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margin:1em 0'> -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online -at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you -are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the -country where you are located before using this eBook. -</div> - -<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: Corea</p> -<p style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:0; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:1em;'>The Hermit Nation</p> -<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: William Elliot Griffis</p> -<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: January 10, 2022 [eBook #67141]</p> -<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</p> - <p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em; text-align:left'>Produced by: Jeroen Hellingman and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net/ for Project Gutenberg (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)</p> -<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK COREA ***</div> -<div class="front"> -<div class="div1 cover"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#toc">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divBody"> -<p class="first"></p> -<div class="figure cover-imagewidth"><img src="images/new-cover.jpg" alt="Newly Designed Front Cover." width="480" height="720"></div><p> -</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div1 advertisement ad"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#toc">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="main"><span class="sc"><i>Works by Wm. Elliot Griffis</i></span></h2> -<ul class="xd31e96"> -<li>THE MIKADO’S EMPIRE -</li> -<li>JAPANESE FAIRY WORLD -</li> -<li>COREA, THE HERMIT NATION -</li> -<li>MATTHEW CALBRAITH PERRY -</li> -<li>THE LILY AMONG THORNS -</li> -<li>HONDA, THE SAMURAI -</li> -<li>SIR WILLIAM JOHNSON -</li> -<li>JAPAN: IN HISTORY, FOLK-LORE, AND ART -</li> -<li>BRAVE LITTLE HOLLAND -</li> -<li>THE RELIGIONS OF JAPAN -</li> -<li>TOWNSEND HARRIS</li> -</ul> -<p></p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div1 frontispiece"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#toc">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divBody"> -<p class="first"></p> -<div class="figure frontispiecewidth" id="frontispiece"><img src="images/frontispiece.jpg" alt="A CITY IN COREA." width="720" height="482"><p class="figureHead">A CITY IN COREA.</p> -</div><p> -</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div1 titlepage"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#toc">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divBody"> -<p class="first"></p> -<div class="figure titlepage-imagewidth"><img src="images/titlepage.png" alt="Original Title Page." width="467" height="720"></div><p> -</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="titlePage"> -<div class="docTitle"> -<div class="mainTitle">COREA</div> -<div class="subTitle"><span class="sc">The Hermit Nation</span></div> -<div class="subTitle xd31e127">I.—ANCIENT AND MEDIÆVAL HISTORY<br> -II.—POLITICAL AND SOCIAL COREA<br> -III.—MODERN AND RECENT HISTORY</div> -</div> -<div class="byline">BY<br> -<span class="docAuthor">WILLIAM ELLIOT GRIFFIS</span><br> -FORMERLY OF THE IMPERIAL UNIVERSITY OF TOKIO, JAPAN<br> -AUTHOR OF “THE MIKADO’S EMPIRE”</div> -<div class="docImprint">NINTH EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED -<br> -NEW YORK<br> -CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS<br> -<span class="docDate">1911</span></div> -</div> -<p></p> -<div class="div1 copyright"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#toc">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divBody"> -<p class="first xd31e153"><span class="sc">Copyright</span>, 1882, 1888, 1897, 1904, 1907, 1911<br> -<span class="sc">By</span> CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS -</p> -<p></p> -<div class="figure logowidth"><img src="images/scribner-logo.png" alt="Publisher’s logo." width="114" height="129"></div><p> -</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div1 dedication"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#toc">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divBody"> -<p class="first xd31e168">TO<br> -<span class="xd31e172">ALL COREAN PATRIOTS:</span><br> -WHO SEEK<br> -BY THE AID OF SCIENCE, TRUTH, AND PURE RELIGION,<br> -TO ENLIGHTEN<br> -THEMSELVES AND THEIR FELLOW-COUNTRYMEN,<br> -TO RID<br> -THEIR LAND OF SUPERSTITION, BIGOTRY, DESPOTISM, AND<br> -PRIESTCRAFT—BOTH NATIVE AND FOREIGN—<br> -AND TO PRESERVE<br> -THE INTEGRITY, INDEPENDENCE, AND HONOR, OF THEIR COUNTRY;<br> -THIS UNWORTHY SKETCH<br> -OF<br> -THEIR PAST HISTORY AND PRESENT CONDITION<br> -IS DEDICATED. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb.v">[<a href="#pb.v">v</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div1 preface"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#toc">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="main">PREFACE TO THE NINTH EDITION.</h2> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="first">The year 1910 saw the Land of the Plum Blossom and the Islands of the Cherry Blooms -united. In this ninth edition of a work which for nearly thirty years has been a useful -hand-book of information—having, by their own unsought confession, inspired not a -few men and women to become devoted friends and teachers of the Corean people—I have -made some corrections and added a final chapter, “Chō-sen: A Province of Japan.” Besides -outlining in brief the striking events from 1907 to 1911, I have analyzed the causes -of the extinction of Corean sovereignty, aiming in this to be a disinterested interpreter -rather than a mere annalist. -</p> -<p>Although the sovereignty of Corea, first recognized and made known to the world by -the Japanese in their treaty of 1876, has been, through the logic of events, destroyed, -I doubt not that the hopes of twelve millions of people will be increasingly fulfilled -under the new arrangement. Not in haste, but only after long compulsion, did the statesmen -of Japan assume a responsibility that may test to the full their abilities and those -of their successors. The severe criticisms, in Japan itself, of the policy of the -Tokio government bear witness to the sensitiveness of the national conscience in regard -to the treatment of their colonies. In this respect, as in so many other points of -public ethics, the Japanese are ranging themselves abreast with the leading nations -that are making a world-conscience. -</p> -<p>In sending forth what may be the final edition of a work, with the title of which -time has had its revenges, while the contents are still of worth, the author thanks -heartily all who, from 1876, when the work was planned, until the present time, have -assisted in making this book valuable to humanity. -</p> -<p class="signed">W. E. G. -</p> -<p class="dateline"><span class="sc">Ithaca, N. Y.</span>, June 27, 1911. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb.vii">[<a href="#pb.vii">vii</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div1 preface"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#toc">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="main">PREFACE TO THE EIGHTH EDITION.</h2> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="first">When in October, 1882, the publishers of “Corea the Hermit Nation” presented this -work to the public of English-speaking nations, they wrote: -</p> -<p>“Corea stands in much the same relation to the traveller that the region of the pole -does to the explorer, and menaces with the same penalty the too inquisitive tourist -who ventures to penetrate its inhospitable borders.” -</p> -<p>For twenty-four years, this book, besides enjoying popular favor, has been made good -use of by writers and students, in Europe and America, and has served even in Corea -itself as the first book of general information to be read by missionaries and other -new comers. In this eighth edition, I have added to the original text, ending with -Chapter XLVIII (September, 1882), five fresh chapters: on The Economic Condition of -Corea; International Politics: Chinese and Japanese; The War of 1894: Corea an Empire; -Japan and Russia in Conflict; and Corea a Japanese Protectorate, bringing the history -down to the late autumn of 1906. -</p> -<p>Within the brief period of time treated in these new chapters, the centre of the world’s -politics has shifted from the Atlantic and the Mediterranean to the waters surrounding -Corea, the strange anomaly of dual sovereignty over the peninsular state has been -eliminated, and the military reputation of China ruined, and that of Russia compromised. -The rise of Japan, within half a century of immediate contact with the West, to the -position of a modern state, able first to humiliate China and then to grapple successfully -with Russia, has vitally affected Corea, on behalf of whose independence Japan a second -time went to war with a Power vastly greater in natural resources than herself. In -this period <span class="pageNum" id="pb.viii">[<a href="#pb.viii">viii</a>]</span>also, the United States of America has become one of the great Powers interested in -the politics of Asia, and with which the would-be conquerors of Asiatic peoples must -reckon. -</p> -<p>The present or eighth edition shows in both text and map, not only the swift, logical -results both of Japan’s military and naval successes in Manchuria and on the sea of -Japan and of her signal diplomatic victory at Portsmouth, but more. It makes clear -the reasons why Corea, as to her foreign relations, has lost her sovereignty. -</p> -<p>The penalty laid upon the leaders of the peninsular kingdom for making intrigue instead -of education their work, and class interests instead of national welfare their aim, -is also shown to be pronounced—less by the writer than by the events themselves—in -the final failure of intriguing Yang-banism, in May, 1906. The Japanese, in the administration -of Corea, are like the other protecting nations, British, American, French, German, -now on a moral trial before the world. -</p> -<p>In again sending forth a work that has been so heartily welcomed, I reiterate gladly -my great obligations to the scholars, native and foreign, who have so generously aided -me by their conversation, correspondence, criticism, and publications, and the members -of the Korean Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, who have honored me with membership -in their honorable body. My special obligations are due to our late American Minister, -H. N. Allen, for printed documents and illustrative matter; to Professor Homer B. -Hulbert, Editor of <i>The Korea Review</i>, from the pages of which I have drawn liberally, and to the Editor of <i>The Japan Mail</i>, the columns of which are rich in correspondence from Corea. I would call attention -also to the additions made upon the map at the end of the volume. -</p> -<p>I beg again the indulgence of my readers, especially of those who by long residence -upon the soil, while so thoroughly able to criticize, have been so profuse in their -expression of appreciation. From both sides of the Atlantic and Pacific have come -these gratifying tokens, and to them as well as to my publishers, I make glad acknowledgments -in sending forth this eighth edition. -</p> -<p class="signed">W. E. G. -</p> -<p class="dateline"><span class="sc">Ithaca, N. Y.</span>, December 12, 1906. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb.ix">[<a href="#pb.ix">ix</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div1 preface"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#toc">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="main">PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.</h2> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="first">In the year 1871, while living at Fukui, in the province of Echizen, Japan, I spent -a few days at Tsuruga and Mikuni, by the sea which separates Japan and Corea. Like -“the Saxon shore” of early Britain, the coast of Echizen had been in primeval times -the landing-place of rovers, immigrants, and adventurers from the continental shore -opposite. Here, at Tsuruga, Corean envoys had landed on their way to the mikado’s -court. In the temple near by were shrines dedicated to the Corean Prince of Mimana, -and to Jingu Kōgō, Ojin, and Takénouchi, whose names in Japanese traditions are associated -with “The Treasure-land of the West.” Across the bay hung a sweet-toned bell, said -to have been cast in Corea in <span class="asc">A.D.</span> 647; in which tradition—untested by chemistry—declared there was much gold. Among -the hills not far away, nestled the little village of Awotabi (Green Nook), settled -centuries ago by paper-makers, and visited a millenium ago by tribute-bearers, from -the neighboring peninsula; and famous for producing the crinkled paper on which the -diplomatic correspondence between the two nations was written. Some of the first families -in Echizen were proud of their descent from Chō-sen, while in the villages, where -dwelt the Eta, or social outcasts, I beheld the descendants of Corean prisoners of -war. Everywhere the finger of tradition pointed westward across the waters to the -Asian mainland, and the whole region was eloquent of “kin beyond sea.” Birds and animals, -fruits and falcons, vegetables and trees, farmers’ implements and the potter’s wheel, -names in geography and <span class="corr" id="xd31e247" title="Source: thing">things</span> <span class="pageNum" id="pb.x">[<a href="#pb.x">x</a>]</span>in the arts, and doctrines and systems in religion were in some way connected with -Corea. -</p> -<p>The thought often came to me as I walked within the moss-grown feudal castle walls—old -in story, but then newly given up to schools of Western science and languages—why -should Corea be sealed and mysterious, when Japan, once a hermit, had opened her doors -and come out into the world’s market-place? When would Corea’s awakening come? As -one diamond cuts another, why should not Chō-ka (Japan) open Chō-sen (Corea)? -</p> -<hr class="tb"><p> -</p> -<p>Turning with delight and fascination to the study of Japanese history and antiquities, -I found much that reflected light upon the neighbor country. On my return home, I -continued to search for materials for the story of the last of the hermit nations. -No master of research in China or Japan having attempted the task, from what Locke -calls “the roundabout view,” I have essayed it, with no claim to originality or profound -research, for the benefit of the general reader, to whom Corea “suggests,” as an American -lady said, “no more than a sea-shell.” Many ask “What’s in Corea?” and “Is Corea of -any importance in the history of the world?” -</p> -<p>My purpose in this work is to give an outline of the history of the Land of Morning -Calm—as the natives call their country—from before the Christian era to the present -year. As “an honest tale speeds best, being plainly told,” I have made no attempt -to embellish the narrative, though I have sought information from sources from within -and without Corea, in maps and charts, coins and pottery, the language and art, notes -and narratives of eye-witnesses, pencil-sketches, paintings and photographs, the standard -histories of Japan and China, the testimony of sailor and diplomatist, missionary -and castaway, and the digested knowledge of critical scholars. I have attempted nothing -more than a historical outline of the nation and a glimpse at the political and social -life of the people. For lack of space, the original manuscript of “Recent and Modern -History,” part III., has been greatly abridged, and many topics of interest have been -left untouched. -</p> -<p>The bulk of the text was written between the years 1877 and <span class="pageNum" id="pb.xi">[<a href="#pb.xi">xi</a>]</span>1880; since which time the literature of the subject has been enriched by Ross’s “Corea” -and “Corean Primer,” besides the Grammar and Dictionary of the Corean language made -by the French missionaries. With these linguistic helps I have been able to get access -to the language, and thus clear up doubtful points and obtain much needed data. I -have borrowed largely from Dallet’s “<span lang="fr">Histoire d’Eglise de Corée</span>,” especially in the chapters devoted to Folk-lore, Social Life, and Christianity. -In the Bibliography following the Preface is a list of works to which I have been -more or less indebted. -</p> -<p>Many friends have assisted me with correspondence, advice, or help in translation, -among whom I must first thank my former students, Haségawa, Hiraii, Haraguchi, Matsui, -and Imadatté, and my newer Japanese friends, Ohgimi and Kimura, while others, alas! -will never in this world see my record of acknowledgment—K. Yaye′ and Egi Takato—whose -interest was manifested not only in discussion of mooted points, but by search among -the book-shops in Kiōto and Tōkiō, which put much valuable standard matter in my hands. -I also thank Mr. Charles Lanman, Secretary of the Legation of Japan in Washington, -for four ferrotypes taken in Seoul in 1878 by members of the Japanese embassy; Mr. -D. R. Clark, of the United States Transit of Venus Survey, for four photographs of -the Corean villages in Russian Manchuria; Mr. R. Idéura, of Tōkiō, for a set of photographs -of Kang-wa and vicinity, taken in 1876, and Mr. Ozawa Nankoku, for sketches of Corean -articles in Japanese museums. To Lieutenant Wadhams, of the United States Navy, for -the use of charts and maps made by himself while in Corea in 1871, and for photographs -of flags and other trophies, now at Annapolis, captured in the Han forts; to Fleet-Surgeon -H. O. Mayo, and other officers of the United States Navy, for valuable information, -I hereby express my grateful appreciation of kindness shown. I would that Admiral -John Rodgers, Commodore H. C. Blake, and Minister F. F. Low were living to receive -my thanks for their courtesies personally shown me, even though, in attempting to -write history, I have made criticisms also. To Lieutenant N. Y. Yanagi, of the Hyrographic -Bureau, of the Japanese Navy, for a <span class="pageNum" id="pb.xii">[<a href="#pb.xii">xii</a>]</span>set of charts of the coast of Corea; to Mr. Metcalfe, of Milwaukee, for photographs -of Coreans; to Miss Marshall, of New York, for making colored copies of the battle-flags -captured by our naval battalion in 1871, and for the many favors of correspondents—in -St. Petersburg, Mr. Hoffman Atkinson; in Peking, Jugoi Arinori Mori; in Tōkiō, Dr. -D. B. McCartee, Hon. David Murray, Rev. J. L. Amerman, and others whose names I need -not mention. To Gen. George W. McCullum, Vice-President, and to Mr. Leopold Lindau, -Librarian, of the American Geographical Society, I return my warmest thanks; as well -as to my dear wife and helpmeet, for her aid in copying, proof-reading, suggestions, -and criticism during the progress of the work. -</p> -<p>In one respect, the presentation of such a subject by a compiler, while shorn of the -fascinating element of personal experience, has an advantage even over the narrator -who describes a country through which he has travelled. With the various reports of -many witnesses, in many times and places, before him, he views the whole subject and -reduces the many impressions of detail to unity, correcting one by the other. Travellers -usually see but a portion of the country at one time. The compiler, if able even in -part to control his authorities, and if anything more than a tyro in the art of literary -appraisement, may be able to furnish a hand-book of information more valuable to the -general reader. -</p> -<p>In the use of my authorities I have given heed to Bacon’s advice—tasting some, chewing -others, and swallowing few. In ancient history, original authorities have been sought, -and for the story of modern life, only the reports of careful eye-witnesses have been -set down as facts; while opinions and judgments of alien occidentals concerning Corean -social life are rarely borrowed without due flavoring of critical salt. -</p> -<p>Corean and Japanese life, customs, beliefs, and history are often reflections one -of the other. Much of what is reported from Corea, which the eye-witnesses themselves -do not appear to understand, is perfectly clear to one familiar with Japanese life -and history. China, Corea, and Japan are as links in the same chain of civilization. -Corea, like Cyprus between Egypt and Greece, will yet <span class="pageNum" id="pb.xiii">[<a href="#pb.xiii">xiii</a>]</span>supply many missing details to the comparative student of language, art, science, -the development of civilization, and the distribution of life on the globe. -</p> -<p>Some future writer, with more ability and space at command than the undersigned, may -discuss the question as to how far the opening of Corea to the commerce of the world -has been the result of internal forces; the scholar, by his original research, may -prepare the materials for a worthy history of Corea during the two or three thousand -years of her history; the geologist or miner may determine the question as to how -far the metallic wealth of Corea will affect the monetary equilibrium of the world. -The missionary has yet to prove the full power of Christianity upon the people—and -before Corean paganism, any form of the religion of Jesus, Roman, Greek or Reformed, -should be welcomed; while to the linguist, the man of science, and the political economist, -the new country opened by American diplomacy presents problems of profound interest. -</p> -<p class="signed">W. E. G. -</p> -<p class="dateline"><span class="sc">Schenectady, N. Y.</span>, October 2, 1882. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb.xv">[<a href="#pb.xv">xv</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div1 bibliography"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#toc">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="main">BIBLIOGRAPHY.</h2> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="first">The following is a list of books and papers containing information about Corea. Those -of primary value to which the compiler of this work is specially indebted are marked -with an asterisk (*); those to which slight obligation, if any, is acknowledged with -a double asterisk; and those which he has not consulted, with a dagger (†). See also -under <span class="sc">The Corean Language</span> and <span class="sc">Cartography</span>, in the Appendix. -</p> -<p>* History of the Eastern Barbarians. “Book cxv. contains a sketch of the tribes and -nations occupying the northeastern seaboard of China, with the territory now known -as Manchuria and Corea.” This extract from a History of the Later Han Dynasty (25–220 -<span class="asc">A.D.</span>), by a Chinese scholar of the fifth century, has been translated into English by -Mr. Alexander Wylie, and printed in the <span lang="fr">Revue de l’Extrême Orient</span>, No. 1, 1882. Du Halde and De Mailla, in French, and Ross, in English, have also -given the substance of the Chinese writer’s work, which also furnishes the basis of -Japanese accounts of Corean history previous to the fourth century. -</p> -<p>† The Subjugation of Chaou-seen, by A. Wylie. (<span lang="it">Atti del IV. Cong. int. degli Orient</span>, ii., pp. 309–315, 1881.) This fragment is a translation of the 95th book of the -History of the Former Han Dynasty of China. -</p> -<p lang="fr">* Empire de la Chine et la Tartarie Chinoise, par P. du Halde. -</p> -<p>* The Kōjiki and Nihongi, written in Japan during the eighth century, throws much -light on the early history of Corea. -</p> -<p>* Wakan-San-sai Dzuyé. Article on Chō-sen in this great Japanese Encyclopædia. -</p> -<p>† Tong-Kuk Tong-Kan (General View of the Eastern Kingdom), a native Corean history -written in Chinese. -</p> -<p>* Zenrin Koku Hoki (Precious Jewels from a Neighboring Country), by Shiuho. Japan, -1586. -</p> -<p>* Corea, its History, Manners, and Customs, by John Ross. 1 vol., pp. 404. Illustrations -and maps. Paisley, 1880. -</p> -<p>* The Chinese Reader’s Manual, by W. Fred. Mayers. 1 vol., pp. 440. Shanghae, 1874. -An invaluable epitome of Chinese history, biography, chronology, bibliography, and -whatever is of interest to the student of Chinese literature. -</p> -<p>* Kō-chō Rekidai Enkaku Zukai. Historical Periods and Changes of the Japanese Empire, -with maps and notes, by Otsuki Tōyō. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb.xvi">[<a href="#pb.xvi">xvi</a>]</span></p> -<p>** San Koku Tsu-ran To-setsu. Mirror of the Three [Tributary] Kingdoms, Chō-sen, Riu -kiu, and Yezo, by Rin Shihei, 1785. This work, with its maps, was translated into -French by J. Klaproth, and published in Paris, 1832. 1 vol. 8vo, pp. 288, of which -pp. 158 relate to Chō-sen. Digested also in Siebold’s <span lang="de">Archiv</span>. -</p> -<p>** <span lang="de">Archiv zur <span class="corr" id="xd31e329" title="Source: Bescriebung">Beschreibung</span> von Japan</span>, by Franz von Siebold. This colossal work contains much matter in text and illustrations -relating to Corea, and the digest of several Japanese books, in the part entitled -<span lang="de">Nachrichten <span class="corr" id="xd31e335" title="Source: uber">über</span> Korai, Japan’s Bezüge mit der Koraischen Halbinsel und mit Schina.</span> -</p> -<p>** <span lang="de">Corea und dessen Einfluss auf die Bevölkerung Japans. Zeit. für Ethnologie, Zitzungbericht -VIII</span>. p. 78, 1876. P. Kempermann. -</p> -<p>** O Dai Ichi Ran. This work, containing the annals of the emperors of Japan, is a -bird’s-eye view of the principal events in Japanese history, written in the style -of an almanac, which Titsingh copied down from translations made by Japanese who spoke -Dutch. Klaproth revised and corrected Titsingh’s work, and published his own version -in 1834. Paris and London, 8vo, pp. 460. This work contains many references to Corea -and the relations of the two countries, transcribed from the older history. -</p> -<p>** <span lang="fr">Tableaux Historiques de l’Asie, depuis la monarchie de Cyrus jusque nos jours, accompagnes -de recherches historiques et ethnographiques, etc. Par J. Klaproth, Paris, 1826. Avec -un atlas in folio.</span> This manual of the political geography of Asia is very useful, but not too accurate. -</p> -<p>† A Heap of Jewels in a Sea of Learning (Gei Kai Shu Jin; Jap. pron.). A chapter from -this Chinese book treats of Corea. -</p> -<p>† Chō-sen Hitsu Go-shin. A collection of conversations with the pen, with a Corean -who could not speak Japanese. By Ishikawa Rokuroku Sanjin, Yedo. -</p> -<p>* The Classical Poetry of the Japanese. By Basil Hall Chamberlain. London, 1880. -</p> -<p>** An Outline History of Japanese Education, New York, 1876. This monograph, prepared -for the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia, reviews the educational influences -of Corea upon Japan. The information given is, with other data, from Klaproth, utilized -in Pickering’s Chronological History of Plants, by Charles Pickering, <abbr title="Medicinae Doctor">M.D.</abbr>, Boston, 1879. -</p> -<p>* Japanese Chronological Tables. By William Bramsen, Tōkiō, 1880. An invaluable essay -on Japanese chronology, which was, like the Corean, based on the Chinese system. We -have used this work of the lamented scholar (who died a few months after it was published) -in rendering dates expressed in terms of the Chinese into those of the Gregorian or -modern system. -</p> -<p>** History of the Mongols. 3 vols. pp. 1827. London, 1876. By Henry Howorth. This -portly work is full of the fruits of research concerning the people led by Genghis -Khan. It contains excellent maps of Asia, and of Mongolia, and Manchuria, illustrating -the Mongol conquests. -</p> -<p>† Chō-sen Ki-che. (Memorandum upon Corean Affairs.) The Chinese ambassador sent by -the Ming emperor in 1450, gives in this little work an account of his journey, which -throws light upon the political and geographical situation of Chō-sen and China at -that time. Quoted by M. Scherzer, but not translated. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb.xvii">[<a href="#pb.xvii">xvii</a>]</span></p> -<p>* Nihon Guaishi. Military History of Japan, by Rai Sanyo. This is the Japanese standard -history. It was published in 1827 in twenty-two volumes. It covers the period from -the Taira and Minamoto families to that of the Tokugawa in the seventeenth century. -The first part of this work was translated into English by Mr. Ernest Satow, and published -in The Japan Mail at Yokohama, 1872–74. In the latter portion the invasion of Chō-sen, -1592–97, is outlined. -</p> -<p>* Chō-sen Seito Shimatsŭki. A work in five volumes, giving an account of the embassies, -treaties, documents relating to the invasion of 1592–97, with an outline of the war, -geographical notes, with nine maps by Yamazaki Masanagi and Miura Katsuyoshi. -</p> -<p>* Illustrated History of the Invasion of Chō-sen. Written by Tsuruminé Hikoichiro. -Illustrations by Hashimoto Giokuron. 20 vols. Yedo, 1853. This popular work, besides -an outline of Corean history from the beginning, condensed from local legends and -Chinese writers, details the operations of war and diplomacy relating to Hidéyoshi’s -invasion. It is copiously illustrated with first-class wood engravings. It has not -been translated. -</p> -<p>* Chō-sen Monogatari. A Diary and Narrative of the Japanese Military Operations in -Chō-sen during the Campaign of 1594–97, by Okoji Hidémoto. Copied out and published -in 1672, and again in 1849. This narrative of an eye-witness was written by the author -at the time of the events described, and afterward copied by his own son and deposited -in the temple at which his ancestors worshipped. This vivid and spirited story of -the second invasion of Chō-sen by Hidéyoshi has been translated into German by Dr. -A. Pfizmaier, under the title <span lang="de">Der Feldzug der Japaner gegen Corea, im Jahre, 1597</span>. 2 vols. Vienna, 1875: 4to, pp. 98; 1876: 4to, pp. 58. -</p> -<p>** Chohitsuroku. History of the Embassies, Treaties, and War Operations during the -Japanese Invasion. This work is by a Corean author, who was one of the ministers of -the king throughout the war. It is written in Chinese, has a map, and gives the Corean -side of the history of affairs from about 1585 to 1598. 3 vols. -</p> -<p>* Three Severall Testimonies Concerning the mighty Kingdom of Coray, tributary to -the Kingdom of China, and bordering upon her Northeastern Frontiers, and called by -the Portugales, Coria, etc., etc., collected out of Portugale yeerely Japonian Epistles, -dated 1590, 1592, 1594. In Hakluyt, London, 1600. -</p> -<p>* Hidéyoshi’s Invasion of Korea. Trans. Asiatic Society of Japan. By W. G. Aston. -In these papers Mr. Aston gives the results of a study of the campaign of 1592–97, -as found in Japanese and Corean authors. -</p> -<p>** <span lang="fr">Lettre Annuelle de Mars 1593, ecrite par le P. Pierre Gomez au P. Claude Acquavira, -general de la Compagnie de Jesus. Milan, 1597, p. 112 et suiv.</span> In Hakluyt. -</p> -<p>* <span lang="fr">Histoire de la Religion Chrétienne au Japon. Par Leon Pages.</span> 2 vols., text and documents. Paris, 1869. -</p> -<p>** <span lang="fr">Histoire des deux Conquerans Tartares, qui ont subjugé la Chine, par le R. P. Pierre -Joseph D’Orliens.</span> -</p> -<p>* Chō-sen Monogatari (Romantic Narrative of Travels in Corea), by two Men from Mikuni, -in Echizen, cast ashore in Tartary in 1645. This work is digested in Siebold’s <span lang="de">Archiv</span>. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb.xviii">[<a href="#pb.xviii">xviii</a>]</span></p> -<p>* Narrative of an Unlucky Voyage and Imprisonment in Corea, 1653–1667 In Astley’s -and Pinkerton’s Voyages. By Hendrik Hamel. -</p> -<p>* Imperial Chinese Atlas, containing maps of China and each of the Provinces, including -Shing-king and the neutral strip. -</p> -<p>* <span lang="fr">Histoire de l’Eglise de Corée, par Ch. Dallet.</span> 2 vols. 8vo, pp. 982. Paris, 1874. This excellent work contains 192 pages of introduction, -full of accurate information concerning the political social life, geography, and -language of Corea, and a history of the introduction and progress of Roman Christianity, -and the labors of the French missionaries, from 1784–1866. It contains also a map -and four charts of Corean writing. -</p> -<p>* <span lang="fr">Une Expedition en Corée</span>. In <span lang="de">la Tour du Monde</span> for 1873 there is an article of 16 pp. (401–417) with illustrations, by M. H. Zuber, -a French naval officer, who was in Corea in 1866 under Admiral Roze. An excellent -descriptive paper by an eye-witness. -</p> -<p>* Diary of a Chinese Envoy to Corea (Journal d’une Mission en Corée), by Koei Ling, -Ambassador of his Majesty the Emperor of China, to the court of Chō-sen in 1866. Translated -from the Chinese into French by F. Scherzer, Interpreter to the French Legation at -Peking. 8vo, pp. 77. Paris, 1882. This journal of the last Chinese ambassador to Seoul -is well rendered, and is copiously supplied with explanatory notes, and a colored -map of the author’s route from Peking through Chili, <span class="corr" id="xd31e414" title="Source: Shing-King">Shing-king</span>, <i>via</i> Mukden, and through three provinces of Corea to Seoul. -</p> -<p>† Many memoirs and special papers prepared by French officers in the expedition to -Corea in 1866 were prepared and read before local societies at Cherbourg, Lyons, etc. -</p> -<p>† <span lang="fr">Expedition de Corée. Revue maritime et coloniale</span>, February, 1867, pp. 474–481. -</p> -<p>† <span lang="fr">Paris Moniteur</span>, 1866–67. -</p> -<p>** <span lang="fr">Lettre sur la Corée et son Eglise Chrétienne. Bulletin de la Société Geographique -de Lyon</span>, 1876, pp. 278–282, and June, 1870, pp. 417–422, and map. -</p> -<p>** The Corean Martyrs. By Canon Shortland. 1 vol., pp. 115. London. Compiled from -the letters of the French missionaries. -</p> -<p>** <span lang="fr">Nouvelle Geographie Universelle</span>. This superb treasury of geographical science, still unfinished, contains a full -summary of our knowledge of Corea, especially showing the prominent part which French -navigators, scholars, and missionaries have taken in its exploration. Paris. -</p> -<p>** Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean and Round the World. By William -R. Broughton. 2 vols. 4to, with atlas. London, 1804. -</p> -<p>** Voyage Round the World. By Jean François de Gallou de La Perouse. London, 1799. -</p> -<p>** Voyages to the Eastern Seas in the year 1818. By Basil Hall. New York, London, -and revised by Captain Hall in 1827. Jamaica, N. Y. -</p> -<p>* Narrative of a Voyage in His Majesty’s late Ship Alceste, to the Yellow Sea, along -the Coast of Corea, and through its numerous hitherto undiscovered Islands, etc., -etc. By John McLeod, Surgeon of the Alceste. 1 vol., pp. 288 (see pp. 38–53). London, -1877. A witty and lively narrative. -</p> -<p>** Voyages along the Coast of China (Corea), etc. By Charles Gutzlaff. 1 vol., pp. -332. New York, 1833. (From July 17, to August 17, 1832; pp. 254–287.) -<span class="pageNum" id="pb.xix">[<a href="#pb.xix">xix</a>]</span></p> -<p>* Narrative of the Voyage of <abbr title="Her Majesty’s Ship">H.M.S.</abbr> Samarang, during the years 1843–46. By Captain Sir E. Belcher. 2 vols. 8vo, pp. 574–378. -London, 1848. Vol. i. pp. 324–358; vol. ii., pp. 444–466, relate to Corea. -</p> -<p>* American Commerce with China. By Gideon Nye, Esq. In the Far East. Shanghae, 1878. -A history of the commercial relations of the United States with China, especially -before 1800. -</p> -<p>* Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States, China, and Japan, 1866–81. -</p> -<p>* Report of the Secretary of the Navy to Congress, pp. 275–313. 1872. -</p> -<p>* Private Notes, Charts, and Maps of Officers of the United States Navy who were in -Corea in 1871. -</p> -<p>** A Summer Dream of ’71. A Story of Corea. By T. G. The Far East. Shanghae, April, -1878. -</p> -<p>* Journey through Eastern Mantchooria and Korea. By Walton Grinnell. Journal American -Geographical Society, 1870–71, pp. 283–300. -</p> -<p>* Japan and Corea. A valuable monograph in six chapters, by Mr. E. H. House, in The -Tōkiō Times, 1877. -</p> -<p>** On a Collection of Crustacea made in the Corean and Japanese Seas. J. Muirs, 1879. -London Zoological Society’s Proceedings (pp. 18–81, pls. 1–113). Reviewed by J. S. -Kingsley. Norwich, N. Y. American Naturalist. -</p> -<p>** A Private Trip in Corea. By Frank Cowan, M.D. The Japan Mail, 1880. -</p> -<p>† The Leading Men of Japan. By Charles Lanman. Boston, 1882. Contains a chapter on -Corea. -</p> -<p>* Manuscript volume of pencil notes made by Kawamura Kuanshiu, an officer on the Japanese -gunboat Unyo-kuan, during her cruise and capture of the Kang-wa Fort, 1875. Partly -printed in the Japan Mail. -</p> -<p>* Journals of Japanese Military and Diplomatic Officers who have visited Corea, and -Correspondence of the Japanese newspapers, from Seoul, Fusan, Gensan, etc. These have -been partly translated for the English press at Yokohama. -</p> -<p>* Correspondence, Notes, Editorials, etc., in the English and French newspapers published -in China and Japan. -</p> -<p>** Maru-maru Shimbun (Japanese Punch). -</p> -<p>* Chō-sen: Its Eight Administrative Divisions. 1 vol. Tōkiō, Japan, 1882. -</p> -<p>* Chō-sen Jijo. A short Account of Corea, its History, Productions, etc. 2 vols. Tōkiō, -1875. -</p> -<p>* Chō-sen Bunkenroku (Things Seen and Heard concerning Corea). By Sato Hakushi. 2 -vols. Tōkiō, 1875. -</p> -<p>* Travels of a Naturalist in Japan [Corea] and Manchuria. By Arthur Adams. 1 vol., -pp. 334. London, 1870. See chaps, x., xi., pp. 125–166. -</p> -<p>** <span lang="de">Ueber die Reise der Kais. Corvette Hertha, in besondere nach Corea. Kramer, Marine -Prediger. Zeit. für Ethnologie, 1873. Verhandlungen</span>, pp. 49–54. -</p> -<p>** A Forbidden Land. By Ernest Oppert. 1 vol., pp. 349. Illustrations, charts, etc. -New York, 1880. -</p> -<p>** Journeys in North China. By Rev. A. Williamson. 2 vols. 16mo. London, 1870. Besides -a chapter on Corea, this work contains an excellent map of the country north and east -of Chō-sen -</p> -<p>** The Middle Kingdom. By S. Wells Williams. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb.xx">[<a href="#pb.xx">xx</a>]</span></p> -<p>** Consular Reports in the Blue Books of the British Government, especially the Reports -of Mr. McPherson, Consul at Niu-chwang. January, 1866. -</p> -<p>* Handbook for Central and Northern Japan, with maps and plans. Satow and Hawes. 1 -vol. 16mo, pp. 489. This work, which leaves nothing to be desired as a guide-book, -contains several references to Corean art and history. -</p> -<p>** The Wild Coasts of Nipon. By Captain H. C. St. John (who surveyed some parts of -Southern Corea in <abbr title="Her Britannic Majesty’s Ship">H.B.M.S.</abbr> Sylvia). See chap, xii., pp. 235–255, with a map of Corea. -</p> -<p>** <span lang="de"><span class="corr" id="xd31e495" title="Source: Darlegun">Darlegung</span> aus der Geschichte und Geographie Coreas. Pfizmaier.</span> 8vo, pp. 56. Vienna, 1874. -</p> -<p>† <span lang="de">Petermann’s Mittheilungen</span>, No. 1, Carte No. 19, 1871. -</p> -<p lang="de">** Das Konigreich Korea. Von Kloden. Aus allen Welth., x., Nos. 5 u. 6. -</p> -<p>† Corea. Geographical Magazine. (S. Mossman.) vi. p. 148, 1877. -</p> -<p>† Corea. By Captain Allen Young, Royal Geographical Society. Vol. ix., No. 6, pp. -296–300. -</p> -<p>** China, with an Appendix on Corea. By Charles Eden. 1 vol., pp. 281–322. London. -A popular compilation. -</p> -<p>** Korea and the Lost Tribes, and Map and Chart of Korea. Text and illustrations. -The title of this work is sufficient. Even the bibliography of Corea has a comic side. -</p> -<p>** Chi-shima (Kurile Islands) and Russian Invasion. A lecture delivered in Japanese, -before the Tōkiō United Geographical Society, February 24, 1882. By Admiral Enomoto. -This valuable historical treatise, translated for the Japan Mail and Japan Herald, -contains much information about Russian operations in the countries bordering the -North Pacific and the Coreans north of the Tumen. -</p> -<p>† <span lang="fr">Bulletin de la Société Geographique</span>, 1875. Corean villages in the Russian possessions described. -</p> -<p>** Ravensteins, The Russians on the Amoor. London, 1861. -</p> -<p lang="de">† Die Insel Quelpart. Deutsche Geogr. Blätter, 1879. iii., No. 1, S. 45–46. -</p> -<p>† A Trip to Quelpaert. Nautical Magazine, 1870, No. 4, p. 321–325. -</p> -<p>** The Edinburgh Review of 1872, and Fortnightly Review of 1875, contain articles -on Corea. -</p> -<p>* The Missionary Record of the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland, Edinburgh, -containing the Correspondence and Notes of the Missionaries laboring among the Chinese -and Coreans, and who have translated the New Testament into Corean. -</p> -<p>† <span lang="fr">La Corée, par M. Paul Tournafond</span>, editor of <span lang="fr">L’Exploration</span>, a geographical journal published in Paris, which contains frequent notes on Corea. -</p> -<p lang="fr">† La Corée, ses Ressources, son avenir commercial, par Maurice Jametel. L’Economiste -Français, Juillet 23, 1881. -</p> -<p>* The Japan Herald, The Japan Mail, The Japan Gazette, L’Echo du Japan, of Yokohama, -and North China Herald, Shanghae, have furnished much information concerning recent -events in Corea. -</p> -<p>Corea, the Last of the Hermit Nations. Sunday Magazine, New York, May, 1878. -</p> -<p>Corea and the United States. The Independent, New York, Nov. 17, 1881. -</p> -<p>Corea, the Hermit Nation. Bulletin of the American Geographical Society, New York, -1881, No. 3. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb.xxi">[<a href="#pb.xxi">xxi</a>]</span></p> -<p>Chautauqua Text-Books, No. 34. Asiatic History; China, Corea, Japan. 16mo, pp. 86. -New York, 1881. -</p> -<p>Library of Universal Knowledge, articles Corea, Fusan, Gensan, Kang-wa, etc. New York, -1880. -</p> -<p>Cyclopædia of Political Science, etc., article Corea. Chicago, 1881. -</p> -<p>The Corean Origin of Japanese Art. Century Magazine. December, 1882. By Wm. Elliot -Griffis. -</p> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#toc">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">ORTHOGRAPHY AND PRONUNCIATION.</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="first">In the transliteration of Corean names into English, an attempt has been made to render -them in as accurate and simple a manner as is, under the circumstances, possible. -The Coreans themselves have no uniform system of spelling proper names, nor do the -French missionaries agree in their renderings—as a comparison of their maps and writings -shows. Our aim in this work has been to use as few letters as possible. -</p> -<p>Japanese words are all pronounced according to the European method—<i>a</i> as in <i>father</i>, <i>é</i> as in <i>prey</i>, <i>e</i> as in <i>men</i>, <i>i</i> as in <i>machine</i>, <i>o</i> as in <i>bone</i>, <i>u</i> as in <i>tune</i>, <i>ŭ</i> as in <i>sun</i>; <i>ai</i> as in <i>aisle</i>, <i>ua</i> as in <i>quarantine</i>, <i>ei</i> as in <i>feign</i>, and <i>iu</i> is sounded as <i>yu</i>; <i>g</i> is always hard; and <i>c</i> before a vowel, <i>g</i> soft, <i>l</i>, <i>q</i>, <i>s</i> used as <i>z</i>, <i>x</i>, and the combinations <i>ph</i> and <i>th</i> are not used. The long vowel, rather diphthong <i>o</i>, or <i>oho</i>, is marked <i>ō</i>. -</p> -<p>The most familiar Chinese names are retained in their usual English form. -</p> -<p>Corean words are transliterated on the same general principles as the Japanese, though -ears familiar with Corean will find the obscure sound between <i>o</i> and short <i>u</i> is written with either of these letters, as Chan-yon, or In-chiŭn, or Kiung-sang. -<i>Ch</i> may sometimes be used instead of <i>j</i>; and <i>e</i> where <i>o</i> or <i>a</i> or <i>u</i> might more correctly be used, as in Kang-wen, or Wen-chiu. Instead of the French -ou, or ho, we have written <i>W</i>, as in Whang-hai, Kang-wa, rather than Hoang-hai, Kang-hoa, Kang-ouen, Tai-ouen Kun, -etc.; and in place of <i>ts</i> we have used <i>ch</i>, as Kwang-chiu rather than Kwang-tsiu, and Wen-chiu than Ouen-tsiu. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb.xxii">[<a href="#pb.xxii">xxii</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div1 contents"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#toc">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="main">MAPS AND PLANS.</h2> -<table class="tocList"> -<tr> -<td class="tocDivNum"></td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="7"> </td> -<td class="tocPageNum xd31e657">PAGE</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tocDivNum"></td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="7"><a href="#p025">Ancestral Seats of the Fuyu Race</a>, </td> -<td class="tocPageNum">25</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tocDivNum"></td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="7"><a href="#p030">Sam-han</a>, </td> -<td class="tocPageNum">30</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tocDivNum"></td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="7"><a href="#p056">Ancient Japan and Corea</a>, </td> -<td class="tocPageNum">56</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tocDivNum"></td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="7"><a href="#p085">The Neutral Territory</a>, </td> -<td class="tocPageNum">85</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tocDivNum"></td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="7"><a href="#p099">The Japanese Military Operations of 1592</a>, </td> -<td class="tocPageNum">99</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tocDivNum"></td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="7"><a href="#p107">The Campaign in the North, 1592–1593</a>, </td> -<td class="tocPageNum">107</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tocDivNum"></td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="7"><a href="#p131">The Operations of the Second Invasion</a>, </td> -<td class="tocPageNum">131</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tocDivNum"></td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="7"><a href="#p138">Plan of Uru-san Castle</a>, </td> -<td class="tocPageNum">138</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tocDivNum"></td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="7"><a href="#p155">Home of the Manchius and their Migrations</a>, </td> -<td class="tocPageNum">155</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tocDivNum"></td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="7"><a href="#p165">The Jesuit Survey of 1709</a>, </td> -<td class="tocPageNum">165</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tocDivNum"></td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="7"><a href="#p181">Ping-an Province</a>, </td> -<td class="tocPageNum">181</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tocDivNum"></td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="7"><a href="#p185">The Yellow Sea Province</a>, </td> -<td class="tocPageNum">185</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tocDivNum"></td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="7"><a href="#p188">The Capital Province</a>, </td> -<td class="tocPageNum">188</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tocDivNum"></td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="7"><a href="#p190">Military Geography of Seoul</a>, </td> -<td class="tocPageNum">190</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tocDivNum"></td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="7"><a href="#p194">Chung-chong Province</a>, </td> -<td class="tocPageNum">194</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tocDivNum"></td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="7"><a href="#p199">Chulla-dō</a>, </td> -<td class="tocPageNum">199</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tocDivNum"></td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="7"><a href="#p204">The Province Nearest Japan</a>, </td> -<td class="tocPageNum">204</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tocDivNum"></td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="7"><a href="#p208">Kang-wen Province</a>, </td> -<td class="tocPageNum">208</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tocDivNum"></td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="7"><a href="#p210">Corean Frontier Facing Manchuria and Russia</a>, </td> -<td class="tocPageNum">210</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tocDivNum"></td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="7"><a href="#p215">Southern Part of Ham-kiung</a>, </td> -<td class="tocPageNum">215</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tocDivNum"></td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="7"><a href="#p364">The Missionary’s Gateway into Corea</a>, </td> -<td class="tocPageNum">364</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tocDivNum"></td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="7"><a href="#p365">Border Towns of Northern Corea</a>, </td> -<td class="tocPageNum">365</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tocDivNum"></td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="7"><a href="#p379">The French Naval and Military Operations, 1866</a>, </td> -<td class="tocPageNum">379</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tocDivNum"></td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="7"><a href="#p393">Map Illustrating the “General Sherman” Affair</a>, </td> -<td class="tocPageNum">393</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tocDivNum"></td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="7"><a href="#p400">Map Illustrating the “China” Affair</a>, </td> -<td class="tocPageNum">400</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tocDivNum"></td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="7"><a href="#p415">Map of the American Naval Operations in 1871</a>, </td> -<td class="tocPageNum">415</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tocDivNum"></td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="7"><span class="sc">General Map of Corea at the End of 1906</span> <i>At end of volume.</i></td> -<td class="tocPageNum"></td> -</tr> -</table> -<p><span class="pageNum" id="pb.xxiii">[<a href="#pb.xxiii">xxiii</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -<div id="toc" class="div1 contents"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#toc">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="main">CONTENTS.</h2> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="first"><i>PART I.</i> -</p> -<p><a href="#pt1">ANCIENT AND MEDIÆVAL HISTORY</a>. -</p> -<p>CHAPTER I. - <span class="tocPageNum xd31e657">PAGE</span> -</p> -<p><a href="#ch1" id="xd31e839">The Corean Peninsula</a>, <span class="tocPageNum">1</span> -</p> -<p>CHAPTER II. -</p> -<p><a href="#ch2" id="xd31e847">The Old Kingdom of Chō-sen</a>, <span class="tocPageNum">11</span> -</p> -<p>CHAPTER III. -</p> -<p><a href="#ch3" id="xd31e855">The Fuyu Race and their Migrations</a>, <span class="tocPageNum">19</span> -</p> -<p>CHAPTER IV. -</p> -<p><a href="#ch4" id="xd31e863">Sam-han, or Southern Corea</a>, <span class="tocPageNum">30</span> -</p> -<p>CHAPTER V. -</p> -<p><a href="#ch5" id="xd31e872">Epoch of the Three Kingdoms.—Hiaksai</a>, <span class="tocPageNum">35</span> -</p> -<p>CHAPTER VI. -</p> -<p><a href="#ch6" id="xd31e880">Epoch of the Three Kingdoms.—Korai</a>, <span class="tocPageNum">40</span> -</p> -<p>CHAPTER VII. -</p> -<p><a href="#ch7" id="xd31e888">Epoch of the Three Kingdoms.—Shinra</a>, <span class="tocPageNum">45</span> -</p> -<p>CHAPTER VIII. -</p> -<p><a href="#ch8" id="xd31e896">Japan and Corea</a>, <span class="tocPageNum">51</span> -<span class="pageNum" id="pb.xxiv">[<a href="#pb.xxiv">xxiv</a>]</span></p> -<p>CHAPTER IX. -</p> -<p><a href="#ch9" id="xd31e905">Korai, or United Corea</a>, <span class="tocPageNum">63</span> -</p> -<p>CHAPTER X. -</p> -<p><a href="#ch10" id="xd31e914">Cathay, Zipangu, and the Mongols</a>, <span class="tocPageNum">70</span> -</p> -<p>CHAPTER XI. -</p> -<p><a href="#ch11" id="xd31e922">New Chō-sen</a>, <span class="tocPageNum">76</span> -</p> -<p>CHAPTER XII. -</p> -<p><a href="#ch12" id="xd31e930">Events Leading to the Japanese Invasion</a>, <span class="tocPageNum">88</span> -</p> -<p>CHAPTER XIII. -</p> -<p><a href="#ch13" id="xd31e938">The Invasion—On to Seoul</a>, <span class="tocPageNum">95</span> -</p> -<p>CHAPTER XIV. -</p> -<p><a href="#ch14" id="xd31e946">The Campaign in the North</a>, <span class="tocPageNum">104</span> -</p> -<p>CHAPTER XV. -</p> -<p><a href="#ch15" id="xd31e954">The Retreat from Seoul</a>, <span class="tocPageNum">115</span> -</p> -<p>CHAPTER XVI. -</p> -<p><a href="#ch16" id="xd31e963">Cespedes, the Christian Chaplain</a>, <span class="tocPageNum">121</span> -</p> -<p>CHAPTER XVII. -</p> -<p><a href="#ch17" id="xd31e971">Diplomacy at Kiōto and Peking</a>, <span class="tocPageNum">124</span> -</p> -<p>CHAPTER XVIII. -</p> -<p><a href="#ch18" id="xd31e979">The Second Invasion</a>, <span class="tocPageNum">129</span> -</p> -<p>CHAPTER XIX. -</p> -<p><a href="#ch19" id="xd31e987">The Siege of Uru-san Castle</a>, <span class="tocPageNum">137</span> -</p> -<p>CHAPTER XX. -</p> -<p><a href="#ch20" id="xd31e995">Changes after the Invasion</a>, <span class="tocPageNum">145</span> -</p> -<p>CHAPTER XXI. -</p> -<p><a href="#ch21" id="xd31e1004">The Issachar of Eastern Asia</a>, <span class="tocPageNum">154</span> -</p> -<p>CHAPTER XXII. -</p> -<p><a href="#ch22" id="xd31e1012">The Dutchmen in Exile</a>, <span class="tocPageNum">167</span> -<span class="pageNum" id="pb.xxv">[<a href="#pb.xxv">xxv</a>]</span></p> -<p><i>PART II.</i> -</p> -<p><a href="#pt2">POLITICAL AND SOCIAL COREA</a>. -</p> -<p>CHAPTER XXIII. -</p> -<p><a href="#ch23" id="xd31e1028">The Eight Provinces</a>, <span class="tocPageNum">179</span> -</p> -<p>CHAPTER XXIV. -</p> -<p><a href="#ch24" id="xd31e1036">The King and Royal Palace</a>, <span class="tocPageNum">218</span> -</p> -<p>CHAPTER XXV. -</p> -<p><a href="#ch25" id="xd31e1044">Political Parties</a>, <span class="tocPageNum">224</span> -</p> -<p>CHAPTER XXVI. -</p> -<p><a href="#ch26" id="xd31e1053">Organization and Methods of Government</a>, <span class="tocPageNum">230</span> -</p> -<p>CHAPTER XXVII. -</p> -<p><a href="#ch27" id="xd31e1061">Feudalism, Serfdom, and Society</a>, <span class="tocPageNum">237</span> -</p> -<p>CHAPTER XXVIII. -</p> -<p><a href="#ch28" id="xd31e1069">Social Life—Woman and the Family</a>, <span class="tocPageNum">244</span> -</p> -<p>CHAPTER XXIX. -</p> -<p><a href="#ch29" id="xd31e1077">Child Life</a>, <span class="tocPageNum">256</span> -</p> -<p>CHAPTER XXX. -</p> -<p><a href="#ch30" id="xd31e1085">Housekeeping, Diet, and Costume</a>, <span class="tocPageNum">262</span> -</p> -<p>CHAPTER XXXI. -</p> -<p><a href="#ch31" id="xd31e1094">Mourning and Burial</a>, <span class="tocPageNum">277</span> -</p> -<p>CHAPTER XXXII. -</p> -<p><a href="#ch32" id="xd31e1102">Out-door Life.—Characters and Employments</a>, <span class="tocPageNum">284</span> -</p> -<p>CHAPTER XXXIII. -</p> -<p><a href="#ch33" id="xd31e1110">Shamanism and Mythical Zoölogy</a>, <span class="tocPageNum">300</span> -<span class="pageNum" id="pb.xxvi">[<a href="#pb.xxvi">xxvi</a>]</span></p> -<p>CHAPTER XXXIV. -</p> -<p><a href="#ch34" id="xd31e1119">Legends and Folk-lore</a>, <span class="tocPageNum">307</span> -</p> -<p>CHAPTER XXXV. -</p> -<p><a href="#ch35" id="xd31e1127">Proverbs and Pithy Sayings</a>, <span class="tocPageNum">317</span> -</p> -<p>CHAPTER XXXVI. -</p> -<p><a href="#ch36" id="xd31e1135">The Corean Tiger</a>, <span class="tocPageNum">320</span> -</p> -<p>CHAPTER XXXVII. -</p> -<p><a href="#ch37" id="xd31e1144">Religion</a>, <span class="tocPageNum">326</span> -</p> -<p>CHAPTER XXXVIII. -</p> -<p><a href="#ch38" id="xd31e1152">Education and Culture</a>, <span class="tocPageNum">337</span> -</p> -<p><i>PART III.</i> -</p> -<p><a href="#pt3">MODERN AND RECENT HISTORY</a>. -</p> -<p>CHAPTER XXXIX. -</p> -<p><a href="#ch39" id="xd31e1167">The Beginnings of Christianity—1784–1794</a>, <span class="tocPageNum">347</span> -</p> -<p>CHAPTER XL. -</p> -<p><a href="#ch40" id="xd31e1175">Persecution and Martyrdom—1801–1834</a>, <span class="tocPageNum">353</span> -</p> -<p>CHAPTER XLI. -</p> -<p><a href="#ch41" id="xd31e1184">The Entrance of the French Missionaries—1835–1845</a>, <span class="tocPageNum">361</span> -</p> -<p>CHAPTER XLII. -</p> -<p><a href="#ch42" id="xd31e1192">The Walls of Isolation Sapped</a>, <span class="tocPageNum">367</span> -</p> -<p>CHAPTER XLIII. -</p> -<p><a href="#ch43" id="xd31e1200">The French Expedition</a>, <span class="tocPageNum">377</span> -</p> -<p>CHAPTER XLIV. -</p> -<p><a href="#ch44" id="xd31e1208">American Relations with Corea</a>, <span class="tocPageNum">388</span> -<span class="pageNum" id="pb.xxvii">[<a href="#pb.xxvii">xxvii</a>]</span></p> -<p>CHAPTER XLV. -</p> -<p><a href="#ch45" id="xd31e1217">A Body-Snatching Expedition</a>, <span class="tocPageNum">396</span> -</p> -<p>CHAPTER XLVI. -</p> -<p><a href="#ch46" id="xd31e1225">Our Little War with the Heathen</a>, <span class="tocPageNum">403</span> -</p> -<p>CHAPTER XLVII. -</p> -<p><a href="#ch47" id="xd31e1234">The Ports Opened to Japanese Commerce</a>, <span class="tocPageNum">420</span> -</p> -<p>CHAPTER XLVIII. -</p> -<p><a href="#ch48" id="xd31e1242">The Year of the Treaties</a>, <span class="tocPageNum">433</span> -</p> -<p>CHAPTER XLIX. -</p> -<p><a href="#ch49" id="xd31e1250">The Economic Condition of Corea</a>, <span class="tocPageNum">443</span> -</p> -<p>CHAPTER L. -</p> -<p><a href="#ch50" id="xd31e1258">Internal Politics: Chinese and Japanese</a>, <span class="tocPageNum">458</span> -</p> -<p>CHAPTER LI. -</p> -<p><a href="#ch51" id="xd31e1266">The War of 1894: Corea an Empire</a>, <span class="tocPageNum">472</span> -</p> -<p>CHAPTER LII. -</p> -<p><a href="#ch52" id="xd31e1275">Japan and Russia in Conflict</a>, <span class="tocPageNum">484</span> -</p> -<p>CHAPTER LIII. -</p> -<p><a href="#ch53" id="xd31e1283">Corea a Japanese Protectorate</a>, <span class="tocPageNum">497</span> -</p> -<p>CHAPTER LIV. -</p> -<p><a href="#ch54" id="xd31e1291">Chō-sen: A Province of Japan</a>, <span class="tocPageNum">507</span> -</p> -<p><a href="#ix" id="xd31e1298">INDEX</a>, <span class="tocPageNum">521</span> -<span class="pageNum" id="pb.xxix">[<a href="#pb.xxix">xxix</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div1 contents"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#toc">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="main">LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.</h2> -<table class="tocList"> -<tr> -<td class="tocDivNum"></td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="7"> -</td> -<td class="tocPageNum xd31e657">PAGE</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tocDivNum"></td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="7"><a href="#frontispiece">A City in Corea</a>, -</td> -<td class="tocPageNum"><i>Frontispiece.</i></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tocDivNum"></td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="7"><a href="#p010">Corean Coin</a>, -</td> -<td class="tocPageNum">10</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tocDivNum"></td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="7"><a href="#p018">Coin of Modern Chō-sen</a>, -</td> -<td class="tocPageNum">18</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tocDivNum"></td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="7"><a href="#p020">The Founder of Fuyu Crossing the Sungari River</a>, -</td> -<td class="tocPageNum">20</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tocDivNum"></td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="7"><a href="#p034">Coin of the Sam-han, or the Three Kingdoms</a>, -</td> -<td class="tocPageNum">34</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tocDivNum"></td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="7"><a href="#p069">Coin of Korai</a>, -</td> -<td class="tocPageNum">69</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tocDivNum"></td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="7"><a href="#p075">Two-masted Corean Vessel</a>, -</td> -<td class="tocPageNum">75</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tocDivNum"></td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="7"><a href="#p079">The Walls of Seoul</a>, -</td> -<td class="tocPageNum">79</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tocDivNum"></td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="7"><a href="#p081">Magistrate and Servant</a>, -</td> -<td class="tocPageNum">81</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tocDivNum"></td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="7"><a href="#p101">Corean Knight of the Sixteenth Century</a>, -</td> -<td class="tocPageNum">101</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tocDivNum"></td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="7"><a href="#p161">Styles of Hair-dressing in Corea</a>, -</td> -<td class="tocPageNum">161</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tocDivNum"></td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="7"><a href="#p196">A Pleasure-party on the River</a>, -</td> -<td class="tocPageNum">196</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tocDivNum"></td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="7"><a href="#p211">Corean Village in Russian Territory</a>, -</td> -<td class="tocPageNum">211</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tocDivNum"></td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="7"><a href="#p264">Table Spread for Festal Occasions</a>, -</td> -<td class="tocPageNum">264</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tocDivNum"></td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="7"><a href="#p275">Gentlemen’s Garments and Dress Patterns</a>, -</td> -<td class="tocPageNum">275</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tocDivNum"></td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="7"><a href="#p282">Thatched House near Seoul</a>, -</td> -<td class="tocPageNum">282</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tocDivNum"></td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="7"><a href="#p305">Battle-flag Captured by the Americans in 1871</a>, -</td> -<td class="tocPageNum">305</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tocDivNum"></td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="7"><a href="#p320">Battle-flag Captured in the Han Forts, 1871</a>, -</td> -<td class="tocPageNum">320</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tocDivNum"></td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="7"><a href="#p355">House and Garden of a Noble</a>, -</td> -<td class="tocPageNum">355</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tocDivNum"></td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="7"><a href="#p382">Breech-loading Cannon of Corean Manufacture</a>, -</td> -<td class="tocPageNum">382</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tocDivNum"></td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="7"><a href="#p407">The Entering Wedge of Civilization</a>, </td> -<td class="tocPageNum">407</td> -</tr> -</table> -<p><span class="pageNum" id="pb.xxxi">[<a href="#pb.xxxi">xxxi</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div class="body"> -<div id="pt1" class="div0 part"> -<h2 class="label">I.</h2> -<h2 class="main">ANCIENT AND MEDIÆVAL HISTORY</h2> -<p><span class="pageNum" id="pb1">[<a href="#pb1">1</a>]</span></p> -<div id="ch1" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#xd31e839">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="super">COREA: -<br> -THE HERMIT NATION.</h2> -<h2 class="label">CHAPTER I.</h2> -<h2 class="main">THE COREAN PENINSULA.</h2> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="first">Corea, though unknown even by name in Europe until the sixteenth century, was the -subject of description by Arab geographers of the middle ages. Before the peninsula -was known as a political unit, the envoys of Shinra, one of the three Corean states, -and those from Persia met face to face before the throne of China. The Arab merchants -trading to Chinese ports crossed the Yellow Sea, visited the peninsula, and even settled -there. The youths of Shinra, sent by their sovereign to study the arts of war and -peace at Nanking, the mediæval capitol of China, may often have seen and talked with -the merchants of Bagdad and Damascus. The Corean term for Mussulmans is <i>hoi-hoi</i>, “round and round” men. Corean art shows the undoubted influence of Persia. -</p> -<p>A very interesting passage in the chronicles of Japan, while illustrating the sensitive -regard of the Japanese for the forms of etiquette, shows another point of contact -between Corean and Saracen civilization. It occurs in the Nihon O Dai Ichi Ran, or -“A View of the Imperial Family of Japan.” “In the first month of the sixth year of -Tempiō Shōhō [February, 754 <span class="asc">A.D.</span>], the Japanese nobles Ohan no Komaro and Kibi no Mabi returned from China, in which -country they had left Fujiwara no Seiga. The former reported that at the audience -which they had of the Emperor Gen-sho, on New Tear’s Day [January 18th], the ambassadors -<span class="pageNum" id="pb2">[<a href="#pb2">2</a>]</span>of Towan [Thibet] occupied the first place to the west, those from Shinra the first -place to the east, and that the second place to the west had been destined for them -(the Japanese envoys), and the second place to the east for the ambassadors of the -Kingdom of Dai Shoku [Persia, then part of the empire of the Caliphs]. Komaro, offended -with this arrangement, asked why the Chinese should give precedence over them to the -envoys of Shinra, a state which had long been tributary to Japan. The Chinese officials, -impressed alike with the firmness and displeasure exhibited by Komaro, assigned to -the Japanese envoys a place above those of Persia and to the envoys of Shinra a place -above those of Thibet.” -</p> -<p>Thus the point at issue was settled, by avoiding it, and assigning equal honor to -Shinra and Japan. -</p> -<p>This incident alone shows that close communications were kept up between the far east -and the west of Asia, and that Corea was known beyond Chinese Asia. At that time the -boundaries of the two empires, the Arab and the Chinese, touched each other. -</p> -<p>The first notice of Corea in western books or writings occurs in the works of Khordadbeh, -an Arab geographer of the ninth century, in his Book of Roads and Provinces. He is -thus quoted by Richthofen in his work on China (p. 575, note): -</p> -<p>“What lies on the other side of China is unknown land. But high mountains rise up -densely across from Kantu. These lie over in the land of Sila, which is rich in gold. -Mussulmans who visit this country often allow themselves, through the advantages of -the same, to be induced to settle here. They export from thence ginseng, deerhorn, -aloes, camphor, nails, saddles, porcelain, satin, zimmit (cinnamon?) and galanga (ginger?).” -</p> -<p>Richthofen rightly argues that Sila is Shinra and Kantu is the promontory province -of Shantung. This Arabic term “Sila” is a corruption of Shinra—the predominant state -in Corea at the time of Khordadbeh. -</p> -<p>The name of this kingdom was pronounced by the Japanese, Shinra, and by the Chinese, -Sinlo—the latter easily altered in Arabic mouths to Sila. -</p> -<p>The European name Corea is derived from the Japanese term Korai (Chinese Kaoli), the -name of another state in the peninsula, rival to Shinra. It was also the official -title of the nation from the eleventh to the fourteenth century. The Portuguese, who -were the first navigators of the Yellow Sea, brought the name to Europe, calling the -country Coria, whence the English Corea. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb3">[<a href="#pb3">3</a>]</span></p> -<p>The French Jesuits at Peking Gallicized this into <span lang="fr">Corée</span>. Following the genius of their language, they call it <span lang="fr">La Corée</span>, just as they speak of England as <span lang="fr">L’Angleterre</span>, Germany as <span class="corr" id="xd31e1507" lang="fr" title="Source: L’Allemande">L’Allemagne</span>, and America as <span class="corr" id="xd31e1510" lang="fr" title="Source: L’Amerique">L’Amérique</span>. Hence has arisen the curious designation, used even by English writers, of this -peninsula as “the Corea.” But what is good French in this case is very bad English, -and we should no more say “the Corea” than “the Germany,” “the England,” or “the America.” -English usage forbids the employment of the definite article before a proper name, -and those writers who persist in prefixing the definite article to the proper name -Corea are either ignorant of the significance of the word, or knowingly violate the -laws of the English language. The native name of the country is Chō-sen (Morning Calm -or Fresh Morning), which French writers, always prodigal in the use of vowels, spell -Tsio-sen, Teo-cen, or Tchao-sian. The Chinese call it Tung-kwo (Eastern Kingdom), -and the Manchius, Sol-ho or Solbo. -</p> -<p>The peninsula, with its outlying islands, is nearly equal in size to Minnesota or -to Great Britain. Its area is between eighty and ninety thousand square miles. Its -coast line measures 1,740 miles. In general shape and relative position to the Asian -Continent it resembles Florida. It hangs down between the Middle Kingdom and the Sunrise -Land, separating the sea of Japan and the Yellow Sea, between the 34th and 43d parallels -of north latitude. In its general configuration, when looked at from the westward -on a good map, especially the magnificent one made by the Japanese War Department, -Chō-sen resembles the outspread wings of a headless butterfly, the lobes of the wings -being toward China, and their tops toward Japan. -</p> -<p>Legend, tradition, and geological indications lead us to believe that anciently the -Chinese promontory and province of Shantung and the Corean peninsula were connected, -and that dry land once covered the space filled by the waters joining the Gulf of -Pechili and the Yellow Sea. These waters are so shallow that the elevation of their -bottoms but a few feet would restore their area to the land surface of the globe. -On the other side, also, the sea of Japan is very shallow, and the straits of Corea, -at their greatest depth, have but eighty-three feet of water. That portion of the -Chinese province of Shing King, or Southern Manchuria, bordering the sea, is a great -plain, or series of flats elevated but a few feet above tide water, which becomes -nearly impassable during heavy rains. -</p> -<p>A marked difference is noted between the east and west coasts <span class="pageNum" id="pb4">[<a href="#pb4">4</a>]</span>of the peninsula. The former is comparatively destitute of harbors, and the shore -is high, monotonous, and but slightly indented or fringed with islands. It contains -but three provinces. On the west coast are five provinces, and the sea is thickly -strewn with islands, harbors and landing places, while navigable rivers are more numerous. -The “Corean Archipelago” contains an amazing number of fertile and inhabited islands -and islets rising out of deep water. They are thus described by the naturalist Arthur -Adams: -</p> -<p>“Leaving the huge, cone-like island of Quelpaert in the distance, the freshening breeze -bears us gallantly toward those unknown islands which form the Archipelago of Korea. -As you approach them you look from the deck of the vessel and you see them dotting -the wide, blue, boundless plain of the sea—groups and clusters of islands stretching -away into the far distance. Far as the eye can reach, their dark masses can be faintly -discerned, and as we close, one after another, the bold outlines of their mountain -peaks stand out clearly against the cloudless sky. The water from which they seem -to arise is so deep around them that a ship can almost range up alongside them. The -rough, gray granite and basaltic cliffs, of which they are composed, show them to -be only the rugged peaks of submerged mountain masses which have been rent, in some -great convulsion of nature, from the peninsula which stretches into the sea from the -main land. You gaze upward and see the weird, fantastic outline which some of their -torn and riven peaks present. In fact, they have assumed such peculiar forms as to -have suggested to navigators characteristic names. Here, for example, stands out the -fretted, crumbling towers of one called Windsor Castle, there frowns a noble rock-ruin, -the Monastery, and here again, mounting to the skies, the Abbey Peak. -</p> -<p>“Some of the islands of this Archipelago are very lofty, and one was ascertained to -boast of a naked granite peak more than two thousand feet above the level of the sea. -Many of the summits are crowned with a dense forest of conifers, dark trees, very -similar in appearance to Scotch firs.” -</p> -<p>The king of Corea may well be called “Sovereign of Ten Thousand Isles.” -</p> -<p>Almost the only striking feature of the inland physical geography of Chō-sen, heretofore -generally known, is that chain of mountains which traverses the peninsula from North -to South, not in a straight line, but in an exceedingly sinuous course, similar to -the <span class="pageNum" id="pb5">[<a href="#pb5">5</a>]</span>tacking of a ship when sailing in the eye of the wind. As the Coreans say, “it winds -out and in ninety-nine times.” -</p> -<p>Striking out from Manchuria it trends eastward to the sea at Cape Bruat on the 41st -parallel, thence it strikes southwest about eighty miles to the region west of Broughton’s -Bay (the narrowest part of Corea), whence it bears westward to the sea at the 37th -parallel, or Cape Pelissier, where its angle culminates in the lofty mountain peaks -named by the Russians Mount Popoff—after the inventor of the high turret ships. From -this point it throws off a fringe of lesser hills to the southward while the main -chain strikes southwest, and after forming the boundary between two most southern -provinces reaches the sea near the Amherst Isles. Nor does its course end here, for -the uncounted islands of the Archipelago, with their fantastic rock-ruins and perennial -greenery, that suggest deserted castles and abbeys mantled with ivy, are but the wave-worn -and shattered remnants of this lordly range. -</p> -<p>This chief feature in the physical geography of the peninsula determines largely its -configuration, climate, river system and watershed, political divisions, and natural -barriers. Speaking roughly, Eastern Corea is a mountainous ridge of which Western -Corea is but the slope. -</p> -<p>No river of any importance is found inside the peninsula east of these mountains, -except the Nak-tong, which drains the valley formed by the interior and the sea-coast -ranges, while on the westward slope ten broad streams collect the tribute of their -melted snows to enrich the valleys of five provinces. -</p> -<p>Through seven parallels of latitude this range fronts the sea of Japan with a coast -barrier which, except at Yung-hing Bay, is nearly destitute of harbors. Its timbered -heights present a wall of living green to the mariner sailing from Vladivostok to -Shanghai. -</p> -<p>Great differences of climate in the same latitude are observed on opposite sides of -this mountain range, which has various local epithets. From their height and the permanence -of their winter covering, the word “white” forms an oft-recurring part of their names. -</p> -<p>The division of the country into eight <i>dō</i>, or provinces, which are grouped in southern, central, and northern, is based mainly -on the river basins. The rainfall in nearly every province finds an outlet on its -own sea-border. Only the western slopes of the two northeastern provinces are exceptions -to this rule, since they discharge part of their waters into streams emptying beyond -their <span class="pageNum" id="pb6">[<a href="#pb6">6</a>]</span>boundaries. The Yalu, and the Han—“the river”—are the only streams whose sources lie -beyond their own provinces. In rare instances are the rivers known by the same word -along their whole length, various local names being applied by the people of different -neighborhoods. On the maps in this work only the name most commonly given to each -stream near its mouth is printed. -</p> -<p>In respect to the sea basins, three provinces on the west coast form one side of the -depression called the Yellow Sea Basin, of which Northeastern China forms the opposite -rim. The three eastern dō, or circuits, lining the Sea of Japan, make the concave -in the sea basin to which Japan offers the corresponding edge. The entire northern -boundary of the peninsula from sea to gulf, except where the colossal peak Paik-tu -(‘White Head’) forms the water-shed, is one vast valley in which lie the basins of -the Yalu and Tumen. -</p> -<p>Corea is, in reality, an island, as the following description of White Head Mountain, -obtained from the Journal of the Chinese Ambassador to Seoul, shows. This mountain -has two summits, one facing north, the other east. On the top is a lake thirty ri -around. In shape the peak is that of a colossal white vase open to the sky, and fluted -or scolloped round the edge like the vases of Chinese porcelain. Its crater, white -on the outside, is red, with whitish veins, inside. Snow and ice clothe the sides, -sometimes as late as June. On the side of the north, there issues a runnel, a yard -in depth, which falls in a cascade and forms the source of the (Tumen) river. Three -or four <i>ri</i> from the summit of the mountain the stream divides into two parts; one is the source -of the Yalu River. -</p> -<p>In general, it may be said to dwellers in the temperate zone that the climate of Corea -is excellent, bracing in the north, and in the south tempered by the ocean breezes -of summer. The winters in the higher latitudes are not more rigorous than in the State -of New York; while, in the most southern, they are as delightful as those in the Carolinas. -In so mountainous and sea-girt a country there are, of course, great climatic varieties -even in the same provinces. -</p> -<p>As compared with European countries of the same latitude, Corea is much colder in -winter and hotter in summer. In the north, the Tumen River is usually frozen during -five months in the year. The Han River at Seoul may be crossed on ice during two or -three months. Even in the southern provinces, deep snows cover the mountains, though -the plains are usually free, rarely <span class="pageNum" id="pb7">[<a href="#pb7">7</a>]</span>holding the snow during a whole day. The lowest point to which the mercury fell, in -the observation of the French missionaries, was at the 35th parallel of latitude 8° -and at the 37th parallel 15° (F.). The most delightful seasons in the year are spring -and autumn. In summer, in addition to the great heat, the rain falls often in torrents -that blockade the roads and render travelling and transport next to impossible. Toward -the end of September occurs the period of tempests and variable winds. -</p> -<p>A glance at the fauna of Corea suggests at once India, Europe, Massachusetts, and -Florida. In the forests, especially of the two northern circuits, tigers of the largest -size and fiercest aspect abound. When food fails them, they attack human habitations, -and the annual list of victims is very large. The leopard is common. There are several -species of deer, which furnish not only hides and venison, but horns which, when “in -velvet,” are highly prized as medicine. In the fauna are included bears, wild hogs -and the common pigs of stunted breed, wild cats, badgers, foxes, beavers, otters, -several species of martens. The salamander is found in the streams, as in western -Japan. -</p> -<p>Of domestic beasts, horses are very numerous, being mostly of a short, stunted breed. -Immense numbers of oxen are found in the south, furnishing the meat diet craved by -the people who eat much more of fatty stuff than the Japanese. -</p> -<p>Goats are rare. Sheep are imported from China only for sacrificial purposes. The dog -serves for food as well as for companionship and defence. Of birds, the pheasant, -falcon, eagle, crane, and stork, are common. -</p> -<p>Corea has for centuries successfully carried out the policy of isolation. Instead -of a peninsula, her rulers have striven to make her an inaccessible island, and insulate -her from the shock of change. She has built not a Great Wall of masonry, but a barrier -of sea and river-flood, of mountain and devastated land, of palisades and cordons -of armed sentinels. Frost and snow, storm and winter, she hails as her allies. Not -content with the sea-border she desolates her shores lest they tempt the mariner to -land. Between her Chinese neighbor and herself, she has placed a neutral space of -unplanted, unoccupied land. This strip of forests and desolated plains, twenty leagues -wide, stretches between Corea and Manchuria. To form it, four cities and many villages -were suppressed three centuries ago, and left in ruins. The soil of these solitudes -is very good, the roads easy, and the hills not high. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb8">[<a href="#pb8">8</a>]</span></p> -<p>For centuries, only the wild beasts, fugitives from justice, and outlaws from both -countries, have inhabited this fertile but forbidden territory. Occasionally, borderers -would cultivate portions of it, but gather the produce by night or stealthily by day, -venturing on it as prisoners would step over the “dead line.” Of late years, the Chinese -Government has respected the neutrality of this barrier less and less. One of those -recurring historical phenomena peculiar to Manchuria—the increase and pressure of -population—has within a generation caused the occupation of large portions of this -neutral strip. Parts of it have been surveyed and staked out by Chinese surveyors, -and the Corean Government has been too feeble to prevent the occupation. Though no -towns or villages are marked on the map of this “No-man’s land,” yet already, a considerable -number of small settlements exist upon it. -</p> -<p>As this once neutral territory is being gradually obliterated, so the former lines -of palisades and stone walls on the northern border which, two centuries and more -ago, were strong, high, guarded and kept in repair, have year by year, during a long -era of peace, been suffered to fall into decay. They exist no longer, and should be -erased from the maps. -</p> -<p>The pressure of population in Manchuria upon the Corean border is a portentous phenomenon. -For Manchuria, which for ages past has, like a prolific hive, swarmed off masses of -humanity into other lands, seems again preparing to send off a fresh cloud. Already -her millions press upon her neighbors for room. -</p> -<p>The clock of history seems once more about to strike, perhaps to order again another -dynasty on the oft-changed throne of China. -</p> -<p>From mysterious Mongolia, have gone out in the past the various hordes called Tartars, -or Tâtars, Huns, Turks, Kitans, Mongols, Manchius. Perhaps her loins also are already -swelling with a new progeny. This marvellous region gave forth the man-children who -destroyed the Roman Empire; who extinguished Christianity in Asia and Africa, and -nearly in Europe; who, after conquering India and China threatened Christendom, and -holding Russia for two centuries, created the largest empire ever known on earth; -and finally reared “the most improvable race in Asia” that now holds the throne and -empire of China. -</p> -<p>Chō-sen since acting the hermit policy of ancient Egypt and mediæval China, has preserved -two loopholes at Fusan and Ai-chiu, the former on the sea toward Japan, and the latter -in the northwest, on the Chinese border. What in time of peace is a needle’s <span class="pageNum" id="pb9">[<a href="#pb9">9</a>]</span>eye, is in time of war a flood-gate for enemies. From the west, the invading armies -of China have again and again marched around over the Gulf of Liao Tung and entered -the peninsula to plunder and to conquer, while Chinese fleets from Shan-tung have -over and over again arched their sails in the Yellow Sea to furl them again in Corean -Rivers. From the east, the Japanese have pushed across the sea to invade Corea as -enemies, to help as allies against China, to levy tribute and go away enriched, or -anon to send their grain-laden ships to their starving neighbors. -</p> -<p>From a political point of view the geographical position of this country is most unfortunate. -Placed between two rival nations, aliens in blood, temper, and policy, Chō-sen has -been the rich grist between the upper and nether millstones of China and Japan. Out -of the north, rising from the vast plains at Manchuria, the conquering hordes, on -their way to the prize lying south of the Great Wall, have over and over again descended -on Corean soil to make it their granary. From the pre-historic forays of the tribes -beyond the Sungari, to the last new actors on the scene, the Russians, who stand with -their feet on the Tumen, looking over the border on her helpless neighbor, Corea has -been threatened or devastated by her eager enemies. -</p> -<p>Nevertheless Corea has always remained Corea, a separate country; and the people are -Coreans, more allied to the Japanese than the Chinese, yet in language, politics, -and social customs, different from either. As Ireland is not England or Scotland, -neither is Chō-sen China nor Japan. -</p> -<p>In her boasted history of “four thousand years,” the little kingdom has too often -been the Ireland of China, so far as misgovernment on the one side, and fretful and -spasmodic resistance on the other, are considered. Yet ancient Corea has also been -an Ireland to Japan, in the better sense of giving to her the art, letters, science, -and ethics of continental civilization. As of old, went forth from Tara’s halls to -the British Isles and the continent, the bard and the monk to elevate and civilize -Europe with the culture of Rome and the religion of Christianity, so for centuries -there crossed the sea from the peninsula a stream of scholars, artists, and missionaries -who brought to Japan the social culture of Chō-sen, the literature of China, and the -religion of India. A grateful bonze of Japan has well told the story of Corea’s part -in the civilization of his native country in a book entitled “Precious Jewels from -a Neighbor Country.<span class="corr" id="xd31e1568" title="Source: ’">”</span> -<span class="pageNum" id="pb10">[<a href="#pb10">10</a>]</span></p> -<p>Corea fulfils one of the first conditions of national safety in having “scientific -frontiers,” or adequate natural boundaries of river, mountain, and sea. But now what -was once barrier is highway. What was once the safety of isolation, is now the weakness -of the recluse. Steam has made the water a surer path than land, and Japan, once the -pupil and anon the conqueror of the little kingdom, has in these last days become -the helpful friend of Corea’s people, and the opener of the long-sealed peninsula. -</p> -<p>Already the friendly whistle of Japanese steamers is heard in the harbors of two ports -in which are trading settlements. At Fusan and Gensan, the mikado’s subjects hold -commercial rivalry with the Coreans, and through these two loopholes the hermits of -the peninsula catch glimpses of the outer world that must waken thought and create -a desire to enter the family of nations. The ill fame of the native character for -inhospitality and hatred of foreigners belongs not to the people, nor is truly characteristic -of them. It inheres in the government which curses country and people, and in the -ruling classes who, like those in Old Japan, do not wish the peasantry to see the -inferiority of those who govern them. -</p> -<p>Corea cannot long remain a hermit nation. The near future will see her open to the -world. Commerce and pure Christianity will enter to elevate her people, and the student -of science, ethnology, and language will find a tempting field on which shall be solved -many a yet obscure problem. The forbidden land of to-day is, in many striking points -of comparison, the analogue of Old Japan. While the last of the hermit nations awaits -some gallant Perry of the future, we may hope that the same brilliant path of progress -on which the Sunrise Kingdom has entered, awaits the Land of Morning Calm. -</p> -<p>We add a postscript. As our manuscript turns to print, we hear of the treaty successfully -negotiated by Commodore Shufeldt. -</p> -<p></p> -<div class="figure p010width" id="p010"><img src="images/p010.png" alt="Corean Coin—“Eastern Kingdom, Precious Treasure.”" width="177" height="177"><p class="figureHead">Corean Coin—“Eastern Kingdom, Precious Treasure.”</p> -</div><p> -<span class="pageNum" id="pb11">[<a href="#pb11">11</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch2" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#xd31e847">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="label">CHAPTER II.</h2> -<h2 class="main">THE OLD KINGDOM OF CHŌ-SEN.</h2> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="first">Like almost every country on earth, whose history is known, Corea is inhabited by -a race that is not aboriginal. The present occupiers of the land drove out or conquered -the people whom they found upon it. They are the descendants of a stock whose ancestral -seats were beyond those ever white mountains which buttress the northern frontier. -</p> -<p>Nevertheless, for the origins of their national history, we must look to one whom -the Coreans of this nineteenth century still call the founder of their social order. -The scene of his labors is laid partly within the peninsula, and chiefly in Manchuria, -on the well watered plains of Shing-king, formerly called Liao Tung. -</p> -<p>The third dynasty of the thirty-three or thirty-four lines of rulers who have filled -the oft-changed throne of China, is known in history as the Shang (or Yin). It began -<span class="asc">B.C.</span> 1766, and after a line of twenty-eight sovereigns, ended in Chow Sin, who died <span class="asc">B.C.</span> 1122. He was an unscrupulous tyrant, and has been called “the Nero of China.” -</p> -<p>One of his nobles was Ki Tsze, viscount of Ki (or Latinized, Kicius). He was a profound -scholar and author of important portions of the classic book, entitled the Shu King. -He was a counsellor of the tyrant king, and being a man of upright character, was -greatly scandalized at the conduct of his licentious and cruel master. -</p> -<p>The sage remonstrated with his sovereign hoping to turn him from his evil ways. In -this noble purpose he was assisted by two other men of rank named Pi Kan and Wei Tsze. -All their efforts were of no avail, and finding the reformation of the tyrant hopeless, -Wei Tsze, though a kinsman of the king, voluntarily exiled himself from the realm, -while Pi Kan, also a relative of Chow Sin, was cruelly murdered in the following manner: -</p> -<p>The king, mocking the wise counsellor, cried out, “They say <span class="pageNum" id="pb12">[<a href="#pb12">12</a>]</span>that a sage has seven orifices to his heart; let us see if this is the case with Pi -Kan.” This Chinese monarch, himself so much like Herod in other respects, had a wife -who in her character resembled Herodias. It was she who expressed the bloody wish -to see the heart of Pi Kan. By the imperial order the sage was put to death and his -body ripped open. His heart, torn out, was brought before the cruel pair. Ki Tsze, -the third counsellor, was cast into prison. -</p> -<p>Meanwhile the people and nobles of the empire were rising in arms against the tyrant -whose misrule had become intolerable. They were led on by one Wu Wang, who crossed -the Yellow River, and met the tyrant on the plains of Muh. In the great battle that -ensued, the army of Chow Sin was defeated. Escaping to his palace, and ordering it -to be set on fire, he perished in the flames. -</p> -<p>Among the conqueror’s first acts was the erection of a memorial mound over the grave -of Pi Kan, and an order that Ki Tsze should be released from prison, and appointed -Prime Minister of the realm. -</p> -<p>But the sage’s loyalty exceeded his gratitude. In spite of the magnanimity of the -offer, Ki Tsze frankly told the conqueror that duty to his deposed sovereign forbade -him serving one whom he could not but regard as a usurper. He then departed into the -regions lying to the northeast. With him went several thousand Chinese emigrants, -mostly the remnant of the defeated army, now exiles, who made him their king. It is -not probable that in his distant realm he received investment from or paid tribute -to King Wu. Such an act would be a virtual acknowledgment of the righteousness of -rebellion and revolution. It would prove that the sage forgave the usurper. Some Chinese -historians state that Ki Tsze accepted a title from Wu Wang. Others maintain that -the investiture “was a euphemism to shield the character of the ancestor of Confucius.” -The migration of Ki Tsze and his followers took place 1122 <span class="asc">B.C.</span> -</p> -<p>Ki Tsze began vigorously to reduce the aboriginal people of his realm to order. He -policed the borders, gave laws to his subjects, and gradually introduced the principles -and practice of Chinese etiquette and polity throughout his domain. Previous to his -time the people lived in caves and holes in the ground, dressed in leaves, and were -destitute of manners, morals, agriculture and cooking, being ignorant savages. The -divine being, Dan Kun, had partially civilized them, but Kishi, who brought 5,000 -Chinese colonists with <span class="pageNum" id="pb13">[<a href="#pb13">13</a>]</span>him, taught the aborigines letters, reading and writing, medicine, many of the arts, -and the political principles of feudal China. The Japanese pronounce the founder’s -name Kishi, and the Coreans Kei-tsa or Kysse. -</p> -<p>The name conferred by Kishi, the civilizer, upon his new domain is that now in use -by the modern Coreans—Chō-sen or Morning Calm. -</p> -<p>This ancient kingdom of Chō-sen, according to the Coreans, comprised the modern Chinese -province of Shing-king, which is now about the size of Ohio, having an area of 43,000 -square miles, and a population of 8,000,000 souls. It is entirely outside and west -of the limits of modern Corea. -</p> -<p>In addition to the space already named, the fluctuating boundaries of this ancient -kingdom embraced at later periods much territory beyond the Liao River toward Peking, -and inside the line now marked by the Great Wall. To the east the modern province -of Ping-an was included in Chō-sen, the Ta-tong River being its most stable boundary. -“Scientific frontiers,” though sought for in those ancient times, were rather ideal -than hard and fast. With all due allowance for elastic boundaries, we may say that -ancient Chō-sen lay chiefly within the Liao Tung peninsula and the Corean province -of Ping-an, that the Liao and the Ta-tong Rivers enclosed it, and that its northern -border lay along the 42d parallel of latitude. -</p> -<p>The descendants of Ki Tsze are said to have ruled the country until the fourth century -before the Christian era. Their names and deeds are alike unknown, but it is stated -that there were forty-one generations, making a blood-line of eleven hundred and thirty-one -years. The line came to an end in 9 <span class="asc">A.D.</span>, though they had lost power long before this time. -</p> -<p>By common consent of Chinese and native tradition, Ki Tsze is the founder of Corean -social order. If this tradition be true, the civilization of the hermit nation nearly -equals, in point of time, that of China, and is one of the very oldest in the world, -being contemporaneous with that of Egypt and Chaldea. It is certain that the natives -plume themselves upon their antiquity, and that the particular vein of Corean arrogance -and contempt for western civilization is kindred to that of the Hindoos and Chinese. -From the lofty height of thirty centuries of tradition, which to them is unchallenged -history, they look with pitying contempt upon the upstart nations of yesterday, who -live beyond the sea under some other heaven. When the American Admiral, John Rodgers, -in <span class="pageNum" id="pb14">[<a href="#pb14">14</a>]</span>1871, entered the Han River with his fleet, hoping to make a treaty, he was warned -off with the repeated answer that “Corea was satisfied with her civilization of four -thousand years, and wanted no other.” The perpetual text of all letters from Seoul -to Peking, of all proclamations against Christianity, of all death-warrants of converts, -and of the oft-repeated refusals to open trade with foreigners is the praise of Ki -Tsze as the founder of the virtue and order of “the little kingdom,” and the loyalty -of Corea to his doctrines. -</p> -<p>In the letter of the king to the Chinese emperor, dated November 25, 1801, the language -following the opening sentence is as given below: -</p> -<p>“His Imperial Majesty knows that since the time when the remnants of the army of the -Yin dynasty migrated to the East [1122 <span class="asc">B.C.</span>], the little kingdom has always been distinguished by its exactness in fulfilling -all that the rites prescribe, justice and loyalty, and in general by fidelity to her -duties,” etc., etc. -</p> -<p>In a royal proclamation against the Christian religion, dated January 25, 1802, occurs -the following sentence: -</p> -<p>“The kingdom granted to Ki Tsze has enjoyed great peace during four hundred years -[since the establishment of the ruling dynasty], in all the extent of its territory -of two thousand ri and more,” etc. -</p> -<p>These are but specimens from official documents which illustrate their pride in antiquity, -and the reverence in which their first law giver is held by the Coreans. -</p> -<p>Nevertheless, though Kishi may possibly be called the founder of ancient Chō-sen, -and her greatest legislator, yet he can scarcely be deemed the ancestor of the people -now inhabiting the Corean peninsula. For the modern Coreans are descended from a stock -of later origin, and quite different from the ancient Chō-senese. From Ki Tsze, however, -sprang a line of kings, and it is possible that his blood courses in some of the noble -families of the kingdom. -</p> -<p>As the most ancient traditions of Japan and Corea are based on Chinese writings, there -is no discrepancy in their accounts of the beginning of Chō-sen history. -</p> -<p>Ki Tsze and his colonists were simply the first immigrants to the country northeast -of China, of whom history speaks. He found other people on the soil before him, concerning -whose origin nothing is known in writing. The land was not densely populated, but -of their numbers, or time of coming of the aborigines, or <span class="pageNum" id="pb15">[<a href="#pb15">15</a>]</span>whether of the same race as the tribes in the outlying islands of Japan, no means -yet in our power can give answer. -</p> -<p>Even the story of Ki Tsze, when critically examined, does not satisfy the rigid demands -of modern research. Mayers, in his “Chinese Reader’s Manual” (p. 369), does not concede -the first part of the Chow dynasty (1122 <span class="asc">B.C.</span>–255 <span class="asc">A.D.</span>) to be more than semi-historical, and places the beginning of authentic Chinese history -between 781 and 719 <span class="asc">B.C.</span>, over four centuries after Ki Tsze’s time. Ross (p. 11) says that “the story of Kitsu -is not impossible, but it is to be received with suspicion.” It is not at all improbable -that the Chō-sen of Ki Tsze’s founding lay in the Sungari valley, and was extended -southward at a later period. -</p> -<p>It is not for us to dissect too critically the tradition concerning the founder of -Corea, nor to locate exactly the scene of his labors. Suffice it to say that the general -history, prior to the Christian era, of the country whose story we are to tell, divides -itself into that of the north, or Chō-sen, and that of the south, below the Ta-tong -River, in which region three kingdoms arose and flourished, with varying fortunes, -during a millennium. -</p> -<p>We return now to the well-established history of Chō-sen. The Great Wall of China -was built by Cheng, the founder of the Tsin dynasty (<span class="asc">B.C.</span> 255–209), who began the work in 239 <span class="asc">A.D.</span> Before his time, China had been a feudal conglomerate of petty, warring kingdoms. -He, by the power of the sword, consolidated them into one homogeneous empire and took -the title of the “First Universal Emperor” (Shi Whang Ti). Not content with sweeping -away feudal institutions, and building the Great Wall, he ordered all the literary -records and the ancient scriptures of Confucius to be destroyed by fire. Yet the empire, -whose perpetuity he thought to secure by building a rampart against the barbarians -without, and by destroying the material for rebellious thought within, fell to pieces -soon after, at his death, when left to the care of a foolish son, and China was plunged -into bloody anarchy again. -</p> -<p>One of these petty kingdoms that arose on the ruins of the empire was that of Yen, -which began to encroach upon its eastern neighbor Chō-sen. -</p> -<p>In the later days of the Ki Tsze family, great anarchy prevailed, and the last kings -of the line were unable to keep their domain in order, or guard its boundaries. -</p> -<p>Taking advantage of its weakness, the king of Yen began boldly and openly to seize -upon Chō-sen territory, annexing thousands of <span class="pageNum" id="pb16">[<a href="#pb16">16</a>]</span>square miles to his own domain. By a spasmodic effort, the successors of Ki Tsze again -became ascendant, reannexing a large part of the territory of Yen, and receiving great -numbers of her people, who had fled from civil war in China, within the borders of -Chō-sen for safety and peace. -</p> -<p>Thus the spoiler was spoiled, but, later on, the kingdom of Yen was again set up, -and the rival states fixed their boundaries and made peace. The Han dynasty in <span class="asc">B.C.</span> 206 claimed the imperial power, and sent a summons to the king of Yen to become vassal. -On his refusing, the Chinese emperor despatched an army against him, defeated his -forces in battle, extinguished his dynasty, and annexed his kingdom. -</p> -<p>One of the survivors of this revolt, named Wei-man, with one thousand of his followers, -fled to the east. Dressing themselves like wild savages they entered Chō-sen, pretending, -with Gibeonitish craft, that they had come from the far west, and begged to be received -as subjects. -</p> -<p>Kijun, the king, like another Joshua, believing their professions, welcomed them and -made their leader a vassal of high rank, with the title of ‘Guardian of the Western -Frontier.’ He also set apart a large tract of land for his salary and support. -</p> -<p>In his post at the west, Wei-man played the traitor, and collecting a number of his -former countrymen from the Yen province, suddenly sent to Kijun a messenger, informing -him that a large Chinese army of the conquering Han was about to invade Chō-sen. At -the same time, he suggested that he should be called to the royal side and be made -Protector of the Capital. His desire being granted, he hastened with his forces and -suddenly appearing before the royal castle, attacked it. Kijun was beaten, and fled -by sea, escaping in a boat to the southern end of the peninsula. -</p> -<p>Wei-man then proclaimed himself King of Chō-sen, 194 <span class="asc">B.C.</span> He set out on a career of conquest and seized several of the neighboring provinces, -and Chō-sen again expanded her boundaries to cover an immense area. Wei-man built -a city somewhere east of the Ta-tong River. It was named Wang-hien. -</p> -<p>Two provinces of modern Corea were thus included within Chō-sen at this date. The -new kingdom grew in wealth, power, and intelligence. Many thousands of the Chinese -gentry, fleeing before the conquering arms of the Han “usurpers,” settled within the -limits of Chō-sen, adding greatly to its prosperity. -</p> -<p>During the reign of Yukio (Chinese, Yow Jin), the grandson of <span class="pageNum" id="pb17">[<a href="#pb17">17</a>]</span>Wei-man, he received a summons to become vassal to the Chinese emperor, who sublimely -declared that henceforward the eastern frontier of China should be the Ta-tong River—thus -virtually wiping out Chō-sen with a proclamation. In <span class="asc">B.C.</span> 109, a Chinese ambassador sailed over from China, entered the Ta-tong River, and -visited Yukio in his castle. He plead in vain with Yukio to render homage to his master. -</p> -<p>Nevertheless, to show his respect for the emperor and his envoy, Yukio sent an escort -to accompany the latter on his way. The sullen Chinaman, angry at his defeat, accepted -the safe conduct of the Chō-sen troops until beyond the Ta-tong River, and then treacherously -put their chief to death. Hurrying back to his master, he glossed over his defeat, -and boasted of his perfidious murder. He was rewarded with the appointment of the -governorship of Liao Tung. -</p> -<p>Smarting at the insult and menace of this act, Yukio, raising an army, marched to -the west and slew the traitor. Having thus unfurled the standard of defiance against -the mighty Han dynasty, he returned to his castle, and awaited with anxious preparation -the coming of the invading hosts which he knew would be hurled upon him from China. -</p> -<p>The avenging expedition, that was to carry the banners of China farther toward the -sunrise than ever before, was despatched both by land and sea, <span class="asc">B.C.</span> 108. The horse and foot soldiers took the land route around the head of Liao Tung -Gulf, crossed on the ice of the Yalu River, and marched south to the Ta-tong, where -the Chō-sen men attacked their van and scattered it. -</p> -<p>The fleet sailed over from Shantung, and landed a force of several thousand men on -the Corean shore, in February or March, <span class="asc">B.C.</span> 107. Without waiting for the entire army to penetrate the country, Yukio attacked -the advance guards and drove them to the mountains in disorder. -</p> -<p>Diplomacy was now tried, and a representative of the emperor was sent to treat with -Yukio. The latter agreed to yield and become vassal, but had no confidence in the -general whom he had just defeated. His memory of Chinese perfidy was still so fresh, -that he felt unable to trust himself to his recently humbled enemies, and the negotiations -ended in failure. As usual, with the unsuccessful, the Chinaman lost his head. -</p> -<p>Recourse was again had to the sword. The Chinese crossed the Ta-tong River on the -north, and defeating the Chō-sen army, <span class="pageNum" id="pb18">[<a href="#pb18">18</a>]</span>marched to the king’s capital, and laid siege to it in conjunction with the naval -forces. In spite of their superior numbers, the invaders were many months vainly beleaguering -the fortress. Yet, though the garrison wasted daily, the king would not yield. Knowing -that defeat, with perhaps a cruel massacre, awaited them, four Chō-sen men, awaiting -their opportunity, during the fighting, discharged their weapons at Yukio, and leaving -him dead, opened the gates of the citadel, and the Chinese entered. -</p> -<p>With the planting of the Han banners on the city walls, <span class="asc">B.C.</span> 107, the existence of the kingdom of Chō-sen came to an end. Henceforth, for several -centuries, Liao Tung and the land now comprised within the two northwestern provinces -of Corea, were parts of China. -</p> -<p>The conquered territory was at once divided into four provinces, two of which comprised -that part of Corea north of the Ta-tong River. The other two were in Liao Tung, occupying -its eastern and its western half. Within the latter was the district of Kokorai, or -Kaokuli, at whose history we shall now glance. -</p> -<p></p> -<div class="figure p018width" id="p018"><img src="images/p018.png" alt="Coin of Modern Chō-sen. “Chō-sen, Current Treasure.”" width="188" height="184"><p class="figureHead">Coin of Modern Chō-sen. “Chō-sen, Current Treasure.”</p> -</div><p> -<span class="pageNum" id="pb19">[<a href="#pb19">19</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch3" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#xd31e855">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="label">CHAPTER III.</h2> -<h2 class="main">THE FUYU RACE AND THEIR MIGRATIONS.</h2> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="first">Somewhere north of that vast region watered by the Sungari River, itself only a tributary -to the Amur, there existed, according to Chinese tradition, in very ancient times, -a petty kingdom called Korai, or To-li. Out of this kingdom sprang the founder of -the Corean race. Slightly altering names, we may say in the phrase of Genesis: “Out -of Korai went forth Ko and builded Corea,” though what may be sober fact is wrapped -up in the following fantastic legend. -</p> -<p>Long, long ago, in the kingdom called To-li, or <i>Korai</i> (so pronounced, though the characters are not those for the Korai of later days), -there lived a king, in whose harem was a waiting-maid. One day, while her master was -absent on a hunt, she saw, floating in the atmosphere, a glistening vapor which entered -her bosom. This ray or tiny cloud seemed to be about as big as an egg. Under its influence, -she conceived. -</p> -<p>The king, on his return, discovered her condition, and made up his mind to put her -to death. Upon her explanation, however, he agreed to spare her life, but at once -lodged her in prison. -</p> -<p>The child that was born proved to be a boy, which the king promptly cast among the -pigs. But the swine breathed into his nostrils and the baby lived. He was next put -among the horses, but they also nourished him with their breath, and he lived. Struck -by this evident will of Heaven, that the child should live, the king listened to its -mother’s prayers, and permitted her to nourish and train him in the palace. He grew -up to be a fair youth, full of energy, and skilful in archery. He was named “Light -of the East,” and the king appointed him Master of his stables. -</p> -<p>One day, while out hunting, the king permitted him to give an exhibition of his skill -This he did, drawing bow with such unerring aim that the royal jealousy was kindled, -and he thought of <span class="pageNum" id="pb20">[<a href="#pb20">20</a>]</span>nothing but how to compass the destruction of the youth. Knowing that he would be -killed if he remained in the royal service, the young archer fled the kingdom. He -directed his course to the southeast, and came to the borders of a vast and impassable -river, most probably the Sungari. Knowing his pursuers were not far behind him he -cried out, in a great strait, -</p> -<p></p> -<div class="figure p020width" id="p020"><img src="images/p020.png" alt="The Founder of Fuyu Crossing the Sungari River. (Drawn by G. Hashimoto, Yedo, 1853.)" width="702" height="684"><p class="figureHead">The Founder of Fuyu Crossing the Sungari River. (Drawn by G. Hashimoto, Yedo, 1853.)</p> -</div><p> -</p> -<p>“Alas! shall I, who am the child of the Sun, and the grandson of the Yellow River, -be stopped here powerless by this stream.” -</p> -<p>So saving he shot his arrows at the water. -</p> -<p>Immediately all the fishes of the river assembled together in a thick shoal, making -so dense a mass that their bodies became a floating bridge. On this, the young prince -(and according to the <span class="pageNum" id="pb21">[<a href="#pb21">21</a>]</span>Japanese version of the legend, three others with him), crossed the stream and safely -reached the further side. No sooner did he set foot on land than his pursuers appeared -on the opposite shore, when the bridge of fishes at once dissolved. His three companions -stood ready to act as his guides. One of the three was dressed in a costume made of -sea-weeds, a second in hempen garments, and a third in embroidered robes. Arriving -at their city, he became the king of the tribe and kingdom of Fuyu, which lay in the -fertile and well-watered region between the Sungari River and the Shan Alyn, or Ever-White -Mountains. It extended several hundred miles east and west of a line drawn southward -through Kirin, the larger half lying on the west. -</p> -<p>Fuyu, as described by a Chinese writer of the Eastern Han dynasty (25 <span class="asc">B.C.</span>–190 <span class="asc">A.D.</span>), was a land of fertile soil, in which “the five cereals” (wheat, rice, millet, beans, -and sorghum) could be raised. The men were tall, muscular, and brave, and withal generous -and courteous to each other. Their arms were bows and arrows, swords, and lances. -They were skilful horsemen. Their ornaments were large pearls, and cut jewels of red -jade. They made spirits from grain, and were fond of drinking bouts, feasting, dancing, -and singing. With many drinkers there were few cups. The latter were rinsed in a bowl -of water, and with great ceremony passed from one to another. They ate with chopsticks, -out of bowls, helping themselves out of large dishes. -</p> -<p>It is a striking fact that the Fuyu people, though living so far from China, were -dwellers in cities which they surrounded with palisades or walls of stakes. They lived -in wooden houses, and stored their crops in granaries. -</p> -<p>In the administration of justice, they were severe and prompt. They had regular prisons, -and fines were part of their legal system. The thief must repay twelve-fold. Adultery -was punished by the death of both parties. Further revenge might be taken upon the -woman by exposing her dead body on a mound. Certain relatives of a criminal were denied -burial in a coffin. The other members of the family of a criminal suffering capital -punishment were sold as slaves. Murderers were buried alive with their victims. -</p> -<p>The Fuyu religion was a worship of Heaven, their greatest festival being in the eleventh -month, when they met joyfully together, laying aside all grudges and quarrels, and -freeing their prisoners. Before setting out on a military expedition they worshipped -<span class="pageNum" id="pb22">[<a href="#pb22">22</a>]</span>Heaven, and sacrificed an ox, examining the hoof, to obtain an omen. If the cloven -part remained separated, the portent was evil, if the hoof closed together, the omen -was auspicious. -</p> -<p>The Fuyu chief men or rulers were named after the domestic beasts, beginning with -their noblest animal, the horse, then the ox, the dog, etc. Rulers of cities were -of this order. Their king was buried at his death in a coffin made of jade. -</p> -<p>Evidently the Fuyu people were a vigorous northern race, well clothed and fed, rich -in grain, horses and cattle, possessing the arts of life, with considerable literary -culture, and well advanced in social order and political knowledge. Though the Chinese -writers classed them among barbarians, they were, in contrast with their immediate -neighbors, a civilized nation. Indeed, to account for such a high stage of civilization -thus early and so far from China, Mr. Ross suggests that the scene of the Ki Tsze’s -labors was in Fuyu, rather than in Chō-sen. Certain it is that the Fuyu people were -the first nation of Manchuria to emerge from barbarism, and become politically well -organized. It is significant, as serving to support the conjecture that Ki Tsze founded -Fuyu, that we discern, even in the early history of this vigorous nation, the institution -of feudalism. We find a king and nobles, with fortified cities, and wealthy men, with -farms, herds of horses, cattle, and granaries. We find also a class of serfs, created -by the degradation of criminals or their relatives. The other Manchurian people, or -barbarians, surrounding China, were still in the nomadic or patriarchal state. Why -so early beyond China do we find a well-developed feudal system and high political -organization? -</p> -<p>It was from feudal China, the China of the Yin dynasty, from which Ki Tsze emigrated -to the northeast. Knowing no other form of government, he, if their founder, doubtless -introduced feudal forms of government. -</p> -<p>Whatever may be thought of the theory there suggested, it is certainly surprising -to find a distinctly marked feudal system, already past the rudimentary stage, in -the wilderness of Manchuria, a thousand miles away from the seats of Chinese culture, -as early as the Christian era. -</p> -<p>As nearly the whole of Europe was at some time feudalized, so China, Corea, and Japan -have each passed through this stage of political life. -</p> -<p>The feudal system in China was abolished by Shi Whang Ti, <span class="pageNum" id="pb23">[<a href="#pb23">23</a>]</span>the first universal Emperor, <span class="asc">B.C.</span> 221, but that of Japan only after an interval of 2,000 years, surviving until 1871. -It lingers still in Corea, whose history it has greatly influenced, as our subsequent -narrative will prove. In addition to the usual features of feudalism, the existence -of serfdom, in fact as well as in form, is proved by the testimony of Dutch and French -observers, and of the language itself. The richness of Corean speech, in regard to -every phase and degree of servitude, would suffice for a Norman landholder in mediæval -England, or for a Carolina cotton-planter before the American civil war. -</p> -<p>Out of this kingdom of Fuyu came the people who are the ancestors of the modern Coreans. -In the same Chinese history which describes Fuyu, we have a picture of the kingdom -of Kokorai (or Kao-ku-li), which had Fuyu for its northern and Chō-sen for its southern -neighbor. “The land was two thousand li square, and contained many great mountains, -and deep valleys.” There was a tradition among the Eastern barbarians that they were -an offshoot from Fuyu. Hence their language and laws were very much alike. The nation -was divided into five families, named after the four points of the compass, with a -yellow or central tribe. -</p> -<p>Evidently this means that a few families, perhaps five in number, leaving Fuyu, set -out toward the south, and in the valleys west of the Yalu River and along the 42d -parallel, founded a new nation. Their first king was Ko, who, perhaps, to gain the -prestige of ancient descent, joined his name to that of Korai (written however with -the characters which make the sound of modern Korai) and thus the realm of Kokorai -received its name. -</p> -<p>A Japanese writer derives the term Kokorai from words selected out of a passage in -the Chinese classics referring to the high mountains. The first character Ko, in Kokorai, -means high, and it was under the shadows of the lofty Ever White Mountains that this -vigorous nation had its cradle and its home in youth. Here, too, its warriors nourished -their strength until their clouds of horsemen burst upon the frontiers of the Chinese -empire, and into the old kingdom of Chō-sen. The people of this young state were rich -in horses and cattle, but less given to agriculture. They lived much in the open air, -and were fierce, impetuous, strong, and hardy. They were fond of music and pleasure -at night. Especially characteristic was their love of decoration and display. At their -public gatherings they decked themselves in <span class="pageNum" id="pb24">[<a href="#pb24">24</a>]</span>dresses embroidered with gold and silver. Their houses were also adorned in various -ways. Their chief display was at funerals, when a prodigal outlay of precious metals, -jewels, and embroideries was exhibited. -</p> -<p>In their religion they sacrificed to Heaven, to the spirits of the land, and of the -harvests, to the morning star, and to the celestial and invisible powers. There were -no prisons, but when crimes were committed the chiefs, after deliberation, put the -criminal to death and reduced the wives and children to slavery. In this way serfs -were provided for labor. In their burial customs, they made a cairn, and planted fir-trees -around it, as many Japanese tombs are made. -</p> -<p>In the general forms of their social, religious, and political life, the people of -Fuyu and Kokorai were identical, or nearly so; while both closely resemble the ancient -Japanese of Yamato. -</p> -<p>The Chinese authors also state that these people were already in possession of the -Confucian classics, and had attained to an unusual degree of literary culture. Their -officials were divided into twelve ranks, which was also the ancient Japanese number. -In the method of divination, in the wearing of flowery costumes, and in certain forms -of etiquette, they and the Japanese were alike. As is now well known, the ancient -form of government of the Yamato Japanese (that is, of the conquering race from Corea -and the north) was a rude feudalism and not a monarchy. Further, the central part -of Japan, first held by the ancestors of the mikado, consists of <i>five</i> provinces, like the Kokorai division, into five clans or tribes. -</p> -<p>At the opening of the Christian era we find the people of Kokorai already strong and -restless enough to excite attention from the Chinese court. In 9 <span class="asc">A.D.</span> they were recognized as a nation with their own “kings,” and classified with Huentu, -one of the districts of old Chō-sen. One of these kings, in the year 30, sent tribute -to the Chinese emperor. In 50 <span class="asc">A.D.</span> Kokorai, by invitation, sent their warriors to assist the Chinese army against a -rebel horde in the northwest. In <span class="asc">A.D.</span> 70 the men of Kokorai descended upon Liao Tung, and having now a taste for border -war and conquest, they marched into the petty kingdom of Wei, which lay in what is -now the extreme northeast of Corea. Absorbing this little country, they kept up constant -warfare against the Chinese. Though their old kinsmen, the Fuyu men, were at times -allies of the Han, yet they gradually spread themselves eastward and southward, so -<span class="pageNum" id="pb26">[<a href="#pb26">26</a>]</span>that by 169 <span class="asc">A.D.</span> the Kokorai kingdom embraced the whole of the territory of old Chō-sen, or of Liao -Tung, with all the Corean peninsula north of the Ta-tong, and even to the Tumen River. -</p> -<p></p> -<div class="figure p025width" id="p025"><img src="images/p025.png" alt="Fuyu and Manchiu." width="470" height="720"><p class="figureHead">Fuyu and Manchiu.</p> -</div><p> -</p> -<p>This career of conquest suffered a check for a time, when a Chinese expedition, sailing -up the Yalu River, invested the capital city of the king and defeated his army. The -king fled beyond the Tumen River. Eight thousand people are said to have been made -prisoners or slaughtered by the Chinese. For a time it seemed as though Kokorai were -too badly crippled to move again. -</p> -<p>Anarchy broke out in China, on the fall of the house of Han, <span class="asc">A.D.</span> 220, and lasted for half a century. That period of Chinese history, from 221 to 277, -is called the “Epoch of the Three Kingdoms.” During this period, and until well into -the fifth century, while China was rent into “Northern” and “Southern” divisions, -the military activities of Kokorai were employed with varying results against the -petty kingdoms that rose and fell, one after the other, on the soil between the Great -Wall and the Yalu River. During this time the nation, free from the power and oppression -of China, held her own and compacted her power. In the fifth century her warriors -had penetrated nearly as far west as the modern Peking in their cavalry raids. Wily -in diplomacy, as brave in war, they sent tribute to both of the rival claimants for -the throne of China which were likely to give them trouble in the future. Dropping -the family name of their first king, they retained that of their ancestral home-land, -and called their nation Korai. -</p> -<p>Meanwhile, as they multiplied in numbers, the migration of Kokorai people, henceforth -known as Korai men, set steadily southward. Weakness in China meant strength in Korai. -The Chinese had bought peace with their Eastern neighbors by titles and gifts, which -left the Koraians free to act against their southern neighbors. In steadily displacing -these, they came into collision with the little kingdom of Hiaksai, whose history -will be narrated farther on. It will be seen that the Korai men, people of the Fuyu -race, finally occupied the territory of Hiaksai. Already the Koraians, sure of further -conquest southward, fixed their capital at Ping-an. -</p> -<p>In 589 <span class="asc">A.D.</span> the house of Sui was established on the dragon throne, and a portentous message was -sent to the King of Korai, which caused the latter to make vigorous war preparations. -Evidently the Chinese emperor meant to throttle the young giant of the north, while -the young giant was equally determined to live. <span class="pageNum" id="pb27">[<a href="#pb27">27</a>]</span>The movement of a marauding force of Koraians, even to the inside of the Great Wall, -gave the bearded dragon not only the pretext of war but of annexation. -</p> -<p>For this purpose an army of three hundred thousand men and a fleet of several hundred -war-junks were prepared. The latter were to sail over from Shantung, and enter the -Ta-tong River, the goal of the expedition being Ping-an city, the Koraian capital -</p> -<p>The horde started without provisions, and arrived in mid-summer at the Liao River -in want of food. While waiting, during the hot weather, in this malarious and muddy -region, the soldiers died by tens of thousands of fever and plague. The incessant -rains soon rendered the roads impassable and transport of provisions an impossibility. -Disease melted the mighty host away, and the army, reduced to one-fifth its numbers, -was forced to retreat The war-junks fared no better, for storms in the Yellow Sea -drove them back or foundered them by the score. -</p> -<p>Such a frightful loss of life and material did not deter the next emperor, the infamous -Yang (who began the Grand Canal), from following out the scheme of his father, whom -he conveniently poisoned while already dying. In spite of the raging famines and losses -by flood, the emperor ordered magazines for the armies of invasion to be established -near the coast, and contingents of troops for the twenty-four corps to be raised in -every province. All these preparations caused local famines and drove many of the -people into rebellion. -</p> -<p>This army, one of the greatest ever assembled in China, numbered over one million -men. Its equipment consisted largely of banners, gongs, and trumpets. The undisciplined -horde began their march, aiming to reach the Liao River before the hot season set -in. They found the Koraian army ready to dispute their passage. Three bridges, hastily -constructed, were thrown across the stream, on which horse and foot pressed eagerly -toward the enemy. The width of the river had, however, been miscalculated and the -bridges were too short, so that many thousands of the Chinese were drowned or killed -by the Koraians, at unequal odds, while fighting on the shore. In two days, however, -the bridges were lengthened and the whole force crossed over. The Chinese van pursued -their enemy, slaughtering ten thousand before they could gain the fortified city of -Liao Tung. Once inside their walls, however, the Korai soldiers were true to their -reputation of being splendid garrison fighters. Instead of easy victory the <span class="pageNum" id="pb28">[<a href="#pb28">28</a>]</span>Chinese army lay around the city unable, even after several months’ besieging, to -breach the walls or weaken the spirit of the defenders. -</p> -<p>Meanwhile the other division had marched northward and eastward, according to the -plan of the campaign. Eight of these army corps, numbering 300,000 men, arrived and -went into camp on the west bank of the Yalu River. In spite of express orders to the -contrary, the soldiers had thrown away most of the hundred days’ rations of grain -with which they started, and the commissariat was very low. The Koraian commander, -carrying out the Fabian policy, tempted them away from their camp, and led them by -skirmishing parties to within a hundred miles of Ping-an. The Chinese fleet lay within -a few leagues of the invading army, but land and sea forces were mutually ignorant -of each other’s vicinity. Daring not to risk the siege of a city so well fortified -by nature and art as Ping-an, in his present lack of supplies, the Chinese general -reluctantly ordered a retreat, which began in late summer, the nearest base of supplies -being Liao Tung, four hundred miles away and through an enemy’s country. -</p> -<p>This was the signal for the Koraians to assume the offensive, and like the Cossacks, -upon the army of Napoleon, in Russia, they hung upon the flanks of the hungry fugitives, -slaughtering thousands upon thousands. -</p> -<p>When the Chinese host were crossing the Chin-chion River, the Koraian army fell in -full force upon them, and the fall of the commander of their rear-guard turned defeat -into a rout. The disorderly band of fugitives rested not till well over and beyond -the Yalu River. Of that splendid army of 300,000 men only a few thousand reached Liao -Tung city. The weapons, spoil, and prisoners taken by the Koraians were “myriads of -myriads of myriads.” The naval forces in the river, on hearing the amazing news of -their comrades’ defeat, left Corea and crept back to China. The Chinese emperor was -so enraged at the utter failure of his prodigious enterprise, that he had the fugitive -officers publicly put to death as an example. -</p> -<p>In spite of the disasters of the previous year, the emperor Yang, in 613, again sent -an army to besiege Liao Tung city. On this occasion scaling ladders, 150 feet long, -and towers, mounted on wheels, were used with great effect. Just on the eve of the -completion of their greatest work and tower the Chinese camp was suddenly abandoned, -the emperor being called home to put <span class="pageNum" id="pb29">[<a href="#pb29">29</a>]</span>down a formidable rebellion. So cautious were the besieged and so sudden was the flight -of the besiegers, that it was noon before a Koraian ventured into camp, and two days -elapsed before they discovered that the retreat was not feigned. Then the Koraian -garrison attacked the Chinese rear-guard with severe loss. -</p> -<p>The rebellion at home having been put down the emperor again cherished the plan of -crushing Korai, but other and greater insurrections broke out that required his attention; -for the three expeditions against Corea had wasted the empire even as they had sealed -the doom of the Sui dynasty. Though no land forces could be spared, a new fleet was -sent to Corea to lay siege to Ping-an city. Even with large portions of his dominions -in the hands of rebels, Tang never gave up his plan of humbling Korai. This project -was the cause of the most frightful distress in China, and seeing no hope of saving -the country except by the murder of the infamous emperor, coward, drunkard, tyrant, -and voluptuary, a band of conspirators, headed by Yü Min, put him to death and Korai -had rest. -</p> -<p>To summarize this chapter. It is possible that Ki Tsze was the founder of Fuyu. The -Kokorai tribes were people who had migrated from Fuyu, and settled north and west -of the upper waters of the Yalu River. They entered into relations with the Chinese -as early as 9 <span class="asc">A.D.</span>, and coming into collision with them by the year 70, they kept up a fitful warfare -with them, sustaining mighty invasions, until the seventh century, while in the meantime -Korai, instead of being crushed by China, grew in area and numbers until the nation -had spread into the peninsula, and overrun it as far as the Han River. -</p> -<hr class="tb"><p> -</p> -<p>Thus far the history of Corea has been that of the northern and western part of the -peninsula, and has been derived chiefly from Chinese sources. We turn now to the southern -and eastern portions, and in narrating their history we shall point out their relations -with Japan as well as with China, relying largely for our information upon the Japanese -annals. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb30">[<a href="#pb30">30</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch4" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#xd31e863">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="label">CHAPTER IV.</h2> -<h2 class="main">SAM-HAN, OR SOUTHERN COREA.</h2> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="first">At the time of the suppression of Chō-sen and the incorporation of its territory with -the Chinese Empire, <span class="asc">B.C.</span> 107, all Corea south of the Ta-tong River was divided into three han, or geographical -divisions. Their exact boundaries are uncertain, but their general topography may -be learned from the map. -</p> -<p></p> -<div class="figure p030width" id="p030"><img src="images/p030.png" alt="Map of Sam-han in Southern Corea." width="675" height="700"><p class="figureHead">Map of Sam-han in Southern Corea.</p> -</div><p> -<span class="pageNum" id="pb31">[<a href="#pb31">31</a>]</span></p> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#toc">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">MA-HAN AND BEN-HAN.</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="first">This little country included fifty-four tribes or clans, each one independent of the -other, and living under a sort of patriarchal government. The larger tribes are said -to have been composed of ten thousand, and the smaller of a thousand, families each. -Round numbers, however, in ancient records are worth little for critical purposes. -</p> -<p>South of the Ma-han was the Ben-han, in which were twelve tribes, having the same -manners and customs as the Ma-han, and speaking a different yet kindred dialect. One -of these clans formed the little kingdom of Amana, from which came the first visit -of Coreans recorded in the Japanese annals. -</p> -<p>After the overthrow of his family and kingdom by the traitor Wei-man, Kijun, the king -of old Chō-sen escaped to the sea and fled south toward the archipelago. He had with -him a number of his faithful adherents, their wives and children. He landed among -one of the clans of Ma-han, composed of Chinese refugees, who, not wishing to live -under the Han emperors, had crossed the Yellow Sea. On account of their numbering, -originally, one hundred families, they called themselves Hiaksai. Either by conquest -or invitation Kijun soon became their king. Glimpses of the manner of life of these -early people are given by a Chinese writer. -</p> -<p>The Ma-han people were agricultural, dwelling in villages, but neither driving nor -riding oxen or horses, most probably because they did not possess them. Their huts -were made of earth banked upon timber, with the door in the roof. They went bareheaded, -and coiled or tied their hair in a knot. They set no value on gold, jewels, or embroidery, -but wore pearls sewed on their clothes and hung on their necks and ears. Perhaps the -word here translated “pearl” may be also applied to drilled stones of a cylindrical -or curved shape, like the <i>magatama</i>, or “bent jewels,” of the ancient Japanese. They shod their feet with sandals, and -wore garments of woven stuff. In etiquette they were but slightly advanced, paying -little honor to women or to the aged. Like our Indian bucks, the young men tested -their endurance by torture. Slitting the skin of the back, they ran a cord through -the flesh, upon which was hung a piece of wood. This was kept suspended till the man, -unable longer to endure it, cried out to have it taken off. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb32">[<a href="#pb32">32</a>]</span></p> -<p>After the field work was over, in early summer, they held drinking bouts, in honor -of the spirits, with songs and dances. Scores of men, quickly following each other, -stamped on the ground to beat time as they danced. In the late autumn, after harvests, -they repeated these ceremonies. In each clan there was a man, chosen as ruler, to -sacrifice to the spirits of heaven. On a great pole they hung drums and bells for -the service of the heavenly spirits. Perhaps these are the originals of the tall and -slender pagodas with their pendant wind-bells at the many eaves and corners. -</p> -<p>Among the edible products of Ma-han were fowls with tails five feet in length. These -“hens with tails a yard long” were evidently pheasants—still a delicacy on Corean -tables. The large apple-shaped pears, which have a wooden taste, half way between -a pear and an apple, were then, as now, produced in great numbers. The flavor improves -by cooking. -</p> -<p>As Kijun’s government was one of vigor, his subjects advanced in civilization, the -Hiaksai people gradually extended their authority and influence. The clan names in -time faded away or became symbols of family bonds instead of governmental authority, -so that by the fourth century Hiaksai had become paramount over all the fifty-four -tribes of Ma-han, as well as over some of those of the other two <i>han</i>. -</p> -<p>Thus arose the kingdom of Hiaksai (called also Kudara by the Japanese, Petsi by the -Chinese, and Baiji by the modern Coreans), which has a history extending to the tenth -century, when it was extinguished in name and fact in united Corea. -</p> -<p>Its relations with Japan were, in the main, friendly, the islanders of the Sunrise -Kingdom being comrades in arms with them against their invaders, the Chinese, and -their hostile neighbors, the men of Shinra—whose origin we shall now proceed to detail. -</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#toc">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">SHIN-HAN.</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="first">After the fall of the Tsin dynasty in China, a small body of refugees, leaving their -native seats, fled across the Yellow Sea toward the Sea of Japan, resting only when -over the great mountain chain. They made settlements in the valleys and along the -sea-coast. At first they preserved their blood and language pure, forming one of the -twelve clans or tribes into which the han or country was divided. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb33">[<a href="#pb33">33</a>]</span></p> -<p>This name Shin (China or Chinese), which points to the origin of the clan, belonged -to but one of the twelve tribes in eastern Corea. As in the case of Hiaksai, the Shin -tribe, being possessed of superior power and intelligence, extended their authority -and boundaries, gradually becoming very powerful. Under their twenty-second hereditary -chief, or “king,” considering themselves paramount over all the clans, they changed -the name of their country to Shinra, which is pronounced in Chinese Sinlo. -</p> -<p>Between the years 29 and 70 <span class="asc">A.D.</span>, according to the Japanese histories, an envoy from Shinra arrived in Japan, and -after an audience had of the mikado, presented him with mirrors, swords, jade, and -other works of skill and art. In this we have a hint as to the origin of Japanese -decorative art. It is evident from these gifts, as well as from the reports of Chinese -historians concerning the refined manners, the hereditary aristocracy, and the fortified -strongholds of the Shinra people, that their grade of civilization was much higher -than that of their northern neighbors. It was certainly superior to that of the Japanese, -who, as we shall see, were soon tempted to make descents upon the fertile lands, rich -cities, and defenceless coasts of their visitors from the west. -</p> -<p>How long the Chinese colonists who settled in Shin-han preserved their language and -customs is not known. Though these were lost after a few generations, yet it is evident -that their influence on the aborigines of the country was very great. From first to -last Shinra excelled in civilization all the petty states in the peninsula, of which -at first there were seventy-eight. Unlike the Ma-han, the Shin-han people lived in -palisaded cities, and in houses the doors of which were on the ground and not on the -roof. They cultivated mulberry-trees, reared the silk-worm, and wove silk into fine -fabrics. They used wagons with yoked oxen, and horses for draught, and practised “the -law of the road.” Marriage was conducted with appropriate ceremony. Dancing, drinking, -and singing were favorite amusements, and the lute was played in addition to drums. -They understood the art of smelting and working iron, and used this metal as money. -They carried on trade with the other <i>han</i>, and with Japan. How far these arts owed their encouragement or origin to traders, -or travelling merchants from China, is not known. Evidently Shinra enjoyed leadership -in the peninsula, largely from her culture, wealth, and knowledge of iron. The curious -custom, so well known among <span class="pageNum" id="pb34">[<a href="#pb34">34</a>]</span>American savages, of flattening the heads of newly born infants, is noted among the -Shin-han people. -</p> -<p>Neither Chinese history nor Japanese tradition, though they give us some account of -a few hundred families of emigrants from China who settled in the already inhabited -Corean peninsula, throws any light on the aborigines as to whence or when they came. -The curtain is lifted only to show us that a few people are already there, with language -and customs different from those of China. The descendants of the comparatively few -Chinese settlers were no doubt soon lost, with their language and ancestral customs, -among the mass of natives. These aboriginal tribes were destined to give way to a -new people from the far north, as we shall learn in our further narrative. The Japanese -historians seem to distinguish between the San Han, the three countries or confederacies -of loosely organized tribes, and the San Goku, or Three Kingdoms. The Coreans, however, -speak only of the Sam-han, meaning thereby the three political divisions of the peninsula, -and using the word as referring rather to the epoch. The common “cash,” or fractional -coin current in the country, bears the characters meaning “circulating medium of the -Three Kingdoms,” or Sam-han. These were Korai in the north, Shinra in the southeast, -and Hiaksai in the southwest. Other Japanese names for these were respectively Komé, -Shiriaki, and Kudara, the Chinese terms being Kaoli, Sinlo, and Pe-tsi. -</p> -<p>Like the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Wales, called also Britannia, Caledonia, -and Cambria, these Corean states were distinct in origin, were conquered by a race -from without, received a rich infusion of alien blood, struggled in rivalry for centuries, -and were finally united into one nation, with one flag and one sovereign. -</p> -<p></p> -<div class="figure p034width" id="p034"><img src="images/p034.png" alt="Coin of the Sam-han or the Three Kingdoms. “Sam-han, Current Treasure.”" width="174" height="173"><p class="figureHead">Coin of the Sam-han or the Three Kingdoms. “Sam-han, Current Treasure.”</p> -</div><p> -<span class="pageNum" id="pb35">[<a href="#pb35">35</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch5" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#xd31e872">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="label">CHAPTER V.</h2> -<h2 class="main">EPOCH OF THE THREE KINGDOMS.—HIAKSAI.</h2> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="first">The history of the peninsular states from the time in which it is first known until -the tenth century, is that of almost continuous civil war or border fighting. The -boundaries of the rival kingdoms changed from time to time as raid and reprisal, victory -or defeat, turned the scale of war. A series of maps of the peninsula expressing the -political situation during each century or half-century would show many variations -of boundaries, and resemble those of Great Britain when the various native and continental -tribes were struggling for its mastery. Something like an attempt to depict these -changes in the political geography of the peninsula has been made by the Japanese -historian, Otsuki Tōyō, in his work entitled “Historical Periods and Changes of the -Japanese Empire.” -</p> -<p>Yet though our narrative, through excessive brevity, seems to be only a picture of -war, we must not forget that Hiaksai, once lowest in civilization, rapidly became, -and for a while continued, the leading state in the peninsula. It held the lead in -literary culture until crushed by China. The classics of Confucius and Mencius, with -letters, writing, and their whole train of literary blessings, were introduced first -to the peninsula in Hiaksai. In 374 <span class="asc">A.D.</span> Ko-ken was appointed a teacher or master of Chinese literature, and enthusiastic -scholars gathered at the court. Buddhism followed with its educational influences, -becoming a focus of light and culture. As early as 372 <span class="asc">A.D.</span> an apostle of northern Buddhism had penetrated into Liao Tung, and perhaps across -the Yalu. In 384 <span class="asc">A.D.</span> the missionary Marananda, a Thibetan, formally established temples and monasteries -in Hiaksai, in which women as well as men became scholastics. Long before this new -element of civilization was rooted in Shinra or Korai, the faith of India was established -and flourishing in the little kingdom of Hiaksai, so that its influences were felt -as far as Japan. The first <span class="pageNum" id="pb36">[<a href="#pb36">36</a>]</span>teacher of Chinese letters and ethics in Nippon was a Corean named Wani, as was also -the first missionary who carried the images and sutras of northern Buddhism across -the Sea of Japan. To Hiaksai more than to any other Corean state Japan owes her first -impulse toward the civilization of the west. -</p> -<p>Hiaksai came into collision with Kokorai as early as 345 <span class="asc">A.D.</span>, at which time also Shinra suffered the loss of several cities. In the fifth century -a Chinese army, sent by one of the emperors of the Wei dynasty to enforce the payment -of tribute, was defeated by Hiaksai. Such unexpected military results raised the reputation -of “the eastern savages” so high in the imperial mind, that the emperor offered the -King of Hiaksai the title of “Great Protector of the Eastern Frontier.” By this act -the independence of the little kingdom was virtually recognized. In the sixth century, -having given and received Chinese aid and comfort in alliance with Shinra against -Korai, Hiaksai was ravaged in her borders by the troops of her irate neighbor on the -north. Later on we find these two states in peace with each other and allied against -Shinra, which had become a vassal of the Tang emperors of China. -</p> -<p>From this line of China’s rulers the kingdoms of Korai and Hiaksai were to receive -crushing blows. In answer to Shinra’s prayer for aid, the Chinese emperor, in 660, -despatched from Shantung a fleet of several hundred sail with 100,000 men on board. -Against this host from the west the Hiaksai army could make little resistance, though -they bravely attacked the invaders, but only to be beaten. After a victory near the -mouth of the Rin-yin River, the Chinese marched at once to the capital of Hiaksai -and again defeated, with terrible slaughter, the provincial army. The king fled to -the north, and the city being nearly empty of defenders, the feeble garrison opened -the gates. The Tang banners fluttered on all the walls, and another state was absorbed -in the Chinese empire. For a time Hiaksai, like a fly snapped up by an angry dog, -is lost in China. -</p> -<p>Not long, however, did the little kingdom disappear from sight. In 670 a Buddhist -priest, fired with patriotism, raised an army of monks and priests, and joining Fuku-shin -(Fu-sin), a brave general, they laid siege to a city held by a large Chinese garrison. -At the same time they sent word to the emperor of Japan praying for succor against -the “robber kingdom.” They also begged that Hōsho (Fung), the youthful son of the -late king, then a hostage and pupil at the mikado’s court, might be invested <span class="pageNum" id="pb37">[<a href="#pb37">37</a>]</span>with the royal title and sent home. The mikado despatched a fleet of 400 junks and -a large body of soldiers to escort the royal heir homeward. On his arrival Hōsho was -proclaimed king. -</p> -<p>Meanwhile the priest-army and the forces under Fuku-shin had reconquered nearly all -their territory, when they suffered a severe defeat near the sea-coast from the large -Chinese force hastily despatched to put down the rebellion. The invaders marched eastward -and effected a junction with the forces of Shinra. The prospects of Hiaksai were now -deplorable. -</p> -<p>For even among the men of Hiaksai there was no unity of purpose. Fuku-shin had put -the priest-leader to death, which arbitrary act so excited the suspicions of the king -that he in turn ordered his general to be beheaded. He then sent to Japan, appealing -for reinforcements. The mikado, willing to help an old ally, and fearing that the -Chinese, if victorious, might invade his own dominions, quickly responded. The Japanese -contingent arrived and encamped near the mouth of the Han River, preparatory to a -descent by sea upon Shinra. Unsuspecting the near presence of an enemy, the allies -neglected their usual vigilance. A fleet of war-junks, flying the Tang streamers, -suddenly appeared off the camp, and while the Japanese were engaging these, the Chinese -land forces struck them in flank. Taken by surprise, the mikado’s warriors were driven -like flocks of sheep into the water and drowned or shot by the Chinese archers. The -Japanese vessels were burned as they lay at anchor in the bloody stream, and the remnants -of the beaten army got back to their islands in pitiable fragments. Hōsho, after witnessing -the destruction of his host, fled to Korai, and the country was given over to the -waste and pillage of the infuriated Chinese. The royal line, after thirty generations -and nearly seven centuries of rule, became extinct. The sites of cities became the -habitations of tigers, and once fertile fields were soon overgrown. Large portions -of Hiaksai became a wilderness. -</p> -<p>Though the Chinese Government ordered the bodies of those killed in war and the white -bones of the victims of famine to be buried, yet many thousands of Hiaksai families -fled elsewhere to find an asylum and to found new industries. The people who remained -on their fertile lands, as well as all Southern Corea, fell under the sway of Shinra. -</p> -<p>The fragments of the beaten Japanese army gradually returned to their native country -or settled in Southern Corea. Thousands <span class="pageNum" id="pb38">[<a href="#pb38">38</a>]</span>of the people of Hiaksai, detesting the idea of living as slaves of China, accompanied -or followed their allies to Japan. On their arrival, by order of the mikado, 400 emigrants -of both sexes were located in the province of Omi, and over 2,000 were distributed -in the Kuantō, or Eastern Japan. These colonies of Coreans founded potteries, and -their descendants, mingled by blood with the Japanese, follow the trade of their ancestors. -</p> -<p>In 710 another body of Hiaksai people, dissatisfied with the poverty of the country -and tempted by the offers of the Japanese, formed a colony numbering 1,800 persons -and emigrated to Japan. They were settled in Musashi, the province in which Tōkiō, -the modern capital, is situated. Various other emigrations of Coreans to Japan of -later date are referred to in the annals of the latter country, and it is fair to -presume that tens of thousands of emigrants from the peninsula fled from the Tang -invasion and mingled with the islanders, producing the composite race that inhabit -the islands ruled by the mikado. Among the refugees were many priests and nuns, who -brought their books and learning to the court at Nara, and thus diffused about them -a literary atmosphere. The establishment of schools, the awakening of the Japanese -intellect, and the first beginnings of the literature of Japan, the composition of -their oldest historical books, the Kojiki and the Nihongi—all the fruits of the latter -half of the seventh and early part of the eighth century—are directly traceable to -this influx of the scholars of Hiaksai, which being destroyed by China, lived again -in Japan. Even the pronunciation of the Chinese characters as taught by the Hiaksai -teachers remains to this day. One of them, the nun Hōmiō, a learned lady, made her -system so popular among the scholars that even an imperial proclamation against it -could not banish it. She established her school in Tsushima, <span class="asc">A.D.</span> 655, and there taught that system of [Chinese] pronunciation [<i>Go-on</i>] which still holds sway in Japan, among the ecclesiastical literati, in opposition -to the <i>Kan-on</i> of the secular scholars. The Go-on, the older of the two pronunciations, is that -of ancient North China, the Kan-on is that of mediæval Southern China (Nanking). Corea -and Japan having phonetic alphabets have preserved and stereotyped the ancient Chinese -pronunciation better than the Chinese language itself, since the Chinese have no phonetic -writing, but only ideographic characters, the pronunciation of which varies during -the progress of centuries. -</p> -<p>Hiaksai had given Buddhism to Japan as early as 552 <span class="asc">A.D.</span>, but <span class="pageNum" id="pb39">[<a href="#pb39">39</a>]</span>opposition had prevented its spread, the temple was set on fire, and the images of -Buddha thrown in the river. In 684 one Sayéki brought another image of Buddha from -Corea, and Umako, son of Inamé, a minister at the mikado’s court, enshrined it in -a chapel on his own grounds. He made Yeben and Simata, two Coreans, his priests, and -his daughter a nun. They celebrated a festival, and henceforth Buddhism<a class="noteRef" id="xd31e1952src" href="#xd31e1952">1</a> grew apace. -</p> -<p>The country toward the sunrise was then a new land to the peninsulars, just as “the -West” is to us, or Australia is to England; and Japan made these fugitives welcome. -In their train came industry, learning, and skill, enriching the island kingdom with -the best infusion of blood and culture. -</p> -<p>Hiaksai was the first of the three kingdoms that was weakened by civil war and then -fell a victim to Chinese lust of conquest. -</p> -<p>The progress and fall of the other two kingdoms will now be narrated. Beginning with -Korai, we shall follow its story from the year 613 <span class="asc">A.D.</span>, when the invading hordes of the Tang dynasty had been driven out of the peninsula -with such awful slaughter by the Koraians. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb40">[<a href="#pb40">40</a>]</span></p> -</div> -<div class="footnotes"> -<hr class="fnsep"> -<div class="footnote-body"> -<div class="fndiv" id="xd31e1952"> -<p class="footnote"><span class="fnlabel"><a class="noteRef" href="#xd31e1952src">1</a></span> There are colossal stone images at Pe-chiu (Pha-jiu) in the capital province, and -at Un-jin in Chung-chong Dō. The former, discovered by Lieutenant J. G. Bernadon, -<abbr title="United States Navy">U.S.N.</abbr>, are in the midst of a fir-wood, and are carved in half-figure out of bowlders in -place, the heads and caps projecting over the tops of the trees. One wears a square -cap and the other a round one, from which Mr. G. W. Aston conjectures that they symbolize -the male and female elements in nature (p. 329). At Un-jin in Chung-chong Dō Mr. G. C. -Foulke, U.S.N., saw, at a distance of fifteen miles, what seemed to be a lighthouse. -On approach, this half-length human figure proved to be a pinnacle of white granite, -sixty-four feet high, cut into a representation of Buddha. Similar statues may perhaps -be discovered elsewhere. Coreans call such figures <i>miryek</i> (stone men, as the Chinese characters given in the French-Corean dictionary read), -or <i>miriok</i>, from the Chinese <i>Mi-lē</i>, or Buddha. (In Japanese, the Buddha to come is <i>Miroku-butsu</i>—a verbal coincidence.) Professor Terrien de Lacouperie has written upon this theme -with great learning. Besides the lop-ears, forehead-mark, and traditional countenance -seen in the Buddhas of Chinese Asia, there is on the Un-jin figure a very high double -cap, on which are set two slabs of stone joined by a central column, suggesting both -the ceremonial cap of ancient Chinese ritual and the Indian pagoda-like umbrella. -These <i>miriok</i> stand in what was once Hiaksai. In his “Life in Corea,” Mr. Carles gives a picture -of the one at Un-jin. Smaller ones exist near monasteries and temples. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd31e1952src" title="Return to note 1 in text.">↑</a></p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch6" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#xd31e880">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="label">CHAPTER VI.</h2> -<h2 class="main">EPOCH OF THE THREE KINGDOMS.—KORAI.</h2> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="first">After the struggle in which the Corean tiger had worsted the Western Dragon, early -in the seventh century, China and Korai were for a generation at peace. The bones -of the slain were buried, and sacrificial fires for the dead soothed the spirits of -the victims. The same imperial messenger, who in 622 was sent to supervise these offices -of religion, also visited each of the courts of the three kingdoms. So successful -was he in his mission of peaceful diplomacy, that each of the Corean states sent envoys -with tribute and congratulation to the imperial throne. In proof of his good wishes, -the emperor returned to his vassals all his prisoners, and declared that their young -men would be received as students in the Imperial University at his capital. Henceforth, -as in many instances during later centuries, the sons of nobles and promising youth -from Korai, Shinra, and Hiaksai went to study at Nanking, where their envoys met the -Arab traders. -</p> -<p>Korai having been divided into five provinces, or circuits, named respectively the -Home, North, South, East, and West divisions, extended from the Sea of Japan to the -Liao River, and enjoyed a brief spell of peace, except always on the southern border; -for the chronic state of Korai and Shinra was that of mutual hostility. On the north, -beyond the Tumen River, was the kingdom of Pu-hai, with which Korai was at peace, -and Japan was in intimate relations, and China at jealous hostility. -</p> -<p>The Chinese court soon began to look with longing eyes on the territory of that part -of Korai lying west of the Yalu River, believing it to be a geographical necessity -that it should become their scientific frontier, while the emperor cherished the hope -of soon rectifying it. Though unable to forget the fact that one of his predecessors -had wasted millions of lives and tons of treasure in vainly attempting to humble Kokorai, -his ambition and pride <span class="pageNum" id="pb41">[<a href="#pb41">41</a>]</span>spurred him on to wade through slaughter to conquest and revenge. He waited only for -a pretext. -</p> -<p>This time the destinies of the Eastern Kingdom were profoundly influenced by the character -of the feudalism brought into it from ancient times, and which was one of the characteristic -institutions of the Fuyu race. -</p> -<p>The Government of Korai was simply that of a royal house, holding, by more or less -binding ties of loyalty, powerful nobles, who in turn held their lands on feudal tenure. -In certain contingencies these noble land-holders were scarcely less powerful than -the king himself. -</p> -<p>In 641 one of these liegemen, whose ambition the king had in vain attempted to curb -and even to put to death, revenged himself by killing the king with his own hands. -He then proclaimed as sovereign the nephew of the dead king, and made himself prime -minister. Having thus the control of all power in the state, and being a man of tremendous -physical strength and mental ability, all the people submitted quietly to the new -order of things, and were at the same time diverted, being sent to ravage Shinra, -annexing all the country down to the 37th parallel. The Chinese emperor gave investiture -to the new king, but ordered this Corean Warwick to recall his troops from invading -Shinra, the ally of China. The minister paid his tribute loyally, but refused to acknowledge -the right of China to interfere in Corean politics. The tribute was then sent back -with insult, and war being certain to follow, Korai prepared for the worst. War with -China has been so constant a phenomenon in Corean history that a special term, Ho-ran, -exists and is common in the national annals, since the “Chinese wars” have been numbered -by the score. -</p> -<p>Again the sails of an invading fleet whitened the waters of the Yellow Sea, carrying -the Chinese army of chastisement that was to land at the head of the peninsula, while -two bodies of troops were despatched by different routes landward. The Tang emperor -was a stanch believer in Whang Ti, the Asiatic equivalent of the European doctrine -of the divine right of kings to reign—a tenet as easily found by one looking for it -in the Confucian classics, as in the Hebrew scriptures. He professed to be marching -simply to vindicate the honor of majesty and to punish the regicide rebel, but not -to harm nobles or people. The invaders soon overran Liao Tung, and city after city -fell. The emperor himself accompanied the army and burned his bridges after the crossing -<span class="pageNum" id="pb42">[<a href="#pb42">42</a>]</span>of every river. In spite of the mud and the summer rains he steadily pushed his way -on, helping with his own hands in the works at the sieges of the walled cities—the -ruins of which still litter the plains of Liao Tung. In one of these, captured only -after a protracted investment, 10,000 Koraians are said to have been slain. In case -of submission on summons, or after a slight defence, the besieged were leniently and -even kindly treated. By July all the country west of the Yalu was in possession of -the Chinese, who had crossed the river and arrived at Anchiu, only forty miles north -of Ping-an city. -</p> -<p>By tremendous personal energy and a general levy in mass, an army of 150,000 Korai -men was sent against the Chinese, which took up a position on a hill about three miles -from the city. The plan of the battle that ensued, made by the Chinese emperor himself, -was skilfully carried out by his lieutenants, and a total defeat of the entrapped -Koraian army followed, the slain numbering 20,000. The next day, with the remnant -of his army, amounting to 40,000 men, the Koraian general surrendered. Fifty thousand -horses and 10,000 coats of mail were among the spoils. The foot soldiers were dismissed -and ordered home, but the Koraian leaders were made prisoners and marched into China. -</p> -<p>After so crushing a loss in men and material, one might expect instant surrender of -the besieged city. So far from this, the garrison redoubled the energy of their defence. -In this we see a striking trait of the Corean military character which has been noticed -from the era of the Tangs, and before it, down to Admiral Rodgers. Chinese, Japanese, -French, and Americans have experienced the fact and marvelled thereat. It is that -the Coreans are poor soldiers in the open field and exhibit slight proof of personal -valor. They cannot face a dashing foe nor endure stubborn fighting. But put the same -men behind walls, bring them to bay, and the timid stag amazes the hounds. Their whole -nature seems reinforced. They are more than brave. Their courage is sublime. They -fight to the last man, and fling themselves on the bare steel when the foe clears -the parapet. The Japanese of 1592 looked on the Corean in the field as a kitten, but -in the castle as a tiger. The French, in 1866, never found a force that could face -rifles, though behind walls the same men were invincible. The American handful of -tars kept at harmless distance thousands of black heads in the open, but inside the -fort they met giants in bravery. No nobler foe ever met American steel. Even when -disarmed <span class="pageNum" id="pb43">[<a href="#pb43">43</a>]</span>they fought their enemies with dust and stones until slain to the last man. The sailors -found that the sheep in the field were lions in the fort. -</p> -<p>The Coreans themselves knew both their forte and their foible, and so understood how -to foil the invader from either sea. Shut out from the rival nations on the right -hand and on the left by the treacherous sea, buttressed on the north by lofty mountains, -and separated from China by a stretch of barren or broken land, the peninsula is easily -secure against an invader far from his base of supplies. The ancient policy of the -Coreans, by which they over and over again foiled their mighty foe and finally secured -their independence, was to shut themselves up in their well-provisioned cities and -castles, and not only beat off but starve away their foes. In their state of feudalism, -when every city and strategic town of importance was well fortified, this was easily -accomplished. The ramparts gave them shelter, and their personal valor secured the -rest. Reversing the usual process of starving out a beleaguered garrison, the besiegers, -unable to fight on empty stomachs, were at last obliged to raise the siege and go -home. Long persistence in this resolute policy finally saved Corea from the Chinese -colossus, and preserved her individuality among nations. -</p> -<p>Faithful to their character, as above set forth, the Koraians held their own in the -city of Anchiu, and the Chinese could make no impression upon it. In spite of catapults, -scaling ladders, movable towers, and artificial mounds raised higher than the walls, -the Koraians held out, and by sorties bravely captured or destroyed the enemy’s works. -Not daring to leave such a fortified city in their rear, the Chinese could not advance -further, while their failing provisions and the advent of frost showed them that they -must retreat. -</p> -<p>Hungrily they turned their faces toward China. -</p> -<p>In spite of the intense chagrin of the foiled Chinese leader, so great was his admiration -for the valor of the besieged that he sent the Koraian commander a valuable present -of rolls of silk. The Koraians were unable to pursue the flying invaders, and few -fell by their weapons. But hunger, the fatigue of crossing impassable oceans of worse -than Virginia mud, cold winds, and snow storms destroyed thousands of the Chinese -on their weary homeward march over the mountain passes and quagmires of Liao Tung. -The net results of the campaign were great glory to Korai; <span class="pageNum" id="pb44">[<a href="#pb44">44</a>]</span>and besides the loss of ten cities, 70,000 of her sons were captives in China, and -40,000 lay in battle graves. -</p> -<p>According to a custom which Californians have learned in our day, the bones of the -Chinese soldiers who died or were killed in the campaign were collected, brought into -China, and, with due sacrificial rites and lamentations by the emperor, solemnly buried -in their native soil. Irregular warfare still continued between the two countries, -the offered tribute of Korai being refused, and the emperor waiting until his resources -would justify him in sending another vast fleet and army against defiant Korai. While -thus waiting he died. -</p> -<p>After a few years of peace, his successor found occasion for war, and, in 660 <span class="asc">A.D.</span>, despatched the expedition which crushed Hiaksai, the ally of Korai, and worried, -without humbling, the latter state. In 664 Korai lost its able leader, the regicide -prime minister—that rock against which the waves of Chinese invasion had dashed again -and again in vain. -</p> -<p>His son, who would have succeeded to the office of his father, was opposed by his -brother. The latter, fleeing to China, became guide to the hosts again sent against -Korai “to save the people and to chastise their rebellious chiefs.” This time Korai, -without a leader, was doomed. The Chinese armies having their rear well secured by -a good base of supplies, and being led by skilful commanders, marched on from victory -to victory, until, at the Yalu River, the various detachments united, and breaking -the front of the Korai army, scattered them and marched on to Ping-an. The city surrendered -without the discharge of an arrow. The line of kings of Korai came to an end after -twenty-eight generations, ruling over 700 years. -</p> -<p>All Korai, with its five provinces, its 176 cities, and its four or five millions -of people, was annexed to the Chinese empire. Tens of thousands of Koraian refugees -fled into Shinra, thousands into Pu-hai, north of the Tumen, then a rising state; -and many to the new country of Japan. Desolated by slaughter and ravaged by fire and -blood, war and famine, large portions of the land lay waste for generations. Thus -fell the second of the Corean kingdoms, and the sole dominant state now supreme in -the peninsula was Shinra, an outline of whose history we shall proceed to give. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb45">[<a href="#pb45">45</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch7" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#xd31e888">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="label">CHAPTER VII.</h2> -<h2 class="main">EPOCH OF THE THREE KINGDOMS.—SHINRA.</h2> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="first">When Shinra becomes first known to us from Japanese tradition, her place in the peninsula -is in the southeast, comprising portions of the modern provinces of Kang-wen and Kiung-sang. -The people in this warm and fertile part of the peninsula had very probably sent many -colonies of settlers over to the Japanese Islands, which lay only a hundred miles -off, with Tsushima for a stepping-stone. It is probable that the “rebels” in Kiushiu, -so often spoken of in old Japanese histories, were simply Coreans or their descendants, -as, indeed, the majority of the inhabitants of Kiushiu originally had been. The Yamato -tribe, which gradually became paramount in Japan, were probably immigrants of old -Kokorai stock, that is, men of the Fuyu race, who had crossed from the north of Corea -over the Sea of Japan, to the land of Sunrise, just as the Saxons and Engles pushed -across the North Sea to England. They found the Kumaso, or Kiushiu “rebels,” troublesome, -mainly because these settlers from the west, or southern mainland of Corea, considered -themselves to be the righteous owners of the island rather than the Yamato people. -At all events, the pretext that led the mikado Chiu-ai, who is said to have reigned -from 192 to 200 <span class="asc">A.D.</span>, to march against them was, that these people in Kiushiu would not acknowledge his -authority. His wife, the Amazonian queen Jingu, was of the opinion that the root of -the trouble was to be found in the peninsula, and that the army should be sent across -the sea. Her husband, having been killed in battle, the queen was left to carry out -her purposes, which she did at the date said to be 202 <span class="asc">A.D.</span> She set sail from Hizen, and reached the Asian mainland probably at the harbor of -Fusan. Unable to resist so well-appointed a force, the king of Shinra submitted and -became the declared vassal of Japan. Envoys from Hiaksai and another of the petty -kingdoms also came to the Japanese camp and made friends with the invaders. After -<span class="pageNum" id="pb46">[<a href="#pb46">46</a>]</span>a two months’ stay, the victorious fleet, richly laden with precious gifts and spoil, -returned. -</p> -<p>How much of truth there is in this narrative of Jingu it is difficult to tell. The -date given cannot be trustworthy. The truth seems at least this, that Shinra was far -superior to the Japan of the early Christian centuries. Buddhism was formally established -in Shinra in the year 528; and as early as the sixth century a steady stream of immigrants—traders, -artists, scholars, and teachers, and later Buddhist missionaries—passed from Shinra -into Japan, interrupted only by the wars which from time to time broke out. The relations -between Nippon and Southern Corea will be more fully related in another chapter, but -it will be well to remember that the Japanese always laid claim to the Corean peninsula, -and to Shinra especially, as a tributary nation. They supported that claim not only -whenever embassies from the two nations met at the court of China, but they made it -a more or less active part of their national policy down to the year 1876. Many a -bloody war grew out of this claim, but on the other hand many a benefit accrued to -Japan, if not to Shinra. -</p> -<p>Meanwhile, in the peninsula the leading state expanded her borders by gradual encroachments -upon the little “kingdom” of Mimana to the southwest and upon Hiaksai on the north. -The latter, having always considered Shinra to be inferior, and even a <span class="corr" id="xd31e2034" title="Source: dependant">dependent</span>, war broke out between the two states as soon as Shinra assumed perfect independence. -Korai and Hiaksai leagued themselves against Shinra, and the game of war continued, -with various shifting of the pieces on the board, until the tenth century. The three -rival states mutually hostile, the Japanese usually friends to Hiaksai, the Chinese -generally helpers of Shinra, the northern nations beyond the Tumen and Sungari assisting -Korai, varying their operations in the field with frequent alliances and counter-plots, -make but a series of dissolving-views of battle and strife, into the details of which -it is not profitable to enter. Though Korai and Hiaksai felt the heaviest blows from -China, Shinra was harried oftenest by the armies of her neighbors and by the Japanese. -Indeed, from a tributary point of view, it seems questionable whether her alliances -with China were of any benefit to her. In times of peace, however, the blessings of -education and civilization flowed freely from her great patron. Though farthest east -from China, it seems certain that Shinra was, in many respects, the most highly civilized -of the three states. Especially was this <span class="pageNum" id="pb47">[<a href="#pb47">47</a>]</span>the case during the Tang era (618–905 <span class="asc">A.D.