[KS] Qing–Chosŏn royal exchanges or marriages?

[Adam Bohnet]

So, I cannot think of anything like this for the Ming - which is the regime that Chiang modeled himself on, at least outwardly. For the Qing, among the Manchu banners, sending  your sons and daughters to receive tutelage in this manner was very common, domestically. As I remember,  (was I reading this in Evelyn Rawski, Mark Elliott or Pamela Kyle Crossley? Not sure!) Manchu girls were sent to serve in the palace, and in contrast to the Ming, could serve in the palace for a few years and then come out of it. The service of Mongol princes in the palace is also perhaps similar. So if you are looking for earlier models for Chiang Kai-shek's policy of sending sons abroad for tutelage, I suggest that the approach not of the Aisin Gioro house, but of the Mongol princes and leading Manchu generals, might be a better point of departure. 

Yours,

Adam

-----Original Message-----
From: Koreanstudies <koreanstudies-bounces at koreanstudies.com> On Behalf Of Frank Hoffmann
Sent: Thursday, September 21, 2023 2:23 AM
To: Korean Studies Discussion List <koreanstudies at koreanstudies.com>
Subject: Re: [KS] Qing–Chosŏn royal exchanges or marriages?

Wonderful! Thank you, Adam, Kirk, and Gene, for sharing your detailed insights and also for suggesting Evelyn Rawsk's book.

My question was just a search light pointing into the darkness, attempting to grasp the fact that Chiang Kai-shek had sent his older son to Stalin and, subsequently, as soon as his elder son returned, dispatched his younger one to Herr Hitler. That strategy worked out just wonderfully in both cases ... both of these truly pampered individuals were parroting the respective ideologies in no time. Stalin being Stalin, of course, he later sent the older son to work in a heavy machinery plant for a few years, where he met his future Russian wife. 
The Nazis, on the other hand, took excellent care of the younger one, allowing him to ride German tanks in the Wehrmacht. (You can even look that up on Wikipedia.) He much enjoyed that and later married a German and continued to champion key points of fascist ideology and Nazi military tactics, even hired old Nazis as advisors for the Taiwanese army for as long as they were still 'available.' 

Now, Chiang Kai-shek was not quite the absolute dictator that someone like Mussolini or Hitler could be, and he did not hold the same role as the former Chinese emperors, at least as long as he was in mainland China. The political situation was more complex. Nevertheless, he came close to that role. He had studied in Japan himself and conversed with his military advisor von Falkenhausen in Japanese (and Chiang's younger son had a Japanese mother), while his wife, who played a crucial role in his administration, was educated in the United States. 

Despite Chiang's pseudo-traditionalist rhetoric, his very own make, a kind of Confucian grassroots fascism, which was pivotal to his relative success in maintaining power, I wondered if these diplomatic moves to send his sons to his political allies (the younger one was in the 1940s when the Americans had replaced the Germans sent to the U.S. for further military training) had any parallels in traditional politics. 
Chiang, born in 1887, is often referred to as a 19th-century man for good reason. In a sense, he never fully adapted to the 20th century, which, according to his biographers, is one of the main reasons that his cruel and corrupt regime finally lost all credibility in the 1940s.

Yuan Shikai--as Kirk knows much better than me--regarded as the 'Übervater' of the New China by Chiang and all others, had earlier in his career spent years in Korea. Many others in Chiang's government had studied in Japan, Russia, France, or Germany. There is no doubt about the break with tradition—numerous books have been written on this topic. Yet, these family politics did remind me of royal European politics. It seems, however, that the Chinese did not have a need to employ this tool in traditional times. I believe your responses clarify this. 

Your replies are certainly very interesting in their own right ... 
without considering the above context. 


Thank you!
Frank

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Frank Hoffmann
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