Nature of rebellions in East Asia after coming of the West

With the opening up of the borders of China, Japan and Korea for trade, for foreign countries, their ideas, religion, culture, political structure and ideologies started coming in which gave rise to reform movements and rebellions in these countries from common people which led these countries to think about changing their political and social systems. Uprisings in these countries were related to issues of laymen and also led by them. They protested against high taxes, raised by local authorities arbitrarily, corruption, economic instability which further gave rise to inflation and social issues like caste and class differentiations. Generally, these uprisings had a structure for their conduction, for example, in Korea and Japan leaders used to organize assemblies where people came up with their grievances and draft petitions which were then taken to authorities and if refused people started a protest against authorities, which later in turned to bloody rebellions. Unlike in Korea and Japan these rebellions were suppressed brutally by China. Sometimes, these rebellions were symbolic in nature, for example, in Korea people placed corrupt governors on a palanquin and chased from the region, also the peasant uprising like Tonghak and Hyakusho Ikki in Korea and Japan respectively, initially didn't intended to cause huge number of injuries and killing although we get some examples of it, but they are not much in number as compared to latter and thus, to prevent violence they used farming tools and clubs etc. to destroy official assets only, they issued a set of rules to prevent honest, innocent and humble from killing and harm. There were also instances of conflicts between the Burakumin (lower caste) and the higher castes in Japan where much casualties were reported, because of the steps taken by govt. to eradicate the caste differences and bring changes after Meiji restoration, but they were united in fighting for their rights as well. Japanese and Korean govts. were also lenient in dealing with the captured rebels and their leaders because they did not challenge royal authority directly; they still had faith in them that the king will listen to them and resolve their issues. This was because of the deep impact of Confucian ideals on societies of both the countries. When it comes to China the number of brutalities were higher, because the govt. was much aggressive in dealing with the rebels either it be Taiping revolution, 1850 or Panthay rebellion, 1856. Both these rebellions were religious and communal respectively. China was much more like the west in dealing with the revolutionaries thus, more killings occurred and on the other hand rebels also followed the same attitude. The ideological role in these rebellions where Korea and Japan, governed by Confucian ideals respected human life and property, and on the other hand China and the West worked under Christian ideology. It is also noted that when Christianity driven rebellions happened like Taiping in China and Shimabara in Japan number of brutalities were higher because the West wanted to promote Christianity to get a complete hold on society. But it can’t be ignored that ideologies were used to legitimize movements like, Tonghak used Confucian ideology and China and the West used Christianity, termed as ‘God’s will’. 

                       Today's governments should learn from these rebellions that they happens due to citizen’s common demands and grievances and when govt. do not respond to them actively then they turn violent.                                    

References:-

1. Hang-seob BAE, "Popular Movements and Violence in East Asia in 19th century; Comparing the Ideological foundations of their legitimation", Sungkyun Journal of East Asian Studies Vol.17, No.2 2017.

2. Charles Oscar Paullin, "The Opening-up of Korea by Commodore Shufeldt" ,The Academy of Political Science, Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 25, No. 3 (Sep., 1910), pp. 470-499.   

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