Owen Nickerson Denny

an American

wrote

China and Korea

in the 1880s

when he served as a diplomatic adviser to the Korean government. He is the first person to interpret qualities of the suzerain-vassal relation between China and Korea from the perspective of international law

discriminate and analyze the differences between tributary state and vassal state from jurisprudence

indicate that Korea is Chinese tributary rather than vassal

emphasize that the tributary state is independent

promote the theories that China and Korea are separate

China and Korea are equal

and Korea is independent

expose and criticize that Qing government has no rights to interfere in the internal and diplomatic affairs of Korea

and affirm the legitimacy of the Korean pursuit of independence. Because his ideas were in line with the needs of Japan’s policy to invade Korea at that time

it was greatly sought after. And there appeared a relatively short period of “Denny’s fever” in Japan. With the outbreak of 1894-1895 Sino-Japanese War and Japan’s annexation of Korea

the study of Denny and China and Korea fell into a low ebb in Japan. Since the beginning of the 21

st

century

Denny and his

China and Korea

have once again become the research focus of the Japanese academia

and have achieved fruitful results. But there is room for further discussion in the research field and viewpoints on history.