</span>), when the mutual relations between China and Shinra were closest, and arts, letters, -and customs were borrowed most liberally by the pupil state. Even at the present time, -in the Corean idiom, “Tang-yang” (times of the Tang and Yang dynasties) is a synonym -of prosperity. The term for “Chinese,” applied to works of art, poetry, coins, fans, -and even to a certain disease, is “Tang,” instead of the ordinary word for China, -since this famous dynastic title represents to the Corean mind, as to the student -of Kathayan history, one of the most brilliant epochs known to this longest-lived -of empires. What the names of Plantagenet and Tudor represent to an Anglo-Saxon mind, -the terms Tang and Sung are to a Corean. -</p> -<p>During this period, Buddhism was being steadily propagated, until it became the prevailing -cult of the nation. Reserving the story of its progress for a special chapter, we -notice in this place but one of its attendant blessings. In the civilization of a -nation, the possession of a vernacular alphabet must be acknowledged to be one of -the most potent factors for the spread of intelligence and culture. It is believed -by many linguists that the Choctaws and Coreans have the only two perfect alphabets -in the world. It is agreed by natives of Chō-sen that their most profound scholar -and ablest man of intellect was Chul-chong, a statesman at the court of Kion-chiu, -the capital of Shinra. This famous penman, a scholar in the classics and ancient languages -of India as well as China, is credited with the invention of the Nido, or Corean syllabary, -one of the simplest and most perfect “alphabets” in the world. It expresses the sounds -of the Corean language far better than the <i>kata-kana</i> of Japan expresses Japanese. Chul-chong seems to have invented the <i>Nido</i> syllabary by giving a phonetic value to a certain number of selected Chinese characters, -which are ideographs expressing ideas but not sounds. Perhaps the Sanskrit alphabet -suggested the model both for manner of use and for forms of letters. The Nido is composed -almost entirely of straight lines and circles, and the letters belonging to the same -class of labials, dentals, etc., have a similarity of form easily recognized. The -Coreans state that the Nido was invented in the early part of the eighth century, -and that it was based on the Sanskrit alphabet. It is worthy of note that, if the -date given be true, the Japanese kata-kana, invented a century later, was perhaps -suggested by the Corean. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb48">[<a href="#pb48">48</a>]</span></p> -<p>One remarkable effect of the use of phonetic writing in Corea and Japan has been to -stereotype, and thus to preserve, the ancient sounds and pronunciation of words of -the Chinese, which the latter have lost. These systems of writing outside of China -have served, like Edison’s phonographs, in registering and reproducing the manner -in which the Chinese spoke, a whole millennium ago. This fact has already opened a -fertile field of research, and may yet yield rich treasures of discovery to the sciences -of history and linguistics. -</p> -<p>Certainly, however, we may gather that the Tang era was one of learning and literary -progress in Corea, as in Japan—all countries in pupilage to China feeling the glow -of literary splendor in which the Middle Kingdom was then basking. The young nobles -were sent to obtain their education at the court and schools of Nanking, and the fair -damsels of Shinra bloomed in the harem of the emperor. Imperial ambassadors frequently -visited the court of this kingdom in the far east. Chinese costume and etiquette were, -for a time, at least, made the rigorous rule at court. On one occasion, in 653 <span class="asc">A.D.</span>, the envoy from Shinra to the mikado came arrayed in Chinese dress, and, neglecting -the ceremonial forms of the Japanese court, attempted to observe those of China. The -mikado was highly irritated at the supposed insult. The premier even advised that -the Corean be put to death; but better counsels prevailed. During the eighth and ninth -centuries this flourishing kingdom was well known to the Arab geographers, and it -is evident that Mussulman travellers visited Shinra or resided in the cities of the -peninsula for purposes of trade and commerce, as has been shown before. -</p> -<p>Kion-chiu, the capital of Shinra, was a brilliant centre of art and science, of architecture -and of literary and religious light. Imposing temples, grand monasteries, lofty pagodas, -halls of scholars, magnificent gateways and towers adorned the city. In campaniles, -equipped with water-clocks and with ponderous bells and gongs, which, when struck, -flooded the valleys and hill-tops with a rich resonance, the sciences of astronomy -and horoscopy were cultivated. As from a fountain, rich streams of knowledge flowed -from the capital of Shinra, both over the peninsula and to the court of Japan. Even -after the decay of Shinra’s power in the political unity of the whole peninsula, the -nation looked upon Kion-chiu as a sacred city. Her noble temples, halls, and towers -stood in honor and repair, enshrining the treasures of India, Persia, <span class="pageNum" id="pb49">[<a href="#pb49">49</a>]</span>and China, until the ruthless Japanese torch laid them in ashes in 1596. -</p> -<p>The generation of Corean people during the seventh century, when the Chinese hordes -desolated large portions of the peninsula and crushed out Hiaksai and Korai, saw the -borders of Shinra extending from the Everlasting White Mountains to the Island of -Tsushima, and occupying the entire eastern half of the peninsula. From the beginning -of the eighth until the tenth century, Shinra is the supreme state, and the political -power of the Eastern Kingdom is represented by her alone. Her ambition tempted, or -her Chinese master commanded, her into an invasion of the kingdom of Pu-hai beyond -her northern border, 733 <span class="asc">A.D.</span> Her armies crossed the Tumen, but met with such spirited resistance that only half -of them returned. Shinra’s desire of conquest in that direction was appeased, and -for two centuries the land had rest from blood. -</p> -<p>Until Shinra fell, in 934 <span class="asc">A.D.</span>, and united Corea rose on the ruins of the three kingdoms, the history of this state, -as found in the Chinese annals, is simply a list of her kings, who, of course, received -investiture from China. On the east, the Japanese, having ceased to be her pupils -in civilization during times of peace, as in time of war they were her conquerors, -turned their attention to Nanking, receiving directly therefrom the arts and sciences, -instead of at second-hand through the Corean peninsula. They found enough to do at -home in conquering all the tribes in the north and east and centralizing their system -of government after the model of the Tangs in China. For these reasons the sources -of information concerning the eighth and ninth centuries fail, or rather it is more -exact to say that the history of Shinra is that of peace instead of war. In 869 we -read of pirates from her shores descending upon the Japanese coast to plunder the -tribute ships from Buzen province, and again, in 893, that a fleet of fifty junks, -manned by these Corean rovers, was driven off from Tsushima by the Japanese troops, -with the loss of three hundred slain. Another descent of “foreign pirates,” most probably -Coreans, upon Iki Island, in 1019, is recorded, the strangers being beaten off by -reinforcements from the mainland. The very existence of these marauders is, perhaps, -a good indication that the power of the Shinra government was falling into decay, -and that lawlessness within the kingdom was preparing the way for some mighty hand -to not only seize the existing state, but to unite all Corea <span class="pageNum" id="pb50">[<a href="#pb50">50</a>]</span>into political, as well as geographical, unity. In the far north another of those -great intermittent movements of population was in process, which, though destroying -the kingdom of Puhai beyond the Tumen, was to repeople the desolate land of Korai, -and again call a dead state to aggressive life. From the origin to the fall of Shinra -there were three royal families of fifty-five kings, ruling nine hundred and ninety-three -years, or seven years less than a millennium. -</p> -<blockquote> -<p class="first">Despite the modern official name of the kingdom, Chō-sen, the people of Corea still -call their country Gaoli, or Korai, clinging to the ancient name. In this popular -usage, unless we are mistaken, there is a flavor of genuine patriotism. Chō-sen does -indeed mean Morning Calm, but the impression made on Western ears, and more vividly -upon the eye by means of the Chinese characters, is apt to mislead. The term is less -a reflection of geographical position than of the inward emotions of those who first -of all were more Chinese than Corean in spirit, and of a desire for China’s favor. -The term Chō-sen savors less of dew and dawn than of policy and prosy fact. It is -probable, despite the Corean’s undoubted love of nature and beautiful scenery, that -Americans and Europeans have been led astray as to the real significance of the phrase -“morning calm.” At the bottom, it means rather peace with China than the serenity -of dewy morning. Audience of the Chinese emperor to his vassals is always given at -daybreak, and to be graciously received after the long and tedious prostrations is -an auspicious beginning as of a day of heaven upon earth. To the founder of Corea, -Ki Tsze, the gracious favor of the Chow emperor was as “morning calm;” and so to Ni -Taijo, in 1392 <span class="asc">A.D.</span>, was the sunshine of the Ming emperor’s favor. In both instances the name Chō-sen -given to their realm had, in reality, immediate reference to the dayspring of China’s -favor, and “the calm of dawn” to the smile of the emperor.</p> -</blockquote><p> -<span class="pageNum" id="pb51">[<a href="#pb51">51</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch8" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#xd31e896">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="label">CHAPTER VIII.</h2> -<h2 class="main">JAPAN AND COREA.</h2> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="first">It is as nearly impossible to write the history of Corea and exclude Japan, as to -tell the story of mediæval England and leave out France. Not alone does the finger -of sober history point directly westward as the immediate source of much of what has -been hitherto deemed of pure Japanese origin, but the fountain-head of Japanese mythology -is found in the Sungari valley, or under the shadows of the Ever-White Mountains. -The first settler of Japan, like him of Fuyu, crosses the water upright upon the back -of a fish, and brings the rudiments of literature and civilization with him. The remarkable -crocodiles and sea-monsters, from which the gods and goddesses are born and into which -they change, the dragons and tide-jewels and the various mystic symbols which they -employ to work their spells, the methods of divination and system of prognostics, -the human sacrifices and the manner of their rescue, seem to be common to the nations -on both sides of the Sea of Japan, and point to a common heritage from the same ancestors. -Language comes at last with her revelations to furnish proofs of identity. -</p> -<p>The mischievous Susanoō, so famous in the pre-historic legends, told in the Kojiki, -half scamp, half benefactor, who planted all Japan with trees, brought the seeds from -which they grew from Corea. His rescue of the maiden doomed to be devoured by the -eight-headed dragon (emblem of water, and symbolical of the sea and rivers) reads -like a gallant fellow saving one of the human beings who for centuries, until the -now ruling dynasty abolished the custom, were sacrificed to the sea on the Corean -coast fronting Japan. In Kiōto, on Gi-on Street, there is a temple which tradition -declares was “founded in 656 <span class="asc">A.D.</span> by a Corean envoy in honor of Susanoō, to whom the name of Go-dzu Tenno (Heavenly -King of Go-dzu) was given, because he was originally worshipped in Go-dzu Mountain -in Corea.” -<span class="pageNum" id="pb52">[<a href="#pb52">52</a>]</span></p> -<p>Dogs are not held in any honor in Japan, as they were anciently in Kokorai. Except -the silk-haired, pug-nosed, and large-eyed <i>chin</i>, which the average native does not conceive as canine, the dogs run at large, ownerless, -as in the Levant; and share the work of street scavenging with the venerated crows. -Yet there are two places of honor in which the golden and stone effigies of this animal—highly -idealized indeed, but still <i>inu</i>—are enthroned. -</p> -<p>The <i>ama-inu</i>, or heavenly dogs, in fanciful sculpture of stone or gilt wood, represent guardian -dogs. They are found in pairs guarding the entrances to miya or temples. As all miya -(the name also of the mikado’s residence) were originally intended to serve as a model -or copy of the palace of the mikado and a reminder of the divinity of his person and -throne, it is possible that the <i>ama-inu</i> imitated the golden Corean dogs which support and guard the throne of Japan. Access -to the shrine was had only by passing these two heavenly dogs. These creatures are -quite distinct from the “dogs of Fo,” or the “lions” that flank the gateways of the -magistrate’s office in China. Those who have had audience of the mikado in the imperial -throne-room, as the writer had in January, 1873, have noticed at the foot of the throne, -serving as legs or supports to the golden chair, on which His Majesty sits, two dogs -sitting on their haunches, and upright on their forelegs. These fearful-looking creatures, -with wide-open mouths, hair curled in tufts, especially around the front neck, and -with tails bifurcated at their upright ends, are called “Corean dogs.” For what reason -placed there we know not. It may be in witness of the conquest of Shinra by the empress -Jingu, who called the king of Shinra “the dog of Japan,” or it may point to some forgotten -symbolism in the past, or typify the vassalage of Corea—so long a fundamental dogma -in Japanese politics. It is certainly strange to see this creature, so highly honored -in Fuyu and dishonored among the vulgar in Japan, placed beneath the mikado’s throne. -</p> -<p>The Japanese laid claim to Corea from the second century until the 27th of February, -1876. On that day the mikado’s minister plenipotentiary signed the treaty, recognizing -Chō-sen as an independent nation. Through all the seventeen centuries which, according -to their annals, elapsed since their armies first compelled the vassalage of their -neighbor, the Japanese regarded the states of Corea as tributary. Time and again they -enforced their <span class="pageNum" id="pb53">[<a href="#pb53">53</a>]</span>claim with bloody invasion, and when through a more enlightened policy the rulers -voluntarily acknowledged their former enemy as an equal, the decision cost Japan almost -immediately afterward seven months of civil war, 20,000 lives, and fifty millions -of dollars in treasure. The mainspring of the “Satsuma rebellion” of 1877 was the -official act of friendship by treaty, and the refusal of the Tōkiō Government to make -war on Corea. -</p> -<p>From about the beginning of the Christian era until the fifteenth century the relations -between the two nations were very close and active. Alternate peace and war, mutual -assistance given, and embassies sent to and fro are recorded with lively frequency -in the early Japanese annals, especially the Nihongi and Kojiki. A more or less continual -stream of commerce and emigration seems to have set in from the peninsula. Some writers -of high authority, who are also comparative students of the languages of the two countries, -see in these events the origin of the modern Japanese. They interpret them to mean -nothing less than the peopling of the archipelago by continental tribes passing through -the peninsula, and landing in Japan at various points along the coast from Kiushiu -to Kaga. Some of them think that Japan was settled wholly and only by Tungusic races -of Northeastern Asia coming from or through Corea. They base their belief not only -on the general stream and tendency of Japanese tradition, but also and more on the -proofs of language. -</p> -<p>The first mention of Corea in the Japanese annals occurs in the fifth volume of the -Nihongi, and is the perhaps half-fabulous narrative of ancient tradition. In the 65th -year of the reign of the tenth mikado, Sujin (97–30 <span class="asc">B.C.</span>), a boat filled with people from the west appeared off the southern point of Chō-shiu, -near the modern town of Shimonoséki. They would not land there, but steered their -course from cape to cape along the coast until they reached the Bay of Keji no Wara -in Echizen, near the modern city of Tsuruga. Here they disembarked and announced themselves -from Amana Sankan (Amana of the Three Han or Kingdoms) in Southern Corea. They unpacked -their treasures of finely wrought goods, and their leader made offerings to the mikado -Sujin. These immigrants remained five years in Echizen, not far from the city of Fukui, -till 28 <span class="asc">B.C.</span> Before leaving Japan, they presented themselves in the capital for a farewell audience. -The mikado Mimaki, having died three years before, the visitors were requested on -their return to call their country Mimana, <span class="pageNum" id="pb54">[<a href="#pb54">54</a>]</span>after their patron, as a memorial of their stay in Japan. To this they assented, and -on their return named their district Mimana. -</p> -<p>Some traditions state that the first Corean envoy had a horn growing out of his forehead, -and that since his time, and on account of it, the bay near which he dwelt was named -Tsunaga (Horn Bay) now corrupted into Tsuruga. -</p> -<p>It may be added that nearly all mythical characters or heroes in Japanese and Chinese -history are represented as having one or more very short horns growing out of their -heads, and are so delineated in native art. -</p> -<p>Six years later an envoy from Shinra arrived, also bringing presents to the mikado. -These consisted of mirrors, jade stone, swords, and other precious articles, then -common in Corea but doubtless new in Japan. -</p> -<p>According to the tradition of the Kojiki (Book of Ancient Legends) the fourteenth -mikado, Chiu-ai (<span class="asc">A.D.</span> 192–200) was holding his court at Tsuruga in Echizen, in <span class="asc">A.D.</span> 194, when a rebellion broke out in Kiushiu. He marched at once into Kiushiu, against -the rebels, and there fell by disease or arrow. His consort, Jingu Kōgō, had a presentiment -that he ought not to go into Kiushiu, as he would surely fail if he did, but that -he should strike at the root of the trouble and sail at once to the west. -</p> -<p>After his death she headed the Japanese army and, leading the troops in person, quelled -the revolt. She then ordered all the available forces of her realm to assemble for -an invasion of Shinra. Japanese modern writers have laid great stress upon the fact -that Shinra began the aggressions which brought on war, and in this fact justify Jingu’s -action and Japan’s right to hold Corea as an honestly acquired possession. -</p> -<p>All being ready, the doughty queen regent set sail from the coast of Hizen, in Japan, -in the tenth month <span class="asc">A.D.</span> 202, and beached the fleet safely on the coast of Shinra. The King of Shinra, accustomed -to meet only with men from the rude tribes of Kiushiu, was surprised to see so well-appointed -an army and so large a fleet from a land to the eastward. Struck with terror he resolved -at once to submit. Tying his hands in token of submission and in presence of the queen -Jingu, he declared himself the slave of Japan. Jingu caused her bow to be suspended -over the gate of the palace of the king in sign of his submission. It is even said -that she wrote on the gate “The King of Shinra is the dog of Japan.” Perhaps <span class="pageNum" id="pb55">[<a href="#pb55">55</a>]</span>these are historic words, which find their meaning to-day in the two golden dogs forming -part of the mikado’s throne, like the Scotch “stone of Scone,” under the coronation -chair in Westminster Abbey. -</p> -<p>The followers of Jingu evidently expected a rich booty, but after so peaceful a conquest -the empress ordered that no looting should be allowed, and no spoil taken except the -treasures constituting tribute. She restored the king to the throne as her vassal, -and the tribute was then collected and laden on eighty boats with hostages for future -annual tribute. The offerings comprised pictures, works of elegance and art, mirrors, -jade, gold, silver, and silk fabrics. -</p> -<p>Preparations were now made to conquer Hiaksai also, when Jingu was surprised to receive -the voluntary submission and offers of tribute of this country. -</p> -<p>The Japanese army remained in Corea only two months, but this brief expedition led -to great and lasting results. It gave the Japanese a keener thirst for martial glory, -it opened their eyes to a higher state of arts and civilization. From this time forth -there flowed into the islands a constant stream of Corean emigrants, who gave a great -impulse to the spirit of improvement in Japan. The Japanese accept the story of Jingu -and her conquest as sound history, and adorn their greenback paper money with pictures -of her foreign exploits. Critics reject many elements in the tradition, such as her -controlling the waves and drowning the Shinra army by the jewels of the ebbing and -the flowing tide,<a class="noteRef" id="xd31e2141src" href="#xd31e2141">1</a> and the delay of her accouchement by a magic stone carried in her girdle. The Japanese -ascribe the glory of victory to her then unborn babe, afterward deified as Ojin, god -of war, and worshipped by Buddhists as Hachiman or the Eight-bannered Buddha. Yet -many temples are dedicated to Jingu, one especially famous is near Hiōgo, and Koraiji -(Corean village) near Oiso, a few miles from Yokohama, has another which was at first -built in her honor. Evidently the core of the narrative of conquest is fact. -</p> -<p>At the time when the faint, dim light of trustworthy tradition dawns, we find the -people inhabiting the Japanese archipelago to be roughly divided, as to their political -status, into four classes. -</p> -<p>In the central province around Kiōto ruled a kingly house—<span class="pageNum" id="pb56">[<a href="#pb56">56</a>]</span>the mikado and his family—with tributary nobles or feudal chiefs holding their lands -on military tenure. This is the ancient classic land and realm of Yamato. Four other -provinces adjoining it have always formed the core of the empire, and are called the -Go-Kinai, or five home provinces, suggesting the five clans of Kokorai. -</p> -<p>To the north and east stretched the little known and less civilized region, peopled -by tribes of kindred blood and speech, who spoke nearly the same language as the Yamato -tribes, and who had probably come at some past time from the same ancestral seats -in Manchuria, and called the Kuan-tō, or region east (<i>tō</i>) of the barrier (<i>kuan</i>) at Ozaka; or poetically Adzuma. -</p> -<p></p> -<div class="figure p056width" id="p056"><img src="images/p056.png" alt="Map of Ancient Japan and Corea." width="665" height="653"><p class="figureHead">Map of Ancient Japan and Corea.</p> -</div><p> -</p> -<p>Still further north, on the main island and in Yezo, lived the Ainos or Ebisŭ, probably -the aborigines of the soil—the straight-eyed men whose descendants still live in Yezo -and the Kuriles. <span class="pageNum" id="pb57">[<a href="#pb57">57</a>]</span>The northern and eastern tribes were first conquered and thoroughly subdued by the -Yamato tribes, after which all the far north was overrun and the Ainos subjugated. -</p> -<p>In the extreme south of the main island of Japan and in Kiushiu, then called Kumaso -by the Yamato people, lived a number of tribes of perhaps the same ethnic stock as -the Yamato Japanese, but further removed. Their progenitors had probably descended -from Manchuria through Corea to Japan. Their blood and speech, however, were more -mixed by infusions from Malay and southern elements. Into Kiushiu—it being nearest -to the continent—the peninsulars were constantly coming and mingling with the islanders. -</p> -<p>The allegiance of the Kiushiu tribes to the royal house of Yamato was of a very loose -kind. The history of these early centuries, as shown in the annals of Nihon, is but -a series of revolts against the distant warrior mikado, whose life was chiefly one -of war. He had often to leave his seat in the central island to march at the head -of his followers to put down rebellions or to conquer new tribes. Over these, when -subdued, a prince chosen by the conqueror was set to rule, who became a feudatory -of the mikado. -</p> -<p>The attempts of the Yamato sovereign to wholly reduce the Kiushiu tribes to submission, -were greatly frustrated by their stout resistance, fomented by emissaries from Shinra, -who instigated them to “revolt,” while adventurers from the Corean mainland came over -in large numbers and joined the “rebels,” who were, in one sense, their own compatriots. -</p> -<p>From the time of Jingu, if the early dates in Japanese history are to be trusted, -may be said to date that belief, so firmly fixed in the Japanese mind, that Corea -is, and always was since Jingu’s time, a tributary and dependency of Japan. This idea, -akin to that of the claim of the English kings on France, led to frequent expeditions -from the third to the sixteenth century, and which, even as late as 1874, 1875, and -1877, lay at the root of three civil wars. -</p> -<p>All these expeditions, sometimes national, sometimes filibustering, served to drain -the resources of Japan, though many impulses to development and higher civilization -were thus gained, especially in the earlier centuries. It seemed, until 1877, almost -impossible to eradicate from the military mind of Japan the conviction that to surrender -Corea was cowardice and a stain on the national honor. But time will show, as it showed -centuries ago <span class="pageNum" id="pb58">[<a href="#pb58">58</a>]</span>in England, that the glory and prosperity of the conqueror were increased, not diminished, -when Japan relinquished all claim on her continental neighbor and treated her as an -equal. -</p> -<p>The Coreans taught the Japanese the arts of peace, while the Coreans profited from -their neighbors to improve in the business of war. We read that, in 316 <span class="asc">A.D.</span>, a Corean ambassador, bringing the usual tribute, presented to the mikado a shield -of iron which he believed to be invulnerable to Japanese arrows. The mikado called -on one of his favorite marksmen to practice in the presence of the envoy. The shield -was suspended, and the archer, drawing bow, sent a shaft through the iron skin of -the buckler to the astonishment of the visitor. In all their battles the Coreans were -rarely able to stand in open field before the archers from over the sea, who sent -true cloth-yard shafts from their oak and bamboo bows. -</p> -<p>The paying of tribute to a foreign country is never a pleasant duty to perform, though -in times of prosperity and good harvests it is not difficult. In periods of scarcity -from bad crops it is well nigh impossible. To insist upon its payment is to provoke -rebellion. Instances are indeed given in Japanese history where the conquerors not -only remitted the tribute but even sent ship loads of rice and barley to the starving -Coreans. When, however, for reasons not deemed sufficient, or out of sheer defiance, -their vassals refused to discharge their dues, they again felt the iron hand of Japan -in war. During the reign of Yuriaki, the twenty-second mikado (<span class="asc">A.D.</span> 457–477), the three states failed to pay tribute. A Japanese army landed in Corea, -and conquering Hiaksai, compelled her to return to her duty. The campaign was less -successful in Shinra and Korai, for after the Japanese had left the Corean shores -the “tribute” was sent only at intervals, and the temper of the half-conquered people -was such that other expeditions had to be despatched to inflict chastisement and compel -payment. -</p> -<p>The gallant but vain succor given by the Japanese to Hiaksai during the war with the -Chinese, in the sixth century, which resulted in the destruction of the little kingdom, -has already been detailed. Among the names, forever famous in Japanese art and tradition, -of those who took part in this expedition are Saté-hiko and Kasi-wadé. The former -sailed away from Hizen in the year 536, as one of the mikado’s body-guard to assist -their allies the men of Hiaksai. A poetical legend recounts that his wife, Sayohimé, -<span class="pageNum" id="pb59">[<a href="#pb59">59</a>]</span>climbed the hills of Matsura to catch the last glimpse of his receding sails. Thus -intently gazing, with straining eyes, she turned to stone. The peasants of the neighborhood -still discern in the <span class="corr" id="xd31e2188" title="Source: weathern-worn">weather-worn</span> rocks, high up on the cliffs, the figure of a lady in long trailing court dress with -face and figure eagerly bent over the western waves. Not only is the name Matsura -Sayohimé the symbol of devoted love, but from this incident the famous author Bakin -constructed his romance of “The Great Stone Spirit of Matsura.” -</p> -<p>Kasiwadé, who crossed over to do “frontier service” in the peninsula a few years later, -was driven ashore by a snow squall at an unknown part of the coast. While in this -defenceless condition his camp was invaded by a tiger, which carried off and devoured -his son, a lad of tender age. Kasiwadé at once gave chase and followed the beast to -the mountains and into a cave. The tiger leaping out upon him, the wary warrior bearded -him with his left hand, and buried his dirk in his throat. Then finishing him with -his sabre, he skinned the brute and sent home the trophy. From olden times Chō-sen -is known to Japanese children only as a land of tigers, while to the soldier the “marshal’s -baton carried in his knapsack” is a tiger-skin scabbard, the emblem and possession -of rank. -</p> -<p>As the imperial court of Japan looked upon Shinra and Hiaksai as outlying vassal states, -the frequent military movements across the sea were reckoned under “frontier service,” -like that beyond the latitude of Sado in the north of the main island, or in Kiushiu -in the south. “The three countries” of Corea were far nearer and more familiar to -the Japanese soldiers than were Yezo or the Riu Kiu Islands, which were not part of -the empire till several centuries afterward. Kara Kuni, the country of Kara (a corruption -of Korai?), as they now call China, was then applied to Corea. Not a little of classic -poetry and legend in the Yamato language refers to this western frontier beyond the -sea. The elegy on Ihémaro, the soldier-prince, who died at Iki Island on the voyage -over, and that on the death of the Corean nun Riguwan, have been put into English -verse by Mr. Chamberlain (named after the English explorer and writer on Corea, Basil -Hall), in his “Classical Poetry of the Japanese.” This Corean lady left her home in -714, and for twenty-one years found a home with the mikado’s Prime Minister, Otomo, -and his wife, at Nara. She died in 735, while her hosts were away at the mineral <span class="pageNum" id="pb60">[<a href="#pb60">60</a>]</span>springs of Arima, near Kobé; and the elegy was written by their daughter. One stanza -describes her life in the new country. -</p> -<div class="lgouter"> -<p class="line">“And here with aliens thou didst choose to dwell, -</p> -<p class="line xd31e2199">Year in, year out, in deepest sympathy;</p> -<p class="line">And here thou builtest thee a holy cell, -</p> -<p class="line xd31e2199">And so the peaceful years went gliding by.”</p> -</div> -<p class="first">An interesting field of research is still open to the scholar who will point out all -the monuments of Corean origin or influence in the mikado’s empire, in the arts and -sciences, household customs, diet and dress, or architecture; in short, what by nature -or the hand of man has been brought to the land of Sunrise from that of Morning Calm. -One of the Corean princes, who settled in Japan early in the seventh century, founded -a family which afterward ruled the famous province of Nagatō or Chōshiu. One of his -descendants welcomed Francis Xavier, and aided his work by gifts of ground and the -privilege of preaching. Many of the temples in Kiōto still contain images, paintings, -and altar furniture brought from Corea. The “Pheasant Bridge” still keeps its name -from bygone centuries; in a garden near by pheasants were kept for the supply of the -tables of the Corean embassies. The Arab and Persian treasures of art and fine workmanship, -in the imperial archives and museums of Nara, which have excited the wonder of foreign -visitors, are most probably among the gifts or purchases from Shinra, where these -imports were less rare. A Buddhist monk named Shiuho has gathered up the traditions -and learning of the subject, so far as it illustrated his faith, and in “Precious -Jewels from a Neighboring Country,” published in 1586, has written a narrative of -the introduction of Buddhism from Corea and its literary and missionary influences -upon Japan. -</p> -<p>Under the chapters on Art and Religion we shall resume this topic. As earnestly as -the Japanese are now availing themselves of the science and progress of Christendom -in this nineteenth century, so earnestly did they borrow the culture of the west, -that is of Corea and China, a thousand years ago. -</p> -<p>The many thousands of Coreans, who, during the first ten centuries of the Christian -era, but especially in the seventh, eighth, and ninth, settled in Japan, lived peaceably -with the people of their adopted country, and loyally obeyed the mikado’s rule. An -exception to this course occurred in 820, when seven hundred men who some time before -had come from Shinra to Tōtōmi and Suruga revolted, <span class="pageNum" id="pb61">[<a href="#pb61">61</a>]</span>killed many of the Japanese, seized the rice in the store-houses, and put to sea to -escape. The people of Musashi and Sagami pursued and attacked them, putting many of -them to death. -</p> -<p>The general history of the Coreans in Japan divides itself into two parts. Those who -came as voluntary immigrants in time of peace were in most cases skilled workmen or -farmers, who settled in lands or in villages granted them, and were put on political -and social equality with the mikado’s subjects. They founded industries, intermarried -with the natives, and their identity has been lost in the general body of the Japanese -people. -</p> -<p>With the prisoners taken in war, and with the laborers impressed into their service -and carried off by force, the case was far different. These latter were set apart -in villages by themselves—an outcast race on no social equality with the people. At -first they were employed to feed the imperial falcons, or do such menial work, but -under the ban of Buddhism, which forbids the destruction of life and the handling -of flesh, they became an accursed race, the “Etas” or pariahs of the nation. They -were the butchers, skinners, leather-makers, and those whose business it was to handle -corpses of criminals and all other defiling things. They exist to-day, not greatly -changed in blood, though in costume, language, and general appearance, it is not possible -to distinguish them from Japanese of purest blood. By the humane edict of the mikado, -in 1868, granting them all the rights of citizenship, their social condition has greatly -improved. -</p> -<p>From the ninth century onward to the sixteenth, the relations of the two countries -seem to be unimportant. Japan was engaged in conquering northward the barbarians of -her main island and Yezo. Her intercourse, both political and religious, grew to be -so direct with the court of China, that Corea, in the Japanese annals, sinks out of -sight except at rare intervals. Nihon increased in wealth and civilization while Chō-sen -remained stationary or retrograded. In the nineteenth century the awakened Sunrise -Kingdom has seen her former self in the hermit nation, and has stretched forth willing -hands to do for her neighbor now, what Corea did for Japan in centuries long gone -by. -</p> -<p>Still, it must never be forgotten that Corea was not only the bridge on which civilization -crossed from China to the archipelago, but was most probably the pathway of migration -by which the rulers of the race now inhabiting Nihon reached it from their ancestral -seats around the Sungari and the Ever-White Mountains. <span class="pageNum" id="pb62">[<a href="#pb62">62</a>]</span>True, it is not absolutely certain whether the homeland of the mikado’s ancestors -lay southward in the sea, or westward among the mountains, but that the mass of the -Corean and Japanese people are more closely allied in blood than either are with the -Chinese, Manchius, or Malays, seems to be proved, not only by language and physical -traits, but by the whole course of the history of both nations, and by the testimony -of the Chinese records. Both Coreans and Japanese have inherited the peculiar institutions -of their Fuyu ancestors—that race which alone of all the peoples sprung from Manchuria -migrated toward the rising, instead of toward the setting, sun. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb63">[<a href="#pb63">63</a>]</span></p> -</div> -<div class="footnotes"> -<hr class="fnsep"> -<div class="footnote-body"> -<div class="fndiv" id="xd31e2141"> -<p class="footnote"><span class="fnlabel"><a class="noteRef" href="#xd31e2141src">1</a></span> The story, told in full in the <i>Heiké Monogatari</i>, is given in English in “Japanese Fairy World.” <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd31e2141src" title="Return to note 1 in text.">↑</a></p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch9" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#xd31e905">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="label">CHAPTER IX.</h2> -<h2 class="main">KORAI, OR UNITED COREA.</h2> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="first">The fertile and well-watered region drained by the Amur River and its tributaries, -stretching from the Pacific Ocean to Lake Baikal, covers the ancestral seats of many -nations, and is perhaps the home of nations yet to arise. It may be likened to a great -intermittent geyser-spring which, at intervals, overflows with terrific force and -volume. The movements of population southward seem, on a review of Chinese and Corean -history, almost as regular as a law of nature. As the conquerors from the central -Asian plateaus have over and over again descended into India, as the barbarians overran -the Roman empire, so out of the region drained by the Amur and its tributaries have -burst forth, time and again, floods of conquest to overwhelm the rich plains of China. -Or, if we regard the flowery and grassy lands of Manchuria and beyond as a great hive, -full of busy life which, from the pressure of increasing numbers, must swarm off to -relieve the old home, we shall have a true illustration. Time and again have clouds -of human bees, with the sting of their swords and the honey of their new energy, issued -from this ancient hive. The swarms receive different names in history: Hun, Turk, -Tartar, Mongol, Manchiu, but they all emerge from the same source, giving or receiving -dynastic names, but being in reality Tungusic people of the same basic stock. -</p> -<p>A tribe inhabiting one of the ravines or rich river flats of the Sungari region increases -in wealth and numbers. A powerful chief leads them to war and victory. Tribes and -lands are annexed. Martial valor, wealth, and strength increase. Ambition and the -pressure of numbers tempt to farther conquest. Over and beyond the Great Wall is the -ever-glittering prize—teeming China. The march begins southward. After many a battle, -and only, it may be, after a generation of war against the imperial legions beyond -the frontiers, the goal is reached. The Middle Kingdom is conquered and a new dynasty -sits on the Dragon <span class="pageNum" id="pb64">[<a href="#pb64">64</a>]</span>Throne, until long peace enervates and luxury weakens. Then out of the old northern -seats of population rolls a new flood of conquest, and a new swarm of conquerors is -hived off. -</p> -<p>Thus we see the original land embracing the Amur and Sungari valleys has had its periods -of power and decay, of historical and unhistorical life. Unity and movement make history, -disintegration and apathy cause the page of history to be blank. But the land is still -there with the people and the possibilities of the future. -</p> -<p>In spite of the associations of hoary antiquity that cluster around Asiatic countries, -the reader of history does not expect to hear of single empires enduring through many -centuries. With the exception of Japan, no nation of Asia can show a dynastic line -extending through a millennium. The empires founded by Asiatic conquerors are short-lived. -The countries and the people remain, but the rulers constantly change, and the building -up, flourishing, decay, and dissolution suggest the seasons rather than the centuries. -No enduring political fabrics, like those of Rome or Britain, are known in Asia. Though -China and India abide like the oak, their rulers change like the leaves. Socially, -these countries are the symbols of petrifaction, politically they are as the kaleidoscope. -From this law of continuous political mutation, Corea has not been free. -</p> -<p>In one of these epochs of historical movement, at the opening of the eighth century, -there arose the kingdom of Puhai, the capital of which was the present city of Kirin. -Its northern boundaries first touched the Sungari, and later the Amur, shifting to -the Sungari again. Its southern border was at first the Tumen River, and later the -modern province of Ham-kiung was included in it. Lines drawn southwardly through Lake -Hanka on the east, and Mukden on the west, would enclose its longitude. Its life lasted -from about 700 to 925 <span class="asc">A.D.</span> This kingdom was continually on bad terms with China, and the Tang emperors for nearly -a century attempted to crush it into vassalage. Puhai made brave resistance, being -aided not only by the large numbers of Koraians, who had fled when beaten by the Chinese -across the Tumen River, but also by the Japanese, whose supremacy they acknowledged -by payment of tribute. With the latter their relations were always of a peaceful and -pleasant nature, and the correspondence and other documents of the visiting embassies -to the mikado’s court are still preserved in Japan. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb65">[<a href="#pb65">65</a>]</span></p> -<p>Yet though Puhai was able to resist China and hold part of the old territory of Korai, -it fell before the persistent attacks of the Kitan tribes, whose empire, lasting from -907 to 1125 <span class="asc">A.D.</span>, stretched from west of Lake Baikal to the Pacific Ocean. In the early part of the -tenth century this Puhai kingdom, whose age was scarcely two centuries, melted away -again into tribes and villages, each with its chief. The country being without political -unity returned to unhistorical obscurity, as part of the Kitan empire. Without crossing -the Tumen, to enter China by way of Corea, the Kitans marched at once around the Ever-White -Mountains and down the Liao Tung valley into China. -</p> -<p>The breaking up of Puhai was not without its influence on the Corean peninsula. As -early as the ninth century thousands of refugees, driven before the Kitans or dissatisfied -with nomad life on the plains, recrossed the Tumen and a great movement of emigration -set into Northern Corea, which again became populous, cultivated, and rich. With increasing -prosperity better government was desired. The worthlessness of the rulers and the -prospect of a successful revolution tempted the ambition of a Buddhist monk named -Kung-wo who, in 912 <span class="asc">A.D.</span>, left his monastery and raised the flag of rebellion. He set forth to establish another -political fabric of mushroom duration, which was destined to make way for a more permanent -kingdom, and, in the end, united Corea. -</p> -<p>With his followers, Kung-wo attacked the city of Kaichow (in the modern Kang-wen province), -and was so far successful as to enter it and proclaim himself king. His personal success -was of short duration. His lieutenant, Wang-ken, that is Wang the founder, was a descendant -of the old kingly house of Korai. During all the time of Chinese occupancy, or Shinra -supremacy, his family had kept alive their spirit, traditions, and claims. Thinking -he could rule better than a priest, Wang put the ex-monk to death and proclaimed himself -the true sovereign of Korai. All this went on without the interference of China, which -at this time was torn by internal disorder and the ravages of the same Kitan tribes -that had destroyed Puhai. Wang made Ping-an and Kaichow the capitals of his kingdom, -and resolved to take full advantage of his opportunity to conquer the entire peninsula -and unite all its parts under his sceptre. -</p> -<p>Circumstances made this an easy task. With China passive, Shinra weak, through long -absorption in luxury and the arts of <span class="pageNum" id="pb66">[<a href="#pb66">66</a>]</span>peace, and with most part of the population of the peninsula of <span class="corr" id="xd31e2251" title="Source: Korain">Koraian</span> blood and descent, the work was easy. The whole country, from the Ever-White Mountains -to Quelpart Island, was overrun and welded into unity. The name of Shinra was blotted -out after a line of fifty-six kings and a life of nine hundred and ninety-three years. -For the first time the peninsula became a political unit, and the name Korai, springing -to life again like the Arabian phœnix out of its ashes, became the symbol alike of -united Corea and of the race which peopled it. Even yet the name Korai (Gauli or Gori -in the vernacular) is generally used by the people. -</p> -<p>The probabilities are that the people of the old Fuyu race, descendants of the tribes -of Kokorai, as the more vigorous stock, had already so far supplanted the old aboriginal -people inhabiting Southern Corea as to make conquest by Wang, who was one of their -own blood, easy. This is shown in a series of maps representing the three kingdoms -of Corea from 201 to 655 <span class="asc">A.D.</span>, by the Japanese scholar Otsuki Tōyō. At the former date the Kokorai people beyond -that part of their domain conquered by China have occupied the land as far south as -the Han River, or to the 37th parallel. Later, Shinra, in 593, and again in 655, backed -by Chinese armies, had regained her territory a degree or two northward, and in the -eighth and ninth centuries, acting as the ally of China, ruled all the country to -the Tumen River. Yet, though Shinra held the land, the inhabitants were the same, -namely, the stock of Korai, ready to rise against their rulers and to annihilate Shinra -in a name and monarchy that had in it nationality and the prestige of their ancient -freedom and greatness. -</p> -<p>Thoroughly intent on unifying his realm, Wang chose a central location for the national -capital. Kion-chiu, the metropolis of Shinra, was too far south, Ping-an, the royal -seat of old Korai, was too far north; but one hundred miles nearer “the river” Han, -was Sunto. This city, now called Kai-seng, is twenty-five miles from Seoul and equally -near the sea. Wang made Sunto what it has been for over nine centuries, a fortified -city of the first rank, the chief commercial centre of the country, and a seat of -learning. It remained the capital until 1392 <span class="asc">A.D.</span> Wang-ken or Wang, the founder of the new dynasty under which the people were to be -governed for over four hundred years, was an ardent Buddhist. Spite of his having -put the monk to death to further personal ends, he became the defender of the India -faith and made it the official religion. Monasteries were founded and temples built -in <span class="pageNum" id="pb67">[<a href="#pb67">67</a>]</span>great numbers. To furnish revenues for the support of these, tracts of land were set -apart as permanent endowment. The four centuries of the house of Korai are the palmy -days of Corean Buddhism. -</p> -<p>From China, which at this time was enjoying that era of literary splendor, for which -the Sung dynasty was noted, there came an impulse both to scholastic activity and -to something approaching popular education. -</p> -<p>The Nido, or native syllabary, which had been invented by Chul-chong, the statesman -of Shinra, now came into general use. While Chinese literature and the sacred books -of Buddhism were studied in the original Sanscrit, popular works were composed in -Corean and written out in the Nido, or vernacular syllables. The printing press, invented -by the Sung scholars, was introduced and books were printed from cut blocks. The Japanese -are known to have adopted printing from Corea as early as the twelfth century, when -a work of the Buddhist canon was printed from wooden blocks. “A Corean book is known -which dates authentically from the period 1317–1324, over a century before the earliest -printed book known in Europe.” The use of metal type, made by moulding and casting, -is not distinctly mentioned in Corea until the year 1420, and the invention and use -of the Unmun, a true native alphabet, seems to belong to the same period. The eleven -vowels and fourteen consonants serve both as an alphabet and a syllabary, the latter -being the most ancient system, and the former an improvement on it. -</p> -<p>The unifier of Corea died in 945 and was succeeded by his son Wu. Fifteen years later -the last of the five weak dynasties that had rapidly succeeded each other in China, -fell. The Chinese emperor proposing, and the Corean king being willing, the latter -hastened to send tribute, and formed an alliance of friendship with the imperial Sung, -who swayed the destinies of China for the next 166 years (960–1101). -</p> -<p>Korai soon came into collision with the Kitans in the following manner. The royal -line of united Corea traced their descent directly from the ancient kings of Kokorai, -and therefore claimed relationship with the princes of Puhai. On the strength of this -claim, the Koraian king asserted his right to the whole of Liao Tung, which had been -formerly held by Puhai. The Kitans, having matters of greater importance to attend -to at the time, allowed its temporary occupation by Korai troops. Nevertheless the -king <span class="pageNum" id="pb68">[<a href="#pb68">68</a>]</span>thought it best to send homage to the Kitan emperor, in order to get a clear title -to the territory. In 1012 he despatched an embassy acknowledging the Kitan supremacy. -This verbal message did not satisfy the strong conqueror, who demanded that the Koraian -king should come in person and make obeisance. The latter refused. A feud at once -broke out between them, which led to a war, in which Korai was worsted and stripped -of all her territory west of the Yalu River. -</p> -<p>Palladius has pointed out the interesting fact that a little village about twenty -miles north of Tie-ling, and seventy miles north of Mukden, called Gauli-chan (Korai -village) still witnesses by its name to its former history, and to the possession -by Corea of territory west of the Yalu. -</p> -<p>The Kitans, not satisfied with recovering Liao Tung, crossed the river and invaded -Korai, in 1015. By this time a new nation, under the name of Nüjun or Ninchi, had -formed around Lake Hanka, in part of the territory of extinct Puhai. With their new -frontagers the Koraians made an alliance “as solid as iron and stone,” and with their -aid drove back the Kitan invaders. -</p> -<p>Henceforth the boundaries of Corea remained stationary, and have never extended beyond -the limits with which the western world is familiar. -</p> -<p>An era of peace and prosperity set in, and a thriving trade sprang up between the -Nüjun and Korai. The two nations, cemented in friendship through a common fear of -the Kitans, grew apace in numbers and prosperity. -</p> -<p>The Kitans were known to Chinese authors as early as the fifth century, seven nomad -tribes being at that time confederate under their banners. At the beginning of the -tenth century, these wanderers had been transformed into hordes of disciplined cavalry. -Their wealth and intelligence having increased by conquest, they formed a great empire -in 925, which extended from the Altai Mountains to the Pacific Ocean, and from within -the Great Wall to the Yablonoi Mountains, having Peking for one of its capitals. It -flourished until the twelfth century (<span class="asc">A.D.</span> 1125), when it gave way to the Kin empire, which held Mongolia and still more territory -than the Kitans possessed within what is now China proper. -</p> -<p>This Kin empire was founded by the expansion of the Nüjun, who, from their seats north -of the Tumen and east of the Sungari, had gradually widened, and by conquest absorbed -the Kitans. Aguta, the founder of the new empire, gave it the name of the <span class="pageNum" id="pb69">[<a href="#pb69">69</a>]</span>Golden Dominion. During its existence Corea was not troubled by her great neighbor, -and for two hundred years enjoyed peace within her borders. Her commerce now flourished -at all points of the compass, both on land, with her northern and western neighbors, -with the Japanese on the east, and the Chinese south and west. Much direct intercourse -in ships, guided by the magnetic needle, “the chariot of the south,” took place between -Ningpo and Sunto. Mr. Edkins states that the oldest recorded instance of the use of -the mariner’s compass is that in the Chinese historian’s account of the voyage of -the imperial ambassador to Corea, from Nanking by way of Ningpo, in a fleet of eight -vessels, in the year 1122. -</p> -<p>The Arabs, who about this time were also trading with the Coreans, and had lived in -their country, soon afterward introduced this silent friend of the mariner into their -own country in the west, whence it found its way into Europe and to the hands of Columbus. -To the eye of the Corean its mysterious finger pointed to the south. To the western -man it pointed to the lode-star. -</p> -<p>The huge wide-open eyes which the sailors of Chinese Asia paint at the prow of their -ship, to discover a path in the sea, became more than ever an empty fancy before this -unerring pathfinder. As useless as the ever-open orbs on a mummy lid, these lidless -eyes were relegated to the domain of poetry, while the swinging needle opened new -paths of science and discovery. -</p> -<p></p> -<div class="figure p069width" id="p069"><img src="images/p069.png" alt="Coin of Korai. “Ko-ka” (Name of Year-Period). “Current Money.”" width="190" height="185"><p class="figureHead">Coin of Korai. “Ko-ka” (Name of Year-Period). “Current Money.”</p> -</div><p> -<span class="pageNum" id="pb70">[<a href="#pb70">70</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch10" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#xd31e914">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="label">CHAPTER X.</h2> -<h2 class="main">CATHAY, ZIPANGU, AND THE MONGOLS.</h2> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="first">After a long breathing-spell—as one, in reading history, might call it—the old hive -in the north was again ready to swarm. It was to be seen once more how useless was -the Great Wall of China in keeping back the many-named invaders, known in history -by the collective term Tâtars. A new people began descending from their homeland, -which lay near the northern and eastern shores of Lake Baikal. This inland sea—scarcely -known in the school geographies, or printed in the average atlas in such proportionate -dimensions as to suggest a pond—is one of the largest lakes in the world, being 370 -miles long and covering 13,300 square miles of surface. Its shores are now inhabited -by Russian colonists and its waters are navigated by whole fleets of ships and steamers. -It lies 1,280 feet above the sea. -</p> -<p>Beginning their migrations from this point, in numbers and bulk that suggest only -the snowball, the Mongol horsemen moved with resistless increase and momentum, consolidating -into their mass tribe after tribe, until their horde seemed an avalanche of humanity -that threatened to crush all civilization and engulph the whole earth. These mounted -highlanders from the north were creatures who seemed to be horse and man in one being, -and to actualize the old fable of the Centaurs. With a tiger-skin for a saddle, a -thong loop with only the rider’s great toe thrust in it for a stirrup, a string in -the horse’s lower jaw for a bridle, armed with spear and cimeter, these conquerors -who despised walls went forth to level cities and slaughter all who resisted. In their -raids they found food ever ready in the beasts they rode, for a reeking haunch of -horse-meat, cut from the steed whose saddle had been emptied by arrow or accident, -was usually found slung to their pommels. A slice of this, raw or warmed, served to -sustain life for these hard riders, who lived all day in the saddle and at night slept -with it wrapped around them. -</p> -<p>For a century the power of these nomads was steadily growing, <span class="pageNum" id="pb71">[<a href="#pb71">71</a>]</span>before they emerged clearly into history and loomed up before the frontiers of the -empire. The master mind and hand that moulded them into unity was Genghis Khan (1160–1227 -<span class="asc">A.D.</span>). -</p> -<p>Who was Genghis Khan? A Japanese writer, who is also a traveller in Corea and China, -has written in English a thesis which shows, with strong probability, at least, that -this unifier of Asia was Gen-Ghiké, or Yoshitsuné. This Japanese hero, born in 1159, -was the field-marshal of the army of the Minamoto who annihilated the Taira family.<a class="noteRef" id="xd31e2310src" href="#xd31e2310">1</a> In 1189, having fled from his jealous brother, Yoritomo, he reached Yezo and thence -crossed, it is believed, to Manchuria. His was probably the greatest military mind -which Japan ever produced. -</p> -<p>That Yoshitsuné and Genghis Khan were one person is argued by Mr. Suyematz,<a class="noteRef" id="xd31e2315src" href="#xd31e2315">2</a> who brings a surprising array of coincidences to prove his thesis. These are in names, -titles, ages, dates, personal characteristics, flags and banners, myths and traditions, -nomenclature of families, localities and individuals, and Japanese relics, coins, -arms, and fortresses in Manchuria. Without reaching the point of demonstration, it -seems highly probable that this wonderful personality, this marvellous intellect, -was of Japanese origin. -</p> -<p>Whoever this restless spirit was, it is certain that he gathered tribes once living -in freedom like the wild waves into the unity of the restless sea. Out from the grassy -plains of Manchuria rolled a tidal-wave of conquest that swept over Asia, and flung -its last drops of spray alike over Japan, India, and Russia. Among the nations completely -overrun and overwhelmed by the Mongol hordes was Corea. -</p> -<p>In 1206, Yezokai—the word in Japanese means Yezo Sea—the leader of the Mongols, at -the request of his chieftains, took the name of Genghis Khan and proclaimed himself -the ruler of an empire. He now set before himself the task of subduing the Kitans -and absorbing their land and people, preparatory to the conquest of China. This was -accomplished in less than six years. Liao Tung was invaded and, in 1213, his armies -were inside the Great Wall. Three mighty hosts were now organized, one to overrun -all China to Nepal and Anam, one to conquer Corea and Japan, and one to bear the white -banners of the Mongols across Asia into Europe. This work, though not done in a day, -was nearly completed before <span class="pageNum" id="pb72">[<a href="#pb72">72</a>]</span>a generation passed.<a class="noteRef" id="xd31e2323src" href="#xd31e2323">3</a> Genghis Khan led the host that moved to the west. In 1218 the Corean king declared -himself a vassal of Genghis. In 1231 the murder of a Mongol envoy in Corea was the -cause of the first act of war. The Mongols invaded the country, captured forty of -the principal towns, received the humiliation of the king, who had fled to Kang-wa -Island, and began the abolition of Corean independence by appointing seventy-two Mongol -prefects to administer the details of local government. The people, exasperated by -the new and strange methods of their foreign conquerors, rose against them and murdered -them all. This was the signal for a second and more terrible invasion. A great Mongol -army overran the country in 1241, fought a number of pitched battles, defeated the -king, and again imposed heavy tribute on their humbled vassal. In 1256 the Corean -king went in person to do homage at the court of the conqueror of continents. -</p> -<p>In the details of the Mongol rule kindness and cruelty were blended. The most relentless -military measures were taken to secure obedience after the conciliatory policy failed. -By using both methods the great Khan kept his hold on the little peninsula, although -the Coreans manifested a constant disposition to revolt. -</p> -<p>About this time began a brilliant half century of intercourse between Europe and Cathay, -which has been studied and illustrated in the writings of Colonel H. Yule. The two -Franciscan monks Carpinini and Rubruquis visited China, and the camps of the great -Khan, between the years 1245 and 1253. By their graphic narratives, in which the wars -of Genghis were described, they made the name of Cathay (from Kitai, or Kitan) familiar -in Europe. Matteo, Nicolo, and Marco Polo, who came later, as representatives of the -commerce which afterward flourished between Venice and Genoa, and Ningpo and Amoy, -were but a few among many merchants and travellers. Embassies from the Popes and the -Khan exchanged courtesies at Avignon and Cambaluc (Peking). Christian churches were -established in Peking and other cities by the Franciscan monks. The various Europeans -who have saved their own names and a few others from oblivion, and have left us a -romantic, but in the main a truthful, picture of mediæval China and the Mongols, were -probably only the scribes among a host who traded or travelled, but never told their -story. Among the marvels of the empire of the Mongols, in which one might walk safely -from Corea to Russia, was religious toleration. When, however, the Mongols <span class="pageNum" id="pb73">[<a href="#pb73">73</a>]</span>of central Asia embraced the creed of Islam, bigotry closed the highway into Europe, -and communications ceased. Cathay, Zipangu, and Corea again sunk from the eyes of -Europe into the night of historic darkness. -</p> -<p>Khublai Khan having succeeded his grandfather, Genghis, and being now ruler of all -the Asiatic mainland, resolved, in 1266, to conquer Japan. He wrote a letter to the -mikado, but the envoys were so frightened by the Corean’s exaggerated account of the -difficulties of reaching the empire in the sea, that they never sailed. Other embassies -were despatched in 1271 and 1273, and Khublai began to prepare a mighty flotilla and -army of invasion. One hundred of the ships were built on Quelpart Island. His armada, -consisting of 300 vessels and 15,000 men, Chinese, Mongols, and Coreans, sailed to -Japan and was met by the Japanese off the island of Iki. Owing to their valor, but -more to the tempest that arose, the expedition was a total loss, only a few of the -original number reaching Corea alive. -</p> -<p>Evidently desirous of conquering Japan by diplomacy, the great Khan despatched an -embassy which reached, not the mikado’s, but only the shō-gun’s court in 1275. His -ambassadors were accompanied by a large retinue from his Corean vassals. The Japanese -allowed only three of the imposing number to go to Kamakura, twelve miles from the -modern Tōkiō, and paid no attention to the Khan’s threatening letters. So irritated -were the brave islanders that when another ambassador from the Khan arrived, in the -following year, he disembarked as a prisoner and was escorted, bound, to Kamakura, -where he was thrown into prison, kept during four years, and taken out only to be -beheaded. -</p> -<p>Upon hearing this, Khublai began the preparation of the mightiest of his invading -hosts. To be braved by a little island nation, when his sceptre ruled from the Dnieper -to the Yellow Sea, was not to be thought of. Various fleets and contingents sailed -from different ports in China and made rendezvous on the Corean coast. The fleet was -composed of 3,500 war junks, of large size, having on board 180,000 Chinese, Mongols, -and Coreans. Among their engines of war were the catapults which the Polos had taught -them to make. They set sail in the autumn of 1281. -</p> -<p>From the very first the enterprise miscarried. The general-in-chief fell sick and -the command devolved on a subordinate, who had no plan of operation. The various divisions -of the force became separated. It is probable that the majority of them never <span class="pageNum" id="pb74">[<a href="#pb74">74</a>]</span>reached the mainland of Japan. The Mongol and Corean contingent reached the province -of Chikuzen, but were not allowed to make a successful landing, for the Japanese drove -them back with sword and fire. The Chinese division, arriving later, was met by a -terrible tempest that nearly annihilated them and destroyed the ships already engaged. -The broken remnant of the fleet and armies, taking refuge on the island of Iki, were -attacked by the Japanese and nearly all slain, imprisoned, or beheaded in cold blood. -Only a few reached Corea to tell the tale. -</p> -<p>The “Mongol civilization,” so-called, seems to have had little influence on Corea. -The mighty empire of Genghis soon broke into many fragments. The vast fabric of his -government melted <span class="corr" id="xd31e2341" title="Source: ike">like</span> a sand house before an incoming wave, and that wave receding left scarcely a sediment -recognizable on the polity or social life of Corea. Marco Polo in his book hardly -mentions the country, though describing Zipangu or Japan quite fully. One evil effect -of their forced assistance given to the Mongols, was that the hatred of the Japanese -and Coreans for each other was mutually intensified. After the Mongolian invasion -begins that series of piratical raids on their coast and robbery of their vessels -at sea, by Japanese adventurers, that made navigation beyond sight of land and ship-building -among the Coreans almost a lost art. -</p> -<p>The centuries following the Mongol invasion were periods of anarchy and civil war -in Japan, and the central government authority being weak the pirates could not be -controlled. Building or stealing ships, bands of Japanese sailors or ex-soldiers put -to sea, capturing Corean boats, junks, and surf-rafts. Landing, they harried the shores -and robbed and murdered the defenceless people. Growing bolder, the marauders sailed -into the Yellow Sea and landed even in China and in Liao Tung. They kept whole towns -and cities in terror, and a chain of coast forts had to be built in Shan-tung to defend -that province. -</p> -<p>The fire-signals which, in the old days of “the Three Kingdoms,” had flashed upon -the headlands to warn of danger seaward, were now made a national service. The system -was perfected so as to converge at the capital, Sunto, and give notice of danger from -any point on the coast. By this means better protection against the sea-rovers was -secured. -</p> -<p>All this evil experience with the piratical Japanese of the middle ages has left its -impress on the language of the Coreans. From this period, perhaps even long before -it, date those words <span class="pageNum" id="pb75">[<a href="#pb75">75</a>]</span>of sinister omen of which we give but one or two examples which have the prefix <i>wai</i> (Japan) in them. A <i>wai-kol</i>, a huge, fierce man, of gigantic aspect, with a bad head, though perhaps with good -heart, a kind of ogre, is a Japanese <i>kol</i> or creature. A destructive wind or typhoon is a Japanese wind. As western Christendom -for centuries uttered their fears of the Norse pirates, “From the fury of the Northmen, -Good Lord, deliver us,” so the Korai people, along the coast, for many generations -offered up constant petition to their gods for protection against these Northmen of -the Pacific. -</p> -<p></p> -<div class="figure p075width" id="p075"><img src="images/p075.jpg" alt="Two-Masted Corean Vessel (from a Photograph taken in 1871)." width="700" height="607"><p class="figureHead">Two-Masted Corean Vessel (from a Photograph taken in 1871).</p> -</div><p> -</p> -<p>This chronic danger from Japanese pirates, which Korai and Chō-sen endured for a period -nearly as extended as that of England from the Northmen, is one of the causes that -have contributed to make the natives dread the sea as a path for enemies, and in Corea -we see the strange anomaly of a people more than semi-civilized whose wretched boats -scarcely go beyond tide-water. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb76">[<a href="#pb76">76</a>]</span></p> -</div> -<div class="footnotes"> -<hr class="fnsep"> -<div class="footnote-body"> -<div class="fndiv" id="xd31e2310"> -<p class="footnote"><span class="fnlabel"><a class="noteRef" href="#xd31e2310src">1</a></span> The Mikado’s Empire, Chapters XIII. and XIV. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd31e2310src" title="Return to note 1 in text.">↑</a></p> -</div> -<div class="fndiv" id="xd31e2315"> -<p class="footnote"><span class="fnlabel"><a class="noteRef" href="#xd31e2315src">2</a></span> The Identity of the Great Conqueror, Genghis Khan, with the Japanese Hero Yoshitsuné, -by K. Suyematz of Japan. London, 1879. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd31e2315src" title="Return to note 2 in text.">↑</a></p> -</div> -<div class="fndiv" id="xd31e2323"> -<p class="footnote"><span class="fnlabel"><a class="noteRef" href="#xd31e2323src">3</a></span> See Howorth’s History of the Mongols, London, 1876. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd31e2323src" title="Return to note 3 in text.">↑</a></p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch11" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#xd31e922">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="label">CHAPTER XI.</h2> -<h2 class="main">NEW CHŌ-SEN.</h2> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="first">It will be remembered that the first Chinese settler and civilizer of Corea, Ki Tsze, -gave it the name of Chō-sen. Coming from violence and war, to a land of peace which -lay eastward of his old home, Ki Tsze selected for his new dwelling-place a name at -once expressive of its outward position and his own inward emotions—Chō-sen, or Morning -Calm. -</p> -<p>For eleven centuries a part of Manchuria, including, as the Coreans believe, the northern -half of the peninsula, bore this name. From the Christian era until the tenth century, -the names of the three kingdoms, Shinra, Hiaksai, and Kokorai, or Korai, express the -divided political condition of the country. On the fall of these petty states, the -united peninsula was called Korai. Korai existed from <span class="asc">A.D.</span> 934 until <span class="asc">A.D.</span> 1392, when the ancient name of Chō-sen was restored. Though the Coreans often speak -of their country as Korai (Gauli, or Gori), it is as the English speak of Britain—with -a patriotic feeling rather than for accuracy. Chō-sen is still the official and popular -designation of the country. This name is at once the oldest and the newest. -</p> -<p>The first bestowal of this name on the peninsula was in poetic mood, and was the symbol -of a peaceful triumph. The second gift of the name was the index of a political revolution -not unaccompanied with bloodshed. The latter days of the dynasty founded by Wang were -marked by licentiousness and effeminacy in the palace, and misrule in the country. -The people hated the cruelties of their monarch, the thirty-second of his line, and -longed for a deliverer. Such a one was Ni Taijo (Japanese, Ri Seiki), who was born -in the region of Broughton’s Bay, in the Ham-kiung province. It is said of him that -from his youth he surpassed all others in virtue, intelligence, and skill in manly -exercises. He was especially fond of hunting with the falcon. -</p> -<p>One day, while in the woods, his favorite bird, in pursuing its <span class="pageNum" id="pb77">[<a href="#pb77">77</a>]</span>quarry, flew so far ahead that it was lost to the sight of its master. Hastening after -it the young man espied a shrine at the roadside into which he saw his hawk fly. Entering, -he found within a hermit priest. Awed and abashed at the weird presence of the white-bearded -sage, the lad for a moment was speechless; but the old man, addressing him, said: -“What benefit is it for a youth of your abilities to be seeking a stray falcon? A -throne is a richer prize. Betake yourself at once to the capital.” -</p> -<p>Acting upon the hint thus given him, and leaving the falcon behind, Taijo wended his -way westward to Sunto, and entered the military service of the king. He soon made -his mark and rapidly rose to high command, until he became lieutenant-general of the -whole army. He married and reared children, and through the espousal of his daughter -by the king, became father-in-law to his sovereign. -</p> -<p>The influence of Taijo was now immense. While with his soldierly abilities he won -the enthusiastic regard of the army, his popularity with the people rested solely -on his virtues. Possessed of such influence with the court, the soldiers, and the -country at large, he endeavored to reform the abuse of power and to curb the cruelties -of the king. Even to give advice to a despot is an act of bravery, but Taijo dared -to do it again and again. The king, however, refused to follow the counsel of his -father-in-law or to reform abuses. He thus daily increased the odium in which he was -held by his subjects. -</p> -<p>Such was the state of affairs toward the end of the fourteenth century, when everything -was ripe for revolution. -</p> -<p>In China, great events, destined to influence “the little kingdom,” were taking place. -The Mongol dynasty, even after the breaking up of the empire founded by Genghis Khan, -still held the dragon throne; but during the later years of their reign, when harassed -by enemies at home, Corea was neglected and her tribute remained unpaid. A spasmodic -attempt to resubdue the lapsed vassal, and make Corea a Mongol castle of refuge from -impending doom, was ruined by the energy and valor of Ni Taijo. The would-be invaders -were driven back. The last Mongol emperor fell in 1341, and the native Ming, or “Bright,” -dynasty came into power, and in 1368 was firmly established. -</p> -<p>Their envoys being sent to Corea demanded pledges of vassalage. The king neglected, -finally refused, and ordered fresh levies to be made to resist the impending invasion -of the Chinese. In <span class="pageNum" id="pb78">[<a href="#pb78">78</a>]</span>this time of gloom and bitterness against their own monarch, the army contained but -a pitifully small number of men who could be depended on to fight the overwhelming -host of the Ming veterans. Taijo, in an address to his followers, thus spoke to them: -</p> -<p>“Although the order from the king must be obeyed, yet the attack upon the Ming soldiers, -with so small an army as ours, is like casting an egg against a rock, and no one of -the army will return alive. I do not tell you this from any fear of death, but our -king is too haughty. He does not heed our advice. He has ordered out the army suddenly -without cause, paying no attention to the suffering which wives and children of the -soldiers must undergo. This is a thing I cannot bear. Let us go back to the capital -and the responsibility shall fall on my shoulders alone.” -</p> -<p>Thereupon the captains and soldiers being impressed with the purity of their leader’s -motives, and admiring his courage, resolved to obey his orders and not the king’s. -Arriving at Sunto, he promptly took measures to depose the king, who was sent to Kang-wa, -the island so famous in modern as in ancient and mediæval history. -</p> -<p>The king’s wrath was very great, and he intrigued to avenge himself. His plot was -made known, by one of his retainers, to Taijo, who, by a counter-movement, put forth -the last radical measure which, in Chinese Asia means, for a private person, disinheritance; -for a king, deposition; and for a royal line, extinction. This act was the removal -of the tablets of the king’s ancestors from their shrine, and the issue of an order -forbidding further continuance of sacrifice to them. This Corean and Chinese method -of clapping the extinguisher upon a whole dynasty was no sooner ordered than duly -executed. -</p> -<p>Ni Taijo was now made king, to the great delight of the people. He sent an embassy -to Nanking to notify the Ming emperor of affairs in the “outpost state,” to tender -his loyal vassalage, to seek the imperial approval of his acts, and to beg his investiture -as sovereign. This was graciously granted. The ancient name of Chō-sen was revived, -and at the petitioner’s request conferred upon the country by the emperor, who profited -by this occasion to enforce upon the Coreans his calendar and chronology—the reception -of these being in itself alone tantamount to a sufficient declaration of fealty. Friendship -being now fully established with the Mings, the king of Chō-sen sent a number of youths, -sons of his nobles, to Nanking to study in the imperial Chinese college. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb79">[<a href="#pb79">79</a>]</span> -</p> -<p></p> -<div class="figure p079width" id="p079"><img src="images/p079.jpg" alt="The Walls of Seoul (from a Photograph, 1876)." width="702" height="610"><p class="figureHead">The Walls of Seoul (from a Photograph, 1876).</p> -</div><p> -</p> -<p>The dynasty thus established is still the reigning family in Corea, though the direct -line came to an end in 1864. The Coreans in their treaty with Japan, in 1876, dated -the document according to the 484th year of Chō-sen, reckoning from the accession -of Ni Taijo to the throne. One of the first acts of the new dynasty was to make a -change in the location of the national capital. The new dynasty made choice of the -city of Han Yang, situated on the Han River, about fifty miles from its mouth. The -king enlarged the fortifications, enclosed the city with a wall of masonry of great -extent, extending over the adjacent hills and valleys. On this wall was a rampart -pierced with port-holes for archers and over the streams were built arches of stone. -He organized the administrative system which, with slight modification, is still in -force at the present time. The city being well situated, soon grew in extent, and -hence became the <i>seoul</i> or capital (pronounced <span class="pageNum" id="pb80">[<a href="#pb80">80</a>]</span>by the Chinese <i>king</i>, as in Nanking and Peking, and the Japanese <i>kio</i>, as in Kiōto and Tōkiō). He also re-divided the kingdom into eight <i>dō</i> or provinces. This division still maintains. The names, formed each of two Chinese -characters joined to that of <i>dō</i> (circuit or province), and approximate meanings are given below.<a class="noteRef" id="xd31e2416src" href="#xd31e2416">1</a> With such names of bright omen, “the eight provinces” entered upon an era of peace -and flourishing prosperity. The people found out that something more than a change -of masters was meant by the removal of the capital to a more central situation. Vigorous -reforms were carried out, and changes were made, not only in political administration, -but in social life, and even in religion. In all these the influence of the China -of the Ming emperors is most manifest. -</p> -<p>Buddhism, which had penetrated into every part of the country, and had become, in -a measure, at least, the religion of the state, was now set aside and disestablished. -The Confucian ethics and the doctrines of the Chinese sages were not only more diligently -studied and propagated under royal patronage, but were incorporated into the religion -of the state. From the early part of the fifteenth century, Confucianism flourished -until it reached the point of bigotry and intolerance; so that when Christianity was -discovered by the magistrates to be existing among the people, it was put under the -band of extirpation, and its followers thought worthy of death. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb81">[<a href="#pb81">81</a>]</span> -</p> -<p></p> -<div class="figure p081width" id="p081"><img src="images/p081.jpg" alt="Magistrate and Servant." width="487" height="720"><p class="figureHead">Magistrate and Servant.</p> -</div><p> -<span class="pageNum" id="pb82">[<a href="#pb82">82</a>]</span></p> -<p>Whatever may have been the motive for supplanting Buddhism, whether from sincere conviction -of the paramount truth of the ancient ethics, or a desire to closely imitate the Middle -Kingdom in everything, even in religion, or to obtain easy and great wealth by confiscating -the monastery and temple lands, it is certain that the change was sweeping, radical, -and thorough. All observers testify that the cult of Shaka in Corea is almost a shadow. -On the other hand, in many cities throughout the land, are buildings and halls erected -and maintained by the government, in which sit in honor the statues of Confucius and -his greatest disciples. -</p> -<p>One great measure that tended to strengthen and make popular the new religious establishment, -to weaken the old faith, to give strength and unity to the new government, to foster -education and make the Corean literary classes what they are to-day—critical scholars -in Chinese—was what Americans would call “civil service reform.” Appointment to office -on the basis of merit, as shown in the literary examinations, was made the rule. Modelled -closely upon the Chinese system, three grades of examinations were appointed, and -three degrees settled. All candidates for military or civil rank and office must possess -diplomas, granted by the royal or provincial examiners, before appointment could be -made or salary begun. The system, which is still in vogue, is more fully described -in the chapter on education. -</p> -<p>Among the changes in the fashion of social life, introduced under the Ni dynasty, -was the adoption of the Ming costume. To the Chinese of to-day the Corean dress and -coiffure, as seen in Peking, are subjects for curiosity and merriment. The lack of -a long queue, and the very different cut, form, and general appearance of these eastern -strangers, strike the eye of mandarin and street laborer alike, very much as a gentleman -in knee-breeches, cocked hat, and peruke, or the peasant costumes at Castle Garden, -appear to a New Yorker, stepping from the elevated railway, on Broadway. -</p> -<p>Yet from the fourteenth to the seventeenth century, the Chinese gentleman dressed -like the Corean of to-day, and the mandarin of Canton or Nanking was as innocent of -the Tartar hair-tail as is the citizen of Seoul. The Coreans simply adhere to the -fashions prevalent during the Ming era. The Chinese, in the matter of garb, however -loath foreigners may be to credit it, are more progressive than their Corean neighbors. -</p> -<p>To the house of Ni belongs also the greater honor of abolishing <span class="pageNum" id="pb83">[<a href="#pb83">83</a>]</span>at least two cruel customs which had their roots in superstition. Heretofore the same -rites which were so long in vogue in Japan, traces of which were noticed even down -to the seventeenth century, held unchallenged sway in Corea. <i>Ko-rai-chang</i>, though not fully known in its details, was the habit of burying old men alive. <i>In-chei</i> was the offering up of human sacrifices, presumably to the gods of the mountains -and the sea. Both of these classes of rites, at once superstitious and horrible, were -anciently very frequent; nor was Buddhism able to utterly abolish them. In the latter -case, they choked the victims to death, and then threw them into the sea. The island -of Chansan was especially noted as the place of propitiation to the gods of the sea. -</p> -<p>The first successors of the founder of the house of Ni held great power, which they -used for the good of the people, and hence enjoyed great popularity. The first after -Taijo reigned two years, from 1398 to 1400. Hetai-jong, who came after him, ruled -eighteen years, and among other benefits conferred, established the <i>Sin-mun-ko</i>, or box for the reception of petitions addressed directly to the king. Into this -coffer, complaints and prayers from the people could lawfully and easily be dropped. -Though still kept before the gate of the royal palace in Seoul, it is stated that -access to it is now difficult. It seems to exist more in name than in fact. Among -the first diplomatic acts of King Hetai-jong was to unite with the Chinese emperor, -in a complaint to the mikado of Japan, against the buccaneers, whom the authorities -of the latter country were unable to control. Hence the remonstrance was only partially -successful, and the evil, which was aggravated by Corean renegades acting as pilots, -grew beyond all bounds. These rascals made a lucrative living by betraying their own -countrymen. -</p> -<p>Siei-jong, who succeeded to the throne on the death of his father, Hetai-jong, enjoyed -a long reign of thirty-two years, during which the fortifications of the capital were -added to and strengthened. The Manchius beyond the Ever-white Mountains were then -beginning to rise in power, and Liao Tung was disturbed by the raids of tribes from -Mongolia, which the Ming generals were unable to suppress. When the fighting took -place within fifty miles of her own boundary river, Chō-sen became alarmed, and looked -to the defence of her own frontier and capital. In 1450, on the death of the king, -who “in time of peace prepared for war,” Mun-jong, his son, succeeded to royal power. -As usual <span class="pageNum" id="pb84">[<a href="#pb84">84</a>]</span>on the accession of a new sovereign, a Chinese ambassador was despatched from Peking, -which had been the Ming capital since 1614, to Seoul, to confer the imperial patent -of investiture. This dignitary, on his return, wrote a book recounting his travels, -under the title of “Memorandum concerning the Affairs of Chō-sen.” According to this -writer, the military frontier of Corea at that time was at the Eastern Mountain Barrier, -a few miles northwest of the present Border Gate. Palladius, the Russian writer, also -states that, during the Ming dynasty, three grades of fortresses were erected on the -territory between the Great Wall and the Yalu River, “to guard against the attacks -of the Coreans.” -</p> -<p>It is more in accordance with the facts to suppose that the Chinese erected these -fortifications to guard against invasion from the Manchius and other northern tribes -that were ravaging Liao Tung, rather than against the Coreans. These defences did -not avail to keep back the invasion which came a generation or two later, and “the -Corean frontier,” which the Chinese traveller, in 1450, found much further west than -even the present “wall of stakes,” shows that the neutral territory was then already -established, and larger than it now is. Of this strip of rich forest and ginseng land, -with many well-watered and arable valleys, once cultivated and populous, but since -the fifteenth century desolate, we shall hear again. In Chinese atlases the space -is blank, with not one village marked where, until the removal by the Chinese government -of the inhabitants westward, there was a population of 300,000 souls. The depopulation -of this large area of fertile soil was simply a Chinese measure of military necessity, -which compelled her friendly ally Chō-sen, for her own safety, to post sentinels as -far west of her boundary river as the Eastern Mountain Barrier, described by the imperial -envoy in 1450. -</p> -<p>The century which saw America discovered in the west, was that of Japan’s greatest -activity on the sea. On every coast within their reach, from Tartary to Tonquin, and -from Luzon to Siam, these bold marauders were known and feared. The Chinese learned -to bitterly regret the day when the magnetic needle, invented by themselves, got into -the hands of these daring islanders. The wounded eagle that felt the shaft, which -had been feathered from his own plumes, was not more to be pitied than the Chinese -people that saw the Japanese craft steering across the Yellow Sea to ravage and ruin -their cities, guided by the compass bought in China. They not only harried the coasts, -but went far <span class="pageNum" id="pb85">[<a href="#pb85">85</a>]</span>up the rivers. In 1523, they landed even at Ningpo, and in the fight the chief mandarin -of the city was killed. -</p> -<p>Yet, with the exception of incursions of these pirates, Chō-sen enjoyed the sweets -of peace, and two centuries slipped away in Morning Calm. The foreign vessels from -Europe which first, in 1530, touched at the province of Bungo, in Southern Japan, -may possibly have visited some part of the Corean shores. Between 1540 and 1546 four -arrivals of “black ships” from Portugal, are known to have called at points in Japan. -It was from these the Japanese learned how to make the gunpowder and firearms which, -before the close of the century, were to be used with such deadly effect in Corea. -</p> -<p></p> -<div class="figure p085width" id="p085"><img src="images/p085.png" alt="The Neutral Territory (from a Chinese Atlas)." width="677" height="674"><p class="figureHead">The Neutral Territory (from a Chinese Atlas).</p> -</div><p> -</p> -<p>Now came back to Europe accounts of China and Japan—which were found to be the old -Kathay, and Zipangu of Polo and the Franciscans<span class="pageNum" id="pb86">[<a href="#pb86">86</a>]</span>—and of “Coria,” which Polo had barely mentioned. It was from the Portuguese, that -Europe first learned of this middle land between the mighty domain of the Mings, and -the empire in the sea. Stirred by the spirit of adventure and enterprise, and unwilling -that the Iberian peninsulars should gain all the glory, an English “Society for the -Discovery of Unknown Lands” was formed in 1555. A voyage was made as far as Novaia -Zemlia and Weigatz, but neither Corea nor Cathay was reached. Other attempts to find -a northeast passage to India failed, and Asia remained uncircumnavigated until our -own and <span class="corr" id="xd31e2554" title="Source: Nordensköld’s">Nordenskjöld’s</span> day. The other attempts to discover a northwest passage to China around the imaginary -cape, in which North America was supposed to terminate, and through the equally fictitious -straits of Anian, resulted in the discoveries of the Cabots, and of Hudson and Frobisher—of -the American continent from the Hudson River to Greenland, but the way to China lay -still around Africa. -</p> -<p>From Japan, the only possibility of danger during these two centuries was likely to -come. In the north, west, and south, on the main land, hung the banners of the Ming -emperors of China, and, as the tribute enforced was very light, the protection of -her great neighbor was worth to Chō-sen far more than the presents she gave. From -China there was nothing to fear. -</p> -<p>At first the new dynasty sent ships, embassies, and presents regularly to Japan, which -were duly received, yet not at the mikado’s palace in Kiōto, but at the shō-gun’s -court at Kamakura, twelve miles from the site of the modern Japanese capital, Tōkiō. -But as the Ashikaga family became effeminate in life, their power waned, and rival -chiefs started up all over the country. Clan fights and chronic intestine war became -the rule in Japan. Only small areas of territory were governed from Kamakura, while -the mikado became the tool and prey of rival daimiōs. One of these petty rulers held -Tsushima, and traded at a settlement on the Corean coast called Fusan, by means of -which some intercourse was kept up between the two countries. The Japanese government -had always made use of Tsushima in its communications with the Coreans, and the agency -at Fusan was composed almost exclusively of retainers of the feudal lord of this island. -The journey by land and sea from Seoul to Kamakura, often consumed two or three months, -and with civil wars inland and piracy on the water, intercourse between the two countries -became less and less. The last embassy from Seoul was sent in 1460, but after that, -<span class="pageNum" id="pb87">[<a href="#pb87">87</a>]</span>owing to continued intestine war, the absence of the Coreans was not noticed by the -Ashikagas, and as the Tsushima men purposely kept their customers ignorant of the -weakness of their rulers at Kamakura and Kiōto, lest the ancient vassals should cease -to fear their old master, the Coreans remained in profound ignorance of the real state -of affairs in Japan. As they were never summoned, so they never came. Giving themselves -no further anxiety concerning the matter, they rejoiced that such disagreeable duties -were no longer incumbent upon them. It is even said in Corean histories that their -government took the offensive, and under the reign of the king Chung-jong (1506–1544) -captured Tsushima and several other Japanese islands, formerly tributary to Corea. -Whatever fraction of truth there may be in this assertion, it is certain that Japan -afterward took ample revenge on the score both of neglect and of reprisal. -</p> -<p>So, under the idea that peace was to last forever, and the morning calm never to know -an evening storm, the nation relaxed all vigilance. Expecting no danger from the east, -the military resources were neglected, the army was disorganized, and the castles -were allowed to dilapidate into ruin. The moats filled and became shallow ditches, -choked with vegetation, the walls and ramparts crumbled piecemeal, and the barracks -stood roofless. As peace wore sweeter charms, and as war seemed less and less probable, -so did all soldierly duties become more and more irksome. The militia system was changed -for the worse. The enrolled men, instead of being called out for muster at assigned -camps, and trained to field duty and the actual evolutions of war, were allowed to -assemble at local meetings to perform only holiday movements. The muster rolls were -full of thousands of names, but off paper the army of Corea was a phantom. The people, -dismissing all thought of possibility of war, gave themselves no concern, leaving -the matter to the army officials, who drew pay as though in actual war. They, in turn, -devoted themselves to dissipation, carousing, and sensual indulgence. It was while -the country was in such a condition that the summons of Japan’s greatest conqueror -came to them and the Coreans learned, for the first time, of the fall of Ashikaga, -and the temper of their new master. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb88">[<a href="#pb88">88</a>]</span></p> -</div> -<div class="footnotes"> -<hr class="fnsep"> -<div class="footnote-body"> -<div class="fndiv" id="xd31e2416"> -<p class="footnote"><span class="fnlabel"><a class="noteRef" href="#xd31e2416src">1</a></span> Beginning at the most northern and eastern, and following the sea line south around -up to the northeast, they are: -</p> -<div class="table"> -<table> -<thead> -<tr class="label"> -<td class="cellHeadLeft cellHeadTop cellHeadBottom"> </td> -<td class="cellHeadTop cellHeadBottom"><span class="sc">Corean.</span> </td> -<td class="cellHeadTop cellHeadBottom"><span class="sc">Japanese.</span> </td> -<td class="cellHeadRight cellHeadTop cellHeadBottom"><span class="sc">English.</span> -</td> -</tr> -</thead> -<tbody> -<tr> -<td class="cellLeft">1. </td> -<td>Ham-kiung, or </td> -<td>Kan-kiō dō. </td> -<td class="cellRight">Perfect Mirror, or Complete View Province.</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="cellLeft">2. </td> -<td>Kang-wen, or </td> -<td>Ko-gen dō. </td> -<td class="cellRight">Bay Meadow Province.</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="cellLeft">3. </td> -<td>Kiung-sang, or </td> -<td>Kei-shō dō. </td> -<td class="cellRight">Respectful Congratulation Province.</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="cellLeft">4. </td> -<td>Julla, or </td> -<td>Zen-ra dō. </td> -<td class="cellRight">Completed Network Province.</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="cellLeft">5. </td> -<td>Chung-chong, or </td> -<td>Chiu-sei dō. </td> -<td class="cellRight">Serene Loyalty Province.</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="cellLeft">6. </td> -<td>Kiung-kei, or </td> -<td>Kei-ki dō. </td> -<td class="cellRight">The Capital Circuit, or Home Province.</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="cellLeft">7. </td> -<td>Whang-hai, or </td> -<td>Ko-kai dō. </td> -<td class="cellRight">Yellow Sea Province.</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="cellLeft cellBottom">8. </td> -<td class="cellBottom">Ping-an, or </td> -<td class="cellBottom">Hei-an dō </td> -<td class="cellRight cellBottom">Peace and Quiet Province.</td> -</tr> -</tbody> -</table> -</div><p> -</p> -<p class="footnote cont">In this table we have given the names in English which approximate the sounds of the -Chinese characters, with which names of the provinces are written, and as they are -heard to-day in Chō-sen. The modern Coreans use the modern Chinese sounds of the characters, -while the Japanese cling to the ancient Chinese pronunciation of the same characters -as they received them through Hiaksai and Shinra, eleven or twelve centuries ago. -The old pure Corean sounds were Teru-ra tai for Zen-ra dō, Tsiku-shaku tai for Chiu-sei -dō, Keku-shaku tai for Kei-ki dō, etc. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd31e2416src" title="Return to note 1 in text.">↑</a></p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch12" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#xd31e930">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="label">CHAPTER XII.</h2> -<h2 class="main">EVENTS LEADING TO THE JAPANESE INVASION.</h2> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="first">China and Japan are to each other as England and the United States. The staid Chinaman -looks at the lively Japanese with feelings similar to those of John Bull to his American -“cousin.” Though as radically different in blood, language, and temperament as are -the Germans and French, they are enough alike to find food for mutual jealousy. They -discover ground for irritation in causes, which, between nations more distant from -each other, would stir up no feeling whatever. China considers Japan a young, vain, -and boasting stripling, whose attitude ought ever to be that of the pupil to the teacher, -or the child to the father. Japan, on the contrary, considering China as an old fogy, -far behind the age, decayed in constitution and fortune alike, and more than ready -for the grave, resents all dictation or assumption of superiority. Even before their -adoption of the forces of occidental civilization in this nineteenth century, something -of this haughty contempt for China influenced the Japanese mind. Japan ever refused -to become vassal or tributary to China, and the memory of one of her military usurpers, -who accepted the honorary title of Nihon-O, or King of Japan, from the Chinese Emperor, -is to this day loaded with increasing execration. It has ever been the practice of -the Japanese court and people cheerfully to heap upon their mikado all the honors, -titles, poetical and divine appellations which belong also to the Chinese emperor. -</p> -<p>To conquer or humble their mighty neighbor, to cross their slender swords of divine -temper with the clumsy blades of the continental braves, has been the ambition of -more than one Japanese captain. But Hidéyoshi alone is the one hero in Japanese annals -who actually made the attempt. -</p> -<p>As the Mongol conquerors issuing from China had used Corea as their point of departure -to invade Japan, so Hidéyoshi resolved to make the peninsula the road for his armies -into China. After <span class="pageNum" id="pb89">[<a href="#pb89">89</a>]</span>two centuries of anarchy in Japan, he followed up the work which Nobunaga had begun -until the proudest daimiō had felt the weight of his arm, and the empire was at peace. -</p> -<p>Yet, although receiving homage and congratulations from his feudal vassals, once proud -princes, Hidéyoshi was irritated that Chō-sen, which he, with all Japanese, held to -be a tributary province, failed to send like greetings. Since, to the Ashikagas, she -had despatched tribute and embassies, he was incensed that similar honors were not -awarded to him, though, for over a century, all official relations between the two -countries had ceased. -</p> -<p>On the 31st day of July, 1585, Hidéyoshi was made Kuambaku, or Regent, and to celebrate -his elevation to this, the highest office to which a subject of the mikado’s could -aspire, he shortly afterward gave a great feast in Kiōto, and proclaimed holiday throughout -the empire. This feast was graced by the presence of his highest feudatories, lords, -and captains, court nobles and palace ladies in their richest robes. Among others -was one Yasuhiro, a retainer of the lord of Tsushima. Hidéyoshi’s memory had been -refreshed by his having had read to him, from the ancient chronicles, the account -of Jingu Kōgō’s conquests in the second century. He announced to his captains that, -though Chō-sen was from ancient times tributary to Japan, yet of late years her envoys -had failed to make visits or to send tribute. He then appointed Yasuhiro to proceed -to Seoul, and remind the king and court of their duty. -</p> -<p>The Japanese envoy was a bluff old campaigner, very tall, and of commanding mien. -His hair and beard had long since turned white under years and the hardships of war. -His conduct was that of a man accustomed to command and to instant obedience, and -to expect victory more by brute courage than by address. On his journey to Seoul he -demanded the best rooms in the hotels, and annoyed even the people of rank and importance -with haughty and strange questions. He even laughed at and made sarcastic remarks -about the soldiers and their weapons. This conduct, so different from that of previous -envoys, greatly surprised the Corean officials. Heretofore, when a Japanese officer -came to Fusan, native troops escorted him from Fusan to Seoul, overawing him by their -fierceness and insolence. Yasuhiro, accustomed to constant war under Hidéyoshi’s gourd-banner, -rode calmly on his horse, and, amid the lines of lances drawn up as a guard of honor, -spoke to his followers in a loud voice, telling them <span class="pageNum" id="pb90">[<a href="#pb90">90</a>]</span>to watch the escort and note any incivility. In a certain village he joked with a -Corean soldier about his spear, saying, with a pun, that it was too short and unfit -for use. At this, all the Japanese laughed out loud. The Coreans could not understand -the language, but hearing the laugh were angry and surprised at such boldness. At -another town he insulted an aged official who was entertaining him, by remarking to -his own men that his hair and that of the Japanese grew gray by years, or by war and -manly hardships; “but what,” cried he, “has turned this man’s hair gray who has lived -all his life amid music and dancing?” This sarcastic fling, at premature and sensual -old age, stung the official so that he became speechless with rage. At the capital, -credentials were presented and a feast given, at which female musicians sang and wine -flowed. During the banquet, when all were well drunk, the old hero pulled out a gourd -full of pepper seeds and began to hand them around. The singing-girls and servants -grabbed them, and a disgraceful scuffle began. This was what Yasuhiro wanted. Highly -disgusted at their greedy behavior, he returned to his quarters and poured out a tirade -of abuse about the manners of the people, which his Corean interpreter duly retailed -to his superiors. Yasuhiro made up his mind that the country was in no way prepared -for invasion; the martial spirit of the people was very low, and the habits of dissipation -and profligacy among them had sapped the vigor of the men. -</p> -<p>To the offensive conduct of the envoy was added the irritation produced by the language -of Hidéyoshi’s summons; for in his letter he had used the imperial form of address, -“we,” the plural of majesty. Yasuhiro asked for a reply to these letters, that he -might return speedily to Japan. There was none given him, and the Coreans, pleading -the flimsy excuse of the difficulty of the voyage, refused to send an embassy to Japan. -</p> -<p>Hidéyoshi was very angry at the utter failure of Yasuhiro’s mission. He argued that -for an envoy to be content with such an answer was sure proof that he favored the -Coreans. Some of Yasuhiro’s ancestors, being daimiōs of Tsushima, had served as envoys -to Chō-sen, and had enjoyed a monopoly of the lucrative commerce, and even held office -under the Corean government. Reflecting on these things, Hidéyoshi commanded Yasuhiro -and all his family to be put to death. -</p> -<p>He then despatched a second envoy, named Yoshitoshi, himself the daimiō of Tsu Island, -who took with him a favorite retainer, <span class="pageNum" id="pb91">[<a href="#pb91">91</a>]</span>and a priest, named Genshō, as his secretary. They reached Seoul in safety, and, after -the formal banquet, demanded the despatch of an envoy to Japan. The Corean dignitaries -did not reply at once, but unofficially sent word, through the landlord of the hotel, -that they would be glad to agree to the demand if the Japanese would send back the -renegades who piloted the Japanese pirates in their raids upon the Corean coasts. -Thereupon, Yoshitoshi despatched one of his suite to Japan. With amazing promptness -he collected the outlaws, fourteen in number, and produced them in Seoul. These traitors, -after confessing their crime, were led out by the executioners and their heads knocked -off. Meanwhile, having tranquillized “all under Heaven” (Japan), even to Yezo and -the Ainos, and finding nothing “within the four seas” worth capturing, Hidéyoshi cast -his eyes southward to the little kingdom well named Riu Kiu, or the Sleepy Dragon -without horns. The people of these islands, called Loo Choo, on old maps, are true -Japanese in origin, language, and dynasty. They speak a dialect kindred to that of -Satsuma, and their first historical ruler was Sunten, a descendant of Tamétomo, who -fled from Japan in the twelfth century. Of the population of 120,000 people, one-tenth -were of the official class, who lived from the public granaries. Saving all expense -in war equipment, and warding off danger from the two great powers between which they -lay, they had kept the good will of either by making their country act the part of -the ass which crouches down between two burdens. They made presents to both, acknowledging -Japan as their father, and China as their mother. From early times they had sent tribute-laden -junks to Ningpo, and had introduced the Chinese classics, and social and political -customs. When the Ming dynasty came into power, the Chinese monarch bestowed on the -Prince of Riu Kiu a silver seal, and a name for his country, which meant “hanging -balls,” a reference to the fact that their island chain hung like a string of tassels -on the skirt of China. Another of their ancient native names was Okinawa, or “long -rope,” which stretches as a cable between Japan and Formosa. Sugar and rice are the -chief products. Hidéyoshi, wishing to possess this group of isles as an ally against -China, and acting on the principle of baiting with a sprat in order to catch a mackerel, -sent word to Riu Kiu to pay tribute hereafter only to him. -</p> -<p>The young king, fearing the wrath of the mighty lord of Nippon, sent a priest as his -envoy, and a vessel laden with tribute <span class="pageNum" id="pb92">[<a href="#pb92">92</a>]</span>offerings. Arriving in the presence of the august parvenu, the priest found himself -most graciously received. Hidéyoshi entered into a personal conversation with the -bonze, and set forth the benefits of Riu Kiu’s adherence to Japan alone, and her ceasing -to send tribute to China. At the same time he gave the priest clearly to understand -that, willing or unwilling, the little kingdom was to be annexed to the mikado’s empire. -When the priest returned to Riu Kiu and gave the information to the king, the latter -immediately despatched a vessel to China to inform the government of the designs of -Japan. -</p> -<p>Meanwhile, the court at Seoul, highly gratified with the action of the Japanese government -in the matter of the renegade pilots, gave a banquet to the embassy. Yoshitoshi had -audience of the king, who presented him with a horse from his own stables. An embassy -was chosen which left Seoul, in company with Yoshitoshi and his party, and their musicians -and servants, in April, 1590, and, after a journey and voyage of three months, arrived -at Kiōto during the summer of 1590. At this time Hidéyoshi was absent in Eastern Japan, -not far from the modern city of Tōkiō, besieging Odawara Castle and reducing “the -second Hōjō” family to submission. Arriving at Kiōto in the autumn, he postponed audience -with the Coreans in order to gain time for war preparations, for his heart was set -on conquests beyond sea. -</p> -<p>Finally, after five months had passed, they were accorded an interview. They were -allowed to ride in palanquins under the gateway of the palace without dismounting—a -mark of deference to their high rank—all except nobles of highest grade being compelled -to get out and walk. As usual, their band of musicians accompanied them. -</p> -<p>They report Hidéyoshi as a man of low appearance, but with eyes that shot fire through -their souls. All bowed before him, but his conduct in general was of a very undignified -character. This did not raise him in the estimation of his guests, who had already -discovered his true position, which was that of a subject of the mikado, whose use -of the imperial “we” in his letters was, in their eyes, a preposterous assumption -of authority. They delivered the king’s letter, which was addressed to Hidéyoshi on -terms of an equal as a Koku O (king of a nation, in distinction from the title of -Whang Ti, by which title the Heavenly Ruler, or Emperor—the Mikado of Japan, or the -Emperor of China—is addressed). The letter contained the usual commonplaces of <span class="pageNum" id="pb93">[<a href="#pb93">93</a>]</span>friendly greeting, the names of the envoys, and a reference to the list of accompanying -presents. -</p> -<p>The presents—spoken of in the usual terms of Oriental mock modesty—consisted of two -ponies and fifteen falcons, with harness for bird and beast, rolls of silk, precious -drugs, ink, paper, pens, and twenty magnificent tiger-skins. The interview over, Hidéyoshi -wished the envoys to go home at once. This they declined to do, but, leaving Kiōto, -waited at the port of Sakai. A letter to the king finally reached them, but couched -in so insolent a tone that the ambassadors sent it back several times to be purged. -Even in its improved form it was the blustering threat of a Japanese bully. All this -consumed time, which was just what Hidéyoshi wished. -</p> -<p>Some years before this, some Portuguese trading ships had landed at the island of -Tané, off the south of Japan. The Japanese, for the first time, saw Europeans and -heard their unintelligible language. At first all attempts to understand them were -in vain. A Chinese ship happened to arrive about the same time, on which were some -sailors who knew a little Portuguese, and thus communications were held. The foreigners, -being handsomely treated, gave their hosts some firearms, probably pistols, taught -their use, and how to make powder. These “queer things, able to vomit thunder and -lightning, and emitting an awful smell,” were presented to Shimadzŭ, the daimiō of -Satsuma, who gave them to Hidéyoshi. Among the presents, made in return to Chō-sen, -were several of these new weapons made by Japanese. They were most probably sent as -a hint, like that of the Pequot’s offering of the arrows wrapped in snake-skin. With -them were pheasants, stands of swords and spears, books, rolls of paper, and four -hundred gold <i>koban</i> (a coin worth about $5.00). -</p> -<p>With the returning embassy, Hidéyoshi sent the priest and a former colleague of Yoshitoshi -to Seoul. They were instructed to ask the king to assist Hidéyoshi to renew peaceful -relations between Japan and China. These, owing to the long continued piratical invasions -from Japan, during the anarchy of the Ashikaga, had been suspended for some years -past. -</p> -<p>The peaceful influences of Christianity’s teachings now came between these two pagan -nations, in the mind and person of Yoshitoshi, who had professed the faith of Jesus -as taught by the Roman Catholic missionaries from Portugal, then in Japan. Be this -as it may, Yoshitoshi, who had been in Seoul, and lived in Tsushima, being well acquainted -with the military resources of the three <span class="pageNum" id="pb94">[<a href="#pb94">94</a>]</span>countries, knew that war would result in ruin to Chō-sen, while, in measuring their -swords with China, the Japanese were at fearful odds. Animated by a desire to prevent -bloodshed, he resolved to mediate with the olive branch. He started on an independent -mission, at his own cost, to persuade the Coreans to use their good offices at mediation -between Japan and China, and thus prevent war. Arriving at Fusan, in 1591, he forwarded -his petition to Seoul, and waited in port ten days in hopes of the answer he desired. -But all was in vain. He received only a letter containing a defiant reply to his master’s -bullying letter. In sadness he returned to Kiōto, and reported his ill-success. Surprised -and enraged at the indifference of the Coreans, Hidéyoshi pushed on his war preparations -with new vigor. He resolved to test to its utmost the military strength of Japan, -in order to humble China as well as her vassal. Accustomed to victory under the gourd-banner -in almost every battle during the long series of intestine wars now ended, an army -of seasoned veterans heard joyfully the order to prepare for a campaign beyond sea. -</p> -<p>Hidéyoshi, during this year, nominally resigned the office of Kuambaku, in favor of -his son, and, according to usage, took the title of Taikō, by which name (Taikō Sama) -he is popularly known, and by which we shall refer to him. Among the Coreans, even -of to-day, he is remembered by the title which still inspires their admiration and -terror—Kuambaku. Chinese writers give a grotesque account of Hidéyoshi, one of whose -many names they read as Ping-syew-kye. They call him “the man under a tree,” in reference -to his early nickname of Kinomoto. He is also dubbed “King of Taikō.” The Jesuit missionaries -speak of him in their letters as Quabacundono (His Lordship the Kuambaku), or by one -of his personal names, Faxiba (Hashiba). -</p> -<p>The Coreans were now in a strait. Though under the protectorate of China, they had -been negotiating with a foreign power. How would China like this? Should they keep -the entire matter secret, or should they inform their suzerain of the intended invasion -of China? They finally resolved upon the latter course, and despatched a courier to -Peking. About the same time the messenger from Riu Kiu had landed, and was on his -way with the same tidings. The Riukiuan reached Peking first, and the Corean arrived -only to confirm the news. Yet, in spite of such overwhelming evidence of the designs -of Japan, the colossal “tortoise” could, at first, scarce believe “the bee” would -attempt to sting. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb95">[<a href="#pb95">95</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch13" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#xd31e938">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="label">CHAPTER XIII.</h2> -<h2 class="main">THE INVASION—ON TO SEOUL.</h2> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="first">For the pictures of camps, fleets, the details of armory and commissariat, and all -the pomp and circumstance that make up the bright side of Japanese war preparations -in 1591 and 1592, we are indebted, not only to the Japanese writers, but to those -eye witnesses and excellent “war correspondents,” the Portuguese missionaries then -in Kiushiu, and especially to Friar Louis Frois. He tells us of the amplitude, vigor, -and brilliancy of Taikō’s measures for invasion, and adds that the expenses therefor -greatly burdened the “<span lang="fr">ethniques</span>” or daimiōs who had to pay the cost. Those feudatories, whose domain bordered the -sea, had to furnish a mighty fleet of junks, while to man them, the quota of every -hundred houses of the fishing population was ten sailors. -</p> -<p>The land and naval forces assembled at Nagoya, in Hizen, now called Karatsu, and famous -for being the chief place for the manufacture of Hizen porcelain. Here a superb castle -was built, while huge inns or resting-places were erected all along the road from -Kiōto. The armies gathered here during the war numbered 500,000 men; of whom 150,000 -formed the army of invasion, 60,000 the first reserve, while 100,000 were set apart -as Taikō’s body-guard; the remainder were sailors, servants, camp followers, etc. -</p> -<p>Beside the old veterans were new levies of young soldiers, and a corps of matchlock -men, who afterward did good execution among the Coreans. The possession of this new -and terrible weapon gave the invaders a mighty advantage over their enemies. Though -firearms had been known and manufactured in Japan for a half century, this was the -first time they were used against foreign enemies, or on a large scale. Taikō also -endeavored to hire or buy from the Portuguese two ships of war, so as to use their -artillery; but in this he failed, and the troops were despatched in native-built vessels. -These made a gallant display as they crowded together by hundreds. At the signal, -given by the firing of cannon, <span class="pageNum" id="pb96">[<a href="#pb96">96</a>]</span>the immense fleet hoisted sail and, under a fresh breeze, bore away to the west. -</p> -<p>Their swelling sails, made of long sections of canvass laced together, vertically, -at their edges, from stem to boom (thus differing from the Chinese, which are laced -horizontally), were inscribed with immense crests and the heraldic devices of feudalism, -many feet in diameter. Near the top were cross-wise bands or stripes of black. The -junks of Satsuma could be distinguished by the white cross in a circle; those of Higo -by the broad-banded ring. On one were two crossed arrow-feathers, on others the chess-board, -the “cash” coin and palm-leaves, the butterfly, the cloisonné symbol, the sun, the -fan, etc. Innumerable banners, gay with armorial designs or inscribed with Buddhist -texts, hung on their staves or fluttered gaily as flags and streamers from the mastheads. -Stuck into the back of many of the distinguished veterans, or officers, were the <i>sashi-mono</i>, or bannerets. Kato Kiyomasa, being a strict Buddhist, had for the distinctive blazon -of his back-pennant, and on the banners of his division, the prayer and legend of -his sect, the Nichirenites, “<span class="sc">Namu miyo ho rengé kiō</span>” (Glory to the Holy Lotus, or Glory to the salvation-bringing book of the Holy Law -of Buddha). On the forward deck were ranged heavy shields of timber for the protection -of the archers. These, at close quarters, were to be let down and used as boarding -planks, when the sword, pike, and grappling-hook came into play. Huge tassels, dangling -from the prows like the manes of horses, tossed up and down as the ships rode over -the waves. Each junk had a huge eye painted at the prow, to look out and find the -path in the sea. With the squadron followed hundreds of junks, laden with salt meat, -rice-wine, dried fish, and rice and beans, which formed the staple of the <span class="corr" id="xd31e2634" title="Source: invaders">invaders’</span> commissariat for man and horse. Transport junks, with cargoes of flints, arrows, -ball, powder, wax candles, ship and camp stores, “not forgetting a single thing,” -sailed soon after, as well as the craft containing horses for the cavalry. -</p> -<p>Taikō did not go to Corea himself, being dissuaded by his aged mother. The court also -wished no weaker hand than his to hold the reins of government while the army was -on foreign shores. The men to whom he entrusted the leadership of the expedition, -were Konishi Yukinaga and Kato Kiyomasa. To the former, he presented a fine war horse, -telling him to “gallop over the bearded savages” with it, while to the latter he gave -a battle-flag. Konishi was an impetuous young man, only twenty-three years <span class="pageNum" id="pb97">[<a href="#pb97">97</a>]</span>of age. He was a favorite of Taikō, and sprung like the latter from the common people, -being the son of a medicine dealer. His crest or banner was a huge, stuffed, white -paper bag, such as druggists in Japan use as a shop sign. In this he followed the -example of his august chief, who, despising the brocade banners of the imperial generals, -stuck a gourd on a pole for his colors. For every victory he added another gourd, -until his immense cluster contained as many proofs of victory as there are bamboo -sticks in an umbrella. The “gourd-banner” became the emblem of infallible victory. -Konishi also imitated his master in his tactics—impetuous attack and close following -up of victory. -</p> -<p>Konishi was a Christian, an ardent convert to the faith of the Jesuit fathers, by -whom he had been baptized in 1584. In their writings, they call him “Don Austin”—a -contraction of Augustine. Other Christian lords or daimiōs, who personally led their -troops in the field with Konishi, were Arima, Omura, Amakusa, Bungo, and Tsushima. -The personal name of the latter, a former envoy to Corea, of whom we have read before, -was Yoshitoshi. He was the son-in-law of Konishi. Kuroda, as Mr. Ernest Satow has -shown, is the “Kondera” of the Jesuit writers. -</p> -<p>Kato Kiyomasa was a noble, whose castle seat was at Kumamoto in Higo. From his youth -he had been trained to war, and had a reputation for fierce bravery. It is said that -Kato suggested to Taikō the plan of invading Corea. His crest was a broad-banded circle, -and his favorite weapon was a long lance with but one cross-blade instead of two. -Kato is the “Toronosqui” of the Jesuit fathers, who never weary of loading his memory -with obloquy. This “<i lang="la">vir ter execrandus</i>” was a fierce Buddhist and a bitter foe to Christianity. A large number of fresh -autographic writings had been made by the bonzes in the monasteries expressly for -Kato’s division. The silk pennon, said to have been inscribed by Nichiren himself -and worn by Kato during the invasion, is now in Tōkiō, owned by Katsu Awa, and is -six centuries old. -</p> -<p>With such elements at work between the two commanders, bitterness of religious rivalry, -personal emulation, the desire to earn glory each for himself alone, the contempt -of an old veteran for a young aspirant, harmony and unity of plan were not to be looked -for. Nevertheless, the personal qualities of each general were such as to inspire -his own troops with the highest enthusiasm, and the army sailed away fully confident -of victory. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb98">[<a href="#pb98">98</a>]</span></p> -<p>What were the objects of Taikō in making this war? Evidently his original thought -was to invade and humble China. Then followed the determination to conquer Chō-sen. -Ambition may have led him to rival Ojin Tennō, who, in his mother’s womb, made the -conquest of Shinra, and, as the deified Hachiman, became the Japanese god of war. -Lastly, the Jesuit fathers saw in this expedition a plot to kill off the Christian -leaders in a foreign land, and thus extirpate Christianity in Japan. To ship the Christians -off to a foreign soil to die of wounds or disease, was easier than to massacre them. -They make Taikō a David, and his best generals Uriahs—though Coligny, slain twenty -years before, might have served for a more modern illustration. -</p> -<p>Certain it is that it was during the absence of the Christian leaders that the severest -persecutions at home took place. It is probable, also, that his jealousy of the success -and consequent popularity of the Christian generals created irresolution in Taikō’s -mind, leading him to neglect the proper support of the expedition and thus to bring -about a gigantic failure. -</p> -<p>Finally, we must mention the theory of a Japanese friend, Mr. Egi Takato, who held -that Taikō, having whole armies of unemployed warriors, all jealous of each other, -was compelled, in order to ensure peace in Japan, to find employment for their swords. -His idea was to send them on this distant “frontier service,” and give them such a -taste of home-sickness that peaceful life in Japan would be a desideratum ever afterward. -</p> -<p>The Coreans, by their own acknowledgment, were poorly prepared for a war with the -finest soldiers in Asia, as the Japanese of the sixteenth century certainly were. -Nor had they any leader of ability to direct their efforts. Their king, Sien-jo, the -fifteenth of the house of Ni, who had already reigned twenty-six years, was a man -of no personal importance, addicted entirely to his own pleasures, a drunkard, and -a debauchee. Though the royal proclamation was speedily issued, calling on the people -to fortify their cities, to rebuild the dilapidated castles, and to dig out the moats, -long since choked by mud and vegetation, the people responded so slowly, that few -of the fortresses were found in order when their enemies laid siege to them. Weapons -were plentiful, but there were no firearms, save those presented as curiosities by -the Taikō to the king. There was little or no military organization, except on paper, -while the naval defences were in a sad plight. However, they began to enroll and drill, -to lay up stores <span class="pageNum" id="pb100">[<a href="#pb100">100</a>]</span>of fish and grain for the army, to build ships, to repair their walls, and even to -manufacture rude firearms. -</p> -<p></p> -<div class="figure p099width" id="p099"><img src="images/p099.png" alt="Map of the Japanese Military Operations of 1592." width="512" height="720"><p class="figureHead">Map of the Japanese Military Operations of 1592.</p> -</div><p> -</p> -<p>Yet even the most despondent of the Coreans never dreamed that the Japanese, on their -first arrival, would sweep everything before them like a whirlwind, and enter the -capital within eighteen days after their landing at Fusan. One of the first castles -garrisoned and provisioned was that of Tong-nai, near Fusan. On the morning of May -25, 1592, the sentinels on the coast descried the Japanese fleet of eight hundred -ships, containing the division of Konishi. Before night the invaders had disembarked, -captured Fusan, and laid siege to Tong-nai Castle, which at once surrendered. So sudden -was the attack that the governor of the district, then in the city, was unable to -escape. Konishi, writing a letter to the king, gave it into the hands of the governor, -and made him swear to deliver it safely, promising him unconditional liberty if he -did so. The governor agreed, and at once set out for Seoul; but on reaching it he -simply said he had escaped, and made no mention of the letter. His perjury was not -to remain undetected, as later events proved. Without an hour’s delay Konishi’s division, -leaving Tong-nai, marched up the Nak-tong valley to Shang-chiu. -</p> -<p>Kato’s division, delayed by a storm, arrived next day. Landing immediately, he saw -with chagrin the pennons of his rival flying from the ramparts of Tong-nai. Angry -at being left behind by “the boy,” he took the more northerly of the two routes to -the capital. The two rival armies were now straining every nerve on a race to Seoul, -each eager to destroy all enemies on the march, and reach the royal palace first. -Kuroda and other generals led expeditions into the southern provinces of Chulla and -Chung-chong. These provinces being subdued, and the castles garrisoned, they were -to make their way to the capital. -</p> -<p></p> -<div class="figure p101width" id="p101"><img src="images/p101.png" alt="Corean Knight of the Sixteenth Century." width="521" height="720"><p class="figureHead">Corean Knight of the Sixteenth Century.</p> -</div><p> -</p> -<p>The Coreans proved themselves especially good bowmen, but inexpert at other weapons, -their swords being of iron only, short, clumsy, and easily bent. Their spears, or -rather pikes, were shorter than the Japanese, with heavy blades, from the base of -which hung tassels. The iron heads were hollow at the base, forming a socket, in which -the staff fitted. The Japanese spearheads, on the contrary, were riveted down and -into the wood, which was iron-banded for further security, making a weapon less likely -to get out of order, while the blades were steel-edged. The Corean cavalry had heavy, -three-pronged spears, which were extremely <span class="pageNum" id="pb101">[<a href="#pb101">101</a>]</span>formidable to look at, but being so heavy as to be unwieldly at close quarters, they -did little execution. Many of their suits of armor were handsomely inlaid, made of -iron and leather<span class="corr" id="xd31e2672" title="Source: .">,</span> but less flexible and more vulnerable than those of the Japanese, which were of interlaced -silk and steel on a background of tough buckskin, with sleeves of chain mail. The -foot soldiers on either side were incased in a combination of iron chain and plate -armor, <span class="pageNum" id="pb102">[<a href="#pb102">102</a>]</span>but the Coreans had no glaves, or cross-blades on their pikes, and thus were nearly -helpless against their enemy’s cavalry. The Japanese were smooth-shaven, and wore -stout helmets, with ear-guards and visors, but the Coreans, with open helmets, without -visors, and whiskered faces, were dubbed “hairy barbarians.” They were beginning to -learn the use of powder, which, however, was so badly mixed as to be exasperatingly -slow in burning. Their very few firearms were of the rudest and most cumbrous sort. -They used on their ramparts a kind of wooden cannon, made of bamboo-hooped timber, -from which they shot heavy wooden darts, three feet long, pointed with sharp-bladed, -Y-shaped iron heads. The range of these clumsy missiles was very short. The Japanese, -on the contrary, had at several sieges pieces of light brass ordnance, with which -they quickly cleared the walls of the castles, and then scaled them with long and -light ladders, made of bamboo, and easily borne by men on a run. The Japanese were -not only better equipped, but their tactics were superior. Their firearms frightened -the Corean horses, and the long spears and halberds of their cavalry were used with -fearful effect while pursuing the fugitives, who were pierced or pulled off their -steeds, or sabred in droves. Few bodies of native troops faced the invaders in the -field, while fire-arrows, gunpowder, and ladders quickly reduced the castles. Not -a few of the Corean officers were killed inside their fortresses by the long range -fire of the sharp-shooters in the matchlock corps. -</p> -<p>The greater share of glory fell to Konishi, the younger man. Taking the southern route, -he reached the castle of Shang-chiu, in the northwestern part of Kiung-sang, and captured -it. Leaving a garrison, he pushed on to Chiun-chiu. This fortress of Chiun-chiu is -situated in the northeastern part of Chung-chong province, and on the most northerly -of the two roads, over which Kato was then marching. It was at that time considered -to be the strongest castle in the peninsula. On it rested the fate of the capital. -It lay near one of the branches of the Han River, which flows past Seoul. At this -point the two high roads to the capital, on which the two rivals were moving, converged -so as to nearly touch. Chiun-chiu castle lay properly on Kato’s route, but Konishi, -being in the advance, invested it with his forces and, after a few days’ siege, captured -the great stronghold. The loss of the Coreans thus far in the three fortresses seized -by Konishi, as reported by Friar Frois, was 5,000 men, 3,000 of whom fell at Chiun-chiu; -while the <span class="pageNum" id="pb103">[<a href="#pb103">103</a>]</span>Japanese had lost but 100 killed and 400 wounded. After such a victory, “Konishi determined -to conquer all Corea by himself.” -</p> -<p>Kato and his army, arriving a few days after the victory, again saw themselves outstripped. -Konishi’s pennons floated from every tower, and the booty was already disposed of. -The goal of both armies was now “the Miaco of the kingly city of Coray.” Straining -every nerve, Kato pressed forward so rapidly that the two divisions of the Japanese -army entered Seoul by different gates on the same day. No resistance was offered, -as the king, court, and army had evacuated the city three days before. The brilliant -pageant of the Japanese army, in magnificent array of gay silk and glittering armor, -was lost on the empty streets of deserted Seoul. -</p> -<p>When Taikō heard of the success of his lieutenants in Corea, especially of Konishi’s -exploits, he was filled with joy, and cried out, “Now my own son seems risen from -the dead.” -<span class="pageNum" id="pb104">[<a href="#pb104">104</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch14" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#xd31e946">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="label">CHAPTER XIV.</h2> -<h2 class="main">THE CAMPAIGN IN THE NORTH.</h2> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="first">The court at Seoul had been too much paralyzed by the sudden invasion to think of -or carry out any effective means of resistance. Konishi had sent letters from Fusan -and Shang-chiu, but these, through official faithlessness and the accidents of war, -had failed in their purpose. Konishi was too fast for them. When the news reached -Seoul, of the fall of Chiun-chiu castle, the whole populace, from palace to hut, was -seized with a panic which, in a few hours, emptied the city. The soldiers deserted -their post, and the courtiers their king, while the people fled to the mountains. -His Majesty resolved to go with his court into Liao Tung, but to send the royal princes -into the northern provinces, that the people might realize the true state of affairs. -So hurried were the preparations for flight, which began June 9th, that no food was -provided for the journey. The only horses to be obtained were farm and pack animals, -as the royal stables had been emptied by the runaway soldiers. The rain fell heavily, -in perpendicular streams, soon turning the roads to mire, and drenching the women -and children. The Corean dress, in wet weather, is cold and uncomfortable, and when -soaked through, becomes extremely heavy, making a foot journey a severe tax on the -strength. To add to the distress of the king, as the cortege passed, the people along -the road clamored, with bitter tears, that they were being abandoned to the enemy. -Tortured with hunger and fatigue, the wretched party floundered on. -</p> -<p>Their first day’s journey was to Sunto, or Kai Seng, thirty miles distant. Darkness -fell upon them long before they reached the Rin-yin River, a tributary of the Han, -which joins it a few miles above Kang-wa Island. The city lay beyond it, and the crossing -of the stream was done in the light of the conflagration kindled behind them. The -king had ordered the torch to be applied to the barracks and fortifications which -guarded the southern bank <span class="pageNum" id="pb105">[<a href="#pb105">105</a>]</span>of the river. Another motive for this incendiary act was to deprive their pursuers -of ready materials to ferry themselves across the river. It was not until near midnight -that the miserable fugitives, tortured with hunger and almost dead with fatigue, entered -the city. Though feeling safe for the moment, since the Japanese pursuers could not -cross the river without boats or rafts, most of the king’s household were doomed still -to suffer the pangs of hunger. The soldiers had stolen the food provided for the party, -and the king had a scant supper, while his household remained hungry until the next -day, when some of the military gave them a little rice. The march was resumed on the -following morning and kept up until Ping-an was reached. Here they halted to await -the progress of events. -</p> -<p>The king ordered his scattered forces to rally at the Rin-yin River, and, on its northern -bank, to make a determined stand. -</p> -<p>Kato and Konishi, remaining but a short time in the capital, united their divisions -and pressed forward to the north. Reaching the Rin-yin River, they found the Corean -junks drawn up on the opposite side in battle array. The Japanese, being without boats, -could not cross, and waited vainly during several days for something to turn up. Finally -they began a feigned retreat. This induced a portion of the Corean army to cross the -river, when the Japanese turned upon them and cut them down with terrible slaughter. -With the few rafts and boats used by the enemy, the Japanese matchlock men rapidly -crossed the stream, shot down the sailors and the remaining soldiers in the junks, -and thus secured the fleet by which the whole army crossed and began the march on -Ping-an. -</p> -<p>The rival Japanese commanders, Kato and Konishi, who had hitherto refrained from open -quarrel, now found it impossible to remain longer together, and drew lots to decide -their future fields of action in the two northern provinces. Ham-kiung fell to Kato, -who immediately marched eastward with his division, taking the high road leading to -Gensan. Konishi, to whom the province of Ping-an fell, pushed on to Ping-an City, -arriving on the south bank of the river toward the end of July, or about three weeks -after leaving Seoul. Here he went into camp, to await the reinforcements under Kuroda -and Yoshitoshi. These soon afterward arrived, having traversed the four provinces -bordering on the Yellow Sea. -</p> -<p>The great need of the Japanese was floating material; next to this, their object was -to discover the fords of the river. On <span class="pageNum" id="pb106">[<a href="#pb106">106</a>]</span>July 20th they made a demonstration against the fleet of junks along the front of -the city, by sending out a few detachments of matchlock men on rafts. Though unsuccessful, -the Corean king was so frightened that he fled with his suite to Ai-chiu. The garrison -still remained alert and defiant. -</p> -<p>Delay made the Japanese less vigilant. The Corean commanders, noticing this, planned -to surprise their enemy by a night attack. Owing to bad management and delay, the -various detachments did not assemble on the opposite side of the river until near -daylight. Then forming, they charged furiously upon Konishi’s camp, and, taking his -men by surprise, carried off hundreds of prisoners and horses, the cavalry suffering -worse than the infantry. Kuroda’s division came gallantly to their support, and drove -the Coreans back to the river. By this time it was broad daylight, and the cowardly -boat-keepers, frightened at the rout of their countrymen, had pushed off into mid-stream. -Hundreds of the Coreans were drowned, and the main body, left in the lurch, were obliged -to cross by the fords. This move gave the Japanese the possession of the coveted secret. -Flushed with victory, the entire army crossed over later on the same day and entered -the city. Dispirited by their defeat, the garrison fled, after flinging their weapons -into the castle moats and ditches of the city; but all the magazines of grain, dried -fish, etc., were now in the hands of the invaders. Frois reports, from hearsay, that -80,000 Coreans made the attack on Konishi’s camp, 8,000 of whom were slain. -</p> -<p>The news of the fall of Ping-an City utterly demoralized the Coreans, so that, horses -being still numerous, the courtiers deserted the king, and the villagers everywhere -looted the stores of food provided for the army. Many of the fugitives did not cease -their flight until they had crossed the Yalu River, and found themselves on Chinese -territory. These bore to the Governor of Liao Tung province, who had been an anxious -observer of events, the news of the fall of Ping-an, and the irresistible character -of the invasion. The main body of the Corean army went into camp at Sun-an, between -An-ton and Sun-chon. In Japan, there was great rejoicing at the news received from -the frontier, because, as Frois wrote, Konishi, “in twenty days, hath subdued so mighty -a kingdom to the crown of Japan.” Taikō sent the brilliant young commander a two-edged -sword and a horse—“pledges of the most peerless honor that can possibly be done to -a man.” -</p> -<p>The Japanese soldiers felt so elated over their victory that they <span class="pageNum" id="pb107">[<a href="#pb107">107</a>]</span>expected immediate orders to march into China. With this purpose in view, Konishi -sent word to the fleet at Fusan to sail round the western coast, into Ta-tong River, -in order to co-operate with the victorious forces at Ping-an. Had this junction taken -place, it is probable China would have been invaded by Japanese armies, and a general -war between these rival nations might have turned the current of Asiatic history. -This, however, was not to be. Corean valor, with the aid of gunpowder and improved -naval construction, prevented this, and kept three hundred miles of distance, in a -mountainous country, between the Japanese and their base of supplies. -</p> -<p></p> -<div class="figure p107width" id="p107"><img src="images/p107.png" alt="Map illustrating the Campaign in the North, 1592–93." width="703" height="681"><p class="figureHead">Map illustrating the Campaign in the North, 1592–93.</p> -</div><p> -</p> -<p>Oriental rhetoric might describe the situation in this wise: the eastern dragon of -invasion flew across the sea in winged ships, and <span class="pageNum" id="pb108">[<a href="#pb108">108</a>]</span>speedily won the crystal of victory. But on land the dragon must go upon its belly. -The Corean navy snatched the jewel from the very claws of the dragon, and left it -writhing and hungry. -</p> -<p>In cool western phrase, sinister, but significant, Konishi was soon afterward obliged -to “make a change of base.” The brilliant success of the army seems to have impressed -the Japanese naval men with the idea that there was nothing for them to do. On the -contrary, the Chō-sen people set to work to improve the architecture of their vessels -by having them double-decked. They also provided for the safety of their fighting -men, by making heavy bulwarks, and rearing, along the upper deck, a line of strong -planks, set edgewise, and bolted together. Behind these, archers discharged their -missiles without danger, while from port-holes below they fired their rude, but effective, -cannon. Appearing off the inlet, in which the Japanese fleet lay at anchor, they at -first feigned retreat, and thus enticed their enemies into pursuit. When well out -on the open sea, they turned upon their pursuers, and then their superior preparation -and equipment were evident at once. -</p> -<p>Lively fighting began, but this time the Coreans seemed invulnerable. They not only -gained the advantage by the greater length of their lances and grappling-hooks, with -which, using them like long forks, they pulled their enemies into the sea, but they -sunk a number of the Japanese junks, either by their artillery or by ramming them -with their prows. The remnant of the beaten fleet crept back to Fusan, and all hope -of helping the army was given up. The moral effect of the victory upon the Corean -people was to inspire them to sacrifice and resistance, and in many skirmishes they -gained the advantage. They now awaited hopefully the approach of Chinese reinforcements. -</p> -<p>To the Chinese it seemed incredible that the capture of the strongest castles, the -capital, and the chief northern city, could be accomplished without the treasonable -connivance of the Coreans. In order to satisfy his own mind, the Chinese mandarin -sent a special agent into Corea to examine and report. The government at Peking were -even more suspicious, but after some hesitation, they despatched, not without misgiving, -a small body of Chinese soldiers to act as a body-guard to the Corean king. These -braves crossed the frontier; but while on their way to Ping-an, heard of the fall -of the city, and, facing about, marched back into Liao Tung. The king and the fragments -of his court now sent courier <span class="pageNum" id="pb109">[<a href="#pb109">109</a>]</span>after courier with piteous appeals to Peking for aid, even offering to become the -subjects of China in return for succor rendered. A force of 5,000 men was hastily -recruited in Liao Tung, who marched rapidly into Corea. Early in August the Japanese -pickets first descried the yellow silk banners of the Chinese host. These were inscribed -with the two characters Tai-Ming (Great Brightness), the distinctive blazon of the -Ming dynasty. For the first time, in eight centuries, the armies of the rival nations -were to meet in pitched battle. -</p> -<p>The Chinese seemed confident of success, and moved to the attack on Ping-an with neither -wariness nor fear. Having invested the city, they began the assault on August 27th. -The Japanese allowed them to enter the city and become entangled in its narrow lanes. -They then attacked them from advantageous positions, which they had occupied previously, -assailing them with showers of arrows, and charging them with their long lances. One -body of the Ming soldiers attempted to scale the wall of a part of the fortifications, -which seemed to have been neglected by the Japanese, when near the top, the whole -face of the castle being covered with climbing men, the garrison, rushing from their -hiding-places, tumbled over or speared their enemies, who fell down and into the mass -of their comrades below. Those not killed by thrusts or the fall, were shot by the -gunners on the ramparts, and the Chinese now received into their bosoms a shower of -lead, against which their armor of hide and iron was of slight avail. In this fight -the Ming commander was slain. The rout of the Chinese army was so complete, that the -fugitives never ceased their retreat until safely over the border, and into China. -</p> -<p>The government at Peking now began to understand the power of the enemy with whom -they had to deal. An army of 40,000 men was raised to meet the invaders, and, in order -to gain time, a man, named Chin Ikei, was sent, independently of the Coreans, to treat -with Konishi and propose peace. Some years before the Japanese pirates had carried -off a Chinaman to Japan, where he was kept captive for many years. Returning to China, -he made the acquaintance of Chin Ikei, and gave him much information concerning the -country and people of his captivity. Chin Ikei was evidently a mercenary adventurer, -who could talk Japanese, and hoped for honors and promotion by acting as a go-between. -He had no commission or any real authority. The Chinese seem to have used him only -as a cat’s-paw. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb110">[<a href="#pb110">110</a>]</span></p> -<p>Arriving at the Corean camp, at Sun-an, early in October, and fully trusting the honor -of the Japanese commander, Chin Ikei ventured, in spite of the warnings of the frightened -Coreans, and to their intense admiration, within the Japanese lines, and had a conference -with Konishi, Yoshitoshi, and Genshō. The Chinese agent agreed to proceed to Peking, -and, returning to Ping-an after fifty days, to report the approval or disapproval -of his government. To this Konishi agreed, and there was a truce. The conditions of -peace, insisted on by Konishi, were that the Japanese ancient territory in the peninsula, -namely, those portions covered by the old states of Shinra and Hiaksai, should be -delivered over to Japan, to be held as vassal provinces. This demand virtually claimed -all Corea south of the Ta-tong River, in right of ancient possession and recent conquest -and occupation. -</p> -<p>Arriving in Peking, Chin Ikei found the Chinese army nearly ready to march, and, as -their government disowned his right to treat with the Japanese, nothing, except the -time gained for the Chinese, resulted from the negotiations. Meanwhile Kato Kiyomasa, -with his troops, had overran the whole extent of Ham-kiung, the longest and largest -province of Corea, occupying also parts of Kang-wen. No great pitched battle in force -was fought, but much hard fighting took place, and many castles were taken after bloody -sieges. In one of these, the two royal princes, sent north by their father on his -flight from Seoul, and many men of rank were captured. Among his prisoners, was “a -young girl reputed to be the most beautiful in the whole kingdom.” In the pursuit -of the fugitives the Japanese were often led into wild and lonely regions and into -the depths of trackless mountains and forests, in which they met, not only human foes, -but faced the tiger disturbed from his lair. They were often obliged to camp in places -where these courageous beasts attacked the sentries or the sleeping soldiers. Kato -himself slew a tiger with his lance, after a desperate struggle. After a hard campaign, -the main body of the troops fixed their camp at Am-pen, near Gensan, but closer to -the southern border of the province. Nabéshima’s camp was in Kang-wen, three days’ -journey distant. From a point on the sea-coast near by, in fair weather, the island -cone of Dagelet is visible. To the question of Kato, some Corean prisoners falsely -answered that this was Fujiyama—the worshipped mountain of the home-land, and “the -thing of beauty and a joy forever” to the Japanese people. Immediately the Japanese -reverently uncovered their heads <span class="pageNum" id="pb111">[<a href="#pb111">111</a>]</span>and, kneeling on the strand, gazed long and lovingly with homesick hearts—a scene -often portrayed in Japanese decorative art. -</p> -<p>Thus the year 1592 drew near its close; the Japanese, necessarily inactive, and the -spirit of patriotism among the Coreans rising. Collecting local volunteer troops and -forming guerilla bands, they kept the Japanese camps, along the road from Fusan to -Ping-an, constantly vigilant They ferreted out the spies who had kept the Japanese -informed of what was going on, and promptly cut off their heads. Isolated from all -communication, Konishi remained in ignorance of the immense Chinese army that was -marching against him. The discovery, by the Japanese, of the existence of the regular -Chinese troops in Corea, was wholly a matter of accident. According to Chinese report, -the commander of the Ming army, Li-yu-son (Japanese, Ri Jo Shō), was a valiant hero -fresh from mighty victories over the rising Manchiu tribes in the north. The march -of his host of 60,000 men through Liao Tung in winter, especially over the mountain -passes, was a severe one, and the horses are said to have sweated blood. Evidently -the expectation of the leader was to drive out the invaders and annex the country -to China. When the Corean mountains appeared, as they reached the Yalu River, the -leader cried out, “There is the place which it depends on our valor to recover as -our hereditary possessions.” On the sixth day, after crossing the frontier, he arrived -at Sun-an. It was then near the last of January, 1592, and the New Year was close -at hand. Word was sent to Konishi that Chin Ikei had arrived and was ready to reopen -negotiations, with a favorable reply. Konishi promptly despatched a captain, with -a guard of twenty men, to meet Chin Ikei and escort him within the lines. It being -New Year’s Day, February 2, 1593, the guard sallied out amid the rejoicings of their -comrades who, tired of desolate Chō-sen, longed for peace and home. The treacherous -Chinamen received the Japanese with apparent cordiality, and feasted them until they -were well drunk. Then the unsuspicious Japanese were set upon while their swords were -undrawn in their scabbards. All were killed except two or three. According to another -account, they fell into an ambuscade, and fought so bravely that only three were taken -alive. From the survivors Konishi first learned of the presence of the Ming army. -The pretext, afterward given by the lying Chinaman, was that the interpreters misunderstood -each other, and began a quarrel. The gravity of the situation was now apparent. A -Chinese army, of <span class="pageNum" id="pb112">[<a href="#pb112">112</a>]</span>whose numbers the Japanese were ignorant, menaced them in front, while all around -them the natives were gathering in numbers and in courage to renew the struggle for -their homes and country. The new army from China was evidently well equipped, disciplined, -and supplied, while the Japanese forces were far in an enemy’s country, distant from -their base of supplies, and with a desolate territory in the rear. Under this gloomy -aspect of affairs, the faces of the soldiers wore a dispirited air. -</p> -<p>Konishi’s alternative lay between the risk of a battle and retreat to Kai-seng. He -was not long in resolving on the former course, for, in six days afterward, the Ming -host, gay with gleaming arms, bright trappings, and dragon-bordered silk banners, -appeared within sight of the city’s towers. Konishi anxiously watched their approach, -having posted his little force to the best advantage. The city was defended on the -west by a steep mountainous ridge, on the north by a hill, and on the south by a river. -The Japanese occupying the rising ground to the north, which they had fortified by -earthworks and palisades. -</p> -<p>At break of day, on February 10th, the allies began a furious assault along the whole -line. The Japanese at first drove back their besiegers with their musketry fire, but -the Chinese, with their scaling ladders, reached the inside of the works, where their -numbers told. When night fell on the second day of the siege, all the outworks were -in their possession, and nearly two thousand of the Japanese lay dead. The citadel -seemed now an easy prize to the Corean generals; but the Chinese commander, seeing -that the Japanese were preparing to defend it to the last, and that his own men were -exhausted, gave the order to return to camp, expecting to renew the attack next morning. -</p> -<p>Konishi had despatched a courier to Otomo, the Japanese officer in command at Hozan, -a small fortress in Whang-hai, to come to his aid. So far from obeying, the latter, -frightened at the exaggerated reports of the numbers of the Chinese, evacuated his -post and marched back to Seoul. Unable to obtain succor from the other garrisons, -and having lost many men by battle and disease, while many more were disabled by wounds -and sickness, Konishi gave orders to retreat. One of his bravest captains was put -in command of the rear-guard, and the castle was silently deserted at midnight. In -this masterly retreat, little was left behind but corpses. Crossing, upon the ice, -the river, which was then frozen many feet in thickness, their foes were soon left -behind. <span class="pageNum" id="pb113">[<a href="#pb113">113</a>]</span>Next day the allied army, surprised at seeing no enemy to meet them, entered the castle, -finding neither man nor spoil of any kind. The Coreans wished to pursue their enemy, -but the Chinese commander, not only forbade it, but glad of a pretext by which he -could shift the blame on some other person, cashiered the Corean general for allowing -the Japanese to escape so easily. Konishi, without stopping at Kai-seng, was thus -enabled to reach Seoul, now the headquarters of all the invading forces. Fully expecting -the early advance of the Chinese, the men were now set to work in fortifying the city. -</p> -<p>In the flush of success, Li-yu-sung, the Ming commander, sent an envoy with a haughty -summons of surrender to Kato and Nabéshima. To this Kato answered in a tone of defiance, -guarded his noble prisoners more vigilantly, and with his own hand, in sight of the -envoy, put the beautiful Corean girl to death, by transfixing her, with a spear, from -waist to shoulder, while bound to a tree. He immediately sent reinforcements to the -castle of Kié-chiu, then threatened by the enemy. -</p> -<p>The Corean patriots, who organized small detachments of troops, began to attack or -repel the invaders in several places, and even to lay siege to castles occupied by -Japanese wherever they suspected the garrison was weak. The possession of a few firearms -and even rude artillery made them very daring. They compelled the evacuation of one -fortress held by Kato’s men by the following means. A Corean, named Richosun, says -a Japanese author, invented bombs, or <i>shin-ten-rai</i> (literally, heaven-shaking thunder), containing poison. Going secretly to the foot -of the castle, he discharged the bombs out of a cannon into the castle. As soon as -they fell or touched anything they burst and emitted poisonous gas, and every one -within reach fell dead. The first of these balls fell into the garden of the castle, -and the Japanese soldiers did not know what it was. They gathered around to examine -it, and while doing so, the powder in the ball exploded. The report shook heaven and -earth. The ball was rent into a thousand pieces, which scattered like stars. Every -man that was hit instantly fell, and thus more than thirty men were killed. Even those -who were not struck fell down stunned, and the soldiers lost their courage. Many balls -were afterward thrown in, which finally compelled the evacuation of the castle. -</p> -<p>From the above account it seems that the Coreans actually invented bombs similar to -the modern iron shells. They may have been fired from a heavy wooden cannon, a sort -of howitzer, made <span class="pageNum" id="pb114">[<a href="#pb114">114</a>]</span>by boring out a section of tree trunk and hooping it along its whole length with stout -bamboo. Such cannon are often used in Japan. They will shoot a ten or twenty pound -rocket or case of fireworks many hundred feet in the air. The Corean most probably -selected a spot so distant from the castle that a sortie for its capture could not -be successfully made. Corean gunpowder is proverbially slow in burning, which accounts -for the fact that the Japanese had time to gather round it. The bomb was most probably -a thin shell of iron, loaded only with gunpowder, which, like the Chinese mixture, -contains an excess of sulphur. The military customs of the Japanese required every -man disabled by a wound to commit hara-kiri, so that the number of actual deaths must -have been swelled by the suicides that followed wounds inflicted by the iron fragments. -The Japanese were so completely demoralized that they evacuated the castle. -</p> -<p>Two other castles at Kinzan and Kishiu, being beleagured by the patriots, Kato started -to succor the slender garrisons. The Coreans, hearing this, redoubled their efforts -to capture them before Kato should arrive. They had so far succeeded that the Japanese -officer in the citadel, having lost nearly all his men, went into the keep, or fireproof -storehouse, in the centre of the castle, and opened his bowels, preferring to die -by his own hands rather than allow a Corean the satisfaction of killing him. Just -at that moment the black rings of Kato’s banners appeared in sight. The Coreans, setting -the castle on fire, and giving loud yells of defiance and victory, disappeared. -</p> -<p>Kato and Nabéshima had received an urgent message from Seoul to come with their troops, -and thus unite all the Japanese forces in a stand against the Chinese. Kato disliked -exceedingly to obey this order because he knew it came from Konishi, but he finally -set out to march across the country. Thorough discipline was maintained on the march, -and the rivers were safely crossed. Cutting down trees, the soldiers, in companies -of five or ten, holding on abreast of logs, forded or floated over the most impetuous -torrents, while the cavalry kept the Coreans at bay. Though annoyed by attacks of -guerilla parties on their flanks, the Japanese succeeded in reaching Seoul without -serious loss. -</p> -<p>By the retreat of the Japanese armies, and their concentration in Seoul, the four -northern provinces, comprising half the kingdom, were virtually lost to them. At the -fall of Ping-an the war found its pivot, for the Japanese never again retrieved their -fortunes in Chō-sen. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb115">[<a href="#pb115">115</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch15" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#xd31e954">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="label">CHAPTER XV.</h2> -<h2 class="main">THE RETREAT FROM SEOUL.</h2> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="first">The allies, after looking well to their commissariat, began their march on Seoul, -about the middle of February, with forces which the Japanese believed to number two -hundred thousand men. The light cavalry formed the advance guard. The main body, after -floundering through the muddy roads, arrived, on February 26th, about forty miles -northwest of Seoul. -</p> -<p>In the first skirmish, which took place near the town shortly afterward, the allies -drove back the Japanese advance detachment with heavy loss. Li-yo-sun, the commander-in-chief, -now ordered the army to move against the capital. -</p> -<p>In the council of war, held by the Japanese generals, Ishida, who, like Konishi, was -a Christian in faith, advised the evacuation of Seoul. This, of course, provoked Kato, -who rose and angrily said: “It is a shame for us to give up the capital before we -have seen even a single banner of the Ming army. The Coreans and our people at home -will call us cowards, and say we were afraid of the Chinamen.” Hot words then passed -between the rival generals, but Otani and others made peace between them. All concluded -that, in order to guard against treason, the Coreans in the capital must be removed. -Thereupon, large portions of the city were set on fire, and houses, gates, bridges, -public and private buildings, were soon a level waste of ashes. The people, old and -young, of both sexes, sick and well, were driven out at the point of the lance. To -the stern necessities of war were added the needless carnage of massacre, and hundreds -of harmless natives were cruelly murdered. Only a few lusty men, to be used as laborers -and burden-bearers, were spared. -</p> -<p>Years after, the memory of this frightful and inhuman slaughter, burdening the conscience -of many a Japanese soldier, drove him a penitent suppliant into the monasteries. There, -exiled from the world, with shaven head and priestly robe, he spent his days <span class="pageNum" id="pb116">[<a href="#pb116">116</a>]</span>in fasting, vigils, and prayers for pardon, seeking to obtain Nirvana with the Eternal -Buddha. -</p> -<p>Meanwhile the work of fortification went on. The advance guard of the Chinese host -were now within a few miles of the city, and daily skirmishes took place. The younger -Japanese officers clamored to lead the van against the Chinese, but Kobayékawa, an -elderly general, was allowed to arrange the order of battle, and the Japanese army -marched out from the capital to the attack in three divisions, Kobayékawa leading -the third, or main body of ten thousand men, the others having only three thousand -each. In the battle that ensued the Japanese were at first unable to hold their ground -against the overwhelming forces of their enemies. The Chinese and Coreans drove back -their first and second divisions with heavy loss. Then, thinking victory certain, -they began a pursuit with both foot soldiers and cavalry, which led them into disorder -and exhausted their strength. When well wearied, Kobayékawa, having waited till they -were too far distant from their camp to receive reinforcements, led his division in -a charge against the allies. The battle then became a hand-to-hand fight on a gigantic -scale. The Chinese were armed mainly with swords, which were short, heavy, and double-edged. -The allies had a large number of cavalry engaged, but the ground being miry from the -heavy rains, they were unable to form or to charge with effect. Their advantage in -other respects was more than counterbalanced by the length of the Japanese swords, -the strength of their armor, and their veteran valor and coolness. Even the foot soldiers -wielded swords having blades usually two, but sometimes three and four, feet long. -</p> -<p>The Japanese have ever prided themselves upon the length, slenderness, temper, and -keen edge of their blades, and look with unmeasured contempt upon the short and clumsy -weapons of the continental Asiatics. They proudly call their native land “The country -ruled by a slender sword.” Marvellous in wonder and voluminousness are their legends, -literature, and exact history concerning <i>ken</i> (two-edged, short falchion), and <i>katana</i> (two-handed and single-edged sabre). In this battle it was the sword alone that decided -the issue, though firearms lent their deadly aid. The long, cross-bladed spears of -their foot soldiers were also highly effective, first, in warding off the sabre strokes -of the Chinese cavalry, and then unhorsing them, either by thrust or grapple. One -general of high rank was pulled off his steed and killed. -</p> -<p>The Japanese leaders were in their best spirits, as well as in <span class="pageNum" id="pb117">[<a href="#pb117">117</a>]</span>their finest equipments. One was especially noticeable by his gilded helmet that flashed -and towered conspicuously. It was probably that of Kato, whose head-gear was usually -of incredible height and dazzling splendor. -</p> -<p>After a long struggle and frightful slaughter, the allies were beaten back in confusion. -Ten thousand Chinese and Coreans, according to Japanese accounts, were slaughtered -on this bloodiest day and severest pitched battle of the first invasion. -</p> -<p>The Chinese suffered heavily in officers, and their first taste of war in the field -with such veterans as the soldiers of Taikō was discouraging in the extreme. Li-yo-sun -drew off his forces and soon after retired to Sunto. Not knowing that Kato had got -into Seoul, and fearing an attack from the rear, on Ping-an, he drew off his main -body to that city, leaving a garrison at Sunto. Tired, disgusted, and scared, the -redoubtable Chinaman, like “the beaten soldier that fears the top of the tall grass,” -sent a lying report to Peking, exaggerating the numbers of the Japanese, and asking -for release from command, on the usual Oriental plea of poor health. As for the Japanese, -they had lost so heavily in killed, that they were unable to follow up the victory, -if victory it may be called. A small force, however, pressed forward and occupied -Kai-jo, while the main body prepared to pass a miserable winter in the desolate capital. -</p> -<p>The Corean stronghold of An-am was also assaulted. This castle was built on a precipitous -steep, having but one gate and flank capable of access, and that being a narrow, almost -perpendicular, cutting through the rocks. The attacking force entered the gloomy valley -shut in from light by the luxuriant forest, which darkened the path even in the daytime. -At the tops, and on the ledges of the rocks beetling over the entrance-way, the Corean -archers took up advantageous positions, while others of the garrison, with huge masses -of rock and timber piled near the ledge, stood ready to hurl these upon the invaders. -</p> -<p>Awaiting in silence the approach of their enemies, they soon saw the Japanese fan-standards -and paper-strip banners approach, when these were directly beneath them, every bow -twanged, and a shower of arrows rained upon the invaders, while volleys of stones -fell into their ranks, crushing heads and helmets together. The besiegers were compelled -to draw off and arrange a new attack; but in the night the garrison withdrew. Next -day the Japanese entered, garrisoned the castle, and decorated it with their streamers. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb118">[<a href="#pb118">118</a>]</span></p> -<p>The long-continued abandonment of the soil, owing to the war and the presence of three -large armies, bore their natural fruits, and turned fertile Corea into a land of starvation. -Famine began its ravages of death on friend and foe alike. The peasants petitioned -their government for food, but none was to be had. Thousands of the poor people died -of starvation. The fathers suffered in camp, while the dead mothers lay unburied in -the houses, and the children, tortured with hunger, cried for food. One day a captain -in the Chinese army found, by the roadside, an emaciated infant vainly seeking for -nourishment from the cold and rigid breast of its dead mother. Touched with compassion, -the warrior took the child and reared him to manhood under his own care. -</p> -<p>Some rice was distributed to the wretched people from the government store-houses -in certain places, but still the groans and cries of the starving filled the air. -Pestilence entered the Japanese camp, and thousands of the home-sick soldiers died -ingloriously. The long winter rains made the living despondent and gloomy enough to -commit hara-kiri, while the state of the roads and the dashing courage of the guerillas, -who pushed their raids to the very gates of the camps, made foraging an unpopular -duty among the men. In such discomfort, winter wore away, and tardy spring approached. -In this state of affairs the Japanese were willing to listen, and the allies ready -to offer, terms of peace. A Corean soldier, named Rijunchin, by permission of his -superior officer, had penetrated into Seoul to visit the two captive princes. On his -return to the camp, he stated that the Japanese generals were very homesick and heartily -tired of the war. At the same time, a letter was received from Konishi, stating his -readiness to receive terms of peace. Chin Ikei was again chosen to negotiate. Reaching -the Japanese lines at Kai-jo, he held an interview with Konishi, and the following -points of agreement were made: -</p> -<p>1. Peace between the three countries. -</p> -<p>2. Japan to remain in possession of the three southern provinces of Chō-sen. -</p> -<p>3. Corea to send tribute to Japan as heretofore. -</p> -<p>4. Hidéyoshi to be recognized as King of Corea. The three other articles drawn up -were not made public, but the acknowledgment of Taikō as the equal of the Emperor -of China was evidently one of them. The Japanese, on their part, were to return the -two captive princes, withdraw all their armies to Fusan, and evacuate the country -when the stipulations were carried out. