fucianism so completely that Korea was in many ways more Confucian than
was China itself. The only martial art that Confucius praised was archery, so
it is not surprising that Korean archers are still famous for their skill. Mar-
tial arts in general were frowned upon, since Confucianism prized scholars
more than warriors. Korean practice of the martial arts revived briefly dur-
ing the Japanese invasions led by Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536–1598) in 1592
and 1597, but once the Japanese were driven off, the practice of these arts
again declined due to lack of attention at the royal court.
The Koreans continued to emulate Chinese military technique until the
nineteenth century. The Korean military used the Chinese work Jixiao Xinshu
(New Book for Effective Discipline) as their standard manual until the 1790s.
Yi Dok-mu then produced his Mu Yei Do Bo Tong Ji(Illustrated Manual of
Martial Arts), a Korean manual that drew from classical Chinese sources. The
Mu Yei Do Bo Tong Ji included methods of unarmed combat called kwon-
bopand distinguished between the External School of the Sorim Temple
(Shaolin Temple) and the Internal School of Chang Songkae (Zhang Sanfeng
in Mandarin), the legendary founder of Chinese internal styles (taijiquan).
By the 1890s, there seemed to be only three native martial arts of any
great importance. Ssiru ̆ m was still popular, as was archery, and there was also
the street art of t’aek’kyo ̆ n, which seems to have appeared around the 1790s.
In its modern form, t’aek’kyo ̆ n is an art emphasizing circular kicking, leg
sweeps, and leg trapping followed by a throw. T’aek’kyo ̆ n was discouraged
among the intelligentsia, as it was associated with thugs and criminals.
In the late nineteenth century, Japanese influence gradually supplanted
Chinese in Korea. In 1894, pro-Japanese members of the Korean cabinet in-
vited the Japanese army to enter Korea and put down a revolt. The Japan-
ese put down the revolt but then refused to leave, which led to the Sino-
Japanese War of 1894. China came to the aid of Korea, one of its tributary
states, but was defeated. The Japanese retained their grip on Korea. Japan-
ese agents murdered Queen Min in 1896, and King Kojong fled the palace
and was sheltered in the Russian legation for nearly a year. Russian influ-
ence in Korea was ended by the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905), at
which point the United States tacitly recognized Japanese control of Korea
with the Taft-Katsura Memorandum (1905). The Japanese forced the Ko-
rean king to abdicate in 1907. A Korean assassinated Prince Hirobumi Ito
of Japan in 1909, but in 1910 Japan officially annexed Korea.
Japan was determined to turn Korea into a Japanese colony. The
Japanese established segregated Korean and Japanese public schools, with
the Koreans receiving an inferior education. Thousands of Koreans were
killed after making a Declaration of Independence in 1919, believing that
American commitment to self-government would bring the United States to
their side. It did not. Japanese control tightened over the years. The Japa-294 Korea