A dragon's head and a serpent's tail : Ming China and the first great East Asian War, 1592 1598
Kenneth Swope (Author)
The invasion of Korea by Japanese troops in May of 1592 was no ordinary military expedition: it was one of the decisive events in Asian history and the most tragic for the Korean peninsula until the mid-twentieth century. Japanese overlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi envisioned conquering Korea, Ming China, and eventually all of Asia, but Korea's appeal to China's emperor Wanli for assistance triggered a six-year war involving hundreds of thousands of soldiers and encompassing the whole region. For Japan, the war was "a dragon's head followed by a serpent's tail": an impressive beginning with no real ending. Kenneth M. Swope has undertaken the first full-length scholarly study in English of the important conflict. Drawing on Korean, Japanese, and especially Chinese sources, he corrects the Japan-centered perspective of previous accounts, describes the war's course, and also explains its repercussions outside the military sphere. What Swope calls the first Great East Asian War marked both the emergence of Japan's desire to extend its sphere of influence to Chinese mainland and a military revival of China's commitment to defending its interests in Northeast Asia. Swope's account offers new insights not only into the history of warfare in Asia but also into a conflict that reverberates in international relations to this day. -- Provided by publisher
Print Book, English, 2016
University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, 2016