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb119">[<a href="#pb119">119</a>]</span></p> -<p>Both parties were weary of the war. The Ming commander had requested to be relieved -of his command and to return to China, while the three old gentlemen, who were military -advisers in the Japanese camp, yearning for the pleasures of Kiōto, wrote to Taikō, -asking leave to come home, telling him the object of his ambition was on the eve of -attainment, and that he was to receive investiture from the Chinese emperor, and recognition -as an equal. -</p> -<p>Scholarship and literature were not at a very high premium at that time among the -Japanese military men. The martial virtues and accomplishments occupied the time and -thoughts of the warriors to the exclusion of book learning and skill at words. The -sword for the soldier, and the pen for the priest, was the rule. The bluff warrior -in armor looked with contempt, not unmingled with awe, upon the shaven-pated man of -ink and brush. One of the bonzes from the monastery was usually of necessity attached -to the service of each commander. It was by reason of the ignorance, as well as the -vanity, of the illiterate Japanese generals that such a mistake, in supposing that -Taikō was to be recognized as equal to the Emperor of China, was rendered possible. -The wily Chin Ikei, who drove a lucrative trade as negotiator, hoodwinked Konishi, -who would not have been thus outwitted if he had had a bonze present to inspect the -writing. Being a Christian, however, he was on bad terms with the bonzes. -</p> -<p>In both camps there were those who bitterly opposed any peace short of that which -the sword decided. The Corean generals chafed at the time wasted in parley, and wished -to march on the Japanese at once, whose ranks they knew were decimated with sickness, -and their spirit and discipline relaxed under the idea of speedy return home. An epidemic -had also broken out among their horses, probably owing to scant provender. Thus crippled -and demoralized, victory would certainly follow a well-planned attack in force. Within -the camp of the invaders Achilles and Agamemnon were as far as ever from harmony. -Kato sullenly refused to entertain the idea of peace, partly because Konishi proposed -it, but mainly because, if the two princes were given up, his achievements would be -brought to naught, and all the glory of the war would redound to his rival. Only after -the earnest representation by his friends of the empty granaries, and the danger of -impending starvation, the great sickness among the troops, and the fearful loss of -horses, was he induced <span class="pageNum" id="pb120">[<a href="#pb120">120</a>]</span>to agree with the other commanders that Seoul should be evacuated. -</p> -<p>Meanwhile, the allies were advancing toward the capital. -</p> -<p>On May 22, 1593, the Japanese, with due precautions, evacuated the city, and the vanguard -of the Chinese army entered on the same day. The retreat of the Japanese was effected -in good order, and, to guard against treachery, they bivouacked in the open air, avoiding -sleeping in the houses or villages, and rigidly kept up the vigilance of their sentinels -and the discipline of the divisions. In this way the various detachments of the army -safely reached Fusan, Tong-nai, Kinka, and other places near the coast. Here, after -fortifying their camps, they rested for a space from the alarms of war, almost within -sight of their native land. The allies later on marched southward and went into camp -a few leagues to the northward. Since crossing the Yalu River, the Chinese had lost -by the sword and disease twenty thousand men. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb121">[<a href="#pb121">121</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch16" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#xd31e963">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="label">CHAPTER XVI.</h2> -<h2 class="main">CESPEDES, THE CHRISTIAN CHAPLAIN.</h2> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="first">The aspect of affairs had now changed from that of a triumphal march through Corea -into China and to Peking, to long and tedious camp life, with uncertain fortunes in -the field, which promised a long stay in the peninsula. Konishi had now breathing -time and space for reflection. Being an ardent Christian—after the faith and practice -of the Portuguese Jesuits—he wished for himself and his fellow-believers the presence -and ministrations of one of the European friars to act as chaplain. He therefore sent, -probably when at or near Fusan, a message to the superior of the Mission in Japan, -asking for a priest. -</p> -<p>Toward the end of 1593, the Vice-Provençal of the Company of the Jesuits despatched -Father Gregorio de Cespedes and a Japanese convert named “Foucan Eion” to the army -in Chō-sen. They left Japan and spent the winter in Tsushima, the domain of Yoshitoshi, -one of the Christian lords then in the field. Early in the spring of 1594 they reached -Corea, arriving at Camp Comangai (most probably a name given by the Japanese after -the famous hero Kumagayé), at which Konishi made his headquarters. The two holy men -immediately began their labors among the Japanese armies. They went from castle to -castle, and from camp to camp, preaching to the pagan soldiers, and administering -the rite of baptism to all who professed the faith, or signed themselves with the -cross. They administered the sacraments to the Christian Japanese, comforted and prayed -with the sick, reformed abuses, assisted the wounded, and shrived the dying. New converts -were made and old ones strengthened. Dying in a foreign land, of fever or of wounds, -the soul of the Japanese man-at-arms was comforted with words of hope from the lips -of the foreign priest. Held before his glazing eyes gleamed the crucifix, on which -appeared the image of the world’s Redeemer. The home-sick warrior, pining for wife -and babe, was told of the “House not made with hands.” -<span class="pageNum" id="pb122">[<a href="#pb122">122</a>]</span></p> -<p>The two brethren seem to have been very popular among the Japanese soldiers. Perhaps -they already dreamed of planting the faith in Corea, when, suddenly, their work was -arrested at its height by Kato, whose jealousy of Konishi was only equalled by his -fanatical zeal for the Buddhist faith. Being in Japan he denounced the foreign priest -to Taikō, declaring that these zealous endeavors to propagate the Christian faith -only concealed a vast conspiracy against himself and the power of the mikado. At this -time Taikō was dealing with the Jesuits in Japan, and endeavoring to rid the country -of their presence by shipping them off to China. He fully believed that they were -political as well as religious emissaries, and that their aim was at temporal power. -These suspicions, as every student of Japan knows, were more than well founded. -</p> -<p>Besides accusing Cespedes, Kato insinuated that Konishi himself was leading the conspiracy. -The cry of chō-téki (rebel, or enemy of the mikado) in Japan is enough to blacken -the character of the bravest man and greatest favorite. Treason against the mikado -being the supreme crime, Konishi found it necessary to return to Kiōto, present himself -before Taikō, and cleanse his reputation even from suspicion. This the lull in the -active operations, occasioned by the negotiations of Chin Ikei, enabled him to do. -</p> -<p>Immediately sending back the priest, he shortly afterward crossed the straits, and, -meeting Taikō, succeeded in fully ingratiating himself and allaying all suspicion. -</p> -<p>The wife of Konishi had also embraced the Christian faith, her baptized name being -Marie. To her, while in camp, he had sent two Corean lads, both of whom were of rank -and gentle blood, the elder being called in the letters of the Jesuits “secretary -to the Corean king.” He was the son of a brave captain in the army, and was thirteen -years old. The lady, Marie, touched by their misfortune, kept the younger to be educated -in the faith under her own direction, and sent the elder to the Jesuit seminary in -Kiōto. Of this young man’s career we catch some glimpses from the letters of the missionaries. -At the college he was a favorite, by reason of his good character, gentle manners, -and fine mind. Professing the faith, he was baptized in 1603, taking the name of Vincent. -He began his religious work by instructing and catechising Japanese and his numerous -fellow Coreans at Nagasaki. When about thirty-three years old, the Jesuits, wishing -to establish a mission in Corea, proposed to send him to his native land as missionary; -but not being able, on account of the persecution <span class="pageNum" id="pb123">[<a href="#pb123">123</a>]</span>then raging in Japan, he was chosen by the Father Provençal to go to Peking, communicate -with the Jesuits there, and enter Corea from China. At Peking he remained four years, -being unable to enter his own country by reason of the Manchius, who then held control -of the northern provinces of Manchuria and were advancing on Peking, to set on the -throne that family which is still the ruling dynasty of the Middle Kingdom. Vincent -was recalled to Japan in 1620, where, in the persecutions under Iyémitsŭ, the third -Tokugawa shō-gun, he fell a victim to his fidelity, and was martyrized in 1625, at -the age of about forty-four. -</p> -<p>Warned of the dangers of patronizing the now proscribed religion, there was no farther -return of zeal on Konishi’s part, or that of the other Christian princes, and no farther -opportunity was given to plant the seeds of the faith in the desolated land. -</p> -<p>Of the large numbers of Corean prisoners sent over to Japan, from time to time, many -of those living in the places occupied by the missionaries became Christians. Many -more were sold as slaves to the Portuguese. In Nagasaki, of the three hundred or more -living there, most of them were converted and baptized. They easily learned the Japanese -language so as to need no interpreter at the confessional—a fact which goes to prove -the close affinity of the two languages. -</p> -<p>Others, of gentle blood and scholarly attainments, rose to positions of honor and -eminence under the government, or in the households of the daimiōs. Many Corean lads -were adopted by the returned soldiers or kept as servants. When the bloody persecutions -broke out, by which many thousand Japanese found death in the hundred forms of torture -which hate and malice invented, the Corean converts remained steadfast to their new-found -faith, and suffered martyrdom with fortitude equal to that of their Japanese brethren. -But, by the army in Corea, or by Cespedes, no seed of Christianity was planted or -trace of it left, and its introduction was postponed by Providence until two centuries -later. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb124">[<a href="#pb124">124</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch17" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#xd31e971">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="label">CHAPTER XVII</h2> -<h2 class="main">DIPLOMACY AT KIŌTO AND PEKING.</h2> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="first">The Chinese ambassadors, with whom was Chin Ikei, set sail from Fusan, and reached -Nagoya, in Hizen, on June 22d. Taikō received them in person, and entertained them -in magnificent style. His lords imitated the august example set them, and both presents -and attentions were showered upon the guests. Among other entertainments in their -honor was a naval review, in which hundreds of ships, decorated with the heraldry -of feudalism, were ranged in line. The boats moved in procession; the men, standing -up as they worked the sculls, sang in measured chorus. The sheaves of glittering weapons, -spears, and halberds arranged at their bows, were inlaid with gold and pearl The cabins -were arranged with looped brocades and striped canvas, with huge crests and imperial -chrysanthemums of colossal size. The ambassadors were delighted, both with the lovely -scenery and the attentions paid them, and so remained until August. -</p> -<p>Little, however, came of this mission. Taikō sent orders to Kato to release the Corean -princes and nobles; and Chin Ikei, who usually went off like a clumsy blunderbuss, -at half-cock, hied back to Chō-sen to tell the news and get the credit of having secured -this concession. The Coreans were made to bear the blame of the war, and the envoys -of China, in good humor, returned to Peking in company with a Japanese ambassador. -</p> -<p>Yet Taikō, though willing to be at peace with China, did not intend to spare unhappy -Chō-sen. To soothe the spirit of Kato, the order was given to capture the castle of -Chin-chiu, forty miles west of Fusan, which had not yet been taken by the Japanese, -though once before invested. -</p> -<p>Alarmed at the movements of the invaders, the Coreans tried to revictual and garrison -the devoted fortress, and even to attack the enemy on the way. Unable, however, to -make a stand against their foes, they were routed with frightful carnage. Kato led -<span class="pageNum" id="pb125">[<a href="#pb125">125</a>]</span>the besieging force, eager to make speedy capture so as to irritate the Coreans and -prevent the peace he feared. -</p> -<p>He invested the castle which the Coreans had not been able to reinforce, but the vigorous -resistance of the garrison, who threw stones and timber upon the heads of his assaulting -parties, drove him to the invention of Kamé-no-kosha, or tortoise-shell wagons, which -imitated the defensive armor of that animal. Collecting together several hundred green -hides, and dry-hardening them in the fire, he covered four heavily built and slant-roofed -wagons with them. These vehicles, proof against fire, missiles, or a crushing weight, -and filled with soldiers, were pushed forward to the foot of the walls. While the -matchlock men in the lines engaged those fighting on the ramparts, the soldiers, under -the projecting sheds of the tortoise wagons, that jutted against the walls, began -to dig under the foundations. These being undermined, the stones were pried out, and -soon fell in sufficient number to cause a breach. Into this fresh soldiers rushed -and quickly stormed the castle. The slaughter inside was fearful. -</p> -<p>The news of the fall of this most important fortress fell like a clap of thunder in -Peking, and upon the Corean king, who was preparing to go back to Seoul. The Chinese -government appointed fresh commissioners of war, and ordered the formation of a new -and larger army. -</p> -<p>The immediate advance of the invaders on the capital was expected, but Kato, having -obeyed Taikō’s orders, left a garrison in the castle and fell back on Fusan. -</p> -<p>The Chinese general, upbraiding Chin Ikei for his insincerity, sent him to Konishi -again. Their interview was taken up mainly with mutual charges of bad faith. Chin -Ikei, returning, tried to persuade the Chinese commander to evacuate Corea, or, at -least, retire to the frontier. Though he refused, being still under orders to fight, -the Chinese army moved back from Seoul toward Manchuria, while Konishi, on his own -responsibility, despatched a letter to the Chinese emperor. Large detachments of the -Japanese army actually embarked at Fusan, and returned to Japan. In the lull of hostilities, -negotiations were carried on at Peking and Kiōto, as well as between the hostile camps. -The pen took the place of the matchlock, and the ink-stone furnished the ammunition. -</p> -<p>A son was born to Taikō, and named Hidéyori. A great pageant, in honor of the infant, -was given at the newly built and <span class="pageNum" id="pb126">[<a href="#pb126">126</a>]</span>splendid castle of Fushimi, near Kiōto, which was graced by a large number of the -commanders and veterans of Corea, who had returned home on furlough, while negotiations -were pending. The result of the Japanese mission to Peking was the despatch of an -ambassador extraordinary, named Rishosei, with one of lesser rank, to Japan, by way -of Fusan. -</p> -<p>On his arrival, he requested to see Konishi, who, however, evaded him, excusing himself -on the plea of expecting to hear from Taikō, after which he promised to hold an interview. -Konishi then departed for Japan, taking Chin Ikei with him. On his return he still -avoided the Chinese envoy, for he had no definite orders, and the other generals refused -to act without direct word from their master in Kiōto. Meanwhile Chin Ikei, consumed -with jealousy, and angry at the Peking mandarins for ignoring him and withholding -official recognition and honors, planned revenge against Rishosei; for Chin Ikei believed -himself to have done great things for Chō-sen and China, and yet he had received neither -thanks, pay, nor promotion for his toils, while Rishosei, though a young man, with -no experience, was honored with high office solely on account of being of rank and -in official favor at Peking. Evidently with the intent of injuring Rishosei, Chin -Ikei gave out that Taikō did not wish to be made King of Chō-sen, but had sent an -envoy to China merely to have a high ambassador of China come to Japan, that he might -insult or rather return the insult of the sovereign of China, in the person of his -envoy, by making him a prisoner or putting him to death. Konishi and Chin Ikei again -crossed to Japan to arrange for the reception of the Chinese envoys. -</p> -<p>The reports started by Chin Ikei, coming to the ears of Rishosei, so frightened him -that he fled in disguise from Fusan, and absconded to China. His colleague denounced -him as a coward, and declaring that the Chinese government desired only “peace with -honor,” sailed with his retinue and two Corean officers to Japan. “And Satan [Chin -Ikei], came also among them.” All landed safely at Sakai, near Ozaka, October 8, 1596. -</p> -<p>Audience was duly given with pomp and grandeur in the gorgeous castle at Fushimi, -on October 24th. The ambassador brought the imperial letter, the patent of rank, a -golden seal, a crown, and silk-embroidered robes of state. At a banquet, given next -day, these robes were worn by Taikō and his officers. -</p> -<p>Formalities over, the Ming emperor’s letter was delivered to <span class="pageNum" id="pb127">[<a href="#pb127">127</a>]</span>Taikō, who at once placed it in the hands of three of the most learned priests, experts -in the Chinese language, and ordered them to translate its contents literally. -</p> -<p>To Konishi, then at Kiōto, came misgivings of his abilities as a diplomatist Visiting -the bonzes, he earnestly begged them to soften into polite phrase anything in the -letter that might irritate Taikō. But the priests were inflexibly honest, and rendered -the text of the letter into the exact Japanese equivalent. In it the patent of nobility -first granted to the Ashikaga shō-gun (1403–1425) was referred to; and the gist of -this last imperial letter was: “We, the Emperor of China, appoint you, Taikō, to be -the King of Japan” (Nippon O). In other words, the mighty Kuambaku of Japan was insulted -by being treated no better than one of the Ashikaga generals! -</p> -<p>This was the mouse that was born from so great a mountain of diplomacy. The rage of -Taikō was so great that, with his own hands, he would have slain Konishi, had not -the bonzes plead for his life, claiming that the responsibility of the negotiations -rested upon three other prominent persons. As usual, the “false-hearted Coreans” were -made to bear the odium of the misunderstanding. -</p> -<p>The Chinese embassy, dismissed in disgrace, returned in January, 1596, and made known -their humiliation at Peking; while the King of Corea, who had been living in Seoul -during the negotiations, appealed at once for speedy aid against the impending invasion. -Hidéyoshi again applied himself with renewed vigor to raising and drilling a new army, -and obtaining ships and supplies. A grand review of the forces of invasion, consisting -of one hundred and sixty-three thousand horse and foot soldiers, was held under his -inspection. Kuroda, Nagamasa, and other generals, with their divisions, sailed away -for Fusan, January 7, 1597, and joined the army under Konishi and Kato. -</p> -<p>The new levies from China, which had been waiting under arms, crossed the Yalu and -entered from the west at about the same time. Marching down through Ping-an and Seoul, -a division of ten thousand garrisoned the castle of Nan-on, in Chulla. The Coreans, -meanwhile, fitted out a fleet, under the command of Genkai, expecting a second victory -on the water. -</p> -<p>An extinguisher was put on Chin Ikei, who was suspected of being in the pay of Konishi. -Genkai, a Chinese captain, had long believed him to be a dangerous busybody, without -any real powers from the Peking government, but only used by them as a decoy <span class="pageNum" id="pb128">[<a href="#pb128">128</a>]</span>duck, while, in reality, he was in the pay of the Japanese, and the chief hinderance -to the success of the allied arms. On the other hand, this volunteer politician, weary -and disappointed at not receiving from China the high post and honors which his ambition -coveted, was in a strait. Taikō urged him to secure from China the claim of Japan -to the southern half of Corea. China, on the contrary, ordered him to induce the Japanese -generals to leave the country. Thus situated, Chin Ikei knew not what to do. He sent -a message, through a priest, to Kato, urging him to make peace or else meet an army -of one hundred thousand Chinamen. The laconic reply of the Japanese was: “I am ready -to fight. Let them come.” -</p> -<p>Bluffed in his last move, and aware of the plots of Genkai, his enemy, Chin Ikei, -at his wits’ end, resolved to escape to Konishi’s camp. The spies of Genkai immediately -reported the fact to their master, who lay in wait for him. Suddenly confronting his -victim, they demanded his errand. “I am going to treat with Kato, the Japanese general; -I shall be back in one month,” answered Chin Ikei. He was seized and, on being led -back, was thrown into prison. A searching party was then despatched at once to his -house. There they found gold, treasure, and jewels “mountain high,” and his wife living -in luxury. Believing all these to have been purchased by Japanese gold, and the fruits -of bribery, the Chinese confiscated the spoil and imprisoned the traitor’s family. -</p> -<p>This ended all further negotiations until the end of the war. Henceforth, on land -and water, by the veterans of both armies, with fresh levies, both of allies and invaders, -the issue was tried by sword and siege. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb129">[<a href="#pb129">129</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch18" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#xd31e979">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="label">CHAPTER XVIII.</h2> -<h2 class="main">THE SECOND INVASION.</h2> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="first">The plan of the second invasion was to land all the Japanese forces at Fusan, and -then to divide them into three columns, which were to advance by the south to Nan-on -castle in Chulla, and by two roads, northward and westward, to the capital. As before, -Konishi and Kato Kiyomasa were the two field commanders, while Hidéaki, a noble lad, -sixteen years old, was the nominal commander-in-chief. -</p> -<p>The Coreans had made preparations to fight the Japanese at sea as well as on land. -Their fleet consisted of about two hundred vessels of heavy build, for butting and -ramming, as well as for accommodating a maximum of fighting men. They were two hundred -and fifty or three hundred feet in length, with huge sterns, having enormous rudders, -the tillers of which were worked by eight men. Their high, flat prows were hideously -carved and painted to represent the face and open jaws of a dragon, or demon, ready -to devour. Stout spars or knotted logs, set upright along the gunwale, protected the -men who worked the catapults, and heavily built roofed cabins sheltered the soldiers -and gave the archers a vantage ground. The rowers sat amidships, between the cabins -and the gunwales, or rather over on these latter, in casements made of stout timber. -The catapults were on deck, between the bows. They were twenty-four feet long, made -of tree-trunks a yard in circumference. Immense bows, drawn to their notches by windlasses, -shot iron-headed darts and bolts six feet long and four inches thick. On some of the -ships towers were erected, in which cannon, missile-engines, and musketeers were stationed, -to shoot out fire-arrows, stones, and balls. At close quarters the space at the bows—about -one-third of the deck—was free for the movements of the men wielding spear and sword, -and for those who plied the grappling hooks or boarding planks. The decks crowded -with men in armor, the glitter of steel and flash of oars, the blare <span class="pageNum" id="pb130">[<a href="#pb130">130</a>]</span>of the long Corean trumpets, and the gay fluttering of thousands of silken flags and -streamers made brilliant defiance. -</p> -<p>The Japanese accepted the challenge, and, sailing out, closed with the enemy. Wherever -they could, they ran alongside and gave battle at the bows. Though their ships were -smaller, they were more manageable. In some cases, they ran under the high sterns -and climbed on board the enemy’s ships. Once at hand to hand fight, their superior -swordsmanship quickly decided the day. Their most formidable means of offence which, -next to their cannon, won them the victory, were their rockets and fire-arrows, which -they were able to shoot into the sterns, where the dry wood soon caught fire, driving -the crews into the sea, where they drowned. Two hours fighting sufficed, by which -time one hundred and seventy-four Corean ships had been burned or taken. News of this -brilliant victory was at once sent by a swift vessel to Japan. -</p> -<p>Endeavors were made to strengthen the garrison at Nan-on, but the Japanese general, -Kato Yoshiakira, meeting the reinforcements on their way, prevented their design. -Kato Kiyomasa, changing his plans, also marched to Nan-on, resolving to again, if -possible, snatch an honor from his rival As usual, the younger man was too swift for -him. Konishi now moved his entire command in the fleet up the Sem River, in Chulla -province, and landing, camped at a place called Uren, eighteen ri from Nan-on castle. -He rested here five days in the open meadow land to allow the horses to relax their -limbs after the long and close confinement in the ships. From a priest, whom they -found at this place, they learned that the garrison of Nan-on numbered over 20,000 -Chinese and Coreans, the reinforcements in the province, and on their way, numbered -20,000 more, while in the north was another Chinese corps of 20,000. -</p> -<p>At the council of war held, it was resolved to advance at once to take the castle -before succor came. In spite of many lame horses, and the imperfect state of the commissariat, -the order to march was given. Men and beasts were in high spirits, but many of the -horses were ridden to death, or rendered useless by the forced march of the cavalry. -Early on the morning of September 21st, the advance guard camped in the morning fog -at a distance of a mile from the citadel. The main body, coming up, surrounded it -on all sides, pitched their camp, threw out their pickets, set up their standards, -and proceeded promptly to fortify their lines. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb131">[<a href="#pb131">131</a>]</span> -</p> -<p></p> -<div class="figure p131width" id="p131"><img src="images/p131.png" alt="Map of the Operations of the Second Invasion." width="550" height="720"><p class="figureHead">Map of the Operations of the Second Invasion.</p> -</div><p> -</p> -<p>Nan-on castle was of rectangular form, enclosing a space nearly two miles square, -as each side was nine thousand feet long. Its walls, which were twelve feet high, -were built of great stones, laid together without cement. Though no mortar had been -used on wall or tower, shell-lime had been laid over the outside, in which <span class="pageNum" id="pb132">[<a href="#pb132">132</a>]</span>glistened innumerable fragments of nacre and the enamel of shells, giving the structure -the appearance of glittering porcelain. At the angles, and at intervals along the -flanks, were towers, two or three stories high. The four ponderous gates were of stone, -fourteen feet high. -</p> -<p>The preparations for defence were all that Chinese science could suggest. In the dry -ditch, three hundred feet wide, was an abatis of tree-trunks, with their branches -outward, behind which were iron-plated wagons, to be filled with archers and spearmen. -From the towers, fire-missiles and shot from firearms were in readiness. -</p> -<p>The weak points, at which no enemy was expected, and for which preparations for defence -were few, were on the east and west -</p> -<p>No effect being produced during the first two days, either by bullets or fire-arrows, -Konishi, on the third, sent large detachments of men into the rice-fields, then covered -with a promising harvest of growing rice, which the farmers, in the hope of peace, -had sown. Reaping the green, juicy stalks, the hundreds of soldiers gathered an enormous -quantity of sheaves and waited, with these and their stacks of bamboo poles and ladders, -until night. In the thick darkness, and in perfect silence, they moved to a part of -the wall which, being over twenty feet high, was but slightly guarded, and began to -build a platform of the sheaves. Four Japanese, reaching the top by climbing, raised -the war-cry, and one of the towers being set on fire by their arrows, the work was -discovered. Yet the matchlock men kept the walls swept by their bullets, while the -work of piling fresh sheaves and bundles of bamboo went on. The greenness of the rice-stalks -made the mass both firm and fire-proof. At last the mound was so high that it overtopped -the wall. The men now climbed over the ramparts by the hundreds, and the swordsmen, -leaping into the castle, began the fight at hand to hand. Most of the Chinese fought -with the courage of despair, while others, in their panic, opened the gates to escape, -by which more of the besiegers entered. The garrison, smitten in front and rear, were -driven to the final wall by Konishi’s troops. On the other side a body of picked men, -from Kato’s army, joined in the slaughter. They had entered the castle at the rear, -by scaling a rugged mountain path known only to the Corean prisoners, whose treachery -they had purchased by the promise of their lives. Between the two attacking forces -the <span class="pageNum" id="pb133">[<a href="#pb133">133</a>]</span>Coreans and Chinese, who could not escape, were slain by thousands. -</p> -<p>Among many curious incidents narrated by Ogawuchi, who tells the story of this siege -and attack, was this. As he entered the castle, amid the smoke and confusion, in which -he saw some of the panic-stricken garrison destroying themselves, he cut off the heads -of two enemies, and then, suddenly recollecting that this fifteenth day of the eighth -month was the day sacred to Hachiman, the god of war and Buddha of the Eight Banners, -he flung down his bloody sword, put his red palms together, and bowing his head, prayed -devoutly toward his adored Japan. His devotions ended, he sliced off the noses from -the heads of the two enemies he had slain, wrapped them in paper, twisted the package -to his girdle, and sprang forward to meet, with but three men, the charge of fifty -horsemen. The first sweep of the Japanese sabre severed the leg of the nearest rider, -who fell to the earth on the other side of his horse, and Ogawuchi’s companions killing -each his man, the enemy fled. The fires of the burning towers now lighted up the whole -area of the castle, while the autumn moon rose red and clear. Ogawuchi slew, with -his own hand, Kéku-shiu, one of the Chinese commanders. His body, in rich armor, lined -with gold brocade, was stripped, and the trappings secured as trophies to be sent -home, while his head was presented for Konishi’s inspection next morning. -</p> -<p>According to the barbarous custom of the victors, they severed the heads of the bodies -not already decapitated in fight, until the castle space resembled a great slaughter-yard. -Collecting them into a great heap, they began the official count. The number of these -ghastly trophies, or “glory-signs,” was three thousand seven hundred and twenty-six. -The ears and noses of the slain were then sheared off, and with the commander’s head, -were packed with salt and quick lime in casks, and sent to Japan to form the great -ear-tomb now in Kiōto, the horrible monument of a most unrighteous war. -</p> -<p>A map of the castle and town, with the list of the most meritorious among the victors, -was duly sent back to Taikō. Then the walls and towers, granaries, and barracks were -destroyed. This work occupied two days. -</p> -<p>Promptly on September 30th the army moved on to Teru-shiu, the cavalry riding day -and night, and reaching the castle only to find it deserted, the garrison having fled -toward Seoul. The Japanese <span class="pageNum" id="pb134">[<a href="#pb134">134</a>]</span>remained here ten days, levelling the fortress with fire and hammer. -</p> -<p>As the cold weather was approaching, the Japanese commanders, after council, resolved -at once to march to the capital. Katsuyoshi and Kiyomasa had joined them, and the -advance northward was at once began. By October 19th they were within seventeen miles -of Seoul.<a class="noteRef" id="xd31e2902src" href="#xd31e2902">1</a> -</p> -<p>The successes on land, brilliant though they were, were balanced by the defeat of -the Japanese navy off the southern coast. The Chinese admiral Rishinshin, in conjunction -with the Coreans, won an important victory over Kuroda’s naval forces a few days after -the fall of Nan-on. In this instance, the Chinese ships were not only heavy enough -to be formidable as rams, but were made more manageable by numerous rowers sitting -in well-defended timber casements, apparently covered with metal. The warriors, too, -seem to have been armed with larger lances. The Chinese commanders, having improved -their tactics, so managed their vessels that the Japanese fleet was destroyed or driven -away. -</p> -<p>This event may be said to have decided the fate of the campaign. Bereft of their fleet, -which would, by going round the west coast, have afforded them a base of supplies, -they were now obliged to advance into a country nearly empty of forage, and with no -store of provisions. As in the opening of the war, so again, the loss of the fleet -at a critical period made retreat necessary even at the moment of victory. -</p> -<p>Meanwhile, the Chinese general Keikai, thoroughly disliking the rigors of a camp in -a Corean winter, and feeling deeply for his soldiers suffering from exposure in a -desolate land, determined on closing the war as soon as possible. Erecting an altar, -in presence of the army, he offered sacrifices to propitiate the spirits of Heaven -and Earth, and prayed for victory against the invaders. Then, after seeing well to -commissariat and equipment, he gave orders for a general movement of all the allied -forces, with the design of ending the war by a brief and decisive campaign. The Japanese -generals at Koran, by means of their spies and advance parties, kept themselves well -informed of the movements of the enemy. At a <span class="pageNum" id="pb135">[<a href="#pb135">135</a>]</span>skirmish at Chin-zen the Chinese advance guard was defeated with heavy loss, but the -Japanese at once began their retreat. Shishida and Ota, who were further east, learning -of the overwhelming odds against them, fell back into Uru-san, which was already manned -by a detachment of Kato’s corps. -</p> -<p>While Kato and Katsuyoshi were at Chin-zen, a grand tiger hunt was proposed and carried -out, in which a soldier was bitten in two places and died. The army agreed that tiger-hunting -required much nerve and valor. Besides the tiger steaks, which they ate, much fresh -meat was furnished by the numerous crane, pheasants, and “the ten thousand things -different from those in Japan,” which they made use of to eke out their scanty rations. -</p> -<p>To remain in camp until the Han River was frozen over, and could be crossed easily, -or to press on at once, was the question now considered by the Japanese. While thus -debating, word came that the Chinese armies had made junction at Seoul, and numbered -one hundred thousand men. The Japanese “felt cold in their breasts” when they heard -this. Far from their base of supplies, their fleet destroyed, and they at the threshold -of winter in a famine-stricken land, they were forced, reluctantly, again to retreat -into Kiung-sang. -</p> -<p>This turning their backs on Seoul was, in reality, the beginning of their march homeward. -The invaders, therefore, enriched themselves with the spoil of houses and temples -as they moved toward the coast—gold and silver brocades, rolls of silk, paintings, -works of art, precious manuscripts, books written with gold letters on azure paper, -inlaid weapons and armor, rich mantles, and whatever, in this long-settled and wealthy -province, pleased their fancy. On the boundaries of roads and provinces they noticed -large dressed stone columns of an octagonal form, with inscriptions upon them. Their -route lay from Chin-zen, which they left in ashes, on October 25th, to Chin-nan; to -Ho-won; to Ho-kin; to Karon; reaching Kion-chiu, the old capital of Shinra, after -some fighting along the way. -</p> -<p>The Japanese were impressed with the size and grandeur of the buildings in this old -seat of the civilization and learning of Shinra and Korai. Here, in ancient days, -was the focus of the arts, letters, religion, and science which, from the west, the -far off mysterious land of India, and the nearer, yet august, empire of China, had -been brought to Corea. Here, too, their own ancient mikados had sent embassies, and -from this historic city had radiated <span class="pageNum" id="pb136">[<a href="#pb136">136</a>]</span>the influences of civilization into Japan. As Buddhism had been the dominant faith -of Shinra and Korai, this was the old sacred city of the peninsula, and among the -historic edifices still standing and most admired were the halls and pagodas of the -Eternal Buddha. Kion-chiu was to the Japanese very much what London is to an American, -Geneva to a Protestant, or Dordrecht to a Hollander. Yet, in spite of all classic -associations, the city was wantonly destroyed. On the morning of November 2d, beginning -at the magnificent temples, the whole city was given to the torch. Three hundred thousand -dwellings were burned, and the flames lighted up the long night with the glare of -day. -</p> -<p>The next morning, turning their backs on the gray waste of ashes, they resumed their -march. Kokiō, Kunoi, Sin-né were passed through. Skirmishing and the destruction of -castles, and the burning of granaries, were the pastimes enjoyed between camps. On -November 18th the army reached a river, where the Coreans made an unsuccessful night -attack, repeating the same in the morning, while the Japanese were crossing the stream, -with the same negative results. -</p> -<p>Thence through Yei-tan, they came to Kéku-shiu, another famous old seat of Shinra’s -ancient grandeur. The beautiful situation and rich appearance of the city charmed -the invaders, who lingered long in the deserted streets before applying the torch. -The “three hundred thousand houses of the people” were clustered around the great -Buddhist temple in the centre. The clock-tower, eighteen stories high, was especially -admired. The massive swinging beam by which the tongueless bells, or gongs, of the -Far East are made to boom out the hours, struck against a huge bronze lotus eight -or nine feet in diameter. This sacred flower of the Buddhist emblem of peace and calm -in Nirvana had in Corean art taken the place of the suspended bell, being most probably -a cup-shaped mass of metal set with mouth upright, or like a bell turned upside down—such -being the form often seen in the temples of Chinese Asia. Again did antiquity, religion, -or the promptings of mercy fail to restrain the invaders. Securing what spoils they -cared for, everything else was burned up. -</p> -<p>After camping at Kiran, they reached the sea-coast, at Uru-san, November 18th. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb137">[<a href="#pb137">137</a>]</span></p> -</div> -<div class="footnotes"> -<hr class="fnsep"> -<div class="footnote-body"> -<div class="fndiv" id="xd31e2902"> -<p class="footnote"><span class="fnlabel"><a class="noteRef" href="#xd31e2902src">1</a></span> Their line of march, as shown in the Japanese histories, was to Sen-ken, October 11th; -to Kumu-san, where they experienced the first frost; to Kumui, October 12th; to Chin-zon; -to Funki; to Shaku-shiu; to Koran; to Chin-zen. These are names of places in Chulla -and Chung-chong, expressed in the Japanese and old Corean pronunciation. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd31e2902src" title="Return to note 1 in text.">↑</a></p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch19" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#xd31e987">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="label">CHAPTER XIX.</h2> -<h2 class="main">THE SIEGE OF URU-SAN CASTLE.</h2> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="first">The Japanese now took up the spade as their immediate weapon of defence against the -infuriated Coreans and the avenging Chinese. A force of twenty-three thousand men -was at once set to work, “without regard to wind or rain,” along the lines marked -out by the Japanese engineers. To furnish the wood for towers, gates, huts, and engines, -a party of two thousand axemen and laborers, guarded by twenty-eight mounted pickets -and three hundred matchlock men, with seven flags, went daily into the forest. -</p> -<p>The winter huts were hastily erected, walls thrown up, ditches dug, towers built, -and sentinels and watch stations set. The work went on from earliest daybreak till -latest twilight, the carpenters so suffering from the cold that “their finger nails -dropped off.” By the first part of January the castle was almost completed. From the -eleventh day the garrison took rest. -</p> -<p>The fortress was three-sided, the south face lying on the sea. The total line of works -was about three and a half miles, pierced by three gates. The inner defences were -in three parts, or <i>maru</i>. The third <i>maru</i>, or enclosure, had stone walls, one tower and one gate; the second had two towers, -two gates; and the first or chief citadel had stone walls, forty-eight feet high, -with two towers and two gates. -</p> -<p>The war operations, which had hitherto covered large spaces of the country, now found -the pivot at this place situated in Kiung-sang, on the sea-coast, thirty-five miles -north of Fusan. Another commander, Asano, marched to assist the garrison and entered -the castle before the Ming army arrived. His advance guard, while reconnoitring, was -defeated by the Coreans, yet he succeeded, by an impetuous charge, in entering the -castle. -</p> -<p>The Chinese, smarting under their losses at Chin-sen, and stung by the gibes of the -Coreans, now hastened to Uru-san, to swallow up the Japanese. The Corean army, which -had been collecting <span class="pageNum" id="pb138">[<a href="#pb138">138</a>]</span>around the Japanese camps, were soon joined by the advance guard of the Ming army. -The arrival of the Chinese forces was made known in the following manner. -</p> -<p></p> -<div class="figure p138width" id="p138"><img src="images/p138.png" alt="Plan of Uru-san Castle.—Explanation: Hon, First Enclosure; Ni, Second; San, Third; G, Gates; Line of blocks. Bodies of Troops." width="635" height="720"><p class="figureHead">Plan of Uru-san Castle.—Explanation: Hon, First Enclosure; Ni, Second; San, Third; -G, Gates; <span class="figure blockswidth"><img src="images/blocks.png" alt="Line of blocks." width="22" height="10"></span> Bodies of Troops.</p> -</div><p> -</p> -<p>A Japanese captain commanded one of the advance pickets, which had their quarters -in the cloisters of Ankokuji (Temple of the Peaceful Country). One night a board, -inscribed with Chinese characters, was set up before the gate of the camp. The soldiers, -seeing it in the morning, but unable to read Chinese, carried <span class="pageNum" id="pb139">[<a href="#pb139">139</a>]</span>it to their captain, who handed it to his priest-secretary. The board contained a -warning that the Chinese were near and would soon attack Uru-san. Betraying no emotion -and saying nothing, the captain soon after declared himself on the sick-list, and -secretly absconded to Fusan. The truth was, that an overwhelming Ming army was now -in front of them and their purpose to invest the castle was thus published. The entire -Japanese forces were now gathered close under the walls, or inside the castle, and -the sentinels were doubled. -</p> -<p>On the morning of January 30th the Ming army suddenly assaulted the castle. A small -detachment, evidently a decoy and forlorn hope, attempting to scale the walls, was -driven back by the matchlock men and began to retreat. Seeing this, the Japanese recklessly -opened the barbican gate and began pursuit of their enemies, thinking they were only -Coreans. Lured on to a distance, they suddenly found themselves encircled by a mighty -host<span class="corr" id="xd31e2955" title="Not in source">.</span> By their black and yellow standards, and their excellent tactics, the Japanese officers -saw that they were Ming soldiers. The dust raised by the horses of the oncoming enemy -seemed to the garrison as high as Atago Mountain in Japan. They now knew that eighty -thousand Chinese were before their gates. Only after hard fighting, was the remnant -of the Japanese sortie enabled to get back within the castle, while the allies, surrounding -the walls, fought as fiercely as if they intended to take it by immediate assault. -Some of the bravest leaders of the garrison fell outside, but no sooner were the gates -locked than Katsuyoshi, without extracting the two arrows from his wounds, or stanching -the blood, posted the defenders on the walls in position. Ogawuchi had performed the -hazardous feat of sallying out and firing most of the outside camps. He re-entered -the castle with arrows in his clothes, but received no wounds. The battle raged until -night, when the Chinese drew off. -</p> -<p>The Japanese had suffered fearfully by the first combat beyond and on the walls. “There -was none but had been shot at by five or ten or fifteen arrows.” One of their captains -reckoned their loss at eighteen thousand three hundred and sixty men, which left them -but a garrison of five thousand fighting men. A large number of non-combatants, including -many of the friendly people of the neighborhood, had crowded into the fortifications, -and had to be fed. -</p> -<p>Food growing scarcer, and danger increasing, Asano sent word <span class="pageNum" id="pb140">[<a href="#pb140">140</a>]</span>to Kato for help. On a fleet horse the messenger arrived, after a ride of two days. -Kato had, in Japan, taken oath to Asano’s father to help him in every strait. Immediately, -with seventy picked companions, he put out to sea in seven boats, and, after hard -rowing, succeeded in entering the castle. -</p> -<p>On January 31, 1598, the war-conch sounded in the Ming camp, as the signal of attack, -and the ears of the besieged were soon deafened by the yells of the “eighty thousand” -besiegers. The Japanese were at first terrified at the clouds of dust, through which -the awful sight of ranks of men, twenty deep, were on all sides visible. The enemy, -armed with shields shaped like a fowl’s wings, upon which they received the missiles -of the garrison, charged on the outer works, but when into and on the slope of the -ditch, flung their shields away, and plied axe, knife, sword, and lance. Though seven -attacks were repulsed, the wall was breached, the outer works were gained by overwhelming -numbers, and the garrison was driven into the inner enclosure. -</p> -<p>Night fell upon the work of blood, but at early morn, the enemy waked the garrison -with showers of arrows, and with ladders and hurdles of bamboo, tried to scale the -walls. In four hours, seven attacks in force had been repulsed, yet the fighting went -on. In spite of the intense cold, the soldiers perspired so that the sweat froze on -their armor. Over their own heaps of corpses the Chinese attempted to force one of -the gates, while, from the walls of the inner citadel, and from the higher gate above -them, the Japanese smote them. The next day the carnage ceased from the third to the -ninth hour. On February 3d, the Chinese, with their ladders, were again repulsed. -At night their sentinels “gathered hoar-frost on their helmets,” while guarding the -night long against the sortie, which they feared. Another attack from the clouds of -enemies kept up the work of killing. Some of the Japanese warriors now noticed that -their stockings and greave-bands kept slipping down, though adjusted repeatedly. The -fact was their flesh had shrunk until their bones were nearly visible, and “their -legs were as lean as bamboo sticks.” Another warrior, taking off his helmet and vizor, -was seen to have a face so thin and wizen that he reminded his comrades of one of -those hungry demons of the nether world, which they had seen so often depicted in -temple pictures at home. -</p> -<p>On February 5th, the Ming generals, who had looked upon the reduction of Uru-san as -a small affair to be settled by the way, and <span class="pageNum" id="pb141">[<a href="#pb141">141</a>]</span>vexed at not having been able to take it by one assault, tried negotiation. In fact, -they were suffering from lack of provisions. The Japanese sent back a defiant answer, -and some of them profited by the lull in the fighting to make fires of broken arrows -and lances, to strip the armor from the dead and frozen carcasses of their steeds, -and enjoy a dinner of hot horse-meat. The vast number of shafts that had fallen within -the walls, were gathered into stacks, and those damaged were reserved for fuel. Outside -the citadel, they lay under the wall in heaps many feet high. -</p> -<p>The next day, February 6th, was one of quiet, but it was intensely cold, and many -of the worn out soldiers of the garrison died. Sitting under the sunny side of the -towers for warmth, they were found in this position frozen to death. Yet amid all -the suffering, the Japanese jested with each other, poured out mutual compliments, -and kept light hearts and defiant spirits. -</p> -<p>A council of war had been held February 2d, at Fusan, and a messenger sent to encourage -the garrison. By some means he was able to communicate with his beleaguered brethren. -With helmets off, the leaders listened to the words of cheer and praise, and promised -to hold out yet longer. -</p> -<p>While the lull or truce was in force, the Chinese were, according to Ogawuchi, plotting -to entrap the Japanese leaders. This they learned from one Okomoto, a native of Japan, -who had lived long in China, and was a division commander of eight thousand men in -the Chinese army. He it was who first brought the offers of accommodation from the -Ming side. The Chinese proposed to get the Japanese leaders to come out of their citadel, -leave their horses and weapons at a certain place, and go to the altar to swear before -Heaven to keep the peace. Then the Chinese were to surround and make prisoners of -the Japanese. Okomoto’s soul recoiled at the perfidy. Going by night to the side of -the castle near the hills, he was admitted in the citadel, and exposing the plot, -gave warning of the danger. A profound impression was produced on the grateful leaders, -who immediately made a plan to show their gratitude to Okomoto. They swore by all -the gods to reward also his sons and daughters who were still living in Japan. When -this fact was made known to him, he burst into tears and said he had never forgotten -his wife or children; though he saw them often in his dreams, yet “the winds brought -him no news.” -</p> -<p>On the following morning a Chinese officer, coming to the foot of the wall, made signs -with his standard, and offered the same <span class="pageNum" id="pb142">[<a href="#pb142">142</a>]</span>terms in detail which Okomoto had exposed. The Japanese leaders excused themselves -on the plea of sickness, and the parley came to nothing. -</p> -<p>Yet the sufferings of the Japanese were growing hourly severer. To half rations and -hunger had succeeded famine, and with famine came actual death from starvation. Unfortunately -there was no well in the castle, so the Japanese had at first sallied out, under cover -of the night, and carried water from the mountain brooks. The Chinese, discovering -this, posted archers in front of every accessible stream, and thus cut off all approach -by night or day. To hunger was added the torture of thirst. The soldiers who fought -by day stole out at night and licked the wounds of their slain enemies and even secretly -chewed the raw flesh sliced from the corpses of the Chinese. Within the castle, ingenuity -was taxed to the utmost to provide sustenance from the most unpromising substances. -The famished soldiers chewed paper, trapped mice and ate them, killed horses and devoured -every part of them. Braving the arrows of the Chinese pickets, they wandered at night -wherever their dead enemies lay, and searched their clothes for stray grains of parched -rice. On one occasion the Chinese, lying in wait, succeeded in capturing one hundred -of the garrison, that were prowling like ghouls around the corpses of the slain. After -this the commanders forbade any soldier, on pain of death, to leave the castle. Yet -famine held revel within, and scores of starved and frozen multiplied into hundreds, -until room for the corpses was needed. -</p> -<p>Tidings of the straits of the dwindling garrison at Uru-san having reached the other -Japanese commanders, Nabéshima and Kuroda, they marched to the relief of their compatriots. -One of the Chinese generals, Rijobai, leaving camp, set out to attack them. -</p> -<p>The foiled Chinese commander-in-chief, angry at the refusal of the Japanese to come -to his camp, ordered a fresh attack on the castle. This time fresh detachments took -the places of others when wearied. The day seemed shut out by the dust of horses, -the smoke of guns, the clouds of arrows, and the masses of flags. Again the scaling -ladders were brought, but made useless by the vigilant defenders in armor iced with -frozen sweat, and chafing to the bone. Their constant labor made “three hours seem -like three years.” The attack was kept up unceasingly until February 12th, when the -exhausted garrison noticed the Chinese retreating. The van of the reinforcements from -Fusan had attacked the allies in the <span class="pageNum" id="pb143">[<a href="#pb143">143</a>]</span>rear, and a bloody combat was raging. At about the same time the fleet, laden with -provisions, was on its way and near the starving garrison. -</p> -<p>Next morning the keen eyes of their commander noticed flocks of wild birds descending -on the Chinese camp. The careful scrutiny of the actions of wild fowl formed a part -of the military education of all Japanese, and they inferred at once that the camp -was empty and the birds, attracted by the refuse food, were feeding without fear. -Orders were immediately given to a detachment to leave the castle and march in pursuit. -Passing through the deserted Ming camp, they came up with the forces of Kuroda and -Nabéshima, who had gained a great victory over the allies. In this battle of the river -plain of Gisen, February 9, 1598, the Japanese had eighteen thousand men engaged. -Their victory was complete, thirteen thousand two hundred and thirty-eight heads of -Coreans and Chinese being collected after the retreat of the allies. The noses and -ears were, as usual, cut off and packed for shipment to Kiōto. -</p> -<p>The sufferings of the valiant defenders were now over. Help had come at the eleventh -hour. For fourteen days they had tasted neither rice nor water, except that melted -from snow or ice. The abundant food from the relief ships was cautiously dealt out -to the famished, lest sudden plenty should cause sudden death. The fleet men not only -congratulated the garrison on their brave defence, but decorated the battered walls -with innumerable flags and streamers, while they revictualed the magazines. On the -ninth, the garrison went on the ships to go to Sezukai, another part of the coast, -to recruit their shattered energies. With a feeling as if raised from the dead, the -warriors took off their armor. The reaction of the fearful strain coming at once upon -them, they found themselves lame and unable to stand or sit. Even in their dreams, -they grappled with the Ming, and, laying their hand on their sword, fought again their -battles in the land of dreams. For three years afterward they did not cease these -night visions of war. -</p> -<p>According to orders given, the number of the dead lying on the frozen ground, within -two or three furlongs of the castle, was counted, and found to be fifteen thousand -seven hundred and fifty-four. Of the Japanese, who had starved or frozen to death, -eight hundred and ninety-seven were reported. -</p> -<p>In the camp of the allies, crimination and recrimination were going on, the Coreans -angry at being foiled before Uru-san, and the <span class="pageNum" id="pb144">[<a href="#pb144">144</a>]</span>Chinese mortified that one fortress, with its garrison, could not have been taken. -They made their plans to go back and try the siege anew, when the explosion of their -powder magazine, which killed many of their men, changed their plans. For his failure -the Chinese commander-in-chief was cashiered in disgrace. -</p> -<p>On May 10th the soldiers of the garrison, now relieved, left for their homes in Japan. -</p> -<p>Thus ended the siege of Uru-san, after lasting an entire year. -</p> -<p>After this nothing of much importance happened during the war. The invaders had suffered -severely from the cold and the climate, and from hunger in the desolated land. Numerous -skirmishes were fought, and a continual guerilla war kept up, but, with the exception -of another naval battle between the Japanese and Chinese, in which artillery was freely -used, there was nothing to influence the fortunes of either side. In this state of -inaction, Hidéyoshi fell sick and died, September 9, 1598, at the age of sixty-three. -Almost his last words were, “Recall all my troops from Chō-sen.” The governors appointed -by him to carry out his policy at once issued orders for the return of the army. The -orders to embark for home were everywhere gladly heard in the Japanese camps by the -soldiers whose sufferings were now to end. Before leaving, however, many of the Japanese -improved every opportunity to have a farewell brush with their enemies. -</p> -<p>It is said, by a trustworthy writer, that 214,752 human bodies were decapitated to -furnish the ghastly material for the “ear-tomb” mound in Kiōto. Ogawuchi reckons the -number of Corean heads gathered for mutilation at 185,738, and of Chinese at 29,014; -all of which were despoiled of ears or noses. It is probable that 50,000 Japanese, -victims of wounds or disease, left their bones in Corea. -</p> -<p>Thus ended one of the most needless, unprovoked, cruel, and desolating wars that ever -cursed Corea, and from which it has taken her over two centuries to recover. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb145">[<a href="#pb145">145</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch20" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#xd31e995">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="label">CHAPTER XX.</h2> -<h2 class="main">CHANGES AFTER THE INVASION.</h2> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="first">The war over, and peace again in the land, the fugitives returned to their homes and -the farmers to their fields. The whole country was desolate, the scars of war were -everywhere visible, and the curse of poverty was universal. From the king and court, -in the royal city, of which fire had left little but ashes, and of which war and famine -had spared few inhabitants, to the peasant, who lived on berries and roots until his -scanty seed rose above the ground and slowly ripened, all now suffered the woful want -which the war had bred. Kind nature, however, ceased not her bountiful stores, and -from the ever-ready and ever-full treasuries of the ocean, fed the stricken land. -</p> -<p>The war was a fruitful cause of national changes in Corean customs and institutions. -The first was the more thorough organization of the military, the rebuilding and strengthening -of old castles, and the erection of new ones; though, like most measures of the government, -the proposed reforms were never properly carried out. The coasts were guarded with -fresh vigilance. Upon one of the Corean commanders, who had been many times successful -against the Japanese, a new title and office was created, and the coast defence of -the three southern provinces was committed to him. This title was subsequently conferred -upon three officials whose headquarters were at points in Kiung-sang. Among the literary -fruits of the leisure now afforded was the narrative, in Chinese, of the events leading -to the war with the Japanese, written by a high dignitary of the court, and covering -the period from about 1586 to 1598. This is, perhaps, the only book reprinted in Japan, -which gives the Corean side of the war. In his preface the excessively modest author -states that he writes the book “because men ought to look at the present in the mirror -of the past.” The Chinese style of this writer is difficult for an ordinary Japanese -to read. The book (Chōhitsuroku) contains a curious map of the eight provinces. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb146">[<a href="#pb146">146</a>]</span></p> -<p>In Japan the energies of the returned warriors were fully employed at home after their -withdrawal from Corea. The adherents of Taikō and those of Iyéyasŭ, the rising man, -came to blows, and at the great battle of Sékigahara, in October, 1600, Iyéyasŭ crushed -his foes. Many of the heroes of the peninsular campaign fell on the field; or, as -beaten men, disembowelled themselves, according to the Japanese code of honor. -</p> -<p>Konishi, being a Christian, and unable, from conscientious scruples, to commit suicide -by <i>hara kiri</i>, was decapitated. The humbled spirit and turbulent wrath of Satsuma were appeased, -and given a valve of escape in the permission accorded them to make definite conquest -of Riu Kiu. This was done by a well-planned and vigorously executed expedition in -1609, by which the little archipelago was made an integral part of the Japanese empire. -When retiring from Chō-sen, in 1597, the daimiō and general Nabéshima requited himself -for the possible loss of further military glory, by bringing over and settling in -Satsuma a colony of Corean potters. He builded better than he knew, for in founding -these industries in his own domain, he became the prime author of that delight of -the æsthetic world, “old Satsuma faïence.” Other daimiōs, in whose domains were potteries, -likewise transported skilled workers in clay, who afterward brought fame and money -to their masters. On the other hand, Iyéyasŭ sent back the Corean prisoners in Japan -to their own homes. -</p> -<p>The spoil brought back from the peninsular campaign—weapons, flags, brocades, porcelains, -carvings, pictures, and manuscripts was duly deposited, with certifying documents, -in temples and storehouses, or garnished the home of the veterans for the benefit -of posterity. Some, with a literary turn, employed their leisure in writing out their -notes and journals, several of which have survived the wreck of time. Some, under -an artistic impulse, had made valuable sketches of cities, scenery, battle-fields, -and castles, which they now finished. A few of the victors shore off their queues -and hair, and became monks. Others, with perhaps equal piety, hung up the arrow-pierced -helmet, or corslet slashed by Chinese sabre, as ex-voto at the local shrines. The -writer can bear personal witness to the interest which many of these authentic relics -inspired in him while engaged in their study. In 1878 a large collection of various -relics of the Corean war of 1592–1597 came into the possession of the mikado’s government -in Tōkiō, from the heirs or descendants of the veterans of Taikō. In <span class="pageNum" id="pb147">[<a href="#pb147">147</a>]</span>Kiōto, besides the Ear-monument, the Hall of the Founder, in one of the great Buddhist -temples, rebuilt by the widow of Taikō, was ceiled with the choice wood of the war -junk built for the hero. -</p> -<p>Though the peninsula was not open to trade or Christianity, it was not for lack of -thought or attention on the part of merchant or missionary. -</p> -<p>In England, a project was formed to establish a trading-station in Japan, and, if -there was a possibility, in Corea also, or, at least, to see what could be done in -“the island”—as Corea then, and for a long time afterward, was believed to be. Through -the Dutch, the Jesuits, and their countryman, Will Adams, in Japan, they had heard -of the Japanese war, and of Corea. Captain Saris arrived off Hirado Island about the -middle of June, 1613, with a cargo of pepper, broadcloth, gunpowder, and English goods. -In a galley, carrying twenty-five oars and manned by sixty men furnished by the daimiō, -Saris and his company of seventeen Englishmen set out to visit the Iyéyasŭ at Yedo, -by way of Suruga (now Shidzuoka). After two days’ rowing along the coast, they stopped -for dinner in the large and handsome city of Hakata (or Fukuoka), the city being, -in reality, double. As the Englishmen walked about to see the sights, the boys, children, -and worse sort of idle people would gather about them, crying out, “Coré, Coré, Cocoré -Waré” (Oh you Coreans, Coreans, you Kokorai men), taunting them by these words as -Coreans with false hearts, whooping, holloaing, and making such a noise that the English -could hardly hear each other speak. In some places, the people threw stones at these -“Corean” Englishmen. Hakata was one of the towns at which the embassy from Seoul stopped -while on its way to Yedo, and the incident shows clearly that the Japanese urchins -and common people had not forgotten the reputed perfidy of the Coreans, while they -also supposed that any foreigner, not a Portuguese, with whom they were familiar, -must be a Corean. In the same manner, at Nankin, for a long while all foreigners, -even Americans, were called “Japanese.” -</p> -<p>Nothing was done by Saris, so far as is known, to explore or open Corea to Western -commerce, although the last one of the eight clauses of the articles of license to -trade, given him by Iyéyasŭ, was, “And that further, without passport, they may and -shall set out upon the discovery of Yeadzo (Yezo), or any other part in and about -our empire.” By the last clause any Japanese would understand <span class="pageNum" id="pb148">[<a href="#pb148">148</a>]</span>Corea and Riu Kiu as being land belonging to, but outside of “civilized” Nippon. -</p> -<p>After leaving Nagasaki, and calling at Bantam, Saris took in a load of pepper, and -sailed for England, reaching Plymouth September 27, 1614. -</p> -<p>An attempt was also made by the Dominican order of friars to establish a mission in -Corea. Vincent (Caun), the ward of Konishi, who had been educated and sent over by -the Jesuits to plant Christianity among his countrymen, reached Peking and there waited -four years to accomplish his purposes, but could not, owing to the presence of the -hostile Manchius in Liao Tung. But just as he was returning to Japan, in 1618, another -attempt was made by the Dominican friars to penetrate the sealed land. Juan de Saint -Dominique, a Castilian Spaniard, who had labored as a missionary in the Philippine -Islands since 1601, was the chosen man. Having secured rapid mastery of the languages -of the Malay archipelago, he was selected as one well fitted to acquire Corean. With -two others of the same fraternity he embarked for the shores of Morning Calm. For -some reason, not known, they could not land in Corea, and so passed over to Japan, -where the next year, March 19th, having met persecution, Dominique died in prison. -The ashes of his body, taken from the cremation furnace, were cast in the sea; but -his followers, having been able to save from the fire a hand and a foot, kept the -ghastly remnants as holy relics. -</p> -<p>The exact relations of “the conquering and the vassal state,” as the Japanese would -say, that is, of Nihon and Chō-sen, were not definitely fixed, nor the menace of war -withdrawn, until the last of the line of Taikō died, and the family became extinct -by the death of Hidéyori, the son of Taikō, in 1612. -</p> -<p>There is not a particle of evidence that the conquerors ever exacted an annual tribute -of “thirty human hides,” as stated by a recent French writer. While Iyéyasŭ had his -hands full in Japan, he paid little attention to the country which Taikō had used -as a cockpit for the Christians. Iyéyasŭ dealt with the Jesuit, the Christian, and -the foreigner, in a manner different from, and for obvious reasons with success greater -than, that of Taikō. He unified Japan, re-established the dual system of mikado and -shō-gun, with two capitals and two centres of authority, Kiōto and Yedo. He cleared -the ground for his grandson Iyémitsŭ, who at once summoned the Coreans to renew tributary -relations and pay homage <span class="pageNum" id="pb149">[<a href="#pb149">149</a>]</span>to him at Yedo. Magnifying his authority, he sent, in 1623, a letter to the King of -Corea, in which he styles himself Tai-kun (“Tycoon”), or Great Prince. This is the -equivalent in Chinese pronunciation of the pure Japanese O-gimi, an ancient title -applied only to the mikado. No assumption or presumption of pomp and power was, however, -scrupled at by the successors of Iyéyasŭ. -</p> -<p>The title “Tycoon,” too, was intended to overawe the Coreans, as being even higher -than the title <i>Koku O</i> (king of a [tributary] country), which their sovereign and the Ashikaga line of rulers -held by patents from the Emperor of China, and which Taikō had scornfully refused. -</p> -<p>The court at Seoul responded to the call, and, in 1624, sent an embassy with congratulations -and costly presents. The envoys landed in Hizen, and made their journey overland, -taking the same route so often traversed by the Hollanders at Déshima, and described -by Kaempfer, Thunberg, and others. A sketch by a Yedo artist has depicted the gorgeous -scene in the castle of the “Tycoon.” Seated on silken cushions, on a raised dais, -behind the bamboo curtains, with sword-bearer in his rear, in presence of his lords, -all in imitation of the imperial throne room in Kiōto, the haughty ruler received -from the Corean envoy the symbol of vassalage—a gohei or wand on which strips of white -paper are hung. Then followed the official banquet. -</p> -<p>Since the invasion, Fusan, as before, had been held and garrisoned by the retainers -of the daimiō of Tsushima. At this port all the commerce between the two nations took -place. The interchange of commodities was established on an amicable basis. Japanese -swords, military equipments, works of art, and raw products were exchanged for Corean -merchandise. Having felt the power of the eastern sword-blades, and unable to perfect -their own clumsy iron hangers, either in temper, edge, or material, they gladly bought -of the Japanese, keeping their sword-makers busy. Kaempfer, who was at Nagasaki from -September 24, 1690, to November, 1692, tells us that the Japanese imported from Fusan -scarce medicinal plants, especially ginseng, walnuts, and fruits; the best pickled -fish, and some few manufactures; among which was “a certain sort of earthen pots made -in Japij and Ninke, two Tartarian provinces.” These ceramic oddities were “much esteemed -by the Japanese, and bought very dear.” -</p> -<p>From an American or British point of view, there was little trade done between the -two countries, but on the strength, of even <span class="pageNum" id="pb150">[<a href="#pb150">150</a>]</span>this small amount, Earl Russell, in 1862, tried to get Great Britain included as a -co-trader between Japan and Corea. He was not successful. Provision was also made -for those who might be cast, by the perils of the sea, upon the shore of either country. -At the expense of the Yedo government a <i>Chō-sen Yashiki</i> (Corean House), was built at Nagasaki. From whatever part of the Japanese shores -the waifs were picked up, they were sent to Nagasaki, fed and sheltered until a junk -could be despatched to Fusan. These unfortunates were mostly fishermen, who, in some -cases, had their wives and children with them. It was from such that Siebold obtained -the materials for his notes, vocabulary, and sketches in the Corean department of -his great <span lang="de">Archiv</span>. -</p> -<p>The possession of Fusan by the Japanese was, until 1876, a perpetual witness of the -humiliating defeat of the Coreans in the war of 1592–1597, and a constant irritation -to their national pride. Their popular historians, passing over the facts of the case, -substitute pleasing fiction to gratify the popular taste. The subjoined note of explanation, -given by Dallet, attached to a map of Corea of home manufacture, thus accounts for -the presence of the foreigners. The substance of the note is as follows: During the -sixteenth century many of the barbarous inhabitants of Tsushima left that island, -and, coming over to Corea, established themselves on the coast of Corea, in three -little ports, called Fusan, Yum, and Chisi, and rapidly increased in numbers. About -five years after Chung-chong ascended the throne, the barbarians of Fusan and Yum -made trouble. They destroyed the walls of the city of Fusan, and killed also the city -governor, named Ni Utsa. Being subdued by the royal troops, they could no longer live -in these ports, but were driven into the interior. A short time afterward, having -asked pardon for their crimes, they obtained it and came and established themselves -again at the ports. This was only for a short time, for a few years afterward, a little -before the year 1592, they all returned to their country, Tsushima. In the year 1599 -the king, Syen-cho, held communication with the Tsushima barbarians. It happened that -he invited them to the places which they had quitted on the coast of Corea, built -houses for them, treated them with great kindness, established for their benefit a -market during five days in each month, beginning on the third day of the month, and -when they had a great quantity of merchandise on hand to dispose of he even permitted -them to hold it still oftener. -</p> -<p>This is a good specimen of Corean varnish-work carried into <span class="pageNum" id="pb151">[<a href="#pb151">151</a>]</span>history. The rough facts are smoothed over by that well-applied native lacquer, which -is said to resemble gold to the eye. The official gloss has been smeared over more -modern events with equal success, and even defeat is turned into golden victory. -</p> -<p>Yet, with all the miseries inflicted upon her, the humble nation learned rich lessons -and gained many an advantage even from her enemy. The embassies, which were yearly -despatched to yield homage to their late invaders, were at the expense of the latter. -The Japanese pride purchased, at a dear rate, the empty bubble of homage, by paying -all the bills. We may even suspect that a grim joke was practised upon the victors -by the vanquished. Year by year they swelled the pomp and numbers of their train until, -finally, it reached the absurd number of four hundred persons. With imperturbable -effrontery they devastated the treasury of their “Tycoon.” To receive an appointment -on the embassy to Yedo was reckoned a rich sinecure. It enabled the possessor to enjoy -an expensive picnic of three months, two of which were at the cost of the entertainers. -Landing in Chikuzen, or Hizen, they slowly journeyed overland to Yedo, and, after -their merrymaking in the capital, leisurely made their jaunt back again. For nearly -a century the Yedo government appeared to relish the sensation of having a crowd of -people from across the sea come to pay homage and bear witness to the greatness of -the Tokugawa family. In 1710 a special gateway was erected in the castle at Yedo to -impress the embassy from Seoul, who were to arrive next year, with the serene glory -of the shō-gun Iyénobu. From a pavilion near by the embassy’s quarters, the Tycoon -himself was a spectator of the feats of archery, on horseback, in which the Coreans -excelled. The intolerable expense at last compelled the Yedo rulers to dispense with -such costly vassalage, and to spoil what was, to their guests, a pleasant game. Ordering -them to come only as far as Tsushima, they were entertained by the So family of daimiōs, -who were allowed by the “Tycoon” a stipend in gold kobans for this purpose. -</p> -<p>A great social custom, that has become a national habit, was introduced by the Japanese -when they brought over the tobacco plant and taught its properties, culture, and use. -The copious testimony of all visitors, and the rich vocabulary of terms relating to -the culture, curing, and preparation of tobacco show that the crop that is yearly -raised from the soil merely for purposes of waste in smoke is very large. In the personal -equipment of every <span class="pageNum" id="pb152">[<a href="#pb152">152</a>]</span>male Corean, and often in that of women and children, a tobacco pouch and materials -for firing forms an indispensable part. The smoker does not feel “dressed” without -his well-filled bag. Into the forms of hospitality, the requisites of threshold gossip -and social enjoyment, and for all other purposes, real or imaginary, which nicotine -can aid or abet, tobacco has entered not merely as a luxury or ornament, but as a -necessity. -</p> -<p>Another great change for the better, in the improvement of the national garb, dates -from the sixteenth century, and very probably from the Japanese invasion. This was -the introduction of the cotton plant. Hitherto, silk for the very rich, and hemp and -sea grass for the middle and poorer classes, had been the rule. In the north, furs -were worn to a large extent, while plaited straw for various parts of the limbs served -for clothing, as well as protection against storm and rain. The vegetable fibres were -bleached to give whiteness. Cotton now began to be generally cultivated and woven. -</p> -<p>It is true that authorities do not agree as to the date of the first use of this plant. -Dallet reports that cotton was formerly unknown in Corea, but was grown in China, -and that the Chinese, in order to preserve a market for their textile fabrics within -the peninsula, rigorously guarded, with all possible precautions, against the exportation -of a single one of the precious seeds. -</p> -<p>One of the members of the annual embassy to Peking, with great tact, succeeded in -procuring a few grains of cotton seed, which he concealed in the quill of his hat -feather. Thus, in a manner similar to the traditional account of the bringing of silk-worms’ -eggs inside a staff to Constantinople from China, the precious shrub reached Corea -about five hundred years ago. It is now cultivated successfully in the peninsula in -latitude far above that of the cotton belt in America, and even in Manchuria, the -most northern limit of its growth. -</p> -<p>It is evident that a country which contains cotton, crocodiles, and tigers, cannot -have a very bleak climate. It seems more probable that though the first seeds may -have been brought from China, the cultivation of this vegetable wool was not pursued -upon a large scale until after the Japanese invasion. Our reasons for questioning -the accuracy of the date given in the common tradition is, that it is certain that -cotton was not known in Northern China five hundred years ago. It was introduced into -Central China from Turkestan in the fourteenth century, though known in the extreme -<span class="pageNum" id="pb153">[<a href="#pb153">153</a>]</span>south before that time. The Chinese pay divine honors to one Hwang Tao Po, the reputed -instructress in the art of spinning and weaving the “tree-wool.” She is said to have -come from Hainan Island. -</p> -<p>Though cotton was first brought to Japan by a Hindoo, in the year 799, yet the art -of its culture seems to have been lost during the long civil wars of the middle ages. -The fact that it had become extinct is shown in a verse of poetry composed by a court -noble in 1248. “The cotton-seed, that was planted by the foreigner and not by the -natives, has died away.” In another Japanese book, written about 1570, it is stated -that cotton had again been introduced and planted in the southern provinces. -</p> -<p>The Portuguese, trading at Nagasaki, made cotton wool a familiar object to the Japanese -soldiers. While the army was in Corea a European ship, driven far out of her course -and much damaged by the storm, anchored off Yokohama. Being kindly treated while refitting, -the captain, among other gifts to the daimiō of the province, gave him a bag of cotton -seeds, which were distributed. The yarn selling at a high price, the culture of the -shrub spread rapidly through the provinces of Eastern and Northern Japan, being already -common in the south provinces. Even if the culture of cotton was not introduced into -Corea by the Japanese army, it is certain that it has been largely exported from Japan -during the last two centuries. The increase of general comfort by this one article -of wear and use can hardly be estimated. Not only as wool and fibre, but in the oil -from its seeds, the nation added largely to the sum of its blessings. -</p> -<p>Paper, from silk and hemp, rice stalk fibres, mulberry bark, and other such raw material, -had long been made by the Chinese, but it is probable that the Coreans, first of the -nations of Chinese Asia, made paper from cotton wool. For this manufacture they to-day -are famed. Their paper is highly prized in Peking and Japan for its extreme thickness -and toughness. It forms part of the annual tribute which the embassies carry to Peking. -It is often thick enough to be split into several layers, and is much used by the -tailors of the Chinese metropolis as a lining for the coats of mandarins and gentlemen. -It also serves for the covering of window-frames, and a sewed wad of from ten to fifteen -thicknesses of it make a kind of armor which the troops wear. It will resist a musket-ball, -but not a rifle-bullet. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb154">[<a href="#pb154">154</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch21" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#xd31e1004">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="label">CHAPTER XXI.</h2> -<h2 class="main">THE ISSACHAR OF EASTERN ASIA.</h2> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="first">The Shan-yan Alin, or Ever-White Mountains, stand like a wall along the northern boundary -of the Corean peninsula. Irregular mountain masses and outjutting ranges of hills -form its buttresses, while, at intervals, lofty peaks rise as towers. These are all -overtopped by the central spire Paik-tu, or Whitehead, which may be over ten thousand -feet high. From its bases flow out the Yalu, Tumen, and Hurka Rivers. -</p> -<p>From primeval times the dwellers at the foot of this mountain, who saw its ever hoary -head lost in the clouds, or glistening with fresh-fallen snow, conceived of a spirit -dwelling on its heights in the form of a virgin in white. Her servants were animals -in white fur and birds in white plumage. -</p> -<p>When Buddhism entered the peninsula, as in China and Japan, so, in Corea, it absorbed -the local deities, and hailed them under new names, as previous incarnations of Buddha -before his avatar in India, or the true advent of the precious faith through his missionaries. -They were thenceforth adopted into the Buddhist pantheon, and numbered among the worshipped -Buddhas. The spirit of the Ever-White Mountains, the virgin in ever-white robes, named -Manchusri, whose home lay among the unmelting snows, was one of these. Perhaps it -was from this deity that the Manchius, the ancestors of the ruling dynasty of China, -the wearers of the world-famous hair tails, took their name. -</p> -<p></p> -<div class="figure p155width" id="p155"><img src="images/p155.png" alt="Home of the Manchius, and Their Migrations." width="470" height="720"><p class="figureHead">Home of the Manchius, and Their Migrations.</p> -</div><p> -</p> -<p>According to Manchiu legend, as given by Professor Douglas, it is said that “in remote -ages, three heaven-born virgins dwelt beneath the shadow of the Great White Mountains, -and that, while they were bathing in a lake which reflected in its bosom the snowy -clad peaks which towered above it, a magpie dropped a blood red fruit on the clothes -of the youngest. This the maiden instinctively devoured, and forthwith conceived and -bore a son, whose name they called Ai-sin Ghioro, which being interpreted is <span class="pageNum" id="pb156">[<a href="#pb156">156</a>]</span>the ‘Golden Family Stem,’ and which is the family name of the emperors of China. When -his mother had entered the icy cave of the dead, her son embarked on a little boat, -and floated down the river Hurka, until he reached a district occupied by three families -who were at war with each other. The personal appearance of the supernatural youth -so impressed these warlike chiefs that they forgot their enmities, and hailed him -as their ruler. The town of O-to-le [Odoli] was chosen as his capital, and from that -day his people waxed fat and kicked against their oppressors, the Chinese.” -</p> -<p>The home of the Manchius was, as this legend shows, on the north side of the Ever-White -Mountains, in the valley of the Hurka. From beyond these mountains was to roll upon -China and Corea another avalanche of invasion. Beginning to be restless in the fourteenth -century, they had, in the sixteenth, consolidated so many tribes, and were so strong -in men and horses, that they openly defied the Chinese. The formidable expeditions -of Li-yu-sun, previous to the Japanese invasion of Corea, kept them at bay for a time, -but the immense expenditure of life and treasure required to fight the Japanese, drained -the resources of the Ming emperors, while their attention being drawn away from the -north, the Manchiu hordes massed their forces and grew daily in wealth, numbers, discipline, -and courage. The invasion of Chō-sen by the Japanese veterans was one of the causes -of the weakness and fall of the Ming dynasty. -</p> -<p>To repress the rising power in the north, and to smother the life of the young nation, -the Peking government resorted to barbarous cruelties and stern coercion, in which -bloodshed was continual. Unable to protect the eastern border of Liao Tung, the entire -population of three hundred thousand souls, dwelling in four cities and many villages, -were removed westward and resettled on new lands. Fortresses were planned, but not -finished, in the deserted land, to keep back the restless cavalry raiders from the -north. Thus the foundation of the neutral strip of fifty miles was unconsciously laid, -and ten thousand square miles of fair and fertile land, west of the Yalu, was abandoned -to the wolf and tiger. What it soon became, it has remained until yesterday—a howling -wilderness. (See map on page 155.) -</p> -<p>Unable to meet these cotton-armored raiders in the field, the Ming emperor ordered, -and in 1615 consummated, the assassination of their king. This exasperated all the -Manchiu tribes to vengeance, and hostilities on a large scale at once began by a southwest -movement into Liao Tung. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb157">[<a href="#pb157">157</a>]</span></p> -<p>China had now again to face an invasion greater than the Japanese, for this time a -whole nation was behind it. Calling on her vassal, the Eastern Kingdom, to send an -army of twenty thousand men, she ordered them to join the imperial army at Hing-king. -This city, now called Yen-den, lies about seventy miles west of the Yalu River, near -the 42d parallel, just beyond what was “the neutral strip,” and inside the palisades -erected later. In the battle, which ensued, the Coreans first faced the Manchius. -The imperial legions were beaten, and the Coreans, seeing which way the victory would -finally turn, deserted from the Chinese side to that of their enemy. This was in 1619. -</p> -<p>The Manchiu general sent back some of the runaway Coreans to their king, intimating -that, though the Coreans were acting gratefully in assisting the Chinese, who had -formerly helped the Coreans against the Japanese, yet it might hereafter be better -to remain neutral. So far from taking any notice of this letter, the government at -Seoul allowed the king’s subjects to cross the Yalu and assist the people of Liao -Tung against the Manchius, who were making Hing-king their capital. At the same time -the Chinese commander was permitted to enter Corea, and thence to make expeditions -against the Manchius, by which they inflicted great damage upon the enemy. This continued -until the winter of 1827, when the Manchius, having lost all patience with Corea, -prepared to invade the peninsula. Compelling two refugees to act as their guides, -they crossed the frozen Yalu in four divisions, in February, and at once attacked -the Chinese army, which was defeated, and retreated into Liao Tung. They then began -the march to Seoul. Ai-chiu was the first town taken, and then, after crossing the -Ching-chong River, followed in succession the cities lining the high road to Ping-an. -Thence, over the Tatong River, they pressed on to Seoul, the Coreans everywhere flying -before them. Thousands of dwellings and magazines of provisions were given to the -flames, and their trail was one of blood and ashes. Among the slain were two Hollanders, -who were captives in the country. -</p> -<p>Heretofore a line of strong palisades had separated Corea from Manchuria, on the north, -but large portions of it were destroyed at this time in the constant forays along -the border. Those parts which stood yet intact were often seen by travellers along -the Manchurian side as late as toward the end of the last century. Since then this -wooden wall, a pigmy imitation of China’s colossal embargo in masonry, has gradually -fallen into decay. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb158">[<a href="#pb158">158</a>]</span></p> -<p>The Manchius invested Seoul and began its siege in earnest. The queen and ladies of -the court had already been sent to Kang-wa Island. The king, to avoid further shedding -of blood, sent tribute offerings to the invaders, and concluded a treaty of peace -by which Chō-sen again exchanged masters, the king not only acknowledging from the -Manchiu sovereign the right of investiture, but also direct authority over his person, -that is, the relation of master and subject. -</p> -<p>The Coreans now waited to see whether events were likely to modify their new relations, -so reluctantly entered into, for the Chinese were far from beaten as yet. When free -from the presence of the invading army the courage of the ministers rose, and by their -advice the king, by gradual encroachments and neglect, annulled the treaty. -</p> -<p>No sooner were the Manchius able to spare their forces for the purpose, than, turning -from China, they marched into Corea, one hundred thousand strong, well supplied with -provisions and baggage-wagons. Entering the peninsula, both at Ai-chiu and by the -northern pass, they reached Seoul, and, after severe fighting, entered it. Being now -provided with cannon and boats, they took Kang-wa, into which all the royal, and many -of the noble, ladies had fled for safety. -</p> -<p>The king now came to terms, and made a treaty in February, 1637, in which he utterly -renounced his allegiance to the Ming emperor, agreed to give his two sons as hostages, -promised to send an annual embassy, with tribute, to the Manchiu court, and to establish -a market at the Border Gate, in Liao Tung. These covenants were ratified by the solemn -ceremonial of the king, his sons and his ministers confessing their crimes and making -“kow-tow” (bowing nine times to the earth). Tartar and Corean worshipped together -before Heaven, and the altar erected to Heaven’s honor. A memorial stone, erected -near this sacred place, commemorates the clemency of the Manchiu conqueror. -</p> -<p>In obedience to the orders of their new masters, the Coreans despatched ships, loaded -with grain, to feed the armies operating against Peking, and sent a small force beyond -the Tumen to chastise a tribe that had rebelled against their conquerors. A picked -body of their matchlock men was also admitted into the Manchiu service. -</p> -<p>After the evacuation of Corea, the victors marched into China, where bloody, civil -war was already raging. The imperial army <span class="pageNum" id="pb159">[<a href="#pb159">159</a>]</span>was badly beaten by the rebels headed by the usurper Li-tse-ching. The Manchius joined -their forces with the Imperialists, and defeated the rebels, and then demanded the -price of their victory. Entering Peking, they proclaimed the downfall of the house -of Ming. The Tâtar (vassal) was now a “Tartar.” The son of their late king was set -upon the dragon-throne and proclaimed the Whang Ti, the Son of Heaven, and the Lord -of the Middle Kingdom and all her vassals. The following tribute was fixed for Chō-sen -to pay annually: -</p> -<p>100 ounces of gold, 1,000 ounces of silver, 10,000 bags of rice, 2,000 pieces of silk, -300 pieces of linen, 10,000 pieces of cotton cloth, 400 pieces of hemp cloth, 100 -pieces of fine hemp cloth, 10,000 rolls (fifty sheets each) of large paper, 1,000 -rolls small sized paper, 2,000 knives (good quality), 1,000 ox-horns, 40 decorated -mats, 200 pounds of dye-wood, 10 boxes of pepper, 100 tiger skins, 100 deer skins, -400 beaver skins, 200 skins of blue (musk?) rats. -</p> -<p>When, as it happened the very next year, the shō-gun of Japan demanded an increase -of tribute to be paid in Yedo, the court of Seoul plead in excuse their wasted resources -consequent upon the war with the Manchius, and their heavy burdens newly laid upon -them. Their excuse was accepted. -</p> -<p>Twice, within a single generation, had the little peninsula been devastated by two -mighty invasions that ate up the land. Between the mountaineers of the north, and -“the brigands” from over the sea, Corea was left the Issachar among nations. The once -strong ass couched down between two burdens. “And he saw that the rest was good, and -the land that it was pleasant, and bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant -unto tribute.” -</p> -<p>The Manchius, being of different stock and blood from the Chinese, yet imposed their -dress and method of wearing the hair upon the millions of Chinese people, but here -their tyranny seemed to stop. Hitherto, the Chinese and Corean method of rolling the -hair in a knot or ball, on the top of the head, had been the fashion for ages. As -a sign of loyalty to the new rulers, all people in the Middle Kingdom were compelled -to shave the forefront of the head and allow their hair to grow in a queue, or pig-tail, -behind on their back. At first they resisted, and much blood was shed before all submitted; -but, at length, the once odious mark of savagery and foreign conquest became the national -fashion, and the Chinaman’s pride at home and abroad. Even in <span class="pageNum" id="pb160">[<a href="#pb160">160</a>]</span>foreign lands, they cling to this mark of their loyalty as to life and country. The -object of the recent queue-cutting plots, fomented by the political, secret societies -of China, is to insult the imperial family at Peking by robbing the Chinese of their -loyal appendage, and the special sign of the Tartar dominion. -</p> -<p>As a special favor to the Coreans who first submitted to the new masters of Kathay, -they were spared the infliction of the queue, and allowed to dress their hair in the -ancient style. -</p> -<p>The Corean king hastened to send congratulations to the emperor, Shun Chi, which ingratiated -him still more in favor at Peking. In 1650 a captive Corean maid, taken prisoner in -their first invasion, became sixth lady in rank in the imperial household. Through -her influence her father, the ambassador, obtained a considerable diminution of the -annual tribute, fixed upon in the terms of capitulation in 1637. In 1643, one-third -of this tribute had been remitted, so that, by this last reduction, in 1650, the tax -upon Corean loyalty was indeed very slight. Indeed it has long been considered by -the Peking government that the Coreans get about as much as they give, and the embassy -is one of ceremony rather than of tribute-bringing. Their offering is rather a percentage -paid for license to trade, than a symbol of vassalage. Nevertheless, the Coreans of -the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries found out, to their cost, that any lack of -due deference was an expensive item of freedom. Every jot and tittle, or tithe of -the mint or anise of etiquette, was exacted by the proud Manchius. In 1695, the king -of Chō-sen was fined ten thousand ounces of silver for the omission of some punctilio -of vassalage. At the investiture of each sovereign in Seoul, two grandees were sent -from Peking to confer the patent of royalty. The little bill for this costly favor -was about ten thousand taels, or dollars, in silver. The Coreans also erected, near -one of the gates of Seoul, a temple, which still stands, in honor of the Manchius -general commanding the invasion, and to whom, to this day, they pay semi-divine honors. -Yet to encourage patriotism it was permitted, by royal decree, to the descendants -of the minister who refused, at the Yalu River, to allow the Manchius to cross, and -who thereby lost his life, to erect to his memory a monumental gate, a mark of high -honor only rarely granted. -</p> -<p></p> -<div class="figure p161width" id="p161"><img src="images/p161.png" alt="Styles of Hair-dressing in Corea." width="720" height="439"><p class="figureHead">Styles of Hair-dressing in Corea.</p> -</div><p> -</p> -<p>The Jesuits at Peking succeeded in ingratiating themselves with the conquerors, and -Shun-chi, the emperor, was a pupil of Adam Schall, a German Jesuit, who became President -of the Board <span class="pageNum" id="pb162">[<a href="#pb162">162</a>]</span>of Mathematicians. Nevertheless, in the troubles preceding the peace, many upright -men lost their lives, and hundreds of scholars who hated the Tâtar conquerors of their -beloved China—as the Christians of Constantinople hated the Turks—fled to Corea and -Japan, conferring great literary influence and benefit. In both countries their presence -greatly stimulated the critical study of Chinese literature. With the Mito and Yedo -scholars in Japan, they assisted to promote the revival of learning, so long neglected -during the civil wars. At Nagasaki, a Chinese colony of merchants, and trade between -the two countries, were established, after the last hope of restoring the Mings had -been extinguished in Kokusenya (Coxinga), who also drove the Dutch from Formosa. This -exodus of scholars was somewhat like the dispersion of the Greek scholars through -Europe after the fall of the Byzantine empire. -</p> -<p>To the Jesuits in Peking, who were mostly Frenchmen, belongs the credit of beginning -that whole system of modern culture, by which modern science and Christianity are -yet to transform the Chinese mind, and recast the ideas of this mighty people concerning -nature and Deity. They now began to make known in Europe much valuable information -about China and her outlying tributary states. They sent home a map of Corea—the first -seen in Europe. Imperfect, though it was, it made the hermit land more than a mere -name. In “<span lang="la">China Illustrata</span>,” written by the Jesuit Martini, and published in 1649, in Amsterdam—the city of -printing presses and the Leipsic of that day—there is a map of Corea. The same industrious -scholar wrote, in Latin, a book, entitled “<span lang="la">De Bello inter Tartaros et Seniensis</span>” (On the War between the Manchius and the Chinese), which was issued at Antwerp in -1654, and in Amsterdam in 1661. It was also translated into English, French, and Spanish, -the editions being issued at London, Donay, and Madrid. The English title is “Bellum -Tartaricum; or, the Conquest of the Great and Most Renowned Empire of China by the -Invasion of the [Manchiu] Tartars,” London, 1654, octavo. -</p> -<p>The Dutch had long tried to get a hand in the trade of China, and, in 1604, 1622, -and 1653, had sent fleets of trading vessels to Chinese ports, but were in every instance -refused. The Russians, however, were first allowed to trade on the northern frontier -of China before the same privileges were granted to other Europeans. The Cossacks, -when they first crossed the Ural Mountains, in 1579, with their faces set toward the -Pacific, never ceased their advance <span class="pageNum" id="pb163">[<a href="#pb163">163</a>]</span>till they had added to the Czar’s domain a portion of the earth’s surface as large -as the United States, and half of Europe. Once on the steppes, there began that long -duel between Cossack and Tartar, which never ended until the boundaries of Russia -touched those of Corea, Japan, and British America. Cossacks discovered, explored, -conquered, and settled this triple-zoned region of frozen moss, forest land and fertile -soil, bringing over six million square miles of territory under the wings of the double-headed -eagle. They brought reports of Corea to Russia, and it was from Russian sources that -Sir John Campbell obtained the substance of his “Commercial History of Chorea and -Japan” in his voyages and travels, printed in London, 1771. -</p> -<p>In 1645, a party of Japanese traversed Chō-sen from Ai-chiu to Fusan, the Dan and -Beersheba of the peninsula. Returning from their travels, one of them wrote a book -called the “Romance of Corea” (Chō-sen Monogatari). Takéuchi Tosaémon and his son, -Tozo, and shipmaster Kunida Hisosaémon, on April 26, 1645, left the port of Mikuni -in the province of Echizen—the same place to which the first native of Corea is said -to have reached Japan in the legendary period. With three large junks, whose crews -numbered fifty-eight men, they set sail for the north on a trading voyage. Off the -island of Sado a fearful storm broke upon them, which, after fifteen days, drove them -on the mountain coast of Tartary, where they landed, May 12th, to refit and get fresh -water. At first the people treated them peacefully, trading off their ginseng for -the saké, or rice-beer, of the Japanese. Later on, the Japanese were attacked by the -natives, and twenty-five of their number slain. The remainder were taken to Peking, -where they remained until the winter of 1646. Honorably acquitted of all blame, they -were sent homeward, into the Eastern Kingdom, under safe conduct of the Chinese emperor -Shun-chi. They began the journey December 18th, and, crossing the snow-covered mountains -and frozen rivers of Liao Tung, reached Seoul, after twenty-eight days travel, February -3, 1647. -</p> -<p>The Japanese were entertained in magnificent style in one of the royal houses with -banquets, numerous servants, presents, and the attendance of an officer, named Kan-shun, -who took them around the city and showed them the sights. The paintings on the palace -walls, the tiger-skin rugs, the libraries of handsomely bound books, the festivities -of New Year’s day, the evergreen trees and fine scenery, were all novel and pleasing -to the Japanese, but still they longed <span class="pageNum" id="pb164">[<a href="#pb164">164</a>]</span>to reach home. Leaving Seoul, February 12th, they passed through a large city, where, -at sunset and sunrise, they heard the trumpeters call the laborers to begin and cease -work. They noticed that the official class inscribed on their walls the names and -dates of reign and death of the royal line from the founder of the dynasty to the -father of the ruling sovereign. This served as an object lesson in history for the -young. The merchants kept in their houses a picture of the famous Tao-jō-kung, who, -by skill in trade, accumulated fortunes only to spend them among his friends. On February -21st, they passed through Shang-shen (or Shang-chiu?), where the Japanese gained a -great victory. -</p> -<p>In passing along the Nak-tong River, they witnessed the annual trial of archery for -the military examinations. The targets were straw mannikins, set up on boats, in the -middle of the river. On March 6th they reached Fusan. The Japanese settlement, called -<i>Nippon-machi</i>, or Japan Street, was outside the gates of the town, a guard-house being kept up -to keep the Japanese away. Only twice a year, on August 15th and 16th, were they allowed -to leave their quarters to visit a temple in the town. The Coreans, however, were -free to enter the Japanese concession to visit or trade. The waifs were taken into -the house of the daimiō of Tsushima, and glad, indeed, were they to talk with a fellow -countryman. Sailing to Tsushima, they were able there to get Japanese clothes, and, -on July 19th, they reached Ozaka, and finally their homes in Echizen. One of their -number wrote out an account of his adventures. -</p> -<p>Among other interesting facts, he states that he saw, hanging in the palace at Peking, -a portrait of Yoshitsuné, the Japanese hero, who, as some of his countrymen believe, -fled the country and, landing in Manchuria, became the mighty warrior Genghis Khan. -Whether mistaken or not, the note of the Japanese is interesting. -</p> -<p>Mr. Leon Pages, in his “<span lang="fr">Histoire de la Religion <span class="corr" id="xd31e3147" title="Source: Chretienne">Chrétienne</span> au Japon</span>,” says that these men referred to above found established in the capital a Japanese -commercial factory, but with the very severe restrictions similar to those imposed -upon the Hollanders at Deshima. This is evidently a mistake. There was no trading -mart in the capital, but there was, and had been, one at Fusan, which still exists -in most flourishing condition. -</p> -<p>The Manchius, from the first, showed themselves “the most improvable race in Asia.” -In 1707, under the patronage of the <span class="pageNum" id="pb165">[<a href="#pb165">165</a>]</span>renowned emperor Kang Hi, the Jesuits in Peking began their great geographical enterprise—the -survey of the Chinese Empire, including the outlying vassal kingdoms. From the king’s -palace, at Seoul, Kang Hi’s envoy obtained a map of Corea, which was reduced, drawn, -and sent to Europe to be engraved and printed. From this original, most of the maps -and supposed Corean names in books, published since that time, have been copied. Having -no Corean interpreter at hand, the Jesuit cartographers gave the Chinese sounds of -the characters which represent the local names. Hence the discrepancies between this -map and the reports of the Dutch, Japanese, French, and American travellers, who give -the vernacular pronunciation. To French genius and labor, from first to last, we owe -most of what is known in Europe concerning the secluded nation. The Jesuits’ map is -accurate as regards the latitude and longitude of many places, but lacking in true -coast lines. -</p> -<p></p> -<div class="figure p165width" id="p165"><img src="images/p165.png" alt="Map illustrating the Jesuit Survey of 1709." width="471" height="445"><p class="figureHead">Map illustrating the Jesuit Survey of 1709.</p> -</div><p> -</p> -<p>While making their surveys, the party of missionaries, whose assignment of the work -was to Eastern Manchuria, caught something like a Pisgah glimpse of the country which, -before a century elapsed, was to become a land of promise to French Christianity. -In 1709, as they looked across the Tumen River, they wrote: “It was a new sight to -us after we had crossed so many forests, and coasted so many frightful mountains to -find ourselves on the banks of the <span class="pageNum" id="pb166">[<a href="#pb166">166</a>]</span>river Tumen-ula, with nothing but woods and wild beasts on one side, while the other -presented to our view all that art and labor could produce in the best cultivated -kingdoms. We there saw walled cities, and placing our instruments on the neighboring -heights, geometrically determined the location of four of them, which bounded Korea -on the north.” The four towns seen by the Jesuit surveyors were Kion-wen, On-son, -and possibly Kion-fun and Chon-shon. -</p> -<p>The Coreans could not understand the Tartar or Chinese companions of the Frenchmen, -but, at Hun-chun, they found interpreters, who told them the names of the Corean towns. -The French priests were exceedingly eager and anxious to cross the river, and enter -the land that seemed like the enchanted castle of Thornrose, but, being forbidden -by the emperor’s orders, they reluctantly turned their backs upon the smiling cities. -</p> -<p>This was the picture of the northern border in 1707, before it was desolated, as it -afterward was, so that the Russians might not be tempted to cross over. At Hun-chun, -on the Manchiu, and Kion-wen, on the Corean side of the river, once a year, alternately, -that is, once in two years, at each place, a fair was held up to 1860, where the Coreans -and Chinese merchants exchanged goods. The lively traffic lasted only half a day, -when the nationals of either country were ordered over the border, and laggards were -hastened at the spear’s point. Any foreigner, Manchiu, Chinese, or even Corean suspected -of being an alien, was, if found on the south side of the Tumen, at once put to death -without shrift or pity. Thus the only gate of parley with the outside world on Corea’s -northern frontier resembled an embrasure or a muzzle. When at last the Cossack lance -flashed, and the Russian school-house rose, and the church spire glittered with steady -radiance beyond the Tumen, this gateway became the terminus of that “underground railroad,” -through which the Corean slave reached his Canada beyond, or the Corean Christian -sought freedom from torture and dungeons and death. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb167">[<a href="#pb167">167</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch22" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#xd31e1012">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="label">CHAPTER XXII.</h2> -<h2 class="main">THE DUTCHMEN IN EXILE.</h2> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="first">The old saw which tells us that “truth is stranger than fiction” receives many a new -and unexpected confirmation whenever a traveller into strange countries comes back -to tell his tale. Marco Polo was denominated “Signor Milliano” (Lord Millions) by -his incredulous hearers, because, in speaking of China, he very properly used this -lofty numeral so frequently in his narratives. Mendez Pinto, though speaking truthfully -of Japan’s wonders, was dubbed by a pun on his Christian name, the “Mendacious,” because -he told what were thought to be very unchristian stories. In our own day, when Paul -Du Chaillu came back from the African wilds and told of the gorilla which walked upright -like a man, and could dent a gun-barrel with his teeth, most people believed, as a -college professor of <span lang="fr">belles lettres</span>, dropping elegant words for the nonce, once stated, that “he lied like the mischief.” -When lo! the once mythic gorillas have come as live guests at Berlin and Philadelphia, -while their skeletons are commonplaces in our museums. Even Stanley’s African discoveries -were, at first, discredited. -</p> -<p>The first European travellers in Corea, who lived to tell their tale at home, met -the same fate as Polo, Pinto, Du Chaillu, and Stanley. The narratives were long doubted, -and by some set down as pure fiction. Like the Indian braves that listen to Red Cloud -and Spotted Tail, who, in the lodges of the plains, recount the wonders of Washington -and civilization, the hearers are sure that they have taken “bad medicine.” Later -reports or personal experience, however, corroborate the first accounts, and by the -very commonplaceness of simple truth the first reports are robbed alike of novelty -and suspicion. -</p> -<p>The first known entrance of any number of Europeans into Corea was that of Hollanders, -belonging to the crew of the Dutch ship <span class="corr" id="xd31e3179" title="Source: Hollandra">Hollandia</span>, which was driven ashore in 1627. In those days <span class="pageNum" id="pb168">[<a href="#pb168">168</a>]</span>the Dutch were pushing their adventurous progress in the eastern seas as well as on -the American waters. They had forts, trading settlements, or prosperous cities in -Java, Sumatra, the Spice Islands, Formosa, and the ports of Southern Japan. The shores -of these archipelagoes and continents being then little known, and slightly surveyed, -shipwrecks were very frequent. The profits of a prosperous voyage usually repaid all -losses of ships, though it is estimated that three out of five were lost. The passage -between China and Japan and up the seas south of Corea, has, from ancient times, been -difficult, even to a Chinese proverb. -</p> -<p>A big, blue-eyed, red-bearded, robust Dutchman, named John <span class="corr" id="xd31e3186" title="Source: Wetterree">Weltevree</span>, whose native town was <span class="corr" id="xd31e3189" title="Source: Rip">De Rijp</span>, in North Holland, volunteered on board the Dutch ship <span class="corr" id="xd31e3192" title="Source: Hollandra">Hollandia</span> in 1626, in order to get to Japan. In that wonderful country, during the previous -seventeen years, his fellow-countrymen had been trading and making rich fortunes, -occasionally fighting on the seas with the Portuguese and other buccaneers of the -period. -</p> -<p>The good ship, after a long voyage around the Cape of Good Hope, and through the Indian -and Chinese Seas, was almost in sight of Japan. Coasting along the Corean shores, -Mr. John <span class="corr" id="xd31e3197" title="Source: Wetterree">Weltevree</span> and some companions went ashore to get water, and there were captured by the natives. -The Coreans were evidently quite willing to have such a man at hand, for use rather -than ornament. After the Japanese invasions a spasm of enterprise in the way of fortification, -architecture, and development of their military resources possessed them, and to have -a big-nosed and red-bearded foreigner, a genuine “Nam-ban,” or barbarian of the south, -was a prize. To both Coreans and Japanese, the Europeans, as coming in ships from -the southward, were called “Southerners,” or “Southern savages.” Later on, after learning -new lessons in geography, they called them “Westerners,” or “Barbarians from the West.” -</p> -<p>Like the black potentates of Africa, who like to possess a white man, believing him -to be a “spirit,” or a New Zealand chief, who values the presence of a “paheka Maori” -(Englishman), the Coreans of that day considered their western “devil” a piece of -property worth many tiger skins. It may be remembered—and the Coreans may have borrowed -the idea thence—that the Japanese, then beginning their hermit policy, had also a -white foreigner in durance for their benefit. This was the Englishman Will Adams, -who had been a pilot on a Dutch ship that sailed from the same <span class="pageNum" id="pb169">[<a href="#pb169">169</a>]</span>Texel River. Perhaps the boy <span class="corr" id="xd31e3204" title="Source: Wetterree">Weltevree</span> had seen and talked with the doughty Briton on the wharves of the Dutch port. Adams -served the Japanese as interpreter, state adviser, ship architect, mathematician, -and in various useful ways, but was never allowed to leave Japan. It is highly probable -that the ambassadors from Seoul, while in Yedo, saw Will Adams, since he spent much -of his time in public among the officials and people, living there until May, 1620. -</p> -<p>The magnates of Seoul probably desired to have a like factotum, and this explains -why <span class="corr" id="xd31e3209" title="Source: Wetterree">Weltevree</span> was treated with kindness and comparative honor, though kept as a prisoner. When -the Manchius invaded Corea, in 1635, his two companions were killed in the wars, and -<span class="corr" id="xd31e3212" title="Source: Wetterree">Weltevree</span> was left alone. Having no one with whom he could converse, he had almost forgotten -his native speech, when after twenty-seven years of exile, in the fifty-ninth year -of his age, he met some of his fellow-Hollanders and acted as interpreter to the Coreans, -under the following circumstances: -</p> -<p>In January, 1653, the Dutch ship <span class="corr" id="xd31e3217" title="Source: Sparwehr">Sperwer</span> (Sparrowhawk) left Texel Island, bound for Nagasaki. Among the crew was Hendrik Hamel, -the supercargo, who afterward became the historian of their adventures. After nearly -five months’ voyage, they reached Batavia, June 1st, and Formosa July 16th. From this -island they steered for Japan, fortunately meeting no “wild Chinese” or pirates on -their course. Off Quelpart Island, a dreadful storm arose, and, being close on a lee -shore with death staring all in the face, the captain ordered them “to cut down the -mast and go to their prayers.” The ship went to pieces, but thirty-six out of the -sixty-four men composing the crew reached the shore alive. The local magistrate, an -elder of some seventy years of age, who knew a little Dutch, met them with his retainers, -and learned their plight, who they were, and whence they came. The Hollanders were -first refreshed with rice-water. The Coreans then collected the pieces of the broken -ship, and all they could get from the hulk, and burned them for the sake of the metal. -One of the iron articles happened to be a loaded cannon, which went off during the -firing. The liquor casks were speedily emptied into the gullets of the wreckers, and -the result was a very noisy set of heathen. -</p> -<p>The old leader, however, evidently determined to draw the line between virtue and -vice somewhere. He had several of the thieves seized and spanked on the spot, while -others were bambooed on the soles of their feet, one so severely that his toes dropped -off. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb170">[<a href="#pb170">170</a>]</span></p> -<p>On October 29th the survivors were brought by the officials to be examined by the -interpreter <span class="corr" id="xd31e3226" title="Source: Wetterree">Weltevree</span>. The huge noses, the red beards and white faces were at once recognized by the lone -exile as belonging to his own countrymen. <span class="corr" id="xd31e3229" title="Source: Wetterree">Weltevree</span> was very “rusty” in his native language, after twenty-seven years’ nearly complete -disuse, but in company with the new arrivals he regained it all in a month. -</p> -<p>Of course, the first and last idea of the captives was how to escape. The native fishing-smacks -were frequently driven off to Japan, which they knew must be almost in sight. One -night they made an attempt to reach the sea-shore. They at first thought they were -secure, when the dogs betrayed them by barking and alarming the guards. -</p> -<p>It is evident that the European body has an odor entirely distinct from a Mongolian. -The Abbé Huc states that even when travelling through Thibet and China, in disguise, -the dogs continually barked at him and almost betrayed him, even at night. In travelling, -and especially when living in the Japanese city of Fukui, the writer had the same -experience. In walking through the city streets at night, even when many hundred yards -off, the Japanese dogs would start up barking and run toward him. This occurred repeatedly, -when scores of native pedestrians were not noticed by the beasts. The French missionaries -in Corea, even in disguise, report the same facts. -</p> -<p>The baffled Hollanders were caught and officially punished after the fashion of the -nursery, but so severely that some had to keep their beds for a month, in order to -heal their battered flanks. Finally they were ordered to proceed to the capital, which -the Dutchmen call Sior (Seoul). -</p> -<p>Hamel gives a few names of the places through which he passed. These are in the pronunciation -of the local dialect, and written down in Dutch spelling. Most of them are recognizable -on the map, though the real sound is nearly lost in a quagmire of Dutch letters, in -which Hamel has attempted to note the quavers and semi-demi-quavers of Corean enunciation. -He writes <i>Coeree</i> for Corea, and <i>Tyocen-koeck</i> for Chō-sen kokŭ, and is probably the first European to mention Quelpart Island, -on which the ship was wrecked. -</p> -<p>The first city on the mainland to which they came was Heynam (Hai-nam), in the extreme -southwest of Chulla. This was about the last of May. Thence they marched to Jeham, -spending the night <span class="pageNum" id="pb171">[<a href="#pb171">171</a>]</span>at Na-diou (Nai-chiu). The gunner of the ship died at Je-ham, or Je-ban. They passed -through San-siang (Chan-shon), and came to Tong-ap (Chon-wup?), after crossing a high -mountain, on the top of which was the spacious fortress of Il-pam San-siang. The term -“San-siang,” used twice here, means a fortified stronghold in the mountains, to which, -in time of war, the neighboring villagers may fly for refuge. Teyn (Tai-in), was the -next place arrived at, after which, “having baited at the little town of Kuniga” (Kumku), -they reached Khin-tyo (Chon-chiu), where the governor of Chillado (Chulla dō) resided. -This city, though a hundred miles from the sea, was very famous, and was a seat of -great traffic. After this, they came to the last town of the province, Jesan, and, -passing through Gunun and Jensan, reached Konsio (Kong-chiu), the capital of Chung-chong -province. They reached the border of Kiung-kei by a rapid march, and, after crossing -a wide river (the Han), they traversed a league, and entered Sior (Seoul). They computed -the length of the journey at seventy-five leagues. This, by a rough reckoning, is -about the distance from Hainam to Seoul, as may be seen from the map. -</p> -<p>In the capital, as they had been along the road, the Dutchmen were like wild beasts -on show. Crowds flocked to see the white-faced and red-bearded foreigners. They must -have appeared to the natives as Punch looks to English children. The women were even -more anxious than the men to get a good look. Every one was especially curious to -see the Dutchmen drink, for it was generally believed that they tucked their noses -up over their ears when they drank. The size and prominence of the nasal organ of -a Caucasian first strikes a Turanian with awe and fear. Thousands of people no doubt -learned, for the first time, that the western “devils” were men after all, and ate -decent food and not earthworms and toads. Some of the women, so Hamel flattered himself, -even went so far as to admire the fair complexions and ruddy cheeks of the Dutchmen. -At the palace, the king (Yo-chong, who reigned from 1648 to 1658) improved the opportunity -for a little fun. It was too good a show not to see how the animals could perform. -The Dutchmen laughed, sang, danced, leaped, and went through miscellaneous performances -for His Majesty’s benefit. For this they were rewarded with choice drink and refreshments. -They were then assigned to the body-guard of the king as petty officers, and an allowance -of rice was set apart for their maintenance. Chinese and Dutchmen drilled and commanded -<span class="pageNum" id="pb172">[<a href="#pb172">172</a>]</span>the palace troops, who were evidently the flower of the army. During their residence -at the capital the Hollanders learned many things about the country and people, and -began to be able to talk in the “Coresian” language. -</p> -<p>The ignorance and narrowness of the Coreans were almost incredible. They could not -believe what the captives told them of the size of the earth. “How could it be possible,” -said they, in sneering incredulity, “that the sun can shine on all the many countries -you tell us of at once?” Thinking the foreigners told exaggerated lies, they fancied -that the “countries” were only counties and the “cities” villages. To them Corea was -very near the centre of the earth, which was China. -</p> -<p>The cold was very severe. In November the river was frozen over, and three hundred -loaded horses passed over it on the ice. -</p> -<p>After they had been in Seoul three years, the “Tartar” (Manchiu) ambassador visited -Seoul, but before his arrival the captives were sent away to a fort, distant six or -seven leagues, to be kept until the ambassador left, which he did in March. This fort -stood on a mountain, called Numma, which required three hours to ascend. In time of -war the king sought shelter within it, and it was kept provisioned for three years. -Hamel does not state why he and his companions were sent away, but it was probably -to conceal the fact that foreigners were drilling the royal troops. The suspicions -of the new rulers at Peking were easily roused. -</p> -<p>When the Manchiu envoy was about to leave Seoul, some of the prisoners determined -to put in execution a plan of escape. They put on Dutch clothes, under their Corean -dress, and awaited their opportunity. As the envoy was on the road about to depart, -some of them seized the bridle of his horse, and displaying their Dutch clothing, -begged him to take them to Peking. The plan ended in failure. The Dutchmen were seized -and thrown into prison. Nothing more was ever heard of them, and it was believed by -their companions that they had been put to death. This was in March. -</p> -<p>In June there was another shipwreck off Quelpart Island, and <span class="corr" id="xd31e3256" title="Source: Wetterree">Weltevree</span> being now too old to make the journey, three of the Hollanders were sent to act as -interpreters. Hamel does not give us the result of their mission. -</p> -<p>The Manchiu ambassador came again to Seoul in August. The nobles urged the king to -put the Hollanders to death, and have no more trouble with them. His Majesty refused, -but sent <span class="pageNum" id="pb173">[<a href="#pb173">173</a>]</span>them back into Chulla, allowing them each fifty pounds of rice a month for their support. -</p> -<p>They set out from Seoul in March, 1657, on horseback, passing through the same towns -as on their former journey. Reaching the castle-city of “Diu-siong,” they were joined -by their three comrades sent to investigate the wreck at Quelpart, which made their -number thirty-three. Their chief occupation was that of keeping the castle and official -residence in order—an easy and congenial duty for the neat and order-loving Dutchmen. -</p> -<p>Hamel learned many of the ideas of the natives. They represented their country as -in the form of a long square, “in shape like a playing-card”—perhaps the Dutchmen -had a pack with them to beguile the tedium of their exile. Certain it is that they -still kept the arms and flag of Orange, to be used again. -</p> -<p>The exiles were not treated harshly, though in one case, after a change of masters, -the new magistrate “afflicted them with fresh crosses.” This “rotation in office” -was evidently on account of the change on the throne. Yo-chong ceased to reign in -1658, and “a new king arose who knew not Joseph.” Yen-chong succeeded his father, -reigning from 1658 to 1676. -</p> -<p>Two large comets appearing in the sky with their tails toward each other, frightened -the Coreans, and created intense alarm. The army was ordered out, the guards were -doubled, and no fires were allowed to be kindled along the coast, lest they might -attract or guide invaders or a hostile force. In the last few decades, comets had -appeared, said the Coreans, and in each case they had presaged war. In the first, -the Japanese invasions from the east, and, in the second, the Manchius from the west. -They anxiously asked the Dutchmen how comets were regarded in Holland, and probably -received some new ideas in astronomy. No war, however, followed, and the innocent -comets gradually shrivelled up out of sight, without shaking out of their fiery hair -either pestilence or war. -</p> -<p>The Dutchmen saw many whales blowing off the coast, and in December shoals of herring -rushed by, keeping up an increasing stream of life until January, when it slackened, -and in March ceased. The whales made sad havoc in these shoals, gorging themselves -on the small fry. These are the herring which arrive off the coast of Whang-hai, and -feed on the banks and shoals during the season. The catching of them affords lucrative -employment to hundreds of junks from North China. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb174">[<a href="#pb174">174</a>]</span></p> -<p>From their observations, the Dutchmen argued—one hundred and twenty years before La -Perouse demonstrated the fact—that there must be a strait north of Corea, connecting -with the Arctic Ocean, like that of Waigats (now called the Strait of Kara), between -Nova Zemla and the island lying off the northwestern end of Russia. They thus conjectured -the existence of the Straits of Tartary, west of Saghalin, before they appeared on -any European map. Waigats was discovered by the Englishman, Stephen Burroughs, who -had been sent out by the Muscovy company to find a northwest passage to China. Their -mention of it shows that they were familiar with the progress of polar research, since -it was discovered in 1556, only seven years before they left Holland. It had even -at that time, however, become a famous hunting-place for whalers and herring fishers. -</p> -<p>These marine studies of the captives, coupled with the fact that they had before attempted -to escape, may have aroused the suspicions of the government. In February, 1663, by -orders from Seoul, they were separated and put in three different towns. Twelve went -to “Saysiano,” five to Siun-schien, and five to Namman, their numbers being now reduced -to twenty-two. Two of these places are easily found on the Japanese map. During all -the years of their captivity, they seem not to have known anything of the Japanese -at Fusan, nor the latter of them. -</p> -<p>Though thus scattered, the men were occasionally allowed to visit each other, which -they did, enjoying each other’s society, sweetened with pipes and tobacco, and Hamel -devoutly adds that “it was a great mercy of God that they enjoyed good health.” A -new governor having been appointed over them, evidently was possessed with the idea -of testing the skill of the bearded foreigners, with a view of improving the art productions -of the country. He set the Dutchmen to work at moulding clay—perhaps to have some -pottery and tiles after Dutch patterns, and the Delft system of illustrating the Bible -at the fireplace. This was so manifestly against the national policy of making no -improvements on anything, that the poor governor lost his place and suffered punishment. -The spies informed on him to the king. An explosion of power took place, the ex-governor -received ninety strokes on his shin-bones, and was disgraced from rank and office. -The quondam improvers of the ceramic art of Corea were again set to work at pulling -up grass and other menial duties about the official residence. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb175">[<a href="#pb175">175</a>]</span></p> -<p>As the years passed on, the poor exiles were in pitiful straits. Their clothing had -been worn to tatters, and they were reduced even to beggary. They were accustomed -to go off in companies to seek alms of the people, for two or three weeks at a time. -Those left at home, during these trips, worked at various odd jobs to earn a pittance, -especially at making arrows. The next year, 1664, was somewhat easier for them, their -overseer being kind and gentle; but, in 1665, the homesick fellows tried hard to escape. -In 1666, they lost their benefactor, the good governor. Now came the time for flight. -</p> -<p>All possible preparations were made, in the way of hoarding provisions, getting fresh -water ready, and studying well the place of exit. They waited for the sickness or -absence of their overseer, to slacken the vigilance of their guards. -</p> -<p>In the latter part of August, or early in September, 1667, as the fourteenth year -of their captivity was drawing to a close, the governor fell sick. The Dutchmen, taking -time by the forelock, immediately, as soon as dark, on the night of September 4th, -climbed the city wall, and reaching the seaside succeeded, after some parleying, in -getting a boat. “A Corean, blinded by the offer of double the value of it,” sold them -his fishing craft. They returned again to the city. At night they crept along the -city wall, and this time the dogs were asleep, absent, or to windward, though the -Dutchmen’s hearts were in their mouths all the time. They carried pots of rice and -water, and that darling of a Dutchman—the frying-pan. Noiselessly they slipped the -wood and stone anchor, and glided out past the junks and boats in the harbor, none -of the crews waking from their mats. -</p> -<p>They steered directly southeast, and on the 6th found themselves in a current off -the Goto Islands. They succeeded in landing, and cooked some food. Not long after, -some armed natives (probably from the lingering influence of the comet) approached -them cautiously, as the Japanese feared they were Coreans, and forerunners of an invading -band. -</p> -<p>Hamel at once pulled out their flag, having the arms and colors of the Prince of Orange. -Surrendering themselves, they stated their history, and condition, and their desire -of getting home. The Japanese were kind, “but made no return for the gifts” of the -Dutchmen. They finally got to Nagasaki in Japanese junks, and met their countrymen -at Déshima. The annual ship from Batavia was then just about to return, and in the -nick of time the waifs <span class="pageNum" id="pb176">[<a href="#pb176">176</a>]</span>got on board, reached Batavia November 20th, sailed for Holland December 28th, and -on July 20, 1668, stepped ashore at home. -</p> -<hr class="tb"><p> -</p> -<p>Hamel, the supercargo of the ship, wrote a book on his return, recounting his adventures -in a simple and straightforward style. It was written in Dutch and shortly after translated -into French, German, and English. Four editions in Dutch are known. The English version -may be found in full in the Astley, and in the Pinkerton, Collections of Voyages and -Travels. -</p> -<p>The French translator indulges in skepticism concerning Hamel’s narrative, questioning -especially his geographical statements. Before a map of Corea, with the native sounds -even but approximated, it will be seen that Hamel’s story is a piece of downright -unembroidered truth. It is indeed to be regretted that this actual observer of Corean -life, people, and customs gave us so little information concerning them. -</p> -<p>The fate of the other survivors of the Sparrowhawk crew was never known. Perhaps it -never will be learned, as it is not likely that the Coreans would take any pains to -mark the site of their graves. Yet as the tomb of Will Adams was found in Japan, by -a reader of Hildreth’s book, so perhaps some inquiring foreigner in Corea may discover -the site of the graves of these exiles, and mark their resting-places. -</p> -<p>There is no improbability in supposing that other missing vessels, previous to the -second half of the nineteenth century, shared the fate of the Sparrowhawk. The wrecks, -burned for the sake of the iron, would leave no trace; while perhaps many shipwrecked -men have pined in captivity, and dying lonely in a strange land have been put in unmarked -graves. -</p> -<hr class="tb"><p> -</p> -<p>At this point, we bring to an end our sketch of the ancient and mediæval history of -Corea. Until the introduction of Christianity into the peninsula, the hermit nation -was uninfluenced by any ideas which the best modern life claims as its own. As with -the whole world, so with its tiny fraction Corea, the door of ancient history shut, -and the gate of modern history opened, when the religion of Jesus moved the hearts -and minds of men. We now glance at the geography, politics, social life, and religion -of the Coreans; after which we shall narrate the story of their national life from -the implanting of Christianity until their rivulet of history flowed into the stream -of the world’s history. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb177">[<a href="#pb177">177</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div id="pt2" class="div0 part"> -<h2 class="label">II.</h2> -<h2 class="main">POLITICAL AND SOCIAL COREA.</h2> -<p><span class="pageNum" id="pb179">[<a href="#pb179">179</a>]</span></p> -<div id="ch23" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#xd31e1028">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="super">POLITICAL AND SOCIAL COREA.</h2> -<h2 class="label">CHAPTER XXIII.</h2> -<h2 class="main">THE EIGHT PROVINCES.</h2> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#toc">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">PING-AN, OR THE PACIFIC.</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="first">This province bears the not altogether appropriate name of Peaceful Quiet. It is the -border land of the kingdom, containing what was for centuries the only acknowledged -gate of entrance and outlet to the one neighbor which Corea willingly acknowledged -as her superior. It contains, probably, the largest area of any province, unless it -be Ham-kiung. Its northern, and a great part of its western, frontier is made by the -Yalu River, called also the Ap-nok, the former name referring to its sinuous course, -meaning “dragon’s windings,” and the latter after its deep green color. -</p> -<p>The Yalu is the longest river in Corea. Its source is found near the 40th parallel. -Flowing northwardly, for about eighty miles, the stream forms the boundary between -Ping-an and Ham-kiung. Then, turning to the westward, it receives on the Manchurian -side twelve tributaries, which run down the gorges of the Ever-White Mountains. Each -of these streams is named, beginning westwardly, after the numerals of arithmetic. -The waters of so many valleys on the west, as well as on the north and east, emptying -into the Yalu, make it, in spring and fall, a turbulent stream, which sinuates like -the writhing of a dragon; whence its name. In the summer, its waters are beautifully -clear, and blue or green—the Coreans having no word to distinguish between these two -colors. It empties by three mouths into the Yellow Sea, its deltas, or islands, being -completely submerged during the melting of the snows. It is easily navigable for junks -to the town of Chan-son, a noted trading place, sixty miles from the sea. The <span class="pageNum" id="pb180">[<a href="#pb180">180</a>]</span>valley of the Yalu is extremely fertile, and well wooded, and the scenery is superb. -Its navigation was long interdicted to the Chinese, but steamers and gunboats have -entered it, and access to the fertile valley and the trade of the region will be gained -by other nations. The Tong-kia River drains the neutral strip. -</p> -<p>The town nearest the frontier, and the gateway of the kingdom, is Ai-chiu. It is situated -on a hill overlooking the river, and surrounded by a wall of light-colored stone. -The annual embassy always departed for its overland journey to China through its gates. -Here also are the custom-house and vigilant guards, whose chief business it was to -scrutinize all persons entering or leaving Corea by the high road, which traverses -the town. A line of patrols and guard-houses picketed the river along a length of -over a hundred miles. -</p> -<p>Nevertheless, most of the French missionaries have entered the mysterious peninsula -through this loophole, disguising themselves as wood-cutters, crossing the Yalu River -on the ice, creeping through the water-drains in the granite wall, and passing through -this town. Or they have been met by friends at appointed places along the border, -and thence have travelled to the capital. -</p> -<p>Through this exit also, Corea sent to Peking or Mukden the waifs and sailors cast -on her shores. A number of shipwrecked Americans, after kind treatment at the hands -of the Coreans, have thus reached their homes by way of Mukden. This prosperous city, -having a population of over two hundred thousand souls, and noted for its manufactures, -especially in metal, is the capital of the Chinese province of Shing-king, formerly -Liao Tong. It is surrounded by a long wall pierced with eight gates, one of which—that -to the northeast—is called “the Corean Gate.” Niu-chwang has also a “Corean Gate.” -</p> -<p>Fifty miles beyond the Corean frontier is the “Border Gate” (Pien-mun), at which there -was a fair held three or four times a year, the chief markets being at the exit and -return of the Corean embassy to China. The value of the products here sold annually -averaged over five hundred thousand dollars. In the central apartment of a building -inhabited at either end by Chinese and Corean mandarins respectively, the customs-officers -sat to collect taxes on the things bartered. The Corean merchants were obliged to -pay “bonus” or tribute of about four hundred dollars to the mandarin of Fung-wang -Chang, the nearest Chinese town, who came in person to open the gates of the building -for the spring fair. For <span class="pageNum" id="pb181">[<a href="#pb181">181</a>]</span>the privilege of the two autumn fairs, the Coreans were mulcted but half the sum, -as the gates were then opened by an underling Manchiu official. The winter fair was -but of slight importance. For the various Chinese goods, and European cottons, the -Coreans <span class="pageNum" id="pb182">[<a href="#pb182">182</a>]</span>bartered their furs, hides, gold dust, ginseng, and the mulberry paper used by Chinese -tailors for linings, and for windows. -</p> -<p></p> -<div class="figure p181width" id="p181"><img src="images/p181.png" alt="Map of Ping-an Province." width="529" height="720"><p class="figureHead">Map of Ping-an Province.</p> -</div><p> -</p> -<p>Ping-an has the reputation of being very rich in mineral and metallic wealth. Gold -and silver by report abound, but the natives are prohibited by the government from -working the mines. The neutrality of the strip of territory, sixty miles wide and -about three hundred miles long, and drained by the Tong-kia River, between Chō-sen -and Chin, was respected by the Chinese government until 1875, when Li Hung Chung, -on complaint of the king of Corea, made a descent on the Manchiu outlaws and squatters -settled on the strip. Having despatched a force of troops, with gunboats up the Yalu, -to co-operate with them, he found the region overspread with cultivators. The eyes -of the viceroy being opened to the fertility of this land, and the navigability of -the river, he proposed, in a memorial to Peking, that the land be incorporated in -the Chinese domain, but that a wall and ditch be built to isolate Corea, and that -all Chinese trespassers on Corean ground be handed over to the mandarins to be sent -prisoners to Mukden, and to be there beheaded, while Chinese resisting capture should -be lawfully slain by Coreans. To this the Seoul government agreed. By this clever -diplomacy the Chinese gained back a huge slice of valuable land, probably without -the labor of digging ditches or building palisades. The old wall of stakes still remains, -in an extremely dilapidated condition. Off the coast are a few islands, and a number -of shallow banks, around which shell- and scale-fish abound. Chinese junks come in -fleets every year in the fishing season, but their presence is permitted only on condition -of their never setting foot on shore. In reality much contraband trade is done by -the smugglers along the coast. A group of islands near the mouth was long the nest -of Chinese pirates, but these have been broken up by Li Hung Chang’s gunboats. Next -to the Yalu, the most important river of the province is the Ta-tong or Ping-an, which -discharges a great volume of fresh water annually into the sea. A number of large -towns and cities are situated on or near its banks, and the high road follows the -course of the river. It is the Rubicon of Chō-sen history, and at various epochs in -ancient times was the boundary river of China, or of the rival states within the peninsula. -About fifty miles from its mouth is the city of Ping-an, the metropolis of the province, -and the royal seat of authority, from before the Christian era, to the tenth century. -Its situation renders it a natural stronghold. It <span class="pageNum" id="pb183">[<a href="#pb183">183</a>]</span>has been many times besieged by Chinese and Japanese armies, and near it many battles -have been fought. “The General Sherman affair,” in 1866, in which the crew of the -American schooner were murdered—which occasioned the sending of the United States -naval expedition in 1871—took place in front of the city of Ping-an, Commander J. C. -Febiger, in the U. S. S. Shenandoah, visited the mouths of the river in 1869, and -while vainly waiting for the arrest of the murderers, surveyed the inlet, to which -he gave the name of “Shenandoah.” -</p> -<p>By official enumeration, Ping-an contains 293,400 houses, and the muster-rolls give -174,538 as the number of men capable of military duty. The governor resides at Ping-an. -</p> -<p>There is considerable diversity of character between the inhabitants of the eight -provinces. Those of the two most northern, particularly of Ping-an, are more violent -in temper than the other provincials. Very few nobles or official dignitaries live -among them, hence very few of the refinements of the capital are to be found there. -They are not <span class="corr" id="xd31e3334" title="Source: over loyal">overloyal</span> to the reigning dynasty, and are believed to cherish enmity against it. The government -keeps vigilant watch over them, repressing the first show of insubordination, lest -an insurrection difficult to quell should once gain headway. It is from these provinces -that most of the refugees into Russian territory come. It was among these men that -the “General Sherman affair” took place, and it is highly probable that even if the -regent were really desirous of examining into the outrage, he was afraid to do so, -when the strong public sentiment was wholly on the side of the murderers of the Sherman’s -crew. -</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#toc">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">THE YELLOW-SEA PROVINCE.</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="first">All the eight circuits into which Chō-sen is divided are maritime provinces, but this -is the only one which takes its name from the body of water on which its borders lie, -jutting out into the Whang-hai, or Yellow Sea, its extreme point lies nearest to Shantung -promontory in China. Its coast line exceeds its land frontiers. In the period anterior -to the Christian era, Whang-hai, was occupied by the tribes called the Mahan, and -from the second to the sixth century, by the kingdom of Hiaksai. It has been the camping-ground -of the armies of many nations. Here, besides the border forays which engaged the troops -of the rival kingdoms, the Japanese, Chinese, Mongols, and Manchius, have contended -<span class="pageNum" id="pb184">[<a href="#pb184">184</a>]</span>for victory again and again. The ravages of war, added to a somewhat sterile soil, -are the causes of Whang-hai being the least populated province of the eight in the -peninsula. From very ancient times the Corean peninsula has been renowned for its -pearls. These are of superior lustre and great size. Even before the Christian era, -when the people lived in caves and mud huts, and before they had horses or cattle, -the barbaric inhabitants of this region wore necklaces of pearls, and sewed them on -their clothing, row upon row. They amazed the invading hordes of the Han dynasty, -with such incongruous mixture of wealth and savagery; as the Indians, careless of -the yellow dust, surprised by their indifference to it the gold-greedy warriors of -Balboa. Later on, the size and brilliancy of Corean pearls became famous all over -China. They were largely exported. The Chinese merchant braved the perils of the sea, -and of life among the rude Coreans, to win lustrous gems of great price, which he -bartered when at home for sums which made him quickly rich. In the twelfth century -the fame of these “Eastern pearls,” as they were then called, and which outrivalled -even those from the Tonquin fisheries, became the cause of an attempted conquest of -the peninsula, the visions of wealth acting as a lure to the would-be invaders. It -may even be that the Corean pearl fisheries were known by fame to the story-tellers -of the “Arabian Nights Entertainments.” Much of the mystic philosophy of China concerning -pearls is held also by the Coreans. The Corean Elysium is a lake of pearls. In burying -the dead, those who can afford it, fill the mouth of the corpse with three pearls, -which, if large, will, it is believed, preserve the dead body from decay. This emblem -of three flashing pearls, is much in vogue in native art The gems are found on the -banks lying off the coast of this province, as well as in the archipelago to the south, -and at Quelpart. The industry is, at present, utterly neglected. The pearls are kept, -but no use seems to be made of the brilliant nacre of the mussel-shells, which are -exported to Japan, to be used in inlaying. -</p> -<p></p> -<div class="figure p185width" id="p185"><img src="images/p185.png" alt="Map of the Yellow-sea Province." width="715" height="433"><p class="figureHead">Map of the Yellow-sea Province.</p> -</div><p> -</p> -<p>More valuable to the modern people than the now almost abandoned pearl mussel-beds, -are the herring fisheries, which, during the season, attract fleets of junks and thousands -of fishermen from the northern coast provinces of China. Opposite, at a distance of -about eighty miles as the crow flies, measuring from land’s end to land’s end, is -the populous province of Shantung, or “Country east of the mountains.” On the edge -of this promontory are the <span class="pageNum" id="pb185">[<a href="#pb185">185</a>]</span>cities of Chifu and Teng Chow, while further to the east is Tientsin, the seaport -of Peking. From the most ancient times, Chinese armadas have sailed, and invading -armies have embarked for Corea from these ports. Over and over again has the river -Tatong been crowded with fleets of junks, fluttering the dragon-banners at their peaks. -From the Shantung headlands, also, Chinese pirates have sailed over to the tempting -coasts and green islands of Corea, to ravage, burn, and kill. To guard against these -invaders, and to notify the arrival of foreigners, signal fires are lighted on the -hill-tops, which form a cordon of flame and speed the alarm from coast to capital -in a few hours. These pyrographs or fire signals are called “Pong-wa.” At Mok-mie′ -san, a mountain south of the capital, the fire-messages of the three southern provinces -are received. By day, instead of the pillars of fire, are clouds of smoke, made by -heaping wet chopped straw or rice-husks on the blaze. Instantly a dense white column -rises in the air, which, to the sentinels from peak to peak, is eloquent of danger. -In more peaceful times, Corean timber has been largely exported to Chifu, and tribute-bearing -ships have sailed over to Tientsin. The Chinese fishermen usually appear off the coast -of this province in the third month, or April, remaining until June, when their white -sails, bent homeward, sink from the gaze of the vigilant sentinels <span class="pageNum" id="pb186">[<a href="#pb186">186</a>]</span>on the hills, who watch continually lest the Chinese set foot on shore. This they -are forbidden to do on pain of death. In spite of the vigilance of the soldiers, however, -a great deal of smuggling is done at night, between the Coreans and Chinese boatmen, -at this time, and the French missionaries have repeatedly passed the barriers of this -forbidden land by disembarking from Chifu junks off this coast. The island of Merin -(Merin-to) has, on several occasions, been trodden by the feet of priests who afterward -became martyrs. At one time, in June, 1865, four Frenchmen entered “the lion’s den” -from this rendezvous. There is a great bank of sand and many islands off the coast, -the most important of the latter being the Sir James Hall group, which was visited, -in 1816, by Captains Maxwell and Hall, in the ships Lyra and Alceste. These forest-clad -and well-cultivated islands were named after the president of the Edinburgh Geographical -Society, the father of the gallant sailor and lively author who drove the first British -keel through the unknown waters of the Yellow Sea. Eastward from this island cluster -is a large bay and inlet near the head of which is the fortified city of Chan-yon. -</p> -<p>In January, 1867, Commander R. W. Shufeldt, in the U. S. S. Wachusett, visited this -inlet to obtain redress for the murder of the crew of the American schooner General -Sherman, and while vainly waiting, surveyed portions of it, giving the name of Wachusett -Bay to the place of anchorage. Judging from native maps, the scale of the chart made -from this survey was on too large a scale, though the recent map-makers of Tōkiō have -followed it. The southern coast also is dotted with groups of islands, and made dangerous -by large shoals. One of the approaches to the national capital and the commercial -city of Sunto, or Kai-seng, is navigable for junks, through a tortuous channel which -threads the vast sand-banks formed by the Han River. Hai-chiu, the capital, is near -the southern central coast, and Whang-chiu, an old baronial walled city, is in the -north, on the Ta-tong River, now, as of old, a famous boundary line. -</p> -<p>Though Whang-hai is not reckoned rich, being only the sixth in order of the eight -circuits, yet there are several products of importance. Rock, or fossil salt, is plentiful. -Flints for fire-arms and household use were obtained here chiefly, though the best -gun-flints came from China. Lucifer matches and percussion rifles have destroyed, -or will soon destroy, this ancient industry. One district produces excellent ginseng, -which finds a ready sale, <span class="pageNum" id="pb187">[<a href="#pb187">187</a>]</span>and even from ancient times Whang-hai’s pears have been celebrated. Splendid yellow -varnish, almost equal to gilding, is also made here. The native varnishers are expert -and tasteful in its use, though far behind the inimitable Japanese. Fine brushes for -pens, made of the hair of wolves’ tails, are also in repute among students and merchants. -</p> -<p>The high road from the capital, after passing through Sunto, winds through the eastern -central part, and crosses a range of mountains, the scenery from which is exceedingly -fine. Smaller roads thread the border of the province and the larger towns, but a -great portion of Whang-hai along its central length, from east to west, seems to be -mountainous, and by no means densely populated. There are, in all, twenty-eight cities -with magistrates. -</p> -<p>Whang-hai was never reckoned by the missionaries as among their most promising fields, -yet on their map we count fifteen or more signs of the cross, betokening the presence -of their converts, and its soil, like that of the other provinces, has more than once -been reddened by the blood of men who preferred to die for their convictions, rather -than live the worthless life of the pagan renegade. Most of the victims suffered at -Hai-chiu, the capital, though Whang-chiu, in the north, shares the same sinister fame -in a lesser degree. The people of Whang-hai are said, by the Seoul folks, to be narrow, -stupid, and dull. They bear an ill name for avarice, bad faith, and a love of lying -quite unusual even among Coreans. The official enumeration of houses and men fit for -military duty, is 103,200 of the former and 87,170 of the latter. -</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#toc">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">KIUNG-KEI, OR THE CAPITAL PROVINCE.</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="first">Kiung-kei, the smallest of the eight circuits, is politically the royal or court province, -and physically the basin of the largest river inside the peninsula. The tremendous -force of its current, and the volume of its waters bring down immense masses of silt -annually. Beginning at a point near the capital, wide sand-banks are formed, which -are bare at low water, but are flooded in time of rain, or at the melting of the spring -snows. The tides rise to the height of twenty or thirty feet, creating violent eddies -and currents, in which the management of ships is a matter of great difficulty. The -Han is navigable for foreign vessels, certainly as far as the capital, as two French -men-of-war proved in 1866, and it may be ascended still farther in light steamers. -The causes <span class="pageNum" id="pb188">[<a href="#pb188">188</a>]</span>of the violence, coldness, and rapidity of the currents of Han River (called Salt -or Salée on our charts), which have baffled French and American steamers, will be -recognized by a study of its sources. The head waters of this stream are found in -the distant province of Kang-wen, nearly the whole breadth of the peninsula from the -mouth. Almost the entire area of this province of the river-sources, including the -western watershed of the mountain range that walls the eastern coast, is drained by -the tributaries which form the river, which also receives affluents from two other -provinces. Pouring their united volume past the capital, shifting channels and ever -new and unexpected bars and flats are formed, rendering navigation, and especially -warlike naval operations, very difficult. Its channel is very hard to find from the -sea. The French, in 1845, attempting its exploration, were foiled. Like most rivers -in Chō-sen, the Han has many local names. -</p> -<p></p> -<div class="figure p188width" id="p188"><img src="images/p188.png" alt="Map of the Capital Province." width="637" height="397"><p class="figureHead">Map of the Capital Province.</p> -</div><p> -</p> -<p>The city of Han-Yang, or Seoul, is situated on the north side of the river, about -thirty-five miles from its mouth, measuring by a straight line, or fifty miles if -reckoned by the channel of the river. It lies in 37° 30′ north latitude, and 127° -4′ longitude, east from Greenwich. The name Han-yang, means “the fortress on the Han -River.” The common term applied to the royal city is Seoul, which means “the capital,” -just as the Japanese called the capital of their country Miako, or Kiō, instead of -saying Kiōto. Seoul is <span class="pageNum" id="pb189">[<a href="#pb189">189</a>]</span>properly a common noun, but by popular use has become a proper name, which, in English, -may be correctly written with a capital initial. According to the locality whence -they come, the natives pronounce the name <i>Say´-ool</i>, <i>Shay´-ool</i>, or <i>Say´-oor</i>. The city is often spoken of as “the king’s residence,” and on foreign maps is marked -“King-ki Taö,” which is the name of the province. The city proper lies distant nearly -a league from the river bank, but has suburbs, extending down to the sand-flats. A -pamphlet lately published in the city gives it 30,723 houses, which, allowing five -in a house, would give a population of over 150,000 souls. The natural advantages -of Seoul are excellent. On the north a high range of the Ho Mountain rises like a -wall, to the east towers the Ridge of Barriers, the mighty flood of the Han rolls -to the south, a bight of which washes the western suburb. -</p> -<p>The scenery from the capital is magnificent, and those walking along the city walls, -as they rise over the hill-crests and bend into the valleys, can feast their eyes -on the luxuriant verdure and glorious mountain views for which this country is noted. -The walls of the city are of crenellated masonry of varying height, averaging about -twenty feet, with arched stone bridges spanning the watercourses, as seen in the reproduced -photograph on page 79. The streets are narrow and tortuous. The king’s castle is in -the northern part. The high roads to the eight points of the compass start from the -palace, through the city gates. Within sight from the river are the O-pong san, and -the Sam-kak san or three-peaked mountain, which the French have named Cock’s Comb. -North of the city is Chō-kei, or tide-valley, in which is a waterfall forty feet high. -This spot is a great resort for tourists and picnic parties in the spring and summer. -From almost any one of the hills near the city charming views of the island-dotted -river may be obtained, and the sight of the spring floods, or of the winter ice breaking -up and shooting the enormous blocks of ice with terrific force down the current, that -piles them up into fantastic shapes or strews the shores, is much enjoyed by the people. -Inundations are frequent and terrible in this province, but usually the water subsides -quickly. Not much harm is done, and the floods enrich the soil, except where they -deposit sand only. There are few large bridges over the rivers, but in the cities -and towns, stone bridges, constructed with an arch and of good masonry, are built. -The islands in the river near the capital are inhabited by fishermen, who pay their -taxes in fish. Another large stream which <span class="pageNum" id="pb190">[<a href="#pb190">190</a>]</span>joins its waters with the Han, within a few miles from its mouth near Kang-wa Island, -is the Rin-chin River, whose head waters are among the mountains at the north of Kang-wen, -within thirty miles of the newly-opened port of Gen-san on the eastern coast. Several -important towns are situated on or near its banks, and it is often mentioned in the -histories which detail the movements of the armies, which from China, Japan, and the -teeming North, have often crossed and recrossed it. -</p> -<p></p> -<div class="figure p190width" id="p190"><img src="images/p190.png" alt="Military Geography of Seoul." width="521" height="437"><p class="figureHead">Military Geography of Seoul.</p> -</div><p> -</p> -<p>Naturally, we expect to find the military geography of this province well studied -by the authorities, and its strategic points strongly defended. An inspection of the -map shows us that we are not mistaken. Four great fortresses guard the approaches -to the royal city. These are Suwen to the south, Kwang-chiu to the southeast, Sunto -or Kai-seng to the north, and Kang-wa to the west. All these fortresses have been -the scene of siege and battle in time past. On the walls of the first three, the rival -banners of the hosts of Ming from China and of Taikō from Japan were set in alternate -succession by the victors who held them during the Japanese occupation of the country, -between the years 1592 and 1597. The Manchiu standards in 1637, and the French eagles -in 1866, were planted on the ramparts of Kang-wa. Besides these castled cities, there -are forts and redoubts along the <span class="pageNum" id="pb191">[<a href="#pb191">191</a>]</span>river banks, crowning most of the commanding headlands, or points of vantage. Over -these the stars and stripes floated for three days, in 1871, when the American forces -captured these strongholds. In most cases the walls of cities and forts are not over -ten feet high, though, in those of the first order, a height of twenty-five feet is -obtained. None of them would offer serious difficulty to an attacking force possessing -modern artillery. -</p> -<p>Kai-seng, or Sunto, is one of the most important, if not the chief, commercial city -in the kingdom, and from 960 to 1392, it was the national capital. The chief staple -of manufacture and sale is the coarse cotton cloth, white and colored, which forms -the national dress. Kang-wa, on the island of the same name at the mouth of the Han -River, is the favorite fortress, to which the royal family are sent for safety in -time of war, or are banished in case of deposition. Kang-wa means “the river-flower.” -During the Manchiu invasion, the king fled here, and, for a while, made it his capital. -Kwang-chiu was anciently the capital of the old kingdom of Hiaksai, which included -this province, and flourished from the beginning of the Christian era until the Tang -dynasty of China destroyed it in the seventh century. Kwang-chiu has suffered many -sieges. Other important towns near the capital are Tong-chin, opposite Kang-wa, Kum-po, -and Pupion, all situated on the high road. In-chiŭn, situated on Imperatrice Gulf, -is the port newly opened to foreign trade and residence. The Japanese pronounce the -characters with which the name is written, Nin-sen, and the Chinese Jen-chuan. At -this place the American and Chinese treaties were signed in June, 1882; Commodore -Shufeldt, in the steam corvette Swatara, being the plenipotentiary of the United States. -Situated on the main road from the southern provinces, and between the capital and -the sea, the location is a good one for trade, while the dangerous channel of the -Han River is avoided. -</p> -<p>Most of the islands lying off the coast are well wooded; many are inhabited, and on -a number of them shrines are erected, and hermits live, who are regarded as sacred. -Their defenceless position <span class="corr" id="xd31e3395" title="Source: offer">offers</span> tempting inducements to the Chinese pirates, who have often ravaged them. Kiung-kei -has been the scene of battles and contending armies and nations and the roadway for -migrations from the pre-historic time to the present decade. The great highways of -the kingdom converge upon its chief city. In it also Christianity has witnessed its -grandest triumphs and bloodiest <span class="pageNum" id="pb192">[<a href="#pb192">192</a>]</span>defeats. Over and over again the seed of the church has been planted in the blood -of its martyrs. Ka-pion, east of Seoul, is the cradle of the faith, the home of its -first convert. -</p> -<p>For political purposes, this “home province” is divided into the left and right divisions, -of which the former has twenty-two, and the latter fourteen districts. The <i>kam-sa</i>, or governor, lives at the capital, but outside of the walls, as he has little or -no authority in the city proper. His residence is near the west gate. The enumeration -of houses and people gives, exclusive of the capital, 136,000 of the former, and 680,000 -of the latter, of whom 106,573 are enrolled as soldiers. The inhabitants of the capital -province enjoy the reputation, among the other provincials, of being light-headed, -fickle, and much given to luxury and pleasure. “It is the officials of this province,” -they say, “who give the cue to those throughout the eight provinces, of rapacity, -prodigality, and love of display.” Official grandees, nobles, literary men, and professionals -generally are most numerous in Kiung-kei, and so, it may be added, are singing and -dancing girls and people who live to amuse others. When fighting is to be done, in -time of war, the government usually calls on the northern provinces to furnish soldiers. -From a bird’s-eye view of the history of this part of Corea, we see that the inhabitants -most anciently known to occupy it were the independent clans called the Ma-han, which -about the beginning of the Christian era were united into the kingdom of Hiaksai, -which existed until its destruction by the Tang dynasty of China, in the seventh century. -From that time until 930 <span class="asc">A.D.</span> it formed a part of the kingdom of Shinra, which in turn made way for united Korai, -which first gave political unity to the peninsula, and lasted until 1392, when the -present dynasty with Chō-sen, or Corea, as we now know it, was established. The capital -cities in succession from Hiaksai to Chō-sen were, Kwang-chiu, Sunto, and Han-yang. -</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#toc">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">CHUNG-CHONG, OR SERENE LOYALTY.</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="first">The province of Serene Loyalty lies mostly between the thirty-sixth and thirty-seventh -parallel. Its principal rivers are the Keum, flowing into Basil’s Bay, and another, -which empties into Prince Jerome Gulf. Its northeast corner, is made by the Han River -bending in a loop around the White Cloud (Paik Un) Mountain. Fertile flats and valleys -abound. The peninsula of Nai-po <span class="pageNum" id="pb193">[<a href="#pb193">193</a>]</span><span class="corr" id="xd31e3412" title="Not in source">(</span>within the waters), in the northwestern corner, is often called the “Granary of the -Kingdom.” Most of the rice of the Nai-po, and the province generally, is raised for -export to the capital and the north. In the other circuits the rice lands are irrigated -by leading the water from the streams through each field, which is divided from the -other by little walls or barriers of earth, while in this region, and in Chulla, the -farmers more frequently make great reservoirs or ponds, in which water is stored for -use in dry weather. The mountains are the great reservoirs of moisture, for in all -the peninsula there is not a lake of noticeable size. The coast line is well indented -with bays and harbors, and the run to Shantung across the Yellow Sea is easily made -by junks, and even in open boats. On this account the native Christians and French -missionaries have often chosen this province as their gate of entry into the “land -of martyrs.” -</p> -<p>In the history of Corean Christianity this province will ever be remembered as the -nursery of the faith. Its soil has been most richly soaked with the blood of the native -believers. With unimportant exceptions, every town along its northern border, and -especially in the Nai-po, has been sown with the seeds of the faith. The first converts -and confessors, the most devoted adherents of their French teachers, the most gifted -and intelligent martyrs, were from Nai-po, and it is nearly certain that the fires -of Roman Christianity still smoulder here, and will again burst into flame at the -first fanning of favorable events. The three great highways from Fusan to the capital -cross this province in the northeastern portion. Over these roads the rival Japanese -armies of invasion, led by Konishi and Kato, passed in jealous race in 1592, reaching -the capital, after fighting and reducing castles on the way, in eighteen days after -disembarkation. Chion-Chiu, the fortress on whose fate the capital depended, lies -in the northeast, where two of the roads converge. The western, or sea road, that -comes up from the south, hugs the shore through the entire length of the province. -Others, along which the Japanese armies marched in 1592, and again in 1597, traverse -the central part. Along one of these roads, the captive Hollanders, almost the first -Europeans in Corea, rode in 1663, and one of the cities of which Hamel speaks, Kon-sio -(Kong-Chiu), is the capital and residence of the provincial governor. -</p> -<p>The bays and islands, which have been visited by foreign navigators, retain their -names on European or Japanese charts. Some <span class="pageNum" id="pb194">[<a href="#pb194">194</a>]</span>of these are not very complimentary, as Deception Bay, Insult Island, and False River. -At Basil’s Bay, named after Captain Basil Hall, Gutzlaff also landed in 1832, planted -potatoes, and left seeds and books. The archipelago to the northwest was, in 1866, -named after the Prince Imperial, who met his death in Zululand in 1878. Prince Jerome’s -Gulf is well known as the scene of the visits of the Rover and the Emperor, with the -author of “A Forbidden Land” on board. Haimi, a town several times mentioned by him, -is at the head of Shoal Gulf, which runs up into the Nai-po. Two other bays, named -Caroline and Deception, indent the Nai-po peninsula. -</p> -<p></p> -<div class="figure p194width" id="p194"><img src="images/p194.png" alt="Map of Chung-chong Province." width="689" height="406"><p class="figureHead">Map of Chung-chong Province.