Sojunghwa


Sojunghwa is a 17th-century Korean concept that means "Little China" referring to the Joseon Dynasty. After the Manchu-ruled Qing dynasty conquered the Han Chinese-ruled Ming dynasty, Koreans thought that barbarians ruined the center of civilization of the world and so Confucianist Joseon Korea had become the new center of the world, replacing Ming China hence the name "Little China." Tokugawa Japan and Vietnam also had a similar belief in themselves after the Qing Dynasty had taken over China.
Based on Sinocentrism, the belief that China was the center of civilization in the world, the Chinese believed that Korea, then a tributary state, was a highly civilized state. Meanwhile, the Koreans considered Japanese and Jurchen people to be barbarians or beasts, under the Hua–Yi distinction.