The year 1892 passed without witnessing many events of special importance, excepting that the state of things kept getting worse and worse. It was a time during which the country was ripening for the great disturbances of the following year. History shows that when the Korean people are treated with anything like a fair degree of justice they are loyal and peaceful. So long as the Korean is called upon to pay not more than three or four times the legal rate of tax he will endure it quietly and there will be no talk of seditious sects arising; but the people are well aware that they themselves form the court of final appeal and when all other means fail they are not slow to adopt any means of righting their wrongs.
In 1893 Korea began to reap what she had sown in 1891 and 1892. Having sown the wind she began to reap the whirlwind. The whole province of P‘yŭng-an was in a ferment. Insurrections occurred in Kang-gye, Song-ch‘ŭn, Ham-jong and in other parts of the province. But the difficulty was not confined to the North. The sect called the Tong-hak which had arisen in 1864 began to show its head in the south again. Rumors began to multiply in Seoul that they were coming to the capital in great numbers to drive out the Japanese and other foreigners. The government despatched O Yun-jung, a civilian, to pacify them and for a time quiet was preserved, but in March threatening plackards were fastened to foreigners’ gates in Seoul inveighing against the Christian religion and warning foreigners to leave the country at once. It was the general feeling that although serious trouble was not likely to occur in Seoul it would be well to be in a state of preparedness in case the Tong-hak saw fit to put their words to the test of action.
At this time the Queen was extremely well-disposed toward that class of female spiritual mediums called mudang, and one of them was elevated to the rank of Princess. A Korean, An Hyo-je, who memorialised the king against such practices, was overwhelmed with obloquy and was banished to the island of Quelpart. Min Yong-jun had taken advantage of his high position to add private profit to public usefulness and loud complaints were heard on all sides against him and against others of the same name. Insurrections of greater or less degree occurred in different parts of the country and it seemed as if Korea were on the verge of anarchy. It can hardly be gainsaid that this state of affairs was the legitimate outcome of pro-Chinese agitation and was directly in line with immemorial custom in China. Nothing could be truer than that Korea needed reforming. The government found it necessary to deal with great severity in some cases. Four prefects were taken to the center of the city and publicly beaten and then banished. Even Min Yong-jun had to go through the form of punishment in this public way, for the people of the capital were so incensed against him that an insurrection seemed imminent unless they were appeased. The Songdo people revolted against the extortion that was practiced against them but they were overcome and their ginseng was taken away from them by Kim Se-geui, the right hand man of Min Yong-jun.
Late in the year the Tong-hak made a startling proclamation which they secretly nailed to the gate of the governor’s yamen in Chŭn-ju. It called upon all right-minded men to join in the march on the capital and the extirpation of the foreigners. This seemed more tangible than the former rumors and foreign men-of-war began to congregate at Chemulpo for the protection of their nationals in Seoul. Hundreds of Japanese left the city and hurried to Chemulpo for safety. A force of Korean infantry marched southward to head off the revolutionists but they were easily defeated and their arms and accoutrements fell into the hands of the enemy.
It was quite evident that the Korean government was without the means or the men to cope with such determined opposition. This deplorable state of things was looked upon by Japan with some uneasiness. Korea seemed to be coming more and more under Chinese influence and in the same proportion her internal management became more corrupt. Japan regarded Korea as an independent power and was determined to see that independence upheld. This feeling on the part of Japan was sharply accentuated when in the spring of 1894 a Korean detective, Hong Chong-u, succeeded in gaining the confidence of Kim Ok-kyun who was living at Tokyo as a political refugee. He was induced to accompany his betrayer to Shanghai where, in a hotel, his betrayer shot him down in cold blood. The Chinese government condoned the dastardly deed and sent the assassin, together with the body of his victim, to Korea in a Chinese gunboat. The body of Kim Ok-kyun was dismembered on April fourteenth in a most brutal manner and the different portions of his body were sent about the country as a warning to traitors. This lapse into the worst excesses of the old regime opened the eyes of Japan to the actual situation and gave her just the impetus she needed to take the strong position which she did later. Soon after this the Tong-hak took the town of Chŭn-ju and defeated all the government troops sent against them. The governor of the province, Kim Mun-hyŭn, made his escape from the place.
The government had at last become convinced of its inability to cope with its enemies single-handed and it determined to have recourse to the dangerous policy of asking China to throw troops into the peninsula to aid in putting down the Tong-hak uprising. China immediately complied and on June sixth 1,500 Chinese troops were embarked at Tientsin and were sent to Chemulpo under the escort of three gunboats.
It must be remembered that according to the third article of the Tientsin Convention China and Japan each agreed not to send troops into Korea without first notifying the other. In this case the Chinese failed to notify the Japanese until after the departure of the troops and there can be no doubt that at this point lies the strength of Japan’s contention. When, later, the Chinese agreed to leave Korea simultaneously with the Japanese the latter naturally refused. The Chinese broke the convention first; they must leave first. But there were other important points involved. Korea was rapidly losing all semblance of independence and Japan was being jeopardized. The Chinese abrogation of the treaty gave Japan just the excuse she wanted for throwing troops into Korea and compelling those reforms which she believed could be effected in no other way. No sooner was she informed of China’s action than the Japanese Minister Otori, then on leave of absence, was recalled, and sent immediately to Seoul with 400 marines, arriving June ninth.
The Chinese force did not approach the capital but landed at Asan some eighty miles south of Seoul. This force was soon augmented till it amounted to 2,000 men. But Japan was not idle. By the twelfth of June she had approximately 8,000 troops in Korea. Matters stood thus when the news came that the Tong-hak, either frightened by the rumor of the approach of a Chinese army or being pressed by the government troops, had suddenly retired and the south was at peace. This tended to hasten a crisis between the Chinese and Japanese. There was no longer any cause why foreign troops should remain in the peninsula. The Chinese had come to put down the Tong-hak and the Japanese had come ostensibly to protect their nationals. Now that the Tong-haks had retired it did not take long to discover the real reasons underlying the actions of the Japanese. On June 16th she landed 3,000 more troops at Chemulpo and matters began to look so serious in Seoul that all the Chinese residents hastened away from the city and sought safety by embarking for China. About a thousand people thus made a hasty exit from the country.
On June 25th the Russian, British, French and American representatives in Seoul, in the interests of peace, jointly requested the Chinese and Japanese to simultaneously withdraw. But the Chinese refused to go until the Japanese did and the Japanese refused to go until reforms had been introduced which would clear the political atmosphere and give some semblance of truth to the fiction of Korean independence. The Korean government was thrown into consternation when on June 28th the Japanese Minister demanded a formal statement from Korea as to whether she were an independent state or not. She replied that she was an independent power.
Early in July the Japanese Minister handed the government a list of the reforms which it deemed necessary. As they were all incorporated in the reforms inaugurated a little later it is unnecessary to enumerate them here. Fifteen thousand Japanese troops had by this time landed on Korean soil and the capital was thoroughly invested. The prospects of peace seemed to be growing smaller each day. The people of Seoul fled in large numbers leaving their houses and all their effects except such as could be carried on their backs. Such was the terror that the very name of the Japanese inspired.