</p> -</div><p> -</p> -<p>The large shoal off the coast is called Chasseriau. Other wide and dangerous shoals -line parts of the coast, making navigation exceedingly difficult. Fogs are frequent -and very dense, shrouding all landmarks for hours. The tides and currents are very -strong, rising in some places even as high as sixty feet. The international body-snatching -expedition, undertaken by a French priest, a German merchant, and an American interpreter, -in 1867, to obtain the bones or ancestral relics of the Regent, was planned to take -advantage of a certain “nick of time.” The river emptying into the Prince Jerome Gulf, -runs some thirty miles inland, and can be ascended by a barge, or very light-draught -steamer, only within the period of thirty hours during spring tides, when the <span class="pageNum" id="pb195">[<a href="#pb195">195</a>]</span>water rises to a height of three feet at the utmost, while during the rest of the -month it dries up completely. On account of delays, through grounding, miscalculated -distances, and the burglar-proof masonry of Corean tombs, the scheme failed. The narrative -of this remarkable expedition is given in a certain book on Corea, and in the proceedings -of the United States Consular Court at Shanghae, China, for the year 1867. -</p> -<p>The flora is a brilliant feature of the summer landscape. Tiger-lilies and showy compositæ, -asters, cactus plants, cruciferæ, labiatæ, and many other European species abound -side by side with tropical varieties. The air is full of insects, and the number and -variety of the birds exceed those of Japan. Pigeons, butcher-birds, fly-catchers, -woodpeckers, thrushes, larks, blackbirds, kingfishers, wrens, spoonbills, quail, curlew, -titmouse, have been noticed. The ever-present black crows contrast with the snowy -heron, which often stand in rows along the watercourses, while on the reefs the cormorant, -sea-gulls, and many kinds of ducks and diving birds, many of them being of species -differing from those in Europe, show the abundance of winged life. The archipelago -and the peninsula alike, are almost virgin soil to the student of natural history -and the man of science will yet, in this secluded nook of creation, solve many an -interesting problem concerning the procession of life on the globe. So far as known, -the Coreans seem far behind the Japanese in the study and classification of animate -nature. -</p> -<p>The Coreans are not a seafaring people. They do not sail out from land, except upon -rare occasions. A steamer is yet, to most Coreans, a wonderful thing. The common folks -point to one, and call it “a divine ship.” The reason of this is, that they think -the country of steamships so utterly at the ends of the earth, that to pass over ten -million leagues, and endure the winds and waves, could not be done by human aid, and -therefore such a ship must have, in some way, the aid of the gods. The prow and stern -of fishing-boats are much alike, and are neatly nailed together with wooden nails. -They use round stems of trees in their natural state, for masts. The sails are made -of straw, plaited together with cross-bars of bamboo. The sail is at the stern of -the boat. They sail well within three points of the wind, and the fishermen are very -skilful in managing them. In their working-boats, they do not use oars, but sculls, -worked on a pivot in the gunwale or an outrigger. The sculls have a very long sweep, -and are worked <span class="pageNum" id="pb196">[<a href="#pb196">196</a>]</span>by two, three, and even ten men. For narrow rivers this method is very convenient, -and many boats can easily pass each other, or move side by side, taking up very little -room. For fishing among the rocks, or for landing in the surf, rafts are extensively -used all along the coasts. These rafts have a platform, capable of holding eight or -ten persons. The boats or barges, which are used for pleasure excursions and picnic -parties, have high bows and ornamental sterns, carved or otherwise decorated. Over -the centre a canopy stretched on four poles, tufted with horsehair, shelters the pleasure-seekers -from the sun as they enjoy the river scenery. In the cut we see three officials, or -men of rank, enjoying themselves at a table, on which may be tea, ginseng infusion, -or rice spirit, with fruits in dishes. They sit on silken cushions, and seem to be -pledging each other in a friendly cup. Perhaps they will compose and exchange a pedantic -poem or two on the way. In the long, high bow there is room for the two men to walk -the deck, while with their poles they propel the craft gently along the stream, while -the steersman handles the somewhat unwieldy rudder<span class="corr" id="xd31e3432" title="Not in source">.</span> The common people use a boat made of plain unpainted wood, neatly joined together, -without nails or metal, the fastenings being of wood, the cushions of straw matting -and the cordage of sea grass. -</p> -<p></p> -<div class="figure p196width" id="p196"><img src="images/p196.png" alt="A Pleasure-party on the River." width="703" height="331"><p class="figureHead">A Pleasure-party on the River.</p> -</div><p> -</p> -<p>By official reckoning Chung-chong contains 244,080 houses, with 139,201 men enrolled -for military service, in fifty-four districts. It contains ten walled cities, and -like every other one of the eight provinces is divided into two departments, Right -and Left. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb197">[<a href="#pb197">197</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#toc">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">CHULLA, OR COMPLETE NETWORK.</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="first">This province, the most southern of the eight, is also the warmest and most fertile. -It is nearest to Shang-hae, and to the track of foreign commerce. Its island-fringed -shores have been the scene of many shipwrecks, among which were the French frigates, -whose names Glory and Victory, were better than their inglorious end, on a reef near -Kokun Island. -</p> -<p>Until the voyage of Captains Maxwell and Basil Hall, in the Alceste and Lyra, in 1816, -“the Corean archipelago” was absolutely unknown in Europe, and was not even marked -on Chinese charts. In the map of the empire, prepared by the Jesuits at Peking in -the seventeenth century, the main land was made to extend out over a space now known -to be covered by hundreds of islands, and a huge elephant—the conventional sign of -ignorance of the map-makers of that day—occupied the space. In these virgin waters, -Captain Hall sailed over imaginary forests and cities, and straight through the body -of the elephant, and for the first time explored an archipelago which he found to -be one of the most beautiful on earth. A later visitor, and a naturalist, states that -from a single island peak, one may count one hundred and thirty-five islets. Stretching -far away to the north and to the south, were groups of dark blue islets, rising mistily -from the surface of the water. The sea was covered with large picturesque boats, which, -crowded with natives in their white fluttering robes, were putting off from the adjacent -villages, and sculling across the pellucid waters to visit the stranger ship. -</p> -<p>On these islands, as Arthur Adams tells us, the seals sport, the spoonbill, quail, -curlew, titmouse, wagtail, teal, crane and innumerable birds thrive. The woody peaks -are rich in game, and the shores are happy hunting-grounds for the naturalist. Sponges -are very plentiful, and in some places may be gathered in any quantity. There are -a number of well-marked species. Some are flat and split into numerous ribbon-like -branches, others are round and finger-shaped, some cylindrical, and others like hollow -tubes. Though some have dense white foliations, hard or horny, others are loose and -flexible, and await only the hand of the diver. The Corean toilet requisites perhaps -do not include these useful articles, which lie waste in the sea. The coral-beds are -also very splendid in their living tints of green, blue, violet, and yellow, <span class="pageNum" id="pb198">[<a href="#pb198">198</a>]</span>and appear, as you look down upon them through the clear transparent water, to form -beautiful flower-gardens of marine plants. In these submarine parterres, amid the -protean forms of the branched corals, huge madrepores, brain-shaped, flat, or headed -like gigantic mushrooms, are interspersed with sponges of the deepest red and huge -star-fishes of the richest blue. Seals sport and play unharmed on many of the islands, -and the sea-beach is at times blue with the bodies of lively crabs. An unfailing storehouse -of marine food is found in this archipelago. -</p> -<p>The eight provinces take their names from their two chief cities, as Mr. Carles has -shown. Whang Hai Dō, for instance, is formed by uniting the initial syllables of the -largest cities, Whang-chiu and Hai-chiu. In the case of Chulla-Dō, the Chon and Nai -in Chon-chiu and Nai-chiu (or Chung-jiu and Na-jiu) become, by euphony, Chulla or -Cholla. Hamel tells of the great cayman or “alligator,” as inhabiting this region, -asserting that it was “eighteen or twenty ells long,” with “sixty joints in the back,” -and able to swallow a man.<a class="noteRef" id="xd31e3451src" href="#xd31e3451">1</a> -</p> -<p>The soil of Chulla is rich and well cultivated, and large quantities of rice and grain -are shipped to the capital. The wide valleys afford juicy pasture for the herds of -cattle that furnish the beef diet which the Coreans crave more than the Japanese. -The visiting or shipwrecked foreign visitors on the coast speak in terms of highest -praise of fat bullocks, and juicy steaks which they have eaten. Considerable quantities -of hides, bones, horns, leather, and tallow now form a class of standard exports to -Japan, whose people now wear buttons and leather shoes. As a beef market, Corea exceeds -either China or Japan—a point of importance to the large number of foreigners living -at the ports, who require a flesh diet. Troops of horses graze on the pasture lands. -</p> -<p></p> -<div class="figure p199width" id="p199"><img src="images/p199.png" alt="Map of Chulla-dō." width="535" height="720"><p class="figureHead">Map of Chulla-dō.</p> -</div><p> -</p> -<p>Chulla is well furnished with ports and harbors for the junks that ply northward. -The town of Mopo, in latitude 34° 40′, has been looked upon by the Japanese as a favorable -place for trade and residence, and may yet be opened under the provisions of the treaty -of 1876. This region does not lack sites of great historic interest. The castle of -Nanon, in the eastern part, was <span class="pageNum" id="pb199">[<a href="#pb199">199</a>]</span>the scene of a famous siege and battle between the allied Coreans and Chinese and -the Japanese besiegers, during the second invasion, in 1597. The investment lasted -many weeks, and over five thousand men were slaughtered. It was in this province also -that the crew of the Dutch ship Sparrowhawk were kept prisoners, <span class="pageNum" id="pb200">[<a href="#pb200">200</a>]</span>some for thirteen years, some for life, of whom Hendrik Hamel wrote so graphic a narrative. -For two centuries his little work afforded the only European knowledge of Corea accessible -to inquirers. Among other employments, the Dutch captives were set to making pottery, -and this province has many villages devoted to the fictile art. The work turned out -consists, in the main, of those huge <span class="corr" id="xd31e3467" title="Source: earthern">earthen</span> jars for holding water and grains, common to Corean households, and large enough -to hold one of the forty thieves of Arabian Nights story. -</p> -<p>Through the labors of the French missionaries, Christianity has penetrated into Chulla-dō, -and a large number of towns, especially in the north, still contain believers who -are the descendants or relatives of men and women who have exchanged their lives for -a good confession. The tragedy and romance of the Christian martyrs, of this and other -provinces, have been told by Dallet. Most of the executions have taken place at the -capital city of Chon-chiu. Many have been banished to Quelpart, or some of the many -islands along the coast, where it is probable many yet live and pine. -</p> -<p>Three large, and several small rivers drain the valleys. Two of these flow into the -Yellow Sea and one into the sea of Japan. The main highway of this province traverses -the western portion near the sea, the other roads being of inferior importance. Fortified -cities or castle towns are numerous in this part of Corea, for this province was completely -overrun by the Japanese armies in 1592–1597, and its soil was the scene of many battles. -By official enumeration there are 290,550 houses, and 206,140 males enrolled for service -in war. The districts number fifty-six. The capital is Chon-chiu, which was once considered -the second largest city in the kingdom. -</p> -<p>If Corea is “the Italy of the East,” then Quelpart is its Sicily. It lies about sixty -miles south of the main land. It may be said to be an oval, rock-bound island, covered -with innumerable conical mountains, topped in many instances by extinct volcanic craters, -and “all bowing down before one vast and towering giant, whose foot is planted in -the centre of the island, and whose head is lost in the clouds.” This peak, called -Mount Auckland, or Han-ra san, by the people, is about 6,500 feet high. On its top -are three extinct craters, within each of which is a lake of pure water. Corean children -are taught to believe that the three first-created men of the world still dwell on -these lofty heights. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb201">[<a href="#pb201">201</a>]</span></p> -<p>The whole surface of the island, including plains, valleys, and mountain flanks, is -carefully and beautifully cultivated. The fields are neatly divided by walls of stone. -It contains a number of towns and three walled cities, but there are no good harbors. -As Quelpart has long been used as a place for the banishment of convicts, the islanders -are rude and unpolished. They raise excellent crops of grain and fruit for the home -provinces. The finely-plaited straw hats, which form the staple manufacture, are the -best in this land of big hats, in which the amplitude of the head-coverings is the -wonder of strangers. Immense droves of horses and cattle are reared, and one of the -outlying islands is called Bullock Island. This island has been known from ancient -times, when it formed an independent kingdom, known as Tam-na. About 100 <span class="asc">A.D.</span>, it is recorded that the inhabitants sent tribute to one of the states on the main -land. The origin of the high central peak, named Mount Auckland, is thus given by -the islanders. “Clouds and fogs covered the sea, and the earth trembled with a noise -of thunder for seven days and seven nights. Finally the waves opened, and there emerged -a mountain more than one thousand feet high, and forty <i>ri</i> in circumference. It had neither plants nor trees upon it, and clouds of smoke, widely -spread out, covered its summit, which appeared to be composed chiefly of sulphur.” -A learned Corean was sent to examine it in detail. He did so, and on his return to -the main land published an account of his voyage, with a sketch of the mountain thus -born out of the sea. It is noticeable that this account coincides with the ideas of -navigators, who have studied the mountain, and speculated on its origin. -</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#toc">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">KIUNG-SANG, OR RESPECTFUL CONGRATULATION.</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="first">Kiung-sang dō, or the Province of Respectful Congratulation, is nearest to Japan, -and consists chiefly of the valleys drained by the Nak-tong River and its tributaries. -It admirably illustrates the principle of the division of the country on the lines -furnished by the river basins. One of the warmest and richest of the eight provinces, -it is also the most populous, and the seat of many historical associations with Japan, -in ancient, mediæval, and modern times. Between the court of Kion-chiu, the capital -of Shinra, and that of Kiōto, from the third to the tenth century, the relations of -war and peace, letters, and religion were continuous and fruitful. When the national -capital was fixed at Sunto, and later at <span class="pageNum" id="pb202">[<a href="#pb202">202</a>]</span>Seoul, this province was still the gateway of entrance and exit to the Japanese. Many -a time have they landed near the mouth of the Nak-tong River, which opens as a natural -pass in the mountains which wall in the coast. Rapidly seizing the strategic points, -they have made themselves masters of the country. The influence of their frequent -visitations is shown in the language, manners, and local customs of southern Chō-sen. -The dialect of Kiung-sang differs to a marked degree from that of Ping-an, and much -more closely resembles that of modern Japanese. Kiung-sang seems to show upon its -surface that it is one of the most ancient seats of civilization in the peninsula. -This is certainly so if roads and facilities for travelling be considered. The highways -and foot-paths and the relays and horses kept for government service, and for travellers, -are more numerous than in any other province. It also contains the greatest number -of cities having organized municipal governments, and is the most densely populated -of the eight provinces. It is also probable that in its natural resources it leads -all the others. The province is divided into seventy-one districts, each having a -magistrate, in which are 421,500 houses, and 310,440 men capable of military duty. -Two officials of high rank assist the governor in his functions, and the admirals -of the “Sam-nam,” or three southern provinces, have their headquarters in Kiung-sang. -This title and office, one of the most honorable in the military service, was created -after the Japanese war of 1592–1597, in honor of a Corean commander, who had successfully -resisted the invaders in many battles. There are five cities of importance, which -are under the charge of governors. Petty officials are also appointed for every island, -who must report the arrival or visit of all foreigners at once to their superiors. -They were always in most favor at court who succeeded in prevailing upon all foreign -callers to leave as soon as possible. Fusan has been held by the Japanese from very -ancient times. Until 1868 it was a part of the fief of the daimiō of Tsushima. It -lies in latitude 35° 6′ north, and longitude 129° 1′ east from Greenwich, and is distant -from the nearest point on the Japan coast, by a straight line, about one hundred and -fifty miles. It was opened to the Japanese by the treaty of 1876, and is now a bustling -mart of trade. The name means, not “Gold Hill,” but Pot or Skillet Mountain. -</p> -<p>The approach to the port up the bay is through very fine scenery, the background of -the main land being mountainous and the <span class="pageNum" id="pb203">[<a href="#pb203">203</a>]</span>bay studded with green islands. The large island in front of the settlement, to the -southward, called Tetsuyé, or the Isle of Enchanting View, has hills eight hundred -feet high. Hundreds of horses were formerly reared here, hence it is often called -Maki, or island of green pastures. The fortifications of Fusan, on the northern side, -are on a hill, and front the sea. The soil around Fusan is of a dark ruddy color, -and fine fir trees are numerous. The fort is distant about a league from the settlement, -and Tong-nai city and castle, in which the Corean governor resides, are about two -leagues farther. Tai-ku, the capital, lies in the centre of the province. Shang-chiu, -in the northwestern part, is one of the fortified cities guarding the approach to -the capital from the southeast. It was captured by Konishi during his brilliant march, -in eighteen days, to the capital in 1592. In recent years, much Christian blood has -been shed in Shang-chiu, though the city which justly claims the bad eminence in slaughtering -Christians is Tai-ku, the capital of the province. Uru-san, a few miles south, is -a site rich in classic memories to all Japanese, for here, in 1597, the Chinese and -Corean hosts besieged the intrepid Kato and the brave, but not over-modest, Ogawuchi -for a whole year, during which the garrison were reduced, by straits of famine, to -eat human flesh. When the Chinese retreated, and a battle was fought near by, between -them and the relieving forces, ten thousand men were slain. -</p> -<p>Foreign navigators have sprinkled their names along the shore. Cape Clonard and Unkoffsky -Bay are near the thirty-sixth parallel. Chō-san harbor was named by Captain Broughton, -who on asking the name of the place in 1797, received the reply “Chō-san,” which is -the name of the kingdom instead of the harbor. Other names of limited recognition -are found on charts made in Europe. Many inhabited islands lie off the coast, some -of which are used as places of exile to Christians and other offenders against the -law. Christianity in this province seems to have flourished chiefly in the towns along -the southern sea border. Nearly the whole of the coast consists of the slopes of the -two mountain ranges which front the sea, and is less densely inhabited than the interior, -having few or no rivers or important harbors. The one exception is at the mouth of -the Nak-tong River, opposite Tsushima. This is the gateway into the province, and -the point most vulnerable from Japan. The river after draining the whole of Kiung-sang, -widens into a bay, around which are populous cities and towns, the port of Fusan and -the two great roads to Seoul. Tsushima (the Twin <span class="pageNum" id="pb204">[<a href="#pb204">204</a>]</span>Islands) lies like a stepping-stone between Corea and Japan, and was formerly claimed -by the Coreans, who call it Tu-ma. Its port of Wani-ura is thirty miles distant from -Fusan, and often shelters <span class="pageNum" id="pb205">[<a href="#pb205">205</a>]</span>the becalmed or storm-stayed junks which, with fair wind and weather, can make the -run between the two countries in a single day. -</p> -<p></p> -<div class="figure p204width" id="p204"><img src="images/p204.png" alt="Map of the Province nearest Japan." width="504" height="720"><p class="figureHead">Map of the Province nearest Japan.</p> -</div><p> -</p> -<p>From a strategic military point of view, the Twin Islands are invaluable to the mikado’s -empire, guarding, as they do, the sea of Japan like a sentinel. The Russians who now -own the long island at the upper end of the sea, attempted, in 1859, to obtain a footing -on Tsushima. They built barracks and planted seed, with every indication of making -a permanent occupation. The timely appearance on the scene of a fleet of British ships, -under Sir James Hope, put an end to Russian designs on Tsushima. -</p> -<p>A Japanese writer reports that the Kiung-sang people are rather more simple in their -habits, less corrupted in their manners, and their ancient customs are more faithfully -preserved than in some of the other provinces. There is little of luxury and less -of expensive folly, so that the small estates or property are faithfully transmitted -from father to son, for many generations, in the same families. Studious habits prevail, -and literature flourishes. Often the young men, after toiling during the day, give -the evening to reading and conversation, for which admirable practice the native language -has a special word. Here ladies of rank are not so closely shut up in-doors as in -other provinces, but often walk abroad, accompanied by their servants, without fear -of insult. In this province also Buddhism has the largest number of adherents. Kion-chiu, -the old capital of Shinra, was the centre of the scholastic and missionary influences -of the Buddha doctrine in Corea, and, though burned by the Japanese in 1597, its influence -still survives. -</p> -<p>The people are strongly attached to their superstitions, and difficult to change, -but to whatever faith they are once converted they are steadfast and loyal. The numerous -nobles who dwell in this province, belong chiefly to the Nam In party. -</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#toc">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">KANG-WEN, THE RIVER-MEADOW PROVINCE.</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="first">Kang-wen fronts Japan from the middle of the eastern coast, and lies between Ham-kiung -and Kiung-sang. Its name means River Meadow. Within its area are found the sources -of “the river” of the realm. Though perhaps the most mountainous of all the provinces, -it contains several fertile plains, which are watered by streams flowing mainly to -the west, forming the Han River, <span class="pageNum" id="pb206">[<a href="#pb206">206</a>]</span>which crosses the entire peninsula, and empties into the Yellow Sea. The main mountain -chain of the country, called here the Makira, runs near the coast, leaving the greater -area of the province to the westward. The larger part of the population, the most -important high roads, and the capital city Wen-chiu, are in the western division, -which contains twenty-six districts, the eastern division having seventeen. The official -census gives the number of houses at 93,000, and of men capable of bearing arms, 44,000. -</p> -<p>Some of the names of mountains in this province give one a general idea of the geographical -nomenclature of the kingdom, reflecting, as it does, the ideas and beliefs of the -people. One peak is named Yellow Dragon, another the Flying Phœnix, and another the -Hidden Dragon (not yet risen up from the earth on his passage to the clouds or to -heaven). Hard Metal, Oxhead, Mountain facing the Sun, Cool Valley, Wild Swamp, White -Cloud, and Peacock, are other less heathenish, and perhaps less poetical names. One -range is said to have twelve hundred peaks, and from another, rivers fall down like -snow for several hundred feet. These “snowy rivers” are cataracts. Deer are very plentiful, -and the best hartshorn for the pharmacy of China comes from these parts. Out in the -sea, about a degree and a half from the coast, lies an island, called by the Japanese -Matsu-shima, or Pine Island, by the Coreans U-lon-to, and by Europeans, Dagelet<span class="corr" id="xd31e3514" title="Not in source">.</span> This island was first discovered by the French navigator, La Perouse, in June, 1787. -In honor of an astronomer, it was named Dagelet Island. “It is very steep, but covered -with fine trees from the sea-shore to the summit. A rampart of bare rock, nearly as -perpendicular as a wall, completely surrounds it, except seven sandy little coves -at which it is possible to land.” The grand central peak towers four thousand feet -into the clouds. Firs, sycamores, and juniper trees abound. Sea-bears and seals live -in the water, and the few poor Coreans who inhabit the island dry the flesh of the -seals and large quantities of petrels and haliotis, or sea-ears, for the markets or -the main land. The island is occasionally visited by Japanese junks and foreign whaling -ships, as whales are plentiful in the surrounding waters. The Japanese obtained the -timber for the public and other buildings at their new settlement at Gensan from this -island. -</p> -<p>The Land of Morning Calm is, by all accounts of travellers, a land of beauty, and -the customs and literature of the people <span class="pageNum" id="pb207">[<a href="#pb207">207</a>]</span>prove that the superb and inspiring scenery of their peninsula is fully appreciated -by themselves. Not only are picnics and pleasure gatherings, within the groves, common -to the humbler classes, but the wealthy travel great distances simply to enjoy the -beauty of marine or mountain views. Scholars assemble at chosen seats, having fair -landscapes before them, poets seek inspiration under waterfalls, and the bonzes, understanding -the awe-compelling influence of the contemplation of nature’s grandeur, plant their -monasteries and build their temples on lofty mountain heights. These favorite haunts -of the lovers of natural beauty are as well known to the Coreans as Niagara and Yo -Semite are to Americans, or Chamouni to all Europe. The places in which the glory -of the Creator’s works may be best beheld are the theme of ardent discussion and competing -praise with the people of each province. The local guide-books, itineraries, and gazetteers, -descant upon the merits of the scenery, for which each of the eight divisions is renowned. -In the River-meadow province, the eight most lovely “sceneries” are all located along -the coast. Beginning at the south, and taking them in order toward the north, they -are the following: -</p> -<p>1. The house on Uru-chin, a town below the thirty-seventh parallel of latitude. The -inn is called “The House of the Emerging Sun,” because here the sun seems to rise -right out of the waters of the ocean. In front of the coast lies an island, set like -a gem in the sea. The view of the rising sun, the tints of sky, river, waves, land, -and mountains form a vision of gorgeous magnificence. -</p> -<p>2. Hion-hai (Tranquil Sea). Out in the sea, in front of this village, are many small -islands. When the moon rises, they seem to be floating in a sea of molten silver. -The finest effect is enjoyed just before the orb is fully above the horizon. In many -of the dwellings of the men of rank and wealth, there is a special room set apart -for the enjoyment of the scenery, upon which the apartment looks. Especially is this -the case, with the houses of public entertainment. At Hion-hai, one of the inns from -which the best view may be obtained is called the “House Fronting the Moon.” In it -are several “looking-rooms.” -</p> -<p>3. One of the finest effects in nature is the combination of fresh fallen snow on -evergreens. The pure white on the deep green is peculiarly pleasing to the eye of -the Japanese, who use it as a popular element in their decorative art, in silver and -bronze, <span class="pageNum" id="pb208">[<a href="#pb208">208</a>]</span>in embroidery, painting, and lacquer. The Coreans are equally happy in gazing upon -the snow, as it rests on the deep shadows of the pine, or the delicate hue of the -giant grass called bamboo. Near the large town of San-cho is a tower or house, built -within view of a stream of water, which flows in winding course over the rocks, sparkling -beneath the foliage. It has a scene-viewing room to which people resort to enjoy the -“chikusetsu,” or snow and bamboo effect. -</p> -<p></p> -<div class="figure p208width" id="p208"><img src="images/p208.png" alt="Map of Kang-wen Province." width="720" height="555"><p class="figureHead">Map of Kang-wen Province.</p> -</div><p> -</p> -<p>4. From an elevation near the town of Kan-nun, or Bay Hill, one may obtain a pretty -view of the groves and shrubbery growing upon the rocks. During the spring showers, -when the rain falls in a fine mist, and the fresh vegetation appears in a new rich -robe of green, the sight is very charming. -</p> -<p>5. Beneath the mound at An-an the river flows tranquilly, tinted by the setting sun. -The sunsets at this place are of exquisite beauty. -</p> -<p>6. At the old castle town of Kan-nun, there is a room named <span class="pageNum" id="pb209">[<a href="#pb209">209</a>]</span>“The Chamber between the Strong Fortress and the Tender Verdure.” Here the valley -is steep, and in the bosom of the stream of water lie “floating islands”—so called -because they seem to swim on the surface of the water. -</p> -<p>7. Near Ko-sion, or High Fortress, is “Three Days Bay,” to which lovers of the picturesque -resort on summer mornings, to see the sun rise, and on autumnal evenings, to watch -the moonlight effects. The fishers’ boats gliding to and fro over the gleaming waters -delight the eye. -</p> -<p>8. At Tsu-sen is the “Rock-loving Chamber.” Here, among some steep rocks, grow trees -of fantastic form. The combination of rock-scenery and foliage make the charm of this -place, to which scholars, artists, and travellers resort. In spring and autumn, literary -parties visit the chamber dedicated to those who love the rocks. There, abandoning -themselves to literary revels, they compose poems, hold scholarly reunions, or ramble -about in search of health or pleasure. -</p> -<p>The people of Kang-wen are industrious and intelligent, with less energy of body than -the southern provincials, but like their northern countrymen, they have the reputation -of being bold, obstinate, and quarrelsome. In time of bad harvests or lax government, -“tramps” form bands of thirty or fifty, and roam the country, stealing food or valuables -from the villages. Local thieves are sufficiently abundant. During the heavy snows -of winter, people travel the mountain paths on snow-shoes, and in exceptional places, -cut tunnels under the snow for communication from house to house. Soldiers test their -strength by pulling strong bows, and laborers by carrying heavy burdens on their shoulders. -Strong men shoulder six hundred pounds of copper, or two bales of white rice (260 -pounds each<span class="corr" id="xd31e3541" title="Source: .)">).</span> The women of this province are said to be the most beautiful in Corea. Even from -ancient times, lovely damsels from this part of the peninsula, sent to the harem of -the Chinese emperor, were greatly admired. Christianity has made little progress in -Kang-wen, only a few towns in the southern part being marked with a cross on the French -missionary map. In the most ancient times the Chinhan tribes occupied this portion -of Corea. From the Christian era, until the tenth century, it was alternately held -by Kokorai, or Korai, and by Shinra. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb210">[<a href="#pb210">210</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#toc">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">HAM-KIUNG, OR COMPLETE VIEW.</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="first"></p> -<p></p> -<div class="figure p210width" id="p210"><img src="images/p210.png" alt="Corean frontier facing Manchuria and Russia." width="473" height="446"><p class="figureHead">Corean frontier facing Manchuria and Russia.</p> -</div><p> -</p> -<p>Ham-kiung is that part of Corean territory which touches the boundary of Russia. Only -a few years ago all the neighbors along the land frontiers of Chō-sen were Chinese -subjects. Now she has the European within rifle-shot of her shores. Only the Tumen -River separates the Muscovites from the once hermits of the peninsula. The southern -boundary of Russia in Asia, which had been thrown farther south after every European -war with China, touched Corea in 1858. What was before an elastic line, has in each -instance become the Czar’s “scientific frontier.” By the supplementary treaty of Aigun, -March 28, 1858, Count Mouravieff “rectified” the far eastern line of the Czar’s domain, -by demanding and obtaining that vast and fertile territory lying south of the Amur -River, and between the Gulf of Tartary and the river Usuri, having a breadth of one -hundred and fifty miles. This remote, but very desirable, slice of Asia, is rich in -gold and silk, coal and cotton, rice and tobacco. With energy and enterprise, the -Russian government at once encouraged emigration, placed steamers built in New York -on the Usuri River and Lake Hanka, laid out <span class="pageNum" id="pb212">[<a href="#pb212">212</a>]</span>the ports of Vladivostok, and Possiet, constructed a telegraph from the Baltic Sea -to the Pacific Ocean, and enforced order among the semi-civilized and savage tribes. -The name of the new Russian territory between the Amur River and the Sea of Okhotsk, -is Primorskaïa, with Vladivostok for the capital, which is finely situated on Peter -the Great or Victoria Bay. Immense fortifications have been planned, and the place -is to be made the Sebastopol of the Czar’s Pacific possessions. This gigantic work -was begun under the charge of the late Admiral Popoff, whose name has been given to -the iron-turreted war vessels of which he was the inventor, and to a mountain in Central -Corea. Possiet is within twenty-five miles of the Corean frontier. It is connected -with Nagasaki by electric cable. In the event of a war between China and Russia, or -even of Anglo-Russian hostilities, the Czar would most probably make Corea the basis -of operations against China; for Corea is to China as Canada is to the United States, -or, as the people say, “the lips of China’s teeth.” -</p> -<p></p> -<div class="figure p211width" id="p211"><img src="images/p211.jpg" alt="Corean Village in Russian Territory." width="720" height="483"><p class="figureHead">Corean Village in Russian Territory.</p> -</div><p> -</p> -<p>Russia needs a coast line in the Pacific with seaports that are not frozen up in winter, -and her ambition is to be a naval power. While England checks her designs in the Mediterranean, -and in Europe, her desire is great and her need is greater to have this defenceless -peninsula on her eastern borders. The Coreans know too well that the possession of -their country by “Russia the ravenous” is considered a necessity of the absorption -policy of Peter the Great’s successors. The Tumen River, which rises at the foot of -the Ever-White Mountains and separates Corea from Russia, is about two hundred miles -in length. It drains a mountainous and rainy country. Ordinarily it is shallow and -quiet; but in spring, or after heavy rains, and swollen by a great number of tributaries, -its current becomes very turbulent and powerful. In winter it is frozen over during -several months, and hence is easily crossed. Thousands of Coreans fleeing from famine, -or from the oppression of government officials, Christians persecuted for their faith, -criminals seeking to escape the clutches of the law, emigrants desirous of bettering -their condition, have crossed this river and settled in Primorskaïa, until they now -number, in all, about eight thousand. The majority of them are peasants from Ham-kiung, -and know little of the southern parts of their country. There is, however, an “underground -railroad” by which persecuted Christians can fly for refuge to Russian protection. -Their houses are built of stout timbers, wattled with <span class="pageNum" id="pb213">[<a href="#pb213">213</a>]</span>cane, plastered with mud, and surrounded with a neat fencing of interlaced boughs. -They cover their houses with strips of bamboo, well fastened down by thatching. The -chimney is detached from the house, and consists of a hollow tree. Under the warmed -floor is the usual system of flues, by which the house is kept comfortable in winter, -and every atom of fuel utilized. Their food is millet, corn, venison, and beef. They -pare and dry melon-like fruits, cutting them up in strips for winter use. They dress -in the national color, white, using quilted cotton clothes. They make good use of -bullock-carts, and smoke tobacco habitually. The national product—thick strong paper—is -put to a great variety of uses, and a few sheets dressed with oil, serve as windows. -</p> -<p>Some of the Russian merchants have married Corean women, who seem to make good wives. -Their offspring are carefully brought up in the Christian faith. Some of these Corean -children have been sent to the American Home at Yokohama, where the ladies of the -Woman’s Union Missionary Society of America have given them an education in English. -Through the Russian possessions, the Corean liberal, Kin Rinshio, made his escape. -From this man the Japanese officials learned so much of the present state of the peninsula, -and by his aid those in the War Department at Tōkiō were enabled to construct and -publish so valuable a map of Corea, the accuracy of which astonishes his fellow-countrymen. -The Russians have taken the pains to educate the people in schools, and, judging from -the faces and neat costumes, as seen in photographs taken on the spot, they enjoy -being taught. The object of instruction is not only to civilize them as loyal subjects -of the Czar, but also to convert them to the Russian form of Christianity. In this -work the priests and schoolmasters have had considerable success. There are but few -Coreans north of the Tumen who cannot read and write, and the young men employed as -clerks are good linguists. A number of them are fishermen, living near the coast. -Most of the converts to the Greek church are gathered at Vladivostok. -</p> -<p>So great has been the fear and jealousy felt by Corea toward Russia, that during the -last two generations the land along the boundary river has been laid desolate. The -banks were picketed with sentinels, and death was the penalty of crossing from shore -to shore. Many interesting relics of the ancient greatness of Corea still abound in -Manchuria and on Russian soil. Travellers have visited these ruins, now overgrown -with large forest trees, <span class="pageNum" id="pb214">[<a href="#pb214">214</a>]</span>and have given descriptions and measurements of them. One fortification was found -to cover six acres, with walls over thirty feet in height, protected by a moat and -two outer ditches, with gateways guarded by curtains. In the ruins were elaborately -carved fragments of columns, stone idols or statues, with bits of armor and weapons. -Some of these now silent ruins have sustained famous sieges, and once blazed with -watch-fires and echoed to battle-shouts. They are situated on spurs or ends of mountain -chains, commanding plains and valleys, testifying to the knowledge of strategic skill -possessed by their ancient builders. -</p> -<p>The Shan-yan Alin, range on range, visible from the Corean side of the river, are -between eight thousand and twelve thousand feet high, and are snow-covered during -most of the year. The name means Long-white, or Ever-White Mountains, the Chinese -Shang-bai, meaning the same thing. Two of the peaks are named after Chinese emperors. -Paik-tu, or White Head, is a sacred mountain famous throughout the country, and is -the theme of enthusiastic description by Chinese, Japanese, and Corean writers, the -former comparing it to a vase of white porcelain, with a scolloped rim. Its flora -is mostly white, and its fauna are reputed to be white-haired, never injuring or injured -by man. It is the holy abode of a white-robed goddess, who presides over the mountain. -She is represented as a woman holding a child in her arms, after a legendary character, -known in Corean lore and Chinese historical novels. Formerly a temple dedicated to -her spirit was built, and for a long time was presided over by a priestess. The Corean -Buddhists assign to this mountain, the home of Manchusri, one of their local deities, -or incarnations of Buddha. Lying in the main group of the range, over eight thousand -feet above the sea, is a vast lake surrounded by naked rocks, probably an extinct -crater. Large portions of the mountain consist of white limestone, which, with its -snow, from which it is free only during two months of the year, gives it its name. -</p> -<p>Another imposing range of mountains follows the contour of the coast, and thus presents -that lofty and magnificent front of forest-clad highland which strikes the admiration -of navigators. Other conspicuous peaks are named by the natives, Continuous Virtue, -The Peak of the Thousand Buddhas, Cloud-toucher, Sword Mountain, Lasting Peace, Heaven-reaching. -</p> -<p>Twenty-four rivers water and drain this mountainous province. The coast of Ham-kiung -down to the fortieth parallel is devoid <span class="pageNum" id="pb215">[<a href="#pb215">215</a>]</span>of any important harbors. A glance at a foreign chart shows that numerous French, -Russian, and English navigators have visited it, and gained precarious renown by sprinkling -foreign names upon its capes and headlands. At the south, Yung-hing, or Broughton’s -Bay, so named by the gallant British captain in 1797, is well known for its fine harbors -and its high tides. It contains a small archipelago, while the country around it is -the most populous and fertile portion of the province. Port Lazareff, east of Yon-fun, -near the mouth of the Dungan River, and west of Virginie Bay, is well known. A large -Japanese army under Kato occupied this territory during the year 1592. -</p> -<p></p> -<div class="figure p215width" id="p215"><img src="images/p215.png" alt="Southern part of Ham-kiung." width="495" height="584"><p class="figureHead">Southern part of Ham-kiung.</p> -</div><p> -</p> -<p>By the recent treaty with Japan, the port of Gensan, fronting on the south of Broughton’s -Bay, was opened for trade and commerce, from May 1, 1880. Gensan lies near the thirty-ninth -parallel of latitude. Near the shore is the island of Chotoku, and within the twenty-five -mile circuit allowed to Japanese merchants <span class="pageNum" id="pb216">[<a href="#pb216">216</a>]</span>for general travel, or free movement, is the old castle-town of Tokugen. The tomb -of the founder of the reigning dynasty of Chō-sen is situated near the bay and is -a highly venerated spot. As the dragon is in native ideas the type of all that is -strong, mighty, and renowned, the place is named the “Rise of the Dragon.” One of -the high roads of the kingdom traverses the strip of land skirting the sea from north -to south throughout the province, touching the water at certain places. The greater -part of the people dwelling in the province live along this road. The interior, being -a mass of mountains, is thinly inhabited, and the primeval forests are populated chiefly -by tigers and other beasts of prey. -</p> -<p>In the current scouring the coast of Ham-kiung swim unnumbered shoals of herring, -ribbon fish, and other species inhabiting the open seas. After these follow in close -pursuit schools of whales, which fatten on them as prey. Thousands of natives from -the interior and the shore villages come down in the season and fish. They often stand -knee-deep in the water, looking like long rows of the snowy heron of a rice-swamp, -in their white clothes. They use a kind of catamaran or raft for fishing and for surf -navigation, which is very serviceable. They sometimes hunt the whales at sea, or capture -them in shoal water, driving them in shore till stranded. Sticking in the bodies of -these huge creatures have been found darts and harpoons of European whalers. This -chase of the herring by the whales was noticed, even in the extreme south of Corea, -by Hamel, and by <span class="corr" id="xd31e3586" title="Source: shipwrekced">shipwrecked</span> Dutchmen. Since the present year, Japanese whale-hunters have been engaged by Coreans -to improve their methods of catching this huge sea-mammal. -</p> -<p>The capital city of this largest of the provinces, and the residence of the governor, -is Ham-hung, situated near the fortieth parallel of north latitude. According to a -native geography this province contains 103,200 houses, which gives a population varying -from 309,600 to 516,000 souls. There are enrolled and capable of military service -(on paper) 87,170 men. For administrative purposes the province is divided into divisions, -the northern and the southern. There are fifteen walled cities. -</p> -<p>Formerly, and until the Russians occupied the Primorskaia territory, an annual or -bi-annual fair was held at the Corean city of Kion-wen, which lies close to the border. -The Manchiu and Chinese merchants bartered tea, rice, pipes, gold, and furs for the -Corean ginseng, hides, and household implements. Furs of a <span class="pageNum" id="pb217">[<a href="#pb217">217</a>]</span>thousand sorts, cotton stuff, silks, artificial flowers, and choice woods, changed -hands rapidly, the traffic lasting but two or three days, and sometimes only one day, -from noon until sunset. Such was the bustle and confusion that these fairs often terminated -in a free fight, which reminds one of the famous Donnybrook. One of the articles most -profitable to the Coreans was their cast-off hair. Immense quantities cut from the -heads of young persons, and especially by those about to be married, were and are -still sold by the Chinese to lengthen out their “pig-tails”—that mark of subjection -to their Manchiu conquerors. During the time of trade no Chinese or Manchiu was allowed -to enter a Corean house, all the streets and doorways being guarded by soldiers, who -at the end of the fair drove out any lingering Chinese, who, if not soon across the -border, were forced to go at the point of the spear. Any foreigner found inside the -border at other seasons might be, and often was, ruthlessly murdered. -</p> -<p>The nearest town beyond the frontier, at which the Chinese merchants were wont to -assemble, is Hun-chun.<a class="noteRef" id="xd31e3596src" href="#xd31e3596">2</a> This loophole of entrance into Corea, corresponded to Ai-chiu at the Yalu River in -the west. As at the latter place, foreigners and Christian natives have attempted -to penetrate the forbidden country at Kion-wen, but have been unsuccessful. -</p> -<p>An outline of the political history of the part of the peninsula now called Ham-kiung -shows that many masters have in turn been its possessors. When the old kingdom of -Chō-sen, which comprehended Liao Tung and that part of the peninsula between the Ta-tong -and the Tumen Rivers, was broken up toward the end of the first century, the northern -half of what is now Ham-kiung was called Oju or Woju, the southern portion forming -part of the little state of Wei, or Whi. These were both conquered by Kokorai, which -held dominion until the seventh century, when it was crushed by the Chinese emperors -of the Han dynasty, and the land fell under the sway of Shinra, whose borders extended -in the ninth and tenth centuries, from Eastern Sea to the Tumen River. After Shinra, -arose Korai and Chō-sen, the founders of both states being sprung from this region -and of the hardy race inhabiting it. From very ancient times, the boundaries of this -province, being almost entirely natural and consisting of mountain, river, and sea, -have remained unchanged. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb218">[<a href="#pb218">218</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div class="footnotes"> -<hr class="fnsep"> -<div class="footnote-body"> -<div class="fndiv" id="xd31e3451"> -<p class="footnote"><span class="fnlabel"><a class="noteRef" href="#xd31e3451src">1</a></span> Mr. Pierre L. Jouy, of the Smithsonian Institute, who in 1884 spent six months in -Corea in zoological collecting and research, says: “No monkeys or alligators are found -in Corea. I am at a loss to understand how the alligator story originated.” Was the -alleged animal the giant salamander, or the <i>aké</i>? Japanese art and legend refer often to alligators. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd31e3451src" title="Return to note 1 in text.">↑</a></p> -</div> -<div class="fndiv" id="xd31e3596"> -<p class="footnote"><span class="fnlabel"><a class="noteRef" href="#xd31e3596src">2</a></span> Hun-chun is in Chinese Manchuria. The Russian possessions south of Victoria Bay extend -but a few miles from the mouth of the Tumen. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd31e3596src" title="Return to note 2 in text.">↑</a></p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch24" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#xd31e1036">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="label">CHAPTER XXIV.</h2> -<h2 class="main">THE KING AND ROYAL PALACE.</h2> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="first">The title of majesty in Chō-sen is Hap-mun. In full robes of state the sovereign wears -a silken garment, the gift of his suzerain, the Emperor of China. It is embroidered -with dragons, the emblems of regal power. His throne has <i>riong</i> or dragons sculptured around it. The steps leading to it are called “the staircase -of jade.” The cord which is used to tie criminals has a dragon’s head at the ends, -to signify that the officers act in obedience to the royal command. Chief of the regalia -of Corean sovereignty is the Great Seal, the possession of which makes the holder -the actual sovereign of Chō-sen. This seal, of which we shall hear again, seems to -have been captured by the French in 1866. In time of war or public danger, the royal -library, archives and regalia are sent to Kang-wa Island for safety. Ridel wrote in -1866: -</p> -<p>“In another case, they found a marble tortoise, sculptured in perfect art, upon the -pedestal of which was the great seal of state. This royal cartouche was to the simple -Corean folk neither visible nor approachable, the possession of which has sufficed -many times to transfer the royal authority and to terminate revolutions. It was the -regalia of Corean sovereignty. The one which he saw was new and appeared never to -have been used.” -</p> -<p>The sovereign, in speaking of himself, uses the term “Hap-mun,” which is the equivalent -of the imperial “We” of Asiatic state documents. The word is somewhat similar to that -employed by, or for, other rulers—Pharaoh, Sublime Porte, Mikado, all of which mean -the Grand, Chief, or First, Gate of all the gates in the country. The first character -in Hap-mun is, however, different from that in Mikado, or Honorable Gate, but the -hap is honorific. No other person in the land, official or private, is allowed to -use this compound word in speech or writing as applying to anyone except the king. -Even in transcribing the term hap, a stroke must be omitted out of respect to the -august personage to whom <span class="pageNum" id="pb219">[<a href="#pb219">219</a>]</span>alone it is applied. At his death, three cups of rice are set out in the households -<i>in memoriam</i>. This ceremony must not be imitated for any other person. So also, if the character -with which the name of the ruling emperor of China is written be found in that of -a public person, a gateway, a palace or edifice in Seoul, the graphic sign must be -temporarily changed, though the pronunciation remains the same. This same system of -graduated honors, of which, in Corea, the king is the culmination, slopes down to -the common people, and is duly protected by law. -</p> -<p>The sovereign’s person is hedged round with a divinity that has an antipathy to iron. -This metal must never touch his august body, and rather than have an abscess lanced, -the king Cheng-jong, in 1800, died from the effects of the disease. No ordinary mortal -must touch him, and if by accident this is done, the individual must ever afterward -wear a red silk cord. Notwithstanding such regulated veneration for the Hap-mun’s -person, the royal harem numbers several hundred inmates, duly presided over by eunuchs. -None but the king can drink out of a cup made of gold, and a heavy penalty is visited -upon all who presume to do so. When outside the palace, the three signs of the sovereign’s -power of life and death over his subjects, are the axe, sabre, and trident. The huge -violet fan and red umbrella are likewise borne before him. The Chinese envoy is always -escorted by soldiers bearing the three emblems, and by a band of musicians. When the -Hap-mun, or king, is in his minority, the queen, who is regent, sits behind a curtain -in the council of ministers, and takes part in the discussions. When she is pregnant, -the slaughter of beeves is prohibited during the space of three months. This is done -in order “to honor heaven by abstinence,” and may also be ordered to procure rain. -Once every year, the queen entertains at her palace some worthy woman in humble life, -who has reached the advanced age of eighty years. The king likewise shows favor to -old men in the lower walks of life. Whenever an auspicious event happens, or good -fortune befalls the kingdom, all the officials over seventy, and the common people -over eighty years of age, are feasted at the expense of the government. When the first -male child is born to the king, criminals are pardoned, and general festivity is observed. -The birthdays of the royal pair are celebrated every year. The royal princes are supposed -to have nothing whatever to do with politics, and any activity in matters of government -on their part is jealously resented by the nobles, who form the political parties. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb220">[<a href="#pb220">220</a>]</span></p> -<p>The Royal Castle contains over three acres (15,202 square yards), surrounded by a -wall twenty feet high, and formerly by a moat, now filled up, measuring fifty feet -wide or less. It is crossed by stone bridges in several places. This castled palace -is called the “Place of Government,” and is divided into two parts called the “East -and West” palace. The East, or Lower Palace, is the residence of the king and is so -called because situated on level land. The Western palace is used for the reception -of the Chinese ambassadors. The gates of the outer city proper, and inner city, or -palace, are named in high-sounding phrase, such as “Beneficent Reception,” “Exalted -Politeness,” “Perfect Change,” “Entrance of Virtue,” and the throne-room is styled -“The Hall of the Throne of the Humane Government.” The Chinese ambassador of 1866 -spent the night in that part of the royal residence called “The Palace Reserved for -the South,”—“the south” here evidently referring to the imperial favor, or the good -graces, of the emperor. -</p> -<p>A marked difference concerning “the freedom of the city” is noticed in the relative -treatment of the two embassies. While the entire body of Coreans, dignitaries, servants, -merchants, and cart-men enter Peking, and all circulate freely in the streets among -the people, the Chinese envoy to Seoul, must leave his suite at the frontier, and -proceed to the capital with but a few servants, and while there dwell in seclusion. -After the long and rough journey through Shin-king and Corea, the Chinese envoy in -1866 stayed less than three days in Seoul, and most of the time in-doors. The Japanese -who, in 1646, were feasted in some part of the Eastern palace, describe it as being -handsomely furnished, with the walls gilded and painted with landscapes, beasts, birds, -and flowers, with artistic effects in gold-dust and leaf. The royal family live each -in separate buildings, those above the ninth degree of relationship reside inside -the enclosure, all others live beyond the wall in the city. When the wife of the king -has a child, she dwells apart in a separate building. The queen is selected from among -the old and most loyal families of the nobility. The palace pages, who attend the -king day and night, number thirty. There are also three hundred court ladies, and -eunuchs are among the regularly-appointed officers of the court. The royal archives -and library form an interesting portion of the royal residence. Part of this library, -when removed to Kang-wa in 1866, was captured by the French. Bishop Ridel wrote of -it, “The library is very rich, consisting of two or three thousand books printed in -Chinese <span class="pageNum" id="pb221">[<a href="#pb221">221</a>]</span>with numerous illustrations upon beautiful paper, all well labeled, for the most part -in many volumes hooped together with copper bands, the covers being of green or crimson -silk. I notice among other things the ancient history of Corea in sixty volumes. What -was most curious of all was a book formed of tablets of marble, with characters in -gold encrusted in the marble, folding upon one another like the leaves of a screen, -upon hinges of gilded copper, and each tablet protected by a cushion of scarlet silk, -the whole placed in a handsome casket made of copper, which was in its turn enclosed -in a box of wood painted red, with chased ornaments in gilt copper. These square tablets -formed a volume of a dozen pages. They contain, as some say, the moral laws of the -country, but according to others, whose opinion is more probable, the honors accorded -the kings of Corea by the Emperor of China. The Coreans set great store by it.” -</p> -<p>A custom, similar to the old “curfew” of England prevails in the capital. The great -city bell is struck at sunset, after which male citizens are not allowed to go out -of their houses even to visit their neighbors. If such nocturnal prowlers are caught, -they run the risk of receiving the bastinado on their legs. At eight o’clock another -three strokes are given on the bell. At the hours of midnight, and at two and four -<span class="asc">A.M.</span> the drum is struck, and the brass cymbals sounded. At these signals the watchmen -or guards of the palace are relieved. The night-watch consists of ten reliefs of eighteen -each. Twenty stand guard at midnight, thirty at two <span class="asc">A.M.</span>, twenty at four <span class="asc">A.M.</span>, and ten at six <span class="asc">A.M.</span> There are also extra reliefs with their officers ready. The sentinels change after -giving the pass-word. The military garrison of the city is divided into five portions, -or four in addition to the household or palace troops. This is the modern form of -the old division of Kokorai, into five tribes or clans. -</p> -<p>There are several noted holidays, on which the curfew law is suspended, and the people -are allowed to be out freely at night. These are the first and the last day of the -year, the fourteenth and fifteenth day of the first month, and the fifteenth of August. -</p> -<p>Even under a despotism there are means by which the people win and enjoy a certain -measure of liberty. The monarch hears the complaints of his subjects. Close communication -between the palace and populace is kept up by means of the pages employed at the court, -or through officers, who are sent out as the king’s spies all over the country. An -<i>E-sa</i>, or commissioner, who is to <span class="pageNum" id="pb222">[<a href="#pb222">222</a>]</span>be sent to a distant province to ascertain the popular feeling, or to report the conduct -of certain officers, is also called “The Messenger on the Dark Path.” He receives -sealed orders from the king, which he must not open till beyond the city walls. Then, -without even going to his own house, he must set out for his destination, the government -providing his expenses. He bears the seal of his commission, a silver plate having -the figure of a horse engraved on it. In some cases he has the power of life and death -in his hands. Yet, even the Messenger of the Dark Path is not free from espionage, -for after him forthwith follows his “double”—the <i>yashi</i> or Night Messenger, who reports on the conduct of the royal inspector and also on -the affairs of each province through which he passes. The whereabouts of these emissaries -are rarely discoverable by the people, as they travel in strict disguise, and unknown. -This system corresponds almost exactly to that of the ométsuké (eye-appliers), for -many centuries in use in Japan, but abolished by the mikado’s government at the revolution -of 1868. It was by means of these <i>E-sa</i> or spies that many of the Corean Christians of rank were marked for destruction. -The system, though abominable in free countries, is yet an excellent medium between -the throne and the subject, and serves as a wholesome check on official rapine and -cruelty. -</p> -<p>The king rarely leaves the palace to go abroad in the city or country. When he does, -it is a great occasion which is previously announced to the public. The roads are -swept clean and guarded to prevent traffic or passage while the royal cortége is moving. -All doors must be shut and the owner of each house is obliged to kneel before his -threshold with a broom and dust-pan in his hand as emblems of obeisance. All windows, -especially the upper ones, must be sealed with slips of paper, lest some one should -look down upon his majesty. Those who think they have received unjust punishment enjoy -the right of appeal to the sovereign. They stand by the roadside tapping a small flat -drum of hide stretched on a hoop like a battledore. The king as he passes hears the -prayer or receives the written petition held in a split bamboo. Often he investigates -the grievance. If the complaint is groundless the petitioner is apt to lose his head. -The procession for pleasure or a journey, as it leaves the palace, is one of the grandest -spectacles the natives ever witness. His body-guard and train amount to many thousand -persons. There are two sedan chairs made exactly alike, and in which of them the king -is riding <span class="pageNum" id="pb223">[<a href="#pb223">223</a>]</span>no one knows except the highest ministers. They must never be turned round, but have -a door to open at both ends. The music used on such occasions is—to a Corean ear—of -a quiet kind, and orders are given along the line by signals made with pennons. In -case of sudden emergencies, when it is <span class="corr" id="xd31e3655" title="Source: neccessary">necessary</span> to convey an order from the rear to the front or far forward of the line, the message -is sent by means of an arrow, which, with the writing attached, is shot from one end -of the line to the other. -</p> -<p>Five caparisoned horses with embroidered saddles precede the royal sedan. The great -dragon-flag, which is about fourteen feet square, mounted in a socket and strapped -on the back of a strong fresh horse—with four guy ropes held by footmen, like banner-string -boys in a parade—forms the most conspicuous object in the procession. Succession to -the throne is at the pleasure of the sovereign, who may nominate his legitimate son, -or any one of his natural male offspring, or his cousin, or uncle, as he pleases. -A son of the queen takes precedence over other sons, but the male child of a concubine -becomes king when the queen is childless, which, in Corean eyes, is virtually the -case when she has daughters only. Since the founding of the present dynasty in 1392, -there have been twenty-nine successors to the founder, among whom we find nephews, -cousins, or younger sons, in several instances. Four were <i>kun</i>, princes, or king’s son only, and not successors in the royal line. They are not -styled <i>wang</i>, or kings, but only <i>kun</i>, or princes, in the official light. One of these four <i>kun</i>, degraded from the throne, was banished after eleven years, and another was served -in like manner after fourteen <span class="corr" id="xd31e3668" title="Source: years,">years’</span> reign. The heir to the throne holds the rank of <i>wang</i> (Japanese Ō), king, while the younger sons are <i>kun</i>, princes. From 1392 to 1882, the average reign of the twenty sovereigns of Corea -who received investiture is very nearly sixteen and a half years. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb224">[<a href="#pb224">224</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch25" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#xd31e1044">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="label">CHAPTER XXV.</h2> -<h2 class="main">POLITICAL PARTIES.</h2> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="first">During the past three centuries the nobles have been steadily gaining political power, -or rather we might say have been regaining their ancient prestige at court. They have -compelled the royal princes to take the position of absolute political neutrality, -and the policy of the central government is dictated exclusively by them. Those who -hold no office are often the most powerful in influence with their own party. -</p> -<p>The origin of the political parties, which have played such an influential part in -the history of modern Corea, is referred to about the time of the discovery of America. -During the reign of Sien-chong (1469–1494), the eleventh sovereign of the house of -Ni, a dispute broke out between two of the most powerful of the nobles. The court -had bestowed upon one of them a high dignity, to which his rival laid equal claim. -As usual in feudalism everywhere, the families, relatives, retainers, and even servants, -of either leader took part in the quarrel. The king prudently kept himself neutral -between the contending factions, which soon formed themselves into organized parties -under the names of “Eastern” and “Western.” Later on, from a cause equally trivial -to an alien eye, two other parties formed themselves under the names “Southern” and -“Northern.” Soon the Easterners joined themselves to the Southerners, and the Northerners, -who were very numerous, split into two divisions, called the Great North and the Little -North. In one of those unsuccessful palace intrigues, called conspiracies, the Great -North party was mixed up with the plot, and most of its members were condemned to -death. The survivors hastened to range themselves under the banner of the Little North. -The next reaction which arranged the parties on new lines, occurred during the reign -of Suk-chong (1676–1720), and well illustrates that fanaticism of pedantry to which -the literary classes in time of peace formerly devoted their energies. The father -of a young <span class="pageNum" id="pb225">[<a href="#pb225">225</a>]</span>noble named Yun, who belonged to the Western party, having died, the young man composed -an epitaph. His tutor, an influential man of letters, not liking the production of -his pupil, proposed another. Unable to agree upon the proper text, a lively controversy -arose, and out of a literary acorn sprang up a mighty oak of politics. The Western -party split into the Sho-ron, and No-ron, in which were found the adherents of the -pupil and master. A free translation of the correlative terms <i>sho</i> and <i>no</i>, would be “Old Corea” and “Young Corea,” or Conservative and Progressive, or radical. -There were now four political parties. -</p> -<p>The <i>Shi-seik</i>, or “the four parties,” are still in existence, and receive illustration better from -French than from British politics. Every noble in the realm is attached to one or -the other of the four parties, though “trimmers” are not unknown. These <i>Tuhil-poki</i>, or “right and left men,” are ever on the alert for the main chance, and on the turn -of the political vane promptly desert to the winning side. -</p> -<p>However trivial the causes which led to their formation, as Western eyes see, the -objects kept in view by the partisans are much the same as those of parties in European -countries and in the United States. Nominally the prime purpose of each faction is -to advance the interests of the country. Actual and very powerful motives have reference -to the spoils of office. Each party endeavors to gain for its adherents as many of -the high appointments and dignities as possible. Their rallying-point is around the -heirs apparent, or possible, to the throne. When a strong and healthy king holds the -reins of power, political activity may be cool. When the sovereign dies and the succession -is uncertain, when a queen or royal concubine is to be chosen, when high ministers -of state die or resign, the Corean political furnace is at full blast. When king Suk-chong -was reigning in 1720, having no son to succeed him, the four parties coalesced into -two, the Opposition and the Court or royal party. The former supported in this case -one who proved the successful candidate, a brother of the king; the latter party urged -the claims of an expected heir to the reigning king, which, however, was not born, -as the king died childless. To secure the throne to their nominee, the brother of -the childless king, the opposition secretly despatched a courier to Peking to obtain -the imperial investiture. The other party sent assassins to waylay or overtake the -courier, who was murdered before he had crossed the frontier. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb226">[<a href="#pb226">226</a>]</span></p> -<p>Yeng-chong, the nominee of the Opposition, mounted the throne after the death of his -brother, and reigned from 1724 to 1776. He was an able ruler, and signalized his reign -by abolishing many of the legal tortures until then practised, especially the branding -of criminals. Yet personally he was cruel and unscrupulous. Public rumor credited -him with having found a road to power by means of a double crime. By the use of various -drugs he made it impossible for his brother to have an heir, after which he poisoned -him. -</p> -<p>Stung by these reports, he began, as soon as he was made sovereign, to send to the -block numbers of the opposite party whom he knew to be his enemies. Some years after, -his eldest son having died, he nominated his second son, Sato, to be his heir, and -associated him with himself in the government of the kingdom. This young and accomplished -prince endeavored to make his father forget his bitter hatred against the <i>Si-pai</i> party, to proclaim general amnesty, and to follow out a frank policy of reconciliation. -The king, irritated by his son’s reproaches, and hounded on by his partisans, resolved -to put the prince out of the way. By the royal command a huge chest of wood was made, -into which the young prince was ordered to sleep while living. The ponderous lid was -put on during one of his slumbers and sealed with the royal seal. They then covered -this sarcophagus with leaves and boughs, so that in a short time the young prince -was smothered. This horrible crime served only to exasperate the party of the prince, -and they demanded that his name should be enrolled in the list of sovereigns. Their -opponents refused, and this question is still a burning one. The king’s defenders, -to this day decline to rehabilitate the character of the smothered prince. The others -demand that historic justice be done. Though other questions have since arisen, of -more immediate moment, this particular moot point makes its distinct hue in the opposing -colors of Corean politics. This, however, does not take on the features of an hereditary -feud, for oftentimes in the same family, father and son, or brothers may hold varying -views on this historical dispute, nor does it affect marriage between holders of diverse -views. The Corean Romeo and Juliet may woo and wed without let or danger. In general, -it may be said that the <i>Piek-pai</i> are radical and fiery, the <i>Si-pai</i> are conservative and conciliatory. -</p> -<p>Cheng-chong, who ruled from 1776 to 1800, a wise, moderate, and prudent prince, and -a friend of learning, favored the men of <span class="pageNum" id="pb227">[<a href="#pb227">227</a>]</span>merit among the Southern <i>Si-pai</i>, and is also noted for having revised the code of laws. -</p> -<p>Among the more radical of the partisans, the object in view is not only to gain for -their adherents the public offices, but also to smite their rivals hip and thigh, -and prevent their getting appointments. Hence the continual quarrels and the plots, -which often result in the death of one or other of the leaders. Assassination and -murderous attacks are among the means employed, while to supplant their enemies the -king is besought to order them to death or exile. Concessions are made by the dominant -party to the other only to avoid violent outbreaks, and to keep the peace. With such -a rich soil for feuds, it is not wonderful that Corea is cursed with elements of permanent -disturbance like those in mediæval Scotland or Italy. As each of the noble families -have many retainers, and as the feuds are hereditary, the passions of human nature -have full sway. All manner of envy and malice, with all uncharitableness flourish, -as in a thicket of interlacing thorns. The Southern and No-ron parties have always -been the most numerous, powerful, and obstinate. Between them marriages do not take -place, and the noble who in an intrigue with one of his enemies loses caste, his honors, -or his life, hands down to his son or his nearest relative his demand for vengeance. -Often this sacred duty is associated with an exterior and visible pledge. He may give -to his son, for instance, a coat which he is never to take off until revenge is had. -The kinsman, thus clad with vengeance as with a garment, must wear it, it may be until -he dies, and then put it upon his child with the same vow. It is not rare to see noblemen -clad in rags and tatters during two or three generations. Night and day these clothes -call aloud to the wearer, reminding him of the debt of blood which he must pay to -appease the spirits of his ancestors. -</p> -<p>In Corea, not to avenge one’s father is to be disowned, to prove that one is illegitimate -and has no right to bear the family name, it is to violate, in its fundamental point, -the national religion, which is the worship of ancestors. If the father has been put -to death under the forms of law, it behooves that his enemy or his enemy’s son should -die the same death. If the father has been exiled, his enemy’s exile must be secured. -If the parent has been assassinated, in like manner must his enemy fall. In these -cases, public sentiment applauds the avenger, as fulfilling the holy dictates of piety -and religion. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb228">[<a href="#pb228">228</a>]</span></p> -<p>The pretext of accusation most often employed by the rival factions is that of conspiracy -against the life of the king. Petitions and false evidence are multiplied and bribery -of the court ministers is attempted. If, as is often the case, the first petitioners -are thrown in jail, beaten, or condemned to mulct or exile, the partisans assess the -fine among themselves and pay it, or manage by new methods, by the favor or venality -of the court ministers, or the weakness of the king, at last to compass their ends, -when those of the vanquished party are ousted from office, while the victors use and -abuse their positions to enrich themselves and ruin their enemies, until they in their -turn are supplanted. -</p> -<p>It is no wonder that a Corean liberal visiting in Tōkiō, in 1882, declared to a Japanese -officer his conviction that Corea’s <span class="corr" id="xd31e3722" title="Source: dfficulties">difficulties</span> in the way of national progress were greater than those of which Japan had rid herself, -mighty as these had been. By the revolutions of 1868, and later, the ripened fruits -of a century of agitation and the presence of foreigners, Japan had purged from her -body politic feudalism and caste, emancipating herself at once from the thrall of -the priest and the soldier; but Corea, with her feudalism, her court intrigues, her -Confucian bigotry, and the effete products of ages of seclusion and superstition has -even a more hopeless task to attempt. The bearing of these phases of home politics -will be further displayed when the new disturbing force of Christianity enters to -furnish a lever to ambition and revenge, as well as to affection and philanthropy. -</p> -<p>A native caricature, which was published about a generation ago, gives even a foreigner -a fair idea of the relative position of each party at that epoch. At a table gorgeously -furnished, a No-ron is seated at his ease, disposing of the bountiful fare. A Sho-ron -seated beside him, yet in the rear, graciously performs the office of servant, receiving -part of the food as reward for his attendance. The Little North, seeing that the viands -are not for him, is also seated, but with a more sedate and serious visage. Last of -all the Southern, covered with rags, keeps far in the rear, behind the No-ron, who -does not notice him, while he, in vexation, grinds his teeth and shakes his fist like -a man who means to take burning vengeance. Such was the political situation before -1850, as some native wit pictured it for the amusement of the Seoulians. -</p> -<p>It requires a ruler of real ability to be equal to the pressure brought upon him by -the diverse and hostile political parties. Nominally sovereign of the country, he -is held in check by powerful <span class="pageNum" id="pb229">[<a href="#pb229">229</a>]</span>nobles intrenched in privileges hoary with age, and backed by all the reactionary -influences of feudalism. The nobles are the powerful middle term in the problem of -Corean politics, who control both king and commons. The nobles have the preponderance -of the government patronage, and fill the official positions with their liegemen to -an extent far beyond what the theory of the law, as illustrated in the literary examinations, -allows them. A native caricature thus depicts the situation. Chō-sen is represented -as a human being, of whom the king is the head, the nobles the body, and the people -the legs and feet. The breast and belly are full, while both head and lower limbs -are gaunt and shrunken. The nobles not only drain the life-blood of the people by -their rapacity, but they curtail the royal prerogative. The nation is suffering from -a congestion, verging upon a dropsical condition of over-officialism. -</p> -<p>The disease of Corea’s near neighbor, old Japan, was likewise a surplus of government -and an excess of official patronage, but the body politic was purged by revolution. -The obstructions between the throne and the people were cleared away by the removal -of the shō-gunate and the feudal system. Before the advent of foreigners, national -unity was not the absolute necessity which it became the instant that aliens fixed -their dwelling on the soil. Now, the empire of the mikado rejoices in true political -unity, and has subjects in a strong and not over-meddlesome government. The people -are being educated in the rudiments of mutual obligations—their rights as well as -their duties. The mikado himself took the oath of 1868, and his own hand shaped the -august decree of 1881, which will keep his throne unshaken, not because it was won -by the bows and arrows of his divine ancestors, but because it will rest broad-based -upon the peoples’ will. So in Chō-sen the work of the future for intelligent patriots -is the closer union of king and people, the curtailment of the power of the nobles, -and the excision of feudalism. Already, to accomplish this end, there are Coreans -who are ready to die. During the last decade, the pressure from Japan, the jealousy -of China, the danger from Russia, the necessity, at first shrunk from and then yielded -to, of making treaties with foreign nations, has altered the motives and objects of -Corean politics. Old questions have fallen out of sight, and two great parties, Progressionists -and Obstructionists, or Radical and Conservative, have formed for the solution of -the problems thrust upon them by the nineteenth century. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb230">[<a href="#pb230">230</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch26" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#xd31e1053">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="label">CHAPTER XXVI.</h2> -<h2 class="main">ORGANIZATION AND METHODS OF GOVERNMENT.</h2> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="first">Next in authority to the king are the three <i>chong</i> or high ministers. The chief of these (Chen-kun) is the greatest dignitary in the -kingdom, and in time of the minority, inability, or imbecility of the king, wields -royal authority in fact if not in name. Another term applied to him when the king -is unable to govern, is “Foundation-stone Minister,” upon whom the king leans and -the state rests as a house upon its foundation-stone. The title of Tai-wen-kun, which -suggests that of the “Tycoon” of Japan, seems to have been a special one intended -for the emergency. It was given to the Regent who is the father of the present King, -and who ruled with nearly absolute power from 1863 to 1874, when the king reached -his majority. In the troubles in Seoul in July, 1882, his title, written in Japanese -as Tai-in kun, became familiar to western newspapers. -</p> -<p>After the king, and the three prime ministers, come the six ministries or boards of -government, the heads of which rank next to the three <i>chong</i> or ministers forming the Supreme Council. In the six departments, the heads are called -<i>pan-cho</i>, and these are assisted by two other associates, the <i>cham-pan</i>, or substitutes, and the <i>cham-é</i>, or counsellor. These four grades and twenty-one dignitaries constitute the royal -council of <i>dai-jin</i> (great ministers), though the actual authority is in the supreme council of the three -<i>chong</i>. The six boards, or departments of the government, are: 1, Office and Public Employ; -2, Finance; 3, Ceremonies; 4, War; 5, Justice; 6, Public Works. The heads of these -tribunals make a daily report of all affairs within their province, but refer all -matters of importance to the Supreme Council. There are also three chamberlains, each -having his assistants, who record every day the acts and words of the king. A daily -government gazette, called the Chō-po, is issued for information on official matters. -The general cast and method of procedure in the court and government is copied after -the great model in Peking. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb231">[<a href="#pb231">231</a>]</span></p> -<p>Each of the eight provinces is under the direction of a <i>kam-sa</i>, or governor. The cities are divided into six classes (<i>yin</i>, <i>mu</i>, <i>fu</i>, <i>ki</i>, <i>ling</i>, and <i>hilu</i>), and are governed by officers of corresponding rank. The towns are given in charge -of the petty magistrates, there being twelve ranks or dignities in the official class. -In theory any male Corean able to pass the government examinations is eligible to -office, but the greater number of the best positions are secured by nobles and their -friends. -</p> -<p>From the sovereign to the beggar, the gate, both figuratively and actually, is very -prominent in the public economy and in family relationships. A great deal of etiquette -is visible in the gates. At the entrance to the royal palace are, or were formerly, -two huge effigies, in wood, of horses, painted red. Only high officials can pass these -mute guardians. All persons riding past the palace must dismount and walk. To the -houses of men of rank there are usually two, sometimes three, gates. The magistrate -himself enters by the largest, his parents and nearer friends by the eastern, and -servants by the west or smallest. When a visitor of equal grade calls upon an officer -or noble, the host must come all the way to the great or outer gate to receive him, -and do likewise on dismissing him. If he be of one degree lower rank, the host comes -only to the outside of the middle gate. If of third or fourth rank, the caller is -accompanied only to the space inside the middle gate. The man of fifth and sixth rank -finds that etiquette has so tapered off that the lord of the mansion walks only to -the piazza. In front of a magistrate’s office, at the gateway, are ranged the symbols -of authority, such as spears and tridents. The gates are daily opened amid the loud -cries of the underlings, and their opening and closing with a vocal or instrumental -blast is a national custom, illustrated as well at the city as at the office. The -porters who close them at sunset and open them at dawn execute a salvo on their trumpets, -often lasting a quarter of an hour. This acoustic devastation, so distressing to foreign -ears, is considered good music to the native tympanum. -</p> -<p>In sitting, the same iron tongue upon the buckle of custom holds each man to his right -hole in the social strap. People of equal rank sit so that the guest faces to the -east and the host to the west. In ordinary easy style, the visitor’s nose is to the -south, as he sits eastward of his host. A commoner faces north. In social entertainments, -after the <i>yup</i>, or bows with the head and hands bent together, have been made, wine is sipped or -<span class="pageNum" id="pb232">[<a href="#pb232">232</a>]</span>drunk three or five times, and then follows what the Coreans call music. -</p> -<p>The sumptuary laws of the kingdom are peculiar, at many points amusing to occidentals. -To commit <i>pem-ram</i> is to violate these curious regulations. What may be worn, or sat upon, is solemnly -dictated by law. Nobles sit on the <i>kan-kio</i>, or better kind of chairs. Below the third rank, officers rest upon a bench made -of ropes. Chairs, however, are not common articles of use, nor intended to be such. -At entertainments for the aged, in time of rich harvests, local feasts, archery tournaments, -and on public occasions, these luxuries are oftener used. In short, the chair seems -to be an article of ceremony, rather than a constant means of use or comfort. -</p> -<p>Only men above the third rank are allowed to put on silk. Petty officials must wear -cotton. Merchants and farmers may not imitate official robes, but don tighter or more -economical coats and trowsers. A common term for officials is “blue clouds,” in reference -to their blue-tinted garments. To their assistants, the people apply the nickname, -not sarcastic, but honorable, of “crooked backs,” because they always bend low in -talking to their employers. -</p> -<p>The magistrates lay great stress on the trifles of etiquette, and keep up an immense -amount of fuss and pomp to sustain their dignity, in order to awe the common folks. -Whenever they move abroad, their servants cry out “chii-wa,” “chii-wa,” “get down -off your horse,” “get down off your horse,” to riders in sight. The Il-san, or large -banner or standard in the form of an umbrella, is borne at the head of the line. To -attempt to cross one of their processions is to be seized and punished, and anyone -refusing to dismount, or who is slow about slipping off his horse, is at once arrested, -to be beaten or mulcted. When permission is given to kill an ox, the head, hide, and -feet usually become the perquisites of the magistrate or his minions. The exuberant -vocabulary in Corean, for the various taxes, fines, mulcts, and squeezes of the understrappers -of the magistrate, in gross and in detail, chief and supplementary, testify to the -rigors and expenses of being governed in Chō-sen. -</p> -<p>Overreaching magistrates, through whose injustice the people are goaded into rebellion, -are sometimes punished. It seems that one of the penalties in ancient times was that -the culpable official should be boiled in oil. Now, however, the condemned man is -exiled, and only rarely put to death, while a commutation of justice<span class="pageNum" id="pb233">[<a href="#pb233">233</a>]</span>—equivalent to being burned in effigy—is made by a pretended boiling in oil. Good -and upright magistrates are often remembered by <i>mok-pi</i>, or inscribed columns of wood, erected on the public road by the grateful people. -In many instances, this testimonial takes the form of sculptured stone. A number of -the public highways are thus adorned. These, with the <i>tol-pi</i>, or monumental bourne, which marks distances or points out the paths to places of -resort, are interesting features of travel in the <span class="corr" id="xd31e3797" title="Source: peninusla">peninsula</span>, and more pleasant to the horseman than the posts near temples and offices on which -one may read “Dismount.” At the funeral of great dignitaries of the realm, a life-sized -figure of a horse, made of bamboo, dragged before the coffin, is burned along with -the clothes of the deceased, and the ashes laid beside his remains. -</p> -<p>As the magistrates are literary men, their official residences often receive poetic -or suggestive names, which, in most cases, reflect the natural scenery surrounding -them. “Little Flowery House,” “Rising Cloud,” “Sun-greeting,” “Sheet of Resplendent -Water,” “Water-that-slides-as-straight-as-a-sword Dwelling,” “Gate of Lapis-lazuli,” -“Mansion near the Whirlpool,” are some of these names, while, into the composition -of others, the Morning-star, the Heaven-touching, the Cave-spirit, and the Changing-cloud -Mountain, or the Falling-snow Cataract may enter. Passionately fond of nature, the -Corean gentleman will erect a tablet in praise of the scenery that charms his eye. -One such reads, “The beauty of its rivers, and of its mountains, make this district -the first in the country.” -</p> -<p>If, as the French say, “Paris is France,” then Seoul is Corea. An apparently disproportionate -interest centres in the capital, if one may judge from the vast and varied vocabulary -relating to Seoul, its people and things, which differentiate all else outside its -wall. Three thousand official dignitaries are said to reside in the capital, and only -eight hundred in all the other cities and provinces. Seoul is “the city,” and all -the rest of the peninsula is “the country.” A provincial having cultivated manners -is called “a man of the capital.” “Capital and province” means the realm. -</p> -<p>The rule of the local authorities is very minute in all its ramifications. The system -of making every five houses a social unit is universal. When a crime is committed, -it is easy to locate the group in which the offender dwells, and responsibility is -fixed at once. Every subject of the sovereign except nobles of rank, must possess -a passport or ticket testifying to his personality, and all <span class="pageNum" id="pb234">[<a href="#pb234">234</a>]</span>must “show their tickets” on demand. For the people, this certificate of identity -is a piece of branded or inscribed wood, for the soldiers of horn, for the literary -class and government officials of bone. Often, the tablet is in halves, the individual -having one-half, and the government keeping its tally. The people who cannot read -or write have their labels carefully tied to their clothing. When called upon to sign -important documents, or bear witness on trial, they make a blood-signature, by rudely -tracing the signs set before them in their own blood. The name, residence of the holder, -and the number of the group of houses in which he lives, are branded or inscribed -on the <i>ho-pai</i>, or passport. -</p> -<p>The actual workings of Corean justice will be better understood when treating of Christianity—an -element of social life which gave the pagan tribunals plenty of work. Civil matters -are decided by the ordinary civil magistrate, who is judge and jury at once; criminal -cases are tried by the military commandant. Very important cases are referred to the -governor of the province. The highest court of appeal is in the capital. Cases of -treason and rebellion, and charges against high dignitaries, are tried in the capital -before a special tribunal instituted by the king. -</p> -<p>The two classes of assistants to the magistrate, who are called respectively <i>hai-seik</i> and <i>a-chen</i>, act as constables or sheriffs, police messengers, and jailers. French writers term -them “pretorians” and “satellites.” These men have practically the administration -of justice, and the details and spirit of local authority are in their power. The -<i>hai-seik</i>, or constables, form a distinct class in the community, rarely intermarrying with -the people, and handing down their offices, implements, and arts from father to son. -The <i>a-chen</i>, who are the inferior police, jailers, and torturers, are from the very lowest classes, -and usually of brutal life and temper. -</p> -<p>The vocabulary of torture is sufficiently copious to stamp Chō-sen as still a semi-civilized -nation. The inventory of the court and prison comprises iron chains, bamboos for beating -the back, a paddle-shaped implement for inflicting blows upon the buttocks, switches -for whipping the calves till the flesh is ravelled, ropes for sawing the flesh and -bodily organs, manacles, stocks, and boards to strike against the knees and shin-bones. -Other punishments are suspension by the arms, tying the hands in front of the knees, -between which and the elbows is inserted a stick, while the human ball is rolled about. -An ancient but now obsolete mode <span class="pageNum" id="pb235">[<a href="#pb235">235</a>]</span>of torture was to tie the four limbs of a man to the horns of as many oxen, and then -to madden the beasts by fire, so that they tore the victim to fragments. The punishment -of beating with paddles often leaves scars for life, and causes ulcers not easily -healed. One hundred strokes cause death in most cases, and many die under forty or -fifty blows. For some crimes the knees and shin-bones are battered. A woman is allowed -to have on one garment, which is wetted to make it cling to the skin and increase -the pain. The chief of the lictors, or public spanker, is called <i>siu-kiō</i>. With the long, flexible handle swung over his head, he plies the resounding blows, -planting them on the bare skin just above the knee-joint, the victim being held down -by four gaolers. The method of correction is quite characteristic of paternal government, -and is often inflicted upon the people openly and in public, at the whim of the magistrate. -The bastinado was formerly, like hundreds of other customs common to both countries, -in vogue in Japan. As in many other instances, this has survived in the less civilized -nation. -</p> -<p>When an offender in the military or literary class is sentenced to death, decapitation -is the rather honorable method employed. The executioner uses either a sort of native -iron hatchet-sword or cleaver, or one of the imported Japanese steel-edged blades, -which have an excellent reputation in the peninsula. -</p> -<p>Undoubtedly the severity of the Corean code has been mitigated since Hamel’s time. -According to his observations, husbands usually killed their wives who had committed -adultery. A wife murdering her husband was buried to the shoulders in the earth at -the road side, and all might strike or mutilate her with axe or sword. A serf who -murdered his master was tortured, and a thief might be trampled to death. The acme -of cruelty was produced, as in old Japan, by pouring vinegar down the criminal’s throat, -and then beating him till he burst. The criminal code now in force is, in the main, -that revised and published by the king in 1785, which greatly mitigated the one formerly -used. One disgraceful, but not very severe, mode of correction is to tie a drum to -the back of the offender and publicly proclaim his transgression, while the drum is -beaten as he walks through the streets. Amid many improvements on the old barbarous -system of aggravating the misery of the condemned, there still survives a disgraceful -form of capital punishment, in which the cruelty takes on the air of savage refinement. -The <i>cho-reni-to-ta</i> appears only in <span class="pageNum" id="pb236">[<a href="#pb236">236</a>]</span>extreme cases. The criminal’s face is smeared with chalk, his hands are tied behind -him, a gong is tied on his back, and an arrow is thrust through either ear. The executioner -makes the victim march round before the spectators, while he strikes the gong, crying -out, “This fellow has committed [adultery, murder, treason, etc.]. Avoid his crime.” -The French missionaries executed near Seoul were all put to death in this barbarous -manner. -</p> -<p>Officials often receive furloughs to return home and visit their parents, for filial -piety is the supreme virtue in Chinese Asia. The richest rewards on earth and brightest -heaven hereafter await the filial child. Curses and disgrace in this life and the -hottest hell in the world hereafter are the penalties of the disobedient or neglectful -child. The man who strikes his father is beheaded. The parricide is burned to death. -Not to mourn long and faithfully, by retiring from office for months, is an incredible -iniquity. -</p> -<p>Coreans, like Japanese, argue that, if the law punishes crime, it ought also to reward -virtue. Hence the system which prevails in the mikado’s empire and in Chō-sen of publicly -awarding prizes to signal exemplars of filial piety. These in Japan may be in the -form of money, silver cups, rolls of silk, or gewgaws. In Corea, they are shown in -monumental columns, or dedicatory temples, or by public honors and promotion to office. -Less often are the rewarded instances of devotion to the mother than to the father. -</p> -<p>Official life has its sunshine and shadows in this land as elsewhere, but perhaps -one of the hardest tasks before the Corean ruling classes of this and the next generation -is the duty of diligently eating their words. Accustomed for centuries to decry and -belittle the foreigner from Christendom, they must now, as the people discern the -superiority of westerners, “rise to explain” in a manner highly embarrassing. In intellect, -government, science, social customs, manual skill, refinement, and possession of the -arts and comforts of life, the foreigner will soon be discovered to be superior. At -the same time the intelligent native will behold with how little wisdom, and how much -needless cruelty, Chō-sen is governed. The Japanese official world has passed through -such an experience. If we may argue from a common ancestry and hereditary race traits, -we may forecast the probability that to Corea, as to Japan, may come the same marvellous -revolution in ideas and customs. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb237">[<a href="#pb237">237</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch27" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#xd31e1061">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="label">CHAPTER XXVII.</h2> -<h2 class="main">FEUDALISM, SERFDOM, AND SOCIETY.</h2> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="first">It is remarked by Palladius that the Fuyu race, the ancestors of the modern Coreans, -was the first to emerge from the desert under feudal forms of organization. The various -migrations of new nations rising out of northern and eastern Asia were westward, and -were held together under monarchical systems of government. The Fuyu tribes who, by -turning their face to the rising, instead of the setting sun, were anomalous in the -direction of their migration, were unique also in their political genius. Those emigrants -who, descending from the same ancestral seats in Manchuria, and through the peninsula, -crossed toward Nippon, or Sunrise, and settled Japan, maintained their feudalism until, -through ambitious desire to rival great China, they borrowed the centralized system -of court and monarchy from the Tang dynasty, in the seventh century. The mikado, by -means of boards or ministries like the Chinese, ruled his subjects until the twelfth -century. Then, through the pride and ambition of the military clans, which had subdued -all the tribes to his sway, feudalism, which had spread its roots, lifted its head. -By rapid growths, under succeeding military regents, it grew to be the tree overspreading -the empire. It was finally uprooted and destroyed only by the revolution of 1868, -and the later victories of united Japan’s imperial armies, at an awful sacrifice of -life and treasure. -</p> -<p>That branch of the Fuyu migration which remained in the Corean peninsula likewise -preserved the institution of feudalism which had been inherited from their ancestors. -In their early history, lands were held on the tenure of military service, and in -war time, or on the accession of a new dynasty, rewards were made by parcelling out -the soil to the followers of the victor. Provision for a constant state of servitude -among one class of the political body was made by the custom of making serfs of criminals -or their kindred. A nucleus of slavery being once formed<span class="corr" id="xd31e3845" title="Source: .">,</span> <span class="pageNum" id="pb238">[<a href="#pb238">238</a>]</span>debt, famine, capture in war, voluntary surrender, would serve to increase those whose -persons and labor were wholly or partly owned by another. To social prosperity, religion, -and the increase of general intelligence, we may look as elements for the amelioration -of serfdom and the elevation of certain classes of bondsmen into free people. The -forms of Corean society, to this day, are derived from feudal ranks and divisions, -and the powers, status, divisions, and practical politics of the nobles have their -roots in the ancient feudalism which existed even “before the conquest.” Its fruit -and legacy are seen in the serfdom or slavery which is Corea’s “domestic” or “peculiar” -institution. -</p> -<p>Speaking in general terms, the ladder of society has four rungs, the king, nobles, -and the three classes of society, in the last of which are “the seven low callings.” -In detail, the grades may be counted by the tens and scores. In the lowest grade of -the fourth class are “the seven vile callings,” viz.: the merchant, boatman, jailor, -postal or mail slave, monk, butcher, and sorcerer. -</p> -<p>The “four classes of society” include the literary men or officials, the farmers, -the artisans, and the traders. Among the nobility are various ranks, indicated by -titles, high offices at court, or nearness of relationship to the king. He is “neither -ox nor horse” is the native slang for one who is neither noble nor commoner. The nobles -are usually the serf-proprietors or slave-holders, many of them having in their households -large numbers whom they have inherited along with their ancestral chattels. The master -has a right to sell or otherwise dispose of the children of his slaves if he so choose. -The male slave is called <i>chong-nom</i>. A free man may marry a female slave, in which case he is termed a <i>pi-pu</i>. The male children by this marriage are free, but the female offspring belong to -the master of the mother, and may be sold. A liberated slave is called <i>pal-sin</i>, and he speaks of his former master as <i>ku-siang</i>. The native vocabulary for the slave in his various relations is sufficiently copious. -“Fugitive” slaves, “slave-hunters,” and “slave-drivers,” are as common to the Corean -ear, as to the American in the long-ago days of “before the war.” A <i>pan-no</i> is a bondsman trying to escape, and to attempt <i>chiu-ro</i> is to hunt the fugitive and bring him back. The <i>in-chang</i> is the public slave of the village. Yet such a thing as the bondsman’s servile love -of place, rising into swollen and oppressive pride that looks down on the poor freeman, -is a common thing, and cruel and overbearing treatment of the peasantry by the minions -<span class="pageNum" id="pb239">[<a href="#pb239">239</a>]</span>of a noble is too frequently witnessed in Corea. “<i>Tek-pun-ai</i>” (“By your favor,” equivalent to “Let me live, I pray you”) is a cry, more than once -heard by French missionaries, from a man beaten by the swaggering serfs of some nobleman. -It is not exactly the feeling of the sleek and well-bred black slave of old-time Virginia -for “the poor white trash,” since in Corea slavery has no color-line; yet, in essentials -of circumstance, it is the same. Such a phase of character is more likely to be developed -among the serfs of the old barons or landed proprietors who have longest occupied -their hereditary possessions, and who keep up a petty court within their castles or -semi-fortified mansions. -</p> -<p>Slavery or serfdom in Corea is in a continuous state of decline, and the number of -slaves constantly diminishing. In the remote provinces it is practically at an end. -The greater number of serfs are to be found attached to the estates of the great noble -families of the central provinces. The slaves are those who are born in a state of -servitude, those who sell themselves as slaves, or those who are sold to be such by -their parents in time of famine or for debt. Infants exposed or abandoned that are -picked up and educated become slaves, but their offspring are born free. The serfdom -is really very mild. Only the active young men are held to field labor, the young -women being kept as domestics. When old enough to marry, the males are let free by -an annual payment of a sum of money for a term of years. Often the slaves marry, are -assigned a house apart, and bound only to a fixed amount of labor. Although the master -has the power of life and death over his slaves, the right is rarely exercised unjustly, -and the missionaries report that there were few cases of excessive cruelty practised. -An unjust master could be cited before the tribunals, and the case inquired into. -Often the actual condition of the serfs is superior to that of the poor villagers, -and instances are common in which the poor, to escape the rapacity and cruelty of -the nobles, have placed themselves under the protection of a master known to be a -kind man, and thus have purchased ease and comfort at the sacrifice of liberty. -</p> -<p>Outside of private ownership of slaves, there is a species of government slavery, -which illustrates the persistency of one feature of ancient Kokorai perpetuated through -twenty centuries. It is the law that in case of the condemnation of a great criminal, -the ban of <i>Ui-ro-ui-pi</i> shall fall upon his wife and children, who at once become the slaves of the judge. -These unfortunates do not have <span class="pageNum" id="pb240">[<a href="#pb240">240</a>]</span>the privilege of honorably serving the magistrate, but usually pass their existence -in waiting on the menials in the various departments and magistracies. Only a few -of the government slaves are such by birth, most of them having become so through -judicial condemnation in criminal cases; but this latter class fare far worse than -the ordinary slaves. They are chiefly females, and are treated very little better -than beasts. They are at the mercy not only of the officers but even of their satellites, -servants, and grooms, or to whomever they are sold for an hour. Nothing can equal -the contempt in which they are held, and for an honest or an innocent woman, such -a fate is worse than many deaths. In the earliest written account of the Kokorai people, -the ancestors of the modern Coreans, we find this same feature of ancient feudalism -by which a class of serfs may be continually provided. To Christian eyes it is a horrible -relic of barbarism. -</p> -<p>The penal settlements on the sea-coast, and notably Quelpart Island, are worked by -colonies of these male government slaves or convicts. The females are not usually -sent away from the place of their parents or their own crime. -</p> -<p>In ancient times of Kokorai and Korai there were only two classes of people, the nobles -and their free retainers, and the serfs or slaves. The nobles were lords of cities -and castles, like the daimiōs of Japan, and were very numerous. The whole country -was owned by them, or at least held in the king’s name under tenure of military service—a -lien which length of time only strengthened. In the long centuries of peace, many -of these old families—weakly descendants of vigorous founders—have died out, and the -land reverting to the sovereign, or possessed by the people, is now owned by a more -numerous and complex class, while nearly all the cities and towns are governed by -officers sent out by the central authority at Seoul. The ancient class of serfs has, -by industry and intelligence and accumulation of rights vested in their special occupations, -developed into the various middle classes. The nobles are now in a minority, though -at present their power is on the increase, and their ancestral landholds comprise -but a small portion of the soil. -</p> -<p>As in mediæval Europe, so in Corea, where feudalism, which rests on personal loyalty -to a reigning sovereign, or a particular royal line, prevails, a more or less complete -revolution of titles and possessions takes place upon a change of dynasty. On the -accession of the present royal house in 1392, the old Korai nobility <span class="pageNum" id="pb241">[<a href="#pb241">241</a>]</span>were impoverished and the partisans of the founder of the Ni, and all who had aided -him to the throne, became at once the nobility of the kingdom, and were rewarded by -gifts of land. To the victors belonged the spoils. The honors, riches, and the exclusive -right to fill many of the most desirable public offices were awarded in perpetuity -to the aristocracy. The mass of the people were placed or voluntarily put themselves -under the authority of the nobles. The agricultural class attached to the soil simply -changed masters and landlords, while the cities and towns people and sea-coast dwellers -became, only in a nominal sense, the tenantry of the nobles. Gradually, however, those -who had ability and address obtained their full liberty, so that they were in no way -bound to pay tithe or tax to the nobles, but only to the central government. Under -peace, with wealth, intelligence, combination, trade-unions, and guilds, and especially -by means of the literary examinations, the various classes of the people emerged into -independent existence, leaving but a few of the lowest of the population in the condition -of serfs or slaves. Between the accounts of Hamel in 1653, and of the French missionaries -in the last decade, there are many indications of progress. Laborers, artisans, merchants, -soldiers, etc., now have a right to their own labor and earnings, and the general -division of the commonwealth is into three classes—nobles, common people, and serfs -or slaves. -</p> -<p>Speaking generally, the peculiar institution of Chō-sen is serfdom rather than slavery, -and is the <span class="corr" id="xd31e3888" title="Source: inheritence">inheritance</span> of feudalism; yet, as Russia has had her Alexander, America her Lincoln, and Japan -her Mutsŭhito, we may hope to see some great liberator yet arise in the “Land of Morning -Calm.” -</p> -<p>Under absolute despotisms, as most Asiatic governments are, it is a wonder to republicans -how the people enjoy any liberty at all. If they have any, it is interesting to study -how they have attained it, and how they hold it. Politically, they have absolutely -no freedom. They know nothing of government, except to pay taxes and obey. Their political -influence is nothing. In Chō-sen, according to law, any person of the common people -may compete at the public examinations for civil or military employment, but, in point -of fact, his degree is often worthless, for he is not likely to receive office by -it. In a country where might and wealth make right, and human beings are politically -naught, being but beasts of burden or ciphers without a unit, how do the people <span class="pageNum" id="pb242">[<a href="#pb242">242</a>]</span>protect themselves and gain any liberty? How does it come to pass that serfs may win -their way to social freedom? -</p> -<p>It is by union and organization. The spirit of association, so natural and necessary, -is spread among the Coreans of all classes, from the highest families to the meanest -slaves. All those who have any kind of work or interest in common form guilds, corporations, -or societies, which have a common fund, contributed to by all for aid in time of need. -Very powerful trade-unions exist among the mechanics and laborers, such as porters, -ostlers, and pack-horse leaders, hat-weavers, coffin-makers, carpenters, and masons. -These societies enable each class to possess a monopoly of their trade, which even -a noble vainly tries to break. Sometimes, they hold this right by writ purchased or -obtained from government, though usually it is by prescription. Most of the guilds -are taxed by the government for their monopoly enjoyed. They have their chief or head -man, who possesses almost despotic power, and even, in some guilds, of life and death. -New members or apprentices may be admitted by paying their rate and submitting to -the rules of the guild. In the higher grades of society we see the same spirit of -association. The temple attendants, the servants of the nobles, the gardeners, messengers, -and domestics of the palace, the supernumeraries and government employes, all have -their “rings,” which an outsider may not break. Even among the noble families the -same idea exists in due form. The villages form each a little republic, and possess -among themselves a common fund to which every family contributes. Out of this money, -hid in the earth or lent out on interest, are paid the public taxes, expenses of marriage -and burial, and whatever else, by custom and local opinion, is held to be a public -matter. Foreigners, accustomed to the free competition of English-speaking countries, -will find in Chō-sen, as they found in Japan, and even more so, the existence of this -spirit of protective association and monopoly illustrated in a hundred forms which -are in turn amusing, vexatious, or atrocious. A man who in injustice, or for mere -caprice, or in a fit of temper, discharges his ostler, house-servant, or carpenter, -will find that he cannot obtain another good one very easily, even at higher wages, -or, if so, that his new one is soon frightened off the premises. To get along comfortably -in Chinese Asia, one must, willy-nilly, pay respect to the visible or invisible spirit -of trade-unionism that pervades all society in those old countries. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb243">[<a href="#pb243">243</a>]</span></p> -<p>One of the most powerful and best organized guilds is that of the porters. The interior -commerce of the country being almost entirely on the backs of men and pack-horses, -these people have the monopoly of it. They number about ten thousand, and are divided -by provinces and districts under the orders of chiefs, sub-chiefs, censors, inspectors, -etc. A large number of these porters are women, often poor widows, or those unable -to marry. Many of them are of muscular frame, and their life in the open air tends -to develop robust forms, with the strength of men. They speak a conventional language, -easily understood among themselves, and are very profuse in their salutations to each -other. They have very severe rules for the government of their guild, and crimes among -them are punished with death, at the order of their chief. They are so powerful that -they pretend that even the government dare not interfere with them. They are outside -the power of the local magistrate, just as a German University student is responsible -to the Faculty, but not to the police. They are honest and faithful in their business, -delivering packages with certainty to the most remote places in the kingdom. They -are rather independent of the people, and even bully the officers. When they have -received an insult or injustice, or too low wages, they “strike” in a body and retire -from the district. This puts a stop to all travel and business, until these grievances -are settled or submission to their own terms is made. -</p> -<p>Owing to the fact that the country at large is so lacking in the shops and stores -so common in other countries, and that, instead, fairs on set days are so numerous -in the towns and villages, the guild of <span class="corr" id="xd31e3901" title="Source: pedlers">peddlers</span> and hucksters is very large and influential. The class includes probably 200,000 -able-bodied adult persons, who in the various provinces move freely among the people, -and are thus useful to the government as spies, detectives, messengers, and, in time -of need, soldiers. It was from this class that the Corean battalions which figured -prominently in the affair of December 4–6, 1887, were recruited. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb244">[<a href="#pb244">244</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch28" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#xd31e1069">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="label">CHAPTER XXVIII.</h2> -<h2 class="main">SOCIAL LIFE.—WOMAN AND THE FAMILY.</h2> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="first">According to the opinions of the French missionaries, who were familiar with the social -life of the people, a Corean woman has no moral existence. She is an instrument of -pleasure or of labor; but never man’s companion or equal. She has no name. In childhood -she receives indeed a surname by which she is known in the family, and by near friends, -but at the age of puberty, none but her father and mother employ this appellative. -To all others she is “the sister” of such a one, or “the daughter” of so-and-so. After -her marriage her name is buried. She is absolutely nameless. Her own parents allude -to her by employing the name of the district or ward in which she has married. Her -parents-in-law speak of her by the name of the place in which she lived before marriage, -as women rarely marry in the same village with their husbands. When she bears children, -she is “the mother” of so-and-so. When a woman appears for trial before a magistrate, -in order to save time and trouble, she receives a special name for the time being. -The women below the middle class work very hard. Farm labor is done chiefly by them. -Manure is applied by the women, rarely by the men. The women carry lunch to the laborers -in the field, eating what is left for their share. In going to market, the women carry -the heavier load. In their toilet, the women use rouge, white powders, and hair oil. -They shave the eyebrows to a narrow line—that is, to a perfectly clean arch, with -nothing straggling. They have luxuriant hair, and, in addition, use immense switches -to fill out large coiffures. -</p> -<p>In the higher classes of society, etiquette demands that the children of the two sexes -be separated after the age of eight or ten years. After that time the boys dwell entirely -in the men’s apartments, to study and even to eat and drink. The girls remain secluded -in the women’s quarters. The boys are taught that it is a shameful thing even to set -foot in the female part of the house. <span class="pageNum" id="pb245">[<a href="#pb245">245</a>]</span>The girls are told that it is disgraceful even to be seen by males, so that gradually -they seek to hide themselves whenever any of the male sex appear. These customs, continued -from childhood to old age, result in destroying the family life. A Corean of good -taste only occasionally holds conversation with his wife, whom he regards as being -far beneath him. He rarely consults her on anything serious, and though living under -the same roof, one may say that husband and wife are widely separated. The female -apartments among the higher classes resemble, in most respects, the zenanas of India. -The men chat, smoke, and enjoy themselves in the outer rooms, and the women receive -their parents and friends in the interior apartments. The same custom, based upon -the same prejudice, hinders the common people in their moments of leisure from remaining -in their own houses. The men seek the society of their male neighbors, and the women, -on their part, unite together for local gossip. In the higher classes, when a young -woman has arrived at marriageable age, none even of her own relatives, except those -nearest of kin, is allowed to see or speak to her. Those who are excepted from this -rule must address her with the most ceremonious reserve. After their marriage, the -women are inaccessible. They are nearly always confined to their apartments, nor can -they even look out in the streets without permission of their lords. So strict is -this rule that fathers have on occasions killed their daughters, husbands their wives, -and wives have committed suicide when strangers have touched them even with their -fingers. The common romances or novels of the country expatiate on the merits of many -a Corean Lucretia. In some cases, however, this exaggerated modesty produces the very -results it is intended to avoid. If a bold villain or too eager paramour should succeed -in penetrating secretly the apartments of a noble lady, she dare not utter a cry, -nor oppose the least resistance which might attract attention; for then, whether guilty -or not, she would be dishonored forever by the simple fact that a man had entered -her chamber. Every Corean husband is a Cæsar in this respect. If, however, the affair -remains a secret, her reputation is saved. -</p> -<p>There is, however, another side. Though counting for nothing in society, and nearly -so in their family, they are surrounded by a certain sort of exterior respect. They -are always addressed in the formulas of honorific language. The men always step aside -in the street to allow a woman to pass, even though she be of the <span class="pageNum" id="pb246">[<a href="#pb246">246</a>]</span>poorer classes. The apartments of females are inviolable even to the minions of the -law. A noble who takes refuge in his wife’s room may not be seized. Only in cases -of rebellion is he dragged forth, for in that case his family are reckoned as accomplices -in his guilt. In other crimes the accused must in some way be enticed outside, where -he may be legally arrested. When a <span class="corr" id="xd31e3918" title="Source: pedler">peddler</span> visits the house to show his wares, he waits until the doors of the women’s apartments -are shut. This done, his goods are examined in the outer apartments, which are open -to all. When a man wishes to mend, or go up on his roof, he first notifies his neighbors, -in order that they may shut their doors and windows, lest he risk the horrible suspicion -of peeping at the women. As the Coreans do not see a “man in the moon,” but only a -rabbit pounding drugs, or a lady banished there for a certain fault, according as -they are most familiar with Sanskrit or the Chinese story, the females are not afraid -of this luminary, nor are the men jealous of her, the moon being female in their ideas -of gender. -</p> -<p>Marriage in Chō-sen is a thing with which a woman has little or nothing to do. The -father of the young man communicates, either by call or letter, with the father of -the girl whom he wishes his son to marry. This is often done without consulting the -tastes or character of either, and usually through a middle-man or go-between. The -fathers settle the time of the wedding after due discussion of the contract. A favorable -day is appointed by the astrologers, and the arrangements are perfected. Under this -aspect marriage seems an affair of small importance, but in reality it is marriage -only that gives one any civil rank or influence in society. Every unmarried person -is treated as a child. He may commit all sorts of foolishness without being held to -account. His capers are not noticed, for he is not supposed to think or act seriously. -Even the unmarried young men of twenty-five or thirty years of age can take no part -in social reunions, or speak on affairs of importance, but must hold their tongues, -be seen but not heard. Marriage is emancipation. Even if mated at twelve or thirteen -years of age, the married are adults. The bride takes her place among the matrons, -and the young man has a right to speak among the men and to wear a hat. The badge -of single or of married life is the hair. Before marriage, the youth, who goes bareheaded, -wears a simple tress, hanging down his back. The nuptial tie is, in reality, a knot -of hair, for in wedlock the hair is bound up on the top of the head and is cultivated -on all parts of <span class="pageNum" id="pb247">[<a href="#pb247">247</a>]</span>the scalp. According to old traditions, men ought never to clip a single hair; but -in the capital the young gallants, in order to add to their personal attractions—with -a dash of fashionable defiance—trim their locks so that their coiffure will not increase -in size more than a hen’s egg. The women, on the contrary, not only preserve all their -own hair, but procure false switches and braids to swell their coiffures to fashionable -bulk. They make up two large tresses, which are rolled to the back and top of the -head, and secured by a long pin of silver or copper. The common people roll their -plaits around their heads, like a turban, and shave the front of the scalp. Young -persons who insist on remaining single, or bachelors arrived at a certain or uncertain -age, and who have not yet found a wife, secretly cut off their hair, or get it done -by fraud, in order to pass for married folks and avoid being treated as children. -Such a custom, however, is a gross violation of morals and etiquette. (See illustration, -page 161.) -</p> -<p>On the evening before the wedding, the young lady who is to be married invites one -of her friends to change her virginal coiffure to that of a married woman. -</p> -<p>The bridegroom-to-be also invites one of his acquaintance to “do up” his hair in manly -style. The persons appointed to perform this service are chosen with great care, and -as changing the hair marks the turning-point in life, the hair-dresser of this occasion -is called the “hand of honor,” and answers to the bridesmaid and groomsman of other -countries. -</p> -<p>On the marriage-day, in the house of the groom, a platform is set up and richly adorned -with decorative woven stuffs. Parents, friends, and acquaintances assemble in a crowd. -The couple to be married—who may never have seen or spoken to each other—are brought -in and take their places on the platform, face to face. There they remain for a few -minutes. They salute each other with profound obeisance, but utter not a word. This -constitutes the ceremony of marriage. Each then retires, on either side; the bride -to the female, the groom to the male apartments, where feasting and amusement, after -fashions in vogue in Chō-sen, take place. The expense of a wedding is considerable, -and the bridegroom must be unstinting in his hospitality. Any failure in this particular -may subject him to unpleasant practical jokes. -</p> -<p>On her wedding-day, the young bride must preserve absolute silence, both on the marriage -platform and in the nuptial chamber. Etiquette requires this at least among the nobility. -Though <span class="pageNum" id="pb248">[<a href="#pb248">248</a>]</span>overwhelmed with questions and compliments, silence is her duty. She must rest mute -and impassive as a statue. She seats herself in a corner clothed in all the robes -she can bear upon her person. Her husband may disrobe her if he wishes, but she must -take no part or hinder him. If she utters a word or makes a gesture, she is made the -butt of the jokes and gossip of her husband’s house or neighborhood. The female servants -of the house place themselves in a peeping position to listen or look through the -windows, and are sure to publish what they see and hear amiss. Or this may be done -to discover whether the husband is pleased with his wife, or how he behaves to her, -as is the case in Japan. A bit of gossip—evidently a stock story—is the following -from Dallet: -</p> -<p>A newly married Corean groom spent a whole day among his male friends, in order to -catch some words from his wife at their first interview, after their hours of separation. -His spouse was informed of this, and perhaps resolved to be obstinate. Her husband, -having vainly tried to make her speak, at last told her that on consulting the astrologers -they had said that his wife was mute from birth. He now saw that such was the case, -and was resolved not to keep for his wife a dumb woman. Now in a Corean wedding, it -is quite possible that such an event may take place. One of the contracting parties -may be deaf, mute, blind, or impotent. It matters not. The marriage exists. But the -wife, stung by her husband’s words, broke out in an angry voice, “Alas, the horoscope -drawn for my partner is still more true. The diviner announced that I should marry -the son of a rat.” This, to a Corean, is a great insult, as it attaints father and -son, and hence the husband and his father. The shouts of laughter from the eavesdropping -female servants added to the discomfiture of the young husband, who had gained his -point of making his bride use her tongue at a heavy expense, for long did his friends -jeer at him for his bravado, and chaff him at catching a Tartar. -</p> -<p>From the language, and from Japanese sources, we obtain some side-lights on the nuptial -ceremony and married life. In Corean phrase <i>hon-sang</i> (the wedding and the funeral) are the two great events of life. Many are the terms -relating to marriage, and the synonyms for conjugal union. “To take the hat,” “to -clip the hair,” “to don the tuft,” “to sit on the mat,” are all in use among the gentlemen -of the peninsula to denote the act or state of marriage. The hat and the hair play -an important part in the transition from single to double blessedness. All who <span class="pageNum" id="pb249">[<a href="#pb249">249</a>]</span>wear their locks <i>ta-rai</i>, or in a tress behind, are youths and maidens. Those with the tuft or top-knot are -married. At his wedding and during the first year, the bridegroom wears a cap, made -of a yellow herb, which is supposed to grow only near Sunto. Other honeymoon caps -are melon-shaped, and made of sable skin. <span class="corr" id="xd31e3942" title="Source: Ater">After</span> the <i>chung-mai</i>, or middle-man, has arranged the match, and the day is appointed for the <i>han-sa</i>, or wedding, the bride chooses two or three maiden friends as “bridesmaids.” If rich, -the bride goes to her future husband’s house in a palanquin; if poor, she rides on -horseback. Even the humblest maid uses a sort of cap or veil, with ornaments on the -breast, back, and at the girdle. When she cannot buy, she borrows. The prominent symbolic -figure at the wedding is a goose; which, in Corean eyes, is the emblem of conjugal -fidelity. Sometimes this <i>mok-an</i> is of gilded wood, sometimes it is made out of a fish for eating, again it is a live -bird brought in a cloth with the head visible. If in the house, as is usual, the couple -ascend the piled mats or dais and the reciprocal prostrations, or acts of mutual consent, -form the sacramental part of the ceremony, and constitute marriage. The bride bows -four times to her father-in-law and twice to the groom. The groom then bows four times -to the bride. Other symbolic emblems are the fantastic shapes of straw (<i>otsuka</i>) presented to bride and groom alike. Dried pheasant is also brought in and cut. A -gourd-bottle of rice-wine, decorated or tied with red and blue thread, is handed by -the bride to the groom. The bridesmaids standing beside the couple pour the liquid -and pass for exchange the one little “cup of the wine of mutual joy,” several times -filled and emptied. -</p> -<p>Then begins the wedding-feast, when the guests drink and make merry. The important -document certifying the fact of wedlock is called the <i>hon-se-chi</i>, and is signed by both parties. When the woman is unable to write, she makes “her -mark” (<i>siu-pon</i>) by spreading out her hand and tracing with a pencil the exact profile of palm, wrist, -and fingers. Sometimes the groom, in addition to his four prostrations, which are -significant of fidelity to the bride, gives to his father-in-law a written oath of -constancy to his daughter. Faithfulness is, however, a typical feminine, rather than -masculine, virtue in the hermit nation. The <i>pong-kang</i>, a kind of wild canary bird, is held up to the wife as her model of conjugal fidelity. -Another large bird, somewhat exceeding a duck in size, and called the <i>ching-kiong</i>, is said never to remate after <span class="pageNum" id="pb250">[<a href="#pb250">250</a>]</span>the death of its consort. Corean widows are expected to imitate this virtuous fowl. -In some places may be seen the vermilion arch or monumental gateway erected to some -widow of faithful memory who wedded but once. Married women wear two rings on the -ring finger. Sixty years, or a cycle, completes the ideal length of marital life, -and “a golden wedding” is then celebrated. -</p> -<p>Among the most peculiar of women’s rights in Chō-sen is the curious custom forbidding -any males in Seoul from being out after eight o’clock in the evening. When this Corean -curfew sounds, all men must hie in-doors, while women are free to ramble abroad until -one <span class="asc">A.M.</span> To transgress this law of <i>pem-ya</i> brings severe penalty upon the offender. In-doors, the violation of the privacy of -the woman’s quarters is punishable by exile or severe flagellation. -</p> -<p>The following story, from Dallet, further illustrates some phases of their marriage -customs, and shows that, while polygamy is not allowed, concubinage is a recognized -institution: -</p> -<p>A noble wished to marry his own daughter and that of his deceased brother to eligible -young men. Both maidens were of the same age. He wished to wed both well, but especially -his own child. With this idea in view he had already refused some good offers. Finally -he made a proposal to a family noted alike for pedigree and riches. After hesitating -some time which of the maidens he should dispose of first, he finally decided upon -his own child. Without having seen his future son-in-law, he pledged his word and -agreed upon the night. Three days before the ceremony he learned from the diviners -that the young man chosen was silly, exceedingly ugly, and very ignorant. What should -he do? He could not retreat. He had given his word, and in such a case the law is -inflexible. In his despair he resolved upon a plan to render abortive what he could -not avert. On the day of the marriage, he appeared in the women’s apartments, and -gave orders in the most imperative manner that his niece, and not his daughter, should -don the marriage coiffure and the wedding-dress, and mount the nuptial platform. His -stupefied daughter could not but acquiesce. The two cousins being of about the same -height, the substitution was easy, and the ceremony proceeded according to the usual -forms. The new bridegroom passed the afternoon in the men’s apartments, where he met -his supposed father-in-law. What was the amazement of the old noble to find that far -from being stupid and ugly, as depicted by the diviners, the young man <span class="pageNum" id="pb251">[<a href="#pb251">251</a>]</span>was good-looking, well-formed, intelligent, highly educated, and amiable in manners. -Bitterly regretting the loss of so accomplished a son-in-law, he determined to repair -the evil. He secretly ordered that, instead of his niece, his daughter should be introduced -as the bride. He knew well that the young man would suspect nothing, for during the -salutations the brides are always so muffled up with dresses and loaded with ornaments -that it is impossible to distinguish their countenances. -</p> -<p>All happened as the old man desired. During the two or three days which he passed -with the new family, he congratulated himself upon obtaining so excellent a son-in-law. -The latter, on his part, showed himself more and more charming, and so gained the -heart of his supposed father-in-law that, in a burst of confidence, the latter revealed -to him all that had happened. He told of the diviners’ reports concerning him, and -the successive substitutions of niece for daughter and daughter for niece. -</p> -<p>The young man was at first speechless, then, recovering his composure, said: “All -right, and that is a very smart trick on your part. But it is clear that both the -two young persons belong to me, and I claim them. Your niece is my lawful wife, since -she has made to me the legal salute, and your daughter—introduced by yourself into -my marriage-chamber—has become of right and law my concubine.” The crafty old man, -caught in his own net, had nothing to answer. The two young women were conducted to -the house of the new husband and master, and the old noble was jeered at both for -his lack of address and his bad faith. -</p> -<p>It is the reciprocal salutation before witnesses on the wedding-dais that constitutes -legitimate marriage. From that moment a husband may claim the woman as his wife. If -he repudiates or divorces her, he may not marry another woman while his former wife -is living, but he is free to take as many concubines as he can support. It is sufficient -that a man is able to prove that he has had intimate relations with a maiden or a -widow; she then becomes his legal property. No person, not even her parents, can claim -her if the man persists in keeping her. If she escape, he may use force to bring her -back to his house. Conjugal fidelity—obligatory on the woman—is not required of the -husband, and a wife is little more than a slave of superior rank. Among the nobles, -the young bridegroom spends three or four days with his bride, and then absents himself -from her for a considerable time, to prove that he does not esteem her too highly. -Etiquette dooms <span class="pageNum" id="pb252">[<a href="#pb252">252</a>]</span>her to a species of widowhood, while he spends his hours of relaxation in the society -of his concubines. To act otherwise would be considered in very bad taste, and highly -unfashionable. Instances are known of nobles who, having dropped a few tears at the -death of their wives, have had to absent themselves from the saloons of their companions -to avoid the torrent of ribaldry and jeers at such weakness. Such eccentricity of -conduct makes a man the butt of long-continued <span class="corr" id="xd31e3984" title="Source: railery">raillery</span>. -</p> -<p>Habituated from infancy to such a yoke, and regarding themselves as of an inferior -race, most women submit to their lot with exemplary resignation. Having no idea of -progress, or of an infraction of established usage, they bear all things. They become -devoted and obedient wives, jealous of the reputation and well-being of their husbands. -They even submit calmly to the tyranny and unreason of their mothers-in-law. Often, -however, there is genuine rebellion in the household. Adding to her other faults of -character, violence and insubordination, a Corean wife quarrels with her mother-in-law, -makes life to her husband a burden, and incessantly provokes scenes of choler and -scandal. Among the lower classes, in such cases, a few strokes of a stick or blows -of the fist bring the wife to terms. In the higher classes it is not proper to strike -a woman, and the husband has no other course than that of divorce. If it is not easy -for him to marry again, he submits. If his wife, not content with tormenting him, -is unfaithful to him, or, deserting his bed, goes back to her own house, he can lead -her before the magistrate, who after administering a beating with the paddles, gives -her as a concubine to one of his underlings. -</p> -<p>Women of tact and energy make themselves respected and conquer their legitimate position, -as the following example shows. It is taken by Dallet from a Corean treatise on morals -for the youth of both sexes: -</p> -<p>Toward the end of the last century a noble of the capital, of high rank, lost his -wife, by whom he had had several children. His advanced age rendered a second marriage -difficult. Nevertheless, the middle-men (or marriage-brokers employed in such cases) -decided that a match could be made with the daughter of a poor noble in the province -of Kiung-sang. On the appointed day he appeared at the mansion of his future father-in-law, -and the couple mounted the stage to make the salute according to custom. Our grandee, -casting his eyes upon his new wife, stopped for the moment thunderstruck. She was -very fat, ugly, hump-backed, <span class="pageNum" id="pb253">[<a href="#pb253">253</a>]</span>and appeared to be as slightly favored with gifts of mind as of body. -</p> -<p>But he could not withdraw, and he played his part firmly. He resolved neither to take -her to his house nor to have anything to do with her. The two or three days which -it was proper to pass in his father-in-law’s house being spent, he departed for the -capital and paid no further attention to his new relatives. -</p> -<p>The deserted wife, who was a person of a great deal of intelligence, resigned herself -to her isolation and remained in her father’s house, keeping herself informed, from -time to time, of what happened to her husband. She learned, after two or three years, -that he had become minister of the second rank, and that he had succeeded in marrying -his two sons very honorably. Some years later, she heard that he proposed to celebrate, -with all proper pomp, the festivities of his sixtieth birthday. Immediately, without -hesitation and in spite of the remonstrances and opposition of her parents, she took -the road to the capital. There hiring a palanquin, she was taken to the house of the -minister and announced herself as his wife. She alighted, entered the vestibule, and -presented herself with an air of assurance and a glance of tranquillity at the women -of the united families. Seating herself at the place of honor, she ordered some fire -brought, and with the greatest calmness lighted her pipe before the amazed domestics. -The news was carried to the outer apartments of the gentlemen, but, according to etiquette, -no one appeared surprised. -</p> -<p>Finally the lady called together the household slaves and said to them, in a severe -tone, “What house is this? I am your mistress, and yet no one comes to receive me. -Where have you been brought up? I ought to punish you severely, but I shall pardon -you this time.” They hastened to conduct her into the midst of all the female guests. -“Where are my sons-in-law?” she demanded. “How is it that they do not come to salute -me? They forget that I am without any doubt, by my marriage, the mother of their wives, -and that I have a right, on their part, to all the honors due to their own mothers.” -</p> -<p>Forthwith the two daughters-in-law presented themselves with a shamed air, and made -their excuses as well as they were able. She rebuked them gently, and exhorted them -to show themselves more scrupulous in the accomplishment of their duties. She then -gave different orders in her quality as mistress of the house. -</p> -<p>Some hours after, seeing that neither of the men appeared, she <span class="pageNum" id="pb254">[<a href="#pb254">254</a>]</span>called a slave to her, and said to him: “My two sons are surely not absent on such -a day as this. See if they are in the men’s apartments, and bid them come here.” The -sons presented themselves before her, much embarrassed, and blundered out some excuses. -“How?” said she, “you have heard of my arrival for several hours and have not come -to salute me? With such bad bringing up, and an equal ignorance of principles of action, -how will you make your way in the world? I have pardoned my slaves and my daughters-in-law -for their want of politeness, but for you who are men I cannot let this fault pass -unpunished.” With this she called a slave and bade him give them some strokes on the -legs with a rod. Then she added, “For your father, the minister, I am his servant, -and I have not had orders to yield to him; but, as for you, henceforth do you act -so as not to forget proprieties.” Finally the minister himself, thoroughly astonished -at all that had passed, was obliged to come to terms and to salute his wife. Three -days after, the festivities being ended, he returned to the palace. The king asked -familiarly if all had passed off happily. The minister narrated in detail the history -of his marriage, the unexpected arrival of his wife, and how she had conducted herself. -The king, who was a man of sense, replied: “You have acted unjustly toward your wife. -She appears to me to be a woman of spirit and extraordinary tact. Her behavior is -admirable, and I don’t know how to praise her enough. I hope you will repair the wrongs -you have done her.” The minister promised, and some days later solemnly conferred -upon his wife one of the highest dignities of the court. -</p> -<p>The woman who is legally espoused, whether widow or slave, enters into and shares -the entire social estate of her husband. Even if she be not noble by birth she becomes -so by marrying a noble, and her children are so likewise. If two brothers, for example, -espouse an aunt and a niece, and the niece falls to the lot of the elder, she becomes -thereby the elder sister, and the aunt will be treated as a younger sister. This relation -of elder and younger sisters makes an immense difference in life, position, and treatment, -in all Chinese Asia. -</p> -<p>It is not proper for a widow to remarry. In the higher classes a widow is expected -to weep for her deceased husband, and to wear mourning all her life. It would be infamy -for her, however young, to marry a second time. The king who reigned 1469–1494 excluded -children of remarried widows from competition at the public examinations, <span class="pageNum" id="pb255">[<a href="#pb255">255</a>]</span>and from admittance to any official employment. Even to the present day such children -are looked upon as illegitimate. -</p> -<p>Among a people so passionate as Coreans, grave social disorders result from such a -custom. The young noble widows who cannot remarry become, in most cases, secretly -or openly the concubines of those who wish to support them. The others who strive -to live chastely are rudely exposed to the inroads of passion. Sometimes they are -made intoxicated by narcotics which are put in their drink, and they wake to find -themselves dishonored. Sometimes they are abducted by force, during the night, by -the aid of hired bandits. When they become victims of violence, there is no remedy -possible. It often happens that young widows commit suicide, after the death of their -husbands, in order to prove their fidelity and to secure their honor and reputation -beyond the taint of suspicion. Such women are esteemed models of chastity, and there -is no end to their praises among the nobles. Through their influence, the king often -decrees a memorial gateway, column, or temple, intended to be a monument of their -heroism and virtue. Thus it has often happened that Christian widows begged of the -missionary fathers permission to commit suicide, if attempts were made to violate -their houses or their persons; and it was with difficulty that they could be made -to comprehend the Christian doctrine concerning suicide. -</p> -<p>The usual method of self-destruction is <i>ja-mun</i>, or cutting the throat, or opening the abdomen with a sword. In this the Coreans -are like the Japanese, neck-cutting or piercing being the feminine, and <i>hara-kiri</i> (belly-cutting) the masculine, method of ending life at one’s own hands. -</p> -<p>Among the common people, second marriages are forbidden neither by law nor custom, -but wealthy families endeavor to imitate the nobles in this custom as in others. Among -the poor, necessity knows no law. The men must have their food prepared for them, -and women cannot, and do not willingly die of famine when a husband offers himself. -Hence second marriages among the lowly are quite frequent. -</p> -<hr class="tb"><p> -</p> -<p>Most of the facts stated in this chapter are drawn from Dallet’s “History of the [Roman -Catholic] Church in Corea.” Making due allowance for the statements of celibate priests, -who are aliens in religion, nationality, and civilization, the picture of the social -life of Chō-sen is that of abominable heathenism. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb256">[<a href="#pb256">256</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch29" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#xd31e1077">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="label">CHAPTER XXIX.</h2> -<h2 class="main">CHILD LIFE.</h2> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="first">Judging from a collection of the toys of Corean children, and from their many terms -of affection and words relating to games and sports, festivals and recreation, nursery -stories, etc., the life of the little Kim or Ni must be a pleasant one. For the blessings -of offspring the parents offer rice to the god of the household (<i>sam-sin-hang</i>), whose tiny shrine holds a place of honor in some ornamental niche in the best room. -When the baby begins to grow, cradles being unknown, the mother puts the infant to -sleep by <i>to-tak, to-tak</i>—patting it lightly on the stomach. When it is able to take its first step across -the floor—the tiger-skin rug being ready to ease its possible fall—this important -household event, spoken of with joy as the <i>ja-pak, ja-pak</i>, is described to the neighbors. As the child grows up and is able to walk and run -about, the hair is mostly shaved off, so that only a “button of jade” is left on the -top of the head. This infantile tuft takes its name from the badge or togle worn on -the top of the men’s caps in winter. A child, “three feet high,” very beautiful and -well formed, docile and strong, if a son, is spoken of “as a thousand-mile horse”—one -who promises to make an alert and enduring man. A child noted for filial piety will -even cheerfully commit <i>tan-ji</i>—cutting his finger to furnish his blood as a remedy for the sickness of father or -mother. Should the child die, a stone effigy or statue of itself is set up before -his grave. -</p> -<p>In the capital and among the higher classes, the children’s toys are very handsome, -ranking as real works of art, while in every class the playthings of the tiny Corean -humanity form but a miniature copy of the life of their elders. Among the living pets, -the monkey is the favorite. These monkeys are fitted with jackets, and when plump -and not too mischievous make capital pets for the boys. Puppies share the affections -of the nursery with the tiger on wheels. Made of paper pulp and painted, this harmless -effigy of the king of beasts is pulled about with a string. A <span class="pageNum" id="pb257">[<a href="#pb257">257</a>]</span>jumping-jack is but a copy of the little boy who pulls it. A jerk of the string draws -in the pasteboard tongue, and sends the trumpet to his mouth. Official life is mirrored -in the tasselled umbrella, the fringed hats, and the toy-chariot with fancy wheels. -Other toys, such as rattles, flags, and drums, exactly imitate the larger models with -which the grown-up men and women amuse themselves. All these are named, fashioned, -and decorated in a style peculiarly Corean. Among the most common of the children’s -plays are the following: A ring is hidden in a heap of sand, and the urchins poke -sticks into and through the pile to find it. Whoever transfixes the circlet wins the -game, suggesting our girls’ game of grace-hoop, though often taking a longer time. -Rosettes or pinwheels of paper are made and fastened on the end of sticks. Running -before the breeze, the miniature windmills afford hilarious delight. -</p> -<p>The children’s way of bringing rain is to move the lips up and down, distending the -cheeks and pressing the breath through the lips. Playing “dinner” with tiny cups and -dishes, and imitating the ponderous etiquette of their elders, is a favorite amusement. -See-saw is rougher and more exhilarating. Games of response are often played with -hands, head, or feet, in which one watches the motions of his rival, opens or shuts -his hands, and pays a forfeit or loses the game when a false move is made. For the -coast-dwellers, the sea-shore, with the rocks which are the refuge of the shell-fish, -is the inexhaustible playground of the children. Looking down in the clear deep water -of the archipelago they see the coral reefs, the bright flower-gardens of marine plants, -and shoals of striped, banded, crimson-tailed, and green-finned fish, which, in the -eastern seas, glitter with tints of gold and silver. The children, half naked, catch -the crabs and lobsters, learning how to hold their prizes after many a nab and pinch, -which bring infantile tears and squalls. One of the common playthings of Corean children, -the “baby’s rattle,” is the dried leathery egg of the skate, which with a few pebbles -inside makes the infant, if not its parents, happy with the din. -</p> -<p>Besides a game of patting and dabbling in the water—<i>chal-pak, chal-pak</i>—boys amuse themselves by fishing with hook and line or net. One method is to catch -fish by means of the <i>yek-kui</i>. This is a plant of peppery taste, which poisons or stupefies the fish that bite -the tempting tip, making them easy prey. More serious indoor games played by women -and children are <i>pa-tok</i>, or backgammon; <span class="pageNum" id="pb258">[<a href="#pb258">258</a>]</span><i>sang-pi-yen</i>, dominoes; <i>siu-tu-chen</i>, game of eighty cards; and <i>chang-keui</i>, or chess. All these pastimes are quite different from ours of the same name, yet -enough like them to be recognized as belonging to the species named. The festivals -most intensely enjoyed by the children are those of “Treading the Bridges,” “The Meeting -of the Star Lovers,” and the “Mouse Fire.” There is one evening in the year in which -men and children, as well as women, are allowed to be out in the streets of the capital. -The people spend the greater part of the night in passing and repassing upon the little -bridges of stone. It is a general “night out” for all the people. Comedians, singers, -harlequins, and merry-makers of all kinds are abroad, and it being moonlight, all -have a good time in “treading the bridges.” On the seventh day of the seventh month, -the festival honored in China, Corea, and Japan takes place, for which children wait, -in expectation, many days in advance. Sweetmeats are prepared, and bamboos strung -with strips of colored paper are the symbols of rejoicing. On this night the two stars -Capricornus and Alpha Lyra (or the Herd-boy and Spinning Maiden) are in conjunction -in the milky way<a class="noteRef" id="xd31e4056src" href="#xd31e4056">1</a> (or the River of Heaven), and wishes made at this time are supposed to come true. -</p> -<p><i>Chu-pul</i>, or the Mouse Fire, occurs in the twelfth month, on the day of the Mouse (or rat). -Children light brands or torches of dry reeds or straw, and set fire to the dry herbage, -stubble, and shrubbery on the borders of the roads, in order to singe the hair of -the various field or ground-burrowing animals, or burn them out, so as to obtain a -plentiful crop of cotton. -</p> -<p>At school, the pupils study according to the method all over Asia, that is, out loud, -and noisily. This <i>kang-siong</i>, or deafening buzz, is supposed to be necessary to sound knowledge. Besides learning -the Chinese characters and the vernacular alphabet, with tongue, ear, eye, and pen, -the children master the <i>ku-ku</i> (“nine times nine”), or the multiplication table, and learn to work the four simple -rules of arithmetic, and even fractions, involution, and evolution on the chon-pan, -or sliding numeral frame. A “red mark” is a vermilion token of a good lesson, made -by the examiner; and for a good examination passed rewards are given in the form of -a first-rate dinner, or one or all of “the four friends of the study table”—pens, -ink, paper, and inkstand, or brushes, sticks of “India” ink, rolls of unsized paper, -and an inkstone <span class="pageNum" id="pb259">[<a href="#pb259">259</a>]</span>or water-dropper. Writing a good autograph signature—“one’s own pen”—is highly commended. -Sometimes money is given for encouragement, which the promising lad saves up in an -earthen savings-bank. Not a few of the youth of the humbler classes, who work in the -fields by day and study the characters by night, rise to be able officers who fill -high stations. -</p> -<p>The French missionaries assure us that the normal Corean is fond of children, especially -of sons, who in his eyes are worth ten times as much as daughters. Such a thing as -exposure of children is almost unknown. In times of severe famine this may happen -after failure to give away or sell for a season, that they may be bought back. Parents -rarely find their family too numerous. -</p> -<p>The first thing inculcated in a child’s mind is respect for his father. All insubordination -is immediately and sternly repressed. Far different is it with the mother. She yields -to her boy’s caprices and laughs at his faults and vices without rebuke. The child -soon learns that a mother’s authority is next to nothing. In speaking of his father -a lad often adds the words “severe,” “terrible,” implying the awe and profound respect -in which he holds his father. (Something of the same feeling prevails as in Japan, -where the four dreadful things which a lad most fears, and which are expressed in -a rhyming proverb, are: “Earthquake, wind, fire, and father,” or “daddy.”) On the -contrary, in speaking of his mother, he adds the words “good,” “indulgent,” “I’m not -afraid of her,” etc. A son must not play nor smoke in his father’s presence, nor assume -free or easy posture before him. For lounging, there is a special room, like a nursery. -The son waits on his father at meals and gets his bed ready. If he is old or sickly, -the son sleeps near him and does not quit his side night or day. If he is in prison -the son takes up his abode in the vicinity, to communicate with his parent and furnish -him with luxuries. In case of imprisonment for treason, the son at the portal, on -bended knees day and night, awaits the sentence that will reduce himself to slavery. -If the accused is condemned to exile, the son must at least accompany his father to -the end of the journey, and, in some cases, share banishment with him. Meeting his -father in the street, the son must make profound salute on his knees, in the dust, -or in the ditch. In writing to him, he must make free use of the most exaggerated -honorifics which the Corean knows. -</p> -<p>The practice of adoption is common, as it is abnormally so in all countries where -ancestral worship is prevalent and underlies <span class="pageNum" id="pb260">[<a href="#pb260">260</a>]</span>all religions. The preservation of the family line is the supreme end and aim of life. -In effect all those persons are descendants of particular ancestors who will keep -up the ancestral sacrifices, guard the tablets and observe the numerous funeral and -mourning ceremonies which make life such a burden in Eastern Asia. Daughters are not -adopted, because they cannot accomplish the prescribed rites. When parents have only -a daughter, they marry her to an adopted son, who becomes head of the family so adopted -into. Even the consent of the adopted, or of his parents, is not always requisite, -for as it is a social, as well as a religious necessity, the government may be appealed -to, and, in case of need, forces acceptance of the duty. In this manner, as in the -patriarchal age of biblical history, a man may be coerced into “raising up seed” to -defunct ancestors. -</p> -<p>Properly, an adoption, to be legal, ought to be registered at the office of the Board -of Rites, but this practice has fallen into disuse, and it is sufficient to give public -notice of the fact among the two families concerned. An adoption once made cannot -be void except by a decree from the Tribunal of Rites, which is difficult to obtain. -In practice, the system of adoption results in many scandals, quarrels, jealousies, -and all the train of evils which one familiar with men and women, as they are, might -argue <i>a priori</i> without the facts at hand. The iron fetters of Asiatic institutions cannot suppress -human nature. -</p> -<p>Primogeniture is the rigid rule. Younger sons, at the time of their marriage, or at -other important periods of life, receive paternal gifts, now more, now less, according -to usage, rank, the family fortune, etc., but the bulk of the property belongs to -the oldest son, on whom the younger sons look as their father. He is the head of the -family, and regards his father’s children as his own. In all Eastern Asia the bonds -of family are much closer than among Caucasian people of the present time. All the -kindred, even to the fifteenth or twentieth degree, whatever their social position, -rich or poor, educated or illiterate, officials or beggars—form a clan, a tribe, or -more exactly one single family, all of whose members have mutual interests to sustain. -The house of one is the house of the other, and each will assist to his utmost another -of the clan to get money, office, or advantage. The law recognizes this system by -levying on the clan the imposts and debts which individuals of it cannot pay, holding -the sodality responsible for the <span class="corr" id="xd31e4083" title="Source: indivdual">individual</span>. To this they submit without complaint or protest. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb261">[<a href="#pb261">261</a>]</span></p> -<p>Instead of the family being a unit, as in the west, it is only the fragment of a clan, -a segment in the great circle of kindred. The number of terms expressing relationship -is vastly greater and much more complex than in English. One is amazed at the exuberance -of the national vocabulary in this respect. The Coreans are fully as clannish as the -Chinese, and much more so than the Irish; and in this, as in the Middle Kingdom, lies -one great obstacle to Christianity or to any kind of individual reform. Marriage cannot -take place between two persons having the same family cognomen. There are in the kingdom -only one hundred and forty or fifty family, or rather clan names. Yet many of these -names are widespread through the realm. All are formed of a single Chinese letter, -except six or seven, which are composed of two characters. To distinguish the different -families who bear the same patronymic, they add the name which they call the <i>pu</i>, or Gentile name, to indicate the place whence the family originally came. In the -case of two persons wishing to marry, if this <i>pu</i> is the same, they are in the eyes of the law relatives, and marriage is forbidden. -If the <i>pu</i> of each is different, they may wed. The most common names, such as Kim and Ni—answering -to our Smith and Jones—have more than a score of <i>pu</i>, which arise from more than twenty families, the place of whose origin is in each -case different. The family name is never used alone. It is always followed by a surname; -or only the word <i>so-pang</i>, junior, <i>sang-wen</i>, senior, lord, sir, etc. -</p> -<p>Male adults usually have three personal names, that given in childhood, the common -proper name, and the common legal name, while to this last is often added the title. -Besides these, various aliases, nicknames, fanciful and punning appellatives, play -their part, to the pleasure or vexation of their object. This custom is the source -of endless confusion in documents and common life. It was formerly in vogue in Japan, -but was abolished by the mikado’s government in 1872, and now spares as much trouble -to tongue, <span class="corr" id="xd31e4104" title="Source: tpyes">types</span>, and pens, as a reform in our alphabet and spelling would save the English-speaking -world. As in Nippon, a Corean female has but one name from the cradle to the grave. -The titles “Madame,” or “Madame widow,” are added in mature life. As in old Japan, -the common people do not, as a rule, have distinguishing individual names, and among -them nicknames are very common. Corean etiquette forbids that the name of father, -mother, or uncle be used in conversation, or even pronounced aloud. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb262">[<a href="#pb262">262</a>]</span></p> -</div> -<div class="footnotes"> -<hr class="fnsep"> -<div class="footnote-body"> -<div class="fndiv" id="xd31e4056"> -<p class="footnote"><span class="fnlabel"><a class="noteRef" href="#xd31e4056src">1</a></span> See “The Meeting of the Star Lovers,” in Japanese Fairy World. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd31e4056src" title="Return to note 1 in text.">↑</a></p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch30" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#xd31e1085">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="label">CHAPTER XXX.</h2> -<h2 class="main">HOUSEKEEPING, DIET, AND COSTUME.</h2> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="first">Corean architecture is in a very primitive condition. The castles, fortifications, -temples, monasteries and public buildings cannot approach in magnificence those of -Japan or China. The country, though boasting hoary antiquity, has few ruins in stone. -The dwellings are tiled or thatched houses, almost invariably one story high. In the -smaller towns these are not arranged in regular streets, but scattered here and there. -Even in the cities and capital the streets are narrow and tortuous. -</p> -<p>In the rural parts, the houses of the wealthy are embosomed in beautiful groves, with -gardens surrounded by charming hedges or fences of rushes or split-bamboo. The cities -show a greater display of red-tiled roofs, as only the officials and nobles are allowed -this sumptuary honor. Shingles are not much used. The thatching is of rice or barley -straw, cut close, with ample eaves, and often finished with great <span class="corr" id="xd31e4115" title="Source: neatnesss">neatness</span>. -</p> -<p>A low wall of uncemented stone, five or six feet high, surrounds the dwelling, and -when kept in repair gives an air of neatness and imposing solidity to the estate. -Often a pretty rampart of flat bamboo or rushes, plaited in the herring-bone pattern, -surmounts the wall, which may be of pebbles or stratified rock and mortared. Sometimes -the rampart is of wattle, covered with smooth white plaster, which, with the gateway, -is also surmounted by an arched roofing of tiles. Instead of regular slanting lines -of gables, one meets with the curved and pagoda-like roofs seen in China, with a heavy -central ridge and projecting ornaments of fire-hardened clay, like the “stirrup” or -“devil” tiles of Japan. These curves greatly add to the beauty of a Corean house, -because they break the monotony of the lines of Corean architecture. -</p> -<p>Doors, windows, and lintels are usually rectangular, and are set in regularly, instead -of being made odd to relieve the eye, as in Japan. Bamboo is a common material for -window-frames. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb263">[<a href="#pb263">263</a>]</span></p> -<p>The foundations are laid on stone set in the earth, and the floor of the humble is -part of the naked planet. People one grade above the poorest cover the hard ground -with sheets of oiled paper, which serve as rugs or a carpet. For the better class -a floor of wood is raised a foot or so above the earth, but in the sleeping- and sitting-room -of the average family, the “kang” forms a vaulted floor, bed, and stove. -</p> -<p>The kang is characteristic of the human dwelling in northeastern Asia. It is a kind -of tubular oven, in which human beings, instead of potatoes, are baked. It is as though -we should make a bedstead of bricks, and put foot-stoves under it. The floor is bricked -over, or built of stone over flues, which run from the fireplace, at one end of the -house, to the chimney at the other. The fire which boils the pot or roasts the meat -is thus utilized to warm those sitting or sleeping in the room beyond. The difficulty -is to keep up a regular heat without being alternately chilled or smothered. With -wood fuel this is almost impossible, but by dint of tact and regulated draught may -be accomplished. As in the Swedish porcelain stove, a pail of live coals keeps up -a good warmth all night. The kangs survive in the <i>kotatsù</i> of Japan. -</p> -<p>The “fire” in sentiment and fact is the centre of the Corean home, and the native -phrase, “he has put out his fire,” is the dire synonym denoting that a man is not -only cold and fasting, but in want of the necessities of life. -</p> -<p>Bed-clothes are of silk, wadded cotton, thick paper, and tiger, wolf, or dog skins, -the latter often sewn in large sheets like a carpet. Comfort, cleanliness, and luxury -make the bed of the noble on the warm brick in winter, or cool matting in summer; -but with the poor, the cold of winter, and insects of summer, with the dirt and rags, -make sleeping in a Corean hut a hardship. Cushions or bags of rice-chaff form the -pillows of the rich. The poor man uses a smooth log of wood or slightly raised portion -of the floor to rest his head upon. “Weariness can snore upon the flint when resty -sloth finds the down pillow hard.” -</p> -<p>Three rooms are the rule in an average house. These are for cooking, eating, and sleeping. -In the kitchen the most noticeable articles are the <i>ang-pak</i>, or large earthen jars, for holding rice, barley, or water. Each of them is big enough -to hold a man easily. The second room, containing the kang, is the sleeping apartment, -and the next is the best room or parlor. Little furniture is the rule. Coreans, like -the Japanese, sit, not cross-legged, <span class="pageNum" id="pb264">[<a href="#pb264">264</a>]</span>but on their heels. Among the well-to-do, dog-skins, or <i>kat-tei</i>, cover the floor for a carpet, or splendid tiger-skins serve as rugs. Matting is -common, the best being in the south. -</p> -<p>As in Japan, the meals are served on the floor on low <i>sang</i>, or little tables, one for each guest, sometimes one for a couple. The best table -service is of porcelain, and the ordinary sort of earthenware with white metal or -copper utensils. The table-cloths are of fine glazed paper and resemble oiled silk. -No knives or forks are used; instead, chopsticks, laid in paper cases, and, what is -more common than in China or Japan, spoons are used at every meal. The climax of æsthetic -taste occurs when a set of historic porcelain and faience of old Corean manufacture -and decoration, with the tall and long-spouted teapot, are placed on the pearl-inlaid -table and filled with native delicacies. -</p> -<p></p> -<div class="figure p264width" id="p264"><img src="images/p264.png" alt="Table Spread for Festal Occasions." width="685" height="491"><p class="figureHead">Table Spread for Festal Occasions.