had been committed by the order
of the Corean authorities. It is certain that honors and rewards were
bestowed upon the assassin on his return to the Hermit Kingdom, while the
body of his victim was drawn and quartered as that of a traitor. Just at
this juncture, the Tonghaks, a body of religious reformers, having failed
to obtain certain concessions, revolted, and, by the end of May, achieved
so much success over the Corean forces that the Seoul government became
alarmed, and sent to China for assistance. In response to the request,
some two thousand Chinese troops were disembarked on June 10 at Asan, a
seaport some distance south of the Corean capital, and a few Chinese men-
of-war were dispatched to the coast of the peninsula. Formal notice of
these proceedings was given to Japan under the terms of the Tientsin
Convention. Thereupon, the Mikado's government decided to undertake a like
interposition, and acted with so much energy that, within forty-eight
hours after the arrival of the Chinese at Asan, they had placed at Seoul a
much superior force.
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