</p> -</div><p> -</p> -<p>The walls range in quality of decoration from plain mud to colored plaster and paper. -The Corean wall-paper is of all grades, sometimes as soft as silk, or as thick as -canvas. <i>Sa-peik</i> is a favorite reddish earth or mortar which serves to rough-cast in rich color tones -the walls of a room. -</p> -<p>Pictures are not common; the artistic sense being satisfied <span class="pageNum" id="pb265">[<a href="#pb265">265</a>]</span>with scrolls of handsome Chinese characters containing moral and literary gems from -the classics, or the caligraphic triumph of some king, dignitary, or literary friend. -To possess a sign-manual or autograph scrap of Yung, Hong, or O, the three most renowned -men of Chō-sen, is reckoned more than a golden manuscript on azure paper. -</p> -<p>The windows are square and latticed without or within, and covered with tough paper, -either oiled or unsized, and moving in grooves—the originals of the Japanese sliding-doors -and windows. In every part of a Corean house, paper plays an important and useful -part. -</p> -<p>Very fine Venetian blinds are made of threads split from the ever-useful bamboo, which -secures considerable variety in window decoration. The doors are of wood, paper, or -plaited bamboo. Glass was, till recently, a nearly unknown luxury in Corea among the -common people. Even with the nobles, it is rather a curiosity. The windows being made -of oiled or thin paper, glass is not a necessity. This fact will explain the eagerness -of the people to possess specimens of this transparent novelty. Even old porter and -ale bottles, which sailors have thrown away, are eagerly picked up, begged, bought, -or stolen. An old medicine-vial, among the Coreans, used to fetch the price of a crystal -goblet among us. The possessor of such a prize as a Bass’ ale bottle will exhibit -it to his neighbor as a rare curio from the Western barbarians, just as an American -virtuoso shows off his last new Satsuma vase or box of Soochow lacquer. When English -ship captains, visiting the coast, gave the Coreans a bottle of wine, the bottle, -after being emptied, was always carefully returned with extreme politeness as an article -of great value. The first Corean visitor to the American expedition of 1871, went -into ecstacies, and his face budded into smiles hitherto thought impossible to the -grim Corean visage, because the cook gave him an arm-load of empty ale-bottles. The -height of domestic felicity is reached when a Corean householder can get a morsel -of glass to fasten into his window or sliding-door, and thus gaze on the outer world -through this “loophole of retreat.” This not only saves him from the disagreeable -necessity of punching a finger-hole through the paper to satisfy his curiosity, but -gives him the advantage of not being seen, and of keeping out the draft. When a whole -pane has been secured, it is hard to state whether happiness or pride reigns uppermost -in the owner’s bosom. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb266">[<a href="#pb266">266</a>]</span></p> -<p>Candlesticks are either tall and upright, resting on the floor in the Japanese style, -or dish-lamps of common oil are used. -</p> -<p>Flint and steel are used to ignite matches made of chips of wood dipped in sulphur, -by which a “fire-flower” is made to blossom, or in more prosaic English, a flame is -kindled. Phosphorus matches, imported from Japan, are called by a word signifying -“fire-sprite,” “will-of-the-wisp,” or <i>ignis-fatuus</i>. -</p> -<p>Usually in a <span class="corr" id="xd31e4165" title="Source: gentlemen’s">gentleman’s</span> house there is an ante-room or vestibule, in which neighbors and visitors sit and -talk, smoke or drink. In this place much freedom is allowed and formalities are laid -aside. Here are the facilities and the atmosphere which in Western lands are found -in clubs, coffee- and ale-houses, or obtained from newspapers. One such, of which -the picture is before us, has in it seats, and looks out on a garden or courtyard. -On a ledge or window-seat are vases of blossoms and cut flowers; a smaller vase holds -fans, and another is presumably full of tobacco or some other luxury. Short eave-curtains -and longer drapery at the side, give an air of inviting comfort to these free and -easy quarters, where news and gossip are exchanged. These <i>oi-tiang</i>, or outer apartments, are for strangers and men only, and women are never expected -or allowed to be present. -</p> -<p>The Ching-ja is a small house or room on the bank of a river, or overlooking some -bit of natural scenery, to which picnic parties resort, the Coreans most heartily -enjoying out-door festivity, in places which sky, water, and foliage make beautiful -to the eye. -</p> -<p>There are often inscribed on the portals, in large Chinese characters, moral mottoes -or poetical sentiments, such as “Enter happiness, like breezes bring the spring, and -depart evil spirit as snow melts in water.” Before a new house is finished, a sheet -of pure white paper, in which are enclosed some <i>nip</i>, or “cash,” with grains of rice which have been steeped in wine, is nailed or fastened -on the wall, over the door, and becomes the good spirit or genius of the house, sacrifices -being duly offered to it. In more senses than one, the spirit that presides over too -many Corean households is the alcohol spirit. -</p> -<p>The Corean liquor, by preference, is brewed or distilled from rice, millet, or barley. -These alcoholic drinks are of various strength, color, and smell, ranging from beer -to brandy. In general their beverages are sufficiently smoky, oily, and alcoholic -to Western tastes, as the fusel-oil usually remains even in the best products of their -stills. No trait of the Coreans has more impressed <span class="pageNum" id="pb267">[<a href="#pb267">267</a>]</span>their numerous visitors, from Hamel to the Americans, than their love of all kinds -of strong drink, from ale to whiskey. The common verdict is, “They are greatly addicted -to the worship of Bacchus.” The Corean vocabulary bears ample witness to the thorough -acquaintance of the people with the liquor made from grain by their rude processes. -The inhabitants of the peninsula were hard drinkers even in the days of Fuyu and Kokorai. -No sooner were the ports of modern Chō-sen open to commerce than the Chinese established -liquor-stores, while European wines, brandies, whiskeys, and gins have entered to -vary the Corean’s liquid diet and increase the national drunkenness. -</p> -<p>Strange as it may seem, the peasant, though living between the two great tea-producing -countries of the world—Japan and China—and in the latitude of tea-plantations, scarcely -knows the taste of tea, and the fragrant herb is as little used as is coffee in Japan. -The most common drink, after what the clouds directly furnish, is the water in which -rice has been boiled. Infusions of dried ginseng, orange-peel, or ginger serve for -festal purposes, and honey when these fail; but the word “tea,” or <i>cha</i>, serves the Corean, as it does the typical Irishman, for a variety of infusions and -decoctions. With elastic charity the word covers a multitude of sins, chiefly of omission; -all that custom or euphony requires is to prefix the name of the substance used to -“cha” and the drink is tea—of some kind. -</p> -<p>The staple diet has in it much more of meat and fat than that of the Japanese. The -latter acknowledge that the average Corean can eat twice as much as himself. Beef, -pork, fowls, venison, fish, and game are consumed without much waste in rejected material. -Nearly everything edible about an animal is a tidbit, and a curious piece of cookery, -symbolical of a generous feast, is often found at the board of a liberal host. This -<i>tang-talk</i> (which often becomes the “town-talk”) is a chicken baked and served with its feathers, -head, claws, and inwards intact. “To treat to an entire fowl” is said of a liberal -host, and is equivalent to “killing the fatted calf.” -</p> -<p>Fish are often eaten raw from tail to head, especially if small, with only a little -seasoning. <i>Ho-hoi</i>, or fish-bone salad, is a delicacy. Dog-flesh is on sale among the common butchers’ -meats, and the Coreans enjoy it as our Indians do. In the first month of the year, -however, owing to religious scruples, no dog-meat is eaten, or dishes of canine origin -permitted. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb268">[<a href="#pb268">268</a>]</span></p> -<p>The state dinner, given to the Japanese after the treaty, consisted of this bill of -fare: two-inch squares of pastry, made of flour, sugar, and oil; heaps of boiled eggs; -pudding made of flour, sesame, and honey; dried persimmons; “pine-seeds,” honey-like -food covered with roasted rice colored red and white; <span class="corr" id="xd31e4195" title="Source: maccaroni">macaroni</span> soup with fowl; boiled legs of pork, and wine, rice or millet spirit with everything. -It is customary to decorate the tables on grand occasions with artificial flowers, -and often the first course is intended more for show than for actual eating. For instance, -when the Japanese party, feasted at Seoul in 1646, first sat down to the table, one -of them began to help himself to fish, of which he was very fond. The dish seemed -to contain a genuine cooked carp basted with sauce, but, to the embarrassment of the -hungry guest, the fish would not move. He was relieved by the servant, who told him -that it was put on the table only for show. The courses brought on later contained -more substantial nourishment, such as fish, flesh, fowl, vegetables, soups, cakes, -puddings and tea. Judging from certain words in the language, these show-dishes form -a regular feature at the opening of banquets. The women cook rice beautifully, making -it thoroughly soft by steaming, while yet retaining the perfect shape of each grain -by itself. Other well-known dishes are barley, millet, beans, <i>taro</i> (potato cooked in a variety of ways), lily-bulbs, sea-weeds, acorns, <i>dai-kon</i> (radishes), turnips, and potatoes. <span class="corr" id="xd31e4202" title="Source: Maccaroni">Macaroni</span> and vermicelli are used for soups and refreshing lunches. Apples, pears, plums, grapes, -persimmons, and various kinds of berries help to furnish the table, though the flavor -of these is inferior to the same fruits grown in our gardens. -</p> -<p>All kinds of condiments, mustard, vinegar, pepper, and a variety of home-made sauces, -are much relished. Itinerant food-sellers are not so common as in China, but butcher-shops -and vermicelli stands are numerous. Two solid meals, with a light breakfast, is the -rule. <i>Opan</i>, or midday rice, is the dinner. <i>Tai-sik</i> is a regular meal. The appearance of the evening star is the signal for a hearty -supper, and the planet a synonym for the last meal of the day. At wakes or funeral -feasts, and on festal days, the amount of victuals consumed is enormous, while a very -palatable way of remembering the dead is by the <i>yum-pok</i>, or drinking of sacrificial wine. The Coreans understand the preservative virtues -of ice, and in winter large quantities of this substance are cut and stored away for -use in the summer, in keeping fresh meat and fish. Their ice-houses are made by excavating -the ground <span class="pageNum" id="pb269">[<a href="#pb269">269</a>]</span>and covering over the store with earth and sod, from which in hot weather they use -as may be necessary. These ice stores are often under the direction of the government, -especially when large quantities of fish are being preserved for rations of the army -in time of war. Those who oversee the work are called “Officers of the Refrigerator.” -</p> -<p>One striking fault of the Coreans at the table is their voracity, and to this trait -of their character Japanese, French, Dutch, and Chinese bear witness. It might be -supposed that a Frenchman, who eats lightly, might make a criticism where an Englishman -would be silent; but not so. All reports concerning them seem to agree. In this respect -there is not the least difference between the rich and poor, noble or plebeian. To -eat much is an honor, and the merit of a feast consists not in the quality but in -the quantity of the food served. Little talking is done while eating, for each sentence -might lose a mouthful. Hence, since a capacious stomach is a high accomplishment, -it is the aim from infancy to develop a belly having all possible elasticity. Often -the mothers take their babies upon their knees, and after stuffing them with rice, -like a wad in a gun, will tap them from time to time with the paddle of a ladle on -the stomach, to see that it is fully spread out or rammed home, and only cease gorging -when it is physically impossible for the child to swell up more. A Corean is always -ready to eat; he attacks whatever he meets with, and rarely says, “Enough.” Even between -meals, he will help himself to any edible that is offered. The ordinary portion of -a laborer is about a quart of rice, which when cooked makes a good bulk. This, however, -is no serious hindrance to his devouring double or treble the quantity when he can -get it. Eating matches are common. When an ox is slaughtered, and the beef is served -up, a heaping bowl of the steaming mess does not alarm any guest. Dog-meat is a common -article of food, and the canine sirloins served up in great trenchers are laid before -the guests, each one having his own small table to himself. When fruits, such as peaches -or small melons, are served, they are devoured without peeling. Twenty or thirty peaches -is considered an ordinary allowance, which rapidly disappears. Such a prodigality -in victuals is, however, not common, and for one feast there are many fastings. Beef -is not an article of daily food with the peasantry. Its use is regulated by law, the -butcher being a sort of government official; and only under extraordinary circumstances, -<span class="pageNum" id="pb270">[<a href="#pb270">270</a>]</span>as when a grand festival is to be held, does the king allow an ox to be killed in -each village. The Coreans are neither fastidious in their eating nor painstaking in -their cooking. Nothing goes to waste. All is grist that comes to the mill in their -mouths. -</p> -<p>They equal Japanese in devouring raw fish, and uncooked food of all kinds is swallowed -without a wry face. Even the intestines pass among them for delicate viands. Among -the poorer classes, a cooked fish is rarely seen on the table; for no sooner is it -caught than it is immediately opened and devoured. The raw viands are usually eaten -with a strong seasoning of pepper or mustard, but they are often swallowed without -condiment of any sort. Often in passing along the banks of a river, one may see men -fishing with rod and line. Of these some are nobles who are not able, or who never -wish to work for a living, yet they will fish for food and sport. Instead of a bag -or basket to contain the game, or a needle to string it upon, each fisher has at his -side a jar of diluted pepper, or a kind of soy. No sooner is a fish hooked, than he -is drawn out, seized between the two fingers, dipped into the sauce, and eaten without -ceremony. Bones do not scare them. These they eat, as they do the small bones of fowls. -</p> -<p>Nationally, and individually, the Coreans are very deficient in conveniences for the -toilet. Bath-tubs are rare, and except in the warmer days of summer, when the river -and sea serve for immersion, the natives are not usually found under water. The Japanese -in the treaty expedition in 1876 had to send bath-tubs on shore from their ships. -Morning ablutions are made in a copper basin. The sponges which grow on the west coast -seem to find no market at home. This neglect of more intimate acquaintance with water -often makes the lowest classes “look like mulattos,” as Hamel said. Gutzlaff, Adams, -and others, especially the Japanese, have noted this personal defect, and have suggested -the need of soap and hot water. It may be that the contrast between costume and cuticle -tempts to exaggeration. People who dress in white clothing have special need of personal -cleanliness. Perhaps soap factories will come in the future. -</p> -<p>The men are very proud of their beards, and the elders very particular in keeping -them white and clean. The lords of creation honor their beard as the distinctive glory -and mark of their sex. A man is in misery if he has only just enough beard to distinguish -him from a woman. A full crop of hair on cheek and chin insures to its possessor unlimited -admiration, while in Corean <span class="pageNum" id="pb271">[<a href="#pb271">271</a>]</span>billingsgate there are numerous terms of opprobrium for a short beard. Europeans are -contemptuously termed “short-hairs”—with no suspicion of the use of the word in New -York local politics. Old gentlemen keep a little bag in which they assiduously collect -the combings of their hair, the strokings of their beard and parings of their nails, -in order that all that belongs to them may be duly placed in their coffin at death. -</p> -<p>The human hair crop is an important item in trade with China, to which country it -is imported and sold to piece out the hair-tails which the Chinese, in obedience to -their Manchiu conquerors, persist in wearing. Some of this hair comes from poor women, -but the staple product is from the heads of boys who wear their hair parted in the -middle, and plaited in a long braid, which hangs down their backs. At marriage, they -cut this off, and bind what remains in a tight, round knot on the top of the scalp, -using pins or not as they please. -</p> -<p>The court pages and pretty boys who attend the magnates, usually rosy-cheeked, well -fed, and effeminate looking youths, do not give any certain indication of their sex, -and foreigners are often puzzled to know whether they are male or female. Their beardless -faces and long hair are set down as belonging to women. Most navigators have made -this mistake in gender, and when the first embassy from Seoul landed in Yokohama, -the controversy, and perhaps the betting, as to the sex of these nondescripts was -very lively. Captain Broughton declared that the whole duty of these pages seemed -to be to smooth out the silk dresses of the grandees. Officials and nobles cover their -top-knots with neat black nets of horse-hair or glazed thread. Often country and town -people wear a fillet or white band of bark or leaves across the forehead to keep the -loose hair in order, as the ancient Japanese used to do. Women coil their glossy black -tresses into massive knots, and fasten them with pins or golden, silver, and brass -rings. The heads of the pins are generally shaped like a dragon. They oil their hair, -using a sort of vegetable pomatum. Among the court ladies and female musicians the -styles of coiffure are various; some being very pretty, with loops, bands, waves, -and “bangs,” as the illustration on page 161 shows. -</p> -<p>Corea is decidedly the land of big hats. From their amplitude these head-coverings -might well be called “roofs,” or, at least, “umbrellas.” Their diameter is so great -that the human head encased in one of them seems but as a hub in a cart-wheel. They -<span class="pageNum" id="pb272">[<a href="#pb272">272</a>]</span>would probably serve admirably as parachutes in leaping from a high place. Under his -wide-spreading official hat a magistrate can shelter his wife and family. It serves -as a numeral, since a company is counted by hats, instead of heads or noses. How the -Corean dignitary can weather a gale remains a mystery, and, perhaps, the feat is impossible -and rarely attempted. A slim man is evidently at a disadvantage in a “Japanese wind” -or typhoon. The personal avoirdupois, which is so much admired in the peninsula, becomes -very useful as ballast to the head-sail. Corean magnates, cast away at sea, would -not lack material for ship’s canvas. In shape, the gentleman’s hat resembles a flower-pot -set on a round table, or a tumbler on a Chinese gong. Two feet is a common diameter, -thus making a periphery of six feet. The top or cone, which rises nine inches higher, -is only three inches wide. This chimney-like superstructure serves as ornament and -ventilator. Its purpose is not to encase the head, for underneath the brim is a tight-fitting -skull-cap, which rests on the head and is held on by padded ties under the ears. The -average rim for ordinary people, however, is about six inches in radius. The huge -umbrella-hat of bleached bamboo is worn by gentlemen in mourning. After death it is -solemnly placed on the bier, and forms a conspicuous object at the funeral. The native -name for hat is <i>kat</i> or <i>kat-si</i>. -</p> -<p>The usual material is bamboo, split to the fineness of a thread, and woven so as to -resemble horse-hair. The fabric is then varnished or lacquered, and becomes perfectly -weather-proof, resisting sun and rain, but not wind. The prevalence of cotton clothing, -easily soaked and rendered uncomfortable, requires the ample protection for the back -and shoulders, which these umbrella-like hats furnish. In heavy rain, the <i>kat-no</i> is worn, that is, a cone of oiled paper, fixed on the hat in the shape of a funnel. -Indeed, the umbrella in Corea is rather for a symbol of state and dignity than for -vulgar use, and is often adorned with knobs and strips. Quelpart Island is the home -of the hatters, whose fashionable wares supply the dandies and dignitaries of the -capital and of the peninsula. The highest officers of the government have the cone -truncated or rounded at the vertex, and surmounted by a little figure of a crane in -polished silver, very handsome and durable. This long-legged bird is a symbol of civil -office. “To confer the hat,” means as much to an officer high in favor at the court -of Seoul as to a cardinal in the Vatican, only the color is black, not <span class="pageNum" id="pb273">[<a href="#pb273">273</a>]</span>red. It is Corean etiquette to keep the hat on, and in this respect, as well as in -their broad brims, the hermits resemble the Quakers. Marriage and mourning are denoted -also by the hat. -</p> -<p>A variety of materials is employed by other classes. Soldiers wear large black or -brown felt hats, resembling Mexican sombreros, which are adorned with red horse-hair -or a peacock’s feather, swung on a swivel button. -</p> -<p>Suspended from the sides, over the ears and around the neck, are strings of round -balls of blue porcelain, cornelian, amber, or what resembles kauri gum. Sometimes -these ornaments are tubular, reminding one of the millinery of a cardinal’s hat. -</p> -<p>For the common people, plaited straw or rushes of varied shapes serve for summer, -while in winter shaggy caps of lynx, wolf, bear, or deer-skin are common, made into -Havelock, Astrachan, Japanese, and other shapes, some resembling wash-bowls, some -being fluted or fan-like, winged, sock-shaped, or made like a nightcap. Variety seems -to be the fashion. -</p> -<p>The head-dress of the court nobles differs from that of the vulgar as much as the -Pope’s tiara differs from a cardinal’s <i>rubrum</i>. It is a crown or helmet, which, eschewing brim, rises in altitude to the proportions -of a mitre. Without earstrings or necklaces of beads, it is yet highly ornamental. -One of these consists of a cap, with a sort of gable at the top. Another has six lofty -curving folds or volutes set in it. On another are designs from the <i>pa-kwa</i>, or sixty-four mystic diagrams, which are supposed to be sacred symbols of the Confucian -philosophy, and of which fortune-tellers make great use. -</p> -<p>The wardrobe of the gentry consists of the ceremonial and the house dress. The former, -as a rule, is of fine silk, and the latter of coarser silk or cotton. These “gorgeous -Corean dresses” are of pink, blue, and other rich colors. The official robe is a long -garment like a wrapper, with loose, baggy sleeves. This is embroidered with the stork -or phœnix for civil, and with the kirin, lion, or tiger for military officers. Buttons -are unknown and form no part of a Corean’s attire, male or female, thus greatly reducing -the labor of the wives and mothers who ply the needle, which in Corea has an “ear” -instead of an “eye.” Strings and girdles, and the shifting of the main weight of the -clothing to the shoulders, take the place of these convenient, but fugitive, adjuncts -to the Western costume. There are few tailors’ shops, the women of each household -making the family outfit. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb274">[<a href="#pb274">274</a>]</span></p> -<p>Soldiers in full dress wear a sleeveless, open surcoat for display. The under dress -of both sexes is a short jacket with tight sleeves, which for men reaches to the thighs, -and for women only to the waist, and a pair of drawers reaching from waist to ankle, -a little loose all the way down for the men, and tied at the ankles, but for the women -made tight and not tied. The females wear a petticoat over this garment, so that the -Coreans say they dress like Western women, and foreign-made hosiery and under-garments -are in demand. Although they have a variety of articles of apparel easily distinguishable -to the native eye, yet their general style of costume is that of the wrapper, stiff, -wide, and inflated with abundant starch in summer, but clinging and baggy in winter. -The rule is tightness and economy for the working, amplitude and richness of material -for the affluent<span id="xd31e4256"></span> classes. The women having no pockets in their dresses, wear a little bag suspended -from their girdle. This is worn on the right side, attached by cords. These contain -their bits of jewelry, scissors, knife, a tiger’s claw for luck, perfume-bottle or -sachet, a tiny chess-board in gold or silver, etc. Besides the rings on their fingers -the ladies wear hair-pins of gold ornamented with bulbs or figures of birds. Many -of them dust <i>pun</i>, or white powder, on their faces, and employ various other cosmetics, which are kept -in their <i>kiong-tai</i>, or mirror toilet-stands; in which also may be their <i>so-hak</i>, or book containing rules of politeness. -</p> -<p>The general type of costume is that of China under the Ming dynasty. To a Chinaman -a Corean looks antiquated, a curiosity in old clothes; a Japanese at a little distance, -in the twilight, is reminded of ghosts, or the snowy heron of the rice-fields, while -to the American the Corean swell seems compounded chiefly of bed-clothes, and in his -most elaborate costume to be still in his under-garments. -</p> -<p>Plenty of starch in summer, and no stint of cotton in winter, are the needs of the -Corean. His white dress makes his complexion look darker than it really is. The monotonous -dazzle of bleached garments is relieved by the violet robes of the magistrate, the -dark blue for the soldiers, and lighter shades of that color in the garb of the middle -class; the blue strip which edges the coat of the literary graduates, and the pink -and azure clothes of the children. Less agreeable is the nearness which dispels illusion. -The costume, which seemed snowy at a distance, is seen to be dingy and dirty, owing -to an entire ignorance of soap. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb275">[<a href="#pb275">275</a>]</span></p> -<p>The Corean dress, though simpler than the Chinese, is not entirely devoid of ornament. -The sashes are often of handsome blue silk or brocaded stuff. The official girdles, -or flat belts a few inches wide, have clasps of gold, silver, or rhinoceros horn, -and are decorated with polished ornaments of gold or silver. For magistrates of the -three higher ranks these belts are set with blue stones; for those of the fourth and -fifth grade with white stones, and for those below the fifth with a substance resembling -horn. Common girdles are of cotton, hemp cloth, or rope. -</p> -<p></p> -<div class="figure p275width" id="p275"><img src="images/p275.png" alt="Gentlemen’s Garments and Dress Patterns." width="693" height="519"><p class="figureHead">Gentlemen’s Garments and Dress Patterns.</p> -</div><p> -</p> -<p>Fans are also a mark of rank, being made of various materials, especially silk or -cloth, stretched on a frame. The fan is an instrument of etiquette. To hide the face -with one is an act of politeness. The man in mourning must have no other kind than -that in which the pin or rivet is of cow’s horn. Oiled paper fans serve a variety -of purposes. In another kind, the ribs of the frame are bent back double. The finer -sort for the nobility are gorgeously inlaid with pearl or nacre. -</p> -<p>A kind of flat wand or tablet, seen in the hands of nobles, ostensibly to set down -orders of the sovereign, is made of ivory for officers above, and of wood for those -below the fourth grade. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb276">[<a href="#pb276">276</a>]</span></p> -<p>Another badge of office is the little wand, half way between a toy whip and a Mercury’s -caduceus, of black lacquered wood, with cords of green silk. This is carried by civil -officers, and may be the original of the Japanese baton of command, made of lacquered -wood with pendant strips of paper. -</p> -<p>Canes are carried by men of the literary or official class when in mourning. These -tall staves, which, from the decks of European vessels sailing along the coast, have -often looked like spears, are the <i>sang-chang</i>, or smooth bamboo staves, expressive of ceremonial grief, and nothing more. -</p> -<p>As the Coreans have no pockets, they make bags, girdles, and their sleeves serve instead. -The women wear a sort of reticule hung at the belt, and the men a smoking outfit, -consisting of an oval bag to hold his flint and steel, some fine-cut tobacco, and -a long, narrow case for his pipe. -</p> -<p>Foot-gear is either of native or of Chinese make. The laborer contents himself with -sandals woven from rice-straw, which usually last but a few days. A better sort is -of hempen twine or rope, with many strands woven over the top of the foot. A man in -mourning can wear but four cords on the upper part. Socks are too expensive for the -poor, except in the winter. Shoes made of cotton are often seen in the cities, having -hempen or twine soles. The low shoes of cloth, or velvet, and cowhide, upturned at -the toe, worn by officials, are imported from China. Small feet do not seem to be -considered a beauty, and the foot-binding of the Chinese is unknown in Chō-sen, as -in Japan. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb277">[<a href="#pb277">277</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch31" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#xd31e1094">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="label">CHAPTER XXXI.</h2> -<h2 class="main">MOURNING AND BURIAL.</h2> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="first">The fashion of mourning, the proper place and time to shed tears and express grief -according to regulations, are rigidly prescribed in an official treatise or “Guide -to Mourners,” published by the government. The corpse must be placed in a coffin of -very thick wood, and preserved during many months in a special room prepared and ornamented -for this purpose. It is proper to weep only in this death-chamber, but this must be -done three or four times daily. Before entering it, the mourner must don a special -weed, which consists of a gray cotton frock coat, torn, patched, and as much soiled -as possible. The girdle must be of twisted straw and silk, made into a rope of the -thickness of the wrist. Another cord, the thickness of the thumb, is wound round the -head, which is covered with dirty linen, each of the rope’s ends falling upon the -cheek. A special kind of sandals is worn, and a big knotty stick completes the costume -of woe. In the prescribed weeds the mourner enters the death-chamber in the morning -on rising, and before each meal. He carries a little table filled with food, which -he places upon a tray at the side of the coffin. The person who is master of the mourners -presides at the ceremonies. Prostrate, and struck by the stick, he utters dolorous -groans, sounding “<i>ai-kō</i>” if for a parent. For other relatives he groans out “<i>oi, oi</i>.” According to the noise and length of the groans and weeping, so will the good opinion -of the public be. The lamentations over, the mourner retires, doffs the mourning robes, -and eats his food. At the new and the full moon, all the relatives are invited and -expected to assist at the ceremonies. These practices continue more or less even after -burial, and at intervals during several years. Often a noble will go out to weep and -kneel at the tomb, passing a day, and even a night, in this position. In some instances, -mourners have built a little house <span class="pageNum" id="pb278">[<a href="#pb278">278</a>]</span>before the grave, and watched there for years, thus winning a high reputation for -filial piety. -</p> -<p>Among the poor, who have not the means to provide a death-chamber and expensive mourning, -the coffin is kept outside their houses covered with mats until the time of sepulture. -</p> -<p>Though cremation, or “burying in the fire,” is known in Chō-sen, the most usual form -of disposing of the dead is by inhumation. Children are wrapped up in the clothes -and bedding in which they die, and are thus buried. As unmarried persons are reckoned -as children, their shroud and burial are the same. With the married and adult, the -process is more costly, and the ceremonial more detailed and prolonged. This, which -is described very fully in Ross’ “Corea,” and with which Hamel’s curt notes agree, -consists of minute ceremonial and mourning among the living and the washing, combing, -nail-paring, robing, and laying out in state of the dead, with calling of the spirits, -and with screens, lights, and offerings, according to Confucian ritual. In many interesting -features, the most ancient rites of China have survived in the peninsula after they -have become obsolete in the former country. The very old tombs opened, and the painted -coffins, coated with many layers of silicious paint, dug up near Shanghai recently, -are much like those of the Coreans. -</p> -<p>The coffin, which fits the body, is made air-tight with wax, resin, or varnish, and -is borne on a bier to the grave by men who make this their regular business. Often -there are two coffins, one inside the other. Sons follow the body of their father -on foot, relatives ride in palanquins or on horseback. Prominent at the head of the -procession is the red standard containing the titles and honors of the deceased. This -banner, or <i>sa-jen</i>, has two points on it to frighten away the spirits, and at the funeral of a high -officer, a man wears a hideous mask for the same purpose. When there are no titles, -only the name of the deceased is inscribed upon the banner. -</p> -<p>The selection of a proper site for a tomb is a matter of profound solicitude, time, -and money; for the geomancers must be consulted with a fee. The <i>pung-sui</i> superstition requires for the comfort of both living and dead that the right site -should be chosen. Judging from the number of times the word “mountain” enters into -terms relating to burial, most interments are on the hillsides. If these are not done -properly, trouble will <span class="pageNum" id="pb279">[<a href="#pb279">279</a>]</span>arise, and the bones must then be dug up, collected, and reburied, often at heavy -expense. Thousands of professional cheats and self-duped people live by working upon -the feelings of the bereaved through this superstition. -</p> -<p>The tombs of the poor consist only of the grave and a low mound of earth. These mounds, -subjected to the forces of nature, and often trampled upon by cattle, disappear after -the lapse of a few years, and oblivion settles over the spot. -</p> -<p>With the richer class monuments are of stone, sometimes neat or even imposing, sometimes -grotesque. Some, as the <i>pi-popi</i>, are shaped like a house or miniature temple; or, two stones, cut in the form of -a ram and a horse respectively, are placed before the sepulchre. The <i>man-tu</i>, “gazing headstone,” consists of two monoliths or columns of masonry, flanking the -tomb on either side, so that the soul of the dead, changed into a bird, may repose -peacefully. In the graveyards are many tombs paved with granite slabs around the temple -model, but for the most part a Corean cemetery is filled with little obelisks, or -tall, square columns, either pointed at the top or surmounted with the effigy of a -human head, or a rudely sculptured stone image, which strangely reminds a foreigner -of “patience on a monument, smiling at grief.” This apparition of a human head rising -above the tall grass of the burial-ground may be the original of Japanese pictures -of the ghosts and spirits which seem to rise dark and windblown out of the wet grass. -Often the carving in Corean grave-yards is so rude as to be almost indistinguishable. -</p> -<p>Mourning is of many degrees and lengths, and is betokened by dress, abstinence from -food and business, visits to the tomb, offerings, tablets, and many visible indications, -detailed even to absurdity. Pure, or nearly pure white is the mourning color, as a -contrast to red, the color of rejoicing. Even the rivets of the fan, the strings on -the shoes, and the carrying of a staff in addition to the mourning-hat, betoken the -uniform of woe. -</p> -<p>When noblemen don the peaked hat, which covers the face as well as the head, they -are as dead to the world—not to be spoken to, molested, or even arrested if charged -with crime. This Corean mourning hat proved “the helmet of salvation” to Christians, -and explains the safety of the French missionaries who lived so long in disguise, -unharmed in the country where the police were as lynxes and hounds ever on their track. -The Jesuits were not <span class="pageNum" id="pb280">[<a href="#pb280">280</a>]</span>slow to see the wonderful shelter promised for them, and availed themselves of it -at once and always. -</p> -<p>The royal sepulchres within the peninsula have attracted more than one unlawful descent -upon the shores of Chō-sen. The various dynasties of sovereigns during the epoch of -the Three Kingdoms in the old capitals of these states, the royal lines of Kokorai -at Ping-an, of Korai at Sunto, and of the ruling house at Seoul, have made Corea during -her two thousand years of history rich in royal tombs. These are in various parts -of the country, and those which are known are under the care of the government. -</p> -<p>Are these mausoleums filled with gold or jewels? Foreign grave-robbers have believed -so, and shown their faith by their works, as we shall see. French priests in the country -have said so. The ancient Chinese narratives descriptive of the customs of the Fuyu -people, confirm the general impression. Without having the facts at hand to demonstrate -what eager foreigners have believed, we know that vast treasures have been spent upon -the decoration of the royal sepulchres, and the erection of memorial buildings over -them, and that the fear of their violation by foreign or native outlaws has been for -centuries ever before the Corean people. That these fears have too often been justified, -we shall find when we read of that memorable year, <span class="asc">A.D.</span> 1866. The profuse vocabulary of terms relating to burial, mourning, and memorial -tablets in Corea show their intense loyalty to the Confucian doctrines, the power -of superstition, and the shocking waste of the resources of the living upon the dead. -</p> -<p>The voluble Corean envoys when in Tōkiō, visited the Naval College, and on learning -that in certain emergencies the students from distant provinces were not allowed to -go home to attend the funeral of their parents, nor to absent themselves from duty -on account of mourning, were amazed beyond measure, and for a few moments literally -speechless from surprise. It is hard for a Corean to understand the sayings of Jesus -to the disciple who asked, “Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father,” and “Let -the dead bury their dead.” -</p> -<p>From the view-point of political economy, this lavish expense of time, energy, money, -and intellect upon corpses and superstition is beneficial. Without knowing of Malthus -or his theories, the Chō-senese have hit upon a capital method of limiting population, -and keeping the country in a state of chronic poverty. <span class="pageNum" id="pb281">[<a href="#pb281">281</a>]</span>The question has been asked the writer, “How can a people, pent in a little mountainous -peninsula like Corea, exist for centuries without overpopulating their territory?” -</p> -<p>Wars, famine, pestilence, ordinary poverty answer the question in part. The absurd -and rigorous rules of mourning, requiring frightful expense, postponement of marriage -to young people—who even when betrothed must mourn three years for parents and grandparents, -actual and expected, the impoverishing of the people, and the frequent hindrances -to marriage at the proper season, serve to keep down population. This fact is an often -chosen subject for native anecdotes and romances. The vexations and delays often caused -by the long periods of idle mourning required by etiquette, are well illustrated by -the following story, from the “<span lang="fr">Grammaire <span class="corr" id="xd31e4340" title="Source: Coréene">Coréenne</span></span>,” which is intended to show the sympathy of the king Cheng-chong (1776 to 1800) with -his subjects. It is entitled “A Trait of Royal Solicitude.” -</p> -<p>It was about New Year’s that Cheng-chong walked about here and there within the palace -enclosure. Having come to the place reserved for the candidates at the literary examinations, -he looked through a crack in the gate. The competitors had nearly all gone away to -spend the New Year holidays at home, and there remained only two of them, who were -talking together. -</p> -<p>“Well, all the others have gone off to spend New Year’s at home; isn’t it deplorable -that we two, having no place to go to, must be nailed here?” -</p> -<p>“Yes, truly,” said the other; “you have no longer either wife, children, or house. -How is this?” -</p> -<p>“Listen to my story,” said the first man. “My parents, thinking of my marriage, had -arranged my betrothal, but some time before the preparations were concluded, my future -grandfather died, and it became necessary to wait three years. Hardly had I put off -mourning, when I was called on to lament the death of my poor father. I was now compelled -to wait still three years. These three years finished, behold my mother-in-law who -was to be died, and three years passed away. Finally, I had the misfortune to lose -my poor mother, which required me to wait again three years. And so, three times four—a -dozen years—have elapsed, during which we have waited the one for the other. By this -time she, who was to be my wife, fell ill. As she was upon the point of death, I went -to make her a visit. My intended brother-in-law came to see me, found me, and said, -‘Although <span class="pageNum" id="pb282">[<a href="#pb282">282</a>]</span>the ceremonies of marriage have not been made, they may certainly consider you as -married, therefore come and see her.’ Upon his invitation I entered her house, but -we had hardly blown a puff of smoke, one before the other, than she died. -</p> -<p>“Seeing this, I have no more wished even to dream at night. I am not yet married. -You may understand, then, why I have neither wife, children, nor home.” -</p> -<p></p> -<div class="figure p282width" id="p282"><img src="images/p282.jpg" alt="Thatched House near Seoul. (From a photograph, 1876.)" width="659" height="720"><p class="figureHead">Thatched House near Seoul. (From a photograph, 1876.)</p> -</div><p> -</p> -<p>In his turn the other thus spoke: “My house was extremely poor. Our diet looked like -fasting. We had no means of freeing ourselves from embarrassment. When the day of -the examination came I presented myself. During my absence my wife contrived <span class="pageNum" id="pb283">[<a href="#pb283">283</a>]</span>in such a manner, that putting in the brazier a farthing’s worth of charcoal, she -set a handful of rice to cook in a skillet, and settled herself to wait for me. She -served this to me every time I came back. But I never obtained a degree. The day on -which I was at last received as a bachelor of arts, on returning after examination, -I found that she had as before lighted the charcoal, put to boil a dish of soup, and -seating herself before the fire, she waited. In this position she was dead. -</p> -<p>“At sight of this my grief was without bounds. Having no desire to contract a new -union, I have never re-married.” -</p> -<p>Hearing these narratives, Cheng-chong was touched with pity. Entering the palace, -seating himself upon the throne, and having had the two scholars brought in, he said -to them: -</p> -<p>“All the other scholars have gone to their homes to spend New Year’s. Why have not -you two gone also?” They answered, “Your servants having no house to go to, remained -here.” -</p> -<p>“What does that mean?” said Cheng-chong. “The fowls and the dogs, oxen and horses -have shelter. The birds have also a hole to build their nests in. Can it be that men -have no dwelling? There should be a reason for this. Speak plainly.” One of the scholars -answered: “Your servant’s affairs are so-and-so. I have come even till now without -re-marriage. It is because I have neither wife, child, nor family.” -</p> -<p>The story being exactly like that which he had heard before, the king cried out, “Too -bad!” -</p> -<p>Then addressing the other, he put this question: “And you, how is it that you are -reduced to this condition?” He answered<span class="corr" id="xd31e4367" title="Source: .">,</span> “My story is almost the same.” -</p> -<p>“What do you wish? Speak!” replied the king. -</p> -<p>“The circumstances being such and such, I am at this moment without wife and without -food. That is my condition.” -</p> -<p>As there was in all this nothing different from the preceding, the king, struck with -compassion, bestowed upon them immediately lucrative offices. -</p> -<p>If he had not examined for himself, how could he have been able to know such unfortunate -men, and procure for them so happy a position in the world? In truth, the goodness -of his Majesty Cheng-chong has become celebrated. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb284">[<a href="#pb284">284</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch32" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#xd31e1102">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="label">CHAPTER XXXII.</h2> -<h2 class="main">OUT-DOOR LIFE.—CHARACTERS AND EMPLOYMENTS.</h2> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="first">Six public roads of the first class traverse the peninsula and centre at the capital. -They are from twenty to thirty feet in width, with ditches at the side for drainage. -One of these begins near the ocean, in Chulla Dō, and in general follows the shores -of the Yellow Sea through three provinces to Tong-chin opposite Kang-wa Island, and -enters the capital by branch roads. Another highway passes through the interior of -the three provinces bordering the Yellow Sea, and enters Seoul by the southern gate. -Hamel and his fellow-captives journeyed by this road. The road by which the annual -embassy reaches Peking, after leaving the capital, passes through Sunto and Ping-an -and Ai-chiu, crosses the Neutral Strip, and enters Manchuria for Peking by way of -Mukden. This was the beaten track of the French missionaries, and the shipwrecked -men from the United States and Japan, and is the military road from China. It is well -described, with a good map, in Koei-Ling’s “Journal of a Mission into Corea,” which -Mr. F. Scherzer has translated for us. -</p> -<p>From Fusan and Tong-nai, in the southeast, Seoul is reached by no less than three -roads. One strikes westward through Chung-chong, and joins the main road coming up -from the south. Another following the Nak-tong River basin, crosses the mountains -to Chulla, and enters Seoul by the south gate. Eight river crossings must be made -by this road, over which Konishi marched in 1593. The third route takes a more northerly -trend, follows the sea-coast to Urusan, and passing through Kion-chiu, enters the -capital by the east gate. -</p> -<p>The fifth great road issuing from the north gate of the capital passes into Kang-wen, -and thence upward to Gensan, and to the frontiers at the Tumen River. -</p> -<p>The roads of the second class are eight or nine feet wide, and without side ditches. -They ramify through all the provinces, but <span class="pageNum" id="pb285">[<a href="#pb285">285</a>]</span>are especially numerous in the five southern. The three northern circuits, owing to -their mountainous character, are but poorly furnished with highways, and these usually -follow the rivers. -</p> -<p>The third class roads, which are nothing more than bridle-paths, or trails, connect -the villages. -</p> -<p>The hilly nature of the country, together with the Asiatic apathy to bestowing much -care on the public highways, makes travelling difficult. Inundations are frequent, -though the water subsides quickly. Hence in summer the road-beds are dust, and in -winter a slough of mud. Macadamized, or paved roads, are hardly known, except for -short lengths. Few of the wide rivers are bridged, which necessitates frequent fordings -and ferriages. Stone bridges, built with arches, are sometimes seen over streams not -usually inundated, but few of the wooden bridges are over one hundred and eighty feet -long. -</p> -<p>In one respect the roads are well attended to. The distances are well marked. At every -<i>ri</i> is a small, and at every three <i>ri</i> a large mound, surmounted with an inscribed post or “mile-stone,” called <i>chang-sung</i>. They are two, six, and even ten feet in length. -</p> -<p>In ancient times, it is said, there was a man named Chang-sung, who killed his servant -and wife. When punished, his head was placed on a small mound. Legend even declares -that it was successively exposed on all the distance mounds in the kingdom. This is -said to be the origin of the bournes or distance-mounds, which suggests, as Mr. Adams -has shown, the <i>termini</i> of the Romans. When of stone, they are called <i>pio-sek</i>, but they are often of wood, rudely carved or hacked out of a whole tree by an axe -into the exaggerated form of a man, and are of a ludicrous or absurd appearance. The -face is meant to be that of the murderer Chang-sung. The author of “A Forbidden Land” -mistook these for “village idols,” and was surprised to find the boys in some cases -sacrilegiously kicking about some that had rotted down or fallen. The “gods of the -roads” may, however, have their <span class="corr" id="xd31e4403" title="Source: effiges">effigies</span>, which are worshipped or profaned. -</p> -<p>All distances in every direction are measured from the front gate of the magistrates’ -offices, the standard of all being the palace at Seoul. Not the least interesting -sights to the traveller are the memorial stones set up and inscribed with a view to -commemorate local or national worthies, or the events of war, famine, or philanthropy. -The Coreans are “idolaters of letters,” and the erection of memorial tablets or columns -occasionally becomes a <span class="pageNum" id="pb286">[<a href="#pb286">286</a>]</span>passion. Sometimes the inscriptions are the means of stirring up patriotism, as the -following inscription shows. It was graven on a stone in front of a castle erected -after the French and American expeditions, and was copied by a Japanese correspondent. -</p> -<p>“It is nothing else than selling the kingdom into slavery, in order to avoid war, -to make peace without fighting when any Western nation comes to attack it; such should -never be done even by our descendants thousands of years hence.” -</p> -<p>In this country, in which sumptuary laws prevent the humbler classes from travelling -on horseback, and where wagons and steam-roads are unknown, the roads are lively with -numerous foot-passengers. Palanquins are used by the better classes and the wealthy. -The rambling life of many of the people, the goodly numbers of that character not -unknown in Christendom—the tramp—the necessities of trade, literary examinations, -government service, and holy pilgrimages, prevent too many weeds from growing in the -highways. In travelling over the high roads one meets a variety of characters that -would satisfy a Corean Dickens, or the Japanese author who wrote the <i>Tokaidō Hizakurigé</i> (Leg-hair, <i>i.e.</i>, “Shanks’ mare,” on the East Sea Road). Bands of students on their way to the capital -or provincial literary examinations, some roystering youths in the full flow of spirits, -are hastening on, others, gray-headed and solemn, are wending their way to fail for -the twentieth time. Pompous functionaries in umbrella-hats, on horseback, before whom -ordinary folks dismount or kneel or bow, brush past with noisy attendants. Pilgrims -in pious garb are on their way to some holy mountain or famous shrine, men to pray -for success in business, women to beseech the gods for offspring. Here hobbles along -the lame or rheumatic, or the pale-faced invalid is borne to the hot springs. Here -is a party of pic-nickers, or poets intent on the joys of drink, verse, and scenery. -Here a troop of strolling players or knot of masqueraders are in peripatetic quest -of a livelihood, toiling fearfully hard in order to escape settled industry. Nobles -in mourning pass with their faces invisible. Postal slaves, women doing the work of -express agents in forwarding parcels, pass the merchant with his loaded pack-horses -returning from Sunto, or going to Gensan. There a packman is doing horse’s work in -transportation. Here an ox laden with brushwood is led by a woman. Beggars, corpses, -kang-si, or men dead of hunger in times of famine, make the lights and shadows of -life on the road. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb287">[<a href="#pb287">287</a>]</span></p> -<p>There are other methods of travel besides those of horseback, on foot, and sedan chair, -for oxen are often straddled by the men, and poor women travel on an ox, in a sort -of improvised palanquin having four poles recurved to centre and covered with robe -or cloak. In winter, among the mountains not only in the north, but even in Chulla, -the people go on racquettes or snow-shoes. These are in shape like a battledore, and -are several feet long. At regular distances are <i>yek</i>, or relays or offices, at which sit clerks or managers under government auspices, -with hereditary slaves or serfs, porters, guides, mail-couriers, and pack-horses. -These await the service of the traveller, especially of official couriers, the finer -beasts being reserved for journeying dignitaries. -</p> -<p>All these throughout a certain district, of which there are several in each province, -are under the direction of the <i>Tsal-peng</i>, or Director of Posts. Kiung-sang, the province having the greatest number of roads, -has also the best equipment in the way of post-officers, relays, and horses. The following -table from Dallet shows the equipment of the eight provinces: -</p> -<div class="table"> -<table> -<thead> -<tr class="label"> -<td class="cellHeadLeft cellHeadTop cellHeadBottom"> </td> -<td class="xd31e4429 cellHeadTop cellHeadBottom">Post Superintendents. </td> -<td class="xd31e4429 cellHeadTop cellHeadBottom">Relays. </td> -<td class="xd31e4429 cellHeadRight cellHeadTop cellHeadBottom">Horses. -</td> -</tr> -</thead> -<tbody> -<tr> -<td class="cellLeft">Kiung-Kei </td> -<td class="xd31e4429"> 6 </td> -<td class="xd31e4429"> 47 </td> -<td class="xd31e4429 cellRight"> 449</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="cellLeft">Chung-chong </td> -<td class="xd31e4429"> 5 </td> -<td class="xd31e4429"> 62 </td> -<td class="xd31e4429 cellRight"> 761</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="cellLeft">Chulla </td> -<td class="xd31e4429"> 6 </td> -<td class="xd31e4429"> 53 </td> -<td class="xd31e4429 cellRight"> 506</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="cellLeft">Kiung-sang </td> -<td class="xd31e4429">11 </td> -<td class="xd31e4429">115 </td> -<td class="xd31e4429 cellRight">1,700</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="cellLeft">Kang-wen </td> -<td class="xd31e4429"> 4 </td> -<td class="xd31e4429"> 78 </td> -<td class="xd31e4429 cellRight"> 447</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="cellLeft">Wang hei </td> -<td class="xd31e4429"> 3 </td> -<td class="xd31e4429"> 28 </td> -<td class="xd31e4429 cellRight"> 396</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="cellLeft">Ham-kiung </td> -<td class="xd31e4429"> 3 </td> -<td class="xd31e4429"> 58 </td> -<td class="xd31e4429 cellRight"> 792</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="cellLeft">Ping-an </td> -<td class="xd31e4429"> 2 </td> -<td class="xd31e4429"> 30 </td> -<td class="xd31e4429 cellRight"> 311 -</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="cellLeft cellBottom"> </td> -<td class="xd31e4429 cellBottom"><span class="sum">40 </span></td> -<td class="xd31e4429 cellBottom"><span class="sum">471 </span></td> -<td class="xd31e4429 cellRight cellBottom"><span class="sum">5,362 -</span></td> -</tr> -</tbody> -</table> -</div><p> -</p> -<p>Yet with this provision for locomotion, the country is very deficient in houses for -public accommodation. Inns are to be found only along the great highways, and but -rarely along the smaller or sequestered roads. This want arises, perhaps, not so much -from the poverty of the people, as from the fact that their proverbial hospitality -does away with the necessity of numerous inns. The Coreans have been so often represented, -or rather misrepresented, <span class="pageNum" id="pb288">[<a href="#pb288">288</a>]</span>as inhospitable, fierce, and rude by foreigners, that to give an inside view of them -as seen through information gathered from the French missionaries in Corea is a pleasant -task. From them we may learn how much the white-coated peninsulars are like their -cousins, the Japanese, and that human nature in good average quantity and quality -dwells under the big hats of the Coreans. The traveller usually takes his provisions -along with him, but he need not eat it out-doors. As he sits along the wayside, he -will be invited into some house to warm his food. When obliged to go some distance -among the mountains to cut wood or make charcoal, a man is sure to find a hut in which -he can lodge. He has only to bring his rice. The villagers will cook it for him, after -adding the necessary pickles or sauces. Even the oxen, except during the busy season, -are easily obtained on loan. -</p> -<p>The great virtue of the Coreans is their innate respect for and daily practice of -the laws of human brotherhood. Mutual assistance and generous hospitality among themselves -are distinctive national traits. In all the important events of life, such as marriages -and funerals, each one makes it his duty to aid the family most directly interested. -One will charge himself with the duty of making purchases; others with arranging the -ceremonies. The poor, who can give nothing, carry messages to friends and relatives -in the near or remote villages, passing day and night on foot and giving their labors -gratuitously. To them, the event is not a mere personal matter, but an affair of public -interest. -</p> -<p>When fire, flood, or other accident destroys the house of one of their number, neighbors -make it a duty to lend a hand to rebuild. One brings stone, another wood, another -straw. Each, in addition to his gifts in material, devotes two or three days’ work -gratuitously. A stranger, coming into a village, is always assisted to build a dwelling. -</p> -<p>Hospitality is considered as one of the most sacred duties. It would be a grave and -shameful thing to refuse a portion of one’s meal with any person, known or unknown, -who presents himself at eating-time. Even the poor laborers, who take their noon-meal -at the side of the roads, are often seen sharing their frugal nourishment with the -passer-by. Usually at a feast, the neighbors consider themselves invited by right -and custom. The poor man whose duty calls him to make a journey to a distant place -does not need to make elaborate <span class="corr" id="xd31e4532" title="Source: preparatons">preparations</span>. His stick, his pipe, some clothes in a packet hung from his shoulder, some cash -in <span class="pageNum" id="pb289">[<a href="#pb289">289</a>]</span>his purse, if he has one, and his outfit is complete. At night, instead of going to -a hotel with its attendant expense, he enters some house, whose exterior room is open -to any comer. There he is sure to find food and lodging for the night. Rice will be -shared with the stranger, and, at bed-time, a corner of the floor-mat will serve for -a bed, while he may rest his head on a foot-length of the long log of wood against -the wall, which serves as a pillow. Even should he delay his journey for a day or -two, little or nothing to his discredit will be harbored by his hosts. In Corea, the -old proverb concerning fish and company after three days does not seem to hold good. -</p> -<p>As may be imagined, such a system is prolific in breeding beggars, tramps, blackmailers, -and lazy louts, who “sponge” upon the benevolently disposed. Rich families are often -bored by these self-invited parasites, who eat with unblushing cheek at their tables -for weeks at a time. They do not even disdain—nay, they often clamor for—clothing -as well. To refuse would only result in bringing down calumny and injury. Peddlers, -strolling players, astrologers, etc., likewise avail themselves of the opportunities, -and act as plundering harpies. Often whole bands go round quartering themselves on -the villages, and sometimes the government is called upon to interpose its authority -and protect the people. -</p> -<p>Corea is full of Micawbers, men who are as prodigal as avaricious, who when they have -plenty of money, scatter it quickly. When flush they care only to live in style, to -treat their friends, to satisfy their caprices. When poverty comes, they take it without -complaint, and wait till the wheel of fortune turns again to give them better days. -When by any process they have made some gain by finding a root of ginseng, a bit of -gold ore, a vein of crystal, what matters it? Let the future take care of itself. -Hence it happens that the roads are full of men seeking some stroke of luck, hoping -to discover at a distance what they could not find at home, to light upon some treasure -not yet dug up or to invent some new means of making money. People forever waiting -for something to turn up emigrate from one village to another, stop a year or two, -and then tramp on, seeking better luck, but usually finding worse. -</p> -<p>Strolling companies of mountebanks, players and musicians, in numbers of five, six, -or more, abound in Chō-sen. They wander up and down through the eight circuits, and, -in spring and summer, <span class="pageNum" id="pb290">[<a href="#pb290">290</a>]</span>earn a precarious and vagabond livelihood. Their reputation among the villagers is -none of the best, being about on a par with that of the gypsies, or certain gangs -of railroad surveyors of our own country. They often levy a sort of blackmail upon -the people. They are jugglers, acrobats, magicians, marionette players, and performers -on musical instruments. Some of them display an astonishing amount of cleverness and -sleight of hand in their feats. In the villages crowds of gaping urchins are their -chief spectators, but in the large cities they are invited to private houses to give -exhibitions and are paid for it. When about to begin a performance, they secure attention -by whistling on the nail of their little finger. On the occasion of the anniversary -of some happy event, a public fête day, a marriage or a social company, the lack of -what we call society—that is, social relations between gentlemen and ladies—is made -up, and amusement is furnished by these players, engaged for an evening or two. The -guests fully appreciate the “hired music,” and “best talent” thus secured for a variety -entertainment. The company of one class of these “men of society,” or <i>pang-tang</i>, a kind of “professional diner-out,” is so desirable that several are taken along -by the ambassadors to China to amuse them on their long and tedious journey, especially -at nights. The <i>chang-pu</i> are character-comedians, who serenade the baccalaureates that have passed successfully -the government examinations. They play the flute and other instruments of music, forming -the escort which accompanies the graduate on his visits to relatives and officials. -A band of performers is always attached to the suite of ambassadors to China and Japan, -or when visiting a foreign vessel. -</p> -<p>A character common to Corea and Japan is the singing-girl, who is also a great aid -in making life endurable to the better class of Coreans, whose chief business it is -to kill time. The singing-girl is the one poem and picture in the street life of the -humbler classes, whose poverty can rarely, if ever, allow them to purchase her society -or enjoy her charms and accomplishments. Socially, her rank is low, very low. She -is herself the child of poverty and toil. Her parents are poor people, who gladly -give up their daughter, if of pretty face and form, to a life of doubtful morals, -in order that she may thereby earn her own support and assist her parents. She herself -gladly leaves the drudgery of the kitchen, and the abject meanness of the hovel, to -shine in the palace and the mansion. Her dress is of finest fabric, her luxuriant -<span class="pageNum" id="pb291">[<a href="#pb291">291</a>]</span>black hair is bound with skill and grace, her skin is whitened by artificial cosmetics -as far as possible, and with powder, paint, and pomatum, she spends much of her life -before the looking-glass, studying in youth to increase, and in womanhood to retain, -her charms. At home, she practises her music, occasionally enlivening a party of her -humble neighbors. As she passes along the street, fresh, clean, bright, and pretty, -she may dispense smiles for popularity’s sake, but her errand is to the houses of -the wealthy, and especially to the official, who, for his own amusement as he dines -alone, or for his friends in social gathering, may employ from two to twenty <i>geishas</i> (as the Japanese call them). Most Corean cities have these geishas, who form themselves -into a sort of guild for fixed prices, etc. Often they organize complete bands or -choirs, by which music may be had in mass and volume. At a feast they serve the wine, -fill and pass the dishes, and preside generally at the table. When eating has fairly -begun, they sing (chant), play the guitar, recite in <span class="corr" id="xd31e4554" title="Source: pantomine">pantomime</span> or vocally, and furnish general amusement. The dancing is usually not of an immoral -character. Such a life, however, amid feast and revel, wine and flattery, makes sad -wreck of many of them, morally and physically. A large proportion of the most beautiful -girls become concubines to wealthy men or officials, or act as ladies of the chamber -(brevet wives) to young men and widowers. Not a few join the business of prostitutes -with that of musicians. Nevertheless, it is quite possible for a respectable family -to enjoy a pleasant and harmless evening by the aid of the lively geishas. Of course, -Seoul is the chief headquarters of the fairest and most accomplished geishas, who -are, as a class, the best educated of their sex in Corea. -</p> -<p>The theatre, proper, does not seem to exist in Corea. The substitute and nearest approach -to it is recitation in monologue of certain events or extracts from the standard or -popular histories, a single individual representing the successive rôles. The histrionic -artist pitches his tabernacle of four posts in some popular street or corner. He spreads -mats for a roof or shade from the sun in front, and for a background in the rear. -A platform, and a box to squat on, with a small reading-desk, and a cup of gingery -water to refresh his palate, complete his outfit. -</p> -<p>A few rough benches or mats constitute all the accommodation for the audience. A gaping -crowd soon collects around him, his auditors pull out their pipes, and refreshment -venders improve the occasion for the chance sale of their viands. With his voice <span class="pageNum" id="pb292">[<a href="#pb292">292</a>]</span>trained to various tones and to polite and vulgar forms of speech, he will hold dialogues -and conversations, and mimic the attitude and gestures of various characters. The -trial of a criminal before a magistrate, the bastinado, a quarrel between husband -and wife, scenes from high life and low life will be in turn rendered. He will imitate -the grave tones and visage of the magistrate, the piteous appeals, the cries and groans -and contortions of the victim under torture, the angry or grumbling voice of the husband, -the shrill falsetto of the scolding shrew or the shower of tears and the piteous appeals -of the wife. Smiles, frowns, surprise, sorrow, and all the emotions are simulated, -and the accompaniment of voice is kept up with jokes, puns, bon-mots, irony, or well-expressed -pathos. In short, the reciter is a theatrical stock company, and a band of minstrels, -rolled into one person. For the use of beginners, and the mediocrity of the profession, -there are a number of “jest-books,” collections of jokes and anecdotes, more or less -threadbare, and of varying moral quality, from which speakers may prime for the occasion. -With the advanced of the profession, however, most of the smart sayings are original -and off-hand. The habitués of the booths have their “star” favorite, as theatre-goers -with us go into raptures over their actors. Able men make a good living at the business, -as they “pass round the hat” to take up a collection in the audience. This usually -comes at the most telling point of the narrative, when the interest of the hearers -is roused to the highest pitch (or when it is to be “continued in our next,” as the -flash newspapers say). Sometimes the speaker will not go on till the collection is -deemed by the tyrant a sufficient appreciation of his talents. In addition to their -public street income, the best of them are often invited to perform in private houses, -at family reunions, social parties, and as a rule, in visits to dignitaries by candidates -who have won degrees. -</p> -<p>The Corean gamut, differing from the scale used in European countries, makes a fearful -and wonderful difference in effect upon our ears. Some of their melodies upon the -flute are plaintive and sweet, but most of their music is distressing to the ear and -desolating to the air. One hearer describes their choicest pieces as “the most discordant -sounds that ever were emitted under the name of music from brass tubes.” Some of the -flute music, however, is very sweet. As most of the ancient music of Japan is of Corean -origin, one can get a fair idea of the nature of the sounds that delight a Corean -ear from the music of the imperial band of <span class="pageNum" id="pb293">[<a href="#pb293">293</a>]</span>Tōkiō, which plays the classical scores. Yet it is evident that the modern tunes of -Seoul are not melodious to Japanese auditory nerves. One would think that, as the -mikado’s subjects “hear themselves as others hear them” when Corean musicians play, -they would be delighted. On the contrary, Corean music seems to horrify and afflict -the Japanese ear. Evidently, in the course of centuries the musical scales of the -two countries, originally identical, have altered in tone and interval. Wan-ka is -the father of Corean music—though the mere fact that he belonged to antiquity would -secure his renown. The various stringed musical instruments known are the <i>kemunko</i>, a kind of large guitar; the <i>kanyakko</i>, mandolin; the <i>ko-siul</i>, or guitar of twenty-five strings; and the five-stringed harp or violin. The wind -instruments comprise a whole battery of flutes, long and short trumpets, while cymbals, -drums, and other objects of percussion are numerous. Ambassadors and other high officers -at home, and when on duty to foreign countries, are accompanied by a band of musicians. -Laborers on government works are summoned to begin and end work by music, but the -full effect of a musical salvo is attained at the opening and closing of the city -gates. Then the sound is most distressing—or most captivating, according as the ears -are to the manner born, or receive their first experience of what tortures the air -may be made to vibrate. -</p> -<p>The chief out-door manly sport in Corea is, by excellence, that of archery. It is -encouraged by the government for the national safety in war, and nobles stimulate -their retainers to excellence by rewards. Most gentlemen have targets and arrow-walks -for practice in their gardens. At regular times in the year contests of skill are -held, at which archers of reputation compete, the expense and prizes being paid for -out of the public purse. Hamel says the great men’s retainers have nothing to do but -to learn to shoot. The grandees rival each other in keeping the most famous archers, -as an Englishman might his fox-hounds or as the daimiōs of Japan formerly vied with -each other in patronizing the fattest and most skilful wrestlers. Other manly sports -are those of boxing and fist-fights. Young men practice the “manly art” in play with -each other, and at times champions are chosen by rival villages and a set-to between -the bruisers is the result, with more or less of broken heads and pulpy faces. In -large cities the contestants may come from different wards of the same city. In Seoul, -usually in the first month, there are some lively tussles <span class="pageNum" id="pb294">[<a href="#pb294">294</a>]</span>between picked champions, with betting and cheering of the backers of either party. -Often these trials of skill degenerate into a free fight, in which clubs and stones -are used freely; cracked skulls and loss of life are common. The magistrates do not -usually interfere, but allow the frolic to spend itself. -</p> -<p>Another class of men worthy of notice, and identified with out-door life, are the -sportsmen. The bird-hunters never shoot on the wing. They disguise themselves in skins, -feathers, straw, etc., and lurk in some coigne of vantage to bring down the game that -comes within their range. The skilled fowler understands perfectly how to imitate -the cries of the various birds, particularly that of the pheasant calling his mate. -By this means most of the female pheasants are captured. The call used is an iron -whistle, shaped like the apricot-stone, and <span class="corr" id="xd31e4578" title="Source: simliar">similar</span> to that used by the Japanese hunters. The method of hunting the deer is as follows: -During the months of June and July deer-horn commands a very high price, for it is -at this season that the deer-horns are developing, and the “spike-bucks” are special -prizes. A party of three or four hunters is formed. They beat up the mountain sides -during several days, and, at night, when obliged to cease for awhile, they have a -wonderful instinct for detecting the trail of the game, except when the earth is too -dry. Usually they come up to their game on the third day, which they bring down with -a gunshot. The horn is sold to the native physicians or is exported to China and Japan, -where hartshorn and valuable medicines are concocted from it. A successful deer-hunt -usually enables a hunter to live on his profits for a good part of the year, and in -some cases individuals make small fortunes. Those who hunt bears wait for the occasion -when the mother bear leads her cubs to the seashore to feast them on the crabs. Then -the hunters bide their time till they see the mother lifting up the heavy rocks on -edge, while the little cubs eat the crabs. The hunters usually rush forward and assault -the bear, which, frightened, lets fall the rock, which crushes the cub. When on the -open field or shore they do not fire at the she-bear, unless sure of killing her. -For the various parts of the animal good prices await the hunter who sells. In addition -to the proceeds from hide, flesh, fat, and sinews, the liver and gall of the brute, -supposed to possess great potency in medicine, are sold for their weight in silver. -In another chapter we have written of the tiger-hunters and their noble game. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb295">[<a href="#pb295">295</a>]</span></p> -<p>Gambling and betting are fearfully common habits in Corea, and kite-flying gives abundant -occasion for money to change hands. The two months of the winter, during which the -north wind blows, is “kite time.” The large and strong kites are flown with skill, -requiring stout cords and to be held by young men. A large crowd usually collects -to witness the battle of the kites, when the kites are put through various evolutions -in the air, by which one seeks to destroy, tear, or saw off the string of the other. -</p> -<p>Resources for in-door amusement are chiefly in the form of gossip, story-telling, -smoking, lounging, and games of hazard, such as chess, checkers, and backgammon. The -game of chess is the same as that played in Japan and China. Card-playing, though -interdicted by law, is habitual among the common people. The nobles look upon it as -vulgar amusement beneath their dignity. The people play secretly or at night, often -gambling to a ruinous extent. It is said that the soldiers, especially those on guard, -and at the frontiers, are freely allowed to play cards, as that is the surest way -to keep them awake and alert in the presence of enemies, and as safeguards against -night attacks. They shuffle and cut the cards as we do. Games with the hands and fingers, -similar to those in Japan, are also well known. -</p> -<p>In pagan lands, where a Sabbath, or anything like it, is utterly <span class="corr" id="xd31e4586" title="Source: uknown">unknown</span> alike to the weary laborer, the wealthy, and the men of leisure, some compensation -is afforded by the national and religious holidays. These in Corea consist chiefly -of the festal occasions observed in China, the feasts appropriate to the seasons, -planting, and harvest, the Buddhist saints’ anniversaries, the king’s birthday, and -the new year. -</p> -<p>Among the poorer classes the families celebrate the birthday of the head of the family -only, but among the noble and wealthy, each member of the family is honored with gifts -and a festal gathering of friends. There are certain years of destiny noticed with -extra joy and congratulations, but the chief of all is the sixty-first year. With -us, the days of man are three score years and ten, but in the hermit kingdom the limit -of life is three score years and one, and the reason is this: The Coreans divide time -according to the Chinese cycle of sixty years, which is made up of two series of ten -and twelve each respectively. Every year has a name after the zodiacal sign, or one -of the five elements. The first birthday occurring after the entire revolution of -the cycle is a very solemn event to a sexagenarian, and the festival commemorative -of it is <span class="pageNum" id="pb296">[<a href="#pb296">296</a>]</span>called <i>Wan-kap</i>. All, rich and poor, noble and vulgar, observe this day, which definitely begins -old age, when man, having passed the acknowledged limit of life, must remember and -repose. When it happens—a rare event—that the sixty-first anniversary of a wedding -finds both parties alive, there are extraordinary rejoicings, and the event is celebrated -like our “diamond weddings.” For both these feasts children and friends must strain -every nerve, and spend all their cash to be equal to the occasion and to spread the -table for all comers; for at such a time, not only the neighbors, but often the whole -country folk round are interested. A silk robe for the honored aged, new clothes for -themselves, and no end of wine and good cheer for friends, acquaintances, hangers-on, -country cousins, and strangers from afar, must be provided without stint. Poems are -recited, games and sports enjoyed, minstrels sing and dance, and recitations are given. -All come with compliments in their mouths—and a ravenous appetite. All must be fed -and none turned away, and the children of the honored one must be willing to spend -their last coin and economize, or even starve, for a year afterward. It is often as -dreadful an undertaking as a funeral pageant in other lands. In the event of the queen, -royal mother, or king, reaching the sixty-first birthday the profusion and prodigality -of expense and show reaches a height of shameful extravagance. All the prisons are -opened by general amnesty, and the jail-birds fly free. An extraordinary session of -examiners is held to grant degrees. In the capital all the grandees present themselves -before the king with gifts and homage. In all the rural districts, a large picture -of the king is hung up in a noted place. The chief magistrate, preceded by music and -followed by his satellites, and all the people proceed to the place and prostrate -themselves before the effigy, offering their congratulations. In the capital the soldiers -receive gifts from the court, and the day is a universal holiday for the entire nation. -</p> -<p>Almost as matter of course, the festivals are used as means of extortion and oppression -of the people by the officials, who grind the masses mercilessly to provide the necessary -resources for the waste and luxury of the capital and the court. New Year’s day is -not only the greatest of all Corean feasts in universal observance, but is also the -only real Sabbath time of the year, when for days together all regular employments -cease and rejoicing reigns supreme. All debts must be paid and accounts squared up, -absentees must return, and children away from home must rejoin the <span class="pageNum" id="pb297">[<a href="#pb297">297</a>]</span>family. The magistrates close the tribunals, no arrests are made, and prisoners held -to answer for slight offences are given leave of absence for several days, after which -they report again as prisoners. All work, except that of festal preparation, ought -to cease during the last three days of the old year. It is etiquette to begin by visits -on New Year’s Eve, though this is not universal. -</p> -<p>On New Year’s morning salutations or calls are made on friends, acquaintances, and -superiors. To this rule there must be no exception, on pain of a rupture of friendly -relations. The chief ceremony of the day is the sacrifice at the tablets of ancestors. -Proceeding to the family tombs, if near the house, or to the special room or shelf -in the dwelling itself, the entire family make prostrations. Costly ceremonies, with -incense-sticks, etc., regulated according to the family purse, follow. This is the -most important filial and religious act of the year. In cases where the tombs are -distant, the visit must not be postponed later than during the first month. After -the ancestral sacrifices, comes the distribution of presents, which are enclosed in -New Year’s boxes. These consist of new dresses, shoes, confectionery, jewelry for -the boys and girls, and various gifts, chiefly cooked delicacies, for neighbors, friends, -and acquaintances. For five days the festivities are kept up by visits, social parties, -and entertainments of all sorts. The ordinary labors of life are resumed on the sixth -day of the new year, but with many, fun, rest, and frolic are prolonged during the -month. -</p> -<p>The tenth day of the second month is the great house-cleaning day of the year, when -mats are taken up and shaken, the pots, kettles, and jars scoured, and the clothing -renovated. -</p> -<p>Tomb-cleaning day occurs in the third month. On this occasion they make offerings -of food to their ancestors, and cleanse tombs and tablets. It is a busy time in the -graveyards, to which women transfer their straw scrubbers, dippers, and buckets, when -monuments and idols are well soused and scoured. It is more like a picnic, with fun -and work in equal proportions. -</p> -<p>The third day of the third month comes in spring, and is the great May-day and merrymaking. -The people go out on the river with food and drink, and spend the day in feasting -and frolic. Others wander in the peach-orchards to view the blossoms. Others so inclined, -enjoy themselves by composing stanzas of poetry. -</p> -<p>On the eighth day of the fourth month the large cities are illuminated with paper -lanterns of many colors, and people go out on hills and rivers to view the gay sights -and natural scenery. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb298">[<a href="#pb298">298</a>]</span></p> -<p>The fifth day of the fifth month is a great festival day, on which the king presents -fans to his courtiers. -</p> -<p>On the fifteenth day of the seventh month occurs the ceremony of distributing seed. -The king gives to his officials one hundred kinds of seed for the crops of the next -year. -</p> -<p>On the fifteenth day of the eighth month sacrifices are offered at the graves of ancestors -and broken tombs are repaired. -</p> -<p>The chrysanthemum festival is one of much popular interest. Among the most brilliant -flowers of the peninsula are the chrysanthemums, which are cultivated with great pride -and care by gentlemen and nobles. The flower is brought to unusual perfection by allowing -but a single flower to grow upon one stem. They are often cultivated apart, under -oiled paper frames. On the ninth day of the ninth month the perfected blossoms are -in their glory, and the owner of a crop of brilliant chrysanthemums invites his friends -to his house to feast and enjoy the sight of the blooms. The florists exhibit their -triumphs, and picnic parties enjoy the scenery from the bridges and on the mountains. -</p> -<p>The article chiefly used for pastry among oblique-eyed humanity is what the Japanese -call <i>mochi</i>, a substance made by boiling rice and pounding it into a tough mass resembling pie-crust. -Like oysters, it may be eaten “in every style,” raw, warmed, baked, toasted, boiled, -or fried. It occupies an important place in ceremonial offerings to the dead, in the -temple, and in household festal decoration. It is made in immense quantities, and -eaten especially at New Year’s time, and on the two equinoctial days of the year. -Another favorite mixed food for festive occasions is “red rice” and beans. The Corean -housewife takes as much pains to color the rice properly as a German lavishes upon -his meerschaum, and if the color fails, or is poor, it is a sign of bad luck. -</p> -<p>The fourteenth day of the first month a person who is entering upon a critical year -of his life makes an effigy of straw, dresses it up with his own clothing at evening, -and casts it out on the road, and then feasts merrily during the whole night. Whatever -happens to the man of straw thus kicked out of the house, is supposed to happen to -the man’s former self, now gone into the past; and Fate is believed to look upon the -individual in new clothes as another man. -</p> -<p>The fifth, fifteenth, and twenty-fifth of each month are called “broken days,” on -which they avoid beginning anything new. These are the “Fridays” of Chō-sen. In the -beginning of each <span class="pageNum" id="pb299">[<a href="#pb299">299</a>]</span>of the four seasons of the year they post up on the doors of their houses slips of -paper, on which are written mottoes, such as “Longevity is like the South Mountain,” -“Wealth is like the Eastern Sea,” etc. Certain years in each person’s life are supposed -to be critical, and special care as to health, food, clothing, new ventures, etc., -must be taken during these years, which are ended with a feast, or, what is more economical, -a sigh of relief. -</p> -<p>The fifteenth day of the first month is called “Stepping on the Bridge.” A man and -woman go out together over the bridge at the rising of the moon and view the moonlit -scenery, indulging meanwhile in refreshments, both of the solid and liquid sort. It -is believed that if one crosses over seven bridges on this night, he will be free -from calamities during the year. -</p> -<p>Not the least interesting of the local or national festivals, are those held in memory -of the soldiers slain in the service of their country on famous battle-fields. Besides -holding annual memorial celebrations at these places, which fire the patriotism of -the people, there are temples erected to soothe the spirits of the slain. Especially -noteworthy are these monumental edifices, on sites made painful to the national memory -by the great Japanese invasion of 1592–97, which keep fresh the scars of war. A revival -of these patriotic festivals has been stimulated by the fanatical haters of Japan, -since this neighbor country broke away from Asiatic traditions. -</p> -<hr class="tb"><p> -</p> -<p>Though much has been written concerning the population of Corea, we consider all conjectures -of persons alike unfamiliar with the interior and the true sources of information -as worthless. These random figures vary from 250,000 (!) to 6,000,000. Dallet presumes -a population of 10,000,000. A rude enumeration made thirty years ago gives the number -of houses at 1,700,000, and of the people at 7,000,000. Our own opinion, formed after -a study of the map and official lists of towns and cities, is that there are at least -12,000,000 souls in Chō-sen<span class="corr" id="xd31e4628" title="Not in source">.</span> A Japanese correspondent of the Tōkiō <i>Hochi <span class="corr" id="xd31e4632" title="Source: Shimlun">Shimbun</span></i>, writing from Seoul, states that a census made last year (1881) shows that there -are 3,480,911 houses and 16,227,885 persons in the kingdom. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb300">[<a href="#pb300">300</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch33" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#xd31e1110">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="label">CHAPTER XXXIII.</h2> -<h2 class="main">SHAMANISM AND MYTHICAL ZOÖLOGY.</h2> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="first">Shamanism is the worship of a large number of primitive North Asiatic tribes, having -no idols except a few fetishes and some rude ancestral images or representations of -the spirits of the earth and air. It is a gross mixture of sorcery and sacrificial -ceremonies for the propitiation of evil spirits. These malignant beings are supposed -to populate the earth, the clouds, and the air, and to be the cause of most of the -ills suffered by man. They take various forms, chiefly those of animals whose structure -and anatomy are more or less imaginary, each imp or demon being a composite creature, -compiled from the various powers of locomotion, destruction, and defence possessed -by the real creatures that inhabit water, earth, and air. Some of them, however, are -gentle and of lovely form and mien. Their apparition on earth is welcomed with delight -as the harbinger of good things to come. Confucius, the teacher, hailed by the Chinese -as their holiest sage, and to whom even divine honors are paid, believed firmly in -these portents and appearances. Chief among these mythic creatures are the phœnix, -the kirin, the dragon, besides a variety of demons of various sizes, colors, habits, -and character. Much of the mythology of Chō-sen is that common to Chinese Asia. Instead -of a gallery of beautiful human, or partially human, presences like that of Greece, -the mythology of China deals largely with mythic animals, though legendary heroes, -sages, and supernatural beings in human form are not lacking. The four chief ideal -creatures are the dragon, phœnix, tortoise, and kirin. -</p> -<p>There is another animal which, though a living reality, the Coreans have idealized -and gifted with powers supernatural and supra-animal, almost as many in number as -those with which the Japanese have endowed the white fox. This is the tiger. They -not only ascribe to him all the mighty forces and characteristics of which he is actually -possessed, but popular superstition attributes <span class="pageNum" id="pb301">[<a href="#pb301">301</a>]</span>to him the powers of flying, of emitting fire and hurling lightning. He is the symbol -of strength and ubiquity, the standard of comparison with all dangers and dreadful -forces, and the paragon of human courage. On the war-flags this animal is painted -or embroidered in every posture, asleep, leaping, erect, couchant, winged, and holding -red fire in his fore-paw. On works of art, cabinets, boxes, and weapons the tiger -is most frequently portrayed and is even associated as an equal with the four supernatural -beings. In ancient time he was worshipped. -</p> -<p>The riong, or dragon, whose figure, as depicted in Corean art, is perhaps nothing -more than a highly idealized form of an extinct geological species of saurian, is -one of the four supernatural or spiritually endowed creatures. He is an embodiment -of all the forces of motion, change, and power for offence and defence in animal life, -fin, wing, tusk, horn, claws, with the mysterious attributes of the serpent. There -are many varieties of the species dragon, which is the chief of scaly monsters. It -possesses the gift of transformation and of rendering itself visible or invisible -at will. In the spring it ascends to the skies and in the autumn buries itself in -the watery depths. -</p> -<p>It is this terrific manifestation of movement and power which the Corean artist loves -to depict—always in connection with water, clouds, or the sacred jewel of which it -is the guardian, and for which it battles, causing commotion in heaven and earth. -The dragon is synonymous in Chinese philosophy with the third of the four creative -influences and indicative of the East and Springtime, the blue dragon being the guardian -of the East. -</p> -<p>Another cycle of popular notions and artistic ideas is suggested by its change of -bulk, for this omnipotent monster “becomes at will reduced to the size of a silkworm -or swollen till it fills the space of heaven and earth. It desires to mount, and it -rises until it affronts the clouds; to sink, and it descends until hidden below the -fountains of the deep.” The dragon is the embodiment of the watery principle of the -atmosphere, and its Protean shapes are but the varied ideal expression of the many -forms and forces of water. Moisture in its fertilizing or destructive aspects—from -the silent dew to the roaring tempest, from the trickling of a rill to the tidal wave -that engulphs cities—blessed, terrible, gentle, irresistible, is symbolized by the -dragon. The functions of the celestial dragon are to guard the mansions of the gods -in heaven, so that they do not fall; of the spiritual, to cause <span class="pageNum" id="pb302">[<a href="#pb302">302</a>]</span>the wind to blow and produce rain for the benefit of mankind; of the terrestrial, -to mark out the courses of rivers and streams, while another watches over the hidden -treasures concealed from mortals. This last is the dragon that presides over mines -and gems, and which mortals must propitiate or overcome in order to gain the precious -metals and minerals out of the earth. Intense belief in the dragon is one of the chief -reasons why the mines in Chō-sen are so little worked, and the metals disturbed. The -dragon pursuing the invaders of their sanctuaries or fighting each other to gain possession -of the jewel balls or sacred crystals is a favorite subject in all art of Chinese -parentage. Rarely is the whole figure of the writhing creature exposed. Partly hidden -in clouds or water, he seems ever in motion. There are also four dragon-kings, who -have their palaces in the world under the sea, one ruling in the northern, one in -the eastern, one in the southern, and one in the western sea. The ministers and messengers -of these four monarchs are the terrible dragons whose battles in the air and in the -deep are the causes of the commotion of the elements. There is also a dragon without -horns, and another that never ascends to the skies. The yellow dragon is reckoned -the most honorable of his tribe. In common belief the dragon carries on his forehead -a pear-shaped pearl, supposed to possess wondrous virtues of healing and power. Whoever -possesses these jewels will be invincible, and the power of his descendants endure. -</p> -<p>From its divine origin and character the dragon is symbolical of all that pertains -to the emperor of Great China. Hence it is made use of not only by him, but by his -vassal, the king of Chō-sen, and by his rival the mikado of Japan. Hence the significance -of the trio of these sacred jewels on ornaments and instruments belonging to the royal -family, whether embroidered on the robes of state worn by the king, surmounting the -large drum of his musicians, or glistening in golden embroidery on the banners of -his body-guard. The “dragon robe” and “dragon’s bed,” “dragon standard,” refer to -the mantle, throne, and flag of the king. In the popular speech, whatever is most -excellent is compared to a dragon. A “dragon-child” is a paragon, a “dragon horse” -is one of extraordinary speed. When “the fish has been metamorphosed into the dragon,” -some happy change or promotion has taken place—the student-competitor has received -his degree of doctorate, or the office-holder has been told by royal <span class="corr" id="xd31e4653" title="Source: appointemnt">appointment</span> to “come up higher.” -<span class="pageNum" id="pb303">[<a href="#pb303">303</a>]</span></p> -<p>The kirin (kilin or lin) is another of the four supernatural creatures of Chinese -philosophy and mythology, believed in by the Coreans, and depicted in Corean art especially -as a symbol of peace and joy, and on articles used on auspicious and happy occasions. -This beast, which to the Corean is a “living creature,” has the body of a deer and -the tail of an ox, usually highly curled and twisted in a manner to suggest the work -of a hair-dresser. On its forehead is a single soft horn. It is said never to tread -on or injure any living being. It is the emblem of perfect rectitude, and the incarnate -essence of the five primordial elements of all things, viz.: water, fire, wood, metal, -earth. It is considered the noblest form of the animal creation. Its appearance on -the earth is ever regarded as a happy omen, as the harbinger of good government and -the birth of good rulers. Hence the wealth of association to the Oriental mind in -the kirin. The male beast is called ki and the female rin or lin. The two words combined -form the general term kirin. -</p> -<p>The tortoise is the centre of a great circle of pleasing superstitions, and hence -is one of the set of symbols oftenest employed in Corean art. The practice of divination -is mostly associated with tortoise-shell, the figuring of a tortoise’s back having -a mystic signification. In Chinese legend a divine tortoise emerged from the Yellow -River, on the shell of which a sage discovered the system of numerals, and thus obtained -the foundation of mathematics and the rudiments of philosophy. This tortoise was said -to be the embodiment of the star in Ursa Major, and the progenitor of all the tortoise -tribe. It can transform itself into other forms of life and lives to the age of ten -thousand years. Hence it is the symbol of long life. It is said to conceive by thought -alone. There are said to be ten kinds of tortoises, one of them being half dragon, -half tortoise, and with a tail like a fringe of silver. This is the attendant of the -god of waters, and hence is often used as the top of a well. The tortoise is also -the symbol of immortality and strength, hence is often used over walls and places -of entrance. Many Corean gateways are surmounted with huge tortoises sculptured in -stone. The same idea is expressed in making the representations of this creature, -cut from a single rock, the base for monumental tablets set into its back. The great -seal of state, the regalia of sovereignty in Chō-sen, has the form of a tortoise. -The phœnix is also represented as standing upon a tortoise. Closely connected with -the Hindoo idea of the world resting on an elephant which stands on <span class="pageNum" id="pb304">[<a href="#pb304">304</a>]</span>a tortoise, is the Chinese idea of “supporting the earth with the feet of a tortoise.” -A common idea in Chō-sen, as in China, is the huge tortoise which supports mountains -on its back, and having a shell which is one thousand leagues in circumference. -</p> -<p>The phœnix (fung-wang or hōwō), like the kirin, appears on the earth at or near the -birth of a good ruler, and hence is the emblem of peace and good government. The male -is called <i>fung</i>, or <i>ho</i>, and the female <i>wang</i>, or <i>wō</i>, hence the generic name fung-wang or hōwō. In its marvellous plumage the sheen of -the five colors may be descried, each of which is typical of the five cardinal virtues. -In figure it seems to be an ideal combination of the peacock and the golden pheasant, -but with feathers wondrously curled and made into ringlets. It is not only a symbol -of auspicious government, but of inseparable fellowship, and many stanzas of poetry -refer to it as typical of courtship and conjugal love. In its voice are many intonations, -to each of which a name is given. For this reason it is a favorite element in the -decoration of musical instruments. -</p> -<p>Another symbol often used is the Chinese lion, with marvellously curled hair and mane. -Every tuft is a mass of fanciful ringlets, and the beast is so pictured as to make -a masterpiece of ugliness and terror. The dog of the breed called <i>ngao</i>, so named after the earth-supporting tortoise, is also liberally furnished with tooth, -nail, and hair. It usually cuts the figure of guardian on the edge or lid of vessels -in which are kept treasures which, because they tempt the palate, tempt also the fingers -that lift to the mouth. The marvellous creature called the Dog of Fo, or Buddha, usually -associated with Chinese-Buddhist art, is believed to be of Corean origin. Jacquemart -calls it the “Dog of Corea.” -</p> -<p>Other mythical creatures that have their existence in the Corean imagination are in -the form of fishes and serpents. The in-é (fish-man or merman) is a sort of siren -that is supposed to inhabit the Sea of Japan and the Eastern Sea, but whether partly -fabulous or entirely real, we are unable to say. It is six or seven feet long, and -in its head and body resembles a human being, as its nose, mouth, ears, and arms, -or flippers, are covered with white skin without scales. It has a long and slender -tail, like that of a horse. It suckles its young, and sheds tears when its offspring -are captured. It is probable that this creature, though called a fish-man by the Coreans, -is the animal of which we read, in several instances, being presented to the Manchiu -emperors in Peking. <span class="pageNum" id="pb305">[<a href="#pb305">305</a>]</span>One of them inquired whether such a creature was known in Europe, and the Jesuit friar, -producing a book, showed an engraving of one similar. Perhaps this “fish-man” is the -same as a reported “dog-fish or shark,” living in the seas around Quelpart, whose -tears produce pearls. -</p> -<p></p> -<div class="figure p305width" id="p305"><img src="images/p305.png" alt="Battle-flag Captured by the Americans in 1871." width="293" height="592"><p class="figureHead">Battle-flag Captured by the Americans in 1871.</p> -</div><p> -</p> -<p>The i-sium, a colossal marine creature, is purely imaginary, like the “earthquake-fish” -of the Japanese, which causes the continent to shake. The word is pure Corean, and -may answer to our symbol of vastness and uncertainty—the sea-serpent. Mr. Fergusson -would doubtless find a new chapter for his “Tree and Serpent Worship” in Chō-sen, -for, in the peninsula, not only are trees reverenced as the abode of spirits, but -the sa, or snakes, are rarely, if ever, harmed. The people feed, venerate, and even -worship them as the guardian genii of their households. The epkuron-gi (a pure Corean -word) is the name by which they call the serpent which presides over their family -Edens. Instead of being looked upon as the embodiment of the principle of evil, as -in Semitic lore, their presence is hailed as an omen of blessing. They are treated -like pets. In their heads they are believed to carry a precious jewel after they have -lived long. A serpent often lives to be one thousand years old, and then bears in -his front a glistening gem, called ya-kang-chiu, which name the people also apply -to any glittering stone, especially the diamond. The guardian serpent is represented -as double-winged, with forked tongue, long and darting, flying among the clouds and -protecting its worshippers by pursuing their enemies. The illustration here given -is copied from one of the war-flags carried by the Corean mountaineers from their -homes to the forts on the Han River, in 1871. The staff is tipped with pheasant-feathers -and horse-hair. -</p> -<p>Their fear of the serpent is the basis of their worship, and the <span class="pageNum" id="pb306">[<a href="#pb306">306</a>]</span>average Corean does not fail to take due precaution to guard against its sting. In -addition to the ordinary <i>osa</i> or black snake, there is the venomous viper, <i>salmo</i>, which “kills its mother at birth.” Its bite is considered exceedingly dangerous. -The <i>tai-mang</i> is a great serpent. The flower called <i>kiuk-sa-wa</i> (snake-bane), or Eye of India, is believed by Coreans to keep away the reptiles, -and hence is highly valued. -</p> -<p>Hamel and the French missionaries agree in picturing Corea as a land well supplied -with reptiles, serpents, and vermin of all sorts, and testify to the veneration of -them by the people. In the folk-lore of the country, the beasts play a conspicuous -part. -</p> -<p>Another creature to whom wings rightfully belong is the <i>gin-sai</i>. This fabulous bird is capable of diffusing so venomous an influence that even its -shadow poisons food. -</p> -<p>Even the brief list of creatures which we have enumerated does not exhaust the list -of the beings which are real and active to the imagination of the people. Science -and Christianity are the remedies for this delirium tremens of paganism. -</p> -<p>The ancient and still lingering belief in the powers of the air and all the creatures -therein, visible and invisible, is reflected on their triangular and streamer-shaped -war-banners. They believe that all these creatures and all the forces of nature are -under the control of the spirits, who will give or withhold sunshine or rain, send -blasting mildew and pestilence, or fertility, plenty and joy, according as they are -pleased or displeased. -</p> -<p>It will be seen at once what a soil the demagogue has for sowing dragons’ teeth, and -what frightful popular commotion may be stirred up by playing upon the fears of the -populace. The most recent illustration of this is seen in the frightful massacre of -the ministers and the Japanese, in July, 1882. The long drought having ruined the -rice crop, the leaders of the anti-foreign faction persuaded the common people that -the spirits were annoyed at the introduction of foreigners, and therefore withheld -the rain. In this belief they were strengthened from the fact that it rained heavily -for many hours after the Japanese had been driven out of Seoul. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb307">[<a href="#pb307">307</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch34" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#xd31e1119">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="label">CHAPTER XXXIV.</h2> -<h2 class="main">LEGENDS AND FOLK-LORE.</h2> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="first">It is not difficult to appreciate or understand the history of people whose psychology -is our own. We seem to look through white light in gazing at their past as told in -the words of a language that grew in the same mental sunlight with our own. In eating -fruit that grows on familiar intellectual soil, we may sometimes recognize a slightly -strange flavor, but the pulp is good food which our mental stomach does not reject, -but readily assimilates. Truth, like the moon, usually presents one side only, but -the mass of mankind do not think of this, even if they know it. They go on blissfully -imagining they have seen all sides, even the full orb. -</p> -<p>With the history of the Aryan nations we are familiar, and think it is clear to us. -We insist that we know we can understand what they did and that their thoughts need -no translation to us. -</p> -<p>A visitor at the American Centennial, or any exposition of the industry of all nations, -sees before him for comparative study the art, symbols of religion, architecture, -implements of domestic life, and all the outward expressions of inward ideas. They -are the clothed or concrete soul of man under the varied civilizations of this planet. -Standing before the exhibits of India—the home of the Aryan nations—the man of Western -Christendom, as his mind’s eye surveys the vastness of difference between him and -the Hindoo, is yet able to bridge the gulf. The researches into language, art, myths, -folk-lore, show him that the infancy of the two races was the same, and that modern -differences are impertinent accidents. At bottom the Aryan and the Hindoo are brothers. -</p> -<p>No such reconciliation of ideas is yet demonstrable between the Mongolian and the -Aryan. Before the art, symbols, ideas, literature, language, and physical presence -of the man of Cathay, no bridging of the gulf seems yet possible. He appears to be -a man of another planet<span class="corr" id="xd31e4717" title="Not in source">.</span> Language gives as yet little clue to a common origin; art and symbol seem at the -other pole, and in <span class="pageNum" id="pb308">[<a href="#pb308">308</a>]</span>psychology the difference at present seems total and irreconcilable. -</p> -<p>Hence, to attempt to write the history of a Turanian people by simply narrating bald -facts in an occidental language, seems to be but putting another white skeleton in -the museum of nations. Even the attempt, by a purely destructive method of criticism, -to manufacture a body, or corpse, rather, of history, by hacking away all legend and -tradition to get out what the critic is pleased to call “history,” seems at once unnatural -and false. It is like attempting to correlate the genius of Shakspeare with ounces -of beef and cheese, or to measure the market value of poetry by avoirdupois. A history -of an Asiatic people ought to be as much a history of mind, of psychology, as of facts -or dynasties. Hence, in writing of a new and almost unknown people like the Coreans, -we think it as important to tell what <i>they</i> believe to have happened, as to attempt to state what we think actually did happen. -To understand a people we must know their thoughts, as well as their physical environment. -</p> -<p>According to Corean tradition, the origin of their country and people is thus outlined: -</p> -<p>Of old the land had neither prince nor chiefs. A Divine Being descended from heaven -and took up his abode at the foot of a sandal-wood tree on the Ever-White Mountains. -The people of the land became his subjects, made him their sovereign and called him -Dan Kun (the Sandal Prince), and his realm Chō-sen (Morning Calm). This took place -in the time of Tang Ti Yao (2356 <span class="asc">B.C.</span>). His first residence was at Ping-an. Later he transferred it to Pe-yo, where his -descendants remained till the eighth year of the emperor Wu Ting of the Chang dynasty -(1317 <span class="asc">B.C.</span>), when they were established in Mount Asstak. His descendants reigned in Chō-sen -more than one thousand years, but nothing more is known of them after the period covered -by their reign. Then followed the occupation of the country by the Chinese noble Ki -Tsze. -</p> -<p>The mythical origin and founding of Shinra is thus told in the local legends of the -place. After the invasion of Chō-sen, by the Chinese emperor, many of the original -inhabitants fled and scattered over the east coast. They made settlements on the mountains, -in the valleys, and along the sea-shore, some of which in time grew to be cities and -large towns. One day the attention of the head man of one of the villages was attracted -by the neighing of horses toward a mountain. He went in the direction of the <span class="pageNum" id="pb309">[<a href="#pb309">309</a>]</span>sounds, but instead of a horse he found an egg of extraordinary size, shaped like -a gourd. Carefully breaking it open, he discovered a beautiful rosy boy-baby inside. -The old man’s heart was touched by the sight, and he took the child to his home and -adopted it as his own. The boy grew up beloved of all who saw or knew him. When but -thirteen years old, the elders of the six principal towns gathered together and chose -him as their lord and master. They gave him a name signifying “Coming Out of the West,” -and to the country a name meaning “Born of the Gourd-egg.” The new king took to wife -a fair maiden who was reputed to be the offspring of a well-dragon. They reigned for -sixty years, when their daughter succeeded to the throne. -</p> -<p>In the fifth year of her reign she married a youth who had come from afar, whose origin -was as wonderful as that of her own parents. His mother the queen had been delivered -of an egg. Her husband, not enjoying such a form of offspring, threw the egg away, -but the queen recovering it, carefully wrapped it in a silk napkin, and with many -other treasures put it in a box and set it adrift on the sea. After many days the -box was washed ashore on a distant coast. The fishermen who picked it up in their -nets thought nothing of it, and threw it into the sea again. It drifted into one of -the harbors of Shinra. An old woman finding it, opened the lid and found a lovely -boy with a smile on his face. Carefully nourishing him, he grew up to be a man of -strength, nine feet high. He excelled all other youths in bodily vigor and accomplishments. -When the old woman first picked up the waif, there were a number of crows standing -around the shore, and the crone gave him a name referring to the presence of these -birds—“Opened in Presence of the Crows.” Excelling in the knowledge of geomancy, he -found a good place for a residence and built on it. Hearing of his renown, the queen -of Shinra married him to her daughter. -</p> -<p>One evening the newly made king heard a cock crow in the woods toward the west. He -sent his servants after it, who found a small golden casket suspended from a tree. -Under it a white cock was crowing. The servant reported the matter to his master. -Another servant was despatched to the place. He returned with the box, which, being -opened, was found to contain a boy baby, who was given the name signifying “The Golden -Boy from the Grove in which the Cock crowed.” The baby boy grew up and succeeded his -father. In the reign of the twenty-second king of <span class="pageNum" id="pb310">[<a href="#pb310">310</a>]</span>the line, the people of the country, then called Shin-han, changed the name of their -country to Shinra. -</p> -<hr class="tb"><p> -</p> -<p>In the “<span lang="fr">Grammaire <span class="corr" id="xd31e4750" title="Source: Coréene">Coréenne</span></span>” there are a number of specimens of folk-lore given in Corean and French, from which -we extract a few of the most characteristic. The first one is an illustration of our -universal human nature. -</p> -<blockquote> -<p class="first">THE THREE WISHES. -</p> -<p>There were once two old married folks who had not a single child, boy or girl. Extremely -poor, they lived a pitiable life. One evening, when it was very cold in winter, after -having supped, they gazed into the fire in the brazier, and sitting in their room -face to face they warmed themselves a moment in silence, when the good old man thus -spoke: -</p> -<p>“For the rich the winter is an excellent season; their food is prepared in advance. -Having no toil they have only to take their ease. But for the poor, it is a rough -time when they have neither food for the mouth nor fuel. If they go out over the mountain -through the rain or the snow to seek wood, they die of cold or frost.” -</p> -<p>The good dame replied: “They say that Heaven is just. Why then does he permit this? -They say, besides, that when you pray to Heaven, it is easy to obtain that which you -need. If we ask to become rich—” said she. -</p> -<p>“You are right, do so,” replied the husband. -</p> -<p>And both prostrating themselves, prayed fervently to the Deity, when suddenly an angel -appeared. -</p> -<p>“In spite of your sin of murmuring, Heaven having pitied you, accords you three things, -after which you can ask no more. Reflect well, choose, and ask.” Saying this he disappeared. -</p> -<p>The old man made this proposition: “If we ask riches, freedom from sickness, or long -life—” -</p> -<p>“No,” said the old woman, “we should not enjoy these things properly if we do not -have a child. What pleasure will it be?” -</p> -<p>“Hold! I have not asked. What shall I do? If he had only said <i>four</i> things at the good moment! Why did he say only <i>three</i>? Since we wish to have a child, must we forego freedom from sickness, must we renounce -riches, must we give up long life? It is hard to decide. Think, then, seriously this -night, and decide to-morrow.” -</p> -<p>Breaking off their conversation, both sat plunged in reverie. At the moment of lying -down to sleep, the old woman, stirring up the fire with the tongs, launched out with -this reflection, “If we could have three or four feet of pudding to set to toast on -this brazier, that would be royally excellent.” -</p> -<p>She spoke, and there was three feet of food placed by her side. -</p> -<p>The husband, beside himself with rage, screamed out— -</p> -<p>“Oh! what a woman! By one stroke you have lost all our benefits. To punish you I wish -the pudding would hang itself on the point of your nose.” -</p> -<p>Immediately the pudding made a leap and attached itself to the old dame’s nose. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb311">[<a href="#pb311">311</a>]</span></p> -<p>At this the husband cried out, “Hello! Angry as I am, I have also by my fault lost -a wish.” Seizing the sausage to detach it, they pulled, first one, then the other, -almost dislocating the nose, but the sausage held on. -</p> -<p>“Alas!” said the woman in tears, “if this is always to remain hanging here, how can -I live?” -</p> -<p>The husband, on the contrary, without being at all disturbed, said, “If even yet our -wish of fortune is fulfilled, we could make a tube of gold to hide this sausage, and -then drawing it out at length, it will be only more beautiful to see.” -</p> -<p>The wife, still more miserable, cried out, “Oh, wretched me, only to think that fortune -should wish to put it there. Well! whether you be rich or live long, as for me, I -should like to kill myself.” -</p> -<p>Saying this she took a cord and went to strangle herself at the end of a beam. The -husband, struck with fear, and touched with compassion, hastened to set her free. -</p> -<p>“Stop,” said he, “there remains one wish to us. Have your own way about it.” -</p> -<p>“If that is so, I wish that what hangs to my nose comes loose. Quick, quick, that -it may go swift away. That is my chief wish.” -</p> -<p>She had hardly finished speaking when the sausage fell plump to the ground, and out -of the midst of the heaven an angry voice was heard: -</p> -<p>“You have obtained the three things which you wished for, and have you gained a great -advantage? If you wish to enjoy true blessing in this world be content to live with -what Heaven gives, and do not form vain desires.” -</p> -<p>The two old folks spitted the pudding, ate it, and from this night they abstained -from foolish wishes. -</p> -<p>On the morrow, agreeably to their supreme ambition, which was to have a baby, they -found a little fatherless and motherless orphan. Having adopted it as their child, -they gave him a good education and lived happily to extreme old age.</p> -</blockquote><p> -</p> -<p>The following illustrates official shrewdness and rapacity: -</p> -<blockquote> -<p class="first">THE HISTORY OF A NOSE. -</p> -<p>In the chief city of Chulla, there was a politician who was in debt to the government -to the amount of ten thousand strings of cash. Unable to pay the same, he was condemned -to death. Cast into prison, he awaited only the orders of the king to carry out the -sentence. As he had thought hard without discovering any means to get out of the affair, -he bethought himself of a stratagem. So, addressing the jailer, he said: -</p> -<p>“Helloa! you there, you’ll do well to let me go free a little while.” -</p> -<p>“Helloa!” answered the jailer, “what wretched talk! After I have set free a man who -ought to be put to death to-morrow or day after to-morrow, what shall <i>I</i> do?” -</p> -<p>The prisoner replied, “Are we not friends both of us? If you do not let me go, who -can save my life? Think over it a little and see. My wife, my children, my house, -all I have, all my relations and friends being here, where <span class="pageNum" id="pb312">[<a href="#pb312">312</a>]</span>shall I fly? If you set me at liberty for some moments not only will I not abscond -but there will be found means for preserving my life safely. Do so.” -</p> -<p>As he thus besought him eagerly, the jailer, struck with compassion, could not do -otherwise than let him go. -</p> -<p>So at midnight he presented himself before the door of the room where the governor -slept, and thus addressed him. -</p> -<p>“Are you asleep? Is your excellency sleeping?” -</p> -<p>Hearing the sound and astonished at recognizing the voice of the officer who had been -cast into prison and was to be executed in a short time, the governor asked. -</p> -<p>“Who are you?” -</p> -<p>“Your servant,” answered the officer. -</p> -<p>“A scoundrel who is at the point of being executed, how is it you are here?” -</p> -<p>“If I may be allowed to enter to salute you,” said the officer, “I have something -particular to say to you.” -</p> -<p>“Oh, well, come in and speak.” -</p> -<p>The officer entering, approached, sat down, and said: -</p> -<p>“I pray your excellency to reflect and consider my purpose. If you put your servant -to death this will be simply one man of means less in the world, and the money I owe -will be lost to the government. What advantage will you thus derive? If, on the contrary, -you preserve my life there will be one man more in the world, and I shall repay the -whole of my debt to the government. Let me then live.” -</p> -<p>“If it ought to be so I wish you well in the matter.” -</p> -<p>“Your servant will come again, then, to-morrow, during the night, to see you.” -</p> -<p>“Do as you will.” -</p> -<p>The morrow during the night the officer presented himself anew and asked to be introduced. -Approaching he made the prostrations before the governor, drew from his sleeve a packet -which he undid and took out a sketch representing a human nose. He immediately besought -the governor to please put his seal upon the sketch. -</p> -<p>Agreeing to the proposal the governor imposed his seal. -</p> -<p>The officer now associated three companions who were in the plot, and they all assembled -upon the coast of the Eastern Sea, where they found a populous village, in the midst -of which rose a high and grand mansion. Taking their drink of spirits at a hotel in -the suburbs of the next village beyond, they prepared to sup. Addressing their host -they put this question: -</p> -<p>“What is the name of the village which is just behind us? Whose is the largest house?” -</p> -<p>The inn-keeper answered, “That is the house of a very rich noble. Last year he received -the degree of the doctorate and is eligible to fill very soon a very high position -under the government.” -</p> -<p>The officer taking with him one of his comrades repaired to the mansion, where, as -he noticed, everything showed abundant means, and thus spoke to the son. -</p> -<p>“As we have a secret affair to treat of, let us go into another room,” said the officer. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb313">[<a href="#pb313">313</a>]</span></p> -<p>They did so. “See here, the king is very sick, and they have called all the physicians -from all the eight provinces for a consultation. They have declared that the only -means to obtain healing is to find the nose of a man just like this, and to concoct -a remedy from it. This is why we have been commanded by the Court, where they have -said to us, putting in our hand this sketch of the nose<span class="corr" id="xd31e4831" title="Source: .">:</span> ‘Without distinction of place or person if you meet a nose similar to this, strike -it off and produce it before us in this place.’ Obeying this severe order we have -been out many times without being able to find a nose conforming to the sketch, and -thus far have made useless journeys, but now, without peradventure, your honorable -father’s nose exactly resembles this. We demand to see him, and wherever he may be -we shall not depart till we have cut it off.” -</p> -<p>The son cried out: “<i>Perhaps</i> they do say such things!” -</p> -<p>“Who dare oppose the government business? Hurry, hurry, strike it off and we’ll go.” -</p> -<p>The son fell into a study and reflected. -</p> -<p>“It is an affair of state. This is a matter which we cannot prevent. Cut it off, they -say, but to cut off the nose of my old father, that is altogether impossible. The -entire family, men, women, young and old, every one will be plunged into woe. You -can bear away the half of our fortune at least, if you will go away without taking -my father’s nose.” -</p> -<p>The officer replied, “We had proposed to ourselves to depart only after having cut -off the nose. However, as this is a matter of a son devoted to his father, and that -they may not repress filial piety in others, we shall not cut off the nose. If you -will give us a certain sum we will go elsewhere to procure a nose which we shall present -to the king.” -</p> -<p>He accepted with thanks a sum equal to many times ten thousand strings of cash, for -which he gave a receipt, told the sender of the money such a day, such a place, and -on leaving offered this recommendation: -</p> -<p>“Upon the whole, say nothing of this affair. If it should leak out, and the government -comes to know that having found a proper nose we have been bribed not to cut it off, -we shall be arrested and put to death, they will certainly cut off your father’s nose -and take your money also. Pray then be careful not to divulge this secret.” Upon this -they took their leave. -</p> -<p>Overjoyed at not having his parent’s nose amputated, but believing that the king on -being informed would send again on this business, the son dared let no one know until -the day of his father’s death. Then breaking the silence he said, “I have bought my -father’s nose for —— thousand strings of cash.”</p> -</blockquote><p> -</p> -<p>The story here told explains itself. Cheng-chong was the Haroun al Raschid of Corea. -</p> -<blockquote> -<p class="first">AN INSTANCE OF ROYAL SOLICITUDE. -</p> -<p>There was in Chō-sen a king called His Majesty Cheng-chong, who was celebrated in -all the kingdom for his goodness. One night, disguised as a countryman, and accompanied -only by a single companion, he started out from the midst of the capital to make a -circuit in order to inform himself of the temper of his subjects, and to become himself -acquainted with the details of their life. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb314">[<a href="#pb314">314</a>]</span></p> -<p>Arrived at a certain point he looked in the window. There was a miserable house, of -which the outer dilapidation, extremely pitiable as it was, led him to suspect in -the interior a state of things difficult to imagine. Eagerly wishing to know what -it was, he punched a peep-hole in the paper door and perceived an old man weeping, -a man in mourning singing, and a nun or widow dancing. Unable to divine the cause -of this spectacle, he ordered his companion to call the master of the house. The king’s -servant doing so, said: -</p> -<p>“Is the proprietor of the house at home?” -</p> -<p>Hearing this voice the man in mourning made his appearance. His Majesty saluting him -said: -</p> -<p>“We have never before met.” -</p> -<p>“True,” said the man in mourning, “but whence are you? How is it that you should come -to find me at midnight? To what family do you belong?” -</p> -<p>Cheng-chong answered, “I am Mr. Ni, living at Tong-ku-an. As I was passing before -your house, I was attracted by strange sounds. Then by a hole which I made in the -door, I saw an old man weeping, a nun who danced, and a gentleman in mourning who -sang. Why did the old man shed tears, the nun dance, and the man in mourning sing? -Unable to fathom the motive I have made my friend call the householder with the purpose -of informing myself.” -</p> -<p>The man in mourning rejoined, “Have you any business to know other people’s matters? -What is your reason for acting thus when it concerns you so little? The night is well -gone. Get back as quickly as possible.” -</p> -<p>“No, not at all. I acknowledge that it is not becoming to pry into the affairs of -others, but this is such an extraordinary case I beg of you give me some light on -the matter.” -</p> -<p>“Alas!” said the man in mourning, “why is the gentleman so eager to know other people’s -matters?” -</p> -<p>Cheng-chong replied, “It is important that I should be somewhat informed.” -</p> -<p>“Since the gentleman wishes so much to know, I cannot do other than tell. This is -why. My family has always been poor. In my hut one could never find sufficient grain -for a meal and one flea would not have enough room upon my land to squat upon. I have -no victuals for my old father. This is why, morning and evening, in default of all -other resource, my wife has often cut off a tress of her hair and gone and sold it -to buy a cup of bean-soup, which she graciously offers to my father. This evening -she clipped and sold all of her hair that remained, and by this she has become bare-headed -like a nun. My old father, seeing that for his sake his young daughter-in-law has -become a nun, broke out into mourning in these terms: -</p> -<p>“ ‘Why have I lived to this day? Why am I not dead? Why have I thus degraded my daughter-in-law?’ -And in saying this he shed tears. To console him, my wife said to him, ‘Do not weep,’ -and she danced. I, also, although in mourning, joined in with my wife. One danced, -the other sang. This made my old father smile, and perhaps gave him solace. There! -that is why we behaved so. Do not think it strange, and go away.” -</p> -<p>Listening to this narrative the king was impressed with such a marked supreme devotion -on the part of the son and daughter-in-law, even in the time of deepest misfortune, -and he said, “This is the most extraordinary thing in the world. How will it do to -present you at the examination to-morrow?” -<span class="pageNum" id="pb315">[<a href="#pb315">315</a>]</span></p> -<p>“What examination to-morrow?” asked the man. -</p> -<p>“Why, certainly,” said Cheng-chong, “to-morrow there will be an examination. By all -means don’t fail to be there.” -</p> -<p>The man responded, “But I have not heard it said that there is to be an examination.” -</p> -<p>“Whether you have heard or not,” said the king, “prepare to compete, and present yourself. -As I shall also present myself to-morrow I shall give you a stall in the enclosure.” -</p> -<p>Having thus spoken he took his leave, returned to the palace and awaited the stroke -of the great clock-bell. -</p> -<p>No sooner did he hear the vibration of the mighty gong than he immediately gave the -order to announce promptly the examination in the city, and beyond the walls, to the -utter astonishment of the literary men, who said, “Even until yesterday no one had -heard of an examination, and behold it was published during the night. What does this -mean?” -</p> -<p>The poor householder on his part made this reflection, “Although I knew nothing about -it, this man knows perfectly,” and he started out. -</p> -<p>On the way he noticed a crowd of candidates. Without hesitation he entered the enclosure. -The subject of the examination was: “The song of a man in mourning, the dance of a -nun, the tears of an old man.” -</p> -<p>Of all the students not one could derive the sense of such a subject. -</p> -<p>This man alone knew it perfectly well, because he had had experience of those very -things in his own house. He treated the theme clearly and sent in his copy. The king -having examined the essay and found it without a mistake, gave the degree of doctor -and sent for him to come to him. -</p> -<p>When they were in each other’s presence the king said: -</p> -<p>“Do you know me? It is I who yesterday recommended you to present yourself at the -examination. Lift up your head and look.” -</p> -<p>Fixing his gaze attentively, the man recognized who he was—in effect the same person—and -manifested his feelings in appropriate actions of gratitude. -</p> -<p>“Go quickly,” said the king to him, “go find your old father and wife.” -</p> -<p>Forthwith, with high appointment to office joined to magnificent treatment, the king -recompensed the filial piety of the son and daughter-in-law. -</p> -<p>The royal renown has been handed down from generation to generation. In truth, beyond -the goodness of the king, the reward bestowed upon the filial devotion of these two -married people is known to every one.</p> -</blockquote><p> -</p> -<p>Evidently the following is a story told by metropolitans to show up the bumpkins of -the provinces: -</p> -<blockquote> -<p class="first">THE PRODIGIOUS EFFECTS OF A LOOKING-GLASS. -</p> -<p>A young noble of Kiung-sang province was going on a journey to Seoul. Just as he was -about to depart, his wife called him. -</p> -<p>“He! say now, listen to me a little. I have heard the mother of Mr. Kim speak of a -very lovely thing which looks like glass and pretty metal. They say that if you look -in it you will see a very curious thing. You must bring me one.” -<span class="pageNum" id="pb316">[<a href="#pb316">316</a>]</span></p> -<p>“Is it dear or cheap?” asked the husband. -</p> -<p>“It is not dear,” said she. “It will be necessary to spend some money, but if you -heed the matter at all, it will be easy to pay for it.” This is what the husband heard -as he set out for the capital. -</p> -<p>Having finished his business at Seoul he was on the point of returning, having almost -lost sight of his wife’s order. At last he recalled it, asked the name of the object -in question, and made the purchase of a mirror through one of his friends. In his -eagerness to get home he put his wife’s commission in his wallet without even looking -at it. When he arrived home, she hastened to take out the mirror. At once she perceived -in it a woman. Immediately she began to weep and to berate her husband. -</p> -<p>“Oh the villain! not only to play himself the vagabond and debauchee but to bring -along a concubine! Is it possible? This woman, what is she?” -</p> -<p>The amazed husband looked in the mirror, and at the side of his wife perceived a man. -Unable to contain his wrath which made his face first dark and then blue, he uttered -piercing cries. -</p> -<p>“Is this the conduct for the wife of a noble. You have brought a libertine here,” -cried he. -</p> -<p>He was about to murder his wife, when his old mother hearing the squabble came in -to know what it was. At sight of the old woman the quarrel ceased on either side. -Pointing at the mirror, the rivals spoke both at once. The weeping daughter-in-law -raved about a concubine, the son, even more angry, talked of a paramour. As the couple -had never quarrelled before, there was no way of accounting for the mystery. -</p> -<p>“Do not be vexed,” said she, and looking in the mirror she saw a woman. At once she -broke out into a laugh. -</p> -<p>“Is it because you see the old woman, your neighbor, that you dispute? The widow Pak -has come to get some fire,” said she, and she went out to speak to her, but she was -not there. -</p> -<p>Astonished, she called her husband and said to him -</p> -<p>“There is in the children’s room a very funny thing. You can see in it all kinds of -extraordinary things and they are bickering over it. Come and see a little.” -</p> -<p>The venerable gentleman having entered the room perceived in the mirror an aged man. -</p> -<p>“Hello! the puppy of the teacher Tsoi has come to collect his fees and I have not -a penny. That is not very nice.” -</p> -<p>The people of the village, one by one, two by two, all without exception looked at -the mirror, but unable to comprehend anything, they made a tumult. Curious to know -what should result, they carried it to the magistrate. At sight of the instrument, -the man of authority more astonished than the others, called the policemen and gave -them this order: -</p> -<p>“A new officer has arrived, why have I lost my place? Get ready men and horses for -him.” -</p> -<p>Really believing that he had been cashiered he prepared to leave, when a young policeman -after a careful examination of the mirror, pointed out the manner in which the visage -of each individual was reflected.</p> -</blockquote><p> -<span class="pageNum" id="pb317">[<a href="#pb317">317</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch35" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#xd31e1127">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="label">CHAPTER XXXV.</h2> -<h2 class="main">PROVERBS AND PITHY SAYINGS.</h2> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="first">Shut off, as they are, from the rest of the world, like fish in a well, the Coreans -nevertheless have coined a fair share of homely wisdom, which finds ready circulation -in their daily speech. Their proverbs not only bear the mint-mark of their origin, -but reflect truly the image and superscription of those who send them forth. Many, -indeed, of their current proverbs and pithy expressions are of Japanese or Chinese -origin, but those we have selected are mainly of peninsular birth, and have the flavor -of the soil. -</p> -<p>Do the Coreans place the seat of wisdom as they do the point of vaccination, in the -nose? They ask, “Who has a nose three feet long?” which means, “If one is embarrassed, -how can he put others at ease?” Evidently they have a wholesome regard for that member. -A “nose of iron” describes an opinionated man and suggests unlimited “cheek.” A common -expression of the Christians, meaning to go to church and pray, is “to see the long -nose of the father”—that feature of the French priest’s face being looked upon with -awe as the seat of wisdom. -</p> -<p>Between the rivals, Japan and China, Corea probably sees herself in this proverb of -the unhappy cur that wanders boneless between two kitchens—the cook in each supposing -it has been fed by the other. “The dog which between two monasteries gets nothing.” -</p> -<p>Corea’s isolation is “like a fish in a well,” or “like a hermit in the market-place.” -They say of a secluded villager, “He knows nothing beyond the place which he inhabits.” -</p> -<p>“One stick to ten blind men,” is something very precious. -</p> -<p>“The cock of the village in a splendid city mansion,” is the bumpkin in the capital. -</p> -<p>“To have a cake in each hand,” is to know not which to eat first—to be in a quandary. -</p> -<p>“A volcano under the snow,” is a man of amiable manners who conceals a violent temper. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb318">[<a href="#pb318">318</a>]</span></p> -<p>“The treasure which always circulates without an obstacle,” is “cash,” or <i>sapeks</i>. -</p> -<p>“An apricot-blossom in the snow,” is said when something rare and marvellous happens. -</p> -<p>“To blow away the hair to see if there is a scar,” is to look for a mote in another -man’s eye, and to hunt for defects. -</p> -<p>“As difficult as the roads of Thibet,” is evidently a reminiscence derived from the -ancient Buddhist missionaries who came from that region. -</p> -<p>“To put on a silk dress to travel at night,” is to do a good action and not have it -known. -</p> -<p>Some pithy sayings show the local gauge of sense. “He does not know silver from lead,” -“He has round eyes,” “He can’t tell cheese from wheat,” He is an idiot. “Doesn’t know -<i>lu</i> from <i>yu</i>.” This last refers to two Corean letters, jot and tittle. -</p> -<p>“As opposed as fire and water.” -</p> -<p>“A buckskin man,” is a man of no will or backbone. -</p> -<p>“To have a big hand,” means to be liberal. -</p> -<p>“A great blue sea,” refers to something very difficult, with no end to it and no way -out of it. -</p> -<p>A man who is “not known in all the eight coasts,” is an utter stranger. -</p> -<p>A very sick person is “a man who holds disease in his arms.” -</p> -<p>“A bag of diseases,” is a chronic patient -</p> -<p>“Who can tell in seeing a crow flying whether it be male or female?” is a question -referring to the impossible. -</p> -<p>The numeral 10,000 (<i>man</i>) plays a great part in proverbial sayings as “10,000 times certain.” Corea is a “land -of 10,000 peaks.” Certain success is “10,000 chances against one.” “To die 10,000 -times and not be regretted,” is to be “worthy of 10,000 deaths.” Ten thousand sorrows -means great grief. A mountain is “10,000 heights of a man high.” “Ten thousand strings -of cash,” is a priceless amount. <i>Man-nin</i> are 10,000 people—all the people in the universe. -</p> -<p>“To lose one’s hands,” is to make a fiasco. -</p> -<p>A comet is an “arrow star.” -</p> -<p>“A hundred battles make a veteran.” -</p> -<p>Almost as poetical as the Greek “<i lang="grc-latn">anarithma gelasma</i>” (unnumbered laughings) is this Corean description of the sea—“Ten thousand flashings -of blue waves.” -<span class="pageNum" id="pb319">[<a href="#pb319">319</a>]</span></p> -<p>“To lose both at a time,” is a proverb founded on a native love-story. -</p> -<p>“When a raven flies from a pear-tree, a pear falls”—appearances are deceitful, don’t -hazard a guess. -</p> -<p>“If one lifts a stone, the face reddens.” The Coreans are fond of rival feats of lifting. -Heavy stones are kept for that purpose. “Results are proportionate to effort put forth.” -</p> -<p>Mosquitoes are lively and jubilantly hungry in Chō-sen, yet it does not do to fight -them with heavy weapons or “seize a sabre to kill a mosquito.” -</p> -<p>A very poor man is thus described: “He eats only nine times in a month,” or “He eats -only three times in ten days.” To say he is in the depths of poverty is to mention -the pathetic fact that “he has extinguished his fire;” for “he looks to the four winds -and finds no friend.” -</p> -<p>“The right and left are different,” is said of a hypocrite who does not speak as he -thinks. -</p> -<p>When a man is not very bright he “has mist before his eyes;” or he “carries his wits -under his arms;” or has “hidden his soul under his arm-pits,” or he “goes to the east -and goes to the west when he is bothered.” -</p> -<p>Like Beaconsfield’s dictum—“Critics are men who have failed in literature and art,” -is this Corean echo, “Good critic, bad worker.” -</p> -<p>“On entering a village to know its usages,” is our “When in Rome do as the Romans -do.” -</p> -<p>“To destroy jade and gravel together,” refers to indiscriminate destruction. -</p> -<p>“Without wind and without cloud,” describes a serene life. -</p> -<p>“Go to sea,” is a provincial malediction heavier than a tinker’s, and worse than “Go -to grass.” -</p> -<p>“I am I, and another is another,” is a formula of selfish, and Corean for “<i lang="la">ego et non ego</i>,” “I and not I.” -</p> -<p>“A poor horse has always a thick tail”—talent and capacity are badly located. -</p> -<p>The large number of morals pointed and tales adorned by the tiger are referred to -elsewhere. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb320">[<a href="#pb320">320</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch36" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#xd31e1135">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="label">CHAPTER XXXVI.</h2> -<h2 class="main">THE COREAN TIGER.</h2> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="first">The one royal quadruped associated with Corea, as the white elephant is with Siam, -the bison with the United States, or the dromedary with Egypt, is the tiger. Unlike -his relative in India that roams in the hot jungles and along the river bottoms, the -Corean “king of the mountains” is seen oftenest in the snow and forests of the north, -ranging as far as the fiftieth parallel. -</p> -<p></p> -<div class="figure p320width" id="p320"><img src="images/p320.png" alt="Battle-flag Captured in the Han Forts, 1871." width="389" height="493"><p class="figureHead">Battle-flag Captured in the Han Forts, 1871.</p> -</div><p> -</p> -<p>Both actually and ideally the tiger is the symbol of power and fierceness. The flag -of the tiger-hunters, from the northern provinces of Ping-an or Ham-kiung, who so -bravely faced the rifles of the United States marines and sailors in “our little war -with the heathen,” in 1871, was a winged tiger rampant, spitting fire, holding the -lightnings in his lifted fore-claws, and thus embodying the powers of earth, air, -and heaven. It reminds one of the winged leopard in the vision of Daniel, “After this, -I beheld, and lo another like a leopard, which had upon the back of it four wings -of a fowl.” It is the tutelary genius of the descendants of the aboriginal worshippers -of the tiger, who even yet cling to the religion of the soil.<a class="noteRef" id="xd31e5001src" href="#xd31e5001">1</a> -<span class="pageNum" id="pb321">[<a href="#pb321">321</a>]</span></p> -<p>The caps of the body-guard of the sovereign are decorated with the cheek and whiskers -of the tiger, in order to inspire terror among beholders. The Corean beauty carries -among the jewelry and “charms” in the reticule at her waist, a claw of the dreaded -pem or tiger, nor can the hardy mountaineer put in the hand of his bride a more eloquent -proof of his valor than one of these weapons of a man-eater. It means even more than -the edelweiss of other mountain lands. On the floors of the better class of houses -the tiger-skin rug not only adorns the best room, but makes the children’s play-ground, -or the baby’s cushion in lieu of cradles, which are unknown. The soft hair of these -natural rugs is often a finger long. Curious toys are made of the fur. -</p> -<p>The most prized articles among the tribute offerings (in these days, rather a “bonus” -or bribe, than a tax or humiliation) presented at the court of Peking, as of old at -Kiōto or Yedo, are these gorgeous pelts. One of them, which the writer saw recently, -the property of a Japanese merchant, measured twelve feet long, exclusive of the tail. -The symbol of military rank in old Japan, as indicative as our shoulder-straps, was -a tiger-skin scabbard. Especially was it honorable to wear it if captured with one’s -own hands on “frontier service.” The hair of these animals seems to have more of a -woolly quality than those from India, while the orange tint is far less predominant, -white taking its place. The black bars are, however, of equal magnificence with the -tropical product, and the tail seems to be rather longer. Some idea of the great numbers -and awful ravages of these huge <i lang="la">felidæ</i> in the two northern provinces of the Peninsular Kingdom, may be gained from the common -saying of the Chinese that “the Coreans hunt the tiger during one half the year and -the tigers hunt the Coreans during the other half.” The Coreans retort by the proverb -born of the desolation that has so often followed the presence of a Chinese army on -their soil, whether as invaders or allies: “After the Chinese, the tigers.<span id="xd31e5011"></span>” As a single man can create the gigantic spectre of the Brocken, so in the national -literature this one animal seems to have cast a measureless shadow of evil influence -upon this hermit nation. From the most ancient times it has been an object of religious -reverence. “They also worshipped the tiger, which they looked on as a god,” was written -of the people living on the sea of Japan before the Christian era. “They had also -the many-spotted leopard.” A few of the national proverbs will illustrate the amount -of attention which the subject receives <span class="pageNum" id="pb322">[<a href="#pb322">322</a>]</span>in daily life, in art, religion, and language, and how often it serves to point the -morals and adorn the tales told around Corean hearths. “A wooden tiger,” is the ass -in the lion’s skin. -</p> -<p>“A broken-backed tiger” describes impotent and raging malice. -</p> -<p>“To give wings to a tiger,” is to add shrewdness to force. -</p> -<p>“If you don’t enter the tiger’s lair, you can’t get her cubs,” is said to spur on -the faint heart, “to beard the tiger in his cave.” -</p> -<p>“A tiger’s repast,” describes excess in eating, or the gorging which follows after -fasting. “To nourish a tiger, and have him devour you,” probably states a common fact -of history, as well as it depicts ingratitude. “If you tread on the tail of a tiger, -you’ll know it,” explains itself. “It is hard to let go the tail of a tiger,” suggests -our “fire” after the “frying-pan,” or the “other horn of the dilemma;” while over-cautious -people “in avoiding a deer, meet a tiger.” Men of irascible temper or violent disposition -are given the pet name of <i>maing-ho</i>, which means an unusually ferocious tiger or “man-eater.” -</p> -<p>Corean shrewdness utilizes the phenomena of local experience, and equals the craft -of the sellers of Joseph. So common is the disappearance of a villager through visitations -of the tiger, that the standard method of escaping creditors or processes of law is -to leave bits of one’s torn clothes in the woods, and then to abscond. Obliging friends -or relatives quickly report, “Devoured by a tiger,” and too often it is believed that -“Joseph is without doubt rent in pieces.” This local substitute for our former G. T. -T., or the usual trip to Europe, is especially fashionable in places where “tigers -as big as a mountain” are plentiful. To drive away the dreaded <i>kal-pem</i>, the people invoke the aid of the tu-e′, a fabulous monster, which is the enemy of -the tiger, and which the latter greatly fears. The cry of his name <i>tu-e′, tu-e′</i>, is believed to act as a charm, and is often raised by villagers at night. -</p> -<p>In art, though the native picture-maker may draw a lion in such preposterous shape -and with such impossible attributes as to show at once that no living model was ever -before his eyes, yet in those pictures of the tiger drawn by Corean artists which -we have examined, accuracy and vigor of treatment predominate over artistic grace. -</p> -<p>The hunters who are familiar with every habit, trait of character, and physical detail -of the species, carefully distinguish his parts and varieties. <i>Ho-rang-i</i> is the generic name for the <i lang="la">felis tigris</i>. <i>Kal-pem</i>, is a mature fellow in full claw, scratchy and <span class="pageNum" id="pb323">[<a href="#pb323">323</a>]</span>ferocious. <i>Maing-ho</i> is a large one of unusual size and in the full rampancy of his vigor. <i>Mil-pal</i> is an old brute that can no longer scratch, and is most probably mangy, and well -gouged and scarred from numerous household quarrels and frequent tussles with rivals. -<i>Pi-ho</i> is one agile in turning tail to escape, rather than in showing teeth to fight—the -term being sometimes applied to the leopard. <i>San-tol</i> is a huge fellow that makes annual visits to one place, making his lightning strike -more than once in the same spot. <i>Siyo-ho</i> is a little, and <i>hal-pem</i> is a female, tiger. A “stone” tigress is sterile. Special terms suggestive, and even -poetical, for the murders, calamities, or ravages of the beast, for traps or ditches, -for the skin, tail (used for banners and spear-sheaths), beard, moustaches, and the -noises of purring, growling, nocturnal caterwauling, and even for lashing the tail, -enrich and vivify the Chō-sen vocabulary. -</p> -<p>Tiger-shooting is not a favorite sport among the nobles or young bloods. Hunting in -general is considered a servile occupation. Nobles, except those of a few poor families -in the northern provinces, never practise it as sport. Yet it is free to all. There -are no game laws, no proscription of arms, no game preserves, no seasons interdicted. -</p> -<p>The only animal which it is forbidden to kill is the falcon, whose life is protected -by stringent laws. From the most ancient times this bird of the golden wing has been -held in high honor. The hunting-grounds are almost entirely among the mountains, as -the valleys are too densely occupied with rice and millet fields and cultivated soil, -to allow game to exist or be hunted. The chief weapon used is the flint-lock, imported -from Japan. With this a single hunter will attack the huge game, although the animal, -when not <span class="corr" id="xd31e5057" title="Source: immedately">immediately</span> killed, leaps right upon his enemy and easily makes him his prey. When a tiger has -caused great ravages in a district, the local magistrate calls together all the professional -hunters and organizes a hunt in the mountains. In such cases, the chase is usually, -and of intent, without results; for the skin is the property of the government, and -the official always looks out for himself, coming in first for the spoils. Hence it -is that a government hunt is usually a farce. Most of the tiger-hunters prefer to -meet the royal game alone, for then the prized skin, which they sell secretly, is -theirs. They eat the meat, and the bones stripped and boiled make various medicines. -</p> -<p>The number of human lives lost, and the value of property <span class="pageNum" id="pb324">[<a href="#pb324">324</a>]</span>destroyed by their ravages, is so great as at times to depopulate certain districts. -A hungry tiger will often penetrate a village in which the houses are well secured, -and will prowl around a hovel or ill-secured dwelling, during several entire nights. -If hunger presses he will not raise the siege until he leaps upon the thatched roof. -Through the hole thus made by tearing through, he bounds upon the terrified household. -In this case a hand-to-claw fight ensues, in which the tiger is killed or comes off -victorious after glutting himself upon one or more human victims. Rarely, however, -need this king of Corean beasts resort to this expedient, for such is the carelessness -of the villagers that in spite of the man-eater’s presence in their neighborhood, -they habitually sleep during the summer with the doors of their houses wide open, -and oftentimes even in the sheds in the open fields without dreaming of taking the -precaution to light a fire. -</p> -<p>This sense of security is especially apt to follow after a grand hunt successfully -pursued. Then the prey is supposed to have been all killed off in the vicinity or -driven to the distant mountains. The Coreans are as careless of tigers as the Japanese -are of fires. Sometimes the tiger is caught in a snare, without danger and by very -simple means. A deep pit is covered over with branches, leaves, and earth. At the -bottom a sharp stake is set up. This, however, is only rarely used. During the winter -the snow is half frozen over and strong enough to bear the weight of a man, but is -broken through by the paws of the tiger. The beast sinks to the belly, and not being -able to move fast, or escape, is as helpless as a fly in molasses. It is then apparently -quite easy to approach the creature at bay, though woe be to the hunter who is too -sure of his prey. To be well-equipped for this method of mountain sport, the hunter -must have a short sword, lance, and snow-shoes. These <i>sel-mai</i>, or racquettes, are of slightly curved elastic board, well fitted with loops and -thongs. With dogs, trained to the work, the <i>san-chang</i> (lanceman) starts the game, and following up the trail usually finishes him with -a thrust of his spear; or, in bravado, with a sword-stroke. This method of sport was -the favorite one pursued by the Japanese invaders. Though occasionally a man-at-arms -was chewed up, or clawed into ribbons, scores of glossy skins were carried back to -Nippon as trophies by the veterans. Indeed, it may be said, to most Japanese children, -the nearest country west of them has no other association in their minds than as a -land of tigers. At Gensan, the <span class="pageNum" id="pb325">[<a href="#pb325">325</a>]</span>merchants from Tōkiō had their dreary homesickness, about the time of their first -New Year’s season in the strange land, rather unpleasantly enlivened by the advent -of several striped man-eaters. These promenaded the settlement at night, and seemed -highly desirous of tasting a Japanese, after having already feasted on several natives. -The prospect of playing Little Red Riding Hood to a whiskered man-eater was not a -very pleasant experience, though a possible one at any time. A tiger ten feet long -can easily stow away two five-feet Japanese without grievous symptoms of indigestion. -For an untrained hand, even when armed with a Winchester breech-loader, to attempt -hunting this Corean emblem of power is not attractive sport. The tiger is more apt -to hunt the man, for elephants are not at hand to furnish the shelter of their backs. -The Japanese do not seem to hanker after tiger-claws or skins while in the flesh, -but prefer to buy for cash over their own counters at Gensan. The “crop” of these -costly pelts averages five hundred a year at this one port. -</p> -<p>Few experiences tend more to develop all the manly virtues than facing a tiger on -foot in his native wilds. The Coreans know this, and in their lack of drilled troops -capable of meeting the soldiers of Europe—their “army” consisting almost entirely -of archers, spearmen, and jingal-firers—they summoned the tiger-hunters from Ping-an -to fight the Frenchmen of Admiral Roze’s expedition of 1866. Underrating their enemy, -the Frenchmen, in attempting to storm a fortified monastery garrisoned by the hunters, -were completely defeated. When the marines and sailors of the American naval expedition -of 1871 assaulted “Fort McKee,” after it had been swept by the shells of the fleet, -they were amazed at the stern courage of their dark-visaged enemies, who, with matchlock, -spear, and sword, fought against the shells and breech-loaders to the last. The Americans -speak admiringly of these brave fellows, so worthy of their lead and steel. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb326">[<a href="#pb326">326</a>]</span></p> -</div> -<div class="footnotes"> -<hr class="fnsep"> -<div class="footnote-body"> -<div class="fndiv" id="xd31e5001"> -<p class="footnote"><span class="fnlabel"><a class="noteRef" href="#xd31e5001src">1</a></span> This flag was presented by its captors to Commodore Homer C. Blake, by whose courtesy -the writer had the sketch made for the cut given above. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd31e5001src" title="Return to note 1 in text.">↑</a></p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch37" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#xd31e1144">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="label">CHAPTER XXXVII.</h2> -<h2 class="main">RELIGION.</h2> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="first">A careful study of the common names applied to the mountains, rivers, valleys, caves, -and other natural features of the soil and landscape of any country will lay bare -many of the primitive or hidden beliefs of a people. No words are more ancient than -the aboriginal names given to the natural features of a country amid which the childhood -of a nation has been spent. With changing customs, civilization, or religion, these -names still hold their place, reflecting the ancient, and often modified, or even -vanished, faith. -</p> -<p>Even a casual examination of the mountain, river, and other local names of places -in Corea will give one a tolerably clear outline of the beliefs once fully held by -the ancient dwellers of this peninsula. Against the tenets and influences of Buddhism -these doctrines have held their sway over the minds of the people and are still the -most deeply-seated of their beliefs. The statements of ancient Chinese, and later -of Japanese writers, of foreign castaways, and of the French missionaries all concur -in showing us that Shamanism is the basis of the Corean’s, and especially the northern -Corean’s, faith. In the first historic accounts of Fuyu, Kokorai, and the Sam-han, -we find the worship of the spirits of heaven and earth, and of the invisible powers -of the air, of nature, the guardian genii of hills and rivers, of the soil and grain, -of caves, and even of the tiger. They worshipped especially the morning-star, and -offered sacrifice of oxen to heaven. From such scanty notices of early Corea, especially -of the northern parts, we may form some idea of the cultus of the people before Buddhism -was introduced. From the reports of recent witnesses, Dutch, Japanese, and French, -and the evidence of language, we incline to the belief that the fibres of Corean superstition -and the actual religion of the people of to-day have not radically changed during -twenty centuries, in spite of Buddhism. The worship of the spirits of heaven and earth, -of mountains and rivers and caves, of the <span class="pageNum" id="pb327">[<a href="#pb327">327</a>]</span>morning star, is still reflected in the names of these natural objects and still continues, -in due form, as of old, along with the sacrifices of sheep and oxen. -</p> -<p>The god of the hills is, perhaps, the most popular deity. The people make it a point -to go out and worship him at least once a year, making their pious trip a picnic, -and, as of old, mixing their eating and drinking with their religion. Thus they combine -piety and pleasure, very much as Americans unite sea-bathing and sanctification, croquet -and camp-meeting holiness, by the ocean or in groves. On mountain tops, which pilgrims -climb to make a visit for religious merit, may often be seen a pile of stones called -siong-wang-tang, dedicated to the god of the mountain. The pilgrims carry a pebble -from the foot of the mountain to the top. These pilgrims are among those held in reputation -for piety. -</p> -<p>The other popular gods are very numerous. The <i>mok-sin</i>, the genii of the trees, the god of rain and of the harvest, are all propitiated, -but the robust Corean, blessed with a good appetite, especially honors <i>Cho-an-nim</i>, the tutelary genius of the kitchen. To a Corean, the air is far from being empty. -It is thickly inhabited with spirits and <span class="corr" id="xd31e5091" title="Source: invisbile">invisible</span> creatures. Some of these figments of imagination, and the additional powers for good -and evil, which the Corean attributes to animals of flesh and blood, are treated of -in a former chapter on Mythical Zoölogy. Even the breezes are the breath of spirits, -and “a devil’s wind” is a tempest raised by a demon intent on mischief. When a person -falls dead suddenly, heart-disease is not thought of; he has been struck by a devil’s -arrow. There are not wanting sorcerers who seek to obtain supernatural force by magic, -which they use against their enemies or for hire, direct the spirits to wreak malignity -against the enemy of him who fees them. These sorcerers are social outcasts, and reckoned -the lowest of humanity. -</p> -<p>The unlucky days are three in each month, the figure of ill-omen being five. They -are the fifth, fifteenth, and twenty-fifth. On all extraordinary occasions there are -sacrifices, ceremonies, and prayers, accompanied with tumultuous celebration by the -populace. The chief sacrifices are to heaven, earth, and to the King or Emperor of -Heaven<a class="noteRef" id="xd31e5096src" href="#xd31e5096">1</a> (Shang Ti of the Chinese). -<span class="pageNum" id="pb328">[<a href="#pb328">328</a>]</span></p> -<p>The various superstitions concerning the direction of evil, the auspicious or the -ill-omened lay of the land, the site for the building of a house, or the erection -of a tomb, will be well understood by those who know the meaning of the Chinese term, -Fung Shuy, or the Corean Pung-siu. This system of superstition has not only its millions -of believers, but also its priests or professors, who live by their expertness and -magnify their calling. The native vocabulary relating to these pretenders and all -their works is very profuse. Among the common sights in Corea are little mounds raised -on eligible, propitious places, in which a pole is planted, from which little bells -or cymbals are hung. These jingled by the breeze are supposed to propitiate the good -spirits and to ward off the noxious influences of the demons. The same idea is expressed -in the festoons of wind-bells strung on their pagodas and temples. Pung-siu means -literally “wind and water,” but in a broad sense is a rude cyclopædia of ideas relating -to nature, and bears nearly the same relation to natural philosophy as astrology does -to astronomy. Its ideas color every-day speech, besides having a rich terminology -for the advanced student of its mysteries. -</p> -<p>Upon this system, and perhaps nearly coeval in origin with it, is the cult of ancestral -worship which has existed in Chinese Asia from unrecorded time. Confucius found it -in his day and made it the basis of his teachings, as it had already been of the religious -and ancient documents of which he was the editor. -</p> -<p>The Corean cult of ancestor-worship seems to present no features which are radically -distinct from the Chinese. Public celebrations are offered at stated times to ancestors, -and in every well-to-do house will be found the gilt and black tablets inscribed with -the names of the departed. Before these tablets the smoke of incense and sacrifice -arises daily. In the temple also are rooms for the preservation of duplicates of the -tablets in the private houses for greater safety. Like the iron atoms in his blood, -the belief in ancestral piety and worship is wrought into the Corean’s soul. The Christian -missionaries meet with no greater obstacle to their tenets and progress than this -practice. It is the source, even among their most genuine converts, of more scandals, -lapses, and renunciations, than are brought about by all other causes. -</p> -<p>Confucianism, or the Chinese system of ethics, is, briefly stated, <span class="pageNum" id="pb329">[<a href="#pb329">329</a>]</span>an expansion of the root idea of filial piety. It is duty based on relation. Given -the five great relations, all the manifold duties of life follow. The five relations -are that of king and subject (prince and minister), of parent and child, of husband -and wife, of the elder brother and the younger brother, and between friends. The cardinal -virtues inculcated, or “The Five Constituents of Worth,” or constant virtues displayed, -according to the teachings of Confucius, by the perfect man are: 1, Benevolence; 2, -Uprightness of Mind; 3, Propriety of Demeanor; 4, Knowledge or Enlightenment; 5, Good -Faith; or, Affection, Justice, Deference, Wisdom, Confidence. -</p> -<p>With the ethics of the Chinese came their philosophy, which is based on the dual system -of the universe, and of which in Corean, <i>yum-yang</i> (positive and negative, active and passive, or male and female) is the expression. -All things in heaven, earth, and man are the result of the interaction of the <i>yum</i> (male or active principle) and the <i>yang</i> (female or passive principle). Even the metals and minerals in the earth are believed -to be produced through the <i>yum-yang</i>, and to grow like plants or animals. -</p> -<p>The Confucian ethics, suiting well a state of feudalism, and being ever acceptable -to the possessors of authority, found congenial soil in the <span class="corr" id="xd31e5122" title="Source: peninsla">peninsula</span>, as they had already taken root in Kokorai. They nourished the spirit of filial piety -and personal loyalty, of feud and of blood-revenge, by forbidding a man to live under -the same heaven with the murderer of his father or master. Notwithstanding the doctrines -and loftier morals of Buddha, the Chinese ethics and ancestor-worship, especially -in the northern part of the peninsula, underlaid the outward adherence of the people -to the religion of the Enlightened One. As the average Christian, in spite of the -spirit of Jesus and the Sermon on the Mount, is very apt to base his behavior and -legal procedure on the code of Justinian, so the Corean, though he may believe in -Fo (Buddha), practises after the rules of Kong-ja (Confucius). -</p> -<p>Official sacrifices are regulated by the government and are offered up publicly at -the national festivals. Something of the regulated subordination in vogue among the -Chinese prevails in Chō-sen when ancestors are honored. High officials may sacrifice -to three ancestors, the gentry only to father and grandfather, and the common people -to father only. In every province, capital, and city ranked as <i>Tai-mu-kan</i>, there are buildings containing statues <span class="pageNum" id="pb330">[<a href="#pb330">330</a>]</span>of Confucius and his thirty-two disciples, which are maintained at the public expense. -</p> -<p>Confucianism overspreads the whole peninsula, but during the prevalence of Buddhism, -from the fourth to the fourteenth century, was probably fully studied and practised -only by the learned classes. Under the present dynasty, or from the fifteenth century, -the religion of China has been both the official and popular cult of <i>Chō-sen</i>, long ago reaching the point of bigotry, intolerance, and persecution. Taoism seems -to be little studied. -</p> -<p>In Corean mouths Buddha becomes <i>Pul</i>, and his “way” or doctrine <i>Pul-to</i> or <i>Pul-chie</i>. Introduced into Hiaksai in the fourth, and into Shinra in the sixth century, the -new faith from India made thorough conquest of the southern half of the peninsula, -but has only partially leavened the northern portion, where the grosser heathenism -prevails. The palmy days of Corean Buddhism were during the era of Korai (from 905–1392, -<span class="asc">A.D.</span>). The missionary work had been accomplished, the reigning dynasty were professors -and defenders of the faith, and for these four centuries it was the religion of the -state. The few surviving monuments of this era of splendor are the grand pagodas, -monasteries, and temples that are found, especially in the southern provinces. The -profusion of legal and ecclesiastical terms in the language which relate to lands -set apart to provide revenues for the temples, and to their boundaries and rents, -and the privileges of monks and priests, are more probably the relics of a past time, -being only verbal shells and husks of what were once fruit and kernel. -</p> -<p>Until the fifteenth or sixteenth century the Japanese Buddhists looked to the “Treasure-land -of the West,” as they termed Chō-sen, for spiritual and even pecuniary aid in their -ecclesiastical enterprises. The special features of many renowned Japanese temples, -libraries, collections of books, images, altar furniture, etc., are of Corean origin. -This is especially noticeable in the old seats of the faith in Kiōto. Images in gold, -gilt wood, bronze, and some fire-resisting material—perhaps platinum—are known and -duly certified by genuine documents in temples in other cities. In a building at Kamakura -is a copy of the Buddhist canon in a revolving library, said to have been obtained -by Sanétomo from Corea in the thirteenth century. Among the amusing passages in the -letters from Ashikaga in Kamakura, two hundred years later, is the hint given to the -king of Corea that a contribution in aid of the repair of certain Japanese temples -would be acceptable. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb331">[<a href="#pb331">331</a>]</span></p> -<p>The site and general surroundings of Corean Buddhist temples and monasteries greatly -resemble those of China and Japan. They are often situated on hills, rising ground, -and even high mountains, and walled round by lofty and venerable trees which seem -to inspire awe and veneration in the worshipper, besides acting as extinguishers to -sparks drifted from neighboring fires. An imposing gateway is usually built at some -distance before the temple, with massive curved roof of tiles, and flanked by a wall -of masonry which, in its upper part, consists of plaster tiled at the top. On the -frieze of the portal, the name of the temple is inscribed in large Chinese characters. -Sanskrit letters or monograms are occasionally seen. Under a roofed shed in front -hangs the drum on which the bonze beats the hours for prayer, or of the clock. On -the other side stands the coffer for the cash of the faithful, or a well for the manual -ablutions of pious worshippers. Boards, on which are written the names of those who -have contributed money to the temple, are suspended near by, and the thatched houses -of the neophytes and bonzes are close at hand. -</p> -<p>The idols seen in a Corean temple are the same as those found throughout Buddhist -Asia. The chief is that of Shaka Muni, or Buddha, the founder of the religion. In -their sculpture and artistic treatment of this, the central figure of their pantheon, -the image-carvers of the different countries do not greatly vary, adhering strictly -to their traditions. The sage in Nirvana sits on his knees with the soles of his feet -turned upward to the face. His hands touch, thumb to thumb, and finger to finger. -The folds of the robes, the round bead-like caste mark of his forehead, the snails -on his crown—which tradition says came out to shelter his head from the rays of the -sun—and the lop or pierced ears, are substantially the same as those seen on idols -from India, Siam, and Thibet. The eye is only slightly oblique, and the ear-lobes -are made but slightly bulbous, to satisfy the tastes of worshippers in Chinese Asia. -The throne, consisting of the fully opened calyx of a lotus flower—the symbol of eternity—with -the petals around the base and seed-holes open, is the same. -</p> -<p>In the representation of local deities the artist asserts his patriotism and displays -his own taste. In the various countries overrun by Buddhism, the indigenous heroes, -sages, and gods have been renamed and accepted by the Buddhists as avatars or incarnations -of Buddha to these countries before the advent of the teachers of “the true religion.” -There are also saints and <span class="pageNum" id="pb332">[<a href="#pb332">332</a>]</span>subordinate magnates in the Buddhist gallery of worshipped worthies, with whose effigies -the artist does not scruple to take certain liberties. One can easily recognize an -idol of Chinese, Corean, Siamese, or Japanese manufacture, though all bear the same -name. The god of war in Chō-sen holds the double-bladed sword, with its tasselled -cord, and wears the Chino-Corean armor and helmet. In the aureole round the head are -three fiery revolving thunder-clouds. On the battle-flags captured by the American -forces in 1871 were painted or embroidered the protecting deities of those who fought -under them. One of these, whether representing a Buddha, as seems most probable, or, -as is possible, some local hero—perhaps Dan Kun or Ki Tsze—deified, rides on one of -the curious little ponies, stunted and piebald, of Ham-kiung, with which, even in -ancient times, one could ride under a fruit tree. Evidently it would have been safer -for Absalom in Corea than in woody Palestine. -</p> -<p>The tutelary god on the stunted piebald horse is dressed in the peculiar winged head-dress -and frilled collar which travellers on Ham-kiung soil noticed fifteen centuries ago. -His armor is in scales, or wrought in the “wave-pattern” characteristic of Corean -art. His shoes and saddle are of the Chinese type. He rides among the conventional -clouds, which in the native technique, are different from those of either China or -Japan. Evidently the Buddha and saints of Shaka Muni are portrayed by the native artist -according to the strict canons of orthodoxy, while in dealing with indigenous deities, -artistic licence and local color have free play. Most of the artists and sculptors -of temple work are priests or monks. The principal idols are of brass, bronze, or -gilded wood, the inferior sorts are of stone. The priests dress just like the Japanese -bonzes. They attend the sick or dying, but have little to do with the burial of the -dead, owing to the prevalence of the Pung-sui superstition, to which a Corean in life -and in death is a bond-slave. This all-powerful disease of the intellect is the great -corrupter of Corean Buddhism, many of its grossest ideas being grafted into, or flourishing -as parasites on a once pure faith. -</p> -<p>In its development Corean Buddhism has frequently been a potent influence in national -affairs, and the power of the bonzes has at times been so great as to practically -control the court and nullify decrees of the king. With the Fuyu race—that is in Chō-sen -and Nihon—the history of Buddhism has a decidedly military <span class="pageNum" id="pb333">[<a href="#pb333">333</a>]</span>cast. During the first centuries of its sway in the peninsula the ablest intellects -were fed and the ablest men were developed by it, so that it was the most potent factor -in Corea’s civilization. Over and over again have the <span class="corr" id="xd31e5160" title="Source: politcial">political</span> and social revolutions been led by Buddhist priests, who have proved agitators and -warriors as well as recluses and students. Possessing themselves of learning, they -have made their presence at court a necessity. Here they have acted as scribes, law-givers, -counsellors, and secretaries. Often they have been the conservers of patriotism. The -shaven-pated priest has ever been a standard character in the glimpses of Corean history -which we are allowed to catch. -</p> -<p>Not always has this influence been exerted for good, for once possessed of influence -at court, they have not scrupled to use it for the purpose of aggrandizing their sects. -Tradition tells of high nobles won from the pleasures of the palace to the seclusion -of the cloisters, and even of Corean queens renouncing the bed of their royal spouses -to accept the vows of the nuns. As in Japan, the frequent wars have developed the -formation of a clerical militia, not only able to garrison and defend their fortified -monasteries but even to change the fortune of war by the valor of their exploits and -the power of their <span class="corr" id="xd31e5166" title="Source: commisariat">commissariat</span>. There seems to be three distinct classes or grades of bonzes. The student monks -devote themselves to learning, to study, and to the composition of books and the Buddhist -ritual, the <i>tai-sa</i> being the abbot. The <i>jung</i> are mendicant and travelling bonzes, who solicit alms and contributions for the erection -and maintenance of the temples and monastic establishments. The military bonzes (<i>siung kun</i>) act as garrisons, and make, keep in order, and are trained to use, weapons. Many -of their monasteries are built on the summit or slopes of high mountains, to which -access is to be gained only with the greatest difficulty up the most rocky and narrow -passages. Into these fastnesses royal and noble professors of the faith have fled -in time of persecution, or pious kings have retired after abdication. In time of war -they serve to shelter refugees. It was in attacking one of these strongholds, on Kang-wa -Island, in 1866, that the French marines were repulsed with such fearful loss. -</p> -<p>Many temples throughout the country have been erected by the old kings of Korai or -by noblemen as memorials of events, or as proofs of their devotion. The building of -one of these at great expense and the endowment of others from government <span class="pageNum" id="pb334">[<a href="#pb334">334</a>]</span>funds, sometimes happens, even during the present dynasty, as was the case in 1865, -when the regent was influenced by the bonzes. He rebuilt the temple in an unparalleled -style of magnificence, and made immense presents to other temples out of the public -treasury. It has been by means of these royal bounties, and the unremitting collection -of small sums from the people, that the bonzes have amassed the vast property now -held by them in ecclesiastical edifices, lands, and revenues. Some of these mountain -monasteries are large and stately, with a wealth of old books, manuscripts, liturgical -furniture, and perhaps even yet of money and land. The great monastery of Tong-to-sa, -between Kiung-sang and Chulla, is noted for its library, in which will be found the -entire sacred canon. The probabilities of American or European scholars finding rare -treasures in the form of Sanskrit MSS. in this unsearched field are good, since the -country is now opened to men of learning from Christendom. As a rule, the company -of monks does not number over ten, twenty, or thirty, respectively, in the three grades -of temples. Hamel tells us that they live well and are jolly fellows, though his opinion -was somewhat biased, since he remarks that “as for religion, the Coreans have scarcely -any.… They know nothing of preaching or mysteries, and, therefore, have no disputes -about religion.” There were swarms of monastics who were not held in much respect. -He describes the festivals as noisy, and the people’s behavior at them as boisterous. -Incense sticks, or “joss” perfumery, seemed very much in vogue. He bears witness to -their enjoyment in natural scenery, and the delightful situation of the famous temples. -</p> -<p>Even at the present day, Buddhist priests are made high officers of the government, -governors of provinces, and military advisers. Like as in Japan, Buddhism inculcates -great kindness to animals—the logical result of the doctrine of the transmigration -of souls, and all who kill are under its ban. Though beef, pork, and mutton are greedily -eaten by the people, the trade of the butcher is considered the most degraded of all -occupations, and the butchers and leather dressers form a caste below the level of -humanity, like the Etas in Japan. They are beneath the slaves. They must live in villages -apart from the rest of the people, and are debarred from receiving water, food, fire, -or shelter at the hands of the people. The creation of this class of Corean pariahs -and the exclusion of these people from the pale of recognized society <span class="pageNum" id="pb335">[<a href="#pb335">335</a>]</span>is the direct result of the teachings of the bonzes. Like the Chinese, and unlike -the Japanese bonze, the devotees will often mutilate themselves in the frenzy of their -orgies, in order to gain a character for holiness or in fulfilment of a vow. One of -these bonzes, appointed by the magistrate to dispute publicly with a Christian, had -lost four fingers for the sake of manufacturing a reputation. The ceremony of <i>pul-tatta</i>, or “receiving the fire,” is undergone upon taking the vows of the priesthood. A -moxa or cone of burning tinder is laid upon the man’s arm, after the hair has been -shaved off. The tiny mass is then lighted, and slowly burns into the flesh, leaving -a painful sore, the scar of which remains as a mark of holiness. This serves as initiation, -but if vows are broken, the torture is repeated on each occasion. In this manner, -ecclesiastical discipline is maintained. -</p> -<p>In the nunneries are two kinds of female devotees, those who shave the head and those -who keep their locks. The <i>po-sal</i> does not part with her hair, and her vows are less rigid. Hamel mentions two convents -in Seoul, one of which was for maidens of gentle birth, and the other for women of -a lower social grade. -</p> -<p>Excepting in its military phases, the type of Corean Buddhism approaches that of China -rather than of Japan. In both these countries its history is that of decay, rather -than of improvement, and it would be difficult indeed for Shaka Muni to recognize -the faith which he founded, in the forms which it has assumed in Chō-sen and Nippon; -nor did it ever succeed in making the thorough missionary conquest of the former, -which it secured in the latter, country. The priority of the Confucian teachings and -the thorough indoctrination of the people in them, the nearness of China, the close -copying of Chinese manners, customs, and materialistic spirit, the frequency of Chinese -conquests, and perhaps the presence of an indigenous religion even more strongly marked -than that of Shintō in Japan, were probably the potent reasons why Buddhism never -secured so strong a hold on the Corean intellect or affections as upon the Japanese. -Nevertheless, since Buddhism has always been largely professed, and especially if -Confucianism be considered simply an ethical system and not a religion proper, Corea -may be classed among Buddhist countries. Among the surprises of history is the fact -that, in 1876, the Shin, or Reformed sect of Japanese Buddhists, sent their missionaries -to Corea to preach and convert. Among their conquests was a young native of ability, -who came to Kiōto, in 1878, to study the <span class="pageNum" id="pb336">[<a href="#pb336">336</a>]</span>reformed Buddhism, and who later returned to preach among his own people. In 1880 -five more young Coreans entered the Shin theological school in Kiōto, and a new and -splendid Shin temple, dedicated to Amida Buddha, has been built at Gensan. Evidently -this vigorous sect is resolutely endeavoring, not only to recoup the losses which -Christianity has made in its ranks in Japan, but is determined to forestall the exertions -of Christian missionaries in the peninsula. -</p> -<blockquote> -<p class="first">So thoroughly saturated is the Corean mind with Chinese philosophy (p. 329) that when -of necessity a national emblem or flag must be made, the symbol expressive of the -male and female, or active and passive principles dominating the universe, was selected. -Though Corea excels in the variety of her bunting and the wealth of symbolism upon -her flags and streamers, yet the national flag, as now floated from her ships, custom-houses, -and Legations in the United States and Europe, has an oblong field, in the centre -of which are the two comma-shaped symbols, red and black, of the two universal principles. -In each of the four corners of the flag is one of the Pak-wa or eight diagrams, consisting -of straight and broken lines, which Fu-hi, the reputed founder of Chinese civilization, -read upon the scroll on the back of the dragon-horse which rose out of the Yellow -River, and on the basis of which he invented the Chinese system of writing. In these -diagrams the learned men in Chinese Asia behold the elements of all metaphysical knowledge, -and the clue to all the secrets of nature, and upon them a voluminous literature, -containing divers systems of divination and metaphysical exegesis, has been written. -The eight diagrams may be expanded to sixty-four combinations; or, are reducible to -four, and these again to their two primaries. The continuous straight line, symbol -of the <i>yum</i> principle, corresponds to light, heaven, masculinity, etc. The broken line symbolizes -the <i>yang</i> principle, corresponding to darkness, earth, femininity, etc. These two lines signify -the dual principle at rest, but when curved or comma-shaped, betoken the ceaseless -process of revolution in which the various elements or properties of nature indicated -by the diagrams mutually extinguish or give birth to one another, thus producing the -phenomena of existence. -</p> -<p>Professor Terrien de Lacouperie sees in the Pak-wa a link between Babylonia and China, -a very ancient system of phonetics or syllabary explaining the pronunciation of the -old Babylonian characters and their Chinese derivatives. It is not likely that Morse -derived the idea of his magneto-electric telegraphic alphabet from the Chinese diagrams. -Possibly the Corean literati who suggested the design for a national flag intended -to show, in the brightly colored and actively revolving germs of life set prominently -in the centre, and contrasted with the inert and immovable straight lines in the background -of the corners, the progressive Corea of the present and future as contrasted with -Corea of the past and her hermit-like existence. Significantly, and with unconscious -irony of the Virginia advertisers, the new Corean flag was first published to the -Western world at large on the covers of cigarette packages. For centuries the energies -of Coreans have been wasted in tobacco smoke, and the era of national decay is almost -synchronous with the introduction of tobacco.</p> -</blockquote><p> -<span class="pageNum" id="pb337">[<a href="#pb337">337</a>]</span></p> -</div> -<div class="footnotes"> -<hr class="fnsep"> -<div class="footnote-body"> -<div class="fndiv" id="xd31e5096"> -<p class="footnote"><span class="fnlabel"><a class="noteRef" href="#xd31e5096src">1</a></span> This word, pronounced in a slightly different way in Corean, is the term which Dr. -James Legge, in his “Religions of China,” and many missionaries of Reformed Christianity, -translate God (Jehovah, Theos), but which the Roman Catholic missionaries are forbidden -to use. Dr. Legge holds that Shang <span class="pageNum" id="pb328n">[<a href="#pb328n">328</a>]</span>Ti is the most ancient title of Deity in the language of the Chinese, and was used -by their ancestors when they held to primitive monotheism. “In the ceremonies at the -altars of heaven and earth, they served God” (Confucius). <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd31e5096src" title="Return to note 1 in text.">↑</a></p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch38" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#xd31e1152">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="label">CHAPTER XXXVIII.</h2> -<h2 class="main">EDUCATION AND CULTURE.</h2> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="first">Corea received her culture from China, and gave it freely to Japan. If we may believe -the doubtful story of Ki Tsze, then the Coreans have possessed letters and writing, -or, what is the equivalent thereto, they have had “civilization,” during three thousand -years. It is certain that since about the opening of the Christian era, the light -of China’s philosophy has shone steadily among Corean scholars. Japanese early tradition—unworthy -of credence in the matter of chronology—claims that literature was brought to Nippon -as early as the period 157–30 <span class="asc">B.C.</span> The legend of Jingu bringing back books and manuscripts from Shinra is more probable; -while the coming of Wani from Hiaksai, to teach the Chinese characters and expound -the classics, is a historic fact, though the real date may be uncertain, or later -than the accepted one, which is 285 <span class="asc">A.D.</span> While the Kokorai people may have brought letters with them, as they migrated southward, -in Hiaksai the Confucian analects were not studied until the fourth century, when -official recognition of education was made by the appointment of Hanken as master -of Chinese literature. This is said to have been the first importation of learning -into the peninsula. It was so in the sense of being formally introduced from China -into the country south of the Ta-tong River. -</p> -<p>As in most of the Asiatic countries, into which Chinese culture penetrated, popular -education was for centuries a thing unthought of. Learning was the privilege of a -few courtiers, who jealously guarded it from the vulgar, as an accomplishment for -those about the royal person, or in the noble families. The classics and ethical doctrines -seem in every case to have penetrated the nations surrounding the Middle Kingdom, -and formed the basis of courtly and aristocratic education. -</p> -<p>Buddhism furnished the popular or democratic element, which brought learning to the -lower strata of society. Neophytes were <span class="pageNum" id="pb338">[<a href="#pb338">338</a>]</span>usually taken from the humbler classes, and thus culture was diffused. Even the idols, -pictures, and scrolls, with the explanations and preaching in the vernacular, served -to instruct the people and lift their thoughts out of the rut of every-day life—a -result which is in itself true education. Wherever Buddhism penetrated, there was -more or less literature published in the speech of the unlearned, and often the first -books for the people were works on religion. China gave her language and ideographs; -India sent Sanskrit and phonetic letters, from which syllabaries or alphabets were -constructed, not only for vernacular writing and printing, but as aids to the easier -apprehension and more popular understanding of the tenets of Confucius. -</p> -<p>The Corean syllabary seems to have been first invented by Chul-chong, one of the ministers -at the court of the king of Shinra, in the seventh century. This was the <i>Nido</i>; like the kana of the Japanese, purely a collection of syllables and not a true alphabet. -The Nido was made by giving to some of the commoner Chinese characters a phonetic -value, though the idea of having a vernacular system of writing was most probably -suggested by the Sanskrit letters,<a class="noteRef" id="xd31e5224src" href="#xd31e5224">1</a> some of which accurately represented Corean sounds. The true alphabet of the Coreans, -called <i>Unmun</i> (common language), was invented by a Buddhist priest named Syel-chong, or Sye′-chong, -who is regarded as one of the ablest scholars in the literary annals of Corea. The -“<span lang="fr">Grammaire <span class="corr" id="xd31e5231" title="Source: Coréene">Coréenne</span></span>” states that this took place under the dynasty of Wang, at Sunto, “toward the end -of the eighth or ninth century of the Christian era.” This is a palpable mistake, -as the dynasty of Wang was not established at Sunto until the tenth century. Mr. Aston, -whose researches are based on the statements of Corean and Japanese writers, believes -that the Unmun, or true Corean alphabet, “was invented not earlier than the first -half of the fifteenth century.” Yet, in spite of their national system of writing, -the influence of the finished philosophy and culture of China, both in form and spirit, -has been so great that the hopelessness of producing a copy equal to the original -became at once apparent to the Corean mind. Stimulating to the receptive <span class="pageNum" id="pb339">[<a href="#pb339">339</a>]</span>intellect, it has been paralyzing to all originality. The culture of their native -tongue has been neglected by Corean scholars. The consequence is, that after so many -centuries of national life, Chō-sen possesses no literature worthy of the name. Only -in rare cases are native books translated into either Chinese or Japanese. -</p> -<p>At present, Corean literary men possess a highly critical knowledge of Chinese. Most -intelligent scholars read the classics with ease and fluency. Penmanship is an art -as much prized and as widely practised as in Japan, and reading and writing constitute -education. From the fifth to the seventeenth century the Corean youth of gentle blood -went to Nanking to receive or complete their education. Since Peking has been the -Chinese capital (under the Mongols from 1279, and under the Ming emperors from 1410) -few young men have gone abroad to study until within the last year, when numbers of -Corean lads have entered the naval, military, and literary schools of the imperial -government. -</p> -<p>The practical democratic element pervading China was long absent from the nations -which were her pupils and vassals. Of all these borrowers, Corea has most closely -imitated her teacher. She fosters education by making scholastic ability, as tested -in the literary examination, the basis of appointment to office. This “Civil Service -Reform” was established in Chō-sen by the now ruling dynasty early in the fifteenth -century. Education in Corea is public, and encouraged by the government only in this -sense, that it is made the road to government employ and official promotion. By instituting -literary examinations for the civil and military service, and nominally opening them -to all competitors, and filling all vacancies with the successful candidates, there -is created and maintained a constant stimulus to culture. -</p> -<p>Corean culture resembles that in mediæval Europe. It is extra-vernacular. It is in -Latin—the Latin of Eastern Asia—the classic tongue of the oldest of living empires. -This literary instrument of the learned is not the speech of the modern Chinamen, -but the condensed, vivid, artificial diction of the books, which the Chinese cannot -and never did speak, and which to be fully understood must be read by the eye of the -mind. The accomplished scholar of Seoul who writes a polished essay in classic style -packs his sentences with quotable felicities, choice phrases, references to history, -literary prismatics, and kaleidoscopic patches picked out here and there from the -whole range of ancient Chinese literature, and imbeds them into a mosaic—smooth, brilliant, -chaste, and a <span class="pageNum" id="pb340">[<a href="#pb340">340</a>]</span>perfect unity. This is the acme of style. So in the Corean mind, the wise saws and -ancient instances, the gnomic wisdom, quotations and proverbs, political principles, -precedents, historical examples, and dynasties, are all Chinese, and ancient Chinese. -His heaven, his nature, his history, his philosophy, are those of Confucius, and like -the Chinaman, he looks down with infinite contempt upon the barbarians of Christendom -and their heterodox conceptions of the universe. Meanwhile his own language, literature, -and history are neglected. The Corean child begins his education by learning by voice, -eye, and pen, the simple and beautiful native alphabet of twenty-five letters, and -the syllabary of one hundred and ninety or more combinations of letters. He learns -to read, and practises writing in both the book or square style and the script form -or running hand. The syllabary is not analyzed, but committed to memory from sight -and sound. Spelling is nearly an unknown art, as the vowel changes and requirements -of euphony—so numerous as to terrify the foreign student of Corean—are quickly acquired -by ear and example in childhood. With this equipment in the rudiments, which is all -that nearly all the girls, and most of the boys learn, the young reader can master -the story-books, novels, primers of history, epistles, and the ordinary communications -of business and friendship. If the lad is to follow agriculture, cattle-raising, trade, -mining, or hunting, he usually learns no more, except the most familiar Chinese characters -for numbers, points of the compass, figures on the clock-dial, weights, measures, -coins, and the special technical terms necessary in his own business. Thus it often -happens that a Corean workman, like a Chinese washerman, may be perfectly familiar -with the characters even to the number of hundreds relating to his trade or occupation, -and yet be utterly unable to read the simplest book, or construct one Chinese sentence. -With the Chinese characters, one can write English as well as Corean or Japanese, -but a thorough knowledge of the terms necessary to a sailor, a jeweller, a farmer, -or a lumber merchant would not enable one to read Ivanhoe or Wordsworth. -</p> -<p>If the Corean lad aspires to government service, he begins early the study of the -“true letters” or “great writing.” The first book put into his hands is, “The Thousand -Character Classic.” This work is said to have been composed by a sage in one night—a -labor which turned the hair and beard of the composer to whiteness. In it no character -is repeated, and all the phrases are <span class="pageNum" id="pb341">[<a href="#pb341">341</a>]</span>in two couplets, making four to a clause. The copies for children are printed from -wooden blocks in very large type. At the right side of each character is its pronunciation -in Corean, and on the left the equivalent Corean word. The sounds are first learned, -then the meaning, and finally the syntax and the sense of the passages. Meanwhile -the brush-pen is kept busily employed until the whole text of the author is thoroughly -mastered by eye, ear, hand, and memory. In this manner, the other classics are committed. -Education at first consists entirely of reading, writing, and memorizing. Etiquette -is also rigidly attended to, but arithmetic, mathematics, and science receive but -slight attention. -</p> -<p>After this severe exercise of memory and with the pen, the critical study of the text -is begun. Passages are expounded by the teacher, and the commentaries are consulted. -Essays on literary themes are written, and a style of elegant composition in prose -and verse is striven for. For the literary examinations in the capital and provinces, -the government appoints examiners, who give certificates to those who pass. Those -who succeed at the provincial tests, are eligible only to subordinate grades of employ -in the local magistracies. The aspirants to higher honors, armed with their diplomas, -set out to Seoul to attend at the proper time the national examination. The journey -of these lads, full of the exultation and lively spirit born of success, moving in -hilarious revelry over the high roads, form one of the picturesque features of out-door -life in Corea. The young men living in the same district or town go together. They -go afoot, taking their servants with them. Pluming themselves upon the fact that they -are summoned to the capital at the royal behest, they often make a roystering, noisy, -and insolent gang, and conduct themselves very much as they please. The rustics and -villagers gladly speed their parting. At the capital they scatter, putting up wherever -accommodations in inns or at the houses of relatives permit. -</p> -<p>Though young bachelors form the majority at these examinations, the married and middle-aged -are by no means absent. Gray-headed men try and may be rejected for the twentieth -time, and grandfather, father, and son occasionally apply together. -</p> -<p>On the appointed day, the several thousand or more competitors assemble at the appointed -place, with the provisions which are to stay the inner man during the ordeal. The -hour preparatory to the assignment of themes is a noisy and smoky one, devoted to -study, review, declamation, or to eating, drinking, chatting, or <span class="pageNum" id="pb342">[<a href="#pb342">342</a>]</span>sleeping, according to the inclination or habit of each. The examination consists -of essays, and oral and written answers to questions. During the silent part of his -work, each candidate occupies a stall or cell. The copious, minute, and complex vocabulary -of terms in the language relating to the work, success and failure, the contingencies, -honest and dishonest shifts to secure success, and what may be called the student’s -slang and folk-lore of the subject, make not only an interesting study to the foreigner, -but show that these contests subtend a large angle of the Corean gentleman’s vision -during much of his lifetime. -</p> -<p>Examination over, the disappointed ones wend their way home with what resignation -or philosophy they may summon to their aid. The successful candidates, on horseback, -with bands of musicians, visit their patrons, relatives, the examiners and high dignitaries, -receiving congratulations and returning thanks. Then follows the inevitable initiation, -which none can escape—corresponding to the French “baptism of the line,” the German -“introduction to the fox,” the English “fagging,” and the American “hazing.” -</p> -<p>One of the parents or friends of the new graduate, an “alumnus,” or one who has taken -a degree himself, one also of the same political party, acts as godfather, and presides -at the ceremony. The graduate presents himself, makes his salute and takes his seat -several feet behind the president of the party. With all gravity the latter proceeds, -after rubbing up some ink on an ink-stone, to smear the face of the victim with the -black mess, which while wet he powders thickly over with flour. Happy would the new -graduate be could he escape with one layer of ink and flour, but the roughness of -the joke lies in this, that every one present has his daub; and when the victim thinks -the ordeal is over new persons drop in to ply the ink-brush and handful of flour. -Meanwhile a carnival of fun is going on at the expense, moral and pecuniary, of the -graduate. Eating, drinking, smoking, and jesting are the order of the day. It is impossible -to avoid this trial of purse and patience, for unless the victim is generous and good-natured, -other tricks and jokes as savage and cruel as those sometimes in vogue in American -and British colleges follow. After this farce, but not until it has been undergone, -is the title recognized by society. -</p> -<p>The three degrees, corresponding somewhat to our <abbr title="XX">B.A.</abbr>, <abbr title="XX">M.A.</abbr>, and <abbr title="XX">Ph.D.</abbr>, are <i>cho-si</i>, <i>chin-sa</i>, <i>kiup-chiei</i>. The diplomas are awarded in the king’s name, the second written on white paper, -and the third on red adorned with garlands of flowers. The degrees are not <span class="pageNum" id="pb343">[<a href="#pb343">343</a>]</span>necessarily successive. The highest, or the second, may be applied for without the -first. The holder of the second degree may obtain office in the provinces, and after -some years may become a district magistrate or guardian of one of the royal sepulchres. -The highest degree qualifies one to fill honorable posts at the palace and in the -capital, in one of the ministries, or to be the governor of a province, or of a great -city. Properly, the place of a “doctor” is in Seoul. The usual term of office is two -years. -</p> -<p>The examinations for civil titles and offices attract students of the highest social -grade. The military studies are chiefly those of archery or horsemanship, the literary -part of their exercises being slight. But one degree, the lowest, is awarded, and -if the holder is of gentle blood, and has political influence, he may rise to lucrative -office and honors, but if from the common people, he usually gets no more than his -title, or remains a private or petty officer. -</p> -<p>The system of literary examinations which, when first established, and during two -or three centuries, was vigorously maintained with impartiality, is said to be at -present in a state of decay, bribery and official favor being the causes of its decline. -</p> -<p>The special schools of languages, mathematics, medicine, art, etc., are under the -patronage of the government. The teachers and students in these branches of knowledge -form a special class midway between the nobles and people, having some of the privileges -of the former. They may also attend the examinations, gain diplomas, and fill offices. -Their professions are usually hereditary, and they marry only among themselves. In -most respects, these bodies of learned men resemble the old guilds of scholars in -Yedo, and the privileged classes, like physicians, astronomers, botanists, etc., in -Japan. -</p> -<p>There are eight distinct departments of special knowledge. The Corps of Interpreters -include students and masters of the Chinese, Manchiu, Mongol, and Japanese languages. -These attend the embassy to Peking, have posts on the frontier, or live near Fusan. -The treaties recently made with the United States and European powers will necessitate -the establishment of schools of foreign languages, as in Tōkiō and Peking. -</p> -<p>The School of Astronomy, geoscopy, and the choice of fortunate days for state occasions -is for the special service of the king. Corea, like China, has not yet separated astrology -from astronomy, but still keeps up official consultation with the heavenly bodies -for luck’s sake. The School of Medicine trains physicians for the royal, <span class="pageNum" id="pb344">[<a href="#pb344">344</a>]</span>and for the public, service. The School of Charts or documents has charge of the archives -and the preparation of the official reports sent to Peking. In the School of Design, -the maps, sketches, plans and graphic work required by the government are made, and -the portraits of the king are painted. The School of Law is closely connected with -the Ministry of Justice, and serves for the instruction of judges, and as a court -of appeals. The School of Mathematics or Accounts assists the Treasury Department, -audits accounts, appraises values, and its members are often charged with the task -of overseeing public works. The School of Horology at Seoul keeps the standard time -and looks after the water-clock. Beside these eight services, there is the band of -palace musicians. -</p> -<p>It is evident from all the information gathered from sources within and without the -hermit nation, that though there is culture of a certain sort among the upper classes, -there is little popular education worthy of a name. The present condition of Chō-sen -is that of Europe in the Middle Ages. The Confucian temples and halls of scholars, -the memorial stones and walls inscribed with historical tablets and moral maxims, -the lectures and discussions of literary coteries, and the poetry parties concentrate -learning rather than diffuse it. The nobles and wealthy scholars, the few monasteries -and the government offices possess libraries, but these are but dead Chinese to the -common people. Nothing like the number of book stores, circulating libraries, private -schools, or ordinary means of diffusing intelligence, common in China and Japan, exists -in Corea. Science and the press, newspapers and hospitals, clocks and petroleum, and, -more than all, churches and school-houses, have yet a mighty work to do in the Land -of Morning Calm. -</p> -<hr class="tb"><p> -</p> -<p>Paganism and superstition, Confucianism and Buddhism, having taken root in Chō-sen, -each with its educational influence, Christianity entered within the last century -to plant an acorn within the narrow bottle of the Corean intellect. It is needless -to say that the receptacle was shattered by the spreading of the oak. The Corean body-politic, -confronted by this rooted and growing influence, must be transformed. How the seed -was dropped, how the tiny stem grew, how the trunk received into its bosom the lightning -bolts of persecution, how the boughs were riven, and how life yet remains, will now -be narrated. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb345">[<a href="#pb345">345</a>]</span></p> -</div> -<div class="footnotes"> -<hr class="fnsep"> -<div class="footnote-body"> -<div class="fndiv" id="xd31e5224"> -<p class="footnote"><span class="fnlabel"><a class="noteRef" href="#xd31e5224src">1</a></span> Dr. D. Bethune McCartee, a well-known American scholar, writing on Riu Kiu, says: -“The art of spelling was invented neither by the Chinese nor by the Japanese. Its -introduction into both these countries (and, as we are convinced, into Corea as well) -was the result of the labors of … the early Buddhist missionaries. In all the three -countries … the system of spelling is most undoubtedly of Sanskrit origin.” <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd31e5224src" title="Return to note 1 in text.">↑</a></p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div id="pt3" class="div0 part"> -<h2 class="label">III.</h2> -<h2 class="main">MODERN AND RECENT HISTORY.</h2> -<p><span class="pageNum" id="pb347">[<a href="#pb347">347</a>]</span></p> -<div id="ch39" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#xd31e1167">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="super">MODERN AND RECENT HISTORY.</h2> -<h2 class="label">CHAPTER XXXIX.</h2> -<h2 class="main">THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY—1784–1794.</h2> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="first">Christianity entered Corea through the gates of Rome and Peking. Though some writers -have supposed that Christianity was introduced into the Corean peninsula by the Japanese, -in 1592, yet it is nearly certain that this religion was popularly unknown until near -the end of the eighteenth century. Then it entered from the west, and not from the -east. It was not brought by foreigners, but grew up from chance seed wafted from the -little garden of the church in Peking. -</p> -<p>The soil upon which the exotic germ first lighted was in the mind of a student well-named -by his father, “Stonewall,” on account of his character in choosing a literary career, -instead of the hereditary profession which his family wished him to adopt. During -the winter of 1777, Stonewall was invited to form one of a party of students who were -to spend a season of literary dalliance in company with the famous Confucian professor, -Kwem. -</p> -<p>The conference, held in a secluded temple, lasted ten days, during which time the -critical study of the texts of Confucius and Mencius was indulged in with keen delight, -and the profoundest problems that can interest man were earnestly discussed; but most -fertilizing to their minds were some tracts on philosophy, mathematics, and religion -just brought from Peking. These were translations of the writings, or original compositions -in Chinese of the Jesuits in the imperial capital. Among these publications were some -tracts on the Christian and Roman Catholic Religion, treating of the Existence of -God, Divine Providence, the Immortality of the Soul, the Conduct of Life, the Seven -Capital Sins, and the Seven <span class="pageNum" id="pb348">[<a href="#pb348">348</a>]</span>Contrary Virtues. Surprised and delighted, they resolved to attain, if possible, to -a full understanding of the new doctrines. -</p> -<p>They began at once to practise what they knew, and morning and evening they read and -prayed. They set apart the 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th days of the month as periods of -rest, fasting, and meditation. How long they continued this course of life is not -known. -</p> -<p>Stonewall, well knowing that his ideas of this new religion were imperfect and confused, -turned his thoughts longingly toward Peking, hoping to get more books or information -through a living teacher. For several years all his attempts were fruitless; though -study, discussion, and practice of the new life were continued. In 1782, he moved -to Seoul to live, and in 1783, to his joy, his friend Senghuni, son of the third ambassador -to Peking, proceeded thither through Shing-king (Liao Tung), with a message to the -bishop, Alexander de Gorla, a Portuguese Franciscan. -</p> -<p>Senghuni himself became a docile pupil, and was, with the consent of his father, baptized. -With the hope that he would become the first stone of the church in Chō-sen, he was -named Peter.<a class="noteRef" id="xd31e5309src" href="#xd31e5309">1</a> He pledged himself to suffer all torments rather than abandon his faith, to have -but one wife, to renounce worldly vanities, and finally to send his foreign friends -tidings every year. -</p> -<p>Safely passing the sentinels at Ai-chiu, he reached Seoul. Stonewall, eagerly receiving -his share, gave himself for a time up to fresh reading and meditation, and then began -to preach. Some of his friends in the capital, both nobles and commoners, embraced -the new doctrines with cheering promptness and were baptized. -</p> -<p>It is interesting to note the choice of baptismal names. As Stonewall had been the -forerunner, he was named John the Baptist. Another called himself Francis Xavier, -intending to make this saint his protector and patron. Other names of these primitive -confessors are Ambrose, Paul, Louis, Thomas, Augustine, and later, <span class="pageNum" id="pb349">[<a href="#pb349">349</a>]</span>among the women, Agatha, Marie, Madeleine, Barbe, etc. The adoption of these foreign -names excited bitter feelings among the patriotic, and became a cause of intense hatred -against the Christians, who were stigmatized as “foreigner-Coreans.” -</p> -<p>A counterblast soon followed. The first, and as they were destined to be the last -and most bitter enemies were the literati, who saw at once that the new faith sapped -at the base their national beliefs and their most cherished customs. In the contest -of discussion which followed, Senghuni came off victor. The pagan champions retired -from the conflict uttering memorable and prophetic words, with a final question, that -became a by-word to Americans nearly a century later: “This [Christian] doctrine is -magnificent, it is true, but it will bring sorrow to those who profess it. What are -you going to do about it?” -</p> -<p>Among the converts were the lecturer Kwem and his brother, both of whom propagated -the faith in their district of Yang-kun, thirty miles east of Seoul, now justly called -“the cradle of the faith.” One of their converted students from the Nai-po returned -home to labor in the new cause, and from first to last, in the history of Roman Christianity -in Corea, Nai-po has ever been a nursery of fervent confessors and illustrious martyrs. -A second convert of the Kwem brothers laid the foundations of the faith in Chulla. -At the capital, a learned interpreter, on becoming a believer, multiplied with his -own facile pen copies of the books brought from Peking; and it is believed translated -from the Chinese the “Explanation of the Gospels of the Sabbaths and Feasts”—the first -Christian book in the Corean language. -</p> -<p>Thus from small beginnings, but rapidly, were the Christian ideas spread, but soon -the arm of the law and the power of the pen were invoked to crush out the exotic faith. -The first victim, Thomas Kim, was tried on the charge of destroying his ancestral -tablets, tortured, and sent into exile, in which he soon after died. The scholar now -took up weapons, and in April, 1784, the king’s preceptor fulminated the first public -document officially directed against Christianity. In it all parents and relatives -were entreated to break off all relations with the Christians. The names of the leaders -were published; and the example of Kim was cited. Forthwith began a violent pressure -of entreaty and menace upon the believers to renounce their faith. Instead of peace, -the sword was brought into the household. Then began an exhibition alike of glorious -confession and shameful apostasy, but though even <span class="pageNum" id="pb350">[<a href="#pb350">350</a>]</span>Stonewall lapsed, the work went on in Nai-po, and in 1787,<a class="noteRef" id="xd31e5324src" href="#xd31e5324">2</a> persecution slackened. -</p> -<p>Meanwhile, in order to cement more closely their bonds, the leaders formed a hierarchy -after the model which Peter had seen in Peking, and to which their liturgical books -so often referred. Francis Xavier was made bishop and others were chosen as priests. -Separating to their various posts, they baptized, confessed, confirmed, and distributed -the sacred elements in communion, all of which infused a new glow of faith among the -converts. They robed themselves in rich Chinese silk, and erected platform confessionals. -For ordinary faults confessed by the kneeling penitents alms were ordered, but for -graver derelictions the priests administered one or two smart blows on the legs—a -mild imitation of the national punishment, which so suggests Western methods of nursery -discipline. -</p> -<p>In perfect good faith and harmony, this curious hierarchy, so strange and even comical -to a believer in the so-called “apostolical succession”—continued for two years; but -in 1789, certain passages in their books suggested doubts as to the validity of their -ministry. After earnest thought, and even at the risk of public ridicule, and of troubling -the consciences of the faithful, they resigned their offices and took their places -among the laity. A letter of inquiry was written, and sent in 1790 by the convert -Paul to Peking. Surprised and overjoyed at the news from Corea, the fathers baptized -and confirmed Paul, explained to him the Roman dogma of validity of ordination, and -gave him a letter written on silk, to be concealed in his clothes, directed to Peter -and Francis Xavier. His godfather Pansi, being an artist, painted Paul’s portrait -in oil, which was sent on to Paris. -</p> -<p>The Christians at Seoul graciously submitted to the Episcopal rebuke and explanation, -giving them the right only to baptize, yet <span class="pageNum" id="pb351">[<a href="#pb351">351</a>]</span>they yearned to receive the sacraments. Inflamed by the accounts of Paul, who pictured -before them the ritual splendors, in the Peking cathedral, of altars, lights, vestments, -solemn masses, music, processions, and all that enchants the eye and fires the imagination -in the Roman form of Christianity, they indited another letter to the bishop, beseeching -that an ordained priest should be sent them. This letter, carried by Paul, who left -with the special embassy sent to congratulate the renowned emperor Kien-lung, which -left Seoul September 17, 1790, contained a whole catechism of vexed questions of discipline -and faith which had begun to disturb the little church. -</p> -<p>While in Peking, Paul’s companion was baptized, receiving the name of John the Baptist. -The fathers gave them a chalice, a missal, a consecrated stone, some altar ornaments, -and everything necessary for the celebration of the eucharist, with a recipe for making -wine out of grapes, in order that all might be ready on the arrival of a priest among -them. Paul and John the Baptist, after the return journey of a thousand miles through -Shing-king, arrived safely in Seoul. All were filled with joy at the idea of having -a priest sent them, but the episcopal decision against the worship of ancestors proved -to many a stone of stumbling and a cause of apostasy. Hitherto, in simple ignorance -and good faith, they had honored their ancestral shades and burnt incense at their -shrines. Henceforth, all participation in such rites was impossible. After the authoritative -declaration from Peking, that the worship of God and the worship of ancestors were -contrary and impossible, no Corean could be a Christian while he burned incense before -the tablets. -</p> -<p>This tenet of the bishop was in the eyes of the Corean public a blow at the framework -of society, the base of the family, and the foundation of the state. From this time -forward, many of the feeble adherents began to fall away. In the conflict of filial -and religious duty, many a soul was torn with remorse. In frequent instances the earnest -believer who, for conscience sake, despoiled the family oratory and piling the ancestral -tablets in his garden set them on fire, saw his aged parents sink with sorrow to the -grave. For this crime Paul and Jacques Kim were put upon public trial, at which, for -the first time, a clear and systematic presentation of Christian doctrine and the -Roman cultus was elicited. The case, after condemnation of the prisoners, was submitted -to the king, who was prevailed upon by the premier to approve the finding <span class="pageNum" id="pb352">[<a href="#pb352">352</a>]</span>of the local tribunal. On December 8, 1791, the two Christians, after publicly refusing -to recant, and reading aloud the sentence inscribed upon the board to be nailed over -their pillory, were decapitated, while invoking the names of Jesus and Mary. Their -ages were thirty-three and forty-one. -</p> -<p>Thus was shed the first blood for Corean Christianity—the first drops of the shower -to come, and the seed of a mighty church. The headless trunks, frozen to a stony rigidity -which kept even the blood fresh and red, lay unburied on the ground for nine days, -until devout men carried them to burial. A number of handkerchiefs dipped in their -blood and preserved kept long alive the memory of these first martyrs of bloody persecution. -The Nai-po now became a hunting-ground for the minions of the magistrates, who sought -out all who professed themselves Christians and threw them in prison. There the tortures, -peculiarly Corean, were set to work to cause apostasy. The victims were beaten with -rods and paddles on the flesh and shin-bones, or whipped till the flesh hung in bloody -rags. In many cases their bones were disjointed until the limbs dangled limp and useless. -One man, Francis Xavier, after prolonged agonies was exiled to Quelpart, and on being -removed to another place, died on the way. Peter, 61 years old, after wearying his -torturers with his endurance, was tied round with a cord, laid on the icy ground at -night, while pails of water were poured over him, which freezing as it fell, covered -his body with a shroud of ice. In this Dantean tomb, the old martyr, calling on the -name of Jesus, was left to welcome death, which came to him at the second cock-crow -on the morning of January 29, 1793. -</p> -<p>In the ten years following the baptism of Peter at Peking, in spite of persecution -and apostasy, it is estimated that there were four thousand Christians in Corea.<a class="noteRef" id="xd31e5341src" href="#xd31e5341">3</a> -<span class="pageNum" id="pb353">[<a href="#pb353">353</a>]</span></p> -</div> -<div class="footnotes"> -<hr class="fnsep"> -<div class="footnote-body"> -<div class="fndiv" id="xd31e5309"> -<p class="footnote"><span class="fnlabel"><a class="noteRef" href="#xd31e5309src">1</a></span> The equipment of this first native missionary propagandist of Roman Christianity in -Corea, deserves notice, as it brings out in sharp contrast the differing methods of -Roman and Reformed Christianity. The convert brought back numerous tracts, didactic -and polemic treatises, catechisms and commentaries, prayer-books, lives of the saints, -etc., etc. These were for the learned, and those able to master them. For the simple, -there was a goodly supply of crosses and crucifixes, images, pictures, and various -other objects to strike the eye. It is not stated that the Bible, or any part of the -Holy Scriptures, was sent for the feeding of hungry souls. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd31e5309src" title="Return to note 1 in text.">↑</a></p> -</div> -<div class="fndiv" id="xd31e5324"> -<p class="footnote"><span class="fnlabel"><a class="noteRef" href="#xd31e5324src">2</a></span> It was during the summer of this year, 1787, that La Perouse sailed along the eastern -coast of Chō-sen, discovered the straits which bear his name, between Yezo and Saghalin, -demonstrated that the Gulf of Tartary divided Saghalin from the Asian mainland, and -that Corea was not sea-girt, and named Dagelet Island and its companion Boussole. -He had a copy of Hamel’s book with him. He noticed the signal-fires along the coast, -which from headland to headland, telegraphed to the capital the news of the stranger -with his “black ships.” Not as yet, however, as afterward, did the government connect -the appearance of European vessels with the activity of the Christians within the -realm, although La Perouse sailed under the flag which ever afterward was indissolubly -associated in Corean minds with Christianity. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd31e5324src" title="Return to note 2 in text.">↑</a></p> -</div> -<div class="fndiv" id="xd31e5341"> -<p class="footnote"><span class="fnlabel"><a class="noteRef" href="#xd31e5341src">3</a></span> This rapid spread of Christian ideas may be understood if we consider, as Dallet points -out, the customs of the people. In every house there is the room open to the street, -where everybody, friend or stranger, known or unknown, may come and talk or hear the -news and discuss events. Nothing is kept secret, and being a nation of gossips and -loungers, the news of any event, or the expression of a fresh idea, spreads like fire -on the prairie. A doctrine so startlingly new, and preached as it was by men already -famous for their learning, would at once excite the public curiosity, set all tongues -running, and fire many hearts. Though in most cases the new flame would soon die out, -leaving hardly enough ashes to mark a fire, yet the steady glow of altered lives would -not pale even before torture and death. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd31e5341src" title="Return to note 3 in text.">↑</a></p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch40" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#xd31e1175">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="label">CHAPTER XL.</h2> -<h2 class="main">PERSECUTION AND MARTYRDOM—1801–1834.</h2> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="first">The first attempt of a foreign missionary to enter the hermit kingdom from the west -was made in February, 1791. Jean dos Remedios, a Portuguese priest from Macao, offered -himself, was accepted, and left Peking for the Border Gate with some Chinese guides. -After a twenty days’ journey in midwinter, he arrived on the frontier, and there awaited -the precarious chances of recognition, according to certain signs agreed upon. For -ten days he scanned the faces of the noisy crowd, hoping every moment to light upon -friends, but in vain. The Christians, kept at home by the violence of the persecution, -feared to venture to the border. The fair closed, the embassy crossed the Yalu River, -while the foreigner and his Chinese guides returned to Peking. There the disappointed -priest soon after died. -</p> -<p>About the same time, the Bishop of Peking addressed a letter to the Pope detailing -the origin, development, and condition of the new-born church in Corea. -</p> -<p>Hearing no word from the Corean Christians during the next two years, it was determined -to send succor. For this perilous mission, a young Chinese priest named Jacques Tsiu, -twenty-four years old, of good bodily strength and pronounced piety, whose visage -closely resembled a Corean’s, was selected. Fortified with extraordinary ecclesiastical -powers, he left Peking in February, 1794, and in twenty days arrived on the neutral -ground. There he met the Christians, who urged him to wait nearly a year, on account -of the vigilance of the sentinels. This he did among his fellow Christians in Shing-king, -and on the night of December 23, 1794, crossed the Yalu, reached Seoul in safety, -and at once began his labors. All went on well till June, when, through a treacherous -visitor, the official spies were put upon his track. In spite of his removal to another -place, three Christians—two who had guided him to Seoul, and one an interpreter, who -in sublime self-sacrifice <span class="pageNum" id="pb354">[<a href="#pb354">354</a>]</span>tried to pass himself off as the Chinaman—were seized and tortured. With arms and -legs dislocated, and knees crushed, they refused to betray their brother in the faith, -and were put to death in prison, June 18. The three headless and battered trunks were -flung in the Han River, which for the first, but not for the last time was streaked -with martyr blood. -</p> -<p>Meanwhile, the Chinese priest was at first hidden for many days under a wood-pile -by a Christian lady, who, having gained over her mother-in-law, sheltered him in her -house, where, protected by the law which forbids a noble’s dwelling to be invaded, -he remained three years. In September, 1796, he wrote a letter in Latin to the Bishop -of Peking, and the native Christians writing in Chinese, the copies on silk were sewed -into the garments of two believers, who, having bought positions as servants in the -embassy, arrived in Peking, January 28, 1797. Among other things Jacques proposed -that the King of Portugal should send an embassy to the King of Chō-sen to obtain -a treaty of friendship, and allow the residence of physicians, astronomers, and scientific -men in Corea. -</p> -<p>Though no Portuguese envoy was sent out to treat with the court of Seoul,<a class="noteRef" id="xd31e5358src" href="#xd31e5358">1</a> a foreign vessel appeared in the autumn of this same year, off the eastern coast, -floating the British flag. It was the sloop of war Providence, carrying sixteen guns, -commanded by Captain W. R. Broughton, who cast anchor in Yung-hing Bay, October 4th, -and touched at Fusan.<a class="noteRef" id="xd31e5361src" href="#xd31e5361">2</a> One of the natives who visited the ship was suspected by the government and arrested; -though the English visitors were ignorant of the existence of Christians in Corea, -and the local magistrates were equally uninformed as to the difference in religion -and nationality between Britons and Portuguese. -</p> -<p></p> -<div class="figure p355width" id="p355"><img src="images/p355.png" alt="House and Garden of a Noble." width="720" height="490"><p class="figureHead">House and Garden of a Noble.</p> -</div><p> -</p> -<p>The four political parties into which the Corean nobility was at this time divided, -as described in Chapter XXV., were ranged into <span class="pageNum" id="pb356">[<a href="#pb356">356</a>]</span>two general groups, the Si-pai and the Piek-pai, “the government” and “the opposition.” -The Si-pai were devoted to the king, and ready to second his views, the Piek-pai were -more attached to their special views. The king, Cheng-chong, who had ruled since 1776, -was opposed to persecution of the Christians, and had done much to restrain the bitterness -of partisans. The Si-pai included the Nam-in, or “Southern” wing, in which were the -Christian nobles, while all their enemies belonged to the Piek-pai. So long as the -king lived, the sword of persecution slept in its scabbard, but in 1800<a class="noteRef" id="xd31e5372src" href="#xd31e5372">3</a> the king died, and was succeeded by his son, Sunchō, a boy still under the care of -his grandmother. This lady at once assumed the conduct of national affairs,<a class="noteRef" id="xd31e5375src" href="#xd31e5375">4</a> and no sooner were the five months of public mourning decently over, than the queen -regent dismissed the ministers then in office, and installed three others of the No-ron -group, all of whom were bitter enemies of the Christians. A decree of general persecution -was issued a few days after, in the name of the king. Two converts of noble rank were -at once arrested, and during 1801, the police were busy in haling to prison believers -of every rank, age, and sex. Alexander Wang, who had written a book in his native -language on “The Principal Articles of the Christian Religion,” and had begun another -on systematic theology, was arrested. From the reading of these works, the magistrates -imagined the essence of Christianity was in hatred of one’s parents and the king, -and the destruction of the human race.<a class="noteRef" id="xd31e5378src" href="#xd31e5378">5</a> The Church Calendar was also seized. -</p> -<p>The Chinese priest was outlawed by the government, in a public proclamation. On reading -this, the brave man left the house of the noble lady in which he had been sheltered, -and refusing to endanger longer the lives of his friends, voluntarily surrendered -himself, <span class="pageNum" id="pb357">[<a href="#pb357">357</a>]</span>and received the death-stroke, May 31, 1801, at the age of thirty-two. His hostess, -Colombe, thrown in prison herself, while awaiting death wrote out his life and works -on the silk skirt of her dress. At her execution the noble lady begged that she might -not be stripped of her clothes, as were other malefactors, but die in her robes. Her -request was granted, and with the grace of the English Lady Jane Grey, she laid her -head on the block. Four other women, formerly attendants in the palace, and an artist, -who for painting Christian subjects was condemned, were beheaded by the official butchers, -who made the “Little Western Gate” of Seoul—where a Christian church may yet be built—a -Golgotha. The policy of the government was shown in making away with the Christians -of rank and education, who might be able to direct affairs in the absence of the foreign -priests, and in letting the poor and humble go free. -</p> -<p>From a letter written on silk in sympathetic ink to the Bishop of Peking by Alexander -Wang, and, with the aid of treachery, deciphered by the magistrates, they suspected -a general conspiracy of the Christians; for in his letter this Corean proposed an -appeal to the Christian nations of Europe to send sixty or seventy thousand soldiers -to conquer Corea!<a class="noteRef" id="xd31e5387src" href="#xd31e5387">6</a> The bearer of this letter was immediately beheaded, and his body cut into six pieces; -while the visitor to Captain Broughton’s ship in 1799, for having said that “one such -ship as that could easily destroy one hundred Corean vessels of war,” was put to the -torture and condemned. Alexander Wang, who had witnessed a good confession, before -the king, a year before, and bore on his wrist the cord of crimson silk showing that -he had touched the royal person, was likewise decapitated. -</p> -<p>It now devolved upon the king of Chō-sen to explain to his suzerain the execution -of a Chinese subject. In a letter full of Confucian orthodoxy, he declares that Chō-sen -from the time of Ki Tsze, had admitted no other dogmas than those taught by the sages -of China—“all other doctrine is strange to the Little Kingdom.” He describes the Christians -as “the monstrous, barbarous, and infamous” “sect of brigands” “who live like brutes -and birds of the vilest sort,” and who in their plot, “have interlaced themselves -as a serpent and knotted themselves together like a cord.” The plan to conquer “the -Little Kingdom <span class="pageNum" id="pb358">[<a href="#pb358">358</a>]</span>at the corner of the earth” by myriads of men and vessels from Europe is detailed, -with an apology for the execution of Jacques, not as a Chinese subject, but as chief -conspirator. Dallet suggests that, in answer to this letter, the Dragon Monarch read -the king a tart lecture, and hinted that a rich stream of silver would soothe his -ruffled scales. “China had not been China had she lost so fair an occasion to fleece -her cowering vassal.” -</p> -<p>A fresh edict, made up of the usual fixed ammunition of Corean rhetoric, was fulminated -against “the evil sect,” January 25, 1802. The result was to advertise the outlawed -faith in every corner of the realm. Nevertheless, the condition of the Christians -scattered in the mountains and northern forests, or suffering poverty, hunger, and -cold at home, was deplorable, under the stress of political as well as religious hatred. -</p> -<p>The first exchange of Muscovite and Corean courtesies took place in 1808, when several -of the commissioners from Seoul were in Peking.<a class="noteRef" id="xd31e5398src" href="#xd31e5398">7</a> Presents were mutually given, which in both cases were products of the then widely -separated countries, which were destined within fifty years to be next-door neighbors. -</p> -<p>Out of the modern catacombs of Roman Christianity, the Corean converts addressed two -letters, dated December 9 and 18, 1811, to the Pope—“the Very High, Very Great Father, -Chief of the whole Church”—in which they invited help, not only of a spiritual nature, -but aid in ships and envoys to treat with their king. They were willing even to leave -their native land and colonize the islands in the sea, for the sake of worship and -conscience. Signed with fictitious names, copied on silk, and sewn in the clothing -of the messenger, they reached Peking and Rome, but the bishop of neither city could -afford succor. His Holiness was then a prisoner at Fontainebleau, and the Roman propaganda -was nearly at a standstill. With a goodly supply of medals and crosses, the messenger -returned, and the church in Corea enjoyed peace, and new converts were made until -1815, when a non-political persecution broke out for a while in Kang-wen and Kiung-sang. -</p> -<p>In 1817, the king and court were terrified by the appearance off <span class="pageNum" id="pb359">[<a href="#pb359">359</a>]</span>the west coast of the British<a class="noteRef" id="xd31e5406src" href="#xd31e5406">8</a> vessels Alceste and Lyra. They suspected that the good captain and jolly surgeon, -who have given us such fascinating narratives of their cruise, were in active connection -with “the evil sect;” but beyond some surveys, purchases of beef, and interviews with -local magistrates, the foreigners departed without further designs against the throne. -</p> -<p>In 1823 several of the Christians, encouraged by hopes held out by the Bishop of Peking, -went to the Border Gate to meet a foreign priest, but to their dismay found none. -In 1826,<a class="noteRef" id="xd31e5411src" href="#xd31e5411">9</a> they were troubled by a report that the shō-gun of Japan had requested their king -to return six Japanese adherents of the interdicted “Jesus sect,” who had fled the -empire in a boat. Shortly after, in Chulla, through a quarrel instigated by a drunken -potter, a convert, which led to information given in spite, a severe persecution broke -out, lasting three months. -</p> -<p>The year 1832 was noted for its rainfall and inundations. To propitiate Heaven’s favor -the king recalled many exiles, among whom were Christians. In this year also the British -ship, Lord Amherst, was sent out by the East India Company on a voyage of commercial -exploration, and to open, if possible, new markets for the fabrics of England and -India. On board was a Prussian gentleman, the Rev. Charles Gutzlaff, under the patronage -of the Netherlands Missionary Society, though travelling at his own cost. Reaching -the coast of Chulla, July 17th, he remained one month. Being a good Chinese scholar, -and well equipped with medical knowledge, he landed on several of the islands and -on the mainland, he distributed presents of books, buttons, and medicines, planted -potatoes and taught their cultivation. Through an officer he sent the king presents -of cut glass, calicoes, and woollen goods, with a copy of the Bible and some Protestant -Christian tracts. These, after some days of negotiation, were refused. A few of the -more intelligent natives risked their heads, and accepted various gifts, among which -were Chinese translations <span class="pageNum" id="pb360">[<a href="#pb360">360</a>]</span>of European works on geography and mathematics. Mr. Gutzlaff could discover no trace -of Christianity<a class="noteRef" id="xd31e5418src" href="#xd31e5418">10</a> or the converts, though he made diligent inquiry. The lying magistrates denied all -knowledge of even the existence of the Christian faith. Deeply impressed with their -poverty, dirt, love of drink, and degradation, the Protestant, after being nearly -a month among the Coreans, left their shores, fully impressed with their need of soap -and bibles. -</p> -<p>The year 1834 closed the first half century of Corean Christianity. -</p> -<hr class="tb"><p> -</p> -<p>In this chapter, the moral weakness of Roman Catholic methods of evangelization in -Corea, and elsewhere in Asia, has been revealed. It must be remembered that the Corean -converts were taught to believe not only in the ecclesiastical supremacy of the Pope, -but also in the righteousness of his claim to temporal power as the Vicar of Heaven. -Untaught in the Scriptures of the New Testament, and doubtless ignorant of the words -of Jesus—“My kingdom is not of this world; if my kingdom were of this world, then -would my servants fight”—the Coreans suspected no blasphemy in the papal claim. Seeing -the Pope’s political power upheld by the powerful European nations then under Bourbon -rule, the Corean Christians, following the ethics of their teachers, played the part -of traitors to their country; they not only deceived the magistrates, and violated -their country’s laws, but, as the letter of Alexander Wang shows, actually invited -armed invasion. Hence from the first Christianity was associated in patriotic minds -with treason and robbery. The French missionary as the forerunner of the French soldier -and invader, the priest as the pilot of the gunboat, were not mere imaginings, but, -as the subsequent narrative shows, strict logic and actual fact. It is the narrative -of friends, not foes, that, later, shows us a bishop acting as spy and pilot on a -French man-of-war, a priest as guide to a buccaneering raid; and, after the story -of papal Christianity, the inevitable “French expedition.” -<span class="pageNum" id="pb361">[<a href="#pb361">361</a>]</span></p> -</div> -<div class="footnotes"> -<hr class="fnsep"> -<div class="footnote-body"> -<div class="fndiv" id="xd31e5358"> -<p class="footnote"><span class="fnlabel"><a class="noteRef" href="#xd31e5358src">1</a></span> “Some priests proposed to the late Queen of Portugal to send an embassy hither [to -Corea] with some gentlemen versed in mathematics, that they might benefit the country -both in a religious and scientific way.… This plan never succeeded.” Gutzlaff, 1834. -Voyages to China, page 261. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd31e5358src" title="Return to note 1 in text.">↑</a></p> -</div> -<div class="fndiv" id="xd31e5361"> -<p class="footnote"><span class="fnlabel"><a class="noteRef" href="#xd31e5361src">2</a></span> Captain Broughton was impressed with “the gorgeous Corean dresses,” and the umbrella-hats, -a yard in diameter. He asked for beef, but they gave him only wood, and he was tantalized -with the sight of fat cattle grazing near by, which he was unable to get or purchase. -He cruised in the Sea of Japan and the Gulf of Tartary, naming several places on the -Corean coast. See p. 203. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd31e5361src" title="Return to note 2 in text.">↑</a></p> -</div> -<div class="fndiv" id="xd31e5372"> -<p class="footnote"><span class="fnlabel"><a class="noteRef" href="#xd31e5372src">3</a></span> See page 226. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd31e5372src" title="Return to note 3 in text.">↑</a></p> -</div> -<div class="fndiv" id="xd31e5375"> -<p class="footnote"><span class="fnlabel"><a class="noteRef" href="#xd31e5375src">4</a></span> Or, as the natives say, “she proceeded to pull down the blinds.” This phrase, which -is highly suggestive of American street slang, refers to the curtain of bamboo which -veils the sovereign of Chō-sen; as in Old Japan the mikado was thus screened from -the vulgar, and even noble, gaze during state councils. Whoever, therefore, is “behind -the curtain,” is on the throne. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd31e5375src" title="Return to note 4 in text.">↑</a></p> -</div> -<div class="fndiv" id="xd31e5378"> -<p class="footnote"><span class="fnlabel"><a class="noteRef" href="#xd31e5378src">5</a></span> This highly logical conclusion was reached by pondering upon the doctrine of Romanism -that celibacy is a more perfect state than marriage; and that “the world,” which, -with the flesh and the devil, was to be regarded as one of the true believers’ enemies, -could mean only the king and country of Chō-sen. To this day, most of the pagans accept -the magistrates’ decision as a complete epitome of the gospel of Christ. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd31e5378src" title="Return to note 5 in text.">↑</a></p> -</div> -<div class="fndiv" id="xd31e5387"> -<p class="footnote"><span class="fnlabel"><a class="noteRef" href="#xd31e5387src">6</a></span> Dallet, vol. i., p. 205. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd31e5387src" title="Return to note 6 in text.">↑</a></p> -</div> -<div class="fndiv" id="xd31e5398"> -<p class="footnote"><span class="fnlabel"><a class="noteRef" href="#xd31e5398src">7</a></span> Timkowski’s Travels of the Russian Mission through Mongolia to China, and Residence -in Peking, London, 1827. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd31e5398src" title="Return to note 7 in text.">↑</a></p> -</div> -<div class="fndiv" id="xd31e5406"> -<p class="footnote"><span class="fnlabel"><a class="noteRef" href="#xd31e5406src">8</a></span> In 1793, the first British and the first European vessel entered the Yellow Sea. It -was the ship of the line Lion, on board of which was Lord Macartney, the ambassador -of King George III. to Peking, the first English envoy to China. The ship did not -visit or approach Corean shores. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd31e5406src" title="Return to note 8 in text.">↑</a></p> -</div> -<div class="fndiv" id="xd31e5411"> -<p class="footnote"><span class="fnlabel"><a class="noteRef" href="#xd31e5411src">9</a></span> This date is that given by Dallet, who perhaps refers to the uprising in 1829 at Ozaka, -of suspected believers in the “Jesus doctrine,” when six men and one old woman were -crucified by the Japanese authorities. The leader of the so-called conspiracy fled -to sea with his companions. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd31e5411src" title="Return to note 9 in text.">↑</a></p> -</div> -<div class="fndiv" id="xd31e5418"> -<p class="footnote"><span class="fnlabel"><a class="noteRef" href="#xd31e5418src">10</a></span> While off the island of Wen-san, according to Dallet, some of the native Christians, -attracted by the legend in Chinese characters on the flag “The Religion of Jesus Christ,” -came on board. “A Protestant minister saluted them with the words which are sacramental -among the pagans, ‘May the spirits of the earth bless you!’ At these words the neophytes, -seeing that they had been deceived, and that a snare had been laid for their good -faith, retired in all haste without ever returning the salute, and made no further -visits to the ships.” <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd31e5418src" title="Return to note 10 in text.">↑</a></p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch41" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#xd31e1184">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="label">CHAPTER XLI.</h2> -<h2 class="main">THE ENTRANCE OF THE FRENCH MISSIONARIES—1835–1845.</h2> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="first">The French Revolution, and the wars of Napoleon following, which distracted all Europe -for a period of over twenty years, completely disorganized the missionary operations -of the Holy See and French Roman Catholic Church. On the restoration of the Bourbons, -and the strengthening of the papal throne by foreign bayonets, the stream of religious -activity flowed anew into its old channels, and with an added volume. Missionary zeal -in the church was kindled afresh, and the prayers of the Christians in the far East -were heard at the court of St. Peter. It was resolved to found a mission in Corea, -directly attached to the Holy See, but to be under the care of the Society of Foreign -Missions of Paris. -</p> -<p>Barthelemy Brugiere, then a missionary at Bangkok, Siam, offered as a volunteer, and -in 1832 was nominated apostolic Vicar of Corea. He reached Shing-king, but was seized -with sudden illness, and died October 20, 1835. Pierre Philibert Maubant, his host, -stepped into the place of his fallen comrade, and with five Corean Christians left -Fung-Wang Chang, crossed the neutral strip, and the Yalu River on the ice. Dodging -the sentinels at Ai-chiu, he entered Corea as a thread enters the needle’s eye. They -crawled through a water-drain in the wall, and despite the barking of a dog, got into -the city. Resting several hours, they slid out again through another drain, reaching -the country and friends beyond. Two days’ journey on horses brought them to Seoul, -from which Maubant, the first Frenchman who had penetrated the hermit kingdom, or -who, in Corean phrase, had committed <i>pem-kiong</i> (violation of the frontier), wrote to his friends in Paris. -</p> -<p>Maubant’s first duty was to order back a Chinese priest who refused to learn Corean, -or to obey any but the Bishop of Peking. With the couriers who escorted the refractory -Chinaman to the frontier, went three young men to study at the college in Macao. At -the Border Gate they met Jacques Honore Chastan a young <span class="pageNum" id="pb362">[<a href="#pb362">362</a>]</span>French priest, who, on the dark night of January 17, 1837, passed the custom-house -of Ai-chiu disguised as a Corean widower in mourning, and joined Maubant in Seoul. -Nearly one year later, December 19, 1838, Laurent Marie-Joseph Imbert, a bishop, ran -the gauntlet of wilderness, ice, and guards, and took up his residence under the shadow -of the king’s palace. -</p> -<p>Visits, masses, and preaching now went on vigorously. The Christians at the end of -1837 numbered 6,000, and in 1838, 9,000. Up to January 16, 1839, the old regent being -averse from persecution, the work went on unharmed, but on that day, the court party -in favor of extirpating Christianity, having gained the upper hand, hounded on the -police in the king’s name. The visitation of every group of five houses in all the -eight provinces was ordered. Hundreds of suspects were at once seized and brought -to trial. In June, before the death of the old regent, the uncle of the young king -(Hen-chong, 1834–1849) and the implacable enemy of the Christians obtained control -of power, and at an extraordinary council of the ministers, held July 7, 1839, a new -decree was issued in the regent’s name. The persecution now broke out with redoubled -violence. In a few days, three native lay leaders were beheaded, and a score of women -and children suffered death. To stay the further shedding of blood, Bishop Imbert, -who had escaped to an island, came out of his hiding-place, and on August 10th delivered -himself up and ordered Maubant and Chastan to do the same. The three willing martyrs -met in chains before the same tribunal. During three days they were put to trial and -torture, thence transferred to the Kum-pu, or prison for state criminals of rank. -They were again tried, beaten with sixty-six strokes of the paddle, and condemned -to die under the sword, September 21, 1839. -</p> -<p>On that day, the inspector and one hundred soldiers took their place on the execution -ground, not near the city gate, but close to the river. A pole fixed in the earth -bore a flag inscribed with the death-sentence. Pinioned and stripped of their upper -clothing, a stick was passed between the elbows and backs of the prisoners, and an -arrow, feather end up, run through the flesh of each ear. Their faces were first wet -with water and then powdered with chalk. Three executioners then marched round, brandishing -their staves, while the crowd raised a yell of insult and mockery. A dozen soldiers, -sword in hand, now began prancing around the kneeling victims, engaging in mock combat, -but delivering their blows at the victims. Only when weary of their sport, the human -<span class="pageNum" id="pb363">[<a href="#pb363">363</a>]</span>butchers relieved the agony of their victims by the decapitating blow. The heads were -presented to the inspector on a board, and the corpses, after public exposure during -three days, were buried in the sand by the river banks. -</p> -<p>On the day after the burial, three Christians attempted to remove the bodies, but -the government spies lying in wait caught them. As of old in Rome, when the primitive -Christians crawled stealthily at night through the arches of the Coliseum, into the -arena, and groping about in the sand for the bones of Ignatius left after the lion’s -feast, bore them to honored sepulture, so these Corean Christians with equal faith -and valor again approached the bloody sand by the Han River. Twenty days after the -first attempt, a party of seven or eight men succeeded in bearing away the bodies -of the martyrs to Noku, about eight miles north of Seoul. -</p> -<p>Thus died the first European missionaries who entered “the forbidden land.” As in -the old fable of the lion’s den, the footprints all pointed one way. -</p> -<p>With the foreign leaders there perished no less than one hundred and thirty of their -converts, seventy by decapitation, and the others by strangulation, torture, or the -result of their wounds.<a class="noteRef" id="xd31e5450src" href="#xd31e5450">1</a> In November, 1839, a new edict in the vernacular was posted up all over the country. -Six bitter years passed before the Christians again had a foreign pastor. -</p> -<p>Great events now began to ripen in China. The opium war of 1840–42 broke out. The -“Western Barbarians” held the chief cities of the China coast from Hong-Kong to Shanghae, -and the military weakness of the colossal empire was demonstrated. The French, though -having nothing to do with this first quarrel of China with Europe, were on the alert -for any advantage to be gained in the far East. In 1841, Louis Philippe sent out the -war vessels Erigone and Favorite, to occupy if possible some island to the south of -Japan, which would be valuable for strategic and commercial purposes, and to make -treaties of trade and friendship with Japan, and especially with Corea. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb364">[<a href="#pb364">364</a>]</span></p> -<p>The Erigone cast anchor at Macao, September 7, 1841, and Captain Cecile awaited events. -Moving north in February, 1842, with Andrew Kim the Corean student, as interpreter, -on the Erigone, and Thomas Tsoi, his companion, on the Favorite, the French captains, -hearing of the sudden conclusion of the war, gave up the idea of opening Corea. -</p> -<p>The two Coreans, with two French priests, engaged a Chinese junk, and landed on the -coast of Shing-king, October 25, 1842. On December 23d, Kim set out for the Border -Gate, and within two leagues of it met the outward-bound embassy. Each of the three -hundred persons had his passport at his girdle. Stopping to see them file past, he -saluted one who was a Christian, and had in his belt letters from Maubant and Chastan, -written before their execution, and from the natives. Unable to go back with Andrew -to Ai-chiu, as every name on the embassy’s list was registered, the man went on to -Peking. Andrew Kim, by mingling among the drovers and huge cattle returning from the -fair, ran the blockade at Ai-chiu; but on the next day, having walked all night, he -applied for lodgings at an inn for shelter, and was recognized as a stranger. Fearful -of being arrested as a border-ruffian from the neutral strip, he took to his heels, -recrossed the Yalu, and after resting at Fung-Wang Chang, rejoined his friends at -Mukden. -</p> -<p></p> -<div class="figure p364width" id="p364"><img src="images/p364.png" alt="The Missionary’s Gateway into Corea." width="553" height="305"><p class="figureHead">The Missionary’s Gateway into Corea.</p> -</div><p> -</p> -<p>On December 31, 1843, Jean Joseph Ferreol was consecrated Bishop of Corea, and resolved -to cross the frontier, not at Ai-chiu, but at Hun-chun, on the Tumen. Andrew Kim exploring -the way, after a month’s journey through ice and snow, mountains and forests, reached -Hun-chun, February 25, 1845. The native Christians, having been duly instructed, had -arrived at Kion-wen a <span class="pageNum" id="pb365">[<a href="#pb365">365</a>]</span>month before. For recognition, Andrew was to hold a blue kerchief in his hand and -have a little red bag of tea at his girdle. At the fair which opened at Kion-wen on -the 28th, the Christians met. The result of their conference was that Ai-chiu was -declared safer even than Kion-wen. -</p> -<p></p> -<div class="figure p365width" id="p365"><img src="images/p365.png" alt="Border Towns of Northern Corea." width="469" height="289"><p class="figureHead">Border Towns of Northern Corea.</p> -</div><p> -</p> -<p>Since 1839, the government had tripled its vigilance, and doubled the guards on the -frontier. No one could pass the gate at Ai-chiu who had not a passport stamped with -the chief inspector’s seal, bestowed only after the closest scrutiny and persistent -cross-questioning. On it was written the name and place of birth and residence of -the holder, and after return from China or the fair it must be given up. The result -of these stringent regulations was to drive the missionaries to find a path seaward. -In December, 1844, of seven converts from Seoul, attempting to get to the Border Gate, -to meet Ferreol, only three were able to pass Ai-chiu. The other four, who had the -wig, hair pins, and mourning costume of a widower for Ferreol, were unable to satisfy -their questioners, and so returned. At the Border Gate, Ferreol, after seeing the -caravan pass, ordered Andrew Kim to enter alone, while he returned and sailed soon -after to Macao. Andrew, with the aid of his three friends, who met him at a lonely -spot at some distance from Ai-chiu, reached Seoul, January 8, 1845. -</p> -<p>As soon as resources and opportunity would permit, Andrew collected a crew of eleven -fellow-believers, only four of whom had ever seen the sea, and none of whom knew their -destination, and equipped with but a single compass, put to sea in a rude fishing-boat, -April 24, 1845. Despite the storms and baffling winds, this uncouth mass of firewood, -which the Chinese sailors jeeringly dubbed “the Shoe,” reached Shanghae in June. Andrew -Kim, never before <span class="pageNum" id="pb366">[<a href="#pb366">366</a>]</span>at sea except as a passenger, had brought this uncalked, deckless and unseaworthy -scow across the entire breadth of the Yellow Sea. -</p> -<p>After the ordeal of the mandarin’s questions,<a class="noteRef" id="xd31e5478src" href="#xd31e5478">2</a> and visits and kindly hospitality from the British naval officers and consul, he -reached his French friends at the Roman Catholic mission. -</p> -<p>The beacon fires were now blazing on Quelpart, and from headland to headland on the -mainland, telegraphing the news of “foreign ships” to Seoul. From June 25th until -the end of July, Captain Edward Belcher,<a class="noteRef" id="xd31e5483src" href="#xd31e5483">3</a> of the British ship Samarang, was engaged in surveying off Quelpart and the south -coast. Even after the ship left for Nagasaki, the magistrates of the coast were ordered -to maintain strict watch for all seafarers from strange countries. This made the return -of Andrew Kim doubly dangerous. -</p> -<p>Bishop Ferreol came up from Macao to Shanghae, and on Sunday, August 17th, Andrew -Kim was ordained to the priesthood. On September 1st, with Ferreol and Marie Antoine -Nicholas Daveluy, another French priest, he set sail in “the Shoe,” now christened -the “Raphael,” and turned toward the land of martyrdom. It was like Greatheart approaching -Giant Despair’s Castle. -</p> -<p>The voyage was safely, though tediously, made past Quelpart, and through the labyrinth -of islands off Chulla. On October 12th, the Frenchmen, donning the garb of native -noblemen in mourning, and baffling the sentinels, landed at night in an obscure place -on the coast. Soon after this Daveluy was learning the language among some Christian -villagers, who cultivated tobacco in a wild part of the country. The bishop went to -Seoul as the safest place to hide and work in, while the farmer-sailors, after seven -months’ absence, returned to their hoes and their native fields. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb367">[<a href="#pb367">367</a>]</span></p> -</div> -<div class="footnotes"> -<hr class="fnsep"> -<div class="footnote-body"> -<div class="fndiv" id="xd31e5450"> -<p class="footnote"><span class="fnlabel"><a class="noteRef" href="#xd31e5450src">1</a></span> By poetic justice, the chief instigators of this persecution came each to a bad end. -Of the court ministers, one, having provoked the king’s jealousy, was obliged by royal -order to poison himself at a banquet, in December, 1845, and the other, falling into -disgrace, was sent to exile, in which he shortly died. The chief informer, who had -hoped for reward in high office, obtained only a minor position, with little honor -and less salary. He was afterward exiled, and in 1862, having headed a local uprising, -was put to death, his body was minced up, and the fragments were exhibited through -the provinces. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd31e5450src" title="Return to note 1 in text.">↑</a></p> -</div> -<div class="fndiv" id="xd31e5478"> -<p class="footnote"><span class="fnlabel"><a class="noteRef" href="#xd31e5478src">2</a></span> So fearless and generous a soul as Andrew Kim, who could yet follow the ethics and -example of his teachers in repeatedly practising deception and violating his country’s -laws at Ai-chiu, scrupled not to lie to the mandarin at Shanghae, and tell him that -he and his crew had been accidentally driven out to sea. As in the later case of the -robbery of the regent’s tomb, “the end justified the means.” <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd31e5478src" title="Return to note 2 in text.">↑</a></p> -</div> -<div class="fndiv" id="xd31e5483"> -<p class="footnote"><span class="fnlabel"><a class="noteRef" href="#xd31e5483src">3</a></span> The voyage of this officer, which added so much to science, resulted in making Quelpart -and Beaufort Islands, Port Hamilton, and Mount Auckland as well known in geography -as the names of Her Majesty’s servants were known in British politics. The visitors -were treated with courtesy, and even their survey-marks, stakes, and whitewashed stones -were carefully set up when washed away by the storm, or disturbed by cattle. The Coreans, -however, drove their beeves well away from the Englishmen, who longed for fresh meat. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd31e5483src" title="Return to note 3 in text.">↑</a></p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch42" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#xd31e1192">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="label">CHAPTER XLII.</h2> -<h2 class="main">THE WALLS OF ISOLATION SAPPED.</h2> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="first">While the three priests were prosecuting their perilous labors, Thomas Tsoi, the Corean -student from Macao with Maistre, a new missionary, were on their way through Manchuria -to Hun-chun. Arriving after a seventeen days’ march, they were seized by Manchiu officers, -reprimanded, and sent back to Mukden. -</p> -<p>Andrew Kim, by order of Bishop Ferreol, went to Whang-hai by water, to examine into -the feasibility of making that province a gateway of entrance. The sea was full of -Chinese junks, the herring fishery being at its height. Watch-towers dotted the hills, -and the beach was patrolled by soldiers to prevent communication with shore. Andrew, -coming ostensibly to buy a cargo of fish, was enabled to sail among the islands, to -locate the rocks and sandspits, and to make a chart of the coast. Deeming the route -practicable, he hailed a Chinese junk, and after conference, confided to the captain -the mail-bag of the mission, which contained also the charts and two maps of Corea. -Unfortunately these documents were seized by the spies, and Andrew Kim, delayed while -the cargo of fish was drying, was arrested on the suspicion of being a Chinaman. He -was sent to Seoul, and while in prison heard of the French ships which were at that -moment vainly trying to find the mouth of the Han River and the channel to the capital. -Meanwhile, from his hiding-place, Ferreol wrote to Captain Cecile, who commanded the -fleet of three war-vessels. -</p> -<p>The object of this visit was to hold a conference with the king’s ministers, and demand -satisfaction for the murder of Imbert Chastan and Maubant in 1839. After some coast -surveys made, and the despatch of a threatening letter, the ships withdrew. Ferreol’s -note arrived too late, and Andrew Kim’s fate was sealed. -</p> -<p>While in prison, Andrew was employed in coloring, copying, and translating two English -maps of the world, one of which was for the king, and composing a summary of geography. -In a letter <span class="pageNum" id="pb368">[<a href="#pb368">368</a>]</span>in Latin to Ferreol, dated August 26th, he narrated his capture and trial. On September -16th, he was led out to trial. The sentence-flag bore the inscription: “Put to death -for communicating with the western barbarians,” and the full programme of cruelty -was carried out. Four women and four men were put to death in the persecution which -followed. -</p> -<p>Maistre and Thomas Tsoi went to Macao and there found the French frigates La Gloire -and La Victorieuse, ready to sail north for an answer to Captain Cecile’s letter. -Gladly welcomed by Captain Pierre, they went aboard July 12th. On August 10th, while -under sail in a group of islands off Chulla, in latitude 35° 45′ and longitude 124° -8′, in water which the English charts marked at twelve fathoms deep, both vessels -grounded simultaneously. The high tides for which this coast is noted falling rapidly, -both vessels became total wrecks. The largest of the La Gloire’s boats was at once -sent to Shanghae for assistance, and the six hundred men made their camp at Kokun -Island. Kindly treated and furnished with provisions as they were, the Frenchmen during -their stay were rigidly secluded, and at night cordons of boats with lanterns guarded -against all communication with the mainland. Thomas Tsoi acted as dumb interpreter, -with pencil, in Chinese, and though hearing every word of the Corean magistrates was -not recognized. Though meeting fellow Christians, he was unable to get inland, and -Ferreol’s messengers to the sea-shore arrived after an English ship from Shanghae -had taken the crews away. -</p> -<p>The Corean government, fearing<a class="noteRef" id="xd31e5504src" href="#xd31e5504">1</a> further visits of the outside barbarians, sent an answer to Admiral Cecile, directing -it to Captain Pierre at Macao, by way of Peking.<a class="noteRef" id="xd31e5507src" href="#xd31e5507">2</a> They explained why they treated Frenchmen shipwrecked kindly; but sent Frenchmen -disguised to execution.<a class="noteRef" id="xd31e5510src" href="#xd31e5510">3</a> When Admiral Cecile reached Paris in <span class="pageNum" id="pb369">[<a href="#pb369">369</a>]</span>1848, one of the periodical French revolutions had broken out in Paris, and a war -at the ends of the earth was out of the question. The French government neglected -to send a vessel to take away the effects saved from the wreck. The Coreans promptly -put the cannon to use, and from them, as models, manufactured others for the forts -built to resist “the Pepins” in 1866, and the Americans in 1871. -</p> -<p>Once more Maistre and Thomas Tsoi essayed to enter the guarded peninsula, by sailing -early in 1848 in a Chinese junk from Macao to Merin Island off Whang-hai, but no Christians -met them. By way of Shanghae, they then went into Shing-king, and in December to the -Border Gate, meeting couriers from Bishop Ferreol. On a fiercely cold, windy, and -dark night, which drove the soldiers indoors to the more congenial pleasure of the -long pipe, cards, and cup on the oven-warmed floors, Thomas Tsoi got safely through -Ai-chiu, and in a few days was in Seoul, and later in Chulla. The work of propagation -now took a fresh start. A number of religious works composed or translated into the -vulgar tongue were printed in pamphlet form from a native printing press, and widely -circulated. In 1850, the Christians numbered eleven thousand, and five young men were -studying for the priesthood. Regular mails, sewn into the thick cotton coats of men -in the embassy, were sent to and brought from China. A French whaler having grounded -off the coast, the French consul at Shanghae, with two Englishmen, came to reclaim -the vessel’s effects, and meeting three young men sent by the ever-alert Thomas Tsoi, -took them back to Shanghae, the third remaining to meet his comrades on their return -with fresh missionaries to come. After still another failure to enter Corea, Maistre -set foot in Chulla-dō, by way of Kokun Island, even while the fire-signals were blazing -on the headlands on account of the presence of Russian ships.<a class="noteRef" id="xd31e5519src" href="#xd31e5519">4</a> -<span class="pageNum" id="pb370">[<a href="#pb370">370</a>]</span></p> -<p>Ferreol, worn out with his labors, after lying paralytic for many months, died February -3, 1853; but in March, 1854, Janson, making a second attempt, entered Corea, having -crossed the Yellow Sea in a junk, which immediately took back three native students -for Macao. Janson died in Seoul, of cerebral fever, June 18, 1854. -</p> -<p>In these years, 1853 and 1854, Commodore Perry and the American squadron were in the -waters of the far East, driving the wedge of civilization into Japan, and sapping -her walls of seclusion. The American flag, however, was not yet seen in Corean waters, -though the court of Seoul were kept informed of Perry’s movements. -</p> -<p>A fresh reinforcement of missionaries to storm the citadel of paganism, Bishop Simeon, -François Berneux, with two young priests, Michel Alexandre Petitnicholas and Charles -Antoine Pourthie, set sail from Shanghae in a junk, and, after many adventures, arrived -at Seoul via Whang-hai, while Feron (of later buccaneering fame) followed on a Corean -smuggling vessel, standing unexpectedly before his bishop in the capital, March 31, -1857. A synod of all the missionaries was now held, at which Berneux consecrated Daveluy -as his fellow bishop. Maistre died December 20th. The faith was now spread to Quelpart -by a native of that island, who, having been shipwrecked on the coast of China, was -carried by an English ship to Hong-Kong, where he met a Corean student from Macao -and was converted. The Roman Catholic population of Corea in 1857 was reckoned at -16,500. -</p> -<p>Communication with the native Christians living near Nagasaki, and then under the -harrow of persecution, took place. The cholera imported from Japan swept away over -400,000 victims in Corea. Thus does half the world not know how the other half lives. -How many Americans ever heard of this stroke of pestilence in the hermit nation? -</p> -<p>In 1860, war with China broke out, the French and English forces took the Peiho forts, -entered Peking, sacked the summer palace of the Son of Heaven, a few thousand European -troops destroying the military prestige of the Chinese colossus. The <span class="pageNum" id="pb371">[<a href="#pb371">371</a>]</span>Chinese emperor fled into Shing-king, toward Corea. The news produced a lively effect -in Chō-sen, especially at court.<a class="noteRef" id="xd31e5539src" href="#xd31e5539">5</a> -</p> -<p>The utter loss of Chinese prestige struck terror into all hearts. For six centuries, -China, the Tai-kuk (Great Empire), had been, in Corean eyes, the synonym and symbol -of invincible power, and “the Son of Heaven, who commands ten thousand chariots,” -the one able to move all the earth. Copies of the treaty made between China and the -allies, granting freedom of trade and religion, were soon read in Corea, causing intense -alarm. -</p> -<p>But the after-clap of news, that turned the first storm of excitement into a tempest -of rage and fear, was the treaty with Russia. General Ignatieff, the brilliant and -vigorous diplomatist then but twenty-eight years old and fresh on the soil of Cathay, -obtained, in 1860, after the allied plenipotentiaries had gone home, the signature -of Prince Kung to the cession of the whole Ussuri province. The tread of the Great -Bear had been so steadily silent, that before either Great Britain or Chō-sen knew -it, his foot had been planted ten degrees nearer the temperate zone. A rich and fertile -region, well watered by the Amoor and Sungari Rivers, bordered by the Pacific, with -a coast full of harbors, and comprising an area as large as France, was thus ceded -to Russia. The Manchiu rulers of China had actually surrendered their ancestral homeland -to the wily Muscovites. The boundaries of Siberia now touched the Tumen. The Russian -bear jostled the Corean tiger. -</p> -<p>With France on the right, Russia on the left, China humbled, and Japan opened to the -western world, what wonder that the rulers in Seoul trembled? -</p> -<p>The results to Corean Christianity were that, in less than a decade, <span class="pageNum" id="pb372">[<a href="#pb372">372</a>]</span>thousands of natives had fled their country and were settled in the Russian villages. -</p> -<p>At the capital all official business was suspended, and many families of rank fled -to the mountains. The nobles or officials who could not quit their posts sent off -their wives and children. All this turned to the temporary advantage of the missionaries. -In many instances, people of rank humbly sought the good favor and protection of the -Christians. Medals, crosses, and books of religion were bought in quantities. Some -even publicly wore them on their dress, hoping for safety when the dreaded invasion -should come. The government now proceeded to raise war-funds, levying chiefly on the -rich merchants, who were threatened with torture and death in case of refusal. A conscription -of able-bodied men was ordered, and bombs, called “French pieces,” and small-bore -cannon were manufactured. In a foundry in the capital heavy guns were cast after the -model of those left by the wreck of the La Gloire. The Kang-wa forts were built and -garrisoned. In the midst of these war preparations, the missionary body was reinforced -by the arrival of four of their countrymen, who, by way of Merin Island, set foot -on the soil of their martyrdom October, 1861. Their names were Landre, Joanno, Ridel, -and Calais. This year the number of Christians reached 18,000. -</p> -<p>Indirect attempts to insert the crowbars of diplomacy in the chinks of Corea’s wall -of seclusion were made about this time by France and England, and by Russia at another -point. Japan was in each case the fulcrum. On account of the petty trade between Tsushima -and Fusan, Earl Russell wished to have Great Britain included as a co-trader with -the peninsula. The Russians the same year occupied a station on Tsu Island, commanding -the countries on either side; but under protest from Yedo, backed by British men-of-war, -abandoned their purpose. In 1862, while the members of the Japanese embassy from the -Tycoon were in Paris, the government of Napoleon III. requested their influence in -the opening of Corea to French trade and residence. At this time, however, the Japanese -had their hands full of their own troubles at home, nor had the court at Seoul sent -either envoys or presents since 1832. They should have done so in 1852, at the accession -of the new shō-gun, but not relishing the humiliation of coming only to Tsushima, -and knowing the weakened state of their former conquerors, they were now ready to -defy them. -</p> -<p>One new missionary and two returned native students entered <span class="pageNum" id="pb373">[<a href="#pb373">373</a>]</span>in March, 1863. The Ni dynasty, founded in 1392, came to an end on January 15, 1864, -by the King Chul-chong, who had no child, dying before he had nominated an heir. This -was the signal for fresh palace intrigues, and excitement among the nobles and political -parties. The three widows of the kings who had reigned since 1831 were still living. -The oldest of these, Queen Chō, at once seized the royal seal and emblems of authority, -which high-handed move made her the mistress of the situation. Craftily putting aside -her nephew Chō Sung, she nominated for the throne a lad then but twelve years old, -and son of Ni Kung, one of the royal princes. This latter person was supposed to be -indifferent to politics, but no sooner was his son made the sovereign, than his slumbering -ambition woke to lion-like vigor. This man, to use a Corean phrase, had “a heart of -stone, and bowels of iron.” He seemed to know no scruple, pity, or fear. Possessing -himself of the seal and royal emblems, he was made Tai-wen Kun (Lord of the Great -Court—a rare title given to a noble when his son is made king) and became actual regent. -This Corean mayor of the palace held the reins of government during the next nine -years, ruling with power like that of an absolute despot. He was a rabid hater of -Christianity, foreigners, and progress. -</p> -<p>In spite of the new current of hostility that set steadily in, the Christians began -to be bold even to defiance. In Kiung-sang a funeral procession carrying two hundred -lanterns, bore aloft a huge cross, and chanted responsive prayers. In the capital, -the converts paraded the signs of the Romish cult. A theological training school was -established in the mountains, four new missionaries entered the kingdom through Nai-po, -1976 baptisms were made during the year, and, with much literary work accomplished, -the printing-press was kept busy. -</p> -<p>The year 1866 is phenomenal in Corean history. It seemed as if the governments and -outlaws alike, of many nations, had conspired to pierce or breach the walls of isolation -at many points. Russians, Frenchmen, Englishmen, Americans, Germans, authorized and -unauthorized, landed to trade, rob, kill, or, what was equally obnoxious to the regent -and his court, to make treaties. -</p> -<p>In January the Russians, in a war-vessel, again appeared in Broughton’s Bay, and demanded -the right of trade. At the same time they stated that some Russian troops were to -pass the frontier of Ham-kiung to enforce the demand. The usual stereotyped response -was made, that Corea was a vassal of China, and could not <span class="pageNum" id="pb374">[<a href="#pb374">374</a>]</span>treat with any other nation without permission of that Power, and that a special ambassador -charged with the matter would be immediately despatched to Peking, etc. -</p> -<p>The advent of the double-headed eagle was the signal for lively feeling and action -among the Christians at Seoul. The long-cherished project of appealing to England -and France to make an alliance to secure liberty of religion was revived. The impulsive -converts now forwarded the scheme, under the plea of patriotic defense against the -Russians, with all the innocent maladdress which characterizes men who are adults -in age but children in politics. In their exhilaration they already dreamed of building -a cathedral in Seoul of imposing proportions, and finished in a style worthy alike -of their religion and their country. Three Christian nobles, headed by Thomas Kim, -composed a letter embodying their ideas of an anti-Russian Franco English alliance, -and had it presented to the regent, who blandly sent Thomas Kim to invite the bishops, -then absent to a conference in the capital. On his return to Seoul, Kim was coldly -received, and no further notice was taken of him. The anti-Christian party, now in -full power at court, clamored for the enforcement of the old edict against the foreign -religion, while a letter from one of the Corean embassy in Peking, arriving late in -January, added fuel to the rising flame. It stated that the Chinese were putting to -death all the Christians found in the empire. That lie, “as light as a feather” in -its telling, was “as heavy as a mountain” in Corea. Such an illustrious example must -be followed. Vainly the regent warned the court of the danger from Europe. The Russian -ship, too, had disappeared, and the French seemed afraid to take vengeance for the -massacre of 1839. The cry of “Death to all the Christians, death to the western barbarians” -now began to be heard. Forced by the party in power, the regent signed the death-warrants -of the bishops and priests, promulgated anew the old laws of the realm against the -Christians, and proceeded “to make very free with the heads of his subjects.” The -minions of the magistrates sallied forth like bloodhounds unleashed. Berneux was seized -on February 23d, and brought to trial successively before three tribunals, the last -being the highest of the realm. -</p> -<p>In his interview with the regent, who had formed a high idea of the Frenchman, Berneux -failed to address his Highness in the punctilious form of words demanded by court -etiquette. Forthwith the official made up his mind that the Frenchman was a man <span class="pageNum" id="pb375">[<a href="#pb375">375</a>]</span>of slight attainments, and of no personal importance—so sensitive is the Corean mind -in the matter of etiquette. From the highest class prison, the bishop, after undergoing -horrible tortures with club, paddle, and pointed sticks thrust into his flesh, was -cast into a common dungeon, where, in a few days, he was joined by three of his fellow -missionaries with several converts, faithful to their teachers even in the hour of -death. -</p> -<p>All suffered the fierce and savage beatings, and on March 8th were led out to death. -An immense crowd of jeering, laughing, curious people followed the prisoners, who -were tied by their hair to the chair so as to force them to hold up their faces, that -the crowd might see them. Four hundred soldiers marched out with the doomed men to -the sandy plain near the river. The lengthened programme of brutal torture and insult -was duly carried out, after which the four heads were presented for inspection. -</p> -<p>One day afterward, two other French missionaries and their twelve students for the -priesthood were led captives into Seoul, marked with the red cord and yellow caps -betokening prisoners soon to die. With like tortures, and the same shameful details -of execution, they suffered death on March 11th. On this day, also, Daveluy and two -other priests were seized, and on March 30th, Good Friday, decapitated, together with -two faithful natives. In the case of Daveluy, the barbarity of the proceeding was -increased by the sordid executioner, who, after delivering one blow, and while the -blood was spouting out from the wound, left the victim to bargain with the official -for the sum due him for his work of blood. -</p> -<p>In a little over a month all missionary operations had come to a standstill. Scores -of natives had been put to death; hundreds more were in prison. Ridel, while hiding -between two walls, wrote to Peking, describing the state of affairs. Feron and Ridel -met on May 8th, travelling all night, and on June 15th they found that Calais was -still alive. Hearing that a foreign steam-vessel was cruising off the Nai-po, Ridel -sent a letter begging for help. This ship was the Rona, Captain Morrison, belonging -to a British firm in China, on its way back from Niu-chwang, under the direction of -Mr. Ernest Oppert. The native Christians were unable to get on board the Rona; but -when the same Oppert visited Haimi in the Nai-po, some months later, in the steamer -Emperor, this letter was put in his hands. Meanwhile Ridel had reached the sea-coast, -and in spite of the vigilant patrols, put off in a boat constructed without an ounce -of iron, and manned by a crew of eleven Christian <span class="pageNum" id="pb376">[<a href="#pb376">376</a>]</span>fishermen. He reached Chifu July 7th. Going at once to Tien-tsin, he informed the -French Admiral Roze of the recent events in Corea, and then returning to Chifu, waited -till mid-August. Feron and Calais, hearing of the presence of French ships in the -Han River, reached the coast, after great straits, to find them gone. They put to -sea, however, and got upon a Chinese smuggler, by which they reached Chifu, October -26th—while the French expedition was in Corea. Not one foreign priest now remained -in the peninsula, and no Christian dared openly confess his faith, while thousands -were banished, imprisoned, or put to death. -</p> -<p>Thus after twenty years of nearly uninterrupted labors, the church was again stripped -of her pastors, and at the end of the eighty-two years of Corean Christianity, the -curtain fell in blood. Of four bishops and nineteen priests, all except four were -from France, and of these only three remained alive. Fourteen were martyrs, and four -fell victims to the toils and dangers of their noble calling. -</p> -<hr class="tb"><p> -</p> -<p>In the foregoing story of papal Christianity in Chō-sen, which we have drawn from -Dallet—a Roman Catholic writer—we have the spectacle of a brave band of men, mostly -secular priests educated in French seminaries of learning, doing what they believed -it was right to do. Setting the laws of this pagan country at defiance, they, by means -of dissimulation and falsehood, entered the country in disguise as nobles in mourning. -Fully believing in the dogma of salvation by works, they were sublimely diligent in -carrying on their labors of conversion, ever in readiness for that crown of martyrdom -which each one coveted, and which so many obtained; but the nobleness of their calling -was disfigured by the foul and abominable teaching that evil should be done in order -that good might come—a tenet that insults at once the New Testament and the best casuistry -of the Roman Catholic Church. According to the code of any nation, their converts -were traitors in inviting invasion; but if worthy to be set down as Arnolds and Iscariots, -then their teachers have the greater blame in leading them astray. It is to be hoped -that the future Christian missionaries in Corea, whether of the Greek, Roman, or Reformed -branch, will teach Christianity with more of the moral purity inculcated by its Founder. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb377">[<a href="#pb377">377</a>]</span></p> -</div> -<div class="footnotes"> -<hr class="fnsep"> -<div class="footnote-body"> -<div class="fndiv" id="xd31e5504"> -<p class="footnote"><span class="fnlabel"><a class="noteRef" href="#xd31e5504src">1</a></span> These were the first official relations of France with Corea; or, as a native would -say, between Tai-pep-kuk and Chō-sen; the expression for France being Tai-pep, and -for a Frenchman—curiously enough—Pepin. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd31e5504src" title="Return to note 1 in text.">↑</a></p> -</div> -<div class="fndiv" id="xd31e5507"> -<p class="footnote"><span class="fnlabel"><a class="noteRef" href="#xd31e5507src">2</a></span> Inside the country, the frequent appearance of the foreign ships was the subject of -everyday talk, and the news in this nation of gossips spread like a prairie fire, -or a rolling avalanche. By the time the stories reached the northern provinces whole -fleets of French ships lay off the coast. Their moral effect was something like that -among the blacks in the Southern States during the civil war, when the “Lincoln gunboats” -hove in sight. The people jestingly called the foreign vessels “The authorities down -the River.” <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd31e5507src" title="Return to note 2 in text.">↑</a></p> -</div> -<div class="fndiv" id="xd31e5510"> -<p class="footnote"><span class="fnlabel"><a class="noteRef" href="#xd31e5510src">3</a></span> For changing their name and garments, sleeping by day, going abroad at night, associating -with rebels, criminals and villains, and entering the kingdom <span class="pageNum" id="pb369n">[<a href="#pb369n">369</a>]</span>clandestinely, the missionaries were put to death; and no comparison could be drawn -to mitigate their sentence between them and innocent shipwrecked men. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd31e5510src" title="Return to note 3 in text.">↑</a></p> -</div> -<div class="fndiv" id="xd31e5519"> -<p class="footnote"><span class="fnlabel"><a class="noteRef" href="#xd31e5519src">4</a></span> Other nations besides France now began to learn something of the twin hermits of the -East, Chō-sen and Nippon. During 1852, the Russian frigate Pallas sailed along the -east coast up to the Tumen River, making no landing, but keeping at a distance of -from two to five miles from the shore in order to avoid shoals and rocks. The object -of the Pallas was to trace and map the shore line. In 1855, the French war-vessel -Virginie continued the work begun by the Pallas, and at the end of her voyage the -whole coast from Fusan to the Tumen was known with some accuracy, and mapped out with -European <span class="pageNum" id="pb370n">[<a href="#pb370n">370</a>]</span>names, at once numerous and prophetic. The coast line of Tartary or Manchuria—at that -time a Chinese province—was also surveyed, mapped, and made ready for the Czar’s use -and that of his ambassador in 1860. -</p> -<p class="footnote cont">Pallas and Virginie! The names are suggestive of the <i>maiden</i> diplomatic victory of General Ignatieff, of whom more anon. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd31e5519src" title="Return to note 4 in text.">↑</a></p> -</div> -<div class="fndiv" id="xd31e5539"> -<p class="footnote"><span class="fnlabel"><a class="noteRef" href="#xd31e5539src">5</a></span> A noble of high rank presented to the council of ministers a memorial, setting forth -the dangers that then menaced Chō-sen, and urging that extraordinary means be put -forth to meet the emergencies. He proposed that the national policy of armed neutrality -should be preserved, that the conquered emperor of China should not enter Chō-sen, -that the frontier should be strengthened against a possible invasion of the border-ruffians -inhabiting the neutral strip. Taking advantage of the situation, these men, banding -together with Chinese adventurers and Corean refugees, might make a descent in force -into the kingdom. Finally, the supreme danger that filled all minds was the threatened -invasion of the French. He recommended that the castle of Tong-nai, near Fusan, and -the western strongholds of Nam-an, Pu-pion, and In-chiŭn (the port opened in 1882), -should be strongly garrisoned and strengthened; and that a new citadel be built on -the island of Kang-wa, to command the river and the entrance to the capital. (See -map, page 190.) <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd31e5539src" title="Return to note 5 in text.">↑</a></p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch43" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#xd31e1200">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="label">CHAPTER XLIII.</h2> -<h2 class="main">THE FRENCH EXPEDITION.</h2> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="first">The preliminaries of the French expedition to Corea in 1866 may be gathered from the -letters which passed between the French chargé d’affairs at Peking and Prince Kung, -the Chinese premier, as published in the United States Diplomatic Correspondence, -1867–68.<a class="noteRef" id="xd31e5586src" href="#xd31e5586">1</a> The pyrotechnic bombast of the Frenchman may be best understood by remembering that -he lived in the palmy days of Louis Napoleon and the third empire. His violent language -and behavior may be contrasted with the calm demeanor and firm temper of the astute -Chinaman, the greatest of the diplomats of the Middle Kingdom. -</p> -<p>“Unfortunately for the interests of his country, M. H. Bellonet had carried into diplomacy -the rude customs and unmeasured language of the African Zouaves, in whose ranks he -had served at one period of his career.” -<span class="pageNum" id="pb378">[<a href="#pb378">378</a>]</span></p> -<p>The best commentary upon this boast of an irate underling, dressed in the brief authority -of his superior, will be found in the events of the expedition, notably in the reduction -to ashes of the city of Kang-wa, which rendered 10,000 people homeless, and in the -repulse of the reckless invaders even before Bellonet at Peking was settling the fate -of the king. -</p> -<p>With Bishop Ridel as interpreter, and three of his converts as pilots, three vessels -were sent to explore the Han River. Equipped with charts made by Captain James of -the Emperor, who had examined the western entrance one month before, the despatch-boat -Déroulède leaving her consorts in Prince Jerome Gulf, steamed up the river on September -21st, as far as the narrows between Kang-wa and the mainland. The French officers -were charmed with the beauty of the autumnal scenery. On the cultivated plain, checkered -into a thousand squares of tiny rice-fields, all well irrigated, <span class="pageNum" id="pb379">[<a href="#pb379">379</a>]</span>the golden-tinted grain, now full ripe, awaited the sickle and the sheaf-binder. Numerous -villages dotted the landscape, and to the northwest rose the green hills on which -sat, like a queen, the city of Kang-wa. A number of forts, as yet unmounted with cannon, -were already built. Others, in process of construction, were rising on well-chosen -sites commanding the river. No garrison or a single soldier was as yet seen. The simple -villagers, at first frightened at the sight of a mighty black ship, moving up the -river against a strong current without sails or oars, collected in crowds along the -banks to see this fire-pulsing monster from the western ocean. -</p> -<p></p> -<div class="figure p379width" id="p379"><img src="images/p379.png" alt="Map of French Naval and Military Operations, 1866." width="677" height="636"><p class="figureHead">Map of French Naval and Military Operations, 1866.</p> -</div><p> -</p> -<p>On the 23d the Déroulède and Tardif, leaving the Primauguet at Boisée (Woody) Island, -moved up the Han River to the capital, the Corean pilots at the bow, and Ridel with -the men at the wheel. <span class="pageNum" id="pb380">[<a href="#pb380">380</a>]</span>One or two forts fired on the vessels as they steamed along, and in one place a fleet -of junks gathered to dispute their passage. A well-aimed shot sunk two of the crazy -craft, and a bombshell dropped among the artillerists in the redoubt silenced it at -once. The rocks were safely avoided, and on the evening of the 25th, the two ships -cast anchor, and the flag of France floated in front of the Corean capital. The hills -environing the city and every point of view were white with gazing thousands, who -for the first time saw a vessel moving under steam. -</p> -<p>The ships remained abreast of the city several days, the officers taking soundings -and measurements, computing heights and making plans. M. Ridel went on shore in hopes -of finding a Christian and hearing some news, but none dared to approach him. -</p> -<p>While the French remained in the river, not a bag of rice nor a fagot of wood entered -Seoul. Eight days of such terror, and a famine would have raged in the city. Seven -thousand houses were deserted by their occupants. -</p> -<p>Returning to Boisée Island, having surveyed the river, two converts came on board. -They informed Ridel of the burning of a “European” ship [the General Sherman] at Ping-an, -the renewal of the persecution, and the order that Christians should be put to death -without waiting for instructions from Seoul. Ridel in vain urged Admiral Roze to remain -with his fleet, in order to intimidate the government. Sailing away, the ships arrived -at Chifu, October 3d. -</p> -<p>Tai-wen kun, now thoroughly alarmed, began to stir up the country to defense. The -military forces in every province were called out. Every scrap of iron was collected, -and the forges and blacksmith shops were busy day and night in making arms of every -known kind; even the farmer’s tools were altered into pikes and sabres. Loaded junks -were sunk in the channel of the Han to obstruct it Through the Japanese at Fusan, -and the daimiō of Tsushima, word was sent to the Tycoon of Japan, informing him of -his straits, and begging for assistance. The Yedo government, being at that time in -great straits between the pressure of foreigners on one hand, and of the “mikado-reverencers” -on the other, could not then, had it been right to do so, afford any military assistance -against the French, with whom a treaty had been made. Instead of this, two commissioners -were appointed to go to Seoul, and recommend that Chō-sen open her ports to foreign -commerce, as Japan had done, and thus choose peace instead of war <span class="pageNum" id="pb381">[<a href="#pb381">381</a>]</span>with foreigners. Before the envoys could leave Japan, the Tycoon had died, and the -next year Japan was in the throes of civil war, the shō-gunate was abolished, and -Corea was for the time utterly forgotten. -</p> -<p>The object of the French expedition and the blockade of the Salée (Han) River were -duly announced from the French legation in China to the Chinese and foreign representatives -in Peking. Without waiting to hear from his government at home, Bellonet despatched -the fleet and made war on his own responsibility. The squadron which sailed October -11th, to distribute thrones and decapitate prime ministers, consisted of the frigate -Guerrière, the corvettes Laplace and Primauguet, the despatch-vessels Déroulède and -Kien-chan, and the gunboats Tardif and Lebrethon, with 600 soldiers, including a detachment -of 400 marines from the camp at Yokohama. -</p> -<p>One would have thought 600 men rather too small a force to root up thrones with, seeing -that the days of Cortez and Pizarro were past. The Coreans were not like the Mexicans, -who thought a horse and his rider were one animal. They had smelt powder and fought -tigers. -</p> -<p>On October 13th the admiral cast anchor off Boisée Island. The next day the gunboats -steamed up the river, landing the marines in camp, a little over half a mile from -the city. On the 15th, before any attempt was made to communicate with the government, -a reconnoissance was made in force, toward Kang-hoa (Kang-wa), during which a small -fort, mounting two guns, was captured. -</p> -<p>Kang-wa was, to a modern eye, probably one of the best fortified cities in the kingdom. -It was surrounded by a crenelated wall, nearly fifteen feet high! Behind this defense -the native soldiery stood ready with flails, arrows, matchlocks, and jingals. -</p> -<p>The royal residence, for pleasure in summer, and refuge in war-time, was beautifully -situated on a wooded hill, from which a glorious view of the island, sea, and mainland -was visible. The fertile island itself lay like a green emerald upon a greener sea. -Crops of rice, barley, tobacco, sorghum, maize, various root foods, Chinese cabbage, -chestnuts, persimmons, with here and there a great camellia tree just entering into -bloom, greeted the view of the invaders. Kang-wa was well named “The Flower of the -River.” -</p> -<p>At eight o’clock on the morning of October 16th an attack was made in force on the -main gate. At the distance of one hundred yards, the infantry charged on a run, to -the cry of “<span lang="fr">Vive l’Empereur</span>.” <span class="pageNum" id="pb382">[<a href="#pb382">382</a>]</span>The hot fire of the jingals checked them not a moment. Reaching the wall, they set -up the scaling ladders, and in a few moments hundreds of Frenchmen were inside, shooting -down the flying white-coats, or engaging in a hand to hand encounter, though only -a few natives were killed. The gate was soon crushed in with axes, and the main body -entered easily. Firing was soon over, and the deserted city was in the <span class="corr" id="xd31e5654" title="Source: victors">victors’</span> hands. About eighty bronze and iron cannon, mostly of very small calibre, over six -thousand matchlocks, and the official archives of the city were found and made trophies -of. -</p> -<p>Kang-wa was the military headquarters for western Corea and the chief place of gunpowder -manufacture. Large magazines of food supplies had been collected in it. Eighteen boxes -of silver, containing ingots to the value of nearly thirty eight thousand dollars, -and a great many books and manuscripts were found, besides spoil of many kinds from -the shops and houses. Immense stores of bows and arrows, iron sabres without scabbards, -helmets, and breastplates, beautifully wrought, but very heavy and clumsy, were found. -</p> -<p></p> -<div class="figure p382width" id="p382"><img src="images/p382.png" alt="Breech-loading Cannon of Corean Manufacture." width="634" height="110"><p class="figureHead">Breech-loading Cannon of Corean Manufacture.</p> -</div><p> -</p> -<p>The cannon had no carriages, but were fastened to logs or fixed platforms. They were -breech-loaders, in that the powder, fixed in an iron cartridge, was introduced at -the breech, while the ball seemed to be put in simultaneously at the muzzle. These -double-ended cannon reminded one of a tortoise. A curious or rather comical thing -about these cannon was that many of them had several touch-holes in a row, the cannonier -firing them by applying his match rapidly along the line of vents—an “accelerating -gun,” of a rude kind. The Corean gunpowder is said to burn so slowly that a charge -has to be lighted at both ends—a type of the national policy. -</p> -<p>As the Coreans were fortifying Tong-chin with unusual care, the admiral sent out, -October 26th, a reconnoitering party of one hundred and twenty men, who were landed -on the mainland, opposite Kang-wa Island, whence the high road runs direct to the -<span class="pageNum" id="pb383">[<a href="#pb383">383</a>]</span>capital. Here was a village, with fortifications clustered around a great gate, having -a pointed stone arch surmounted by the figure of a tortoise and a pagoda. To force -this gate was to win the way to the capital. -</p> -<p>As the marines were disembarking, the Coreans poured in a heavy fire, which killed -two and wounded twenty-five Frenchmen. Nevertheless the place was stormed and seized, -but as the Corean forces were gathering in the vicinity, the marines returned to the -ships to await reinforcements. -</p> -<p>Toward evening a party of Coreans defiled at the foot of the plain in gallant array, -evidently elated with supposed victory. Suddenly, as they came within range, the French -ships opened on them with shell, which exploded among them. -</p> -<p>Terrified at such unknown war missiles, they broke and fled to the hill-tops, where, -to their surprise, they were again enveloped in a shower of iron. Finally they had -to take shelter in the distant ravines and the far plains, which at night were illumined -by their bivouac fires. -</p> -<p>Weak men and nations, in fighting against stronger enemies, must, like the weaker -ones in the brute creation, resort to cunning. They try to weary out what they cannot -overcome. The Coreans, even before rifled cannon and steamers, began to play the same -old tricks practised in the war with the Japanese in the sixteenth century. They made -hundreds of literal “men of straw,” and stuck them within range of the enemy’s artillery, -that the Frenchmen might vainly expend their powder and iron. The keen-eyed Frenchmen, -aided by their glasses, detected the cheat, and wasted no shot on the mannikins. -</p> -<p>Meanwhile the invaded nation was roused to a white heat of wrath. The furnace of persecution -and the forges of the armorers were alike heated to their utmost. Earnest hands plied -with rivalling diligence the torture and the sledge. In the capital it was written -on the gate-posts of the palace that whoever should propose peace with the French -should be treated as a traitor and immediately executed. -</p> -<p>On October 19th, Ni, the Corean general commanding, had sent the French admiral a -long letter stuffed with quotations from the Chinese classics, the gist of which was -that whoever from outside broke through the frontiers of another kingdom was worthy -of death—a sentiment well worthy of a state of savagery. -</p> -<p>The French admiral, with equal national bombast, but in direct <span class="pageNum" id="pb384">[<a href="#pb384">384</a>]</span>and clearest phrase, demanded the surrender of the three high ministers of the court, -else he would hold the Corean government responsible for the miseries of the war. -</p> -<p>The Coreans in camp were ceaselessly busy in drilling raw troops and improving their -marksmanship. Soldiers arrived from all quarters, and among them was a regiment of -eight hundred tiger-hunters from the north, every man of whom was a dead shot either -with bow or matchlock. These men, who had faced the tiger and many of whom had felt -his claws, were not likely to fear even French “devils.” They garrisoned a fortified -monastery on the island which was situated in a valley in the centre of a circle of -hills which were crowned by a wall of uncemented masonry. It could be approached only -by one small foot-path in a deep ravine. The entrance was a gateway of heavy hewn -stone, arched in a full semicircle, the gate being in one piece. The walls were mounted -with home-made artillery. -</p> -<p>On the same day on which this information reached the admiral, the natives attacked -a French survey boat, whereupon he at once resolved to capture the monastery. For -this purpose he detached 160 men, without artillery, who left at six o’clock in the -morning of October 27th, with their luncheon packed on horses. The invaders, with -their heads turned by too many easy victories, went in something like picnic order, -frequently stopping to rest and enjoy the autumnal scenery. On several occasions they -saw squads of men marching over the hills toward the same destination, but this did -not hurry the Frenchmen, though a native informed them that the monastery, ordinarily -inhabited only by a dozen priests, was now garrisoned and full of soldiers. -</p> -<p>At 11.30 they arrived near the fortress, when some one proposed lunch. Others jauntily -declared it would be very easy to capture “the pagoda,” and then dine in the hall -of Buddha himself; this advice was not, however, followed. Having arranged three parties, -they advanced to within three hundred yards of the gate. All within was as silent -as death. Suddenly a sheet of flame burst from the whole length of the wall, though -not a black head nor a white coat was visible. In a minute the French columns were -shattered and broken, and not a man was on his feet. The soldiers, retreating in a -hail of lead, found refuge behind rocks, sheaves of rice, piles of straw, and in the -huts near by. There the officers rallied their men lest the garrison should make a -sally. The wounded were then borne to the rear. They numbered thirty-two. <span class="pageNum" id="pb385">[<a href="#pb385">385</a>]</span>Only eighty fighting men were left, and these soon became conscious of being weak -and very hungry, for they had been cruelly tantalized by seeing the lunch-horse kick -up his heels at the first fire, and trot over to the Coreans. They learned that one -of the slips ’twixt the cup and the lip might be caused by a horse in Chō-sen. Perhaps -some native poet improvised a poem contrasting the patriotic nag with the steed of -Kanko, which led a hungry army home. -</p> -<p>It being madness or annihilation for eighty Frenchmen to attempt to storm a stone -fortress, garrisoned by five or ten times their number of enemies, and guarded with -artillery, retreat was resolved on. The wounded were hastily cared for and the mournful -march began. The stronger men carried their severely injured comrades on their shoulders -with brotherly kindness. The unwounded who were free formed the rear-guard. Three -times the little band had to face about and fire with effect at the Coreans, who thrice -charged their foes with heavy loss to themselves. They then mounted the hills, and -with savage yells celebrated their victory over the western barbarians. It was not -till night, hungry and tired, that reinforcements were met a half league from camp. -They had been sent out by the admiral, to whom had come presentiment of failure. -</p> -<p>There was gloom in the camp that night and at headquarters. The near sky and the horizon, -notched by the hills, seemed to glare with unusual luridness, betokening the joy and -the deadly purpose of the invaded people. -</p> -<p>The next morning, to the surprise of all, and the anger of many, orders were given -to embark. The work on the fortifications begun around the camp was left off. The -troops in Kang-wa set fire to the city, which, in a few hours, was a level heap of -ashes. The departure of the invaders was so precipitate that the patriots to this -day gloat over it as a disgraceful retreat. -</p> -<p>A huge bronze bell, from one of the temples in Kang-wa, which had been transported -half way to the camp, was abandoned. The Coreans recaptured this, regarding it as -a special trophy of victory. The French embarked at night, and at six o’clock next -morning dropped down to the anchorage at Boisée Island. On the way, every fort on -the island seemed to be manned and popping away at the ships, but hurting only the -paint and rigging. To their great disgust, the men repulsed two days before, discovered -the walls of the monastery from deck, and that the distance was only a mile and <span class="pageNum" id="pb386">[<a href="#pb386">386</a>]</span>a half from the river side. There was considerable silent swearing among the officers, -who believed it could be easily stormed and taken even then. Orders must be obeyed, -however, and in rage and shame they silently gazed on the grim walls. The return of -the expedition was a great surprise to the fleet at Boisée Island. On his return to -China, the admiral found, to his mortification, that his government did not approve -of the headlong venture of Bellonet.<a class="noteRef" id="xd31e5692src" href="#xd31e5692">2</a> -</p> -<p>In the palace at Seoul, the resolve was made to exterminate Christianity, root and -branch. Women and even children were ordered to the death. Several Christian nobles -were executed. One Christian, who was betrayed in the capital by his pagan brother, -and another unknown fellow-believer were taken to the river side in front of the city, -near the place where the two French vessels had anchored. At this historic spot, by -an innovation unknown in the customs of Chō-sen, they were decapitated, and their -headless trunks held neck downward to spout out the hot life-blood, that it might -wash away the stain of foreign pollution. “It is for the sake of these Christians,” -said the official proclamation, “that the barbarians have come just here. It is on -account of these only that the waters of our river have been denied by western ships. -It behooves that their blood should wash out the stain.” Upon the mind of the regent -and court at Seoul, the effect was to swell their pride to the folly of extravagant -conceit. Feeling themselves able almost to defy the world, they began soon after to -hurl their defiance at Japan. The dwarf of yesterday had become a giant in a day. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb387">[<a href="#pb387">387</a>]</span></p> -<p>In spite of foreign invaders and war’s alarms, one peaceful event during this same -year, and shortly after the French fleet had gone away, sent a ripple of pleasure -over the surface of Corean society. The young king, now but fourteen years old, who -had been duly betrothed to Min,<a class="noteRef" id="xd31e5700src" href="#xd31e5700">3</a> a daughter of one of the noble families, was duly married. Popular report credits -the young queen with abilities not inferior to those of her royal husband. -</p> -<p>According to custom, the Chinese emperor sent an ambassador, one Koei-ling, a mandarin -of high rank, to bear the imperial congratulations and investiture of the queen. This -merry Chinaman, cultivated, lively, poetic in mood, and susceptible to nature’s beauties, -wrote an account of his journey between the two capitals. His charming impressions -of travel give us glimpses of peaceful life in the land of Morning Calm, and afford -a delightful contrast to the grim visage of war, with which events in Corea during -the last decade have unhappily made us too familiar. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb388">[<a href="#pb388">388</a>]</span></p> -</div> -<div class="footnotes"> -<hr class="fnsep"> -<div class="footnote-body"> -<div class="fndiv" id="xd31e5586"> -<p class="footnote"><span class="fnlabel"><a class="noteRef" href="#xd31e5586src">1</a></span> July 13, 1866. -</p> -<p class="footnote cont address"><span class="sc">M. de Bellonet to Prince Kung.</span> -</p> -<p class="footnote cont"><span class="sc">Sir</span>: I grieve to bring officially to the knowledge of your Imperial Highness a horrible -outrage committed in the small kingdom of Corea, which formerly assumed the bonds -of vassalage to the Chinese empire, but which this act of savage barbarity has forever -separated from it. -</p> -<p class="footnote cont">In the course of the month of March last, the two French bishops who were evangelizing -Corea, and with them nine missionaries and seven Corean priests, and a great multitude -of Christians of both sexes and of every age, were massacred by order of the sovereign -of that country. -</p> -<p class="footnote cont">The government of His Majesty cannot permit so bloody an outrage to be unpunished. -The same day on which the king of Corea laid his hands upon my unhappy countrymen -was the last of his reign; he himself proclaimed its end, which I, in turn, solemnly -declare to-day. In a few days our military forces are to march to the conquest of -Corea, and the Emperor, my august Sovereign, alone has now the right and the power -to dispose, according to his good pleasure, of the country and the vacant throne. -</p> -<p class="footnote cont">The Chinese government has declared to me many times that it has no authority over -Corea, and it refused on this pretext to apply the treaties of <span class="pageNum" id="pb378n">[<a href="#pb378n">378</a>]</span>Tien-tsin to that country, and give to our missionaries the passports which we have -asked from it. We have taken note of these declarations, and we declare now that we -do not recognize any authority whatever of the Chinese government over the kingdom -of Corea. -</p> -<p class="footnote cont signed">I have, etc.,<br> -<span class="sc">H. de Bellonet</span>. -</p> -<p class="footnote cont">His Imperial Highness, <i>Prince Kung</i>. -</p> -<p class="footnote cont">Spurning with irritating, not to say insulting, language, the suggestion of Prince -Kung that Bellonet might do well to inquire into the causes and merits of the execution -of the missionaries, the representative of France, November 11th, again addressed -the Chinese statesman. In this missive occurs the following: “As for the fate of the -former king of Corea, it is now subject to the decision of the Emperor, my august -Sovereign.” -</p> -<p class="footnote cont">Monsieur Bellonet’s method is one specimen of the manner in which the envoys of European -nations are accustomed to bully the governments of Asiatic countries. In a long communication -to Prince Kung, dated November 11, 1866, Mr. Bellonet charges upon the Chinese government: -1st. Complicity with Corea. 2d. That the Corean embassy, during the previous winter, -had stated the project of the massacre, and had received the tacit official authorization -of the Chinese government. 3d. The direct approval of several high members of it. -4th. That the recruiting and mobilization of Mauchiu troops, beyond the Great Wall, -was for the purpose of assisting Corea against the French. He writes, in addition -to the above, an amazing amount of nonsense, which shows of what magnifying powers -the human eye is capable when enlarged by suspicion. -</p> -<p class="footnote cont">Among other tidbits of rodomontade, is this one—which is a truthful picture of the -France of Napoleon III.—“War for us is a pleasure which the French passionately seek;” -and this—“The people of Corea address us as deliverers, … we shall inaugurate the -reign of order, justice, and prosperity.” <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd31e5586src" title="Return to note 1 in text.">↑</a></p> -</div> -<div class="fndiv" id="xd31e5692"> -<p class="footnote"><span class="fnlabel"><a class="noteRef" href="#xd31e5692src">2</a></span> The results of this expedition were disastrous all over the East. Happening at a time -when relations between foreigners and Chinese were strained, the unexpected return -of the fleet filled the minds of Europeans in China with alarm. It was the unanimous -verdict of press and people that the return of the French in sufficient force to Corea -in the spring was a measure of absolute safety to foreigners in the far East. If not, -since both British and American citizens were among the crew of the General Sherman, -murdered at Ping-an, the fleets of Great Britain and the United States should proceed -to Seoul. This, however, was not done; the English let well enough alone, the French -soon had their hands full in attending to the Germans at home, and the Americans went -later only to follow Admiral Roze’s example. Meanwhile the smothered embers of hostility -to foreign influence steadily gathered vigor, as the report spread like a gale through -China that the hated Frenchmen had been driven away by the Coreans. The fires at length -broke out in the Tien-tsin massacre, June 21, 1870. “It is believed by many thoughtful -observers in China that this frightful event gained its first serious impetus from -the unfortunate issue of Admiral Roze’s campaign in Corea.” <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd31e5692src" title="Return to note 2 in text.">↑</a></p> -</div> -<div class="fndiv" id="xd31e5700"> -<p class="footnote"><span class="fnlabel"><a class="noteRef" href="#xd31e5700src">3</a></span> The Min or Ming family is largely Chinese in blood and origin, and, besides being -pre-eminent among all the Corean nobility in social, political, and intellectual power, -has been most strenuous in adherence to Chinese ideas and traditions, with the purpose -of keeping Corea unswerving in her vassalage and loyalty to China. Their retainers -constitute a large portion of the population of Seoul. Besides the queen, the king -on his mother’s side, the wife of the heir apparent, and several of the highest officers -of the government belong to the house of Min. For centuries this family has practically -governed the kingdom. Their social and personal influence in Peking has always been -very great, while at home their relations to the treasury and the army have been very -close. The plot of 1882 was in effect an ineffectual attempt to destroy their power. -When China commanded, they approved of the treaty with the United States. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd31e5700src" title="Return to note 3 in text.">↑</a></p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch44" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#xd31e1208">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="label">CHAPTER XLIV.</h2> -<h2 class="main">AMERICAN RELATIONS WITH COREA.</h2> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="first">America became a commercial rival to Chō-sen as early as 1757, when the products of -Connecticut and Massachusetts lay side by side with Corean imports in the markets -of Peking and Canton. Ginseng, the most precious drug in the Chinese pharmacopœia, -had been for ages brought from Manchuria and the neighboring peninsula, where, on -the mountains, the oldest and richest roots are found. -</p> -<p>The Dutch traders, at once noticing the insatiable demand for the famed remedy, sought -all over the world for a supply. The sweetish and mucilaginous root, though considered -worthless by Europeans, was then occasionally bringing its weight in gold, and usually -seven times its weight in silver, at Peking, and the merchants in the annual embassy -from Seoul were reaping a rich harvest. Besides selling the younger and less valuable -crop in its natural condition, they had factories in which the two-legged roots—which -to the Asiatic imagination suggested the figure of the human body they were meant -to refresh—were so manipulated as to take on the appearance of age, thus enhancing -their price in the market. -</p> -<p>Suddenly the Corean market was broken. Stimulated by the Dutch merchants at Albany, -the Indians of Massachusetts had found the fleshy root growing abundantly on the hills -around Stockbridge in Massachusetts. Taking it to Albany, they exchanged it for hardware, -trinkets, and rum. While the Dutch domines were scandalized at the drunken revels -of the “Yankee” Indians, who equalled the Mohawks in their inebriation, good Jonathan -Edwards at Stockbridge was grieving over the waywardness of his dusky flock, because -they had gone wild over ginseng-hunting. -</p> -<p>The Hollanders, shipping the bundled roots on their galliots down the Hudson, and -thence to Amsterdam and London, sold them to the British East India Company at a profit -of five hundred per cent. Landed at Canton, and thence carried to Peking, American -ginseng broke the market, forced the price to a shockingly low figure, and dealt a -heavy blow to the Corean monopoly. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb389">[<a href="#pb389">389</a>]</span></p> -<p>Henceforth a steady stream of ginseng—now found in limitless quantities in the Ohio -and Mississippi valleys—poured into China. Though far inferior to the best article, -it (<i lang="la">Aralia quinquefolia</i>) is sufficiently like it in taste and real or imaginary qualities to rival the root -of Chō-sen, which is not of the very highest grade. -</p> -<p>Less than a generation had passed from the time that the western end of Massachusetts -had any influence on Corea or China, before there was brought from the far East an -herb that influenced the colony at her other end, far otherwise than commercially. -Massachusetts had sent ginseng to Canton, China now sent tea to Massachusetts. The -herb from Amoy was pitched into the sea by men dressed and painted like the Indians, -and the Revolution followed. -</p> -<p>The war for independence over, Captain John Greene, in the ship Empress of China, -sailed from New York, February 22, 1784. Major Samuel Shaw, the supercargo, without -government aid or recognition, established American trade with China, living at Canton -during part of the year 1786 and the whole of 1787 and 1788. Having been appointed -consul by President Washington in 1789, while on a visit home, Major Shaw returned -to China in an entirely new ship, the Massachusetts, built, navigated, and owned by -American citizens. At Canton he held the office of consul certainly until the year -1790, and presumably until his death in 1794. This first consul of the United States -in China received his commission from Congress, on condition that he should “not be -entitled to receive any salary, fees, or emoluments whatever.” -</p> -<p>Animated by the spirit of independence, and a laudable ambition, the resolute citizen -of the New World declared that “the Americans must have tea, and they seek the most -lucrative market for their precious root ginseng.”<a class="noteRef" id="xd31e5725src" href="#xd31e5725">1</a> -</p> -<p>It was ginseng and tea—an exchange of the materials for drink, a barter of tonics—that -brought the Americans and Chinese, and finally the Americans and Coreans together. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb390">[<a href="#pb390">390</a>]</span></p> -<p>Cotton was the next American raw material exported to China, beginning in 1791. In -1842 the loaded ships sailed direct from Alabama to Canton, on the expansion of trade -after the Opium War. -</p> -<p>The idea now began to dawn upon some minds that it was high time that Japan and Corea -should be opened to American commerce. -</p> -<p>The first public man who gave this idea official expression was the Honorable Zadoc -Pratt, then member of the House of Representatives from the Eleventh (now the Fifteenth) -Congressional District of New York. As chairman of the Committee on Naval Affairs, -he introduced in Congress, February 12, 1845, a proposition for the extension of American -commerce by the despatch of a mission to Japan and Corea as follows: -</p> -<p>“It is hereby recommended that immediate measures be taken for effecting commercial -arrangements with the empire of Japan and the kingdom of Corea,” etc. (<i>Congressional Globe</i>, vol. xiv., p. 294). -</p> -<p>The Mexican war was then already looming as a near possibility, and under its shadow, -the wisdom of sending even a part of our little navy was doubted, and Mr. Pratt’s -bill failed to pass. -</p> -<p>None of the American commanders, Glyn, Biddle, John Rodgers, or even Perry, seem to -have ventured into Corean waters, and Commodore Perry has scarcely mentioned the adjacent -kingdom in the narrative of the treaty expedition which he wrote, and his pastor, -the Rev. Francis L. Hawks, edited. In truth, the sealed country was at that time almost -as little known as that of Corea or Coreæ, which Josephus mentions, or that province -of India which bears the same name. -</p> -<p>The commerce which sprang up, not only between our country and China and Japan, but -also that carried on in American vessels between Shanghae, Chifu, Tien-tsin, and Niu-chwang -in North China, and the Japanese ports, made the navigation of Corean waters a necessity. -Sooner or later shipwrecks must occur, and the question of the humane treatment of -American citizens cast on Corean shores came up before our government for settlement, -as it had long before in the case of Japan. -</p> -<p>When it did begin to rain it poured. Within one year the Corean government having -three American cases to deal with, gave a startling illustration of its policy—with -the distressed, kindness; with the robber, powder and iron; with the invader, death -and annihilation. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb391">[<a href="#pb391">391</a>]</span></p> -<p>On June 24, 1866, the American schooner Surprise was wrecked off the coast (of Whang-hai?). -The approach of any foreign vessel was especially dangerous at this time, as the crews -might be mistaken for Frenchmen and killed by the people from patriotic impulses. -Nevertheless Captain McCaslin and his men with their Chinese cook, after being first -well catechised by the local magistrate, and secondly by a commissioner sent from -Seoul, were kindly treated and well fed, and provided with clothing, medicines, and -tobacco. By orders of Tai-wen Kun, they were escorted on horseback to Ai-chiu, and, -after being feasted there, were conducted safely to the Border Gate. Thence, after -a hard journey via Mukden, they got to Niu-chwang and to the United States consul. -A gold watch was voted by Congress to the Rev. Père Gillie for his kindness to these -men while in Mukden. -</p> -<p>From a passage in one of the letters of the Corean Government, we gather that the -crew of still another American ship were hospitably treated after shipwreck, but of -the circumstances we are ignorant. Of the General Sherman affair more is known. -</p> -<p>The General Sherman was an American schooner, owned by a Mr. Preston, who was making -a voyage for health. She was consigned to Messrs. Meadows & Co., a British firm in -Tien-tsin, and reached that port July, 1866. After delivery of her cargo, an arrangement -was made by the firm and owner to load her with goods likely to be saleable in Corea, -such as cotton cloth, glass, tin-plate, etc., and despatch her there on an experimental -voyage in the hope of thus opening the country to commerce. -</p> -<p>Leaving Tien-tsin July 29th, the vessel touched at Chifu, and took on board Mr. Hogarth, -a young Englishman, and a Chinese shroff,<a class="noteRef" id="xd31e5753src" href="#xd31e5753">2</a> familiar with Corean money. The complement of the vessel was now five white foreigners, -and nineteen Malay and Chinese sailors. The owner, Preston, the master, Page, and -the mate, Wilson, were Americans. The Rev. Mr. Thomas, who had learned Corean from -refugees at Chifu, and had made a trip to Whang-hai on a Chinese junk, went on board -as a passenger to improve his knowledge of the language.<a class="noteRef" id="xd31e5756src" href="#xd31e5756">3</a> -<span class="pageNum" id="pb392">[<a href="#pb392">392</a>]</span></p> -<p>From the first the character of the expedition was suspected, because the men were -rather too heavily armed for a peaceful trading voyage. It was believed in China that -the royal coffins in the tombs of Ping-an, wherein more than one dynasty of Chō-sen -lay buried, were of solid gold; and it was broadly hinted that the expedition had -something to do with these. -</p> -<p>The schooner, whether merchant or invader, leaving Chifu, took a west-northwest direction, -and made for the mouth of the Ta Tong River. There they met the Chinese captain of -a Chifu junk, who agreed to pilot them up the river. He continued on the General Sherman -during four tides, or two days. Then leaving her, he returned to the river’s mouth, -and sailed back to Chifu, where he was met and questioned by the firm of Meadows & -Co. -</p> -<p>No further direct intelligence was ever received from the unfortunate party. -</p> -<p>The time chosen for this “experimental trading voyage” was strangely inopportune. -The whole country was excited over the expected invasion of the French, and to a Corean—especially -in the north, where not one in ten thousand had ever seen a white foreigner—any man -dressed in foreign clothes would be taken for a Frenchman, as were even the Japanese -crew of the gunboat Unyo Kuan in 1875. An armed vessel would certainly be taken for -a French ship, and made the object of patriotic vengeance. -</p> -<p>According to one report, the hatches of the schooner were fastened down, after the -crew had been driven beneath, and set on fire. According to another, all were decapitated. -The Coreans burned the wood work for its iron, and took the cannon for models. -</p> -<p>During this same month of August, 1866, the Jewish merchant Ernest Oppert, in the -steamer Emperor, entered the Han River, and had secret interviews with some of the -native Christians, who wrote to him in Latin. Communications were also held with the -governor of Kang-wa, and valuable charts were made by Captain James. One month later, -in September, the French war-vessels made their appearance. -</p> -<p>The U. S. steamship Wachusett, despatched by Admiral Rowan to inquire into the Sherman -affair, reached Chifu January 14, <span class="pageNum" id="pb393">[<a href="#pb393">393</a>]</span>1867, and is said to have taken on board the Chinese pilot of the General Sherman, -and the Rev. Mr. Corbett, an American missionary, to act as interpreter. Leaving Chifu -January 21st, they cast anchor, January 23d, at the mouth of the large inlet opposite -Sir James Hall group, which indents Whang-hai province. This estuary they erroneously -supposed to be the Ta Tong River leading to Ping-an city, whereas they were half a -degree too far south, as the chart made by themselves shows. -</p> -<p></p> -<div class="figure p393width" id="p393"><img src="images/p393.png" alt="Map Illustrating the “General Sherman” Affair." width="534" height="500"><p class="figureHead">Map Illustrating the “General Sherman” Affair.</p> -</div><p> -</p> -<p>A letter was despatched, through the official of Cow Island, near the anchorage, to -the prefect of the large city nearest the place of the Sherman affair, demanding that -the murderers be produced on the deck of the Wachusett. The city of Ping-an was about -seventy-five miles distant. The letter probably went to Hai-chiu, the capital of the -province. Five days elapsed before the answer arrived, during which the surveying -boats were busy. Many natives were met and spoken to, who all told one story, that -the Sherman’s crew were murdered by the people, and not by official instigation.<a class="noteRef" id="xd31e5778src" href="#xd31e5778">4</a> -<span class="pageNum" id="pb394">[<a href="#pb394">394</a>]</span></p> -<p>On the 29th, an officer from one of the villages of the district appeared, “whose -presence inspired the greatest dread among the people.” An interview was held, during -which Commander Shufeldt possessed his soul in patience. -</p> -<p>To the polished American’s eye, the Corean’s manner was haughty and imperious. He -was utterly beyond the reach of reason and of argument. In his person he seemed “the -perfect type of a cruel and vindictive savage.” The Corean’s impressions of the American, -not being in print, are unknown. -</p> -<p>It is unnecessary to give the details of the fruitless interview. The American could -get neither information nor satisfaction; the gist of the Corean reiteration was, -“Go away as soon as possible.” Commander Shufeldt, bound by his orders, could do nothing -more, and being compelled also by stress of weather, came away. -</p> -<p>In 1867, Dr. S. Wells Williams, Secretary of the Legation of the United States at -Peking, succeeded in obtaining an interview with a member of the Corean embassy, who -told him that after the General Sherman got aground, she careened over, as the tide -receded, and her crew landed to guard or float her. The natives gathered around them, -and before long an altercation took place between the two parties, which soon led -to blows and bloodshed. A general attack began upon the foreigners, in which every -man was killed by the mob. About twenty of the natives lost their lives. Dr. Williams’ -comment is, “The evidence goes to uphold the presumption that they invoked their sad -fate by some rash or violent act toward the natives.” Dr. Williams also met a Chinese -pilot, Yu Wautai, who reported that in 1867 he had seen the hull of a foreign vessel -lying on the south bank of the river, about ten miles up from the sea. The hull was -full of water. A Corean from Sparrow Island had told him that the murder of the Sherman’s -crew was entirely the work of the people and farmers, and not of the magistrates or -soldiery. -</p> -<p>Still determined to learn something of the fate of the Sherman’s crew, since reports -were current that two or more of them were still alive and in prison, Admiral Rowan, -in May, 1867, despatched another vessel, which this time got into the right river. -Commander <span class="pageNum" id="pb395">[<a href="#pb395">395</a>]</span>Febiger, in the U. S. steamship Shenandoah, besides surveying the “Ping Yang Inlet,” -learned this version of the affair: -</p> -<p>A foreign vessel arrived in the river two years before. The local officials went on -board and addressed the two foreign officers of the ship in respectful language. The -latter grossly insulted the native dignitaries, i.e., “they turned round and went -to sleep.” -</p> -<p>A man on board, whom they spoke of as “Tony,<a class="noteRef" id="xd31e5798src" href="#xd31e5798">5</a> a Frenchman,” used violent and very impolite language toward them. The Coreans treated -their visitors kindly, but warned them of their danger, and the unlawfulness of penetrating -into, or trading in the country. Nevertheless, the foreigners went up the river to -Ping-an city, where they seized the “adjutant-general’s” ship, put him in chains, -and proceeded to rob the junks and their crews. The people of the city aroused to -wrath, attacked the foreign ship with fire-arms and cannon; they set adrift fire-rafts, -and even made a hand-to-hand fight with pikes, knives, and swords. The foreigners -fought desperately, but the Coreans overpowered them. Finally, the ship, having caught -fire, blew up with a terrific report. -</p> -<p>This story was not of course believed by the American officers, but even the best -wishers and friends of the Ping-an adventurers cannot stifle suspicion of either cruelty -or insult to the natives. Knowing the character of certain members of the party, and -remembering the kindness shown to the crew of the Surprise, few of the unprejudiced -will believe that the General Sherman’s crew were murdered without cause. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb396">[<a href="#pb396">396</a>]</span></p> -</div> -<div class="footnotes"> -<hr class="fnsep"> -<div class="footnote-body"> -<div class="fndiv" id="xd31e5725"> -<p class="footnote"><span class="fnlabel"><a class="noteRef" href="#xd31e5725src">1</a></span> The Honorable Gideon Nye, of China, from whose article in “The Far East” these facts -are drawn concerning the first consul of the United States to China, has effectually -disproved the oft-quoted statement of Sir John Davis in his “History of China,” that -“It was in the year 1802 that the American flag was <i>first</i> hoisted at Canton.” Dr. William Speer in his excellent book—fair to the Chinese as -well as to foreigners—has told the story of Jonathan Edwards and his troubles over -ginseng and the drink which his Indian pupils bought with it. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd31e5725src" title="Return to note 1 in text.">↑</a></p> -</div> -<div class="fndiv" id="xd31e5753"> -<p class="footnote"><span class="fnlabel"><a class="noteRef" href="#xd31e5753src">2</a></span> These shroffs are experts in handling money. They can detect counterfeits by the touch, -and, with incredible celerity, can reckon amounts to thousandths of a cent on the -abacus. One or more of them are found in nearly every one of the banks and hongs in -Eurasian ports. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd31e5753src" title="Return to note 2 in text.">↑</a></p> -</div> -<div class="fndiv" id="xd31e5756"> -<p class="footnote"><span class="fnlabel"><a class="noteRef" href="#xd31e5756src">3</a></span> Some weeks before, he had offered to penetrate the peninsula as missionary and agent -of the Scottish National Bible Society. The Coreans who had <span class="pageNum" id="pb392n">[<a href="#pb392n">392</a>]</span>accompanied Bishop Ridel to Chifu, and who had met Dr. Williamson, volunteered to -be his guides, and he had decided to go with them. When the opportunity of going by -the American vessel offered itself, he changed his plan. Against the advice of his -friends, who suspected the character of the expedition, he joined the party. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd31e5756src" title="Return to note 3 in text.">↑</a></p> -</div> -<div class="fndiv" id="xd31e5778"> -<p class="footnote"><span class="fnlabel"><a class="noteRef" href="#xd31e5778src">4</a></span> A broad streak of light was thrown upon at least one possible cause of the Sherman -tragedy, by the statement of the natives that Chinese pirates frequently descend on -the coast and kill and rob the Coreans. During the previous <span class="pageNum" id="pb394n">[<a href="#pb394n">394</a>]</span>year, several natives had been killed by Chinese pirates near the Wachusett’s anchorage. -As ten of the crew of the Sherman were Canton Chinamen, it is probable that the very -sight of them on an <i>armed</i> vessel would inflame the Coreans to take their long-waited for revenge. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd31e5778src" title="Return to note 4 in text.">↑</a></p> -</div> -<div class="fndiv" id="xd31e5798"> -<p class="footnote"><span class="fnlabel"><a class="noteRef" href="#xd31e5798src">5</a></span> In 1884, Lieutenant J. B. Bernadon, U.S.N., made a journey from Seoul to Ping-an, -and, being able to speak Corean, learned the following from native Christians. The -Sherman, arriving during the heavy midsummer rains, which make the river impassable -to native boats, was seen from the city walls and caused great excitement. When the -waters subsided the governor sent officers to inquire her mission. Unfortunately, -to gratify their curiosity, the common people set out also in a large fleet of boats, -which the Sherman’s crew mistook for a hostile demonstration, and fired guns in the -air to warn them off. Then all the boats returned. When the river fell the Sherman -grounded and careened over, which being seen from the city walls a fleet of boats -set out with hostile intent and were fired upon. Officers and people, now enraged, -started fire-rafts, and soon the vessel, though with white flag hoisted, was in flames. -Of those who leaped in the river most were drowned. Of those picked up one Tchoi-nan-un -(Rev. Mr. Thomas), who was able to talk Corean, explained the meaning of the white -flag, and begged to be surrendered to China. His prayer was in vain. In a few days -all the prisoners were led out and publicly executed. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd31e5798src" title="Return to note 5 in text.">↑</a></p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch45" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#xd31e1217">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="label">CHAPTER XLV.</h2> -<h2 class="main">A BODY-SNATCHING EXPEDITION.</h2> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="first">Early in May, 1867, the foreign settlement at Shanghae was thrown into excitement -by the report of the return of an unsuccessful piratical expedition from Corea. The -<i>ennui</i> of Eurasian port life was turned into a lively glow of excitement. Conversation at -the clubs and tea-tables, which had wilted down to local gossip, Wade’s policy, paper -hunts, and the races, now turned upon the politics and geography, methods of royal -sepulture, mortuary architecture, antiquities, customs, and costumes in the mysterious -peninsula. The pleasures of wheelbarrow rides, and visits to the bubbling springs, -now palled before the pending trial at the United States consular court. -</p> -<p>An American citizen was charged with making an “unlawful and scandalous expedition” -to Corea, and of violently attempting to land in a country with which the United States -had no treaty relations. It was further stated that he had gone to exhume the bones -of a defunct king in order to hold them for sale or ransom. In plain English, it was -said to be a piratical and body-snatching descent upon the grave-yards of Chō-sen, -to dig up royal remains, not for the purpose of dissection, nor in the interests of -science or of archæology, but for the sake of money, which money was to be extorted -from the regent and court of Seoul. -</p> -<p>The idea, of course, awoke merriment as well as interest. One may well understand -why Professor Marsh should make periodical descents upon the bone-yards of Red Cloud’s -territory, and exhibit his triumphs—skeletons of toothed birds and of geological horses -as small as Corean ponies—in a museum under glass cases, well mounted with shining -brass springs and iron joints. Even a school-boy can without laughing think of Dr. -Schliemann rooting among the tombs of Mycenæ, and Di Cesnola sifting the dust of Kurium -for its golden treasures. Even the night picture of resurrectionists, <span class="pageNum" id="pb397">[<a href="#pb397">397</a>]</span>emptying graves in a Scotch kirk-yard for subjects to sell at a pound sterling apiece, -has few elements of humor about it. -</p> -<p>But to conceive of civilized “Christians,” or Israelites, chartering a steamer to -exhume and steal the carcase and mouldering bones of a heathen king, to hold them -in pawn to raise money on them<span class="corr" id="xd31e5819" title="Not in source">,</span> created more laughter than frowns or tears. It was thought that the sign under which -the ship sailed, instead of being the flag of the North German Confederation, should -have been the three golden balls, such as hang above a pawnbroker’s windows. -</p> -<p>The person on trial was formerly an interpreter at the United States consulate, and, -having learned Chinese from childhood, was able to speak the language fluently, and -thus converse, by means of tongue or pencil, with the many Coreans who know the standard -of communication in Eastern Asia either by sound or sight. It was he also who furnished -the cash for the expedition, the commander-in-chief of which was one Oppert, a North -German subject; the guide was a French Jesuit priest named Farout (evidently a fictitious -name) who spoke Corean, having been in the country as a missionary. These three were -the leaders of the expedition. -</p> -<p>Before going, the American had told Consul Seward that his object was to take a Corean -embassy to Europe, to <span class="corr" id="xd31e5824" title="Source: negociate">negotiate</span> treaties, and to explain to the governments of France and the United States the murder -of their subjects in Corea. Four Coreans, with the French missionary Bishop Ridel, -had been in Shanghae a short time before, April 24, 1867; and the defendant declared -that it was from these four persons, whom he styled “commissioners,” that he got his -information as to the desire of the Corean government for treaties, etc. He also stated -that this knowledge was held only by the four Coreans, himself, and a Jewish <span class="corr" id="xd31e5827" title="Source: pedler">peddler</span>, who had several times penetrated into Corea, and by whom the Corean “commissioners,” -had been brought to Shanghae. These “commissioners,” he averred, had a new and correct -version of the General Sherman affair. According to their report, some of the crew -had become embroiled in a row growing out of the improper treatment of some native -women, and were arrested. The crew went to rescue them. They succeeded, and took also -two native officers on board for hostages. This so enraged the people that they attacked -the crew, killed eight at once, and made prisoners of the others who were still alive. -</p> -<p>Readers of our narrative will smile at discovering the poor <span class="pageNum" id="pb398">[<a href="#pb398">398</a>]</span>fishermen who brought their bishop across the Yellow Sea in their boat thus transformed -into “ambassadors.” -</p> -<p>One thing seemed to be on the surface—that this modern Jason and his argonauts had -gone out to find a golden fleece, but came back shorn. -</p> -<p>On the return of the expedition, Mr. Seward questioned the American closely, sifted -the matter, and finally, being satisfied that something was wrong, put him on trial, -eliciting the facts which seem to be the following: -</p> -<p>Oppert, who had been at the Naipo, and up the Han River in the Emperor and Rona, secured -a steamer named the China, of six hundred and eighty tons, with a steam tender, the -Greta, of sixty tons, and run the North German flag up at the fore. The complement -of the ship was eight Europeans, twenty Malays from <span class="corr" id="xd31e5839" title="Source: Manilla">Manila</span>, and about one hundred Chinamen, these last were a motley crew of sailors, laborers, -and coolies—the riff-raff of humanity, such as swarm in every Chinese port. With muskets -in their hands—it is doubtful whether a dozen of them had ever fired off a gun—they -were to form the “forces” or military escort of the expedition, which was to negotiate -“treaties,” embark an embassy to travel round the globe, and introduce the Hermit -Nation to the world. -</p> -<p>The “fleet” left Shanghae April 30, 1867, and steamed to Nagasaki; in which Japanese -port she remained two days, taking on board coal, water, and ten cases of muskets. -The prow was then headed for Chung-chong province. They arrived in Prince Jerome Gulf -at 10 <span class="asc">P.M.</span> on Friday, May 8th. The next day at 10 <span class="asc">A.M.</span> they moved farther in the river. In the afternoon they succeeded in getting two small -boats, or sampans, partly by persuasion and pay, partly by force. The expedition was -then organized, Oppert commanding. The mate, engineer, and regular Chinese manned -the tender which was to tow the boats. The muskets were unpacked and distributed on -deck, and the coolies were armed, equipped, taught the difference between the butt -and muzzle of their weapons, and given their orders. Four men carried spades or coal -shovels to exhume the bones and treasure. -</p> -<p>The French priest who had been in Corea acted as guide and interpreter. Shortly after -midnight, and very early on Sunday morning, the steam tender began to move up the -river, stopping at a point about forty miles from the sea. The armed crowd landed, -and the march across the open country to the tomb was begun. As they proceeded, the -neighborhood became alive with <span class="pageNum" id="pb399">[<a href="#pb399">399</a>]</span>curious people, and the hills were white with people gazing at the strange procession. -A few natives being met on the way, the French priest stopped to speak with them. -The party rested for a while at a temple, for the march was getting tiresome, having -already occupied several hours. -</p> -<p>Reaching the burial-place [near Totta-san?], they found a raised mound with a slab -of stone on each side at the base. Beneath this tomb was the supposed treasure. Was -it bones or gold? -</p> -<p>The four men with spades now began their work, and soon levelled the mound. They had -dug out a considerable quantity of earth, when their shovels struck on a rocky slab, -which seemed to be the lid of the tomb proper, or the sarcophagus. This they could -not move. All efforts to budge or pry it up were vain. Having no crowbars they were, -after much useless labor, with perhaps not a little swearing, compelled to give up -their task. -</p> -<p>On their return march, the exasperated Coreans, plucking up courage, attempted to -molest them, but the marauders, firing their guns in the air, kept their assailants -at a respectful distance. The party and tender dropped down the river and rejoined -the steamer at noon, the weather being foggy. -</p> -<p>Further proceedings of the expedition are known only in outline. The steamer weighed -anchor and left for Kang-wa Island. They put themselves in communication with the -local magistrate during three days. On the third day a party landed from the ship, -and while on shore were fired upon. Two men were killed and one wounded. -</p> -<p>The expedition remained in Corea ten days, returning to Shanghae after two weeks’ -absence. -</p> -<p>In the foregoing trial it is most evident that many details were concealed. The quantity -of truth divulged was probably in proportion to the whole amount, as the puffs of -steam from a safety-valve are to the volume in the boiler. The accused let out just -enough to save them from conviction and to secure their acquittal. -</p> -<p>The defendant was discharged with the Scotch verdict “not proven.” Mr. George F. Seward, -however, wrote to the State Department at Washington his opinion, that the expedition -was “an attempt to take from their tombs the remains of one or more sovereigns of -Corea, for the purpose, it would seem, of holding them to ransom.” -</p> -<p>Whether any great amount of treasure is ever buried with the sovereigns or grandees -of Chō-sen is not known to us. Certain it <span class="pageNum" id="pb400">[<a href="#pb400">400</a>]</span>is that the national sentiment is that of horror against the disturbance or rifling -of sepulchres. Now they had before their eyes a fresh confirmation of their suspicions -that the chief purpose of foreign invaders was to rob the dead and violate the most -holy instincts of humanity. The national mind now settled into the conviction that, -beyond all doubt, foreigners were barbarians and many of them thieves and robbers. -With such eyes were they ready to look upon the flag and ships of the United States -when they came in 1871. -</p> -<p></p> -<div class="figure p400width" id="p400"><img src="images/p400.png" alt="Map Illustrating the “China” Affair." width="503" height="543"><p class="figureHead">Map Illustrating the “China” Affair.</p> -</div><p> -</p> -<p><span class="sc">Note.</span>—Nearly every word of the above was written in December, 1877, the information having -been derived from the United States Diplomatic Correspondence. At that time we suspected -that “Farout” was the fictitious name of Feron, the French Roman Catholic missionary, -who had escaped the persecutions of 1866. It seems that three countries and three -religions were represented in this body-snatching expedition, which was of a truly -international character. -</p> -<p>In March, 1880, there was published in London and New York the English translation -of “<span lang="de">Ein Verschlossenes Land</span>,” a work printed in Germany. As we read “A Forbidden Land: Voyages to the Corea,” -it dawned upon us <span class="pageNum" id="pb401">[<a href="#pb401">401</a>]</span>that the author was none other than “the needy Hamburgh trader,” “the Jewish <span class="corr" id="xd31e5881" title="Source: pedler">peddler</span>,” of the Consular Court trial of 1867. It was even so. Coolly and without denial, -the author tells us that the main object of his last voyage was to “remove” some buried -relics held in great veneration by that “blood-thirsty tyrant,” the Tai-wen Kun, or -regent. The project was first suggested to him by the French priest, who, as the author -takes pains to tell us, was not a Jesuit, nor had ever belonged to that order (p. -295), though he gives Feron’s proposition in his own words (p. 299), the italics being -ours: -</p> -<p>“If the project I am going to lay before you (<i>i.e.</i>, to rob the grave) will at first sight appear to you strange and out of the common, -remember that <i>a great aim can never be gained by small means</i>, and that we must look at this affair from another point of view than that which -may be taken by narrow-minded people.” -</p> -<p>The details of the landing, march [to near Totta-san?], excavation, and retreat are -duly narrated, the blame of failure being laid upon one unlucky wight who was “the -only disreputable character we had with us!” -</p> -<p>After leaving Prince Jerome Gulf, the China proceeded up the Han River to Tricault -Island (see map, page 379), “about twenty minutes’ steam below Kang-wha.” There the -leader received a note from the Taiouen-goon (the Tai-wen Kun, or regent), the gist -of which was, “Corea has no need of foreign intruders.” While holding a parley near -the wall of a town on Tricault Island, “the only disreputable character” in the party -again got them into trouble. This black sheep was a German sailor, who, hungering -after fresh veal, had stolen a calf; an act which drew the fire of the native soldiery -on the city wall. The thief received a ball in his arm, which compelled him to drop -the calf and run, while one Manilaman was shot dead. It is not known how far the statistics -of a Corean warfare diverge from those elsewhere, nor how many tons of lead are required -to kill one man, but owing to the incredibly bad aim of the jingal shooters, the remainder -of the party of twenty or more escaped their deserts and reached the tender. The next -morning the expedition set out on the return to Shanghae. -</p> -<p>After a review of this book (in <i>The Nation</i> of April 7, 1880), which the author issued after his imprisonment, the following -note appeared in the same paper of April 21st: -</p> -<blockquote> -<p class="first"><span class="sc">Oppert’s Corean Outrage.</span> -</p> -<p class="salute"><i>To the Editor of The Nation</i>: -</p> -<p><span class="sc">Sir</span>: The notice of Oppert’s book on Corea recalls some curious incidents to my mind. -The raid on the King’s tomb was one of the most extraordinary affairs ever known. -Its inception and failure might have been concealed but for the Coreans, when they -attacked the ghouls, killing an unfortunate Manilaman. Hearing of this, the Spanish -consul applied to Mr. Seward (United States Consul-General at Shanghae), who at once -arrested Jenkins. I was one of the four “associates” summoned to sit with the consul-general -in the trial, and well remember what a perfect burlesque it was. The Chinese, who -had told a plain and coherent story on preliminary examination, were as dumb as oysters -on the stand. When all had been called, the defendant’s counsel said that he would -rest his case on their testimony. Conviction was <span class="pageNum" id="pb402">[<a href="#pb402">402</a>]</span>impossible, but in the minds of those informed on the subject, the wickedness of this -buccaneering expedition was remembered as surpassing even the absurdity of an attempt -to destroy a granite mausoleum with coal shovels. There is a monstrous impertinence -in Oppert’s publishing an account of a piratical fiasco which is reported to have -cost him a term of imprisonment at home. -</p> -<p class="signed"><span class="sc">A. A. Hayes</span>, Jr. -</p> -<p class="dateline"><span class="sc">New York</span>, April 15, 1880.</p> -</blockquote><p> -<span class="pageNum" id="pb403">[<a href="#pb403">403</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch46" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#xd31e1225">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="label">CHAPTER XLVI.</h2> -<h2 class="main">“OUR LITTLE WAR WITH THE HEATHEN.”</h2> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="first">The representations made to the Department of State at Washington by Dr. S. Wells -Williams, concerning the General Sherman, and by Consul-General George F. Seward, -in the matter of the China, affair, directed the attention of the Government to the -opening of Corea to American commerce. The memorial of Mr. Seward, dated October 14, -1868, reviewed the advantages to be gained and the obstacles in the way. The need -of protection to American seamen was pointed out, and as Japan had been opened to -international relations by American diplomacy, why should not a smaller nation yield -to persuasion? American merchants in China having seconded Mr. Seward’s proposal, -the State Department took the matter into serious consideration, and, in 1870, resolved -to undertake the difficult enterprise. -</p> -<p>The servants of the United States who were charged with this delicate mission were, -Mr. Frederick F. Low, Minister of the United States to Peking, and Rear-Admiral John -Rodgers, Commander-in-Chief of the Asiatic squadron. Mr. Low was directed by Secretary -Fish to gain all possible knowledge from Peking, and then proceed on the admiral’s -flag-ship to the Corean capital. He was to make a treaty of commerce if possible, -but his chief aim was to secure provision for the protection of shipwrecked mariners. -He was to avoid a conflict of force, unless it could not be avoided without dishonor. -“The responsibility of war or peace” was to be left with him and not with the admiral.<a class="noteRef" id="xd31e5927src" href="#xd31e5927">1</a> -</p> -<p>There was at this time, all over the far East, a feeling of uncertainty <span class="pageNum" id="pb404">[<a href="#pb404">404</a>]</span>and alarm among foreigners, and many portentious signs seemed to indicate a general -uprising, both in China and Japan, against foreigners. The example of Corea in expelling -or beheading the French priests acted as powerful leaven in the minds of the fanatical -foreigner-haters in the two countries adjoining. The “mikado-reverencers,” who in -Japan had overthrown the “Tycoon” and abolished the dual system of government, made -these objects only secondary to the expulsion of all aliens. The cry of “honor the -mikado” was joined to the savage yell of the Jo-i (alien-haters), “expel the barbarians.” -In China the smothered feelings of murderous animosity were almost ready to burst. -The air was filled with alarms, even while the American fleet was preparing <a class="noteRef" id="xd31e5934src" href="#xd31e5934">2</a> for Corea. -</p> -<p>Rear-Admiral Rodgers,<a class="noteRef" id="xd31e5939src" href="#xd31e5939">3</a> who had taken command, and relieved Admiral Rowan, August 20, 1869, began his preparations -with vigor. -</p> -<p>In a consultation held at Peking during November, 1870, between the admiral, minister, -and consul general, the time for the expedition was fixed for the month of May, 1871. -Mr. Seward then left for a visit to India, and Mr. Low despatched, through the Tribunal -of Rites at Peking, a letter to the King of Corea. After vast circumlocution, it emerged -from the mazes of Chinese court etiquette, and by a special courier reached the regent -at Seoul. In this, however, the Chinese were doing a great favor. No answer was received -from Seoul before the expedition sailed. -</p> -<p>Meanwhile the German minister to Japan (now in Peking), <span class="pageNum" id="pb405">[<a href="#pb405">405</a>]</span>Herr M. Von Brandt, had landed from the Hertha at Fusan, and attempted to hold an -interview with the governor of Tong-nai. He was accompanied by the Japanese representatives -at Fusan, who politely forwarded his request. A tart lecture to the mikado’s subject -for his officiousness, and a rebuff to the Kaiser’s envoy were the only results of -his mission. After sauntering about a little, Herr Von Brandt, who arrived June 1, -1878, left June 2d, and the era of commercial relations between the Central European -Empire<a class="noteRef" id="xd31e5947src" href="#xd31e5947">4</a> and Chō-sen was postponed. -</p> -<p>During the year 1870, Bishop Ridel, who had gone back to France, returned to China -and prepared to rejoin his converts. Having communicated with them, they awaited his -coming with anxiety, and we shall hear of them on board of the flag-ship Colorado. -</p> -<p>Mr. Low, having gathered all possible information, public and private, concerning -“the semi-barbarous and hostile people” of “the unknown country” which he expected -to fail of entering, sailed from Shanghae, May 8th, arriving at Nagasaki, May 12th. -On the 13th he wrote to the Secretary of State, Mr. Hamilton Fish. He declared that -“Corea is more of a sealed book than Japan was before Commodore Perry’s visit.” Evidently -he looked upon the pathway of the duty laid upon him as unusually thorny. The rose -if plucked at all would be held in smarting fingers. While granting a faithful servant -of the nation the virtue of modesty, one cannot fail to read in his letter more of -an expectation to redress wrongs than to conciliate hostility. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb406">[<a href="#pb406">406</a>]</span></p> -<p>The whole spirit of the expedition was not that reflected in the despatches of the -State Department, but rather that of the clubs and dinner-tables of Shanghae. The -minister went to Corea with his mind made up, and everything he saw confirmed him -in his fixed opinion. Of the admiral, it is not unjust to say that the warrior predominated -over the peace-maker. He had an eye to the victories of war more than those, not less -renowned, of peace. The sword was certainly more congenial to his nature than the -pen. -</p> -<p>The fleet made rendezvous at Nagasaki, in Kiushiu—that division of Japan whence warlike -expeditions to Chō-sen have sailed from the days of Jingu to those of Taikō, and from -Taikō to Rodgers. This time, as in the seventh century, the landing was to be made -not near the eastern, but on the remote western, coast. The cry was, “On to Seoul.” -</p> -<p>The squadron, consisting of the flag-ship Colorado, the corvettes Alaska and Benicia, -and the gun-boats Monocacy and Palos, sailed gallantly out of the harbor on May 16th, -and, making an easy run, anchored off Ferrières Islands on the 19th, and, after a -delay of fogs, Isle Eugenie on the 23d. -</p> -<p>In spite of the formidable appearance of our navy, the vessels were of either an antiquated -type or of too heavy a draught, their timbers too rotten or not strong enough for -shotted broadsides, and their <span class="corr" id="xd31e5960" title="Source: armanent">armament</span> defective in breech-loading firearms, while the facilities for landing a force were -inadequate. The Palos and Monocacy were the only ships fitted to go up the Han River. -The others must remain at the mouth. They were little more than transports. All the -naval world in Chinese waters wondered why so wide-awake and practical a people as -the Americans should be content with such old-fashioned ships, unworthy of the gallant -crews who manned them. However, the fleet and armament were better than the Corean -war-junks, or mud-forts armed with jingals. In gallant sailorly recognition of his -predecessor, yet with unconscious omen of like failure, the brave Rodgers named the -place of anchorage Roze Roads. The French soundings were verified and the superb scenery -richly enjoyed. All navigators of the approaches to Seoul are alike unanimous in showering -unstinting praise upon their natural beauty. Here for the first time the natives beheld -the “flowery” flag of the United States. -</p> -<p>Next morning the Palos and four steam-launches were put under the command of Captain -Homer C. Blake, to examine the channel beyond Boisée Island. Four days were peaceably -spent in this service, <span class="pageNum" id="pb407">[<a href="#pb407">407</a>]</span>a safe return being made on the evening of the 28th. Meanwhile boat parties had landed -and been treated in a friendly manner by the people, and the usual curiosity as to -brass buttons, blue cloth, and glass bottles displayed. The customary official paper -without signature, of interrogations as to who, whence, and why of the comers was -displayed, and the answers, “Americans,” “Friendly,” and “Interview” returned in faultless -Chinese. It was announced that the fleet would remain for some time. -</p> -<p></p> -<div class="figure p407width" id="p407"><img src="images/p407.jpg" alt="“The Entering Wedge of Civilization.”" width="456" height="706"><p class="figureHead">“The Entering Wedge of Civilization.”</p> -</div><p> -</p> -<p>On the following day, May 30th, the fleet anchored between the Isles Boisée and <span class="corr" id="xd31e5973" title="Source: Guerriére">Guerrière</span>. A stiff breeze had blown away the fogs and revealed the verdure and the features -of a landscape which struck all with admiration for its luxuriant beauty. Approaching -the squadron in a junk, some natives made signs of friendship, and came on board without -hesitation. They bore a missive acknowledging the receipt of the Americans’ letter, -and announcing that three nobles had been appointed by the regent for conference. -These junk-men were merely messengers, and made no pretence of being anything more. -They were hospitably treated, shown round the ship, and dined and wined until their -good nature broke out in broad grins and redolent visages. They stood for their photographs -on deck, and some fine <span class="pageNum" id="pb408">[<a href="#pb408">408</a>]</span>pictures of them were obtained. One of them, after being loaded with an armful of -spoil in the shape of a dozen or so of Bass’ pale ale bottles, minus their corks, -and a copy of <i>Every Saturday</i>, a Boston illustrated newspaper, was told in the stereotyped photographer’s phrase -to “assume a pleasant expression of countenance, and look right at this point.” He -obeyed so well, and in the nick of time, that a wreath of smiles was the result. “Our -first Corean visitor” stands before us on the page. -</p> -<p>Strange coincidence! Strange medley of the significant symbols of a Christian land! -The first thing given to the Corean was alcohol, beer, and wine. In the picture, plainly -appearing, are the empty pale ale bottles, with their trade-mark, the red triangle—“the -entering wedge of civilization.” But held behind the hands clasping the bottles is -a copy of <i>Every Saturday</i>, on the front page of which is a picture of Charles Sumner, the champion of humanity, -and of the principle that “nations must act as individuals,” with like moral responsibility! -</p> -<p>Promptly on May 31st, a delegation of eight officers, of the third and fifth rank, -came on board evidently with intent to see the minister and admiral, to learn all -they could, and to gain time. They had little or no authority and no credentials, -but they were sociable, friendly, and in good humor. -</p> -<p>“Mr. Low would not lower himself,” nor would Admiral Rodgers see them. They were received -by the secretary, Mr. Drew. They were absolutely non-committal on all points and to -all questions asked, and naturally so, since they had no authority whatever<a class="noteRef" id="xd31e5987src" href="#xd31e5987">5</a> to say “yes” or “no” to any proposition of the Americans. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb409">[<a href="#pb409">409</a>]</span></p> -<p>A golden opportunity was here lost. The Corean envoys were informed that soundings -would be taken in the river, and the shores would be surveyed. It was hoped that no -molestation would be offered, and, further, that twenty-four hours would elapse before -the boats began work. -</p> -<p>“To all this they (the Coreans) made no reply which could indicate dissent.” [Certainly -not! They had no power to nod their heads, or say either “yes” or “no.”] “So, believing -that we might continue our surveys while further diplomatic negotiations were pending, -an expedition was sent to examine and survey the Salée [Han] River.”<a class="noteRef" id="xd31e5999src" href="#xd31e5999">6</a> -</p> -<p>The survey fleet consisted of the Monocacy, Palos, the only ships fit for the purpose, -and four steam-launches, each of the latter having a howitzer mounted in the bow. -Captain H. C. Blake, the commander, was on board the Palos. The old hero understood -the situation only too well. As he started to obey orders he remarked: “In ten minutes -we shall have a row.” -</p> -<p>Exactly at noon of June 2d, the four steam-launches proceeded <span class="pageNum" id="pb410">[<a href="#pb410">410</a>]</span>in line abreast up the river, the Palos and Monocacy following. The tide was running -up, and neither of the large vessels could be kept moving at a rate slow enough to -allow the survey work to be done well, so that this part of their work is of little -value. -</p> -<p>Yet everything seemed quiet and peaceful; the bluffs and high banks along the water -were densely covered with green woods, with now meadows, now a thatched-roof village, -anon a rice-field in the foreground. Occasionally people could be seen in their white -dresses along the banks, but not a sign of hostility or war until, on reaching the -lower end of Kang-wa Island, a line of forts and fluttering flags suddenly become -visible. In a few minutes more long lines of white-garbed soldiery were seen, and -through a glass an interpreter read on one of the yellow flags the Chinese characters -meaning “General Commanding.” In the embrasures were a few pieces of artillery of -32-pound calibre, and some smaller pieces lashed together by fives, or nailed to logs -in a row. On the opposite point of the river was a line of smaller earthworks, freshly -thrown up, armed only with jingals. Around the bend in the river was “a whirlpool -as bad as Hell Gate,” full of eddies and ledges, with the channel only three hundred -feet wide. The fort (Du Condè) was situated right on this elbow. Hundreds of mats -and screens were ranged within and on the works, masking the loaded guns. As the boats -passed nearer, glimpses into the fort became possible, by which it was seen that the -cannon “lay nearly as thick together as gun to gun and gun behind gun on the floor -of an arsenal.” (See map, page 415.) -</p> -<p>For a moment the silence was ominous—oppressive. The hearts of the men beat violently, -their teeth were set, and calm defiance waited in the face of certain death. The rapid -current bore them on right into the face of the frowning muzzles. It seemed impossible -to escape. Were the Coreans going to fire? If so, why not now? Immediately? Now is -their opportunity. The vessels are abreast the forts. -</p> -<p>The Corean commander was one moment too late. From the parapet under the great flag -a signal gun was fired. In an instant mats and screens were alive with the red fire -of eighty pieces of artillery. Then a hail of shot from all the cannon, guns, and -jingals rained around the boats. Forts, batteries, and walls were hidden for a moment -in smoke. The water was rasped and torn as though a hailstorm was passing over it. -Many of the men in the boats were wet to the skin by the splashing of the water over -them. <span class="pageNum" id="pb411">[<a href="#pb411">411</a>]</span>Old veterans of the civil war had never seen so much fire, lead, iron, and smoke of -bad powder concentrated in such small space and time. “Old Blake,” who had had two -ships shot under him by the Confederates, declared he could remember nothing so sharp -as this. -</p> -<p>The fire was promptly returned by the steam-launch howitzers. The Palos and Monocacy, -which had forged ahead, turned back, and “Old Blake came round the point a-flying, -and let drive all the guns of the Palos at them. The consequence was that they kicked -so hard as to tear the bolts out of the side of the ship and render the bulwarks useless -during the remainder of the fight.” The Monocacy also anchored near the point, and -sent her ten-inch shells into the fort. During her movements, she struck a rock and -began to leak badly. After hammering at the forts until everything in them was silenced, -the squadron returned down the river, sending their explosive compliments into the -forts and redoubts as they passed. All were quiet and deserted, however, but the commander’s -flag was still flying unharmed and neglected. Strange to say, out of the entire fleet -only one of our men was wounded and none was killed; nor did any of the ships or boats -receive any damage from the batteries. Two hundred guns had been fired on the Corean -side. The signal coming too late, the immovability of their rude guns, the badness -of the powder, and the poor aim of the unskilled gunners, were the causes of such -an incredibly small damage. It was like the bombardment of Fort Sumter in 1861, or -like those battles which statistics reveal to us, in which it requires a ton of lead -to kill a man. -</p> -<p>However, it was determined by the chief representatives of the civil and naval powers -to resent the insult offered to our “flag” in the “unprovoked” attack on our vessels, -“should no apology or satisfactory explanation be offered for the hostile action of -the Corean government.” -</p> -<p>Ten days were now allowed to pass before further action was taken. They were ten days -of inaction, except preparation for further fight and some correspondence with the -local magistrate. What a pity these ten days had not been spent before, and not after, -June 2d! Some civilians, not to say Christians, might also be of the opinion that -ample revenge had already been taken, enough blood spilled, the “honor” of the flag -fully “vindicated,” a delicate diplomatic mission of “peace” spoiled beyond further -damage, and that further vengeance was folly, and more blood spilled, murder. But -not so thought the powers that be. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb412">[<a href="#pb412">412</a>]</span></p> -<p>The chastising expedition consisted of the Monocacy, Palos, four steam-launches, and -twenty boats, conveying a landing force of six hundred and fifty-one men, of whom -one hundred and five were marines. The Benicia, Alaska, and Colorado remained at anchor. -The total force detailed for the work of punishing the Coreans was seven hundred and -fifty-nine men. These were arranged in ten companies of infantry, with seven pieces -of artillery. The Monocacy had, in addition to her regular armament, two of the Colorado’s -nine-inch guns. Captain Homer C. Blake, who was put in charge of the expedition, remained -on the Palos. -</p> -<p>The squadron proceeded up the river at 10 o’clock, on the morning of the 10th of June, -two steam-launches moving in advance of the Monocacy. The boats were in tow of the -Palos, which moved at 10.30. The day was bright, clear, and warm. A short distance -above the isle Primauguet a junk was seen approaching, the Coreans waving a white -flag and holding a letter from one of the ministers of the court. One of the steam-launches -met the junk, and the letter was received. It was translated by Mr. Drew, but as it -contained nothing which, in the American eyes, seemed like an apology, the squadron -moved on. At 1 o’clock the Monocacy arrived within range of the first fort and opened -with her guns, which partly demolished the walls and emptied it in a few seconds. -</p> -<p>The landing party, after a two minutes’ pull at the oars, reached the shore, and disembarked -about eight hundred yards below the fort. The landing-place was a mud-flat, in which -the men sunk to their knees in the tough slime, losing gaiters, shoes, and even tearing -off the legs of their trousers in their efforts to advance. The howitzers sank to -their axles in the heavy ooze. -</p> -<p>Once on firm land, the infantry formed, the marines deploying as skirmishers. Unarmed -refugees from the villages were not harmed, and the first fort was quietly entered. -The work of demolition was begun by firing everything combustible and rolling the -guns into the river. Day being far spent when this was finished, the whole force went -into camp and bivouacked, taking every precaution against surprise. Four companies -of infantry were first detailed to drag the howitzers out of the mud, a task which -resembled the wrenching of an armature off a twenty-horse power magnet. -</p> -<p>Our men lay down to sleep under the stars. All was quiet that Saturday night, except -the chatting round the camp-fires and <span class="pageNum" id="pb413">[<a href="#pb413">413</a>]</span>the croaking of the Corean frogs, as the men cleaned themselves and prepared for their -Sunday work. Toward midnight a body of white-coats approached, set up a tremendous -howling, and began a dropping fire on our main pickets. As they moved about in the -darkness, they looked like ghosts. When the long roll was sounded, our men sprang -to their arms and fell in like old veterans. A few shells were scattered among the -ghostly howlers, and all was quiet again. The marines occupied a strong position half -a mile from the main body, a rice-field dividing them, with only a narrow foot-path -in the centre. They slept with their arms at their side, and, divided into three reliefs, -kept watch. -</p> -<p>While at the anchorage off Boisée Island that evening, twelve native Christians, approaching -noiselessly in the dark, made signs of a desire to communicate. They had come in a -junk from some point on the coast to inquire after their pastor, Ridel, and two other -French missionaries whom they expected. To their great distress, the Americans could -give them no information. Fearing lest the government might know, from the build of -their craft, from what part of the country they came, and punish them for communicating -with the foreigners, they burned their boat and returned home. -</p> -<p>Next day was Sunday. The reveille was sounded in the camps, breakfast eaten, and blankets -rolled up. Company C and the pioneers were sent into the fort to complete its destruction, -by burning up the rice, dried fish, and huts still standing. -</p> -<p>The march began at 7 <span class="asc">A.M.</span> The sun rolled up in a cloudless sky and the weather was very warm. It was a rough -road, if, indeed, it could be called such, being but a bridle-path over hills and -valleys, and through rice fields. Whole companies were required to drag the howitzers -up the hills and through the narrow defiles. The marines led the advance. The next -line of fortifications, the “middle fort,” was soon entered. The guns were found loaded, -as they had been deserted as soon as the fort was made a target by the Monocacy, every -one of whose shots told. The work of dismantling was here thoroughly done. The sixty -brass pieces of artillery, all of them insignificant breech-loaders of two-inch bore, -were tumbled into the river, and the fort appropriately named “Fort Monocacy.” -</p> -<p>The difficult march was resumed under a blazing sun and in steaming heat. A succession -of steep hills lay before them. Sappers and miners, with picks, shovels, and axes, -went ahead levelling and widening the road, cutting bushes and filling hollows. The -<span class="pageNum" id="pb414">[<a href="#pb414">414</a>]</span>guns had to be hauled up and lowered down the steep places by means of ropes. Large -masses of white coats and black heads hovered on their flanks, evidently purposing -to get in the rear. Their numbers were increasing. The danger was imminent. The fort -must be taken soon or never. -</p> -<p>A detachment of five howitzers and three companies were detailed to guard the flanks -and rear under Lieutenant-Commander Wheeler. The main body then moved forward to storm -the fort (citadel). This move of our forces checkmated the enemy and made victory -sure, redeeming a critical moment and turning danger into safety. -</p> -<p>Hardly were the guns in position, when the Coreans, massing their forces, charged -the hill in the very teeth of the howitzers’ fire. Our men calmly took sure aim, and -by steadily firing at long range, so shattered the ranks of the attacking force that -they broke and fled, leaving a clear field. The fort was now doomed. The splendid -practice of our howitzers effectually prevented any large body of the enemy from getting -into action, and made certain the capture of the <span class="corr" id="xd31e6042" title="Source: cidadel">citadel</span>. -</p> -<p>Meanwhile the Monocacy, moving up the river and abreast of the land force, poured -a steady fire of shell through the walls and into the fort, while the howitzers of -the rear-guard on the hill behind, reversing their muzzles, fired upon the garrison -over the heads of our men in the ravine. The infantry and marines having rested awhile -after their forced march, during which several had been overcome by heat and sunstroke, -now formed for a charge. -</p> -<p>The citadel to be assaulted was the key to the whole line of fortifications. It crowned -the apex of a conical hill one hundred and fifty feet high, measuring from the bottom -of the ravine. It mounted, with the redoubt below, one hundred and forty-three guns. -The sides of the hill were very steep, the walls of the fort joining it almost without -a break. Up this steep incline our men were to rush in the face of the garrison’s -fire. Could the white-coats depress the jingals at a sufficiently low angle, they -must annihilate the blue-jackets. Should our men reach the walls, they could easily -enter through the breaches made by the Monocacy’s shells. As usual, slowness, and -the national habit of being behind time, saved our men and lost the day for Corea. -</p> -<p>A terrible reception awaited the Americans. Every man inside was bound to die at his -post, for this fort being the key to all the <span class="pageNum" id="pb415">[<a href="#pb415">415</a>]</span>others, was held by the tiger-hunters, who, if they flinched before the enemy, were -to be put to death by their own people. -</p> -<p></p> -<div class="figure p415width" id="p415"><img src="images/p415.png" alt="Map of the American Naval Operations in 1871." width="518" height="720"><p class="figureHead">Map of the American Naval Operations in 1871.</p> -</div><p> -</p> -<p>All being ready, our men rose up with a yell and rushed for the redoubt, officers -in front. A storm of jingal balls rained over <span class="pageNum" id="pb416">[<a href="#pb416">416</a>]</span>their heads, but their dash up the hill was so rapid that the garrison could not depress -their pieces or load fast enough. Their powder burned too slowly to hurt the swift -Yankees. Goaded to despair the tiger-hunters “chanted their war-dirge in a blood-chilling -cadence which nothing can duplicate.” They mounted the parapet, fighting with furious -courage. They cast stones at our men. They met them with spear and sword. With hands -emptied of weapons, they picked up dust and threw in the invaders’ eyes to blind them. -Expecting no quarter and no relief, they contested the ground inch by inch and fought -only to die. Scores were shot and tumbled into the river. Most of the wounded were -drowned, and some cut their own throats as they rushed into the water. -</p> -<p>Lieutenant McKee was the first to mount the parapet and leap inside the fort. For -a moment, and only a moment, he stood alone fighting against overwhelming odds. A -bullet struck him in the groin, a Corean brave rushed forward, and, with a terrible -lunge, thrust him in the thigh, and then turned upon Lieutenant-Commander Schley, -who had leaped over the parapet. The spear passed harmlessly between the arm and body -of the American as a carbine bullet laid the Corean dead. -</p> -<p>The fort was now full of officers and men, and a hand to hand fight between the blue -and white began to strew the ground with corpses. Corean sword crossed Yankee cutlass, -and clubbed carbine brained the native whose spear it dashed aside. The garrison fought -to the last man. Within the walls those shot and bayoneted numbered nearly one hundred. -Not one unwounded prisoner was taken. The huge yellow cotton flag, which floated from -a very short staff in the centre, was hauled down by Captain McLane Tilton and two -marines. Meanwhile a desperate fight went on outside the fort. During the charge, -some of the Coreans retreated from the fort, a movement which caught the eye of Master -McLean. Hastily collecting a party of his men, he moved to the left on the double -quick to cut off the fugitives. He was just in time. The fugitives, forty or fifty -in all, after firing, attempted to rush past him. They were driven back in diminished -numbers. Hemmed in between the captured fort and their enemy, McLean charged them -with his handful of men. Hiding behind some rocks, they fought with desperation until -they were all killed, only two or three being made prisoners. Another party attempting -to escape were nearly annihilated by Cassel’s battery, which sent canister into their -<span class="pageNum" id="pb417">[<a href="#pb417">417</a>]</span>flying backs, mowing them down in swaths. Moving at full speed, many were shot like -rabbits, falling heels over head. At the same time Captain Tilton passed to the right -of the fort and caught another party retreating along the crest of the hill joining -the two forts, and, with a steady carbine fire, thinned their numbers. At 12.45 the -stars and stripes floated over all the forts. A photographer came ashore and on his -camera fixed the horrible picture of blood. -</p> -<p>The scene after the battle smoke cleared away, and our men sat down to rest, was of -a kind to thoroughly satisfy those “who look on war as a pastime.” It was one from -which humanity loves to avert her gaze. Two hundred and forty-three corpses in their -white garments lay in and around the citadel. Many of them were clothed in thick cotton -armor, wadded to nine thicknesses, which now smouldered away. A sickening stench of -roasted flesh filled the air, which, during the day and night, became intolerable. -Some of the wounded, fearing their captors worse than their torture, slowly burned -to death; choosing rather to suffer living cremation than to save their lives as captives. -Our men, as they dragged the smoking corpses into the burial trench, found one man -who could endure the torture no longer. Making signs of life, he was soon stripped -of his clothes, but died soon after of his wounds and burns. Only twenty prisoners, -all wounded, were taken alive. At least a hundred corpses floated or sunk in the river, -which ran here and there in crimson streaks. At this one place probably as many as -three hundred and fifty Corean patriots gave up their lives for their country. -</p> -<p>On the American side, the gallant McKee, who fell as his father fell in Mexico, at -the head of his men, the first inside the stormed works, was mortally wounded, and -died soon after. One landsman of the Colorado and one marine of the Benicia were killed. -Five men were severely, and five slightly, wounded. -</p> -<p>The other two forts below the citadel being open to the rear from the main work were -easily entered, no regular resistance being offered. The results of the forty-eight -hours on shore, eighteen of which were spent in the field, were the capture of five -forts—probably the strongest in the kingdom—fifty flags, four hundred and eighty-one -pieces of artillery, chiefly jingals, and a large number of matchlocks. Of the artillery -eleven pieces were 32,– fourteen were 24,– two were 20,– and the remaining four hundred -and fifty-four were 2- and 4-pounders. The work of destruction was carried on and -made as thorough as fire, axe, and shovel could make <span class="pageNum" id="pb418">[<a href="#pb418">418</a>]</span>it. A victory was won, of which the American navy may feel proud. Zeal, patience, -discipline, and bravery characterized men and officers in all the movements. -</p> -<p>The wounded were moved to the Monocacy. The forts were occupied all Sunday night, -and early on Monday morning the whole force was re-embarked in perfect order, in spite -of the furious tide, rising twenty feet. The fleet moved down the stream with the -captured colors at the mast-heads and towing the boats laden with the trophies of -victory. Reaching the anchorage at half past ten o’clock, they were greeted with such -ringing cheers of their comrades left behind as made the woodlands echo again. -</p> -<p>Later in the day, Dennis Hendrin (or Hanrahan) and Seth Allen, the two men slain in -the fight, were buried on Boisée Island, and the first American graves rose on Corean -soil. At 5.45 <span class="asc">P.M.</span> McKee breathed his last.<a class="noteRef" id="xd31e6077src" href="#xd31e6077">7</a> -</p> -<p>Yet the odds of battle were dreadful—three graves against heaps upon heaps of unburied -slain. Well might the pagan ask: “What did Heaven mean by it?” -</p> -<p>The native wounded were kindly cared for, and their broken bones mended, by the fleet -surgeon, Dr. Mayo. Admiral Rodgers, in a letter to the native authorities, offered -to return his prisoners. The reply was in substance: “Do as you please with them.” -The prisoners were therefore set ashore and allowed to dispose of themselves. -</p> -<p>Admiral Rodgers having obeyed to the farthest limit the orders given him, and all -hope of making a treaty being over, two of the ships, withal needing to refit, the -fleet sailed from the anchorage off Isle Boisée the day before the fourth of July, -arriving in Chifu on the morning of July 5th, after thirty-five days’ stay in Corean -waters. He arrived in time to hear of the Tientsin massacre, which had taken place -June 20th. “Our little war with the heathen,” as the <i>New York Herald</i> styled it, attracted slight notice in the United States. A few columns of news and -comment from the metropolitan press, a page or two of woodcuts in an illustrated newspaper, -the ringing of a chime of jests on going up Salt River (Salée), and <span class="pageNum" id="pb419">[<a href="#pb419">419</a>]</span>the usual transmission of official documents, summed up the transient impression on -the American public. -</p> -<p>In China the expedition was looked upon as a failure and a defeat. The popular Corean -idea was, that the Americans had come to avenge the death of pirates and robbers, -and, after several battles, had been so surely defeated that they dare not attempt -the task of chastisement again. To the Tai-wen Kun the whole matter was cause for -personal glorification. The tiger-hunters and the conservative party at court believed -that they had successfully defied both France and America, and driven off their forces -with loss. When a Scotch missionary in Shing-king reasoned with a Corean concerning -the power of foreigners and their superiority in war, the listener’s reply, delivered -with angry toss of the head and a snap of the fingers, was: “What care we for your -foreign inventions? Even our boys laugh at all your weapons.” -<span class="pageNum" id="pb420">[<a href="#pb420">420</a>]</span></p> -</div> -<div class="footnotes"> -<hr class="fnsep"> -<div class="footnote-body"> -<div class="fndiv" id="xd31e5927"> -<p class="footnote"><span class="fnlabel"><a class="noteRef" href="#xd31e5927src">1</a></span> Mr. Low, who had served one term in Congress and as governor of California from 1864 -to 1868, had been chosen by President Grant to be minister to China the year before, -1869, was new to his duties. He was in the prime of life, being fifty-two years of -age. All his despatches show that Chō-sen was as unknown to him as Thibet or Anam, -and from the first he had scarcely one ray of hope in the success of the mission. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd31e5927src" title="Return to note 1 in text.">↑</a></p> -</div> -<div class="fndiv" id="xd31e5934"> -<p class="footnote"><span class="fnlabel"><a class="noteRef" href="#xd31e5934src">2</a></span> Admiral Rodgers left New York, April 9, 1869, with the Colorado and Alaska. The Benicia -had left Portsmouth March 2d, and the Palos set sail from Boston June 20th. These -vessels, with the Monocacy and Ashuelot, were to form the Asiatic squadron of Admiral -Rodgers. Of our vessels on the station during the previous year, two had returned -home, two had been sold, the rotten Idaho was moored at Yokohama as a store-ship, -and the Oneida, which had been sunk by the British mail-steamer Bombay, lay with her -uncoffined dead untouched and neglected by the great Government of the United States. -Admiral Rodgers was so delayed by repairs to the Ashuelot, that finally, in order -to gain the benefit of the spring tides, had to sail without this vessel. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd31e5934src" title="Return to note 2 in text.">↑</a></p> -</div> -<div class="fndiv" id="xd31e5939"> -<p class="footnote"><span class="fnlabel"><a class="noteRef" href="#xd31e5939src">3</a></span> Rear-Admiral John Rodgers, who commanded the fleet, was a veteran in war, in naval -science, and in polar research. He had served in the Seminole and Mexican campaigns, -and through the civil war on the iron-clad monitors. He had visited the Pacific in -1853, when in command of the John Hancock. He had cruised in the China seas and sailed -through Behring’s Straits. He, too, was in the prime of life, being at this time fifty-eight -years of age. His whole conduct of the expedition displayed consummate skill, and -marked him in this, as in his many other enterprises, as “one of the foremost naval -men of the age.” Yet princes in naval science are not always princes in diplomacy. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd31e5939src" title="Return to note 3 in text.">↑</a></p> -</div> -<div class="fndiv" id="xd31e5947"> -<p class="footnote"><span class="fnlabel"><a class="noteRef" href="#xd31e5947src">4</a></span> The first appearance of the flag of North Germany in Corean waters was at the mast-head -of the China, when plunder and dead men’s bones were the objects sought. Its second -appearance, on the Hertha man-of-war, was in peace and honorable quest of friendly -relations. Its third appearance, in May, 1871—while, or shortly before, the American -fleet were in the Han River—was on the schooner Chusan, which was wrecked on one of -the islands of Sir James Hall group, the Chinese crew only, it appears, being saved. -On June 6th, a party of three foreigners left Chifu in a junk to bring back salvage -from the wreck. These men were not heard from until July 6th, when the Chinese crew -returned without them. On the same day the British gunboat Ringdove, with the consul -of Chifu, left for the Hall group. It was found that the foreigners had landed to -bring away the crew of the Chusan, when the Chinamen, pretending or thinking that -they had been taken prisoners, put off to sea without them. The consul found them -in good health and spirits, and the Ringdove brought away for them whatever was worth -saving from the Chusan. Again the Corean policy of kindness toward the shipwrecked -was illustrated. The two foreigners—a Scotchman and a Maltese—had been well fed and -kindly treated. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd31e5947src" title="Return to note 4 in text.">↑</a></p> -</div> -<div class="fndiv" id="xd31e5987"> -<p class="footnote"><span class="fnlabel"><a class="noteRef" href="#xd31e5987src">5</a></span> These men simply acted as the catspaws for the monkey in the capital to pull out as -many hot chestnuts from the fire as possible. It is part of Asiatic policy to send -official men of low rank and no authority to dally and prelude, and, if possible, -hoodwink or worry out foreigners. Their chief weapons are words; their main strength, -cunning. When these are foiled by kindness, and equal patience, firmness, and address, -the Asiatics yield, and send their men of first rank to confer and treat. Perry knew -this, so did Townsend Harris in Japan; so have successful diplomats known it in China. -Was it done in the American expedition to Corea in 1871? Let us see. -</p> -<p class="footnote cont">These Coreans had no right to say either “yes” or “no” to any proposition of the Americans. -Had they committed themselves to anything definite, degradation, crushed shin-bones, -and perhaps death, might have been their fate. The only thing for the Americans to -do—who came to ask a favor which the Coreans were obstinately bent on not giving—was -to feast them, treat them with all kindness, get them in excellent good humor, send -them back, and wait till accredited envoys of high rank should arrive. In the light -of the <span class="pageNum" id="pb409n">[<a href="#pb409n">409</a>]</span>French failure, this was the only course to pursue. There were even men of influence -in the American fleet who advised this policy of patience. As matter of fact, such -a course was urged by Captain H. S. Blake. -</p> -<p class="footnote cont">In such an emergency, patience, kindness, tact, the absence of any burning idea of -“wiping out insults to the flag,” and an antiseptic condition toward fight were most -needed—the higher qualities, of resolution and self-conquest rather than valor. Even -if it had been possible to inflict ten times the damage which was afterward actually -inflicted, and win tenfold more “glory,” the rear-admiral must have known that nature -and his “instructions” were on the side of the Coreans, and that the only end of the -case must be a retreat from the country. And the only possible interpretation the -people could put upon the visit of the great American fleet would be a savage thirst -for needless vengeance, a sordid greed of gain, and the justification of robbers and -invaders. In spite of all the slaughter of their countrymen, they would read in the -withdrawal of their armies, defeat, and defeat only. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd31e5987src" title="Return to note 5 in text.">↑</a></p> -</div> -<div class="fndiv" id="xd31e5999"> -<p class="footnote"><span class="fnlabel"><a class="noteRef" href="#xd31e5999src">6</a></span> These are the rear-admiral’s own words. Here was the mistake! From what may be easily -known of the Corean mind, it must have seemed to them that the advance of such an -armed force up the river, leading to the capital—following exactly the precedent of -the French—was nothing more than a treacherous beginning of war in the face of assurances -of peace. To enter into their waters seemed to them an invasion of their country. -To do it after fair words spoken in friendship seemed basest treachery. Had a Corean -officer counselled peace in the face of the advancing fleet, he would undoubtedly -have been beheaded at once as a traitor. There were men on the American side who saw -this. Some spoke out loud of it to others, but it was not “theirs to make reply.” <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd31e5999src" title="Return to note 6 in text.">↑</a></p> -</div> -<div class="fndiv" id="xd31e6077"> -<p class="footnote"><span class="fnlabel"><a class="noteRef" href="#xd31e6077src">7</a></span> In the chapel of the Naval Academy, at Annapolis, a tasteful mural tablet, “Erected -by his brother officers of the Asiatic squadron,” with the naval emblems—sword, belt, -anchor, and glory-wreath—in medallion, and inscription on a shield beneath, keeps -green the memory of an unselfish patriot and a gallant officer. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd31e6077src" title="Return to note 7 in text.">↑</a></p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch47" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#xd31e1234">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="label">CHAPTER XLVII.</h2> -<h2 class="main">THE PORTS OPENED TO JAPANESE COMMERCE.</h2> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="first">The walls of Corean isolation, so long intact, had been sapped by the entrance of -Christianity and the French missionaries, and now began to crumble. With the Russians -on the north, and the sea no longer a barrier, the Japanese began to press upon the -east, while China broke through and abolished the neutrality of the western border. -The fires of civilization began to smoke out the hermit. -</p> -<p>The revolutions of 1868 in Japan, culminating after a century of interior preparation, -abolished the dual system and feudalism, and restored the mikado to supreme power. -The capital was removed to Tōkiō, and the office of Foreign Affairs—a sub-bureau—was -raised to a department of the Imperial administration. One of the first things attended -to was to invite the Corean government to resume ancient friendship and vassalage. -</p> -<p>This summons, coming from a source unrecognized for eight centuries, and to a regent -swollen with pride at his victory over the French and his success in extirpating the -Christian religion, and irritated at Japan for adopting western principles of progress -and cutting free from Chinese influence and tradition, was spurned with defiance. -An insolent and even scurrilous letter was returned to the mikado’s government, which -stung to rage the military classes of Japan, who began to form a “war-party,” which -was headed by Saigo of Satsuma. Waiting only for the return of the embassy from Europe, -and for the word to take up the gage of battle, they nourished their wrath to keep -it warm. -</p> -<p>It was not so to be. New factors had entered the Corean problem since Taiko’s time. -European states were now concerned in Asiatic politics. Russia was too near, China -too hostile, and Japan too poor; she was even then paying ten per cent. interest to -London bankers on the Shimonoséki Indemnity loan. Financial ruin, and a collision -with China might result, if war were declared. <span class="pageNum" id="pb421">[<a href="#pb421">421</a>]</span>In October, 1873, the cabinet vetoed the scheme, and Saigo, the leader of the war -party, resigned and returned to Satsuma, to nourish schemes for the overthrow of the -ministry and the humiliation of Corea. “The eagle, even though starving, refuses to -eat grain;” nor would anything less than Corean blood satisfy the Japanese veterans. -</p> -<p>In 1873, the young king of Corea attained his majority. His father, Tai-wen Kun, by -the act of the king backed by Queen <span class="corr" id="xd31e6106" title="Source: Cho">Chō</span>, was relieved of office, and his bloody and cruel lease of power came to an end. -The young sovereign proved himself a man of mental vigor and independent judgment, -not merely trusting to his ministers, but opening important documents in person. He -has been ably seconded by his wife Min, through whose influence Tai-wen Kun was shorn -of influence, nobles of progressive spirit were reinstated to office, and friendship -with Japan encouraged. In this year, 1873, an heir to the throne was born of the queen; -another royal child, the offspring of a concubine, having been born in 1869. -</p> -<p>The neutral belt of land long inhabited by deer and tiger, or traversed by occasional -parties of ginseng-hunters, had within the last few decades been overspread with squatters, -and infested by Manchiu brigands and Corean outlaws. The depredations of these border -ruffians both across the Yalu, and on the Chinese settlements—like the raids of the -wild Indians on our Texas frontier—had become intolerable to both countries. In 1875, -Li Hung Chang, sending a force of picked Chinese troops, supported by a gunboat on -the Yalu, broke up the nest of robbers, and imbibed a taste both for Corean politics -and for rectifying the frontiers of Shing-king. He proceeded at once to make said -frontier “scientific” by allowing the surveyor and plowman to enter the no longer -debatable land. In 1877, the governor of Shing-king proposing, the Peking Government -shifted the eastern frontier of the empire twenty leagues nearer the rising sun, on -the plea that “the width of the tract left uncultivated was of less moment than the -efficiency of border regulations.” By this act the borders of China and Corea touched, -and were written in Yalu water. The last vestige of insulation was removed, and the -shocks of change now became more frequent and alarming. By contact with the living -world, comatose Corea was to be galvanized into new life. -</p> -<p>Nevertheless the hostile spirit of the official classes, who tyrannize the little -country, was shown in the refusal to receive envoys of <span class="pageNum" id="pb422">[<a href="#pb422">422</a>]</span>the mikado because they were dressed in European clothes, in petty regulations highly -irritating to the Japanese at Fusan, and by the overt act of violence which we shall -now narrate. -</p> -<p>Since 1868 the Japanese navy, modelled after the British, and consisting of American -and European iron-clads and war vessels, has been manned by crews uniformed in foreign -style. On September 19, 1875, some sailors of the Unyo Kuan, which had been cruising -off the mouth of the Han River, landing near Kang-wa for water, were fired on by Corean -soldiers, under the idea that they were Americans or Frenchmen. On the 21st the Japanese, -numbering thirty-six men, and armed with breech loaders, stormed the fort. Most of -the garrison were shot or drowned, the fort dismantled, and the spoil carried to the -ships. Occupying the works two days, the Japanese returned to Nagasaki on the 23d. -</p> -<p>The news of “the Kokwa [Kang-wa] affair” brought the wavering minds of both the peace -and the war party of Japan to a decision. Arinori Mori was despatched to Peking to -find out the exact relation of China to Corea, and secure her neutrality. Kuroda Kiyotaku -was sent with a fleet to the Han River, to make, if possible, a treaty of friendship -and open ports of trade. By the rival parties, the one was regarded as the bearer -of the olive branch, the other of arrows and lightning. With Kuroda went Inouyé Bunda -of the State Department, and Kin Rinshiō, the Corean liberal. -</p> -<p>General Kuroda sailed January 6, 1876, amid salvos of the artillery of newspaper criticism -predicting failure, with two men-of-war, three transports, and three companies of -marines, or less than eight hundred men in all, and touching at Fusan, anchored within -sight of Seoul, February 6th. About the same time, a courier from Peking arrived in -the capital, bearing the Imperial recommendation that a treaty be made with the Japanese. -The temper of the young king had been manifested long before this by his rebuking -the district magistrate of Kang-wa for allowing soldiers to fire on peaceably disposed -people, and ordering the offender to degradation and exile. Arinori Mori, in Peking, -had received the written disclaimer of China’s responsibility over “the outpost state,” -by which stroke of policy the Middle Kingdom freed herself from all possible claims -of indemnity from France, the United States, and Japan. The way for a treaty was now -smoothed, and the new difficulties were merely questions of form. Nevertheless, while -Kuroda was unheard from, the Japanese war preparations went vigorously on. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb423">[<a href="#pb423">423</a>]</span></p> -<p>Kuroda, making Commodore Perry’s tactics his own, disposed his fleet in the most imposing -array, made his transports look like men-of-war, by painting port-holes on them, kept -up an incredible amount of fuss, movement, and bustle, and on the 10th landed a dazzling -array of marines, sailors, and officers in full uniform, who paraded two miles to -the treaty-house, on Kang-wa Island, where two high commissioners from Seoul, Ji Shinken -and In Jiahō, aged respectively sixty-five and fifty, awaited him. -</p> -<p>One day was devoted to ceremony, and three to negotiation. A written apology for the -Kang-wa affair was offered by the Coreans, and the details of the treaty settled, -the chief difficulties being the titles to be used.<a class="noteRef" id="xd31e6123src" href="#xd31e6123">1</a> Ten days for consultation at the capital were then asked for and granted, at the -end of which time, the two commissioners returned, declaring the impossibility of -obtaining the royal signature. The Japanese at once embarked on their ships in disgust. -They returned only after satisfactory assurances; and on February 27th the treaty, -in which Chō-sen was recognized as an independent nation, was signed and attested. -The Japanese then made presents, mostly of western manufacture, and after being feasted, -returned March 1st. Mr. Inouyé Bunda then proceeded to Europe, visiting, on his way, -the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia, at which also, it is said, were one or -more Corean visitors. -</p> -<p>The first Corean Embassy, which since the twelfth century had been accredited to the -mikado’s court, sailed in May, 1876, from Fusan in a Japanese steamer, landing at -Yokohama May 29th, at 8 <span class="asc">A.M.</span> Two Neptune-like braves with the symbols of power—huge iron <span class="pageNum" id="pb424">[<a href="#pb424">424</a>]</span>tridents—led the procession, in which was a band of twenty performers on metal horns, -conch-shells, flutes, whistles, cymbals, and drums. Effeminate-looking pages bore -the treaty documents. The chief envoy rode on a platform covered with tiger-skins, -and resting on the shoulders of eight men, while a servant bore the umbrella of state -over his head, and four minor officers walked at his side. The remainder of the suite -rode in <i>jin-riki-shas</i>, and the Japanese military and civil escort completed the display. They breakfasted -at the town hall, and by railroad and steam-cars reached Tōkiō. At the station, the -contrast between the old and the new was startling. The Japanese stood “with all the -outward signs of the Civilization that is coming in.” “On the other side, were all -the representatives of the Barbarism that is going out.” On the following day, the -Coreans visited the Foreign Office, and on June 1st, the envoy, though of inferior -rank, had audience of the mikado. For three weeks the Japanese amused, enlightened, -and startled their guests by showing them their war ships, arsenals, artillery, torpedoes, -schools, buildings, factories, and offices equipped with steam and electricity—the -ripened fruit of the seed planted by Perry in 1854. All attempts of foreigners to -hold any communication with them, were firmly rejected by the Coreans, who started -homeward June 28th. The official diary, or report by the ambassador of this visit -to Japan, was afterward published in Seoul. It is a colorless narrative carefully -bleached of all views and opinions, evidently satisfying the scrutiny even of enemies -at court. -</p> -<p>During the autumn of this year, 1876, and later on, in following years, the British -war-vessels, Sylvia and Swinger, were engaged in surveying portions of the coast of -Kiung-sang province. Captain H. C. Saint John, who commanded the Sylvia, and had touched -near Fusan in 1855—long enough to see a native bastinadoed simply for selling a chicken -to a foreigner—now found more hospitable treatment. His adventures are narrated in -his chatty book, “The Wild Coasts of Nipon.” An English vessel, the Barbara Taylor, -having been wrecked on Corean shores, an attaché of the British Legation in Tōkiō -was sent to Fusan to thank the authorities for their kind treatment of the crew. -</p> -<p>The Japanese found it was not wise to hasten in taking advantage of their new liberties -granted by treaty. Near Fusan, are thousands of graves of natives killed in the invasion -of 1592–97, over which the Coreans hold an annual memorial celebration. Hitherto the -Japanese had been rigorously kept within their <span class="pageNum" id="pb425">[<a href="#pb425">425</a>]</span>guarded enclosure. Going out to witness the celebration, they were met with a shower -of stones, and found the road blockaded. After a small riot in which many words and -missiles were exchanged, matters were righted, but the temper of the people showed -that, as in old Japan, it would be long before ignorant hermits, and not over-gentle -foreigners could live quietly together. -</p> -<p>Saigo, of Satsuma, dissatisfied with the peaceful results of Kuroda’s mission, and -the “brain victory” over the Coreans, organized, during 1877, “The Satsuma Rebellion,” -to crush which cost Japan twenty thousand lives, $50,000,000, and seven months of -mighty effort, the story of which has been so well told in the lamented A. H. Mounsey’s -perspicuous monograph. Yet out of this struggle, with which Corea manifested no sympathy, -the nation emerged with old elements of disturbance eliminated, and with a broader -outlook to the future. A more vigorous policy with Chō-sen was at once inaugurated. -</p> -<p>Under the new treaty, Fusan (Corean, Pu-san) soon became a bustling place of trade, -with a population of two thousand, many of whom, however, were poor people from Tsushima. -Among the public buildings were those of the Consulate, Chamber of Commerce, Bank, -Mitsu Bishi (Three Diamonds) Steamship Company, and a hospital, under care of Dr. -Yano, in which, up to 1882, four thousand Coreans and many Japanese have been treated. -A Japanese and Corean newspaper, <i>Chō-sen Shimpo</i>, restaurants, places of amusements of various grades of morality, and a variety of -establishments for turning wits and industry into money, have been established. The -decayed gentry of Japan, starting in business with the capital obtained by commuting -their hereditary pensions, found it difficult to compete with the trained merchants -of Tōkiō and Ozaka. Great trouble from the lock of a gold and silver currency has -been experienced, as only the copper and iron <i>sapeks</i>, or ‘cash,’ are in circulation. In Corean political economy to let gold go out of -the country is to sell the kingdom; and so many rogues have attempted the sale of -brass or gilt nuggets that an assaying office at the consulate has been provided. -The government of Tōkiō has urged upon that of Seoul the adoption of a circulating -medium based on the precious metals; and, perhaps, Corean coins may yet be struck -at the superb mint at Ozaka. While gold in dust and nuggets has been exported for -centuries, rumor credits the vaults at Seoul with being full of Japanese gold <i>koban</i>, the <span class="pageNum" id="pb426">[<a href="#pb426">426</a>]</span>mountains to be well packed with auriferous quartz, and the rivers to run with golden -sands. -</p> -<p>Among the callers, with diplomatic powers, from the outside world in 1881, each eager -and ambitious to be the first in wresting the coveted prize of a treaty, were two -British captains of men-of-war, who arrived on May 21st and 28th; a French naval officer, -June 16th, who sailed away after a rebuff June 18th; while at Gensan, June 7th, the -British man-of-war, Pegasus, came, and saw, but did not conquer. -</p> -<p>After six years of mutual contact at Fusan, the Coreans, though finding the Japanese -as troublesome as the latter discovered foreigners to be after their own ports were -opened, have, with much experience learned, settled down to endure them, for the sake -of a trade which undoubtedly enriches the country. The Coreans buy cotton goods, tin-plate, -glass, dyes, tools, and machinery, clocks, watches, petroleum, flour, lacquer-work, -iron, hollow-ware, and foreign knick-knacks. A good sign of a desire for personal -improvement is a demand for bath-tubs. Soap will probably come next. -</p> -<p>The exports are gold dust, silver, ox hides and bones, beche-de-mer, fish, rice, raw -silk, fans, cotton, and bamboo paper, ginseng, furs of many kinds, tobacco, shells -for inlaying, dried fish, timber, beans and peas, hemp, jute, various plants yielding -paper-stock, peony-bark, gall-nuts, varnishes and oils, and a variety of other vegetable -substances having a universal commercial value. -</p> -<p>Even Riu Kiu has seen the benefits of trade, and five merchants from what is now the -Okinawa <i>ken</i> of the mikado’s empire—formerly the Loo Choo island kingdom—came to Tōkiō in February, -1882, to form a company with a view to establishing an agency in Fusan, and exchanging -Corean products for Riu Kiu sugar, grain, and fish. -</p> -<p>Gensan (Corean, Won-san) was opened May 1, 1880. In a fertile region, traversed by -two high roads, with the fur country near, and a magnificent harbor in front, the -prospects of trade are good. The Japanese concession, on which are some imposing public -buildings, includes about forty-two acres. An exposition of Japanese, European, and -American goods was established which was visited by 25,000 people, its object being -to open the eyes and pockets of the natives, who seemed, to the Tōkiō merchants, taller, -stouter, and better looking than those of Fusan. One twenty-sixth of the goods sold -was Japanese, the rest, mostly cotton <span class="pageNum" id="pb427">[<a href="#pb427">427</a>]</span>goods and ‘notions,’ were American and European. The busy season of trade is in autumn -and early winter. For the first three months the settlers were less troubled by tigers -than by continual rumors of the approach of a band of a thousand “foreigner-haters,” -who were sworn to annihilate the aliens on the sacred soil of Chō-sen. The bloodthirsty -braves, however, postponed the execution of their purpose. The Japanese merchants, -so far from finding the Coreans innocently verdant, soon came in contact with monopolies, -rings, guilds, and tricks of trade that showed a surprising knowledge of business. -Official intermeddling completed their woe, and loud and long were the complaints -of the mikado’s subjects. Yet profits were fair, and the first anniversary of the -opening of the port was celebrated in grand style. Besides dinners and day fireworks, -the police played the ancient national game of polo, to the great amusement of the -Coreans. Among the foreign visitors in May, 1881, was Doctor Frank Cowan, an American -gentleman, and surgeon on the Japanese steamer Tsuruga Maru, who made a short journey -in the vicinity among the good-natured natives. Besides spying out the land, and returning -well laden with trophies, he records, in a letter to the State Department at Washington, -this prophecy: “Next to the countries on the golden rim of the Pacific, … to disturb -the monetary equilibrium of the world, will be Corea.” “The geological structure is -not incompatible with the theory that the whole region [east coast] is productive -of the precious metal.” -</p> -<p>To regulate some points of the treaty, and if possible postpone the opening of the -new port of In-chiŭn (Japanese, Nin-sen) a second embassy was despatched to Japan, -which arrived at Yokohama, August 11, 1880. The procession of tall and portly men -dressed in green, red, and pink garments of coarse cloth, with Chinese shoes, and -hats of mighty diameter, moved through the streets amid the rather free remarks of -the spectators, who commented in no complimentary language on the general air of dinginess -which these Rip Van Winkles of the orient presented. The Coreans remained in Tōkiō -until September 8th. Perfect courtesy was everywhere shown them, as they visited schools -and factories, and studied Japan’s modern enginery of war and peace. The general attitude -of the Tōkiō press and populace was that of condescending familiarity, of generous -hospitality mildly flavored with contempt, and tempered by a very uncertain hope that -these people might develop into good pupils—and customers. -</p> -<p>Chō-sen did not lack attentions from the outside world—Russia, <span class="pageNum" id="pb428">[<a href="#pb428">428</a>]</span>England, France, Italy, and the United States—during the year 1880. Whether missionaries -of the Holy Synod of Russia attempted to cross the Tumen, we do not know; but in the -spring of 1880, a Muscovite vessel appeared off one of the ports of Ham-Kiung, to -open commercial relations. The offer was politely declined. The Italian war-vessel -Vettor Pisani, having on board H. R. H. the Duke of Genoa, arrived off Fusan, August -1, 1880, at 1 <span class="asc">P.M<span class="corr" id="xd31e6171" title="Not in source">.</span></span>—a few hours after the Corean embassy had left for Japan. One survivor of the Italian -ship, Bianca Portia, wrecked near Quelpart in 1879, had been kindly treated by the -Corean authorities and sent to Nagasaki. The duke, through the Japanese consul, forwarded -a letter of thanks to the governor of Tong-nai, who, however, returned the missive, -though with a courteous answer. After seven days, the Vettor Pisani sailed northward, -and avoiding Gensan and the Japanese consul, anchored off Port Lazareff, where, during -his six days’ stay, he was visited by the local magistrate, to whom he committed a -letter of application for trade. Some native cards of silk-worm’s eggs were also secured -to test their value for Italy. After a three days’ visit to Gensan the ship sailed -away, the Italian believing that <span class="corr" id="xd31e6173" title="Source: negociations">negotiations</span> with the Coreans would succeed better without Japanese aid, and congratulating himself -upon having been more successful than the previous attempts by the British, and especially -by the French (Captain Fourmier, of the Lynx) and American (Commodore Shufeldt) diplomatic -agents, whose letters were returned unread. -</p> -<p>The Government of the United States had not forgotten Corea, and Japan had signified -her willingness to assist in opening the hermit nation to American commerce. On April -8, 1878, Senator Sargent, of California, offered a resolution that President Hayes -“appoint a commissioner to represent this country in an effort to arrange, by peaceful -means and with the aid of the friendly offices of Japan, a treaty of peace and commerce -between the United States and the Kingdom of Corea.” The bill passed to a second reading, -but, the Senate adjourning, no action was taken. In 1879, the U. S. steamship Ticonderoga, -under Commodore R. W. Shufeldt, was sent on a cruise around the world in the interests -of American commerce, and to make, if possible, a treaty with Corea. Entering the -harbor of Fusan, May 14, 1880, Commodore Shufeldt begged the Japanese consul, who -visited the ship, to forward his papers to Seoul. The consul complied, but, unfortunately, -neither the interpreters nor the governor of Tong-nai—preferring present <span class="pageNum" id="pb429">[<a href="#pb429">429</a>]</span>pay and comfort to possible future benefit—would have anything to do with such dangerous -business. Japanese rumor asserts that the Coreans seeing the letter addressed on the -outside to “the King of Corea,” declined to receive it, partly because their sovereign -was “not King of Korai” but “King of Chō-sen.” Under the circumstances, the American -could do nothing more than withdraw, which he did amid the usual salute from a Corean -fort near by. A second visit being equally fruitless, the Ticonderoga again turned -her stern toward “the last outstanding and irreconcilable scoffer among nations at -western alliances,” and her prow homeward. -</p> -<p>The Corean embassy, failing in their attempts to have the Japanese go slowly, Hanabusa, -the mikado’s envoy at Seoul, now vigorously urged the opening of the third port, and, -after much discussion, In-chiŭn,<a class="noteRef" id="xd31e6182src" href="#xd31e6182">2</a> twenty-five miles from Seoul, was selected; in December, 1880, Hanabusa and his suite, -crossing the frozen rivers, went thither, and selected the ground for the Japanese -concession. -</p> -<p>The old questions upon which political parties in the hermit nation had formed themselves, -now sank out of sight, and the new element of excitement was the all-absorbing question -of breaking the seals of national seclusion. The “Civilization Party,” or the Progressionists, -were opposed to the Exclusionists, Port-closers, and Foreigner-haters. Heading the -former or liberal party were the young king and queen, Bin Kenko, Bin Shoshoko, Ri -Saiwo, and other high dignitaries, besides Kin Giokin and Jo Kohan, former envoys -to Japan. The leader of the Conservatives was the Tai-wen-kun, father of the king -and late regent. The neutrals clustered around Kin Koshiu. -</p> -<p>Physically speaking, the Coreans see the sun rise over Japan and set over China, but -morally, and in rhetoric, their sun of prosperity has ever risen and set in China. -Some proposed to buy all machinery, arms, and government material in China, and imitate -her plans and policy, and conform to the advice of her statesmen. The other side urged -the adoption of Japanese methods and materials. The pro-Chinese gentry imitated the -Peking mandarins in <span class="pageNum" id="pb430">[<a href="#pb430">430</a>]</span>details of dress, household decoration, and culture; while all their books conveying -Western science must be read from Chinese translations. The pro-Japanese Coreans had -their houses furnished with Japanese articles, they read and studied Japanese literature -and translations of European books, and when out of Corea the most radical among them -wore coats and pantaloons. The long and hot disputes between the adherents of both -parties seriously hampered the government, while precipitating a revolution in the -national policy; for serious debate in a despotic country is a sign of awakening life. -</p> -<p>About this time, early in 1881, a remarkable document, composed by Kwo-in-ken, adviser -to the Chinese Minister to Japan, had a lively effect upon the court of Seoul. It -was entitled “Policy for Corea.” It described the neighbors of Chō-sen, and pointed -out her proper attitude to each of them. From Russia, devoted as she is to a policy -of perpetual aggrandizement at the expense of other countries, and consumed by lust -for land, Corea is in imminent danger. China, on the contrary, is Corea’s natural -ally and friend, ever ready with aid in men and money; both countries need each other, -and their union should be as close as lips and teeth. For historical and geographical -reasons, Corea and Japan should also be one in friendship, and thus guard against -“Russia the ravenous.” The next point treated is the necessity of an alliance between -Corea and the United States, because the Americans are the natural friends of Asiatic -nations. Pointing out the many advantages of securing the friendship of the Americans, -and making a treaty with them first, the memorialist urges the Coreans to seize the -golden opportunity at once. -</p> -<p>About the same time, Li Hung Chang, China’s liberal statesman, wrote a letter to a -Corean gentleman, in which the advice to seek the friendship of China and the United -States was strongly expressed, and a treaty with the Americans urged as a matter of -national safety. Many, though not all, of the members of the embassies to Japan returned -full of enthusiasm for Western civilization. It soon became evident that the king -and many of his advisers were willing to make treaties. In Peking, the members of -the embassy, before the winter of 1881 was over, began diplomatic flirtations with -the American Legation. At that time, however, neither Minister J. B. Angell, in Peking, -nor John A. Bingham, in Tōkiō, had any authority to make a treaty with Corea. While -the way was thus made ready, the representations of Messrs. Bingham <span class="pageNum" id="pb431">[<a href="#pb431">431</a>]</span>and Angell to the State Department at Washington impressed upon our Government the -necessity of having a diplomatic agent near at hand to take advantage of the next -opportunity. Hitherto the only avenue of entrance seemed through the Japanese good -offices; but the apparent willingness of Coreans in Peking, the experience of the -Italians in the Vettor Pisani at Fusan and Port Lazareff, the advice of Chinese statesmen -to Corea to have faith in the United States, and to open her ports to American commerce, -convinced the American minister at Peking that China, rather than Japan, would furnish -the better base of diplomatic operations for breaking down the Corean repulsive policy. -</p> -<p>The Government at Washington responded to the suggestion, and in the spring of 1881, -Commodore Shufeldt was sent by the State Department to Peking as naval attaché to -the Legation, so as to be near the American Minister and be ready with his experience, -should a further attempt “to bring together the strange States of the Extreme Sea” -be made. -</p> -<p>Shortly after the presentation of Kwo-in-ken’s memorial in Seoul, a party of thirty-four -prominent men of the civilization party, led by Giō Inchiu and Kio Yeichoku, set out -from Seoul to visit Japan and further study the problem of how far Western ideas were -adapted to an oriental state. -</p> -<p>The proposition to open a port so near the capital to the Japanese, and to treat with -the Americans, was not left unchallenged. The ultra-Confucianists, headed by Ni Mansun, -stood ready to oppose it with word and weapon. In swelling Corean rhetoric, this bigoted -patriot from Chung-chong proved to his own satisfaction that all the nations except -China and Corea were uncivilized, and that the presence of foreigners would pollute -the holy land. Gathering an array of seven hundred of his followers, he dressed in -mourning to show his grief, and with the figure of an axe on his shoulders, in token -of risking his life by his act, he presented his memorial to the king, and sat for -seven days in front of the royal palace. He demanded that In-chiŭn should not be opened, -the two Bin should be deposed, and all innovations should cease. -</p> -<p>The popular form of the dread of foreigners was shown in delegations of country people, -who came into Seoul to forward petitions and protestations. Placards were posted on -or near the palace gates, full of violent language, and prophesying the most woful -results of Western blight and poison upon the country which had ever been the object -of the special favor of the <span class="corr" id="xd31e6203" title="Source: sprits">spirits</span>. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb432">[<a href="#pb432">432</a>]</span></p> -<p>Another party of two thousand literary men, fanatical patriots, had assembled at Chō-rio -to go up to Seoul to overawe the progressive ministers, but were met by messengers -from the court and turned back by the promise that the party about to visit Japan -under royal patronage should be recalled. For a moment the king had thrown a sop to -these cerberian zealots, whose three heads of demand would keep Chō-sen as inaccessible -as Hades. -</p> -<p>The order came too late, the progressionists had left the shores, and were in Nagasaki. -Thence to Ozaka, where some remained to study the arts and sciences; the majority -proceeded to Tōkiō to examine modern civilization in its manifold phases. Unlike Peter -the Great, some of these reformers began with themselves, clothing mind and body with -the nineteenth century. Dropping the garments of picturesque mediævalism, they put -on the work-suit of buttoned coat and trousers and learned the value of minutes from -American watches. The cutting off their badge of nationality—the top-knot—was accompanied -with emotions very similar to those of bereavement by death. -</p> -<p>Giō Inchiu<a class="noteRef" id="xd31e6211src" href="#xd31e6211">3</a> after his return from Japan was despatched on a mission to China, where his conference -was chiefly with Li Hung Chang. He returned home by way of Fusan, December 29, 1881. -He had now a good opportunity of judging the relative merits of Japan and China. His -patriotic eye saw that the first need of Corean reform was in strengthening the army; -though the poverty of the country gave slight hope of speedy success. -</p> -<p>The results of this mission were soon apparent, for shortly after, eighty young men, -of the average age of twenty, were sent to Tientsin, where they are now, 1882, diligently -pursuing their studies; some in the arsenal, learning the manufacture of firearms, -others learning the English language. A returned Chinese student—one of the number -lately recalled from New England—while severely sarcastic at the Corean government’s -“poor discrimination in selecting the country from which her students could profit -most,” added, “they possess a far better physique for the navy than any of our future -imperial midshipmen.” -<span class="pageNum" id="pb433">[<a href="#pb433">433</a>]</span></p> -</div> -<div class="footnotes"> -<hr class="fnsep"> -<div class="footnote-body"> -<div class="fndiv" id="xd31e6123"> -<p class="footnote"><span class="fnlabel"><a class="noteRef" href="#xd31e6123src">1</a></span> The Japanese refused to have the Mikado designated by any title but that of Whang -Ti (Japanese Kōtei) showing that he was peer to the Emperor of China; while the Coreans -would not, in the same document, have their sovereign written down as Wang (Japanese -Ō) because they wished him shown to be an equal of the Mikado, though ceremonially -subordinate to the Whang Ti or Emperor of China. The poor Coreans were puzzled at -there being two suns in one heaven, and two equal and favorite Sons of Heaven. -</p> -<p class="footnote cont">The commissioners from Seoul attempted to avoid the dilemma by having the treaty drawn -up in the names of the respective envoys only; this the Japanese refused to do. A -compromise was attempted by having the titles of the Mikado of Japan, and the Hap-mun -of Chō-sen inserted at the beginning; and, in every necessary place thereafter, “the -government” of Dai Nippon (Great Japan), or of Dai Chō-sen (Great Corea); this also -failed. Finally, neither ruler was mentioned by name or title, nor was reference made -to either, and the curious document was drawn up in the name of the respective “Governments.” <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd31e6123src" title="Return to note 1 in text.">↑</a></p> -</div> -<div class="fndiv" id="xd31e6182"> -<p class="footnote"><span class="fnlabel"><a class="noteRef" href="#xd31e6182src">2</a></span> This <i>fu</i> city, called by the Japanese Ninsen, or Nii-gawa, was well known by the Japanese, -as is shown on their maps of the sixteenth century. The name means Two Rivers. The -rise and fall of the tides here is very great, sometimes amounting to a difference -of twenty-nine feet; and in winter the shore-water is frozen. Large vessels cannot -anchor within a mile of the shore. The port Chi-mul-po is at some distance from the -city. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd31e6182src" title="Return to note 2 in text.">↑</a></p> -</div> -<div class="fndiv" id="xd31e6211"> -<p class="footnote"><span class="fnlabel"><a class="noteRef" href="#xd31e6211src">3</a></span> In this and the following chapter the names of Corean noblemen have been given in -their Japanese form, <i>i.e.</i>, Bin for Min, etc., but in the Supplementary Chapter according to Corean pronunciation. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd31e6211src" title="Return to note 3 in text.">↑</a></p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch48" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#xd31e1242">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="label">CHAPTER XLVIII.</h2> -<h2 class="main">THE YEAR OF THE TREATIES.</h2> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="first">The year 1882 opened ominously. A fire broke out in the royal palace in Seoul, on -January 27th, in which two buildings, nearly completed for the heir apparent, were -burned down. The fire was at first believed to have political significance, and the -tension of the public mind was not relaxed until it was shown that the fire was the -result of pure accident. -</p> -<p>The spirit of progress made advance, but discussion reached fever-heat in deciding -whether the favor of Japan or China should be most sought, and which foreign nation, -the United States, France, or England, should be admitted first to treaty rights. -Bin, opposed to the arbitrary spirit of the Japanese, edged his argument by proposing -an alliance with foreigners in order to checkmate the designs of Japan. -</p> -<p>An event not unlooked for increased the power of the progressionists. One Kozaikai -urged the plea of expulsion of foreigners in such intemperate language that he was -accused of reproaching the sovereign. At the same time, a conspiracy against the life -of the king, involving forty persons, was discovered, and the sword and torture came -into play. Kozaikai was put to death, many of the conspirators were exiled, and the -ringleaders were sentenced to be broken alive on the wheel, the revolutions of which -tore off hands and feet in succession. Six of those doomed to death were spared, through -the intercession of a minister, and one, the king’s cousin, who delivered himself -up, was pardoned by his sovereign on the ground of the prisoner’s insanity. The Progressionists -had now the upper hand, and early in the spring Giō Inchiu and Riōsen left on a mission -to Tientsin, to acquaint the Americans and Chinese with the information that the Corean -government was ready to make treaties, and that the proper officer would be at In-chiŭn -to sign the compact and complete the negotiations. -</p> -<p>Meanwhile the reforms in military affairs were begun with energy. <span class="pageNum" id="pb434">[<a href="#pb434">434</a>]</span>Japanese officers, at the head of whom was Lieutenant Horimoto, drilled picked men -in Seoul, with creditable success, in spite of their unwieldy hats and costume, and -the jeers of the anti-foreign people, in public as well as in private. Substantial -proof of the adoption of Japan’s military system was shown in an order sent to Tōkiō -for a few hundred Snider rifles with equipments—the weapon of the British army—and -one for twenty thousand of the rifles made at the Japanese arsenal in Tōkiō, which, -combining the merits of the best-known military fire-arm, contained improvements invented -and patented by Colonel Murata, of the mikado’s army. Two Corean notables later again -visited Japan in April of this year, and were annoyed to find a report spread abroad -in Nagasaki that they had come to raise a money loan. Nevertheless, they proceeded -to Kiōto and Tōkiō. Some of their suite went into the printing-offices and silk-worm -breeding establishments to learn these arts, while type, presses, and printing material -were ordered for use at home. -</p> -<p>Affairs had so shaped themselves that even to outsiders it became evident that the -Corean apple was ripe even to falling. By March 4th it was known at the American Legation -in Peking that “Barkis was willin’,” while to the Japanese envoy then in Tōkiō it -became certain that, unless he made all haste to In-chiŭn, the American commodore -would have his treaty signed and be off without even waiting for a call. Hastily bidding -his friends good-by, he left in the Japanese steamer, Iwaki Kuan, and arrived in the -harbor just one hour before the American corvette Swatara arrived with Commodore Shufeldt -on board. With the Swatara were three Chinese men-of-war, one of them an iron-clad. -</p> -<p>The American diplomatic agent, Commodore R. W. Shufeldt, having spent nearly a year -in China, surmounting difficulties that few will know of until the full history of -the American treaty with Corea is written, arrived in the Swatara off Chimulpo, May -7th. Accompanied by three officers, Commodore Shufeldt went six miles into the interior -to the office of the Corean magistrate to formulate the treaty. Though surrounded -every moment by curious crowds, no disrespect was shown in any way. Two days afterward, -the treaty document was signed on a point of land in a temporary pavilion opposite -the ship. Thus, in the most modest manner the negotiations were concluded, and a treaty -with the United States was, after repeated failures, secured by the gallant officer -who, by this act <span class="pageNum" id="pb435">[<a href="#pb435">435</a>]</span>of successful diplomacy, closed a long and brilliant professional career.<a class="noteRef" id="xd31e6235src" href="#xd31e6235">1</a> -</p> -<p>Both on the American and Corean side the results had been brought about only after -severe toil. The Corean nobleman Bin, a cousin of the queen, had so labored in Seoul -night and day to commit the government to the policy of making treaties with the Americans, -that, when the messengers had been despatched with the order for Commodore Shufeldt -to appear in Imperatrice Gulf, he fell ill, and was unable to appear at In-chiŭn. -The American envoy was so worn out with anxiety and toil by his efforts to have Corea -opened under Chinese auspices, that on landing at San Francisco, he retired to the -naval hospital at Mare’s Island to recover his exhausted strength. -</p> -<p>Four days after the signing of the American and Chinese treaties, the Corean capital -was full of mirth and gayety, on account of a wedding in the royal family. The crown -prince, a lad of nine years old, was wedded to the daughter of Jun, a nobleman of -high rank, who had postponed a visit to Japan until the nuptials were accomplished. -A brilliant procession in the streets of Seoul marked the event, and for a moment -the excitement concerning foreigners was forgotten. None foresaw the bloody ending -of this honeymoon so happily begun. -</p> -<p>The British minister at Tōkiō, Sir Harry Parkes, who had left no stone unturned to -secure a personal interview with the ambassador <span class="pageNum" id="pb436">[<a href="#pb436">436</a>]</span>in 1876, and, since that time, British trade with Corea, was still on the alert. He -at once ordered Admiral Willes to proceed to In-chiŭn. Leaving his large fleet in -Japanese waters, Admiral Willes left Nagasaki in the Vigilant, May 27th, while Mr. -William G. Aston, the accomplished linguist and Corean scholar, received orders to -follow. The Admiral’s business was soon despatched, a treaty was made, and his return -to Yokohama was accomplished June 14th, the U. S. steamship Ashuelot saluting him -on his arrival. The French and Germans were the next to improve the long-awaited opportunity. -The German admiral left Japan in the man-of-war Stosch, on May 31st, while a vessel -of the French navy entered the port of In-chiŭn June 5th. There had thus appeared -in this sequestered nook of creation, within a few days, two American, three British, -one French, one Japanese, and five Chinese armed vessels. All of them, except the -French, had left by June 8th, to the great relief of the country folks and old men -and women, many of whom, with the children, had fled to the hills when the big guns -began to waste their powder in salutes, to the detriment of the thatched roofs of -the houses. -</p> -<p>China lost no time in taking advantage of the position secured her by treaty. No vexatious -delays of ratification troubled her. Everything had been arranged beforehand with -the Coreans, so that, on the return of the vessels from In-chiŭn, officers were despatched -to Shanghae to sail for Gensan and Fusan, and select land for public buildings. -</p> -<p>During the present year the Japanese legation in Seoul has numbered about forty persons, -including secretaries, interpreters, military officers, policemen, students, and servants. -Notwithstanding their precarious situation, amid the turbulent elements at work around -them, they seemed to enjoy the spectacle before their eyes of a repetition of the -history of their own country after Perry’s arrival in 1853. The young men of the legation -visited the historic sites near the capital, enjoyed the mountain and river scenery, -and studied the Corean language and literature. At first the common people believed -that their visitors sucked the blood of the children lured away by them; and so carefully -guarded their little ones. By and by, however, as more liberty was afforded them, -the occasional pelting with vegetables and pebbles became less frequent, and even -the women would talk with them. -</p> -<p>The light-hearted Japanese seemed to suspect no imminent danger, although the old -fanatic and tyrant Tai-wen Kun was still alive and plotting. To insure perfect secrecy -for his plans, it is said <span class="pageNum" id="pb437">[<a href="#pb437">437</a>]</span>that he employed two or three mutes to wait on him, and act as his messengers. He -was the centre of all the elements hostile to innovation, and being a man of unusual -ability, was possessed of immense influence. The populace of Seoul and of the country -had been taught to believe that “the Japanese were inebriated with the manners of -Christian nations, and were enchanted by the Western devils, and that as a Europeanized -country of the devil was being created in their immediate neighborhood, they must -expel the barbarians.” Every means had been used to inflame the people against foreigners. -Stone monuments had been set up on the high roads and market-places which bore this -inscription—“The Western barbarians will come to invade our soil, there are but two -alternatives for Chō-sen; to go to war, or to maintain peace. To submit peacefully -means to sell the country; therefore we Coreans must resort to arms.” Many thousands -of these inscribed stones had been set up, and an edict had been issued, commanding -the ink-makers to inscribe their sticks of ink with this inflammatory declaration. -When nobles of high rank would advocate progresssive views, Tai-wen Kun would sneeringly -dare them to remove these anti-foreign monuments. -</p> -<p>During the nine years of his nominal retirement from office, from 1873 to 1882, this -bigoted Confucianist, who refused to know anything of the outer world, bided his time -and waited his opportunity, which came during the summer of the present year. Just -when the populace was most excited over the near presence of the Americans and other -foreigners at In-chiŭn, the usual rainfall was withheld, the wells dried up, and in -the consequent drouth, the rice crop was threatened with total failure. The diviners, -sorcerers, and anti-foreign party took advantage of the situation to play on the fears -of the superstitious people. The spirits, displeased at the intrusion of the Western -devils, were angry and were cursing the land. At the same time the soldiery of the -capital were disaffected, as some say on account of arrearages of wages, or as others -aver, because the old warriors of the bow and arrow hated the Japanese method of drilling -as a foreign innovation insulting to the gods. A more probable reason is that on account -of the failure of the rice-harvest, the soldiers’ rations were cut down, and they -were deprived of this choice cereal for food. Among the first Corean officers killed -was the superintendent of the rice storehouses, which were pillaged by the hungry -mob. -</p> -<p>On July 23d, while the king was out in the open air praying <span class="pageNum" id="pb438">[<a href="#pb438">438</a>]</span>for rain, a mob of sympathizers with Tai-wen Kun attempted to seize his person. The -king escaped to the castle. According to one account, some mischief-maker then started -the report in the city that the Japanese had attacked the royal castle, and had seized -the king and queen, and that the prime minister with the palace-guards in vainly endeavoring -to beat back the assailants, had been defeated; and that every Corean should take -up arms. Forthwith the mob rushed with frantic violence upon the legation, murdering -the Japanese policemen and students whom they met in the streets and the Japanese -military instructors in the barracks. Not satisfied with this, the rioters, numbering -4,000 men, attacked and destroyed the houses of the ministers favoring foreign intercourse. -Before quiet was restored, the queen, Min, the heir apparent and his wife, the chief -ministers of the government, Min Thai Ho and Min Yong Ik, were, as was supposed, murdered; -but all these emerged alive. Many of the Mins and seven Japanese were killed. -</p> -<p>The Japanese, by their own account, had suspected no danger until the day of the riot, -when they noticed great excitement among the people, and that crowds were assembling -and rushing to and fro. They sent out a policeman to inquire into the nature of the -disturbance, and at two o’clock <span class="asc">P.M.</span> they learned from a native that the mob would attack the legation. Word was also -sent to the Japanese by the Corean officer in charge of the drill-ground where the -troops were trained by Lieutenant Horimoto, saying that the troops drilled in Japanese -tactics had been attacked, and the legation would next be in danger. Hanabusa and -his suite then arranged a plan of defence. While thus engaged, a Corean employed at -the legation informed them that the mob had destroyed the houses of the two ministers -Bin, and were attacking three Japanese students. Three policemen well armed then left -to succor the students, but nothing was heard from either policemen or students again. -A Corean officer now appeared and warned the Japanese to escape to the hill back of -the legation; and being requested by Hanabusa to ask the government for soldiers, -he left on this errand. At 5.50 <span class="asc">P.M.</span> the mob reached the legation, and raising a united yell, fired volleys of bullets, -arrows, and big stones at the legation, but dared not enter the gate to face the revolvers -of the policemen. In hurling stones the ruffians showed remarkable skill. The mob -set on fire a house, near by, and in the rising wind—then boding a coming storm—two -out-houses of the legation were burned, the police shooting down the incendiaries -when they could see them. It was now <span class="pageNum" id="pb439">[<a href="#pb439">439</a>]</span>about ten o’clock, and the ruffians having thrown up barricades to hem in their victims -and to shield their cowardly carcases while shooting, the Japanese fired the remaining -buildings, and armed only with swords and pistols, formed themselves into a circle, -charged the mob, and cut their way through to the house of the chief magistrate, which -they found empty. Finding no one in the official residence, they marched to the southern -gate of the royal castle. Instead of opening it, the soldiers on the wall above pelted -them with stones. -</p> -<p>Hanabusa now resolved to cross the river with his party and make his way to In-chiŭn. -Turning their backs on the flames, they arrived at the river and, on the ferryman -refusing to convey them across, they seized the boat and crossed safely to the other -side. It was now past midnight and the rain began to fall heavily, and with occasional -thunderstorms continued to pour down all night. The refugees plunged on through the -darkness, often losing their way, but next day at ten o’clock, they procured some -raw barley to eat, and through the pelting rain pushed on, reaching In-chiŭn at 3 -<span class="asc">P.M.</span> The governor received them kindly and supplied food and dry clothing. The Japanese -officers slept in the official residence, and the servants, police, and others in -a guard-house about fifteen yards distant. The governor posted his own sentinels to -watch so that the Japanese could get some rest. In a few minutes the tired men were -sleeping the sleep of exhaustion. -</p> -<p>About five o’clock, Hanabusa and his officers were suddenly awakened by the shouting -of a mob outside; and in a moment more a Japanese entered covered with blood, and -with a drawn sword in his hand with which he had cut his way. The mob had attacked -them while they were asleep, and the soldiers of the local garrison were joining the -rioters, firing from behind fences. All the Japanese now hurried on their clothes, -and charging a body of about forty soldiers, armed with swords and spears, who were -blocking the gateway, made for Chi-mul-po seaport, having lost three killed and two -missing. -</p> -<p>Meeting two Japanese on horseback from the port, who reported that the road was free -from ambuscades, they put the wounded man on one horse, and by another despatched -one of their number to hasten forward and have a boat ready. They reached Chi-mul-po, -the port, about seven o’clock, and immediately crossed over to Roze Island for safety. -About midnight, having procured a junk, they put to sea, toward Nanyo Bay, where they -knew the British gunboat <span class="pageNum" id="pb440">[<a href="#pb440">440</a>]</span>Flying Fish was then on survey. Encountering a southerly wind, they made little or -no progress, and on the 26th a dense fog set in; but at 11.30 <span class="asc">A.M.</span>, it cleared up and the welcome sight of a three-masted vessel greeted their eyes. -Hoisting the flag of Japan, they saw their signal answered, and soon the party of -twenty-six half-naked, hungry, and cold refugees were on board the ship, where kindest -treatment awaited them. That night at ten o’clock the Flying Fish sailed for Nagasaki. -On August 3d a religious service in memory of their slain comrades was held by the -survivors, at Shimonoséki. “The deep silence was only broken by the sobbing of the -audience, overcome by deep sympathy for the murdered men.” On the 8th Hanabusa had -an audience with the mikado in Tōkiō. -</p> -<p>Without hesitation, the Japanese government ordered the army to assemble at <span class="corr" id="xd31e6281" title="Source: Shinonoséki">Shimonoséki</span> and Tsushima, with naval forces to co-operate. Hanabusa and his suite were sent back, -escorted by a military force. He re-entered Seoul, August 16th, and was received with -courtesy. A fleet of Chinese war-vessels with a force of four thousand troops was -also at hand. Apparently everything was under the control of Tai-wen Kun, who professed -to be friendly to foreigners, and to ascribe the recent riot to a sudden uprising -of the unpaid soldiery, which the government had not force at hand to suppress. Two -Corean officers coming on board the Flying Fish, August 10th, informed Captain Hoskyn -that the soldiery, dissatisfied with the unfair treatment of their superiors, had -incited the peasantry to rebellion; that by orders of Tai-wen Kun, who bitterly regretted -the recent outrages, the dead Japanese had been honorably buried; that the old regent -while usurping the royal power, had professed a total change of views and was in favor -of a progressive policy. -</p> -<p>At his audience with the king, August 20th, Hanabusa presented the demands of his -government. These were nominally agreed to, but several days passing without satisfactory -action, Hanabusa having exhausted remonstrance and argument, left Seoul August 25th -and returned to his ship. This unexpected move—a menace of war—brought the usurper -to terms. On receipt of Tai-wen Kun’s apologies, the Japanese envoy returned to the -capital August 30th and full agreement was given to the demands of Japan, at which -time it would appear, Tai-wen Kun, forcibly kidnapped by the envoy of China, had begun -his travels into the country of Confucius. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb441">[<a href="#pb441">441</a>]</span></p> -<p>The following telegram to the <i>New York Tribune</i> of October 2d, summarizes the news from Yokohama up to September 13th: -</p> -<blockquote> -<p class="first">The Corean Government pledged itself to the following conditions: To arrest the insurgents -within twenty days and inflict due punishment upon them, Japanese delegates to be -present at the trial; to bury properly the bodies of those murdered and pay 50,000 -yen (dollars) to their families; to pay Japan 500,000 yen as indemnity for expenditure, -etc., in five yearly instalments; to allow Japanese troops in Seoul for the protection -of the legation, and to provide proper accommodations for them; to send an apology -by a special embassy to Japan; to extend gradually privileges to the Japanese residents -and traders; to afford proper conveniences for travel throughout Corea for the Japanese -Government officials. -</p> -<p>While this was going on the Chinese envoy, who had remained inactive with his escort -until August 25th, suddenly called up the full body of his troops, about three or -four thousand, to the capital. What degree of pressure he may have exercised is not -yet known, but it is certain that the chief rebel and assassin, the Tai-wen Kun, was -taken on board a Chinese ship and carried to Tien-tsin. It is alleged that his departure -was by no means voluntary, and that some physical effort was required to get him ashore -on arriving at his destination. Whatever was the object of this proceeding, it must -have been dictated by Li Hung Chang, the Chinese Viceroy at Tien-tsin, who seems to -have quite abandoned his demeanor of calm stolidity during these active Corean transactions. -It is declared by one Chinese party that the only purpose was to rescue the Tai-wen -Kun from the dangers that threatened him, and by another that the intent was still -to maintain the theory of sovereign control over Corea’s rulers, which Li Hung Chang -has been straining for throughout. -</p> -<p>During the recent prospect of trouble with Corea, the Japanese Government received -offers of military service from twenty thousand volunteers, and of money gifts to -the value of 200,000 yen.</p> -</blockquote><p> -</p> -<p>At this stage of affairs, when Corea ceases to be a “hermit nation,” and stands in -the glare of the world’s attention, we bring our imperfect story to a close. The pivot -of the future history of Eastern Asia is Corea. On her soil will be decided the problem -of supremacy, by the jealous rivals China, Japan, and Russia. The sudden assumption -of self-imposed tutelary duties by China proves her lively interest in the little -country, which has been called both “her right arm of defense,” and “her gloved hand”—the -one to force back the ravenous Muscovite, the other to warn off the ambitious Japanese. -Whether the Middle Kingdom has deliberately chosen the Land of Morning Calm to affront -and humiliate “the neighbor-disturbing nation,” that twice humbled her pride in the -fairest islands of the sea—Formosa and Riu Kiu—the events of the not distant future -will soon determine. Whether the hoary empire <span class="pageNum" id="pb442">[<a href="#pb442">442</a>]</span>shall come in collision with the young northern giant, and the dragon and the bear -tear each other in the slime of war in Corean valleys, may be a question the solution -of which is not far off. We trust that amid all dangers, the integrity of the little -kingdom may be preserved; but whatever be the issue upon the map of the world, let -us hope that paganism, bigotry, and superstition in Corea, and in all Asia, may disappear; -and that in their places, the religion of Jesus, science, education, and human brotherhood -may find an abiding dwelling-place. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb443">[<a href="#pb443">443</a>]</span></p> -</div> -<div class="footnotes"> -<hr class="fnsep"> -<div class="footnote-body"> -<div class="fndiv" id="xd31e6235"> -<p class="footnote"><span class="fnlabel"><a class="noteRef" href="#xd31e6235src">1</a></span> Commodore B. W. Shufeldt was born in Dutchess County, New York, in 1822, and entered -the navy in 1839, serving ten years on foreign stations and in the coast survey. One -cruise to the west coast of Africa interested him in the negro colony of Liberia, -in which he has ever since felt concern. From 1850 to 1860, our navy being in a languishing -state, he was engaged in the mercantile marine service, and in organizing a transit -route across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. In 1860 an article of his on the slave trade -between the Island of Cuba and the coast of Africa, drew the attention of the government -to him, and led to his appointment of Consul-General at Havana. The slave-trade was -soon effectually broken up, and through the trying period of the first half of the -civil war, he was occupied in his civil duties, at one time going to Mexico on a confidential -mission to President Juarez, passing unrecognized through the French lines. He was -on blockade duty during the last two years of the civil war. In 1865 he went to China, -as flag-captain of the Hartford, and commanding the Wachusett visited Corea. In 1870 -he organized a party for the survey of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, his report being -made the basis of Captain Eads’ ship-railway project. The official history of the -semi-diplomatic cruise of the Ticonderoga round the world (1878–1880) has been written, -but has not yet been published. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd31e6235src" title="Return to note 1 in text.">↑</a></p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch49" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#xd31e1250">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="label">CHAPTER XLIX.</h2> -<h2 class="main">THE ECONOMIC CONDITION OF COREA.</h2> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="first">For nearly a quarter of a century Corea, the once hermit nation, has been opened to -intercourse with the world, and the student has had facilities for understanding the -country and people and realizing what are the social and political problems of humanity -in the peninsula. -</p> -<p>As in most old Asiatic states, so in Corea, there is an almost total absence of an -intelligent middle class, which in the West is the characteristic of progressive nations. -In the Land of Morning Radiance there is a governing minority consisting of about -one-tenth of the whole population. These, the Yangban (civil and military), living -in ancient privilege and prerogative and virtually paying no taxes or tolls, prey -upon the common people. The great bulk, that is, nine-tenths of the population, is -agricultural and is gathered in hamlets and villages. -</p> -<p>The typical Corean tills the soil, in which occupation, after ages of unprogressive -routine, he has come to his present mental status. There is not even a distinct manufacturing -class in Corea, for nearly all industry is still in the cottage. The few articles -needed by the laborer for the floor, the wall, and the kitchen are made by the farmer -during his winter hours, and his women-folk weave and make up the clothing. The average -carpenter, blacksmith, and stone mason is simply a laborer on the land with added -skill in a special line. Even the fisherman cultivates the soil. The village schoolmaster -is a son of the farmer of the better class. There are groups of population-office-holders -and their retainers and hangers-on, shopkeepers and traders, butchers, porters, miners, -junk-sailors, and innkeepers, sorcerers, gamblers, and fortune-tellers, but, all told, -the number of men who do not live on the soil form but a decimal fraction in the national -household. -</p> -<p>For these compelling reasons the problems of internal government <span class="pageNum" id="pb444">[<a href="#pb444">444</a>]</span>relate almost wholly to the woe or weal of the tillers of the soil. During the summer -of six months the average Corean stands bare-legged in the mud, planting or cultivating -grain. His wife and children, especially his daughters, help him in the raising of -rice, barley, wheat, and beans, and in the harvesting and securing of the final products. -During the four cold months of the year he is at work gathering fuel or making mats, -sandals, screens, or thatch. During the first and seventh moons he enjoys an easy -time, doing little or nothing, and these two months are like holiday. The average -income of a Corean farmer is about thirty dollars a year. The average house in Corea -consists only of mud, straw, twine, and wood, above a foundation of earth faced with -stone and worth but a few dollars. The price of waste land is from one to five dollars -an acre, and of cultivated fertile soil from ten to sixty dollars an acre. The lots -are poorly marked and boundary quarrels are incessant. The Corean farmer knows little -about scientific irrigation or variety in fertilizers, dried grass being his chief -manure. The mountains are greatly denuded of their forests, and alternate droughts -and floods work awful disasters. With a naturally good soil and fine climate, agriculture -is yet in a backward condition. It is said that the Japanese in the sixteenth century -taught the Coreans the cultivation of rice, millions of bushels of which, under stimulus -from the same source, they are now able to export annually. In recent years the Japanese -have attempted to secure control of the waste lands of Corea so as to develop them, -not only for the production of cereals, vegetable wax, paper fibre, and stuff for -weaving, but also for cotton to supply the demands of the Osaka mills. Their demands, -pressed too severely in July, 1904, were the cause of vigorous native protest in great -public meetings. -</p> -<p>The Corean rustic is, as a rule, illiterate. Probably only about four out of ten males -of the farming class can read either Chinese or Corean, but counting in the women -it is estimated that about eighty-five per cent of the people can neither read nor -write, though the percentage varies greatly with the locality. As a general thing, -there is more acquaintance with books and writing in the southern than in the northern -provinces. It is pitiful to find in the Budget for 1904 that but $27,718 are appropriated -for schools outside of Seoul, the latter receiving $135,074, of which <span class="pageNum" id="pb445">[<a href="#pb445">445</a>]</span>the sum of $44,220 goes to foreign teachers in the English, French, German, Russian, -Chinese, and Japanese language schools. Although since 1895 the old civil-service -examinations have been abolished and there has been a Department of Education, it -has thus far had little influence upon the country at large. In the central office -in 1904, out of $28,617 appropriated, $19,857 went for salaries and office expenses, -$6,500 being for text-book printing. -</p> -<p>The Corean farmer is simple in his dress, food, and habits. He does not journey far -from home. Although the high-roads are lively with travellers, one sees not the farmer -but the literati, the traders, and the porters. Few country folks ever visit the large -cities, and in regions near the capital few have seen Seoul. Custom is the eternal -law to the rustic, who is patient, bearing extortion until flesh and blood can stand -it no longer, when he rises in revolt against his oppressor. Yet it is against the -bad man, not the system itself, that he protests. After the obnoxious officer has -been recalled or driven away and temporary relief is obtained, the Corean farmer settles -down into a good tax-paying subject as of yore, and unless something like the Tong -Hak movement stirs him, his wheel of life quickly slips again into the rut of routine. -As long as he can get enough to eat he is content. When oppression and robbery are -joined to Nature’s niggardliness, he and his comrades are transformed into a howling -mob of starving malcontents, ready for bloody vengeance. -</p> -<p>The son of the soil is superstitious to the last degree. He lives in constant terror -of the demons and spirits that overpopulate earth, air, and water, for he is without -the protection that the certainties of science or the strength of pure religion furnishes. -No unifying, uplifting, and inspiring knowledge of one God is his. His thatched hut -or mud-floored hovel is a museum of fetiches. Often he will give the best fruits of -the fields to what seems to an alien a mass of straw or rags. The sorceress thrives -like a fat parasite on the farmer, getting well paid for her songs, dances, incantations, -and presence at the feasts. Yet the Corean enjoys the religious festivals. He is at -least just to himself, while professing generosity to the spirits. He honors the gods -but ultimately puts the well-cooked offerings far from them—even into his own interior; -for above all things, the worshipper is orthodox in his belief in a well-filled stomach. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb446">[<a href="#pb446">446</a>]</span></p> -<p>With such a people, both Confucianism and Buddhism become the grossest of superstitions. -The Corean’s face is toward the past. He invokes and worships the dead, and to him -the graveyard contains more than the future can bring him. Besides the extortions -of the nobles, officials, and other parasitic or predatory classes, the expense of -offerings to his dead ancestors amounts to many millions of dollars a year, far exceeding -in their total the national revenue. In Seoul alone there are three thousand sorceresses, -each earning at least $7.50 a month. The farmer is poor, but he is hospitable and -liberal. He has untold reverence for learning and for rank, he loves flowers and beautiful -scenery, but he is stupid in the presence of an innovation. His area of vision is -bounded by the hills within the circle of which he was born. His chief recreation -is in going to market, for, generally speaking, there are few shops in the peninsula, -but there is a market every five or six days, where the natives exchange their products -and their opinions. According to the state of weather conditions, the native is happy -or suffers, a large harvest making all smile, a scant crop causing famine and hunger -and the outbreak of banditti and rapine. Besides buying and selling, huckstering and -gossiping, there are at the markets plenty of fighting and drunkenness as diversions. -Going out for wool the farmer frequently comes home shorn, but he has had his fun, -or rather a variation of deadly monotony. Furthermore, he is fond of a joke and loves -to chaff his fellows. -</p> -<p>As the country itself is governed out of the graveyard, and sovereign, court, and -people are driven by imaginary demons and spirits, so the farmers, both as individuals, -as families, and as clans, guard jealously and in fear the ancestral mounds with superstitious -reverence. Hence one large element of village excitement is in quarrelling and fighting -over graves. About fifty per cent of the cases brought before the country magistrates -are said to be connected with these grave fights. These bitter struggles involve whole -clans and result in bloodshed and loss of life. Even the dead are not allowed to rest -in peace. The digging up of corpses and the tumbling of them beyond the limits in -dispute is a common occurrence. This ghoulish activity is varied by an occasional -abduction of widows or by other infractions of the law. Another large element of anxiety -to the farmer is the protection <span class="pageNum" id="pb447">[<a href="#pb447">447</a>]</span>of the water supply for his rice-swamp. The damming of the stream above or the draining -off of the water below may ruin his crop. The breaking of the mud boundaries, and -the stealing of water from a neighbor’s field is mirrored in proverbs and folk-lore. -It is sufficiently habitual to furnish a plentiful supply of pretexts for quarrels -and fighting. -</p> -<p>There are four classes of agriculturists. The lowest tiller of the soil is a serf, -owning no land, working by the day or contract, and virtually bound to the glebe. -The men of the next class, though owning no lands, work the farms of others on shares. -These farm-hands and farm-tenants make up the great mass of the Corean people. They -live in thatched mud huts, with enough plain food to keep them alive and often fat, -but with scanty change of garments and few or no comforts of life. They are occupied -during the working months from daybreak to twilight in unremitting toil. The third -class consists of the small owners with possessions worth from five hundred to five -thousand dollars and numbering three per cent of the farming population. In the fourth -or highest class are the landed proprietors, the aristocracy of the land, the richest -member being worth as much as four or five million dollars, with an annual income -of at least a quarter of a million. Insignificant in numbers, they are mighty in power, -for it is these great landowners who rule the realm, and most of them live in Seoul. -</p> -<p>To the great mass of the people in Corea there is no motive for much industry beyond -danger of starvation, and but little incentive to enterprise. Under old normal conditions -now being slowly ameliorated, the official, the yangban, and the landed aristocracy, -in a word, the predatory classes, seize upon the common man’s earnings and accumulations, -so that it seems to him useless and even foolish to work for more than enough to support -life, while as for the “civilization nonsense,” does it not mean more taxation? On -the 13th of November, 1902, the announcement was made of the increase in land tax -from $10 per measure of ground to $16 per measure. So argues the average man in Corea, -the land long ruled by real oppressors and imaginary demons. -</p> -<p>The researches of scholars have also revealed the actual economic conditions of the -nation in the days of hermitage. Old Corea was not, as in feudal Japan, straitened -in its production of food. <span class="pageNum" id="pb448">[<a href="#pb448">448</a>]</span>In the island empire only about one-twelfth of the soil was or could be cultivated. -Hence Japan was rigidly limited in her food-producing area, so that the population, -besides being kept down through such natural checks as famine, pestilence, storm and -flood, was further diminished to fit the food supply by such artificial means as sumptuary -laws, licensed prostitution, infanticide, cruel punishments, and frequent decapitation. -In Corea, also, where the fertile earth, though formed to be inhabited and abundant -in area of plain and valley, was neither properly replenished nor subdued, many checks -upon population existed. Local famines were frequent and often long continued, and -neither religion nor the means of transportation furnished the means of saving life -to any large amount. Artificial checks on too rapid multiplication of humanity operated -powerfully. The lesser care and kindness given to female children resulted in a heavy -death-rate as compared with that of the boys, the cruel punishments and frequent torture -and decapitation and the lack of incentive to industry all wrought together to make -both the land and the human life on it of comparatively slight value. -</p> -<p>The whole situation was changed when Corea ceased to be a hermit land and began to -be fertilized by foreign commerce and ideas. Confronted by new methods of trade, science, -and religion, the thinking native was summoned to thought and action. Into the Corean -mind, long held in bondage by Confucianism, which degrades woman and narrows man’s -intellect, the universal religion entered to compel the Corean man to think of other -lands and people besides his own, to search his own heart, to attempt to make himself -and his neighbors better, and to take a new outlook on the universe. The new doctrines -delivered believers from the paralyzing thrall of demons and evil spirits, from ancestor -worship, and from the sceptre held by the hand rising out of the grave. Into the Corea -clamped as in iron bands by false economic notions entered the spirit of free competition. -Into a land that knew no such thing as a foreign market the railway brings an eager -purchaser to the farmer’s door, and by carrying his goods to the seaports it enables -him to give to and receive manifold benefits from the world at large. -</p> -<p>Already, through the energy of the canny islanders from the east, the crops in Corea -have quadrupled, though under native <span class="pageNum" id="pb449">[<a href="#pb449">449</a>]</span>mismanagement this does not necessarily mean immediate benefit to the man on the soil, -but rather to the official class, or to the landholder in the capital. It has been -computed that the production of sixty million bushels of grain have thus been developed -in Corea through the Japanese demand. Between the feverish enterprise of the Japanese -on the one side and the tireless thrift of the Chinese on the other, “the good old -days” of primitive routine are gone forever. Corea has 4,500,000 acres under cultivation, -or about eight and a half per cent of her 82,000 square miles of area, so that 3,500,000 -available acres await the plough. From her arable soil six millions more of population -might easily find subsistence, and nearly ten millions of dollars of crops could be -raised. The peninsula needs in every great valley the railway, which “quadruples the -<span class="corr" id="xd31e6338" title="Source: valley">value</span> of every foot of land within twenty miles of its line.” The line from Fusan to Seoul -has already raised the value of town property in elect places hundreds of per cent -and measurably all along between the terminals. This railway was begun in August, -1901, but though the work slackened for lack of capital, by December 1, 1903, thirty-one -miles at either end had been built. The outbreak of the war with Russia revealed its -military value and promise was at once given that by Japanese Government aid it would -be completed with its thirty-one tunnels and 20,500 feet of bridges by the end of -1904. This Fusan-Seoul railway, 287 miles long, will traverse four provinces in the -richest part of Corea, wherein are seven-tenths of all the houses and five-sevenths -of all the cultivated area in the empire. Here also are the sites of the great fairs -held six times monthly, the thirty-nine stations of the road being located at or near -these places of trade, the total business of which amounts to over sixty-five per -cent of the internal trade of the empire. -</p> -<p>The Corean social and political system, sufficiently weak in hermit days, has shown -itself unable to withstand the repeated shock of attack by eager and covetous foreigners, -nor will it ever be able, even in a measure, to defend itself against the fierce and -unrelenting greed of the strong nations intrenched upon its soil, except by complete -reorganization. Both the outward forms and the inward spirit must change if the Coreans -are to preserve their national identity. The nation has been the bone of contention -between jealous and greedy rivals. One foreign government by <span class="pageNum" id="pb450">[<a href="#pb450">450</a>]</span>crafty diplomacy secures the right of cutting timber valued at millions of dollars, -another gets mining concessions, others propose this or that industry or supposed -line of production which depleted the treasury. The impoverished kingdom has not only -wasted many millions of treasure in foolish enterprises, but is deprived of its natural -assets in timber, metals, fisheries, and industries. -</p> -<p>The problem of bringing Corea into harmony with her modern environment is only in -some features like that of Japan, for there have been wanting in the peninsula what -was so effective in Japan’s case. In the island empire, the long previous preparation -by means of the infiltration of Western ideas during two centuries of communication -with Europe through the Dutch merchants, the researches of her own scholars furnishing -inspiration from their national history, the exercise during many generations of true -patriotism and self-sacrifice for the public good prepared the island nation to cope -with new conditions and situations. In the clash with the West, Japan came out victor. -Corea has no samurai. She lacks what Japan has always had—a cultured body of men, -superbly trained in both mind and body, the soldier and scholar in one, who held to -a high ideal of loyalty, patriotism, and sacrifice for country. The island samurai -enjoying the same prerogative and privilege as the Corean yangban (civil and military) -not only abolished feudalism, but after giving up their hereditary pensions and privileges, -joined the productive classes, while at the same time the Japanese merchants and mechanics -were raised in the social scale, the pariahs given citizenship, and then all lines -of promotion opened to all in the army, navy, schools, courts, and civil service. -The fertilizing streams of foreign commerce, the inspiration that comes from brotherhood -with other nations, and above all, the power brought to Nippon through the noble labors -and object lessons of the Christian missionaries, enabled the Japanese to take equal -place in the world with the nations of the West. Corea, on the contrary, by still -allowing the existence of predatory classes—nobles, officials, and great landowners—by -denying her people education, by being given to superstition from palace to hut and -from sovereign to serf, remains still in weakness and poverty. What Corea above all -needs, is that the lazy yangban cut their long finger-nails and get to work. -</p> -<p>Yet dark as is the situation, it is not without hope. Slowly <span class="pageNum" id="pb451">[<a href="#pb451">451</a>]</span>and painfully the Coreans are learning that no nation is born in a day. Under the -training of Christian teachers, a generation with new motives to action and new mental -horizons, and fed with food to sustain the spirit, is coming on. Christianity is, -with a remnant at least, making headway against the vices so common to this mild-mannered -nation—skill in lying, stealing, gambling, drunkenness, and the social evil. -</p> -<p>For ages and until Japan humbled China in 1894, Corea was so thoroughly and in all -things the vassal and pupil of the Middle Kingdom, from which most of the elements -of her civilization had been borrowed, that in the tributary kingdom there could be -no patriotism in its highest sense, nor could political parties and cliques have any -reason for existence except as they were concerned with aims that ended in selfishness. -With the people in general, there was only anxiety to pay taxes, win the favor of -the local magistrate, and escape the clutches of the law. With masters and rulers, -there was ever pitiful fear of the great country China, and, under Confucianism, a -desire to keep things as they were, mixed with impotent dread of change. Of pure love -of country, of willingness to make sacrifices for their native land—that is almost -a new thought as yet nourished by a few far-seeing patriots. In the evolution of the -Corean, social and psychic, his present ethical stage is not beyond that of the group, -clan, or neighborhood. It has not yet reached the individual. The majority of the -people have that kind of patriotism which means the instinctive desire to preserve -national identity. The one thing which they now fear, being in the vortex of the great -storm of war and in the centre of the economic typhoon of the twentieth century, is -national extinction. Even to-day the Coreans feel that they would rather live without -the new things of civilization, such as railways, education, public hygiene, or even -of righteous government, than be subject to an alien Power. History to the peninsular -gives no uncertain sound as to what foreign intervention has always meant, that is, -more oppression and even rapine. Seeing what has happened in half a lifetime, through -the coming of the alien to Corea, the native does not want civilization at the hands -of foreigners, though it may be that he will have to take it. Possibly through education -and a new outlook upon the universe he will be glad to get it, even struggling for -it until by assimilation <span class="pageNum" id="pb452">[<a href="#pb452">452</a>]</span>it becomes his own. In ancient history and the old days of the separation of nations, -there were many civilizations and varying standards. In these latter days of the world’s -brotherhood there is but one standard of civilization, and but one body of international -law, which all must obey. The nation or kingdom that will not serve and obey this -standard will pass out of history and perish. The signs that Corea realizes this truth -and that her best men are seeking fraternity with their fellows for help and uplift -are not wanting. Naturally they turn to the great republic, which since its beginning -has steadfastly followed the policy of healing, helping, teaching, and uplifting the -Asiatic nations. -</p> -<p>Corea sent a delegate to the International Postal Union, which met in Washington, -and in 1896 a postal system with stamps of four kinds was established, and under French -auspices has been working in excellent condition. The stamps, as well as the national -flag and documents, coins and other expressions of what is essentially representative -of the Coreans as a nation, illustrate their repertoire of symbolism. The flag in -blue, red, black, and white contains the two great emblems of the primitive Chinese -philosophy and theory of the universe. Through these, the Corean sees all things visible -and invisible produced as the results of their endless working and counteraction in -combination and dissolution. The forces of heaven and earth, light and darkness, the -positive and the negative, the male and the female, the <i>in</i> and the <i>yo</i>, are represented as two germs or commas in constant embrace or movement. This figure -occupies the centre of the field and in each corner are the broken lines of the Pal -Kwai, or eight diagrams of primitive Chinese tradition concerning the origin of language -and writing. On the stamps we read the Chinese characters Tai han and Corea. Like -China, old Japan, Russia, Turkey and other church nations, which unite more or less -closely Church and State and are governed, in spite of all outward development and -manifestations, by primitive or mediæval notions, Corea is a “Tei Koku,” or “divinely -governed” realm, and so makes profession in Chinese characters, as does even modern -Japan, though furnished with a Constitution and Diet. Besides these Chinese ideographs, -we read in English, “Imperial Corean Post,” and in the en-mun or native script, a -sentence to the same effect. The national flower is the plum blossom, and is figured -with its leaves on either side of the <span class="pageNum" id="pb453">[<a href="#pb453">453</a>]</span>stem. The value or denomination of the stamp is given below both in English with Roman -letters, and in Corean or en-mun. The date-mark made by the ink-stamp shows in the -French spelling of the name of the country and capital the international character -of the postal system. The national colors, as judged by the hangings in the royal -palace, are yellow, red, and green. -</p> -<p>Imitating other things imperial in adjoining or Western nations, the Government at -Seoul established a Bureau of Decorations. These baubles, being liberally distributed, -have helped handsomely to deplete the treasury of the little empire, most of whose -people live in a state of semi-starvation or righteous discontent. The Emperor himself -and his generals and ministers have had their breasts liberally adorned with various -marks of the regard of the rulers of Japan, Great Britain, Russia, France, and Belgium, -while between August 5, 1900, and December 20, 1902, the Corean Government had bestowed -forty-two decorations, requiring a liberal outlay of bullion and artistic workmanship. -To the Emperor of Japan, Queen Victoria, the Czar of Russia, the Kaiser of the German -Empire, the President of the French Republic, the King of Italy, the King of the Belgians, -the Emperor of Austria, and the Crown Prince of Japan, the Great Decoration of the -Golden Measure was awarded. This contains the emblem in the centre of the flag. No -Americans have been thus officially adorned, but the Great Decoration of the Golden -Measure was offered to President McKinley, only to be declined; he having, happily -for the American people, nothing to offer in return. The Great Decoration of the Plum -Blossom has been given to Prince Kwacho of Japan and the Russian Prince Cyril, while -the other decorations, containing the Pal Kwai of the eight mystic diagrams and the -plum blossom or the national flower, in several grades or classes, have been offered -to various servants or guests of the Government. Along with this brilliancy on foreign -coat breasts, it is suggestive to read in the imperial budget for 1904 that of $19,560 -appropriated to the bureau of decorations, the amount expended on bullion, medals, -etc., was $7,431, and for salaries $10,130. Another interesting item, illuminating -economic methods in Seoul, is that of $10,453 appropriated for the Mining Bureau. -Of this amount the sum of $8,173 was spent for salaries and travelling, all the rest, -except one item marked “miscellaneous $744,” being for office <span class="pageNum" id="pb454">[<a href="#pb454">454</a>]</span>expenses. In the Ceremonial Bureau $19,000 were used on salaries and office expenses -out of a total of $21,508. Similar titbits of economic information are frequent under -the heads of the Board of Generals (who supervise an army supposed to be five thousand -strong) and that of Imperial Sacrifices, and others, explain very clearly the condition -of a country in which there is no clear line of demarcation between the palace and -the Government or administration, while eloquent in suggestions as to the reason why -the larger part of Corea remains in a state of more or less chronic insurrection. -</p> -<p>The budget for 1904 shows a total revenue of $14,214,573 made up of the following -items: land tax, $9,703,591; house tax, $460,295; taxes on salt, fish, etc., $210,000; -poll tax, $850,000; miscellaneous taxes, $200,000; arrears from 1903, $2,790,687. -</p> -<p>The items of disbursement are as follows: Imperial privy purse, $1,013,359; imperial -sacrifices, $186,641; household department, $327,541; war department, $5,180,614; -finance department, $42,741,999; communications, $637,648; incidentals and extras, -$1,843,503. Other items, of which the police bureau, $406,925, and the foreign department, -$287,367, and educational, $205,673, are the more important, are pension bureau, board -of generals, the cabinet government records, bureau of decorations, law department, -department of agriculture, privy council, and special palace guard. It is pleasant -to note that there is a surplus of $275, but the amount given for education and expended -under the head of agriculture seems pitiful. The large items of the budget deal almost -wholly with the salaries of native officials. One interesting and redeeming item among -the “extras” is that “for helping shipwrecked men, $5,000.” -</p> -<p>The greatest immediate need of Corea is a uniform and stable currency. Added to ancient -evils was the action of Japan in adopting the gold standard in 1899, which threw all -things commercial in Corea into dire confusion. On the 15th of December, 1901, the -coinage law was published, by which Corea adopted the gold standard; but this law -was never put into effect. The Japanese have frequently endeavored by various means -to secure a standard currency. -</p> -<p>Under the stimulus and pressure of foreign trade, Corea has now at least nine ports -open to the residence and business of foreigners <span class="pageNum" id="pb455">[<a href="#pb455">455</a>]</span>besides the three or four inland places of traffic. Wonsan (Gensan), Fusan, and Chemulpo -were opened by the treaties of 1876 and 1882, and have thriving settlements. The ginseng -crop exported from these places is usually bought by Japanese, whose usual practice -is that, for example, of May, 1902, when of the fifty thousand catties, ten thousand -catties were burnt at Chemulpo, in order to keep up the price. On the 1st of October, -1898, Chinnampo and Mokpo were added to the list of open ports. The former lies on -the northern shore of Ping-an inlet, twenty miles from the sea and forty miles from -Ping-an city. It is now a thriving town with well laid-out streets. As the river leading -to Ping-an is for ten miles or so below the city not navigable even by very small -sea-going steamers, it can never be “a port” in the ordinary sense, but the returns -of its trade are tabulated with those of Chinnampo, its outlet. Wiju (Ai-chiu) and -Anju are almost the only other ports of value in the province of Ping-an. Anju is -the landing stage of the American Mining Company for its mining materials and explosives. -</p> -<p>Yongampo is in north latitude 38° 52′ and east longitude 126° 04′. When it was opened -in 1898, Russians and Japanese took up land so eagerly that a collision seemed imminent. -Later it came very near being made a Russian fortress as “Port Nicholas.” Mokpo, in -the southwestern part of Chullado, is the natural maritime outlet of “the Garden of -Corea.” Soon after it was made port of entry and trade, the wisdom shown in its selection -was justified, for its growth has been healthy and rapid. From this point, in the -autumn of 1902, a Boston gentleman went into the interior for a hunting trip of two -months, during which time he killed three large tigers, besides deer and wild boar. -</p> -<p>On May 1, 1899, Kunsan, Masampo, and Songchin were thrown open to foreign trade and -residence. Kunsan is on the west coast, and like Mokpo, long famous for its abundant -export of rice paid as revenue. It lies at the mouth of the river dividing the two -rich and warm provinces of Chulla and Chung Chong, about half-way between Chemulpo -and Mokpo, whence the rice, wheat, beans, hides, grasscloth, paper, manufactured articles -in bamboo, fans, screens, mats, and marine products of many kinds are exported. Masampo, -a few miles to the southwest of Fusan, in north latitude 35° 09′ and east longitude -128° 40′, has one of the finest harbors <span class="pageNum" id="pb456">[<a href="#pb456">456</a>]</span>in the world, which, when well fortified, might command the entrance to the Sea of -Japan. In the negotiations between Japan and Russia, in 1903, this spot was jealously -coveted by both Powers as the prize of the future, as the party possessing it might -make it a Dardanelles, closing the sea between the island empire and the continent -and making this body of water a Euxine. Russia tried to bind Japan not to fortify -this or any other place on the east coast of Corea. Japanese, Russians, Chinese, and -Coreans soon flocked to this favored port and have made business lively. Songchin, -once the seat of an old stronghold, in the large northeastern province of Ham Kiung, -bordering on Russia, which has no long navigable rivers, as in the south, lies about -120 miles from Wonsan and sends most of its products thither. It has a poor harbor -in a foggy region, but fertile soil, fat cattle, and mineral riches are within reach. -The Customs Reports for 1903 show a growing trade of $328,891. Eleven other landing -stages bring up the total value of trade in Ham Kiung province to $1,676,714. In 1902 -the total imports were nearly balanced by the exports from all Corea. Cotton is becoming -an important item of sale abroad. Gold in 1902 was exported to the amount of $2,532,053. -The total value of foreign trade has doubled during the past decade. So far the steamer -tonnage is, like the general foreign trade, over three-fourths Japanese. Most emphatically -and luminously does the modern economic as well as political history of the peninsula -prove that the best interests of Japan and Corea are closely interwoven. Mutual benefit -follows unity and friendship, reciprocal injury results from estrangement. -</p> -<p>All these open ports are the gateways of a commerce that must steadily and healthfully -increase, and which under stable and just government would rapidly enlarge. So long -as there is uncertainty as to the political status of the Land of Morning Calm, the -chief importance of the maritime gateways into the country will be strategic and military, -rather than commercial. A permanent settlement of the political question, in debate -ever since the modern renascence of Japan, ought to act on the development of the -natural resources of Corea as the warm spring rains act upon soil long chilled and -fallow under winter’s frost. Few regions, whether we consider its geographical location -for commerce, the fertility of its soil, its animal wealth, the richness of its mineral -deposits, or <span class="pageNum" id="pb457">[<a href="#pb457">457</a>]</span>the abundance of its treasures in the sea, are more highly favored than Corea. When -man, society, and government in the peninsula answer Nature’s challenge and match -the opportunity, the world will find that history’s storehouse of surprises has not -been empty. Toward the development of the kind of man needed, the Christian missionaries -are, above all other teachers and forces, working, and with every sign of promise. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb458">[<a href="#pb458">458</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch50" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#xd31e1258">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="label">CHAPTER L.</h2> -<h2 class="main">INTERNAL POLITICS: CHINESE AND JAPANESE.</h2> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="first">The preponderating influence of China was the mainspring in the intricate machinery -of old Corean politics, though within the two clearly defined parties in Seoul there -are also factional and family differences. “From 1834 to 1864 the royal clan was shorn -of much of its power, all offices were in the hands of the Kim clan, whose head, Kim -Pyong-gi, was virtually ruler of the land for the years ending that epoch.” The Kims -hoped to continue the lease of their power, but the Tai-wen Kun humbled this clan -and exalted his own, meanwhile doing much for the common people and compelling the -yangban to bear a share of the burdens of government in paying a house tax. In his -whole course toward these predatory gentry, he was “a blundering anticipator” of the -great reforms of 1894. He began the suppression of the Tong-haks. He was a great builder -of public edifices, not only in Seoul, but in the provinces. He protected the country -against the foreigner. He meant well in his ignorance, but he knew nothing of the -world at large. His first lease of power came to an end in 1873. -</p> -<p>The first Corean noblemen, Kim and Pom, left their homes in 1875 to travel in lands -beyond China. They went to Japan, and coming back, boldly told the King what they -had seen and advocated the adoption of Western civilization. They tried to win over -the powerful Min clan and the Queen to a liberal policy, but this to the Regent, Tai-wen -Kun, meant nothing else than Christianity and radical reform, which involved popular -education. That is exactly the sort of reform that every Confucian mandarin in any -country of Asia hates most heartily, because he sees in the general enlightenment -of the people the end of the power of the literati. The bold and crafty statesman, -who, as Prince Parent, held his son the King as his puppet and had already shed the -blood of thousands of native Christians, nearly succeeded in putting the <span class="pageNum" id="pb459">[<a href="#pb459">459</a>]</span>two young champions of Western civilization to death. When the American treaty negotiations -were impending, the Min clansmen held aloof until China, as represented by Li Hung -Chang, gave the nod. Then they showed so much energy in the matter as to seem to foreigners -the party of progress. This roused the wrath of the Regent, who determined to crush -the Min clan and to nullify the treaty. We have seen how, in July, 1882, by a masterly -appeal to local bigotry and superstition, he directed the soldiers’ riot into a revolt -against the pro-Chinese clan. After destroying, as he imagined, their leading men -and the Queen, he seized the government himself, enjoying for a few days full lease -of power. -</p> -<p>When the news of the usurpation reached China and Japan, a fleet with soldiers was -despatched from each country. The Chinese force landed first, marched to Seoul, built -forts to command the river against the Japanese, and established their camp inside -the walls. By this move China held a new lien on her “vassal state.” The Chinese general -made his formal call on the Tai-wen Kun, and when this lord of the land returned the -courtesy, he was seized and deported to China. Meanwhile the Queen, for whom a palace -maid had suffered vicarious death, together with some of her chief helpers and advisers, -re-entered the palace October 9, 1882. The star of the Min clan was again in the ascendant. -</p> -<p>Thus the results of the Regent’s smart trickery were not pleasant for the Coreans, -for now they had both the Chinese and the Japanese soldiers encamped in the capital -and on the ground where nearly three hundred years before they had met in battle. -By good discipline on both sides, collision between the soldiers was avoided, but -the Government at once made provision to replace the foreign soldiery by native troops. -Four battalions of Corean infantry were organized and put under Chinese drill masters, -introduced by the Min leaders. Fourteen young men, mostly members of Progressive families, -were sent to Tokio to study in the military school. -</p> -<p>The treaty negotiated by Commodore Shufeldt was promptly ratified by the United States -Senate, and on February 26th President Chester A. Arthur sent in the name of General -Lucius H. Foote as Minister to Corea. Reaching Chemulpo May 13th in the <abbr title="United States Steamship">U.S.Ss.</abbr> Monocacy, the formal ratifications of the treaty were exchanged in the capital May -19th. The same cannon, and served <span class="pageNum" id="pb460">[<a href="#pb460">460</a>]</span>by some of the same sailors that in 1871 had shelled the Han forts,<a class="noteRef" id="xd31e6402src" href="#xd31e6402">1</a> peacefully saluted the new national flag, emblazoned with the proofs of Corea’s intellectual -servitude to Chinese philosophy and fantastic traditions. Keeping clear of the native -factions, Mr. Foote dealt as directly as possible with the sovereign. He made an earnest -plea for the toleration of religion, a promise to proclaim which was secured from -the King. -</p> -<p>The Corean Government responded to the American courtesy by despatching a special -mission, consisting of eleven persons headed by Min Yong Ik, which arrived in San -Francisco September 2d. President Arthur being then in New York, these quaintly apparelled -Oriental strangers were given audience in the parlor of the Fifth Avenue Hotel. After -three months’ stay in the eastern cities, one part of the embassy, headed by Han Yong -Sik, returned home by way of San Francisco. A few days later, on the U.S.Ss. Trenton -(afterward lost at Samoa) with Ensign G. C. Foulke (afterward of the Doshisha University, -Kioto) and Lieutenant J. G. Bernadou, U.S.N. (afterward distinguished in the Spanish-American -War of 1898, on the U.S.Ss. Winslow), as naval attachés to the American legation in -Seoul, Min Yong Ik and two other Coreans returned home by way of Europe and the Suez -Canal. -</p> -<p>On November 27th, at the Victoria Hotel in the city of New York, I had the pleasure -of spending an agreeable evening with the three Corean gentlemen, Min Yong Ik, So -Kuang Pom, and Pien Su, the two latter being able to talk Japanese.<a class="noteRef" id="xd31e6408src" href="#xd31e6408">2</a> <span class="pageNum" id="pb461">[<a href="#pb461">461</a>]</span>Though many of my questions were answered and a number of subjects discussed, nothing -could be learned of Corean Christianity, or of the relics or reminders of Hendrik -Hamel and his Dutchmen.<a class="noteRef" id="xd31e6413src" href="#xd31e6413">3</a> Before leaving, Min Yong Ik, like a true Corean gentleman, brought out a large package -of choicest ginseng roots, without which no well-to-do native of the Land of Morning -Calm would think of travelling abroad. He presented me with several choice specimens -of the man-shaped drug, each wrapped up in its own “arms” and “legs.” -</p> -<p>On the same evening in Seoul, November 27th, a banquet was spread in the English-language-school -building to celebrate the signing on the day before of two treaties, one with Great -Britain and the other with the German Empire, the negotiator of the English treaty -being Sir Harry Parkes.<a class="noteRef" id="xd31e6418src" href="#xd31e6418">4</a> The music was furnished by the band of the German man-of-war Leipsic. Seoul now began -to be the residence of foreigners from Christendom, nine of whom were already in the -city. -</p> -<p>New Year’s Day, January 20, 1884, dawned brightly. The little children who during -the summer are “dressed in a hair ribbon,” made the streets brilliant with their bright -clothes of many colors, and the sky was gay with kites. In the royal palace audience -was given to the envoys of China, Japan, and the United States. On February 28th the -electric submarine cable between Nagasaki and Fusan was completed and messages from -the once hermit nation were sent into the outside world. Han Yong Sik was appointed -postmaster with power to organize a national postal system, stamps for which were -engraved in Tokio. From this Japanese base of supplies many novelties from the Western -world poured in, and the body politic, long insulated from other nations, thrilled -with new currents of life. Treaties were made with Russia and Italy, June 25th and -26th. Later on, telegraph lines connecting <span class="pageNum" id="pb462">[<a href="#pb462">462</a>]</span>Seoul with Peking and with Fusan were completed. The year following the arrival home -of the first Coreans who had gone round the world was a year of progress, such as -Corea had never known before or has known since. -</p> -<p>Through the advice of Ensign Foulke, several reformatory measures, political and industrial, -were promulgated. The most ardent member of the reform party, Pak Yong Hio, being -made mayor of Seoul, immediately set to work at sanitary and municipal improvement. -Some progress was made in dress improvement. A model farm, for which California live -stock had been ordered, was sown by American seeds liberally given in Washington. -Edison electric lights, American rifles and Gatling guns, a powder mill, a mint, a -printing office for the dissemination of useful literature for the people, together -with Japanese artisans to establish or improve properties, paper factories, and other -industries, not excepting the fisheries and whale hunting, gave indications of the -new path of national progress upon which Corea had entered. Altogether the early days -of 1884 were as a morning of bright promise, for public opinion, so far as it existed, -that is, among the nobles and gentry, seemed to be entirely in favor of progress. -The most hopeful felt that the Corean Government, having begun lo relay the foundations -of the kingdom, would persevere and possibly even excel Japan. -</p> -<p>On the other hand, with the tide of Confucian bigotry rising and the Conservatives -encouraged by Chinese reactionaries on the soil, how could there be any real advance? -Yuan, the Chinese commissioner, living at the barracks in front of the palace, was -ceaselessly active in the interests of his own Government, which meant active support -of the Conservative party and opposition to reform. Over against enlightened liberalism, -several incidents stood out in dark contrast, showing the inherent barbarism, the -low state of Corean humanity, and the slight value set on human life. When the Chinese -soldiery arrived, they seized ten of the rioters of 1882, court-martialled them, tied -their limbs to bullocks, and tore them to pieces. Even after these men in office had -returned from civilization they had eight more men, suspected of complicity with the -Regent, executed by poison. Furthermore, the Kwang Wang temple was built, devoted -to the interests of three thousand or more sorcerers and exorcists in Seoul, who enjoyed -the <span class="pageNum" id="pb463">[<a href="#pb463">463</a>]</span>direct patronage of the Queen, and sucked the vitals of the nation, making respectable -government impossible. -</p> -<p>The innovations effected by the Progressives, who thought that they had the King and -Queen in full sympathy with them, led them to hope that they would be able soon to -reorganize the Government, to differentiate the Court from the Administration, and -to make Corea a modern state. But according to the measure of their success, so also -was the suspicion and hostility of the Conservatives. Min Yong Ik while abroad might -be a Liberal, an individual with personal convictions and opinions, but once back -in the bosom of his family and under pressure of his clan, he lost interest in reform. -The Progressive leaders began to look upon him as a traitor to their cause. He took -his stand with the Conservatives and it was soon evident that the Queen was withdrawing -her sympathy and support from the Liberals, whose hopes seemed about to be dashed -to the ground. These men therefore turned more and more to the Japanese and to their -methods and spirit. They saw the revenues for the promised industries and enterprise -diverted to warlike enterprises. It looked as if Corea, as tributary vassal, was to -help China against France in the Tonkin complication. Added to the fears of the Liberals -was the local irritation caused by the insolent behavior of the ill-disciplined native -troops who had been recruited almost wholly from the peddlers and hucksters of the -country fairs. The peddler’s guilds in Corea hold a truly feudal relation to the Government, -often preparing the roads and escorting officials on their journeys, acting as detectives, -and forming militia according to the occasion. Some astonishing proofs of their power -and discipline, especially in mountain regions, were given by Min Yong Ik to Lieutenant -Foulke. Instead of their being independent, as they had hoped for under the American -treaty, it seemed to the progressive men that the Chinese were more than ever ruling -their country, and that the Mins were their tools. -</p> -<p>It was about October 25th that the Liberals, feeling that their heads were likely -to remain on their shoulders only so long as it pleased their enemies to bring no -charge against them, declared to their American friend that “for the sake of Corea, -about ten of the prominent Conservatives would have to be killed.” They proposed to -play the same old Asiatic game of first seizing the person <span class="pageNum" id="pb464">[<a href="#pb464">464</a>]</span>of the sovereign and then in his name proclaiming their own measures and reforms. -The preliminaries would be a fire and a riot. Then, in the confusion, the man with -a programme, knowing just what to do, would direct affairs. They believed that the -Powers would condone and approve their action, make new and more favorable treaties, -and loan money for national improvement. Though the Conservatives had at their call -a rabble of rapacious militia eager to try their new tools of war upon their hereditary -enemies, the Japanese, the Liberals knew full well the sterling qualities of the little -body of Japanese infantry then in the capital, most of whom were from northern Japan -and many of them deer hunters and dead shots with the rifle. There were fifteen hundred -Chinese soldiers still in camp, under Yuan Shi Kai, then the lieutenant and later -the successor of Li Hung Chang, but the Progressive plotters in their craft expected -to secure the employment of the two hundred or more Japanese soldiers for their own -purposes. The moment for action seemed to be propitious for early December. A Japanese -man-of-war was expected to arrive in Chemulpo on the 5th or 6th of that month. China, -pressed by France, had withdrawn half her troops. Japan with a view to strengthening -her influence in Corea had, a few days before, remitted $400,000 of the indemnity -exacted for the riot of 1882. The golden moment to strike off forever the chains of -political slavery to China was approaching. The date was set for the 7th of December. -</p> -<p>When, however, news arrived that the Japanese gunboat had broken down and was delayed -and it was known that the Conservatives had got some intimation of what was coming, -it was decided to start the fire, the riot, the <i lang="fr">coup d’état</i> a few days earlier. On the night of the 4th of December, Han Yong Sik, the Postmaster-General, -gave a dinner at the new post-office, situated in the very heart of the city. The -guests were three Chinese, Yuan, Chin, and Wang, two Americans, General Foote and -his secretary, Mr. Scudder, the British Consul-General, W. G. Aston, the German Foreign -Adviser, Von Möllendorf, and a dozen or more Corean high officers, both Conservatives -and Progressives, Han Yong Sik, Kim Ok Kiun, Min Yong Ik, Pak Yong Hio, and So Kwang -Pom. Others also were present. The Japanese minister was absent on the plea of ill-health. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb465">[<a href="#pb465">465</a>]</span></p> -<p>It was noticed that Kim Ok Kiun rose and left the table several times, going out into -the courtyard, but nothing was thought of this action. The guests sat down at six. -At seven a fire broke out, a house just in front of the post-office being in flames. -Min Yong Ik, who had charge of the city fire-brigade, rose from the table, and calling -on his servants to follow him, passed out. As he did so, a man dressed in Japanese -clothes leaped out of the shadow of the gateway and struck at him fiercely with a -sword. Min Yong Ik fell heavily, but though wounded in head and body he recovered -through the skilful surgery of Dr. Horace N. Allen. The assassin escaped, and the -Corean guests, instead of leaving by the door, got away over the back wall. Hastening -immediately to the old palace, the leaders of the conspiracy reached the royal presence, -announced that the Chinese were coming to seize the King’s person and that he must -hasten to a place of safety. Reaching the small gate leading into the Kiong-u Palace, -Kim Ok Kiun requested the King to send to the Japanese minister for a body-guard, -but his Majesty refused. Thereupon So Kwang Pom drew out a piece of foreign note-paper -and a pencil and wrote in Chinese the words “Let the Japanese minister come and give -me his help.”<a class="noteRef" id="xd31e6444src" href="#xd31e6444">5</a> This was despatched by a servant. -</p> -<p>When the little company reached the Kiong-u Palace, the King was saluted by the Japanese -minister and his interpreter, the twelve students who had been in Japan, and two hundred -soldiers under Captain Murakami drawn up in line, who by some magic were all waiting -there. Here then was the new Government, king, army, and counsellors. Word was sent -to three of the Corean Liberals to come and receive office under the reconstructed -authority. With amazing promptness they were present within half an hour. The programme -had thus far been carried out with the precision of actors on a well-regulated theatrical -stage. The “summoning tablet” was sent early in the morning by royal messenger to -six of the Conservative leaders. Going to the palace in the expectation of losing -their lives, they first sent word to the Chinese Yuan, warning him of the state of -affairs and asking his <span class="pageNum" id="pb466">[<a href="#pb466">466</a>]</span>help. As soon as they had passed inside the palace gates their heads were chopped -off. The royal eunuch was put to death in spite of the entreaties and remonstrances -of the King himself. While the Japanese surrounded the gates of the palace, Kim Ok -Kiun gave passes to those who were to be allowed to go in and out. In the reconstructed -Government Yo Cha Wun and Han Yong Sik were prime ministers, Pak Yong Hio was made -General-in-Chief, So Kwang Pom Minister of Foreign Affairs, Kim Ok Kiun Minister of -Finance, and Su Ja Pil Lieutenant-General. The young men who had studied in Tokio -were also given official positions. All these proceedings simply illustrate the Corean -method of the Opposition’s moving a vote of censure of the Government. -</p> -<p>The Chinese “resident” Yuan took no immediate action, but the next morning, December -5th, great surging crowds of Coreans begged that he would interfere, because they -said the Japanese were holding the King as a prisoner in his palace. Yuan sent a messenger -to the Japanese minister, inquiring why he had surrounded the King with soldiers and -killed the ministers, demanding that he immediately evacuate the palace. After three -hours had passed, and no answer coming, Yuan moved with his Chinese troops and the -Corean military, making a force of four or five thousand men, toward the old palace. -He found the entrance strongly guarded with the Japanese. The battle which ensued -lasted from about 3 to 4 <span class="asc">P.M.</span>, several score of the combatants being killed. As darkness drew near, the Japanese -made their way to the northeastern part of the palace grounds, whence the King escaped -from them with a few of the Progressive leaders and the party of students. The Corean -soldiers carried the King to the north temple, where he was saved, but Han Yong Sik -and seven of the students were hacked to pieces by the mob. About 8 <span class="asc">P.M.</span> Captain Murakami led off his soldiers and making a masterly retreat reached the Japanese -legation after forty-eight hours of absence. Pak Yong Hio, Kim Ok Kiun, So Kwang Pom, -Su Ja Pil, and a half dozen or so of the military students accompanied the Japanese. -</p> -<p>All day long on December 6th, with the cry of “Death to the Japanese,” the Corean -militia and the ruffians were let loose on a wild revelry of outrage, butchery, and -incendiarism. The nine white foreigners in Seoul, of whom three were ladies, together -<span class="pageNum" id="pb467">[<a href="#pb467">467</a>]</span>with twenty-two Japanese who had escaped bullets, stones, and knives, found refuge -in the American legation, which was put in a state of defence by Lieutenant Bernadou. -The twenty soldiers left behind in the Japanese legation, aided by a hundred or more -of their fellow refugee countrymen, defended the walled enclosure from the mob. On -the afternoon of the 7th, provisions being exhausted, the Japanese with admirable -coolness, discipline, and success began the march to Chemulpo. The women, children, -and refugees were put inside of a hollow square formed by the soldiers, the legation -buildings were fired, and despite hostile soldiers, Chinese and Corean with rifles -and cannon, and armed men firing from roof and wall, they unbarred the city gates -and with their wounded crossed the river. Reaching Chemulpo on the 8th, they were -fed by the sailors on the Japanese man-of-war, which had happily arrived. A Japanese -steamer carried the news to Nagasaki. -</p> -<p>The short-lived Liberal Government came to an end after forty-eight hours’ existence. -The conspirators fled to Japan, whence most of them reached America. A month later -Count Inouye, with a guard of six hundred troops, took up his quarters outside the -west gate in Seoul and negotiations were opened. On January 9th a convention was signed -by which the Corean Government agreed to pay an indemnity of six hundred thousand -yen, and Herr Von Möllendorf and Su Sang Yu were sent to Japan to arrange terms for -the renewal of friendly relations. The Coreans, to show their regret, chopped up and -distributed around the streets the flesh and bones of eleven human beings supposed -to have been active in the killing of defenceless Japanese in Seoul. At Tientsin, -May 7, 1885, the Marquis Ito and Li Hung Chang signed a convention, by which it was -agreed that the troops of both countries should be withdrawn and that neither government -should land a military force in Corea without notifying the other. Early in the spring -the Japanese legation was built at Corean expense in Occidental style, this being -the first of the many foreign edifices which now adorn Seoul. The Chinese and Japanese -troops embarked for their respective countries at Chemulpo on the 21st of May. On -October 5, 1885, the Tai-wen Kun, fresh and rosy after his sojourn in Tientsin, re-entered -Seoul. He was escorted by Chinese warriors and many thousands of Coreans. Most of -his immediate followers being dead or in exile, his name was not often <span class="pageNum" id="pb468">[<a href="#pb468">468</a>]</span>mentioned during the decade of years following. He lived in comparative seclusion -until the outbreak of the Chino-Japanese war. -</p> -<p>The Progressives of 1884 were in too much of a hurry. They had tried to hatch the -egg of reform by warming it in the fire. The affair of December, in its origin an -anti-Chinese uprising of Radicals, became at its end an anti-Japanese demonstration -in which about three hundred lives were lost. Yet as if to show that revolutions never -go backward, this bloody business pushed open the gateway through which science and -Christianity entered to hasten the exit of barbarism. Dr. Horace N. Allen, an American -missionary physician, had arrived in Seoul in September, 1884. When called on the -night of December 4th to minister to the Min Yong Ik, he found the native doctors -stopping up the sword wounds with wax. Dr. Allen, by treating the injured man in scientific -fashion, saved his life. The superiority of Western methods having been demonstrated, -the wounded Chinese soldiers and Coreans, with their shattered bones and torn flesh, -over which they had plastered the reeking hides cut from living dogs, or had utilized -other appliances of helpless ignorance, came to him in crowds. Unable to attend to -all these sufferers, application was made for a hospital. The Government at once set -apart the dwelling occupied by Han Yong Sik and, naming it the House of Civilized -Virtue, established April 10, 1885, a hospital. -</p> -<p>Following this event, American missionaries arrived in increasing numbers. The Government -engaged three American young men, Messrs. D. A. Bunker, G. W. Gilmore, and H. B. Hurlbert, -as teachers, who with thirty-five sons of noble families as their pupils opened a -school September 23, 1885. Missionaries with unquenchable patience began the instruction -of a people much better acquainted with malevolent demons than with beneficent beings -or with one living and true God, whose only idea of sin is that it is a civil offence, -and whose language has no word for the love of a superior to an inferior. In apathetic -faces they were to light the fire of a new hope. To become a Christian in Corea means -a complete revolution in a man’s life, especially in that of a yangban, who has the -intellectual power of a man with only the actual knowledge of a child. Nevertheless, -with orphanages, Sunday-schools, Christian women’s work in the home, organized Christian -churches, hospitals, schools for boys and girls, and a printing <span class="pageNum" id="pb469">[<a href="#pb469">469</a>]</span>establishment, most of the forms of active Christianity were soon visible in Corea, -the country which, in 1904, with its tens of thousands of believers, is the most hopeful -of missionary fields. -</p> -<p>A treaty with France, negotiated in the summer of 1886 and ratified May 30, 1887, -enabled the French Roman Catholic missionaries to come forth into open day. They at -once made preparations for the erection of a cathedral, which, when completed and -dedicated, May 29, 1897, was the tallest and most imposing edifice in the capital. -It is 202 feet long and from 60 to 90 feet wide, and cost $60,000. The French minister -endeavored to secure the same magisterial rights for the bishops and priests in Corea -which have been long enjoyed by prelates of the Roman form of Christianity in China. -Although at first the Government resisted, yet these claims have been virtually validated, -and France acts in Corea, as elsewhere in Asia, as the protector of Roman Catholics. -Much disquiet and local disorder in various parts of the country, especially in Quelparte -and the provinces of Whang Hai, may be traced to popular notions and the procedure -of the priests based on this peculiarity of French foreign policy. -</p> -<p>Corea soon found that diplomacy could not be one-sided. Having dealings with foreign -nations, it was not sufficient that Western governments should have their representatives -in Seoul, while there were no Corean legations or consulates abroad. An episode arising -from international jealousies soon caused this desire to take tangible form, despite -active opposition from China. On April 14, 1885, the British Government, in view of -eventualities with Russia, ordered the temporary occupation of Port Hamilton in the -Nan How group of islands, about thirty-five miles from the northeastern end of Quelparte. -Corea at once protested against this seizure of territory, and, in spite of all offers -of gold for purchase, and all diplomatic pressure, she secured, after voluminous correspondence -and the assurance that Russia would not occupy any part of Corea, the evacuation of -Port Hamilton by the British. The flag of the double cross was hauled down February -27, 1887. At once the Government at Seoul prepared to send embassies to Japan, Europe, -and the United States to establish permanent legations. This plan was of course opposed -by Yuan Shi Kai, the Chinese “resident,” as he called himself, in an active, impudent, -and villainous manner, he acting at the beck of his chief, <span class="pageNum" id="pb470">[<a href="#pb470">470</a>]</span>Li Hung Chang. The right to make a treaty carries with it the right of a legation -abroad, and the American minister, the Honorable Hugh N. Densmore, by order of the -Government of the United States, invited the embassy to take passage in the U.S.Ss. -Omaha, which was done. With his secretary, Dr. H. N. Allen, Pak Chung Wang, envoy -plenipotentiary, arrived in Washington and had audience of President Cleveland in -January, 1888. A minister of equal rank went also to Europe and another to Japan. -The Chinese “resident” then planned, by transferring his headquarters three miles -from Seoul, to get all other foreigners removed from Seoul in order to have more power, -but the scheme was frustrated in good season. -</p> -<p>The road out of fetichism, superstition, and ignorance into light and civilization -was not an easy one and had many a drawback. Until schools dispel ignorance, and the -certainties of science dominate the minds of the natives terrorized by superstition, -Corea, long intoxicated with sorcery, will suffer from continual attacks of the <i>delirium tremens</i> of paganism. Even the importation of condensed milk acted on the diseased imagination -of the people to develop the disease. In 1888 what is known as the “baby war” agitated -the people. The report was spread abroad that Americans and Europeans were stealing -children and boiling them in kettles for food, and that foreigners caught women and -cut off their breasts. The absence of cows led the Coreans to believe that the condensed -milk, so much used among them, came wholly from a human source. For a time there was -imminent danger of an uprising, but a proclamation from the King couched in strong -language calmed the excitement, which gradually died away. The local revolts against -unjust taxation and dishonest officials occurred with the usual regularity of such -events in Corea. -</p> -<p>Provision was made for a stable revenue in a system which was organized under Herr -Von Möllendorf on an independent Corean basis, but after his dismissal in July, 1885, -the customs service was put under the management of Sir Robert Hart, and an entirely -new staff of men was sent from China. Mr. H. N. Merrill was made chief commissioner -and the three open ports were given in charge of men directly from the Chinese customs -staff, one of the most able and valuable among whom was Dr. McLeavy Brown. Financially -promising as this movement seemed <span class="pageNum" id="pb471">[<a href="#pb471">471</a>]</span>and has proved, it gave China her great prestige and furnished the strongest lever -for carrying out her ambitious plans in the peninsula, which some Coreans suspected -of going even so far as to dethrone the King and to set up a new heir—a plot which -Min Yong Ik exposed. Yuan, the Chinese resident, made himself practically a Chinese -mayor of the palace. In ostentatious display of gorgeous costume, palanquin and retinue, -as he vibrated between the royal residence and the Chinese legation, he and his procession -formed one of the notable sights of the Corean capital. In a word, Li Hung Chang’s -policy, working in conjunction with the Mins at court, headed by the Queen, resulted -in a vigorous and undisputed reassertion of Chinese control, so that in the emergency -which was soon to arise, the Peking Government felt perfectly safe in speaking of -Corea as “our tributary state.” Apparently the influence of Japan had become a cipher, -while that of the United States had dwindled into a merely academic theory of Corean -independence. Potentially Japan was insulted and defied by her old rival and modern -enemy. To make her grip on Corea sure, China massed her forces on the frontier, bought -large quantities of Nagasaki coal for her steel-clad fleet at Port Arthur, and with -her German-drilled army and great fortresses on the promontories guarding the sea-gates -to the capital, she seemed herself defiantly ready to maintain her prestige regained -in the peninsula which she called her “tributary state.” -</p> -<p>Thus stood, or rather, thus crouched, in the early days of 1894, the pigmy, Corea, -between the continental colossus on the one hand and the insular athlete on the other. -To add to troubles imported from abroad, the long-standing intestine disturbances -again broke out and the Tong Hak rebellion culminated in civil war, at the local causes -of which we may now glance. This uprising of sectarians became not the cause, but -the occasion of the clash between China and Japan, which ended in the destruction -of China’s claim of suzerainty over Corea, and the independence of the peninsular -state. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb472">[<a href="#pb472">472</a>]</span></p> -</div> -<div class="footnotes"> -<hr class="fnsep"> -<div class="footnote-body"> -<div class="fndiv" id="xd31e6402"> -<p class="footnote"><span class="fnlabel"><a class="noteRef" href="#xd31e6402src">1</a></span> On which tablets erected to the memory of the slain have been erected by the Coreans. -See the article, Kang-wha, by Rev. M. N. Trollope, (Corean) Asiatic Society Transactions, -Vol. II, Part I. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd31e6402src" title="Return to note 1 in text.">↑</a></p> -</div> -<div class="fndiv" id="xd31e6408"> -<p class="footnote"><span class="fnlabel"><a class="noteRef" href="#xd31e6408src">2</a></span> At that time I was engaged in editing and annotating Hamel’s Narrative, which is the -first account in any European language of Corea. Hamel and his party of Dutchmen were -shipwrecked and spent fourteen years in Corea (see pp. 167–76). I have examined and -read several copies in the original Dutch editions, printed in cheap pamphlet form -at Rotterdam in Holland in 1668, and now preserved in the Royal Library at The Hague. -The full narrative in English is given in the book Corea Without and Within. Philadelphia, -1884. Mr. Percival Lowell, the Secretary of the Corean Special Mission, returned with -Han Yong Sik, and as the guest of the king spent a winter in Seoul, the literary fruit -of which is the charming volume Chosen, the Land of Morning Calm, in which the proper -names are transliterated according to Aston’s Manual of Corean Geographical and Other -Proper Names Romanized. Yokohama, 1883. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd31e6408src" title="Return to note 2 in text.">↑</a></p> -</div> -<div class="fndiv" id="xd31e6413"> -<p class="footnote"><span class="fnlabel"><a class="noteRef" href="#xd31e6413src">3</a></span> Nevertheless, in 1886 there were unearthed in Seoul two Dutch vases, as described -in Mr. Scott’s paper in Vol. XXVIII, 1893–94, of the Transactions of the North China -Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. The figures of Dutch farm-life told their own -story, and the well-worn rings of the handles bore evidence of constant use for years. -Mr. Scott suggests that the presence of these Dutchmen might perhaps explain the anomaly -often noticed in Corea—namely, blue eyes and fair hair. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd31e6413src" title="Return to note 3 in text.">↑</a></p> -</div> -<div class="fndiv" id="xd31e6418"> -<p class="footnote"><span class="fnlabel"><a class="noteRef" href="#xd31e6418src">4</a></span> See his biography by Lane-Poole and Dickens, 1894. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd31e6418src" title="Return to note 4 in text.">↑</a></p> -</div> -<div class="fndiv" id="xd31e6444"> -<p class="footnote"><span class="fnlabel"><a class="noteRef" href="#xd31e6444src">5</a></span> See the forthcoming Korean History, by Homer B. Hulbert, in the Korean Review (April, -1904, p. 180). This work is a complete survey of the story of Chō-sen from prehistoric -to recent times. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd31e6444src" title="Return to note 5 in text.">↑</a></p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch51" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#xd31e1266">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="label">CHAPTER LI.</h2> -<h2 class="main">THE WAR OF 1894: COREA AN EMPIRE.</h2> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="first">In Asia and in semi-civilized states, as in the old European world, each sovereignty -is a church nation. Religion and the state are one. China, Corea, and Japan, in their -normal oriental condition, are all acute illustrations of the evils of the union of -church and state. Like Turkey and Russia, they are persecuting nations, allowing no -freedom of conscience to the subject. Any attempt to think differently from the orthodox -and established cult, or philosophy, is sure to call down persecution, torture, and -death. Modern Japan, by ceasing to be oriental and adopting freedom of conscience, -has simplified the relations between ruler and ruled. China still persecutes in bigotry, -and during the course of her history has shed more blood in the name of religion and -government than probably the mediæval states of Europe.<a class="noteRef" id="xd31e6495src" href="#xd31e6495">1</a> In all Asiatic countries in which religious despotism still flourishes, practical -Christianity, especially that form of it which is founded on the Bible in the vernacular, -is the great disturbing force, even as it is the hope of the future. It comes at once -into collision with the theory of the union of Church and State. Giving the common -man a new outlook on the universe makes him exactly the kind of man that despots and -men of privilege and prerogative most bitterly fear, hate, and oppose. Of this truth -Corea is a striking illustration. -</p> -<p>The religious history of the people in the Corean peninsula is first that of fetichism -and shamanism, then of Buddhism, which brought in culture and made a nation, giving -also to the land its permanent monuments, its art, manners, and most of its folk-lore -and general traditions. In the intellectual clash which, in every country in eastern -Asia, has at one time or another taken <span class="pageNum" id="pb473">[<a href="#pb473">473</a>]</span>place between Confucianism and Buddhism, Buddhism remained victorious. Running a splendid -career for over a thousand years, it finally reached corruption through wealth, worldliness, -and political ambition. Yet intrenched in office and revenue, it held its own until -overthrown with the dynasty in 1392, when Confucianism, after a long struggle, became -the state church system. Buddhism, left to stagnation and decay, and as the religion -of the peasants, remained in a frightfully corrupt form, while the scholars and thinking -men were almost wholly devoted to Confucianism. As this system of Chinese ethics lends -itself most admirably to despotism and the continuance in power of the privileged -classes over the masses, so also under stereotyped Confucianism, Corea’s type of civilization, -as we see it to-day, seems to mean for the nation at large only a general degradation -as compared with the splendor of the mediæval Buddhist age. Allied with Chinese bigotry -of race and ignorance of the world, Corean Confucianism degenerated still further -into the savagery of conceit, of which the Tai-wen Kun seemed an incarnation, and -made Chō-sen, as a body politic, a country eaten up with parasites—one-tenth of the -population living on the other nine-tenths. In the persecution of the Christian converts -to that form of Christianity which entered in 1777, Corean Confucianism showed itself -as barbarous and as devilish as the Spanish Inquisition, or anything else in history -which masks man’s lower nature under the garb of noble pretexts. Nevertheless, the -very patience of the Christians under their tortures, the zeal and consecration of -both the natives and their foreign priests, so impressed a Corean scholar named Choi, -that in 1859 he set himself to ponder the question whether, after all, Christianity, -though foreign, were not the true religion. -</p> -<p>After severe sickness and a revelation, as he believed, from the Lord of Heaven, Choi -felt himself called to found a new religion. He proceeded to do so after the time-honored -manner most fashionable in China, Corea, and Japan, where originality is not too common, -that is, make an eclectic system. From the ethics of Confucius and the philosophy -of his commentators, from the writings of Lao-tsze and his interpreters, and from -the Buddhist sutras and their accretions, he composed a book entitled the Great Holy -Scripture and wrote out the brief prayer which his <span class="pageNum" id="pb474">[<a href="#pb474">474</a>]</span>followers still daily repeat. As Christianity was a Western sect, he gave to his new -religion the name of Tong Hak, Eastern Doctrine or Culture. Many, perhaps most, of -his followers laid their emphasis in the new religion upon the idea of maintaining -Orientalism as against Occidentalism. Beginning in the town of Kion Chiu, forty-five -miles north of Fusan, the movement spread quickly into the provinces of Chung Chong -and Chullado. Entering the sphere of politics, it gave the downtrodden peasants hope -and new life, in the midst of the awful night of ever-increasing official corruption -and oppression. It was about this time that the tenure of office by the provincial -governors was changed from three years to one year. This move, made in the interests -of the official class, vastly increased the burdens laid upon the people, since the -political spoilsman, who usually bought his office, having now less time wherein to -recoup and fill his own chest, became threefold more grasping than before. -</p> -<p>The influence of Christianity is very manifest in the history of the Tong Haks and -in the literary, dogmatic, and devotional manifestations of their leader. Within six -years, under the fierce initiative of the Tai-wen Kun, Choi and his disciples were -officially charged with being “foreigner Coreans” and followers of the Lord of Heaven, -that is, Roman Catholic Christians. Choi was tried, tortured, and beheaded, and his -doctrines were outlawed. As with the Boxer and other common delusions among the ignorant, -the Tong Haks believed that “by the influence of their god they could dance the sword -dance and ascend into the air.” The sect kept on spreading year after year, its animus -blending with that spirit of revolution and resistance to intolerable official oppression -then rampant in the southern provinces, the two movements melted into each other and -became one. -</p> -<p>Early in 1893, before the palace gate at Seoul, there was a wonderful sight. With -pathetic ceremonies and long and patient waiting, fifty of Choi’s followers presented -a petition that their founder be rehabilitated and their sect be tolerated even as -the Christians were. They intimated that if they were kept under ban they would drive -all aliens out of the country. Their prayer for toleration was refused, and they were -driven away by the palace guards. In the springtime the Tong Haks led a great uprising -of the peasantry in the southern provinces. The soldiers sent to <span class="pageNum" id="pb475">[<a href="#pb475">475</a>]</span>Seoul to put down the insurrection were scattered like chaff before the wind. The -insurgents occupied the chief city of Chullado and the danger seemed to threaten the -whole kingdom. The Corean general, Hong, notified the Court of his inability to cope -with the situation. Then the pro-Chinese faction in Seoul, instigated by Yuan, applied -to Peking asking for military aid to put down the Tong Hak rebels. According to the -Li-Ito convention of May 7, 1885, neither China or Japan could send soldiers into -Corea without first notifying the other Power. -</p> -<p>Meanwhile Kim Ok Kiun was in Japan. Though the Government at Seoul repeatedly demanded -his extradition and both in Corea and Japan assassins continually plotted to kill -him, he received the same asylum and protection which, under the laws of civilization, -the Government in Tokio gave to all foreigners. Finally, in 1894 Kim Ok Kiun was lured -to Shanghai by a false telegram and a forged bank-draft. On his arrival at the hotel -he was promptly murdered. His assassin was rewarded with honor, fame, and money from -Seoul, and in China looked on as a hero. With indecent haste, but following its ancient -barbarous traditions, the Chinese Government made itself the express company which -carried the victim’s body in a man-of-war to Corea, where it was cut to pieces and -the head and limbs exposed on the public highway. This action of China raised a storm -of popular wrath in Japan, while about the same time, China, first on June 7th forwarding -her troops into Corea, in violation of the treaty of 1885, sent a defiant insult to -the Tokio Government. Following this action, a despatch was sent to the Japanese legation -in Peking, in which were the words which we italicize: “It is in harmony with our -constant practice to protect <i>our tributary states</i> by sending our troops to assist them.… General Weh has been ordered to proceed to -Zenra … to restore the peace of <i>our tributary state</i>.” Thus by force of arms China defied Western diplomacy, and, trampling on the treaties, -asserted her ancient claims of suzerainty over Corea as her vassal state. -</p> -<p>The reply of the Tokio Government was the announcement, on June 12, 1894, of the despatch -of a body of the Mikado’s troops under strict discipline to Chō-sen. On June 17th -China was invited to co-operate with Japan in financial and administrative reforms -in Corea, in order to preserve the peace of the Far East. <span class="pageNum" id="pb476">[<a href="#pb476">476</a>]</span>China curtly refusing this request, demanded the immediate return to Japan of her -soldiers, at the same time ordering her Tartar forces in Manchuria to cross that ancient -Rubicon of Eastern Asia—the Yalu River. Chartering the British ship Kow Shing, she -put on board eleven hundred soldiers with ammunition and artillery to reinforce the -Chinese camp at Asan in the northwest of Chung Chong province. The reply from Tokio -was, that, pending an amicable settlement of the questions in dispute, any further -despatch of Chinese troops into Corea would mean war. -</p> -<p>As soon as it was known in Tokio that the Tartar forces had been mobilized and that -the Kow Shing was being loaded, the Japanese fleet sailed and orders were given to -the troops, railways, and steamers to be ready for the embarking of an army. Within -twelve days a Japanese army corps was landed at Chemulpo, marched to Seoul, the Han -River bridged by pontoons in twenty minutes, and the military cordon around Seoul -completed. On the 20th of July Yuan fled the Corean capital, leaving his nationals -to shift for themselves. On the 23d Mr. Hoshi Toru, envoy of the Mikado, with a military -guard entered the palace and demanded of the King an answer to the question of Corea’s -independence and willingness to stand by her treaty with Japan. The royal answer was -in the affirmative. The King called in the Tai-wen Kun to allay his fears and aid -him in the formation of a new cabinet, to which he invited, for the most part, the -Liberals exiled in 1884. Prince Pak Yong Hio, who had been declared an arch-traitor -and his house razed to the ground, was again received into royal favor. -</p> -<p>On July 25th the Japanese cruiser Naniwa, under Captain, now Admiral, Togo, met the -Kow Shing. After four hours of parley and refusal to surrender, the transport was -sunk by the guns of the Naniwa. On July 29th and 30th the Japanese met the Chinese -forces at Asan, routed them and occupied their stronghold. The declarations of war -between the emperors of China and Japan, the old rival Sons of Heaven, were published -to the world on the same day, August 1, 1894. The former was full of arrogance and -ignorance, the latter was clear in phrase and temperate in tone. The Chinese lady -then on the throne called on her soldiers to “root the pigmies out of their lair.” -With the conceit and stupidity of the giant, China went to war against the intelligent -<span class="pageNum" id="pb477">[<a href="#pb477">477</a>]</span>and splendidly armed Jack of the islands. In results it was an affair of Goliath and -David over again. Ancient and overweening orthodoxy met culture and intelligence in -the field and on the wave, to be confronted by what was despised as too small to do -harm. At bottom the Chino-Japanese war meant the right of a nation to change its civilization. -Japan, already a signatory to the Geneva Convention and her officers trained in the -ways of civilization, even though her people were dubbed heathen by some semi-enlightened -folks of the West, went to war in Christian style. The Japanese had a superb Red Cross -organization, a corps of surgeons, and a body of fifteen hundred trained nurses, while -their hospitals were equipped according to scientific ideas. With each army corps -and fleet went a lawyer versed in international law, to see that nothing should be -done against the laws of nations. The literary fruits of these precautions and this -loyalty to the high standards of civilization are seen in Mr. Takahashi’s masterly -work “International Law During the Chino-Japanese War,” and in Mr. Ariga’s “<span lang="fr">La guerre Sino-Japonaise au point de vue du droit internationale</span>.” The Chinese had not yet (or before the year 1904) recognized the laws of civilization -and had scarcely the beginning of hospital corps, hospitals, or surgeons. It was not -wonderful, therefore, that her wounded usually crawled away to die like dogs, or that -her ignorant soldiers frequently fired upon those bringing succor to the wounded. -The official organization of the Chinese was honeycombed with corruption, but with -their thirty thousand drilled troops and fleet, including battle-ships, of which the -Japanese had none, they expected easy victory. Occupying Ping-an, they built between -fifty and sixty forts. At sea their fleets were busy in convoying transports full -of soldiers to the mouth of the Yalu River to prevent the Japanese from advancing -beyond Corea and in the hope of overwhelming them at one onset. On the site of their -previous victory three centuries before, they expected to rout the Japanese and then -to drive them southward and out of Corea. -</p> -<p>The Japanese, centuries ago, learned the difference between bulk and brain, and are -but slightly overawed in the presence of mere weight or size. They knew that the military -reputation of China only existed on paper, and their excellent system of <i>jiu-jitsu</i> had taught them how to turn an enemy’s strength against himself. <span class="pageNum" id="pb478">[<a href="#pb478">478</a>]</span>Her soldiers had grown up in the new era of ideas which had come to fruit under Christian -civilization. Borrowing these ideas and forces and combining them with their own resources -and informing them with their own genius, they gave the world a surprise. They had -long grieved in spirit over their non-recognition by the world at large of their peaceful -ambitions and of the principles that lie at the basis of their civilization. They -mourned that war and bloodshed were necessary to impress the world and secure respect. -Within six months they humbled China and compelled her to sue for peace. -</p> -<p>In three divisions, up from the south, eastward from the mouth of the Ta Tong River, -and westward from Gensan, the three columns of the Japanese army marched and met at -Ping-an (Ping Yang). After two days’ fighting, September 15th and 16th, the Chinese -hosts were routed. The next day, at sea, off the mouth of the Yalu River, the Chinese -fleet, in the first great battle of modern steel ships, was disabled and was never -afterward able to resume the offensive. Before October 1st Corea was entirely cleared -of Chinese. On the continent of Asia, chiefly in Manchuria, they held an area larger -than their own empire. Port Arthur fell on November 21st, and the great fortress of -Wei-hai-wei was surrendered January 31, 1895. -</p> -<p>Then Russia unmasked. Calling to her aid France and Germany, this triple alliance -compelled Japan to give up all claims upon the continent and to be content with an -indemnity and the island of Formosa. Had the Japanese possessed a fleet of battle-ships, -they would have refused this insolent demand and declared war on Russia. As it was, -the treaty of <span class="corr" id="xd31e6539" title="Source: Shimonoseki">Shimonoséki</span>, between Li Hung Chang and Ito and Mutsu, was signed. The Japanese spent the indemnity -money on a new navy and proceeded to gird themselves for their next war with another -giant, and to show again the difference between bulk and brain. -</p> -<p>Corea suffered surprisingly little from the presence of two great armies on her soil. -Her people were paid liberally for labor and materials which they so grudgingly furnished -to the Japanese, who were not, in this instance, sufferers on account of their own -excess of politeness, while the Chinese troops were within her borders too short a -time to be a very heavy tax. Only around Ping-an was there much public or private -suffering. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb479">[<a href="#pb479">479</a>]</span></p> -<p>In Seoul, the Mikado’s envoy, as early as August, began to insist upon a programme -of reforms, which, had they been carried out, would have amounted virtually to a new -constitution. -</p> -<p>In the reconstruction of the administration of the seven departments, that of Public -Works was broadened to include Agriculture and Commerce, and in place of the Department -of Ceremonies there was created one of Education co-ordinate with the others. A mighty -programme of reforms, twenty-three in number, was prepared, but enough to make up -several social tornadoes, some of which were possible, while others seemed too radical -and absurd on their faces. A new mint began to issue coins in European form. -</p> -<p>The second son of the King was sent to Tokio to bear the thanks of the nation and -Government for having secured the independence of <span class="corr" id="xd31e6549" title="Source: Cho-sen">Chō-sen</span>. The Corean sovereign, on January 8, 1895, with tremendous picturesqueness of procession, -pomp, and circumstance, proceeded to the temple of his ancestors and with imposing -ceremonies solemnly adjured all vassalage and dependence upon China. The official -name of the new empire is Dai Han or Ta Han, that is, the Great Han, single and sovereign, -as contrasted with the three (San Han) of ancient history. With this royal act vanished -from history the strangest anomaly in diplomacy, and one of the last of the dual sovereignties -in Asia. Furthermore, from this time forth, the whole tissue and complexion of Corean -politics altered. The native scholars began to seek a new intellectual climate and -the culture of the West. Scores of students were sent abroad and many foreigners were -employed, as in the new Japan of 1868. -</p> -<p>When, however, Count Inouye, one of the purest and best statesmen in Japan, in co-operation -with the Reform Committee of the Corean Government began his labors, the old chronic -difficulties at once presented themselves and in legions. There seemed to be no real -patriotism in the country. Rare indeed was the native of ability who was not hopelessly -inoculated with the vices of the old clans and noble families, whose only idea of -the relation between government and office holders was that of the udder and the sucking -pig. Plots and jealousies continually hampered reform. The real problem was to separate -the functions of the Court from those of the Government, which in Corea, as in China, -had never been <span class="pageNum" id="pb480">[<a href="#pb480">480</a>]</span>fully done. In Japan the holding of office by females in the palace had been abolished. -In the palace at Seoul their influence could secretly nullify public business. The -question of succession to the throne without Court intrigue through the influence -of the Queen and the mob of palace underlings, and the reconstruction of the military -system and that of civil and criminal law were grappled with. Over one hundred young -men were sent to Japan to study. On June 20, 1895, a royal ordinance was issued dividing -the kingdom into thirteen prefectures, five of the large provinces being divided into -two parts, with 151 districts and 339 magistracies. A cabinet, with nine boards of -administration, was organized, and a judiciary system for the entire country formed, -a postal system inaugurated, and the army, consisting of 5,000 men, was put under -the instruction of Japanese and American officers. For all these enterprises, money -was of the first necessity. Attempts, therefore, were made to reform the revenue, -making taxes payable in money instead of in kind, while lands illegally seized were -restored to their rightful owners. -</p> -<p>All seemed to promise well, notwithstanding that many of the old-style gentry, who -saw in the change a lessening of their income, still opposed what they called the -“civilization nonsense.” The Chinese merchants gradually returned after the war and -resumed business. Foreign trade in 1895 amounted to nearly thirteen million dollars. -Commercial prosperity seemed to be general and increasing. A fitful insurrection of -the Tong Haks, in the summer of 1895, was completely subdued by Japanese troops. All -was proceeding auspiciously until Count Inouye left Corea for a visit home. The Queen, -who feared that her father-in-law, the Regent, might make a bad use of the Japanese -troops, was anxious. Count Inouye assured her that the Mikado’s Government “would -not fail to protect the royal house of Corea.” Thus allaying her well-grounded suspicions, -Count Inouye left Seoul about September 15th. -</p> -<p>There were still living in the peninsula the two ablest characters, man and woman, -in modern Corean history; the Queen, bound to overcome, and nullify by her craft and -the power of the Min clan, the reforms begun by the Japanese, and the old Regent, -who was bent on getting his son’s wife out of the way, by fire, sword, poison, or -dynamite. Nominally about seventeen thousand <span class="pageNum" id="pb481">[<a href="#pb481">481</a>]</span>useless persons in Government employ and pay had been discharged, and the Queen’s -palace attendants reduced from hundreds to a dozen. But after Inouye had gone away, -these parasites gradually returned at her invitation, until the palace was crowded -again as of old with her women, eunuchs, servants, and underlings of all sorts, while -her clansfolk prepared for another of those plots so characteristic of unregenerated -Corea. At the signs of danger, Prince Pak Yong Hio, minister of Home Affairs, fled -the capital. It looked to the Japanese as if all their work and influence were to -come to nothing. They had been foiled by a woman. -</p> -<p>The Tokio Government had appointed as its envoy, in place of Count Inouye, a military -officer named Miura, who, like the French Zouave de Bellonet, of whom we have read -before, brought to his work in Seoul the habits of the camp and the methods of the -soldier, rather than the patience, tact, and civil abilities of his immediate predecessor. -About this time there were in Seoul many Japanese, of all grades of character, especially -<i>soshi</i>, political bullies or “heelers” from Tokio, angry at the Queen, who, as they professed -to believe, was the friend of Russia. These men gathered many other spirits like unto -themselves from among the native soldiers who had been discharged through the Queen’s -influence. Soon both the native and the foreign worthies concluded, with the Tai-wen -Kun, that for the good of Corea the Queen would have to be killed. On the early morning -of October 8th the Japanese troops were conveniently and purposely posted so as to -make possible the entrance into the palace of a motley band of ruffians, some sixty -in number. Seizing the Queen in her own apartments, they murdered her, dragged her -corpse into one of the areas outside, poured petroleum over the rice straw mats and -clothing and set the heap on fire. Thus perished one of the ablest women in Corean -annals. A new Government was quickly formed under the instigation of the Tai-wen Kun. -A radical programme of reforms was published, new officers were appointed at home -and envoys sent abroad. With horrible mockery of history and justice, this “rebel -cabinet”—as the King later stigmatized it in public documents—pretended that the Queen -was alive and forthwith conducted an absurd travesty of publicly trying some native -accused of her murder. In the name of his Majesty a proclamation was forged degrading -the Queen to the level of a servant. All this was done by men, some <span class="pageNum" id="pb482">[<a href="#pb482">482</a>]</span>of whom, it seems impossible to doubt, were implicated in the palace slaughter. When -on November 27th some ultra-patriotic Coreans, opposed to the Japanese and the policy -of the Tai-wen Kun, made an effort to drive out their new rulers by an attack on the -palace and failed, the chief participants, as well as those alleged on trumped-up -charges to have been in the affair of October 8th, were executed December 8th. Meanwhile -there were anti-Japanese riots in many parts of the country. -</p> -<p>On hearing of the strange use of the Mikado’s soldiery in Seoul, the Japanese Government -promptly recalled Miura and arrested forty-seven persons supposed to have taken part -in the assault on the palace in Seoul. Nevertheless, in the court at Hiroshima, technical -evidence against them was lacking and the whole band of this new I-ro-ha of modern -Japanese heroism was discharged free of blame, or at least without the stigma of condemnation. -It is probable that the whole affair of October 8th was connived at by a reckless -diplomatic blunderer, to the regret and mortification of the Mikado’s ministers and -the national sentiment of Japan. In any event, it proved the death-blow, for a time -at least, of Japanese prestige in Corea. In December the troops of Japan evacuated -the country. -</p> -<p>This was almost the last appearance in public of “Yi Ha-eung, Prince of Heung Song,” -the Tai-wen Kun, or Prince Parent. He emerged fitfully on one occasion before the -police authorities to secure the release of one of his retainers, and then retired -to his estate in Kiodang. He died peacefully, on the 22d of February, 1898, and was -buried with due ceremonies. His mausoleum, made according to all the proprieties of -Corean taste and mortuary art, makes an attractive sight on the landscape of Corea. -On August 18, 1900, Corea being now an empire, he was by imperial decree raised to -the rank of Wang, or King. He will ever be remembered by the Coreans as one of the -most powerful personalities in the modern history of their nation. According to traditional -usage, Corean princes cannot hold office, and for that reason many of them decline -the title, in order to avoid the poverty which acceptance of it brings, and get Government -appointments to office with salary. The Tai-wen Kun, born in Seoul, January 22, 1811, -made good use of his opportunity, which came both with his title and his office. Besides -doing a great many bad things, to the <span class="pageNum" id="pb483">[<a href="#pb483">483</a>]</span>injury of his country, he made some great improvements. He was, according to his lights, -a statesman and a patriot, and he foresaw to some extent the designs of Russia. In -methods he never rose above the atmosphere of the environment within which he had -been educated. In person he was five feet six inches in height, but looked a leader -of men. He was the great-grandson of one king, the nephew of another, and the father -of a third. “He became the leader of the small remnant of the imperial clan left, -and really preserved it from extinction.”<a class="noteRef" id="xd31e6573src" href="#xd31e6573">2</a> -</p> -<p>The passing away of these two eminent characters, Queen Min and Tai-wen Kun, marked -the end of an era. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb484">[<a href="#pb484">484</a>]</span></p> -</div> -<div class="footnotes"> -<hr class="fnsep"> -<div class="footnote-body"> -<div class="fndiv" id="xd31e6495"> -<p class="footnote"><span class="fnlabel"><a class="noteRef" href="#xd31e6495src">1</a></span> See Sectarianism and Religious Persecution in China, by J. J. de Groot. Amsterdam, -1904. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd31e6495src" title="Return to note 1 in text.">↑</a></p> -</div> -<div class="fndiv" id="xd31e6573"> -<p class="footnote"><span class="fnlabel"><a class="noteRef" href="#xd31e6573src">2</a></span> See in the Korean Repository for July, 1898, a sketch of his life by Rev. G. H. Jones. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd31e6573src" title="Return to note 2 in text.">↑</a></p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch52" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#xd31e1275">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="label">CHAPTER LII.</h2> -<h2 class="main">JAPAN AND RUSSIA IN CONFLICT.</h2> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="first">From the night of the murder of his consort until his escape, four months later, to -the Russian legation, the sovereign of Corea was to all intents and purposes a prisoner -in his own palace. Unable to trust anybody and feeling in constant danger, he sought -the American missionaries for food, for companionship, and even for protection.<a class="noteRef" id="xd31e6585src" href="#xd31e6585">1</a> To him the new Government consisted of his jailers. The Corean people, sympathizing -with their King, hated the Japanese all the more, for they felt that their sovereign -was a virtual prisoner in the hands of the Tai-wen Kun and the pro-Japanese conspirators. -Under these circumstances, he determined to break the palace jail. On the morning -of February 11, 1896, according to a plan elaborated by the women and arranged with -the Russians, he entered one of the ordinary box chairs in which female servants are -carried. A few minutes later, pale and trembling, the King of Corea knocked at the -north gate of the legation of Russia and was promptly admitted. It has been insisted -that “no Russian had been to the palace or near it, nor had any Russian been to any -of the public offices,” yet by some curious coincidence the Russian legation guards -had been increased on the evening of the 10th by nearly one hundred men from the Czar’s -men-of-war at Chemulpo. Furthermore, the Russians welcomed not only the King but later -also the Crown Prince and the Queen Dowager. -</p> -<p>His Majesty was scarcely within the walls of his new shelter before he issued an edict -against his “rebel cabinet,” ordering his soldiers to “cut off their heads at once -and bring them,” but in the afternoon another edict decreed that the six traitors -should be degraded and delivered to the courts for trial. This royal order was the -signal for another outburst of riot, savagery, and bloodshed. The Corean prime minister -and the Minister of Agriculture were <span class="pageNum" id="pb485">[<a href="#pb485">485</a>]</span>killed and their corpses mutilated and dragged round the streets. The prisons were -emptied and the innocent and guilty alike released. Sixty-six Japanese, mostly workmen -on the telegraphs, were murdered and the line partially destroyed. -</p> -<p>The pro-Japanese party, beginning with the bloody morning of October 8, 1895, when -Queen Min was murdered, had been in power during four months, during which time a -tremendous blow was dealt to the prestige of Japan in Corea. For eleven months the -King transacted the national business in the Russian legation buildings, going only -occasionally to the palace to give audiences to the foreign envoys. One of these from -the Mikado presented a claim of indemnity for $146,000 for his subjects slain during -the riot. -</p> -<p>The flight of Corea’s sovereign was like that pictured in the proverb “from the frying -pan into the fire.” In fierce reality, it was escape from bloody to inky tyranny, -from an iron to a silken chain; but in both cases it was humiliation and slavery. -While the guest of the Russians, the King paid well his bill as tenant by signing -a concession to his hosts, permitting them to cut timber “in the Yalu valley.” The -Russian Government liberally interpreted this document, according to the vast scale -of Muscovite geography, as meaning the whole basin drained by the Yalu and its tributaries, -that is, a region half as large as Corea. The Russians thus obtained for a year’s -rent of part of their legation buildings a lien on Corean property valued at fifty -millions of dollars. -</p> -<p>Revolutions do not go backward, and the general proceeding of the Government was along -the line of progress. The external reforms are particularly noticeable in the capital, -in which Corean officers trained in Washington have greatly improved the streets, -the methods of cleaning and the drainage. The police and soldiery were uniformed and -disciplined, and preparations made for a national census. The untrustworthy “census” -of Seoul showed a population of 144,626 in 27,527 houses, and in the suburbs 75,189 -in 18,093 houses, or a total of 219,815, and of houses 45,350, in which district are -36 Buddhist temples with 442 priests and 204 nuns. The original width of the streets, -as laid out in 1392, of 55 feet, has been regained over many miles of the city thoroughfares. -Foreign trade steadily increased. American capital and energy helped to make what -was once one of the filthiest and most unprogressive <span class="pageNum" id="pb486">[<a href="#pb486">486</a>]</span>cities of the Far East a clean and attractive place, bright with electric lights and -railway and modern water-works. A railroad was built from the seaport to the capital -and opened for traffic September 1, 1899. The steel bridge, made at Chattanooga, Tenn., -spanning the Han River is nearly a mile long. The electroliers give light to the palace -and to part of the city of Seoul. The trolley line, besides traversing the city, runs -to the mausoleum of the Queen, which has been built in superb style. There her scant -remains, escorted by a vast procession characterized in all its features by the old -barbaric grandeur of Corea, were laid with appropriate ceremonies. -</p> -<p>In the spring of 1896 the Independence Club, with a membership of over 2,000, was -formed. It was composed entirely of natives actively interested in social and material -development as well as in the independence of Corea. On October 21st the cornerstone -of Independence Arch was laid on a site but a few yards distant from the old Chinese -Gate under which the ambassadors of China had for centuries received the vassalage -of the Corean sovereign. It is a structure in stone, alike of architectural beauty -and of political significance. The subsequent history of this club and of the general -movement, in which the publication of a daily newspaper in both English and native -script, <i>The Korean Independent</i>, were prominent features, is not a happy one. It showed clearly that independence -or freedom must be something more than a word, in order to bring forth the fruits -seen in America or among the nations that have most cultivated liberty, safeguarded -by law. In this Seoul movement the seed may have been good, but good and well prepared -soil did not exist. Rock, brambles, and the beaten road of bad precedent, in which -Corea is so rich, received the sower’s hopes. The movement ended in sedition or evaporated. -Nevertheless, it was vastly better than the Seoul mobs that so often dictated imperial -policy to the ministers of the Government. As late as May, 1902, the former members -of the Independence Club were being arrested and executed. More promising in ultimate -results was the celebration on September 2d of the forty-fifth birthday of the King -by a great gathering of Corean Christians in the pavilion near the old Chinese Gate. -</p> -<p>After a stay of one year and nine days, the King left his Russian quarters and took -up his residence in the new palace of Kyeng-wun, <span class="pageNum" id="pb487">[<a href="#pb487">487</a>]</span>built in 1896 in the western part of the city, where are gathered the foreign legations -and residences, some of them very handsome and substantial. -</p> -<p>Corea, being now free and independent, between the two great empires of Japan and -China, and Corean conceit of national history and antiquity, real or supposed, being -never at any time lacking, it was thoroughly appropriate and financially very profitable -for the yangban and palace officials to take measures to proclaim the once “little -outpost state” an “empire,” and their sovereign an “emperor.” Besides suffering from -imperialism in an acute form, the Corean office-holders knew well the significance -of this nominally political act, in relation to their own fortunes; for in the assumption -of the King of Corea of the title of Emperor, $100,000 was taken out of the treasury -to celebrate the event, most of which, as a matter of course, went into the pockets -of the King’s faithful servants. His Majesty protested in vain against the proceedings, -but finally yielded gracefully. At 3 <span class="asc">A.M.</span> on October 12, 1896, with great pomp and state, before the altars of the Spirits -of the Land, the King assumed the title of Emperor of Ta Han, or the Great Han—in -distinction from the ancient San Han. “The King is dead, long live the Emperor.” -</p> -<p>This, too, was the time of Russia’s political dominance, when a Russian military commission -of fourteen were drilling the Corean military and when the Minister of Foreign Affairs -at Seoul and the Russian envoy, Mr. Speyer, signed an agreement, November 5th, by -which Dr. McLeavy Brown, the Englishman in charge of the national finances—able, faithful, -and unterrified—should be ousted and a Russian, Mr. Kuril Alexieff, put in his place. -Mr. Brown’s contract not having expired, he refused to vacate his post, and a large -British and Japanese fleet having appeared off Chemulpo, he was able to maintain his -ground. The three countries, Russia, Great Britain, and Japan, made an agreement that -Mr. Brown should remain in office and that a Russian and a Japanese commissioner of -customs should share in the collection of foreign duties at the ports. On December -23, 1897, a telegram was received from the Czar of Russia recognizing the Emperor -of Corea, whereat the imperial party in Seoul was greatly elated. This whole incident -illustrates the rather theatrical methods of Russian diplomacy in Corea during the -past twenty years, showing <span class="pageNum" id="pb488">[<a href="#pb488">488</a>]</span>how entirely her interests were military and strategic, but not commercial, she having -usually scarcely a score, and never at any time a hundred, of subjects in the empire -commercially engaged, and only a few fishermen who are whale hunters on the coast. -One Baron Guntzburg was busy as a promoter of Russian interests, and the wife of the -Russian minister was not inactive in social affairs and even as an influencer of political -action. -</p> -<p>It was not long before there were signs of a popular reaction against Russia. On January -22, 1898, an attempt was made to assassinate Kim, the native Russian interpreter. -By March 10th this feeling had taken form in a great anti-Russian demonstration, which -ended in the apparently total though not real withdrawal of Russian influence in the -peninsula. The military commission soon after departed and the Russo-Corean Bank was -closed. After much excitement, Russia and Japan, on April 25th, agreed on a modus -vivendi, both recognizing the sovereignty of Corea and engaging to refrain from direct -interference in her internal affairs. No military or financial adviser was to be nominated -without mutual agreement, and Russia bound herself not to impede the commercial relations -between Japan and Corea. It was evident (probably in large measure on account of Russia’s -new interests in Manchuria) that she considered Corea for the present beyond her sphere -of influence. No serious revival of the claims of Russia to any part of Corea were -made again openly until 1903. When the correspondence between Tokio and St. Petersburg, -leading to the war of 1904, opened, the ambitions of Russia were seen to be serious -and all-embracing. -</p> -<p>The first year of the Corean empire was completed after the celebration of the King’s -birthday with unusual demonstrations of loyalty. The founder’s day (that of Ki-tsze, -or Ki-ja, whose tomb and temple are at Ping-an and which suffered during the war of -1894) and the 506th anniversary of the establishment of the dynasty, as well as the -celebration of the coronation, were honored with unusual demonstrations, including -the illumination of the capital. This year was noted for a revival of Confucianism -among the yangban, Buddhism having already enjoyed a “recrudescence”—both systems -being galvanized into a similitude of life by the powerful induction, and evidences, -both in leaven and bloom, of the new faith. On the whole, the year 1898 <span class="pageNum" id="pb489">[<a href="#pb489">489</a>]</span>was characterized by an intense conservative reaction in the Government and by an -absence of important diplomatic or political events, except the chronic local rebellions -in the provinces and the plots of rivals and partisans in the capital. Notwithstanding -that the solar calendar had been adopted in 1895, and had been officially observed, -the people still celebrate New Year’s Day with a fortnight of oldtime rejoicings, -merrymakings, and customs according to the lunar calendar. -</p> -<p>The year 1899 was one of comparative quiet in the capital and provinces. During the -Boxer agitation in China, there was danger of eruptions across the border which were -duly guarded against, and a Russian escort of fifty soldiers to the refugee Danish -missionaries from China was given free passage. Corea virtually joined the allies -marching to Peking, by giving aid and comfort in the form of a thousand bags of cleaned -rice, two thousand bags of flour, and several hundred cases of cigarettes. -</p> -<p>In August, 1899, the written constitution of the kingdom was issued, the nine articles -of which declare the absolute power of the King. It cannot be said that either the -Coreans, the foreign diplomatic corps, or the world at large took this giving of a -constitution as a very serious matter. To the special “imperial” envoy despatched -from Seoul to Tokio, Japan flatly refused to promise the complete neutrality of Corea. -Nevertheless, Corean subjects are expected to bow down and worship (either in the -old English sense of the term or with more profound significance) the picture of the -Emperor as in other pagan or semi-civilized countries. A memorial tablet and pagoda -“to commemorate the virtues of his Majesty” was begun—on a day significant in the -West—April 1, 1902. These will be in the main street at the junction of Palace Street -in Seoul. -</p> -<p>It was noted as a great event in the history of a country that has never given very -serious attention to its high-roads, that Dr. W. B. Magill, an American missionary, -drove a horse and carriage from Gensan to Seoul. A system of lighthouses was decided -upon October 31, 1901. -</p> -<p>The fiftieth anniversary of the Emperor’s birthday was celebrated December 7th, silver -commemorative medals being given to each guest at the palace. A Corean band of musicians, -trained by Mr. Franz Eckhart, a German, who arrived in the country February <span class="pageNum" id="pb490">[<a href="#pb490">490</a>]</span>19, 1901, played two pieces of foreign music very creditably to themselves and their -instructor. On July 1, 1902, the Corean national hymn, an adaptation by Franz Eckhart, -was published. This German musician had already made a good record in Japan. -</p> -<p>On May 30, 1902, the Emperor entered the Society of the Hall of Aged Men, having completed -the first year of the sixth decade of his life (51 years), the foreign representatives -being entertained at breakfast. Prominent among these, in influence and ability, was -the American minister, Dr. Horace Newton Allen, born in Delaware, Ohio, in 1868, and -resident in Corea since the summer of 1884, when he introduced modern methods of healing -and surgery. He accompanied the first legation of Chō-sen in Washington. There he -was appointed secretary to the American legation in Seoul, and since 1890 has been -the chief guardian of American interests in Corea, being made minister in July, 1896. -During the time of the Boxer insurrection in China, when the movement threatened to -spread into Corea, he was especially alert in precautionary measures of safety. Previous -to the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese war, he secured the presence of a guard of American -marines in Seoul by which American rights, personal and commercial, were thoroughly -secured. -</p> -<p>Events during the year 1903 showed a steady movement toward an inevitable end and -pointed to the impending crisis between Russia and Japan. The situation in Seoul was -dominated by Yi Yong Ik and Yi Keun Tak, who were in close communication with Port -Arthur and the Russian authorities at that place. Their high-handed financial and -other schemes, in opposition to the Japanese efforts at securing a stable currency, -came to naught after severe pecuniary loss to natives and foreigners and the serious -disturbance of trade. The Russians, on April 11, 1901, had secured a twenty-year extension -of timber cutting and prosecuted vigorously their advances in the north. They now -refused to allow the Corean Government any supervision over their work of denuding -the forests in the Yalu valley. In May one of the Czar’s gunboats anchored in the -harbor of Yongampo, which the Russians called Port Nicholas, and soon after began -what were believed to be fortifications. A guard of twenty-six Russian marines reinforced -the legation in Seoul, shortly after the violation by Russia of her pledge to evacuate -Manchuria. A serious riot in November between <span class="pageNum" id="pb491">[<a href="#pb491">491</a>]</span>Nipponese and Muscovite soldiers at Chemulpo foreshadowed the impending clash on a -large scale in 1904. During December Russia’s influence at Seoul blocked all attempts -of the foreign representatives to have Wiju (Ai-chiu) opened as a port of trade. -</p> -<p>At this stage in the nation’s history, the once white-coated hermits who had hitherto -lived under their own top-knots, and often under hats that were as big as a haycock, -began numerously to go abroad as students. Scores of them have been in America and -Europe and hundreds in Japan. In December, 1902, a party of nearly one hundred emigrants, -men, women, and children, started for Hawaii. All of these were admitted, except eight -who were sent back because of contagious eye disease. Other incidents showed healthful -movement in a long-stagnant mass of population. Light and vision are coming to a people -blind to nearly everything modern. -</p> -<p>Of all the moral and reformatory forces at work, that of active Christianity leads. -The missionary pioneers, Allen, Underwood, Scranton, Appenzeller, Heron, Gale, Jones, -Hulbert, and others, mastered the language and opened the treasures of native literature -and history. Already the list of aids to the vernacular and of their writings descriptive -of country and people is a very respectable one. These works, the fruit of earnest -toil, contrast superbly in the quality of truthfulness with the sketchy and ephemeral -writings of tourists and hasty travellers. With other scholars and civil servants -of various governments, they sustain the editor in furnishing the richly freighted -pages of the <i>Korea Review</i>, and have formed the Korea Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, from which already -several creditable volumes of “Transactions” have appeared to delight the serious -student, who values perspective and tone in his mind-pictures of this once hermit -nation. -</p> -<p>Already the representatives of the Christian brotherhoods of English-speaking peoples -have their row of graves in which sleep heroes, veterans, and some who “fell at the -first fire.” Beginning in 1884, their prospective celebration of a double decennial, -in September, 1904, was postponed under the clouds of war. Besides healing and helping, -translating the Scriptures, and teaching the great uplifting truths which centre around -the idea of one living and true God, gathering thousands of souls into churches and -furnishing <span class="pageNum" id="pb492">[<a href="#pb492">492</a>]</span>Gospel nurture, they have taught the natives the grand lesson of self-support and -self-propagation through a first-hand knowledge of the Bible. War, persecution, and -manifold trials have tested and proved the quality of the converts, who in sincerity -and power to stand in the midst of temptations are perhaps second to none in any field. -</p> -<p>It was evident at the opening of the year 1904 that Japanese armies were once again -to tread the soil of Corea, this time the war being not between China and Japan, but -between Japan and Russia. Against the Colossus of the North and Russian rapacity, -the Island Empire had a long list of grievances. As far back as 1861 a Russian man-of-war -had, not without shedding the blood of its defenders, landed marines on the Island -of Tsushima. There they had planted seed and begun the formation of a settlement looking -to permanent occupation. In those days of hermitage, weakness, and fear, nothing could -be done by the Japanese authorities at Yedo; but Katsu Awa, the Shogun’s most far-seeing -statesman, called the attention of the British minister at Peking to this invasion, -and a British naval force was sent to compel the Russians to retire. A few years later -Russia took possession of Saghalien, after the usual preliminary of “joint occupation,” -compelling the Japanese to be satisfied with the Kurile Islands below 50° 56′ of north -latitude. This was in the year 1875, but long before that, Japanese statesmen, especially -Okubo, had penetrated the designs of Russia. The formation, out of feudal elements, -of her national army in 1871 and the first of this character since the twelfth century, -was largely with a view of defending Japan against Russian and other aggressions. -On the return of the Japanese embassy from its trip round the world in 1873, Okubo, -Kido, and others opposed the Corean war project (as we have seen in Chapter XLVII), -because a war with Corea then meant playing into Russia’s hands. Something of the -popular fear of Russia over the Japanese nation, which hung like an advancing black -cloud, was seen in the attack by a fanatical policeman on the Crown Prince, now the -Czar of Russia, during his visit to Japan in 1891, but the Government in Tokio, even -in the person of the Mikado, besides making ample apology, scrupulously maintained -propriety in all dealings with Russia, at home and in Corea, living on terms of perfect -friendship. It was therefore a stunning disappointment, <span class="pageNum" id="pb493">[<a href="#pb493">493</a>]</span>though a not wholly unexpected procedure, when Russia, in 1895, summoning to her aid -the French and Germans, deprived the Japanese of the fruits of their victories in -the war with China, by compelling the islanders to relinquish all territory on the -mainland of Asia, and to be content with Formosa and an indemnity. Exhausted as they -were by the war with China, yet had the Japanese been possessed of five battle-ships, -they would have declared war upon Russia as an abominable intermeddler and aggressor. -The force of circumstances required them to swallow their humiliation, but as the -Japanese, any more than certain Christian nations, never forgive an injury, they began -immediately to gird themselves for the coming and inevitable struggle with the Power -that seemed bent upon their destruction. When the Boxer uprising in 1899 called forth -the military energies of eight nations, the Japanese Government at first held back, -lest its motives in being too forward might be questioned. When finally urged to lead -the van of the allied armies of rescue, Japan sent 21,000 of her ablest and best equipped -soldiers into the campaign. Their experiences on the march to Peking were invaluable -to the Japanese, for through becoming comrades with the <i>mujiks</i> in the camps and on the battle-field, they learned that they had nothing to fear -from such foes when arrayed against them in anything like an equality of numbers in -war. The Japanese officer found himself a modern man in the presence of his equals, -who were men steeped in mediæval methods of thought. -</p> -<p>Steadily enlarging their navy and perfecting in every detail arms, ammunition, field -equipment, army hygiene, and the physical development of their soldiers, the Japanese -determined to stand for their rights, even though this might seem like Jack challenging -the giant. No longer hermits on an island, which, having but a small fraction of arable -fertile soil, could not feed its inhabitants, so that population had to remain stationary, -the Japanese had become a nation of traders and manufacturers, with an annual increase -of population of over 500,000 a year, with a total population of fifty millions, and -with a foreign trade that had increased 543 per cent since 1890, with a total export -trade consisting of 84.6 per cent of manufactured articles. With nearly thirty thousand -Japanese subjects in Corea, most of them married and with homes, and with 10,000 of -their people in Manchuria, <span class="pageNum" id="pb494">[<a href="#pb494">494</a>]</span>they took an interest in the affairs of Corea and Manchuria which was not like that -of the Russians, chiefly military and strategic, but which, on the contrary, was commercial -and vital. During the Boxer troubles, Russia sent a large army into Manchuria and -finally took possession of the whole of that portion of the Chinese Empire. She promised -solemnly to all the governments interested, to vacate the country on the 9th of October, -1903. -</p> -<p>The world knows how this promise was broken. The correspondence between Tokio and -St. Petersburg reveals the exasperating delays of the Russian Government, and its -intention not only to remain permanently in Manchuria but to prevent if possible Japan -from having anything to do with the matter. Russia even desired “recognition by Japan -that Manchuria is outside her sphere of special interest” and requested a mutual engagement -to establish “a neutral zone on the Corea-Manchuria frontier, extending fifty kilometers -each side into which neutral zone neither of the contracting parties shall introduce -troops without the consent of the other,” and “the engagement on the part of Japan -not to undertake on the coast of Corea any military works capable of menacing the -freedom of navigation in the straits of Corea.” -</p> -<p>In a word, what Japan claimed is, that “Japan has a perfect right to demand that the -independence and territorial integrity of China shall be respected and the rights -and interests of Japan in that region shall be formally guaranteed.” -</p> -<p>After innumerable delays and the situation growing more serious every day, the Russians -continually reinforcing their naval and military forces in the far East, Mr. Kurino, -the Mikado’s minister to St. Petersburg, having waited for an answer since the 13th -of January, called on Count Lamsdorff at 8 <span class="asc">P.M.</span> February 4th for a definite reply, which was not forthcoming. Finding that in all -probability there would be no changes in Russia’s claims of control over Manchuria -and her demand for “a buffer region between confines of direct influence and action -of the two countries in the far East,” being out of the question, the Japanese legation -was on the 10th of February withdrawn from St. Petersburg and war began. -</p> -<p>The Russians were already on Corean soil with three hundred Cossacks guarding their -timber cutters on the left bank of the Yalu River. Since June, 1903, they had reinforced -their army <span class="pageNum" id="pb495">[<a href="#pb495">495</a>]</span>with 40,000 men and their navy with 26 vessels, ranging from battle-ship to torpedo -boat, thus adding 83,000 tons to their sea power. Five days before, the Russian commander -at Vladivostok had notified the Japanese commercial agent that a state of siege might -be declared at any moment. With steam up, decks cleared for action, and search-lights -in use for night work, the Russian seamen instantly replied to the fire and torpedoes -of Admiral Togo’s attack. The Japanese thus anticipated a naval raid from the Russians, -which was afterwards successfully carried out from Vladivostok. To the Czar’s advisers -in Europe actual war may have come as a surprise. It did not come thus to his servants -in the far East. Nevertheless, within three days after the rupture of peaceful relations -the Russian war ships Variag and Koreetz had been sunk outside of the harbor of Chemulpo -by the guns of Admiral Uriu and an army landed to begin its march northward. At Port -Arthur three battle-ships and four cruisers had been sunk or damaged by Admiral Togo’s -torpedoes. The first idea of the Japanese was to eliminate the sea power of Russia -from the scene of the seat of war. Landing her armies in Corea, at Chemulpo, the march -was made without serious opposition, until near Wiju, the Mikado’s hosts once more -stood on the banks of the Yalu, the Rubicon of eastern Asia, confronting the forces -of the White Czar. -</p> -<p>Meanwhile, a new protocol between Japan and Corea was signed, in March, 1904, in which -the stronger Power bound itself to reform the weaker country without annexing it and -to protect it without impairing its sovereignty. Corea pledged herself, as distinctly -under Japan’s protection, to repose confidence in and to accept advice from the Japanese -Government, and to make no agreement with a third Power which might seem to contravene -the principles of the protocol. This document made Japan the champion of Corean independence, -and is in spirit and letter the antipodes of Russia’s action in Manchuria. -</p> -<p>The new model army in Asia, and the most modern of all armies, was in its fitness -of body and mind to cope with the problems of war in the twentieth century, the creation -of the public schools of Japan. These soldiers, both veterans and youth, set a new -standard of resourceful valor, celerity of movement, temperance in living, ability -to endure hunger and hardship, and of self-abnegation in the presence of death. To -a Japanese patriot, life, <span class="pageNum" id="pb496">[<a href="#pb496">496</a>]</span>apart from duty, has no value. On the 1st of May, this “public school army,” under -Kuroki, having crossed the Yalu under fire, won a brilliant victory, capturing many -guns and prisoners. They had met European troops and beaten them in fair fight. -</p> -<p>Then began the Japanese march through the old Border Gate and Feng-Wang Chang or Phœnix -Castle, and over the mountain range dividing the Yalu from the Liao valley. The fortified -passes were one after the other carried in victorious assault, and in the early days -of September both Russian and Japanese main armies were marshalled before Liao Yang -city, southwest of the ruins of the ancient Corean stronghold, for one of the great -decisive battles of modern times and perhaps of human history. -</p> -<p>During this time other armies were landed in Manchuria and by May 15th Oku was in -possession of the railway leading to Port Arthur. Dalny was occupied May 26th, and -later Yinkow and Niu Chwang came under the sun banner. On August 25th Field-Marshal -Oyama took command of all the Japanese forces and the armies of Kuroki, Nodzu, and -Oku. -</p> -<p>After the great pitched battle in the early days of September, the Mikado’s flag floated -over Liao Yang, and Kuropatkin fell back on Mukden, in masterly retreat. -</p> -<p>From Port Arthur, girdled by a wall of fire and under a rain of shells, the Czar’s -battle-ships and cruisers made desperate efforts to escape, only to be sunk, driven -back, or, torn and riven, to seek shelter in the ports of China, and elsewhere, their -presence giving rise to perplexing questions in international diplomacy. -</p> -<p>As we close again, in the autumn of <span class="asc">A.D.</span> 1904, our story of the once “hermit nation,” the Japanese, confronted with the practical -difficulties of assuming a real protectorate over Corea, while nominally but sincerely -striving to maintain her independence, are still determined to control the peninsula -as a vital possession. One hundred miles of the Seoul-Fusal railway are in operation. -The sound of the blasting night and day in the deep rock-cuts near Seoul announce -their purpose to finish speedily a highway of steel to the Chinese frontier. The real -purpose of the war is the integrity of China, upon which depends the safety of Japan, -perhaps even the political salvation of Asia. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb497">[<a href="#pb497">497</a>]</span></p> -</div> -<div class="footnotes"> -<hr class="fnsep"> -<div class="footnote-body"> -<div class="fndiv" id="xd31e6585"> -<p class="footnote"><span class="fnlabel"><a class="noteRef" href="#xd31e6585src">1</a></span> See Fifteen Years Among the Topknots, by L. H. Underwood (1904). <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd31e6585src" title="Return to note 1 in text.">↑</a></p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch53" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#xd31e1283">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="label">CHAPTER LIII.</h2> -<h2 class="main">COREA A JAPANESE PROTECTORATE.</h2> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="first">Having been responsible for two great foreign wars fought by Japan, it was natural -that at the end of each campaign the position of Corea among nations should be notably -altered. The war with the Middle Kingdom blew to pieces the Chinese doctrine of universal -sovereignty, besides making the once vassal state independent. In name, at least, -Corea was made an empire. The war with Russia annihilated the dogma so long held in -Europe, that Asiatic nations exist for conquest and spoliation, with the corollary -that “the break-up of China” was imminent. Japanese success in the war of 1894–95 -was a vindication of the American doctrine as expounded by men from the United States -during a century, and formulated by John Hay—“China for the Chinese.” -</p> -<p>Had Corea been a state fitted, by the power of unselfish patriotism and love of industry -among her leaders, to survive amid modern political and economic conditions, Japan’s -triumph over Russia would have made her all the stronger. Her independence would have -been assured, had the virtue of her own sons responded to the opportunity. -</p> -<p>On the contrary, the history of Corea since 1866, as outlined on these pages, reveals -the fatal weakness of the ruling class in Corea. Instead of giving themselves to patriotic -sacrifice and personal industry, the yang-ban, or men of privilege, have made their -capital a hot-bed of intrigue and Corea the storm centre of the Far East. Instead -of developing their own strength and the nation’s resources, they have plied the arts -of cunning and the crafts of the weak. Yet modern civilization, rich in powerful governments, -has no place for the weak. Least of all is self-chosen weakness allowable. -</p> -<p>Being neither skilful merchants like the Chinese, nor brave warriors like the Japanese, -the Corean noblemen—on whom lies <span class="pageNum" id="pb498">[<a href="#pb498">498</a>]</span>the burden of responsibility—might at least have imitated the good example of their -island neighbors. In Japan the outstanding event of modern times was the renunciation, -in 1871, by 400,000 knights or gentry, of their hereditary pensions paid out of the -public treasury.<a class="noteRef" id="n498.1src" href="#n498.1">1</a> After this sacrifice, made in the interests of true patriotism, they put off their -swords and silk petticoats, got to work, paid taxes, and began to earn an honest living. -Even China has broken with her unsocial past and conceit of perfection, and has entered -upon the path of modern civilization. -</p> -<p>The Corean yang-ban abused their independence by intrigue. They failed to discern -that the petty arts of the plotter endangered their existence as a nation. After her -second great war, Japan saw clearly that to allow her neighbor state, wherein there -was no sharp distinction between the Court and the Government, to remain, as of old, -the hot-bed of intrigue, would jeopard her own existence. She therefore did for Corea -what Great Britain has done for Egypt, the United States for Cuba, and the French -for Annam. Corea is now numbered among protectorates. -</p> -<p>When our narrative closed in September, 1904, the Japanese were building a trunk line -of railroad, nearly six hundred miles long, which should traverse the whole peninsula -from Fusan to Wiju (Ai-chiu, pp. 181, 364). Port Arthur had not surrendered. The real -goal of the Japanese armies, the city of Mukden, containing the mausoleums of the -Manchiu dynasty now ruling in Peking, “the possession of which would put the heart -of China in the palm of Japan’s hand,” was yet unreached. Yet those who in the early -seventies had helped to train the boys who made the public-school army of Japan, had -no fear of its ultimate triumph.<a class="pseudoNoteRef" id="xd31e6697src" href="#n498.1">1</a> -</p> -<p>On the 3d of January, 1905, Port Arthur was formally surrendered, and its evacuation -completed January 7th. The main Japanese army fronting Mukden was quickly reënforced -by Nogi’s division on the left, or west, and by Kawamura’s army, out of Corea, on -the right, or east. The great campaign of hard fighting, destined to last nearly a -month, opened amid a snow-storm on the 23d of February. By the 28th the fighting was -general along the whole front of nearly one hundred miles. On the 10th of March <span class="pageNum" id="pb499">[<a href="#pb499">499</a>]</span>Oku’s columns entered, by the southern gate, the city of Mukden. The Russians lost -nearly thirty thousand in dead and over forty thousand prisoners. The Japanese pursuit -northward lasted until April 14th. -</p> -<p>On the 27th and 28th of March “the battle of The Sea of Japan” took place, in which -the Russian armada of thirty-eight modern ships of war was, “by the grace of Heaven -and the help of the gods,” annihilated. -</p> -<p>By invitation of President Roosevelt, the envoys of the two warring nations, de Witte -and Rosen for Russia, and Komura and Takahira for Japan (both of the latter the writer’s -former pupils in Tokio), met at Portsmouth, N. H.; whence, in the thirties, had sailed -Captain Edmund Roberts, commissioned by President Jackson, and the first American -diplomatist in the Far East. The Japanese won a signal diplomatic victory, securing -the main points of their contention. -</p> -<p>The peace treaty which was signed recognized in the first article Japan’s predominant -position in Corea, political, military, economic, as well as her right to supervise -that country’s affairs and to protect it, Russia agreeing not to obstruct Japan’s -proceedings in any respect. One of the first and worst results for Corea was the immediate -entrance within her borders of a horde of low-class, insolent Japanese adventurers, -who, by their cruelties and spoliations of natives, nearly neutralized the well-meant -plans of good men in Tokio. -</p> -<p>Following up the results of the decisive war, the Mikado sent his highly honored servant, -Baron Komura, to Peking to arrange matters amicably with China, and then turned his -attention to Corea. The protocol of March, 1904 (p. 495), had been quickly followed -by the abolition of the <span class="corr" id="xd31e6709" title="Source: Pedlers’">Peddlers’</span> Guild (so long used by pro-Russian intriguers) and by the visit of Marquis Ito, who -bore a reassuring message of fraternity and good-will. Mr. I. Megata, one of the most -experienced and skilful officers of the Treasury Department in Tokio, was sent to -Seoul as financial adviser, and Mr. Durham Dwight Stevens, an American gentleman, -who united ability and tact to long and varied experience in diplomacy in the Far -East, accepted the post of assistant at the Corean Foreign Office. These gentlemen, -like all their predecessors, encountered insuperable difficulties in dealing with -a government that was <span class="pageNum" id="pb500">[<a href="#pb500">500</a>]</span>nominally carried on at the Council Board, but in reality directed from the harem -or by clan factions in secret intrigue. -</p> -<p>Occupied so seriously with other matters, few attempts were made at first by the Japanese -Government in the interest of real reforms that could benefit the Corean people. Meanwhile, -it must be repeated, tens of thousands of the Mikado’s subjects, many of them of the -most truculent temper and disreputable character, crowded into the peninsula, committing -acts of rapine and brutality which neutralized many of the best measures of wise statesmen. -When the proposition, approved of in Tokio, was made that all uncultivated land in -the peninsula should be open to Japanese occupation and enterprise, and the water -rights and supply be shared by these aliens, the Corean people, as a body, made systematic -protest. All the circumstances considered, this sudden act of virtual spoliation was -a colossal blunder. In the eyes of the Coreans it was not only “stealing water from -another man’s field”—so terrible a crime in lands of rice culture, where irrigation -is a vital necessity—but the theft of the very soil itself. At once a storm of opposition -arose that swept the peninsula from end to end. The Corean Emperor was besieged with -petitions to resist the Japanese demands. A society called Po-an, for the preservation -of safety and peace, was formed, which met in Seoul in excited discussion, and began -the propagation of what seemed to the Japanese authorities a campaign of sedition. -The meetings of the Po-an were broken up by the police, and the Japanese garrison -of Seoul was augmented to six thousand men. Though other Corean societies were formed, -the excitement died out, the Japanese not pushing their scheme, the Corean noblemen -showing little or no real patriotism, and the people little power of persistent unity. -On October 13, 1904, General Hasegawa took control of the military situation. -</p> -<p>Yet it is the simple truth to state that while the Japanese soldier, superb in discipline -and noble in human qualities, is respected by the Corean, the low Japanese, who so -often proves himself a rascal, is feared and despised. It is unfortunate that these -disreputable characters were so long under such slight control from Tokio. On the -other hand, notwithstanding that Japan, in the treaty of 1904, had guaranteed the -independence of Corea, yet the Government in Seoul, choked by palace <span class="corr" id="xd31e6717" title="Source: cl ques">cliques</span>, languished <span class="pageNum" id="pb501">[<a href="#pb501">501</a>]</span>in chronic feebleness. Unable to keep order at home, to pay its legation bills abroad, -or to separate itself from that “Forbidden Interior” of mystery in the boudoir inhabited -by a mob of women, eunuchs and hangers-on, which curses China, Corea, and so long -cursed old Japan in both Yedo and Kioto, what guarantee was there for the peace of -Asia and the world? For the preservation of this, the Mikado’s Government was responsible, -while every complication in Corea involved Japan also. -</p> -<p>After long deliberation, the statesmen in Tokio agreed that the surest exit out of -the labyrinthine difficulty was to take charge of Corea’s foreign relations and place -a controller-general at the capital, with subordinates at the chief cities and seaports, -leaving internal affairs to be directed from Seoul. The Mikado despatched Marquis -Ito—“patient, able, and authoritative”—to Seoul. -</p> -<p>On the 17th of November, 1905, the Corean Emperor’s minister, Pak Che Soon, and the -Mikado’s representative, Hayashi, signed a treaty, of which the following is the official -translation into English: -</p> -<blockquote> -<p class="first">The Governments of Japan and Corea, desiring to strengthen the principle of solidarity -which unites the two Empires, have with that object in view agreed upon and concluded -the following stipulations to serve until the moment arrives when it is recognized -that Corea has attained national strength:— -</p> -<p>Article I. The Government of Japan, through the Department of Foreign Affairs at Tokio, -will hereafter have control and direction of the external relations and affairs of -Corea, and the diplomatic and consular representatives of Japan will have the charge -of the subjects and interests of Corea in foreign countries. -</p> -<p>Art. II. The Government of Japan undertake to see to the execution of the treaties -actually existing between Corea and other Powers, and the Government of Corea engage -not to conclude hereafter any act or engagement having an international character, -except through the medium of the Government of Japan. -</p> -<p>Art III. The Government of Japan shall be represented at the Court of His Majesty -the Emperor of Corea by a Resident General, who shall reside at Seoul, primarily for -the purpose of taking charge of and directing matters relating to diplomatic affairs. -He shall have the right of private and personal audience of His Majesty the Emperor -of Corea. The Japanese Government shall also have the right to station Residents at -the several open ports and such other places in Corea as they may deem necessary. -Such Residents shall, under the direction of the Resident General, exercise the powers -and functions hitherto appertaining to Japanese Consuls in Corea, and shall perform -such duties as may be necessary in order to carry into full effect the provisions -of this agreement. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb502">[<a href="#pb502">502</a>]</span></p> -<p>Art. IV. The stipulations of all treaties and agreements existing between Japan and -Corea not inconsistent with the provisions of this agreement shall continue in force. -</p> -<p>Art. V. The Government of Japan undertake to maintain the welfare and dignity of the -Imperial House of Corea. -</p> -<p>In faith whereof the undersigned, duly authorized by the Governments, have signed -this agreement and affixed their seals. -</p> -<p class="signed">[Signed] <span class="sc">Hyashi Gonsuke</span>, -<br>Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary. -</p> -<p class="signed">[Signed] <span class="sc">Pak Che Soon</span>, -<br>Minister for Foreign Affairs. -</p> -<p class="dateline">November 17, 1905.</p> -</blockquote><p> -</p> -<p>Whatever may be the real history of the transfer thus made or the means taken to secure -the document, it is certain that the governments of Europe and America were very prompt -in withdrawing their legations from Seoul and in acknowledging Japan’s supremacy. -In Washington the minds of the President and Secretary of State were quickly made -up, because of the local eccentricities of Corean envoys, unable to pay their grocery -bills, and despite the representations of more than one private emissary. On the accession -of Theodore Roosevelt to the presidency by the election of the people and his change -of diplomatic assistants, Minister Horace N. Allen, long our able representative in -Seoul, was succeeded, in 1905, by Mr. Edwin Vernon Morgan, who had had experience -in Samoa, Corea, Russia, and China. He being appointed to another position, the American -legation in Seoul ceased, while the consul-general and consuls were retained as before. -</p> -<p>Meanwhile, under the energetic action of the Resident General Ito, real reforms were -inaugurated and disorderly Japanese characters arrested and either sent out of the -country or made to give pledges for good behavior. The whole prospect of things brightened. -</p> -<p>At a banquet given in his honor by his countrymen in Seoul, April 8, 1906, the Marquis -Ito spoke as follows: -</p> -<p>“According to what His Corean Majesty has repeatedly condescended to say to me, I -may be permitted to believe that I have the honor to enjoy his confidence and trust -in no small measure. He has on more than one occasion been pleased to assure me that -he wished to rely upon my loyal services for the regeneration of <span class="pageNum" id="pb503">[<a href="#pb503">503</a>]</span>the Corean Administration. His Majesty has also given orders to his Ministers to carry -out this work of regeneration under my direction and guidance. As for the Corean Ministers, -they have assured me of their determination to do their utmost to this end; they say -that an opportunity like the present will not occur again, and, as a matter of fact, -they are now actively engaged in the work of regeneration.” -</p> -<p>Apparently these words were as honestly applauded by the Corean Emperor’s servants -as they were believed to be true by the speaker himself. In mutual confidence, Corean -military officers were duly appointed, and both General Hasegawa and the Marquis Ito -left with them for Japan, to witness the grand review of the returning victorious -Japanese armies from Manchuria, which was held in Tokio April 30th. -</p> -<p>The opportunity for intrigue and conspiracy created by the absence of the two great -men was too tempting to be lost by the factions of the boudoir and its inmates. The -Corean Conservative and Progressive parties kept warring among themselves, hatching -plots in which even the emperor’s privy councillors, palace eunuchs, and officers -of the Imperial household were active. Two lines of policy looking to domestic and -foreign disturbance were mapped out by the conspirators. One utilized the distress -and almost chronic troubles in the southwestern provinces, the other was based on -the hope of Russian intervention. The plot was planned by yang-ban in the palace itself. -</p> -<p>In Chung Chong Do (p. 194) a Min and in Chulla Do (p. 199) a Choi nobleman led the -insurrections. Antiquated muskets, matchlocks, swords, and spears were laid in store -against the Japanese. In Kang-wen Do (p. 208), also, troubles were reported. Four -police (out of the 350 then in all Corea) were sent from the Residency in Seoul, but -they were killed or driven away. The Corean provincial troops being supine, two companies -of Japanese infantry were sent to the city. Attacking in daylight in order to spare -the peaceful non-combatants, the soldiers blew up the gates with dynamite. After some -street fighting the city was in the hands of the military, 69 Coreans being killed -and 145 made prisoners. It was hoped that this affair would end further insurrection. -</p> -<p>But in a land so long governed by the sorcerer, where the <span class="pageNum" id="pb504">[<a href="#pb504">504</a>]</span>means of communication are slight and the people lack education and mental initiative, -news travels slowly. Choi, in the more southern city, held out. Murderous attacks -on Japanese settlers and fishermen continued. The Wi-pion party, representing inveterate -conservatism, sided with the insurgents, while the Il Ching-hoi, or Liberal Progressive, -set to work to unearth evidence and expose the Conservative plotters. Giving information -at the Residency in Seoul, five high officers, Kim, Choi, Min, Hong, etc., of the -Corean Court or Government, including a eunuch, were arrested. The twofold plan, first, -to make the world believe that the whole Corean people was opposed to the Japanese -protectorate, and second, to enlist Russian cooperation, was exposed. One immediate -result of forcing the Japanese military hand was the quick surrender of Choi to Corean -soldiers in Chulla Do. In his camp was found authorization from Seoul, sealed with -the vermilion seal of the palace, to raise troops. Thus collapsed the plot for internal -disturbance.<a class="noteRef" id="xd31e6767src" href="#xd31e6767">2</a> -</p> -<p>The prospect of drawing Russia again into hostilities which might free Corea from -the Japanese yoke shows the weak spot in the Russo-Chinese negotiations of Ignatieff -in 1860 (p. 371). In the delimitation of frontiers then made, a strip of country containing -nearly 3,000 square miles, called Han-do, or Island Circuit, between the Tumen and -its affluent, the Hai-lan River, which, beginning about seventy-five miles from the -sea, flows nearly parallel, was left as neutral territory to be uninhabited. This -region is shown on the maps (pp. 210, 365), and though the Chinese characters describe -an island, it is interfluvial only. In reality the land, being very fertile, did in -course of time attract many settlers, both Chinese and Corean. When Russia began to -assert her strenuous policy in the Far East, she demanded that this neutral strip -should be cleared of Coreans, or that all settlers in this region between the rivers -should be enrolled as Chinese subjects. The Japanese War coming on in 1904, nothing -further was done. Since Russia, by the Portsmouth treaty, controls the railways of -Kirin, she may by holding this region control the trade routes to the seaboard. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb505">[<a href="#pb505">505</a>]</span></p> -<p>Here then was the bait to make the Russian bear bite. One of the Kims, an anti-Japanese -ultra-conservative, secured a commission from the Corean Emperor appointing him virtually -governor of this Hai-lan region. At Vladivostok, through the infamous pro-Russian -Li Yong Ik and M. Pavloff, the late envoy of the Czar in Corea, the Court of St. Petersburg -was to be sounded on the possibility of gaining control of this strategic territory. -</p> -<p>If it be asked, what ground of hope Kim Hseung-mun had of success, it must be remembered -that while all other foreign consuls in Corea, under the new order of things, had -received their <i>exequaturs</i>, or authorizations, from the Emperor of Japan, the new Russian Consul-General, M. -Plancon, claimed that he should be recognized by the Corean and not the Japanese emperor, -thus ignoring Corea’s denunciation of her old treaty with China and the convention -of November 17, 1905. The Russian envoy, for a little while or until he withdrew his -contention, consciously or unconsciously, gave encouragement to the Corean conspirator, -Kim. This whole plot to embroil Russia and Japan was frustrated, getting no further -than the palace, while the surrender of Choi in Chulla Do was made sure by the arrest, -on the night of June 8th, of the chief conspirators as they were leaving the palace. -The Liberals had turned state’s evidence. -</p> -<p>Without impeaching the Corean Emperor, the Japanese Government removed his evil advisers -and resolved to persevere in using what authority he still possesses for the good -of the Corean people—as their protectors see it. -</p> -<p>That policy requires the public finance of Corea to be known in ledgers and budgets, -with strict accountability for every dollar; the purging of the palace, and the thorough -differentiation of Court and Government, and of the “boudoir” from the council table; -the creation of a public school system; the building of a railway from Ping An to -Gen san; a coinage and stable monetary system; the reform of prison methods and the -judiciary; the reclamation of the vast quantities of waste land; the encouragement -of all moral forces; the development of trade, commerce, and industry; and last, but -not least, the severe handling of unprincipled and truculent Japanese; or, in general, -a policy of righteousness and conciliation that must overcome the traditional hatred -between the Coreans and the Japanese. To make the <span class="pageNum" id="pb506">[<a href="#pb506">506</a>]</span>yang-ban get to work and earn their own living will be the great blessing to this -long-oppressed land. If Japan can satisfy the enlightened judgment of the world that -Corea is exploited for the good primarily of the Coreans and not the Japanese, humanity -will approve and rejoice. The accomplished author of “The Passing of Korea,” which -contains the severest arraignment of the Japanese thus far made, passes this verdict -on the situation: -</p> -<p>“The Koreans have awakened to the fact that this, which should have been their first -consideration many years ago, is now their last resort, and they are clamoring for -education.… Korea can gain nothing by holding back and offering to the plans of Japan -a sulky resistance. They are face to face with a definite condition, and theories -as to the morality of the forces which brought about the condition are wholly academic.” -<span class="pageNum" id="pb507">[<a href="#pb507">507</a>]</span></p> -</div> -<div class="footnotes"> -<hr class="fnsep"> -<div class="footnote-body"> -<div class="fndiv" id="n498.1"> -<p class="footnote"><span class="fnlabel"><a class="noteRef" href="#n498.1src">1</a></span> See “The Mikado’s Empire,” pp. 533–535, and p. 682, of the eleventh edition, 1906, -for the five points of prediction made at Hartford, Conn., February 8, 1904. <span class="fnarrow">↑ </span><a class="fnreturn" href="#n498.1src" title="Return to note 1(a) in text.">a</a> <a class="fnreturn" href="#xd31e6697src" title="Return to note 1(b) in text.">b</a></p> -</div> -<div class="fndiv" id="xd31e6767"> -<p class="footnote"><span class="fnlabel"><a class="noteRef" href="#xd31e6767src">2</a></span> See the long letter in the London Times of August 8, 1906, from an unimpeachable authority—the -author of the Oriental Series, nearly forty years in the Far East. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd31e6767src" title="Return to note 2 in text.">↑</a></p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch54" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#xd31e1291">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="label">CHAPTER LIV.</h2> -<h2 class="main">CHŌ-SEN: A PROVINCE OF JAPAN.</h2> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="first">Chō-sen is the official name of the country described in this volume and now a province -of Japan, as declared in the Act of Annexation of August, 1910. Thus its oldest name, -now to be better known to the world, is also its newest. Since 1392 the natives have -known no other. The Chinese characters for Chō-sen, or Morning Calm, were stamped -on the first and earlier editions of this book. The Japanese name of the capital is -Kéijo. -</p> -<p>By the Russo-Japanese war, Corea was saved from being a Russian province and the king -and court given the supreme occasion of reform, which, if carried out, would mean -new national life. Corea would have remained a sovereign state, had the chief ruler -and the governing classes risen to their opportunity. -</p> -<p>It was not to be. With despotism in the palace and a lettered class bound in cast-iron -traditions, but profoundly ignorant of the world and the century, there lay beneath -an oppressed populace, steeped in superstition, for which the Government did nothing. -Lacking an intelligent middle class between, reform in Corea, except from without, -was perhaps morally impossible. -</p> -<p>Old Corea, an unreformed Oriental state, with all the features inseparably associated -with such a society, was thus described by Lord Curzon in 1894: -</p> -<p>“A royal figure-head, enveloped in the mystery of the palace and the harem, surrounded -by concentric rings of eunuchs, Ministers of State, officials and retainers, and rendered -almost intangible by the predominant atmosphere of intrigue; a hierarchy of office-holders -and office-seekers, who are leeches in the thinnest disguise; a feeble and insignificant -army, an impecunious exchequer, a debased currency, and an impoverished people—these -are the invariable <span class="pageNum" id="pb508">[<a href="#pb508">508</a>]</span>symptoms of the fast-vanishing <i>régime</i> of the older and unredeemed Oriental type. Add to these the first swarming of the -flock of foreign practitioners who scent the enfeebled constitution from afar and -from the four winds of Heaven come pressing their <span class="corr" id="xd31e6800" title="Source: pharmacopæia">pharmacopœia</span> of loans, concessions, banks, mints, factories, and all the recognized machinery -for filling Western purses at the expense of Eastern pockets, and you have a fair -picture of Korea as she stands after ten years of emergence from her long seclusion -and enjoyment of the intercourse of the nations.” -</p> -<p>Corea as represented by the yang-ban, or ruling class, numbering with their families -200,000 souls, was dragged suddenly out into the world’s light and confronted with -vital problems. Without that long interior intellectual preparation which enabled -Japan in the nick of time to meet her new duties, the Coreans were neither able nor -willing to grapple with the colossal tasks awaiting them. Yet this was no fault of -the plain people, for it is to their credit that they welcomed foreigners. Except -a morbid curiosity as to alien persons and ways, they have ever shown kindness, and -politeness so far as they knew it. With amazing promptness the spiritually hungry -and thirsty masses have responded with grateful appreciation to what their foreign -teachers brought them. One secret of their readiness and docility lies in the fact -that they were glad to be delivered from the oppression of rulers, whose one idea -of government meant the grinding of the people for private benefit. -</p> -<p>After the treaty of November 17, 1905, by which a Resident-General from Japan was -established in Seoul, and which took control of the foreign relations and affairs -of the little kingdom, it was found that few of those who could have effected national -reform gave any indication of their desire to do so. In 1907 a fresh agreement was -made, “with the object of speedily providing for the wealth of Corea and of promoting -its welfare,” and the Japanese Government spent millions of dollars in schemes of -practical advantage to the Coreans. When, after four years, it was found that the -age-old abuses continued, and reform by natives seemed impossible, the formal annexation -of Corea was consummated on August 29, 1910. The full text of the treaty, in eight -articles, with preamble, etc., and English translation, is printed in the <span class="pageNum" id="pb509">[<a href="#pb509">509</a>]</span><i>Journal of International Law</i> (<i lang="fr">Revue de Droit International</i>) for December, 1910, published in Tokio. -</p> -<p>The Amalgamation Convention provides:<a class="noteRef" id="xd31e6814src" href="#xd31e6814">1</a> -</p> -<p>“(1) The Emperor of Corea shall concede to the Emperor of Japan the Corean sovereignty, -together with all territorial rights. -</p> -<p>“(2) The Sovereign Imperial Household is to be treated as a quasi-Imperial Family -of Japan, continuing to have the annual allowance of 1,500,000 <i>yen</i>, while members of the Imperial Family and meritorious persons of the country are -to be created peers, or endowed with certain grants. -</p> -<p>“(3) The name Corea shall be changed into ‘Chō-sen.’ -</p> -<p>“(4) The Corean Cabinet being abolished, the Residency-General shall be changed into -a government of Governor-General, while as to the administrative business and customs -tariff, there will be no change for the present.” -</p> -<p>The cost to Japan of the amalgamation is estimated at <i>yen</i>, 30,000,000, or $15,000,000. Seventy-five Coreans of distinguished families were -created peers of Japan, and the monetary grants in <i>yen</i> were conferred as follows: to a baron, 50,000; to a viscount, 100,000; to a count, -150,000; and to a marquis, 200,000. As with the kugé, or court nobles, to prevent -waste, the principal is retained in the Imperial Treasury, and the interest promptly -paid at frequent intervals. Provision has been made for other meritorious persons, -and the military conscription will not be put in force for ten years yet. Meanwhile, -besides thousands of Corean students in Tokio, delegations of leading men and women -of Chō-sen have visited and travelled in Japan. -</p> -<p>It has always been a sore spot with the Coreans that the United States refused to -intervene, though in the first article of the treaty of May 22, 1882, promise was -made that “if other Powers deal unjustly or oppressively with either Government, the -other will exert their good offices, on being informed of the case, to bring about -an amicable arrangement, thus showing their friendly feeling.” Yet apart from the -settled policy of non-intervention in the affairs of foreign nations, the United States -was but one of several nations that, with a significant promptness and unanimity, -<span class="pageNum" id="pb510">[<a href="#pb510">510</a>]</span>gladly called home their legations and handed over the control of Corea to Japan. -</p> -<p>There is nothing mysterious to the student in the loss of Corea’s sovereignty and -her absorption in the Japanese Empire. A survey of her history and a view of the world’s -movement since 1866 shows inexorably the law of cause and effect. It was the weakness -of Corea to be not only shut off from the world, but in her hermitage so to exaggerate -antiquity and its importance as to leave the nation helpless in the modern clash of -civilizations, when Orient and Occident are meeting to merge into one world society. -The first infirmity of the Coreans of insular mind arises from long contact with the -history and literature of the Chinese. Stimulating to the intellect, this has paralyzed -mental initiative and swamped originality. The Corean imagined that China’s was the -beginning and end of all wisdom. Added to this was the delusion that a knowledge of -letters was in itself sufficient to preserve both society and national sovereignty. -</p> -<p>Old Japan suffered frightfully, but not fatally, from the same disease. In Corea’s -case, this insanity of literary pride was exaggerated into a crime when, after 1392, -the popular religion was ruthlessly destroyed, the people robbed of their teachers, -and the country given over to superstition and ignorance by a Government which Lieutenant -Foulk, in 1883, after prolonged tours within the country and study of the details -of administration, declared was but armed robbery. -</p> -<p>There was no political or social unity in the Corean peninsula until the tenth century. -The chief force in welding together the various tribes and peoples into the astonishing -unity and similarity now visible among the people and villages from Quelpart to the -Ever White Mountain was Buddhism. The missionaries of this faith, coming from Thibet -and China, gave the peninsulars art, architecture, literature, folk-lore, a noble -path of morals for guidance in this life, vast consolations for the future, and pretty -much everything that means culture, refinement, and civilization. In very early days, -before Mikadoism in Japan was formulated into a militant dogma, the islanders and -the peninsulars, the Japanese and the Coreans, were virtually one and the same people, -and in about the same stage of civilization. In the reaction of nature <span class="pageNum" id="pb511">[<a href="#pb511">511</a>]</span>upon man and of man upon nature, during ten centuries, the two peoples were differentiated, -and the two languages—almost exactly the same in structure, thus proving their common -origin—developed their vocabulary and local pronunciation. The two nations, according -to their ethnic mixtures, heredity and environment, grew further and further apart. -Nevertheless, to-day, after a millennium of separation, the underlying elements are -so much greater than the surface differences that the prospects of an amalgamation -of the two peoples are decidedly promising. -</p> -<p>In the main, the history of Corea is like its landscape. Her political annals, as -thus far studied, seem like monotonous undergrowth among which loom indistinct figure-heads. -As bare as her desolated coast or denuded mountains, the scene in historic perspective -reminds one of the peninsula’s lava beds, her square leagues of disintegrated granite, -or her waste lands, out of which rise sculptured rocks, and whence emerge the Miryeks, -or stone colossi, amid ruins surrounded with forests. To a native scholar his nation’s -chronicles are not without a rugged grandeur of their own, besides a rich coloring -that recalls the rock-scenery of Corea when looked at in the sunlight. -</p> -<p>To the alien student, Buddhism looms as the chief civilizer and the mother of popular -culture. It is certain that during its thousand years of growth and prosperity in -the peninsula the people were as one flock led by one shepherd. They were trained -in what was at least beautiful and human. Corea’s debt to Buddhism is unspeakable. -Even to-day, in the land so often invaded, desolated, peeled, and scraped by Tartar, -Chinese, and Japanese marauders, and raided by men from countries called Christian, -almost everything that remains to touch the imagination, whether in architecture, -rock sculpture, stone colossus, pagoda, in art, and even in literature, apart from -erudition, is of Buddhist origin. -</p> -<p>When, after <span class="asc">A.D.</span> 1392, the popular faith was banned, its temples, schools, monasteries, and works -of art destroyed or doomed to decay, its priesthood socially outlawed and oppressed -even to beggary, the people were left to ignorance and superstition and were as sheep -without shepherds. They became the prey alike of the ruling classes and of sorcerers -and fortune-tellers, who, though densely ignorant, lived by their wits and wickedness. -Parasitic <span class="pageNum" id="pb512">[<a href="#pb512">512</a>]</span>spoilers of all sorts, from the palace to the hovel, thrived, while the people, the -foundation of the state, existed on life’s narrowest margins. Confucianism, as made -into a state ritual since 1392, and as interpreted and developed by the yang-ban, -or educated and office-holding classes, meant neglect of the land, the grinding of -the people’s faces, the permanent destruction of popular wealth and comfort, the paralysis -of the motives to industry, and the creation of a standing army of inquisitors, office-seekers, -and office-holders, and their satellites and hangers-on, with headquarters in Seoul. -In place of the spiritual bread of Buddhism, the new régime offered a stone. In government, -instead of the egg for nourishment, they proffered a scorpion—even chronic extortion. -A great gulf was fixed socially between the men to whom education meant the stifling -of original thought, a ban on mental initiative and the oppression of the people. -Monopoly of office and privilege, as held by one class, meant systematic robbery of -the populace, the Government itself being an engine of oppression by which fewer than -one-quarter million yang-ban subsisted upon eleven million of the common folk. -</p> -<p>When reform was called for which meant public benefit, apart from private rapine or -individual advantage, manual as well as clerkly labor, continuous and unselfish toil -with only slight pecuniary reward, the average high-class native proved a total failure. -Despite the purging from the palace of several hundred women, and over a thousand -male persons who drew salaries, the remainder within, or parasitic to royalty, proved -worthless for the remaking of the nation. -</p> -<p>Ever under the spell of the Chinese characters, saturated with the ideas of Confucianism -run to seed, having only one ideal of life—selfish advantage and the subordination -of the lower classes—devoted to their sensual enjoyments, their long pipes, and their -liquor, to checker-playing, gossip, and elaborate idleness, the yang-ban during five -centuries did nothing to develop the soil or the resources of the country. On the -contrary, the office-holding class systematically hindered the development of wealth, -or even thrift, by extortion, unjust taxes, and dishonest manipulation of imposts, -which were paid in kind instead of in coin, by exactions or forced loans never repaid—usually -under the menace and reality of beating, <span class="pageNum" id="pb513">[<a href="#pb513">513</a>]</span>torture, and imprisonment. One innovation under the Japanese rule, which made taxes -payable in cash and not in kind, wrought infinite blessing to the people and carried -consternation to the army of extortioners. -</p> -<p>In the modern world-life, Japan and Corea are as necessary to each other as are man -and woman. It soon became evident to the Tokio Government, after every step, that -some stronger remedy than advice would be necessary to heal the age-old and deep-seated -Corean disease that seemed as incurable as leprosy. Hence the measures of 1907, which -put into the hands of the Mikado’s Resident-General still greater powers. -</p> -<p>To this work of reforming Corea, Nippon gave her ablest son, one who, both in feudal -and constitutional Japan, had dedicated his life to promoting the evolution of the -modern man. The statesmanship of Ito was that of a lover of humanity, who might well, -after long and multifarious labors, have taken the rest which he craved and which -his physical condition demanded. Nevertheless, with his unique experience and amazing -abilities, he applied himself with unremitting toil to lead the once hermit nation -into the twentieth century. According to Ito’s motto, “The secret of statesmanship -consists in securing the contentment of the people.” He was all the better fitted -for his colossal task by having known so well the late feudal Nippon with its political -diseases. Neglect of the people and of the soil, official falsehood, and class oppression -were characteristic of both countries. Ito took all the more encouragement because -life in Chō-sen was but the mirror of that in old Japan. Having fought belated feudalism -and grappled with the new problems of a modern state in Asia, none was better equipped -than he for the task of making a progressive nation out of a people whose mental eyes -were set even further back in their heads than those of the Chinese. -</p> -<p>For while China boasts of Confucius, Corea penetrates further into the primitive. -She hails as the founder of her social order, Kija (Ki-Tsze, or Kishi, pp. 11–15), -the distant ancestor of the Chinese sage. On this nursery fairy tale of the nation—since -the peninsulars knew nothing of writing until, long after the Christian era, they -obtained the Chinese ideographs—every Corean for a thousand years or more has been -brought up. The early mythology <span class="pageNum" id="pb514">[<a href="#pb514">514</a>]</span>and legend of the peninsulars are about as trustworthy as those of the neighboring -islanders, whose conceit of antiquity was once fully as great and whose official and -orthodox chronology was fixed and published so long ago as <span class="asc">A.D.</span> 1872! -</p> -<p>This myth of Kija, as the actual founder of civilization east of the Yalu, took its -literary form only in the eighth century, when the Coreans had become saturated with -Chinese ideas. Then the peninsulars, made acquainted with Chinese historiography, -and having but one model before them, faithfully followed it (as did the Japanese -also), the Coreans surpassing even the greater nation in pride of antiquity and in -the glorification of heroes, who loom up in vaster proportions according as the unrecorded -centuries multiply and recede into the past. Historical science has already begun -to change this perspective of antiquity as surely as hospitals have furnished object-lessons -in the law of cause and effect. Corean gods and demons, more numerous even than old -Japan’s mythical menagerie and pantheon, are being steadily banished to the realms -of fairy-land.<a class="noteRef" id="xd31e6868src" href="#xd31e6868">2</a> -</p> -<p>Ito, scorning delights and living laborious days, continued the labors, but vastly -enlarged the plans of his predecessors. First of all, having deported hundreds of -the bad subjects of the Mikado and curbed the rapacity and brutality of his own countrymen, -he applied himself unceasingly to healing the wounds of war, to indemnifying the unjustly -impoverished natives, and to giving Corea what she never had—or, if possessed of, -had allowed to lapse during the five hundred years of the dynasty that had destroyed -the people’s religion and had done nothing for national development. A system of good -roads, honest coinage and currency, courts and justice, popular education, afforestation -of the mountains, improvement of the soil through scientific agriculture and reclamation -of waste land, preventive hygiene, honest taxation and collection now exists. Ito -cleansed the palace, separating the functions of Court and Government, lessening by -fifty per cent. the number of persons paid from the public treasury, both male and -female, removing as far as possible the king and his advisers from the great mob of -sorcerers, fortune-tellers, geomancers, and others who <span class="pageNum" id="pb515">[<a href="#pb515">515</a>]</span>prey upon the Corean people. The deposition of the incompetent emperor and the installation -of his son in power were followed by the education of the crown prince in Tokio. -</p> -<p>The difficulties in the way of reform were appalling. The principal obstacles existed -in the two classes of which Corean society is composed—oppressors and oppressed. The -yang-ban, or privileged men, with more or less scholarship of a Chinese kind, seemed -to have no conception of patriotism apart from pelf. Their chief trait was political -vampirism. On the other hand, the supine attitude of the common people, accustomed -for centuries to systematic oppression, was discouraging. To them even decent government, -that is, the kind which could be tolerated to the point of rebellion, meant the grace -of their masters and rule without robbery. One of the striking features of nearly -every Corean town or city is seen in the long rows of tablets in stone or iron that -celebrate the merits of “good,” that is, fairly decent, governors. A collection of -all the local instruments of torture, stacked in one museum, would be impressive and -furnish fuel for a vast conflagration. -</p> -<p>In education, progress was hampered by the general prevalence of fanaticism on the -subject of “race suicide” and in the absurd measures taken for its prevention—measures -that largely tend to hinder the end in view. In Corea the marriage and birth rate -may possibly be in excess of that of any country in the world, while, almost as matter -of course, and as a scientific corollary, the same may be said of the death rate, -which, owing to superstition, ignorance, and dirt, is appalling. Corea, despite shining -white clothes, is not a land of bath-tubs. In the schools, nearly all the boys were -found to be married, and to girls older than themselves. These over-mature youths, -of antediluvian frame of mind, too often seem to have eyes set too far back in their -heads, which fix their gaze on duties appropriate to the time of Confucius rather -than of the twentieth century. -</p> -<p>We have glanced at this subject before. Yet even to-day, with all the advantages afforded -them, there is danger. Expecting, like their fathers before them, to be verse-makers, -to quote from the ancient Chinese, to be literary, and to hold office, because of -a knowledge of the characters, the young Corean yang-ban are indifferent to useful -progress and scorn manual labor. Having already <span class="pageNum" id="pb516">[<a href="#pb516">516</a>]</span>lost nearly everything, they will, unless radically changed in mind, lose all. The -one hope of Chō-sen is the raising up in a generation, now under new influences, of -a new type of humanity. The Christian schools and churches are supplying this need. -</p> -<p>Indeed, the fall of yang-banism and the extinction of Corea’s sovereignty means Buddhism’s -opportunity. It will be both logical and natural that one of the first effects of -Christian missions will be, as in Japan, to quicken the spirit and improve the form -and power of the older religion. Nor ought missionaries fear its vigorous competition, -should it become potent for the abolition of demon-worship and the moral uplift of -the masses otherwise neglected, especially in out-of-the-way places. -</p> -<p>Unfortunately, Corea of mediæval mind, like barbarous Japan of not so many years ago, -sought a remedy for supposed wrongs in assassination. Rashly unintelligent, sword -and bullet were resorted to in order to stop the car of progress. Quick to misjudge -and impatient to wait for results, the assassin selected as his first victims his -country’s best friends. The weak and disappointed tried suicide as a remedy and deterrent. -The insurgents in the so-called Righteous Army, too often were robbers of their own -people. In the name of patriotism they attempted redress, seeking to turn back “modern -civilization which rides on a powder cart.” The list of Coreans who in cowardice or -discouragement died by their own hands, who were slaughtered by their own compatriots, -who fell beneath the bullets or the swords of rebels in civil strife, or who were -mown down by the resistless fire of the Japanese infantry, is sadly great.<a class="noteRef" id="xd31e6885src" href="#xd31e6885">3</a> -</p> -<p>The Mikado’s soldiers were perhaps frequently unable to distinguish between the deserving -and the undeserving. Their actions are not absolutely free from criticism. Yet with -unrestrained frankness the statistics of the military operations are given in the -Annual Reports on Reforms and Progress in Korea, in 1907, 1908–9, and 1909–10. From -July, 1907, when the riots broke out in Seoul, on account of the disbanding of the -Corean army, to the end of 1908, there were of Japanese soldiers 179 killed and 277 -wounded, besides 67 Japanese residents killed in 1907 and 16 in 1908. Of Corean <span class="pageNum" id="pb517">[<a href="#pb517">517</a>]</span>insurgents, 14,566 were “killed.” Besides positive military measures, the Corean Emperor’s -rescripts urging those in arms to submit quietly were effective, and the total of -those who surrendered and were pardoned to December 13, 1907, was 8,728. During the -fiscal year 1909 the Japanese lost 38 men, but the number of insurgents killed (3,001), -wounded, captured, or surrendered was 6,131. Those in arms who yielded or asked pardon -were given employment in road-making and other useful occupations. By 1911, most of -the activity of native insurgent bands had degenerated into the work of mere banditti. -Military movements on a large scale were not required, and much of the desolation -of villages was repaired with better hope of more comfortable existence. Frightful -as is this frank showing, it is doubtful whether more lives were lost in the suppression -of rebellion, from 1907 to 1911, than in the nearly chronic anarchy that prevailed -in the southern provinces during the previous decade and a half. -</p> -<p>The Annual Reports above referred to show by text, pictures, and statistics, not only -the purpose and results of the Japanese Government, but also the fearful cost of restoring -order, a cost of life and treasure aggravated both by natives who have not scrupled -to use the torch, the mulct, and the assassin’s weapon on their own native soil, and -by foreigners who, in the name of liberty, abused the freedom of the press and kept -the useless and dangerous embers of sedition in a flame. Not satisfied with murder -at home, Coreans have made the United States, already the happy hunting ground of -the Black Hand and the lyncher, the arena of their cowardly exploits. -</p> -<p>After Mr. Durham White Stevens, an American of long experience in the Far East, and -Diplomatic Adviser to the Corean Government, had been shot and killed in San Francisco -by a Corean, the most shining mark was Corea’s best friend, Ito. Made a prince and -rewarded with every mark of honor possible to a subject by the Emperor of Japan, this -man who, in unquailing discharge of his duty, had already braved the Japanese feudal -sword wielded by cowards in Choshiu, and the infuriated Tokio mob in constitutional -Japan, and who seemed immune from the assassins of which old Japan raised such a luxuriant -crop, fell in Manchuria at the Harbin railway station, on October 26, 1909, before -the <span class="pageNum" id="pb518">[<a href="#pb518">518</a>]</span>bullets of the petty revenger, who shot from behind. Amid the grief and the honor -of the whole world, on November 4, 1909, Ito was given a State funeral such as has -been bestowed upon few subjects of Japan. Ito shed his blood in the cause of peace. -Whether these assassinations hastened the absorption of Corea by Japan, and the blotting -out of a sovereignty unknown to the world until Japan, by peaceful diplomacy, conferred -it in 1876, is not known. The Emperor at once appointed General Viscount Terauchi, -then Minister of War, and already famous for his brilliant military record and notable -organizing abilities, to be the successor of Ito in Corea. The record for energetic -action, consummate tact, and ceaseless toil already made by Terauchi places his name -very near that of Ito as a modern civilizer and lover of the victories of peace even -more than those of war. -</p> -<p>Despite all the instances of individual wrong, private injustices, and public mistakes -made by the Japanese in Corea, and in view of the severe criticisms of Terauchi by -such leading Japanese newspapers as the <i>Kokumin</i> and <i>Kochi</i>, it is nevertheless manifest that the policy of the Tokio Government is antipodally -the reverse of that of Hidéyoshi. Instead of the Ear-tomb, and the scooping of Corea -clean of her artists, artisans, potters, and art treasures, there rise to-day the -school, the hospital, and the temples of justice and finance. Plans are being perfected -for the development of the soil and of the wealth of the nation, in the interest of -the people, while to the missionary and alien philanthropist is given all encouragement. -A new land survey is in operation for the equalization of taxes. Light-houses have -reduced the dangers of a foggy and treacherous coast. Harbor works are in course of -construction; well-made common roads are decreasing the difficulty of transport; while -these and the highways of steel continually increase the value of the arable lands -and of town lots. Rivers, even the wide Yalu and Han, are spanned by bridges. Many -a place, historic because of war, is now famous for its commercial and industrial -development. Piracy gives way before policemen in steam launches, and chronic brigandage -is dying out. In all that relates directly to humanity, the reform of the judiciary -methods of justice, prison procedure, the codification of laws, etc., the progress -is marvellous. At the head of the judicial department is a Christian, Judge Watanabé, -<span class="pageNum" id="pb519">[<a href="#pb519">519</a>]</span>and many men of this faith, Japanese and Corean, fill other high offices. Special -schools, of medicine, surgery, nursing, scientific agriculture, forestry, live-stock -improvement and manual training, are preparing young men and women to raise the standard -of human life in Chō-sen and to reclaim the sixty-six per cent. of the arable land -in the peninsula which has lain waste. -</p> -<p>The absorption of Corea by Japan has given the astonishingly successful Christian -missionary work a new environment, and one for the better, despite the manifest dangers -of misunderstanding arising temporarily from the political situation and the eager -readiness of a few Japanese press correspondents to misrepresent. With full religious -liberty, and under the protection of a firm, orderly, and impartial government, the -great work of raising up the new type of man and woman in Chō-sen, now one of the -most promising of mission fields, proceeds. In the Christian household, numbering -roughly about 200,000, we discern the best promise for Chō-sen’s future. Into his -new world of hope and cheer, the native, when enlightened and converted, brings the -richest inheritances of the national culture, the best results of his training, and -the most winning traits of his character. This is strikingly shown in the general -eagerness to read and study the Holy Scriptures, in the wonderful powers of memory, -and in the committing of large portions of the Bible, which is now accessible in the -vernacular. The native’s generosity, good-nature, power of self-support, mutual desire -and practice of helpfulness, patience, and power to endure persecution of any and -all sorts fit him admirably for Christian service. -</p> -<p>Christianity has come to Corea to reveal the national treasures that are enduring. -For centuries the beautiful phonetic alphabet, en-mun, and syllabary Nido (p. 47), -lay neglected and scorned by the learned. Yet this was but one of many elements of -potency for good that lay unused like barren rocks. At the smiting of the missionaries’ -hand of faith gushed forth the waters of life and healing. The new messages of hope -and salvation came to the people not only in their own tongue, but in their own script. -Christian teachers, after long years of discouragement, have made, through the patience -of hope, of love and sympathy, a real conquest of the Corean heart. The faces of men -and women are lighted up with <span class="pageNum" id="pb520">[<a href="#pb520">520</a>]</span>a new glow of interest in life here and hereafter as they find both body and soul -ministered to by their friends from afar. With this spiritual invitation and challenge -to enter into the promised land fully accepted by the Coreans, it is not too wild -a dream to imagine even the strong conqueror conquered by the weaker. Samson’s experience -and his riddle may be the Corean’s. Chō-sen may yet be to Nippon what Palestine was -to Greece and Rome. Bereft of political sovereignty, from the land of the Hebrews -went forth that salvation which “is of the Jews” to conquer Europe and the world. -Already, by closer contact of the humbler classes of the two nations on Corean soil, -the paganism of rustic Japan—hitherto almost untouched by the gospel—begins to disintegrate -and ferment because of the leaven brought from Christian Chō-sen. This has the Corean -left—and perhaps more abundantly than ever before—“power to become” the spiritual -regenerator of Japan. -<span class="pageNum" id="pb521">[<a href="#pb521">521</a>]</span></p> -</div> -<div class="footnotes"> -<hr class="fnsep"> -<div class="footnote-body"> -<div class="fndiv" id="xd31e6814"> -<p class="footnote"><span class="fnlabel"><a class="noteRef" href="#xd31e6814src">1</a></span> <i>The Japan Mail</i>, August 27, 1910. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd31e6814src" title="Return to note 1 in text.">↑</a></p> -</div> -<div class="fndiv" id="xd31e6868"> -<p class="footnote"><span class="fnlabel"><a class="noteRef" href="#xd31e6868src">2</a></span> See “The Unmannerly Tiger and Other Korean Fairy Tales,” by W. E. Griffis, New York, -1911. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd31e6868src" title="Return to note 2 in text.">↑</a></p> -</div> -<div class="fndiv" id="xd31e6885"> -<p class="footnote"><span class="fnlabel"><a class="noteRef" href="#xd31e6885src">3</a></span> See also “The Tragedy of Korea,” by H. A. McKenzie, London, 1908. <a class="fnarrow" href="#xd31e6885src" title="Return to note 3 in text.">↑</a></p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div class="back"> -<div id="ix" class="div1 index"><span class="pageNum">[<a href="#xd31e1298">Contents</a>]</span><div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="main">INDEX.</h2> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="first">Aborigines, <a href="#pb11" class="pageref">11</a>, <a href="#pb34" class="pageref">34</a> -</p> -<p>Adams, Arthur, <a href="#pb4" class="pageref">4</a> -</p> -<p>Adams, Will, <a href="#pb168" class="pageref">168</a>, <a href="#pb169" class="pageref">169</a> -</p> -<p>Adoption, <a href="#pb259" class="pageref">259</a>, <a href="#pb260" class="pageref">260</a> -</p> -<p>Agriculture, <a href="#pb198" class="pageref">198</a>, <a href="#pb298" class="pageref">298</a>, <a href="#pb443" class="pageref">443</a>–447 -</p> -<p>Ai-chiu, <a href="#pb8" class="pageref">8</a>, <a href="#pb180" class="pageref">180</a>, <a href="#pb348" class="pageref">348</a>, <a href="#pb364" class="pageref">364</a>, <a href="#pb365" class="pageref">365</a>. <i>See Wiju.</i> -</p> -<p>Allen, Horace N., <a href="#pb468" class="pageref">468</a>, <a href="#pb470" class="pageref">470</a>, <a href="#pb490" class="pageref">490</a> -</p> -<p>Alligators, <a href="#pb198" class="pageref">198</a> -</p> -<p>Alphabets, <a href="#pb38" class="pageref">38</a>, <a href="#pb47" class="pageref">47</a>, <a href="#pb67" class="pageref">67</a> -</p> -<p>Amana, <a href="#pb31" class="pageref">31</a> -</p> -<p>American Relations with Corea, <a href="#pb388" class="pageref">388</a>–419, <a href="#pb428" class="pageref">428</a>, <a href="#pb429" class="pageref">429</a>, <a href="#pb431" class="pageref">431</a>, <a href="#pb434" class="pageref">434</a>, <a href="#pb435" class="pageref">435</a>, <a href="#pb459" class="pageref">459</a>–462 -</p> -<p>Americans in Seoul, <a href="#pb461" class="pageref">461</a> -</p> -<p>An-am, <a href="#pb117" class="pageref">117</a> -</p> -<p>Ancestor-worship, <a href="#pb78" class="pageref">78</a>, <a href="#pb328" class="pageref">328</a>, <a href="#pb351" class="pageref">351</a> -</p> -<p>Ancestral tablets, <a href="#pb78" class="pageref">78</a>, <a href="#pb351" class="pageref">351</a> -</p> -<p>Angell, Hon. J. B., <a href="#pb430" class="pageref">430</a> -</p> -<p>Arabs in Corea, <a href="#pb1" class="pageref">1</a>, <a href="#pb2" class="pageref">2</a>, <a href="#pb48" class="pageref">48</a>, <a href="#pb69" class="pageref">69</a> -</p> -<p>Archery, <a href="#pb151" class="pageref">151</a>, <a href="#pb293" class="pageref">293</a>, <a href="#pb164" class="pageref">164</a> -</p> -<p>Archipelago of Corea, <a href="#pb4" class="pageref">4</a> -</p> -<p>Architecture, <a href="#pb135" class="pageref">135</a>, <a href="#pb136" class="pageref">136</a>, <a href="#pb262" class="pageref">262</a> -</p> -<p>Area of Corea, <a href="#pb3" class="pageref">3</a>, <a href="#pb447" class="pageref">447</a> -</p> -<p>Armor, <a href="#pb58" class="pageref">58</a>, <a href="#pb101" class="pageref">101</a>, <a href="#pb102" class="pageref">102</a>, <a href="#pb125" class="pageref">125</a>, <a href="#pb153" class="pageref">153</a> -</p> -<p>Arms, <a href="#pb58" class="pageref">58</a>, <a href="#pb101" class="pageref">101</a>, <a href="#pb102" class="pageref">102</a>, <a href="#pb140" class="pageref">140</a>. <i>See Sword.</i> -</p> -<p>Art, <a href="#pb1" class="pageref">1</a>, <a href="#pb33" class="pageref">33</a>, <a href="#pb48" class="pageref">48</a>, <a href="#pb220" class="pageref">220</a>, <a href="#pb331" class="pageref">331</a>, <a href="#pb264" class="pageref">264</a>, <a href="#pb300" class="pageref">300</a>–304, <a href="#pb330" class="pageref">330</a> -</p> -<p>Asiatic Society, <a href="#pb460" class="pageref">460</a>, <a href="#pb461" class="pageref">461</a> -</p> -<p>Ashikaga, <a href="#pb85" class="pageref">85</a>, <a href="#pb86" class="pageref">86</a>, <a href="#pb127" class="pageref">127</a>, <a href="#pb330" class="pageref">330</a> -</p> -<p>Arthur, President, <a href="#pb460" class="pageref">460</a> -</p> -<p>Aston, Mr. W. G., <a href="#pb338" class="pageref">338</a>, <a href="#pb460" class="pageref">460</a>, <a href="#pb464" class="pageref">464</a> -</p> -<p>Austin, Don. <i>See Konishi.</i> -</p> -<p>Baiji. <i>See Hiaksai.</i> -</p> -<p>Barbara Taylor, The, <a href="#pb424" class="pageref">424</a> -</p> -<p>Bears, <a href="#pb294" class="pageref">294</a> -</p> -<p>Beds, <a href="#pb263" class="pageref">263</a> -</p> -<p>Belcher, Captain Edward, <a href="#pb366" class="pageref">366</a> -</p> -<p>Bellonet, Mons., <a href="#pb377" class="pageref">377</a>, <a href="#pb386" class="pageref">386</a> -</p> -<p>Bernadou, J. G., <a href="#pb460" class="pageref">460</a>, <a href="#pb467" class="pageref">467</a> -</p> -<p><span class="corr" id="xd31e7259" title="Source: Berneaux">Berneux</span>, Bishop, <a href="#pb372" class="pageref">372</a>–373 -</p> -<p>Bianca Portia, The, <a href="#pb428" class="pageref">428</a> -</p> -<p>Bingham, Hon. J., <a href="#pb430" class="pageref">430</a> -</p> -<p>Birds, <a href="#pb7" class="pageref">7</a>, <a href="#pb195" class="pageref">195</a> -</p> -<p>Blake, Com. Homer C., <a href="#pb409" class="pageref">409</a>, <a href="#pb412" class="pageref">412</a> -</p> -<p>Boats, <a href="#pb75" class="pageref">75</a>, <a href="#pb195" class="pageref">195</a>, <a href="#pb365" class="pageref">365</a>, <a href="#pb368" class="pageref">368</a> -</p> -<p>Bombs, <a href="#pb112" class="pageref">112</a>, <a href="#pb372" class="pageref">372</a> -</p> -<p>Books, <a href="#pb67" class="pageref">67</a>, <a href="#pb220" class="pageref">220</a>, <a href="#pb491" class="pageref">491</a> -</p> -<p>Border Gate, <a href="#pb83" class="pageref">83</a>, <a href="#pb158" class="pageref">158</a>, <a href="#pb180" class="pageref">180</a>, <a href="#pb364" class="pageref">364</a> -</p> -<p>Boxers, <a href="#pb474" class="pageref">474</a>, <a href="#pb489" class="pageref">489</a>, <a href="#pb490" class="pageref">490</a> -</p> -<p>Bridges, <a href="#pb258" class="pageref">258</a>, <a href="#pb285" class="pageref">285</a>, <a href="#pb486" class="pageref">486</a> -</p> -<p>Broughton, Captain, <a href="#pb203" class="pageref">203</a>, <a href="#pb214" class="pageref">214</a> -</p> -<p>Brown, McLeavy, <a href="#pb470" class="pageref">470</a>, <a href="#pb487" class="pageref">487</a> -</p> -<p>Buddhism, <a href="#pb35" class="pageref">35</a>, <a href="#pb39" class="pageref">39</a>, <a href="#pb66" class="pageref">66</a>, <a href="#pb67" class="pageref">67</a>, <a href="#pb80" class="pageref">80</a>, <a href="#pb81" class="pageref">81</a>, <a href="#pb96" class="pageref">96</a>, <a href="#pb154" class="pageref">154</a>, <a href="#pb330" class="pageref">330</a>–334, <a href="#pb337" class="pageref">337</a>–338, <a href="#pb473" class="pageref">473</a> -</p> -<p>Buddhist priests, <a href="#pb36" class="pageref">36</a>, <a href="#pb65" class="pageref">65</a>, <a href="#pb332" class="pageref">332</a>–333, <a href="#pb485" class="pageref">485</a> -</p> -<p>Budget, <a href="#pb454" class="pageref">454</a> -</p> -<p>Burial, <a href="#pb278" class="pageref">278</a>–279 -</p> -<p>Cabinet, <a href="#pb480" class="pageref">480</a>, <a href="#pb484" class="pageref">484</a> -</p> -<p>Calendar, <a href="#pb489" class="pageref">489</a> -</p> -<p>Card playing, <a href="#pb295" class="pageref">295</a>, <a href="#pb369" class="pageref">369</a> -</p> -<p>Caricatures, <a href="#pb228" class="pageref">228</a>–229 -</p> -<p>Cattle, <a href="#pb7" class="pageref">7</a>, <a href="#pb198" class="pageref">198</a>, <a href="#pb201" class="pageref">201</a>, <a href="#pb354" class="pageref">354</a>, <a href="#pb364" class="pageref">364</a> -</p> -<p>Ceramic art, <a href="#pb149" class="pageref">149</a>, <a href="#pb200" class="pageref">200</a>, <a href="#pb264" class="pageref">264</a> -</p> -<p>Cespedes, <a href="#pb121" class="pageref">121</a>–124 -</p> -<p>Chamberlain, Mr. Basil Hall, <a href="#pb59" class="pageref">59</a> -</p> -<p>Chemulpo, <a href="#pb429" class="pageref">429</a>, <a href="#pb439" class="pageref">439</a>, <a href="#pb467" class="pageref">467</a>, <a href="#pb476" class="pageref">476</a>, <a href="#pb495" class="pageref">495</a> -</p> -<p>China, The, <a href="#pb396" class="pageref">396</a>–402 -</p> -<p>Chin-chiu, <a href="#pb124" class="pageref">124</a>, <a href="#pb125" class="pageref">125</a> -</p> -<p>Chinese in Corea, <a href="#pb462" class="pageref">462</a>–468, <a href="#pb475" class="pageref">475</a>–478 -</p> -<p>Chin Ikei, <a href="#pb109" class="pageref">109</a>, <a href="#pb118" class="pageref">118</a>, <a href="#pb124" class="pageref">124</a>, <a href="#pb128" class="pageref">128</a> -</p> -<p>Chinnampo, <a href="#pb455" class="pageref">455</a> -</p> -<p>Chino-Japanese war, <a href="#pb471" class="pageref">471</a>–478 -</p> -<p>Civilization, <a href="#pb447" class="pageref">447</a>, <a href="#pb451" class="pageref">451</a>, <a href="#pb452" class="pageref">452</a> -</p> -<p>Cholera, <a href="#pb309" class="pageref">309</a> -</p> -<p>Choi, <a href="#pb473" class="pageref">473</a>, <a href="#pb474" class="pageref">474</a> -</p> -<p>Chosan harbor, <a href="#pb203" class="pageref">203</a> -</p> -<p>Christianity, Roman, <a href="#pb93" class="pageref">93</a>, <a href="#pb121" class="pageref">121</a>–123, <a href="#pb124" class="pageref">124</a>–128, <a href="#pb347" class="pageref">347</a>–376, <a href="#pb413" class="pageref">413</a>, <a href="#pb442" class="pageref">442</a>, <a href="#pb469" class="pageref">469</a> -</p> -<p>Christianity, Reformed, <a href="#pb450" class="pageref">450</a>, <a href="#pb451" class="pageref">451</a>, <a href="#pb457" class="pageref">457</a>, <a href="#pb468" class="pageref">468</a>, <a href="#pb491" class="pageref">491</a>, <a href="#pb492" class="pageref">492</a> -</p> -<p>Chulla-dō, <a href="#pb197" class="pageref">197</a>–201 -</p> -<p>Church and State, <a href="#pb472" class="pageref">472</a> -</p> -<p>Chrysanthemum, <a href="#pb298" class="pageref">298</a> -</p> -<p>Cleveland, President, <a href="#pb470" class="pageref">470</a> -<span class="pageNum" id="pb522">[<a href="#pb522">522</a>]</span></p> -<p>Climate, <a href="#pb5" class="pageref">5</a>, <a href="#pb6" class="pageref">6</a>, <a href="#pb172" class="pageref">172</a> -</p> -<p>Clocks, <a href="#pb136" class="pageref">136</a>, <a href="#pb344" class="pageref">344</a> -</p> -<p>Coins, <a href="#pb10" class="pageref">10</a>, <a href="#pb18" class="pageref">18</a>, <a href="#pb34" class="pageref">34</a>, <a href="#pb69" class="pageref">69</a>, <a href="#pb425" class="pageref">425</a>, <a href="#pb479" class="pageref">479</a> -</p> -<p>Comets, <a href="#pb173" class="pageref">173</a>, <a href="#pb175" class="pageref">175</a> -</p> -<p>Compass. <i>See Magnetic Needle.</i> -</p> -<p>Confucianism, <a href="#pb80" class="pageref">80</a>, <a href="#pb81" class="pageref">81</a>, <a href="#pb327" class="pageref">327</a>–330, <a href="#pb344" class="pageref">344</a>, <a href="#pb347" class="pageref">347</a>, <a href="#pb473" class="pageref">473</a> -</p> -<p>Corea a Japanese Protectorate, <a href="#pb497" class="pageref">497</a>–506 -</p> -<p>Corea and Japan, <a href="#pb476" class="pageref">476</a>, <a href="#pb489" class="pageref">489</a>, <a href="#pb495" class="pageref">495</a> -</p> -<p>Corea-Manchurian frontier, <a href="#pb156" class="pageref">156</a>, <a href="#pb157" class="pageref">157</a>, <a href="#pb494" class="pageref">494</a> -</p> -<p>Coreans in China, <a href="#pb44" class="pageref">44</a>, <a href="#pb48" class="pageref">48</a>, <a href="#pb160" class="pageref">160</a>, <a href="#pb432" class="pageref">432</a> -</p> -<p>Coreans in Japan, <a href="#pb38" class="pageref">38</a>, <a href="#pb39" class="pageref">39</a>, <a href="#pb60" class="pageref">60</a>, <a href="#pb61" class="pageref">61</a>, <a href="#pb423" class="pageref">423</a>, <a href="#pb427" class="pageref">427</a>, <a href="#pb432" class="pageref">432</a>, <a href="#pb459" class="pageref">459</a> -</p> -<p>Coreans in Russia, <a href="#pb212" class="pageref">212</a>–213, <a href="#pb220" class="pageref">220</a> -</p> -<p>Coria, <a href="#pb85" class="pageref">85</a> -</p> -<p>Cossacks, <a href="#pb494" class="pageref">494</a> -</p> -<p>Costume, <a href="#pb81" class="pageref">81</a>, <a href="#pb273" class="pageref">273</a>–276 -</p> -<p>Cotton, <a href="#pb153" class="pageref">153</a>, <a href="#pb444" class="pageref">444</a>, <a href="#pb456" class="pageref">456</a> -</p> -<p><i lang="fr">Coup d’état</i>, <a href="#pb463" class="pageref">463</a>–468 -</p> -<p>Cowan, Dr. Frank, <a href="#pb427" class="pageref">427</a> -</p> -<p><span class="corr" id="xd31e7853" title="Source: Coxingo">Coxinga</span>, <a href="#pb162" class="pageref">162</a> -</p> -<p>Cremation, <a href="#pb278" class="pageref">278</a> -</p> -<p>Currency, <a href="#pb454" class="pageref">454</a> -</p> -<p>Dagelet Island, <a href="#pb110" class="pageref">110</a>, <a href="#pb206" class="pageref">206</a> -</p> -<p>Dalny, <a href="#pb496" class="pageref">496</a> -</p> -<p>Dan Kun, <a href="#pb12" class="pageref">12</a>, <a href="#pb308" class="pageref">308</a> -</p> -<p>Decorations, <a href="#pb453" class="pageref">453</a>, <a href="#pb454" class="pageref">454</a> -</p> -<p>Diet, <a href="#pb267" class="pageref">267</a>, <a href="#pb268" class="pageref">268</a> -</p> -<p>Dinners, <a href="#pb268" class="pageref">268</a>, <a href="#pb464" class="pageref">464</a> -</p> -<p>Dogs, <a href="#pb52" class="pageref">52</a>, <a href="#pb54" class="pageref">54</a>, <a href="#pb267" class="pageref">267</a>, <a href="#pb304" class="pageref">304</a>, <a href="#pb468" class="pageref">468</a> -</p> -<p>Dragon, <a href="#pb301" class="pageref">301</a>, <a href="#pb302" class="pageref">302</a> -</p> -<p>Don Austin. <i>See Konishi.</i> -</p> -<p>Dutch. <i>See Hollanders.</i> -</p> -<p>Ear-monument, <a href="#pb133" class="pageref">133</a>, <a href="#pb144" class="pageref">144</a> -</p> -<p>Education, <a href="#pb337" class="pageref">337</a>–344, <a href="#pb444" class="pageref">444</a>, <a href="#pb445" class="pageref">445</a>, <a href="#pb479" class="pageref">479</a> -</p> -<p>Edwards, Rev. Jonathan, <a href="#pb388" class="pageref">388</a> -</p> -<p>Embassies from Japan, <a href="#pb1" class="pageref">1</a>, <a href="#pb58" class="pageref">58</a>, <a href="#pb89" class="pageref">89</a>–93 -</p> -<p>Embassies to Japan, <a href="#pb60" class="pageref">60</a>, <a href="#pb82" class="pageref">82</a>, <a href="#pb85" class="pageref">85</a>, <a href="#pb92" class="pageref">92</a>, <a href="#pb126" class="pageref">126</a>, <a href="#pb149" class="pageref">149</a>, <a href="#pb423" class="pageref">423</a>, <a href="#pb427" class="pageref">427</a>, <a href="#pb432" class="pageref">432</a> -</p> -<p>Embassy to United States, <a href="#pb459" class="pageref">459</a>, <a href="#pb460" class="pageref">460</a> -</p> -<p>Emigration, <a href="#pb491" class="pageref">491</a> -</p> -<p>Emperor of Corea, <a href="#pb487" class="pageref">487</a> -</p> -<p>Empire of Corea, <a href="#pb479" class="pageref">479</a>, <a href="#pb487" class="pageref">487</a>, <a href="#pb495" class="pageref">495</a> -</p> -<p>Etas, <a href="#pb61" class="pageref">61</a>, <a href="#pb118" class="pageref">118</a>, <a href="#pb334" class="pageref">334</a> -</p> -<p>Ethics, <a href="#pb329" class="pageref">329</a>, <a href="#pb360" class="pageref">360</a>, <a href="#pb376" class="pageref">376</a> -</p> -<p>Examinations for Civil Service, <a href="#pb339" class="pageref">339</a>, <a href="#pb341" class="pageref">341</a>–343 -</p> -<p>Fairs, <a href="#pb166" class="pageref">166</a>, <a href="#pb181" class="pageref">181</a>, <a href="#pb215" class="pageref">215</a>, <a href="#pb364" class="pageref">364</a>–365 -</p> -<p>Falcons, <a href="#pb76" class="pageref">76</a>, <a href="#pb323" class="pageref">323</a> -</p> -<p>Fans, <a href="#pb275" class="pageref">275</a>, <a href="#pb298" class="pageref">298</a> -</p> -<p>Famine, <a href="#pb58" class="pageref">58</a>, <a href="#pb118" class="pageref">118</a> -</p> -<p>Farmers, <a href="#pb443" class="pageref">443</a>–447 -</p> -<p>Fauna, <a href="#pb7" class="pageref">7</a>, <a href="#pb195" class="pageref">195</a>, <a href="#pb197" class="pageref">197</a>, <a href="#pb198" class="pageref">198</a>, <a href="#pb206" class="pageref">206</a> -</p> -<p>Feng-shuey. <i>See Pung-sui.</i> -</p> -<p>Feng-Wang Chang, <a href="#pb180" class="pageref">180</a>, <a href="#pb496" class="pageref">496</a> -</p> -<p>Feron, the priest, <a href="#pb370" class="pageref">370</a>, <a href="#pb376" class="pageref">376</a> -</p> -<p>Festivals, <a href="#pb295" class="pageref">295</a>–299 -</p> -<p>Feudalism, <a href="#pb22" class="pageref">22</a>, <a href="#pb23" class="pageref">23</a>, <a href="#pb41" class="pageref">41</a>, <a href="#pb43" class="pageref">43</a>, <a href="#pb237" class="pageref">237</a>–241 -</p> -<p>Fire-arms, <a href="#pb84" class="pageref">84</a>, <a href="#pb93" class="pageref">93</a>, <a href="#pb102" class="pageref">102</a>, <a href="#pb112" class="pageref">112</a> -</p> -<p>Fire-signals, <a href="#pb74" class="pageref">74</a>, <a href="#pb185" class="pageref">185</a>, <a href="#pb350" class="pageref">350</a>, <a href="#pb369" class="pageref">369</a> -</p> -<p>Fish, <a href="#pb215" class="pageref">215</a>, <a href="#pb257" class="pageref">257</a>, <a href="#pb267" class="pageref">267</a>, <a href="#pb270" class="pageref">270</a> -</p> -<p>Flags, <a href="#pb320" class="pageref">320</a>, <a href="#pb332" class="pageref">332</a>, <a href="#pb368" class="pageref">368</a> -</p> -<p>Flora, <a href="#pb195" class="pageref">195</a>, <a href="#pb381" class="pageref">381</a> -</p> -<p>Flying Fish, H.B.M.S., <a href="#pb440" class="pageref">440</a> -</p> -<p>Folk-lore, <a href="#pb281" class="pageref">281</a>–283, <a href="#pb308" class="pageref">308</a>–316 -</p> -<p>Food, <a href="#pb267" class="pageref">267</a>–271, <a href="#pb448" class="pageref">448</a> -</p> -<p>Foote, Lucius H., <a href="#pb459" class="pageref">459</a>, <a href="#pb460" class="pageref">460</a>, <a href="#pb464" class="pageref">464</a> -</p> -<p>Foulke, Ensign, <a href="#pb460" class="pageref">460</a>, <a href="#pb462" class="pageref">462</a>, <a href="#pb463" class="pageref">463</a> -</p> -<p>France, <a href="#pb363" class="pageref">363</a>–364, <a href="#pb368" class="pageref">368</a>, <a href="#pb426" class="pageref">426</a>, <a href="#pb436" class="pageref">436</a> -</p> -<p>Franciscans, <a href="#pb72" class="pageref">72</a> -</p> -<p>French, <a href="#pb165" class="pageref">165</a>, <a href="#pb361" class="pageref">361</a>–386, <a href="#pb469" class="pageref">469</a> -</p> -<p>Frois, Louis, <a href="#pb95" class="pageref">95</a> -</p> -<p>Frontiers, <a href="#pb82" class="pageref">82</a>, <a href="#pb383" class="pageref">383</a>, <a href="#pb421" class="pageref">421</a>, <a href="#pb494" class="pageref">494</a>, <a href="#pb496" class="pageref">496</a> -</p> -<p>Froez. <i>See Frois.</i> -</p> -<p>Fuku-Shin, <a href="#pb37" class="pageref">37</a> -</p> -<p>Funerals, <a href="#pb278" class="pageref">278</a>, <a href="#pb373" class="pageref">373</a> -</p> -<p>Fusan, <a href="#pb8" class="pageref">8</a>, <a href="#pb85" class="pageref">85</a>, <a href="#pb100" class="pageref">100</a>, <a href="#pb149" class="pageref">149</a>, <a href="#pb150" class="pageref">150</a>, <a href="#pb164" class="pageref">164</a>, <a href="#pb202" class="pageref">202</a>, <a href="#pb203" class="pageref">203</a>, <a href="#pb354" class="pageref">354</a>, <a href="#pb371" class="pageref">371</a>, <a href="#pb425" class="pageref">425</a>–426 -</p> -<p>Fusan-Seoul railway, <a href="#pb449" class="pageref">449</a>, <a href="#pb496" class="pageref">496</a> -</p> -<p>Fuyu people, <a href="#pb19" class="pageref">19</a>, <a href="#pb21" class="pageref">21</a>–24, <a href="#pb29" class="pageref">29</a> -</p> -<p>Gambling, <a href="#pb295" class="pageref">295</a> -</p> -<p>Genghis Khan, <a href="#pb71" class="pageref">71</a>. <i>See Yoshitsuné.</i> -</p> -<p>General Sherman, The, <a href="#pb183" class="pageref">183</a>, <a href="#pb380" class="pageref">380</a> -</p> -<p>Gensan, <a href="#pb214" class="pageref">214</a>, <a href="#pb426" class="pageref">426</a>, <a href="#pb427" class="pageref">427</a> -</p> -<p>Germans in Corea, <a href="#pb461" class="pageref">461</a> -</p> -<p>Gillie, Rev., <a href="#pb391" class="pageref">391</a> -</p> -<p>Ginger, <a href="#pb2" class="pageref">2</a>, <a href="#pb267" class="pageref">267</a> -</p> -<p>Ginseng, <a href="#pb2" class="pageref">2</a>, <a href="#pb163" class="pageref">163</a>, <a href="#pb388" class="pageref">388</a>, <a href="#pb389" class="pageref">389</a>, <a href="#pb461" class="pageref">461</a> -</p> -<p>Glass, <a href="#pb265" class="pageref">265</a>, <a href="#pb391" class="pageref">391</a>, <a href="#pb426" class="pageref">426</a> -</p> -<p>Gold, <a href="#pb2" class="pageref">2</a>, <a href="#pb182" class="pageref">182</a>, <a href="#pb289" class="pageref">289</a>, <a href="#pb388" class="pageref">388</a>, <a href="#pb425" class="pageref">425</a>, <a href="#pb427" class="pageref">427</a> -</p> -<p>Grave fights, <a href="#pb446" class="pageref">446</a> -</p> -<p>Guilds, <a href="#pb463" class="pageref">463</a> -</p> -<p>Gutzlaff, <a href="#pb194" class="pageref">194</a>, <a href="#pb359" class="pageref">359</a> -</p> -<p>Hachiman, <a href="#pb133" class="pageref">133</a> -</p> -<p>Hair-dressing, <a href="#pb159" class="pageref">159</a>, <a href="#pb160" class="pageref">160</a>, <a href="#pb270" class="pageref">270</a>–271 -</p> -<p>Haimi, <a href="#pb375" class="pageref">375</a> -</p> -<p>Hall, Captain Basil, <a href="#pb186" class="pageref">186</a>, <a href="#pb197" class="pageref">197</a> -</p> -<p>Hamel, Hendrik, <a href="#pb169" class="pageref">169</a>–176, <a href="#pb460" class="pageref">460</a> -</p> -<p>Hanabusa, <a href="#pb429" class="pageref">429</a>, <a href="#pb438" class="pageref">438</a>–440 -</p> -<p>Han dynasty, <a href="#pb16" class="pageref">16</a>, <a href="#pb19" class="pageref">19</a> -</p> -<p>Han River, <a href="#pb187" class="pageref">187</a>, <a href="#pb188" class="pageref">188</a>, <a href="#pb367" class="pageref">367</a>, <a href="#pb378" class="pageref">378</a>, <a href="#pb380" class="pageref">380</a>–476, <a href="#pb486" class="pageref">486</a> -</p> -<p>Han Yang. <i>See Seoul.</i> -</p> -<p>Hats, <a href="#pb271" class="pageref">271</a>, <a href="#pb272" class="pageref">272</a> -</p> -<p>Hayes, Mr. A. A., Jr., <a href="#pb402" class="pageref">402</a> -</p> -<p>Head-dresses, <a href="#pb159" class="pageref">159</a>, <a href="#pb273" class="pageref">273</a> -</p> -<p>Hiaksai, <a href="#pb26" class="pageref">26</a>, <a href="#pb35" class="pageref">35</a>–39 -</p> -<p>Hidéyori, <a href="#pb125" class="pageref">125</a> -<span class="pageNum" id="pb523">[<a href="#pb523">523</a>]</span></p> -<p>Hidéyoshi, <a href="#pb87" class="pageref">87</a>, <a href="#pb88" class="pageref">88</a>–94, <a href="#pb96" class="pageref">96</a>, <a href="#pb98" class="pageref">98</a>, <a href="#pb144" class="pageref">144</a> -</p> -<p>Hoang-hai. <i>See Whang-hai.</i> -</p> -<p>Hollanders, <a href="#pb157" class="pageref">157</a>, <a href="#pb162" class="pageref">162</a>, <a href="#pb167" class="pageref">167</a>–176, <a href="#pb460" class="pageref">460</a> -</p> -<p>Hōmiō, <a href="#pb38" class="pageref">38</a> -</p> -<p>Horses, <a href="#pb7" class="pageref">7</a>, <a href="#pb198" class="pageref">198</a>, <a href="#pb201" class="pageref">201</a>, <a href="#pb332" class="pageref">332</a>, <a href="#pb385" class="pageref">385</a> -</p> -<p>Hōsho, <a href="#pb36" class="pageref">36</a>, <a href="#pb37" class="pageref">37</a> -</p> -<p>Hoskyn, Captain, <a href="#pb440" class="pageref">440</a> -</p> -<p>Hospitality, <a href="#pb288" class="pageref">288</a>, <a href="#pb368" class="pageref">368</a>, <a href="#pb391" class="pageref">391</a>, <a href="#pb405" class="pageref">405</a> -</p> -<p>Houses, <a href="#pb31" class="pageref">31</a>, <a href="#pb33" class="pageref">33</a>, <a href="#pb262" class="pageref">262</a>, <a href="#pb265" class="pageref">265</a>, <a href="#pb282" class="pageref">282</a>, <a href="#p355" class="pageref">355</a> -</p> -<p>Housekeeping, <a href="#pb262" class="pageref">262</a>–270 -</p> -<p>Hulbert, Homer B., <a href="#pb468" class="pageref">468</a> -</p> -<p>Human sacrifices, <a href="#pb82" class="pageref">82</a> -</p> -<p>Hunters, <a href="#pb294" class="pageref">294</a>, <a href="#pb323" class="pageref">323</a> -</p> -<p>Ice, <a href="#pb6" class="pageref">6</a>, <a href="#pb268" class="pageref">268</a> -</p> -<p>Ignatieff, General, <a href="#pb370" class="pageref">370</a>, <a href="#pb371" class="pageref">371</a> -</p> -<p>Iki Island, <a href="#pb72" class="pageref">72</a> -</p> -<p>Imbert, Bishop, <a href="#pb362" class="pageref">362</a> -</p> -<p>Imperialism, <a href="#pb487" class="pageref">487</a>, <a href="#pb489" class="pageref">489</a> -</p> -<p><span class="corr" id="xd31e8806" title="Source: In-chiūn">In-chiŭn</span>, <a href="#pb429" class="pageref">429</a>, <a href="#pb431" class="pageref">431</a>, <a href="#pb434" class="pageref">434</a>, <a href="#pb436" class="pageref">436</a>, <a href="#pb439" class="pageref">439</a> -</p> -<p>Independence Arch, <a href="#pb486" class="pageref">486</a> -</p> -<p>Independence Club, <a href="#pb486" class="pageref">486</a> -</p> -<p>Inouyé Bunda (Count), <a href="#pb422" class="pageref">422</a>, <a href="#pb423" class="pageref">423</a>, <a href="#pb479" class="pageref">479</a>–481 -</p> -<p>Ireland, <a href="#pb9" class="pageref">9</a> -</p> -<p>Iron, <a href="#pb218" class="pageref">218</a>, <a href="#pb380" class="pageref">380</a> -</p> -<p>Islands, <a href="#pb191" class="pageref">191</a>, <a href="#pb197" class="pageref">197</a>, <a href="#pb200" class="pageref">200</a>, <a href="#pb201" class="pageref">201</a>, <a href="#pb203" class="pageref">203</a> -</p> -<p>Italians, <a href="#pb428" class="pageref">428</a> -</p> -<p>Ito, Marquis, <a href="#pb467" class="pageref">467</a>, <a href="#pb478" class="pageref">478</a> -</p> -<p><span class="corr" id="xd31e8889" title="Source: Iyéyasu">Iyéyasŭ</span>, <a href="#pb146" class="pageref">146</a>, <a href="#pb148" class="pageref">148</a> -</p> -<p>Japanese, <a href="#pb24" class="pageref">24</a>, <a href="#pb75" class="pageref">75</a>, <a href="#pb163" class="pageref">163</a>, <a href="#pb496" class="pageref">496</a> -</p> -<p>Japanese in Corea, <a href="#pb444" class="pageref">444</a>, <a href="#pb449" class="pageref">449</a>, <a href="#pb493" class="pageref">493</a> -</p> -<p>Japanese pirates, <a href="#pb74" class="pageref">74</a>, <a href="#pb84" class="pageref">84</a>, <a href="#pb91" class="pageref">91</a>, <a href="#pb92" class="pageref">92</a> -</p> -<p>Jesuits, <a href="#pb162" class="pageref">162</a>, <a href="#pb165" class="pageref">165</a>, <a href="#pb376" class="pageref">376</a>, <a href="#pb401" class="pageref">401</a> -</p> -<p>Jingu Kōgō, <a href="#pb45" class="pageref">45</a>, <a href="#pb54" class="pageref">54</a>, <a href="#pb89" class="pageref">89</a> -</p> -<p>Jinsen. <i>See <span class="corr" id="xd31e8967" title="Source: In-chiǔn">In-chiŭn</span> and chemulpo.</i> -</p> -<p>Julla-dō. <i>See Chulla-dō.</i> -</p> -<p>Kaichow, <a href="#pb65" class="pageref">65</a> -</p> -<p>Kang-hoa. <i>See Kang-wa.</i> -</p> -<p>Kang-wa Island, <a href="#pb72" class="pageref">72</a>, <a href="#pb191" class="pageref">191</a>, <a href="#pb372" class="pageref">372</a>, <a href="#pb381" class="pageref">381</a>, <a href="#pb410" class="pageref">410</a>, <a href="#pb423" class="pageref">423</a> -</p> -<p>Kaokuli. <i>See Kokorai.</i> -</p> -<p>Karakuni, <a href="#pb59" class="pageref">59</a> -</p> -<p>Kasiwadé, <a href="#pb58" class="pageref">58</a>, <a href="#pb59" class="pageref">59</a> -</p> -<p>Kato Kiyomasa, <a href="#pb96" class="pageref">96</a>, <a href="#pb97" class="pageref">97</a>, <a href="#pb103" class="pageref">103</a>, <a href="#pb105" class="pageref">105</a>, <a href="#pb110" class="pageref">110</a>, <a href="#pb113" class="pageref">113</a>, <a href="#pb114" class="pageref">114</a> -</p> -<p>Khordadbeh, <a href="#pb2" class="pageref">2</a> -</p> -<p>Khublai Khan, <a href="#pb73" class="pageref">73</a> -</p> -<p>Kija. <i>See Ki Tsze.</i> -</p> -<p>Kim clan, <a href="#pb458" class="pageref">458</a> -</p> -<p>Kim Ok Kiun, <a href="#pb464" class="pageref">464</a>–466, <a href="#pb475" class="pageref">475</a> -</p> -<p>King-ki-tao. <i>See Seoul.</i> -</p> -<p><span class="corr" id="xd31e9079" title="Source: Kiōtō">Kiōto</span>, <a href="#pb92" class="pageref">92</a>, <a href="#pb330" class="pageref">330</a> -</p> -<p>Kirin, <a href="#pb303" class="pageref">303</a> -</p> -<p>Kishi. <i>See Ki Tsze.</i> -</p> -<p>Kitans, <a href="#pb67" class="pageref">67</a>, <a href="#pb68" class="pageref">68</a> -</p> -<p>Ki Tsze (Kija), <a href="#pb11" class="pageref">11</a>, <a href="#pb12" class="pageref">12</a>–15, <a href="#pb76" class="pageref">76</a>, <a href="#pb362" class="pageref">362</a>, <a href="#pb488" class="pageref">488</a> -</p> -<p>Kiushiu, <a href="#pb57" class="pageref">57</a>, <a href="#pb406" class="pageref">406</a> -</p> -<p>Klaproth, <a href="#pb458" class="pageref">458</a> -</p> -<p>Kokorai, <a href="#pb23" class="pageref">23</a>–26, <a href="#pb56" class="pageref">56</a> -</p> -<p>Kokun Island, <a href="#pb368" class="pageref">368</a>, <a href="#pb369" class="pageref">369</a> -</p> -<p>Kokwa. <i>See Kang-wa.</i> -</p> -<p>Kondera. <i>See Kuroda.</i> -</p> -<p>Konishi Yukinaga, <a href="#pb96" class="pageref">96</a>, <a href="#pb97" class="pageref">97</a>, <a href="#pb102" class="pageref">102</a>, <a href="#pb103" class="pageref">103</a>, <a href="#pb105" class="pageref">105</a>, <a href="#pb109" class="pageref">109</a>, <a href="#pb111" class="pageref">111</a>, <a href="#pb112" class="pageref">112</a>, <a href="#pb119" class="pageref">119</a>, <a href="#pb127" class="pageref">127</a>, <a href="#pb146" class="pageref">146</a> -</p> -<p>Korai, <a href="#pb19" class="pageref">19</a>, <a href="#pb26" class="pageref">26</a>–29, <a href="#pb34" class="pageref">34</a>, <a href="#pb65" class="pageref">65</a>–69, <a href="#pb76" class="pageref">76</a>, <a href="#pb429" class="pageref">429</a> -</p> -<p>Korea Review, <a href="#pb491" class="pageref">491</a> -</p> -<p>Korean Asiatic Society, <a href="#pb460" class="pageref">460</a>, <a href="#pb461" class="pageref">461</a>, <a href="#pb491" class="pageref">491</a> -</p> -<p>Kow Shing, <a href="#pb476" class="pageref">476</a> -</p> -<p>Kudara. <i>See Hiaksai.</i> -</p> -<p>Kung, Prince, <a href="#pb377" class="pageref">377</a> -</p> -<p>Kunsan, <a href="#pb455" class="pageref">455</a> -</p> -<p>Kurino, Mr., <a href="#pb494" class="pageref">494</a> -</p> -<p>Kuroda, <a href="#pb97" class="pageref">97</a>, <a href="#pb106" class="pageref">106</a> -</p> -<p>Kuroda Kiyotaku, <a href="#pb422" class="pageref">422</a> -</p> -<p>Kuroki, <a href="#pb494" class="pageref">494</a> -</p> -<p>Kuropatkin, <a href="#pb496" class="pageref">496</a> -</p> -<p>Lake Baikal, <a href="#pb65" class="pageref">65</a>, <a href="#pb67" class="pageref">67</a> -</p> -<p>Lake Hanka, <a href="#pb65" class="pageref">65</a> -</p> -<p><span class="corr" id="xd31e9296" title="Source: Lamsdorf">Lamsdorff</span>, Count, <a href="#pb494" class="pageref">494</a> -</p> -<p>Land, <a href="#pb444" class="pageref">444</a>–448 -</p> -<p>Land owners, <a href="#pb444" class="pageref">444</a> -</p> -<p>Language, <a href="#pb51" class="pageref">51</a>, <a href="#pb123" class="pageref">123</a> -</p> -<p>La Perouse, <a href="#pb174" class="pageref">174</a>, <a href="#pb350" class="pageref">350</a> -</p> -<p>Lazareff, Port, <a href="#pb214" class="pageref">214</a>, <a href="#pb428" class="pageref">428</a> -</p> -<p>Liao Tung, <a href="#pb42" class="pageref">42</a>, <a href="#pb74" class="pageref">74</a>, <a href="#pb180" class="pageref">180</a>. <i>See Shing-king.</i> -</p> -<p>Liao Yang, <a href="#pb496" class="pageref">496</a> -</p> -<p>Liquors, <a href="#pb266" class="pageref">266</a>, <a href="#pb463" class="pageref">463</a> -</p> -<p>Literary examinations, <a href="#pb81" class="pageref">81</a>, <a href="#pb339" class="pageref">339</a>, <a href="#pb341" class="pageref">341</a>–343 -</p> -<p>Literary style, <a href="#pb34" class="pageref">34</a> -</p> -<p>Li Hung Chang, <a href="#pb182" class="pageref">182</a>, <a href="#pb421" class="pageref">421</a>, <a href="#pb430" class="pageref">430</a>, <a href="#pb441" class="pageref">441</a>, <a href="#pb467" class="pageref">467</a>, <a href="#pb471" class="pageref">471</a> -</p> -<p>Li-yu-son, <a href="#pb111" class="pageref">111</a>, <a href="#pb117" class="pageref">117</a>, <a href="#pb156" class="pageref">156</a> -</p> -<p>Loo Choo. <i>See Riu Kiu.</i> -</p> -<p>Looking-glass, story of a, <a href="#pb315" class="pageref">315</a> -</p> -<p>Lotus, <a href="#pb136" class="pageref">136</a>, <a href="#pb331" class="pageref">331</a> -</p> -<p>Low, F. F., Minister, <a href="#pb403" class="pageref">403</a>–405, <a href="#pb408" class="pageref">408</a> -</p> -<p>Lowell, Percival, <a href="#pb460" class="pageref">460</a> -</p> -<p>Magnetic needle, <a href="#pb69" class="pageref">69</a>, <a href="#pb84" class="pageref">84</a> -</p> -<p>Ma-han, <a href="#pb31" class="pageref">31</a>, <a href="#pb32" class="pageref">32</a> -</p> -<p>Manchius, <a href="#pb154" class="pageref">154</a>–160, <a href="#pb367" class="pageref">367</a>, <a href="#pb421" class="pageref">421</a> -</p> -<p>Manchuria, <a href="#pb8" class="pageref">8</a>, <a href="#pb83" class="pageref">83</a>, <a href="#pb371" class="pageref">371</a>, <a href="#pb494" class="pageref">494</a>–496. <i>See Shing King.</i> -</p> -<p>Manchusri, <a href="#pb154" class="pageref">154</a> -</p> -<p>McCartee, Dr. D. B., <a href="#pb338" class="pageref">338</a> -</p> -<p>McCaslin, Captain, <a href="#pb391" class="pageref">391</a> -<span class="pageNum" id="pb524">[<a href="#pb524">524</a>]</span></p> -<p>McKee, Lieutenant, <a href="#pb416" class="pageref">416</a>, <a href="#pb418" class="pageref">418</a> -</p> -<p>McKinley, President, <a href="#pb453" class="pageref">453</a> -</p> -<p>Maps, <a href="#pb162" class="pageref">162</a>, <a href="#pb165" class="pageref">165</a>, <a href="#pb367" class="pageref">367</a> -</p> -<p>Meals, <a href="#pb264" class="pageref">264</a> -</p> -<p>Military character, <a href="#pb42" class="pageref">42</a>, <a href="#pb43" class="pageref">43</a>, <a href="#pb325" class="pageref">325</a>, <a href="#pb416" class="pageref">416</a> -</p> -<p>Mile-stones, <a href="#pb285" class="pageref">285</a> -</p> -<p>Min clan, <a href="#pb459" class="pageref">459</a> -</p> -<p>Min Yong Ik, <a href="#pb460" class="pageref">460</a>, <a href="#pb463" class="pageref">463</a>, <a href="#pb465" class="pageref">465</a>–468, <a href="#pb470" class="pageref">470</a> -</p> -<p>Ming dynasty, <a href="#pb77" class="pageref">77</a>, <a href="#pb78" class="pageref">78</a>, <a href="#pb81" class="pageref">81</a>, <a href="#pb83" class="pageref">83</a>, <a href="#pb85" class="pageref">85</a>, <a href="#pb156" class="pageref">156</a> -</p> -<p>Minra, <a href="#pb481" class="pageref">481</a>, <a href="#pb482" class="pageref">482</a> -</p> -<p>Mokpo, <a href="#pb455" class="pageref">455</a> -</p> -<p><span class="corr" id="xd31e9604" title="Source: Mollendorf">Möllendorf</span>, Herr von, <a href="#pb467" class="pageref">467</a>, <a href="#pb470" class="pageref">470</a> -</p> -<p>Monasteries, <a href="#pb333" class="pageref">333</a>, <a href="#pb384" class="pageref">384</a> -</p> -<p>Mongols, <a href="#pb70" class="pageref">70</a>–75 -</p> -<p>Mongolia, <a href="#pb8" class="pageref">8</a> -</p> -<p>Monocacy, U. S. S., <a href="#pb406" class="pageref">406</a>–409, <a href="#pb412" class="pageref">412</a>–414, <a href="#pb459" class="pageref">459</a>, <a href="#pb460" class="pageref">460</a> -</p> -<p>Monuments, <a href="#pb160" class="pageref">160</a>, <a href="#pb279" class="pageref">279</a>, <a href="#pb437" class="pageref">437</a> -</p> -<p>Mori Arinori, <a href="#pb422" class="pageref">422</a> -</p> -<p>Mountains, <a href="#pb5" class="pageref">5</a>, <a href="#pb189" class="pageref">189</a>, <a href="#pb203" class="pageref">203</a>, <a href="#pb206" class="pageref">206</a> -</p> -<p>Mourning, <a href="#pb277" class="pageref">277</a>–282 -</p> -<p>Music, <a href="#pb292" class="pageref">292</a>, <a href="#pb293" class="pageref">293</a>, <a href="#pb424" class="pageref">424</a> -</p> -<p>Musselmans. <i>See Arabs.</i> -</p> -<p>Nagasaki, <a href="#pb123" class="pageref">123</a>, <a href="#pb149" class="pageref">149</a>, <a href="#pb150" class="pageref">150</a>, <a href="#pb162" class="pageref">162</a>, <a href="#pb175" class="pageref">175</a>, <a href="#pb205" class="pageref">205</a>, <a href="#pb370" class="pageref">370</a>, <a href="#pb398" class="pageref">398</a>, <a href="#pb408" class="pageref">408</a>, <a href="#pb440" class="pageref">440</a> -</p> -<p>Nai-po, <a href="#pb193" class="pageref">193</a>, <a href="#pb349" class="pageref">349</a>, <a href="#pb352" class="pageref">352</a>, <a href="#pb375" class="pageref">375</a> -</p> -<p>Nak-tong River, <a href="#pb5" class="pageref">5</a>, <a href="#pb164" class="pageref">164</a>, <a href="#pb202" class="pageref">202</a>, <a href="#pb203" class="pageref">203</a> -</p> -<p>Names, <a href="#pb165" class="pageref">165</a>, <a href="#pb261" class="pageref">261</a>, <a href="#pb348" class="pageref">348</a> -</p> -<p>Nanking, <a href="#pb40" class="pageref">40</a>, <a href="#pb48" class="pageref">48</a>, <a href="#pb69" class="pageref">69</a> -</p> -<p>Nan-on, <a href="#pb130" class="pageref">130</a>–133 -</p> -<p>National anthem, <a href="#pb490" class="pageref">490</a> -</p> -<p>National emblems, <a href="#pb452" class="pageref">452</a> -</p> -<p>National flower, <a href="#pb452" class="pageref">452</a> -</p> -<p>Nature, <a href="#pb207" class="pageref">207</a>, <a href="#pb340" class="pageref">340</a>, <a href="#pb378" class="pageref">378</a> -</p> -<p>Naval battles, <a href="#pb108" class="pageref">108</a>, <a href="#pb129" class="pageref">129</a>, <a href="#pb130" class="pageref">130</a>, <a href="#pb134" class="pageref">134</a> -</p> -<p>Neutral strip, <a href="#pb7" class="pageref">7</a>, <a href="#pb8" class="pageref">8</a>, <a href="#pb84" class="pageref">84</a>, <a href="#pb156" class="pageref">156</a>, <a href="#pb182" class="pageref">182</a>, <a href="#pb421" class="pageref">421</a>, <a href="#pb494" class="pageref">494</a> -</p> -<p>Newspapers, <a href="#pb486" class="pageref">486</a> -</p> -<p>New Year’s Day, <a href="#pb1" class="pageref">1</a>, <a href="#pb111" class="pageref">111</a>, <a href="#pb297" class="pageref">297</a>, <a href="#pb461" class="pageref">461</a> -</p> -<p>Nido syllabary, <a href="#pb47" class="pageref">47</a>, <a href="#pb67" class="pageref">67</a> -</p> -<p>Niijun. <i>See Ninchi.</i> -</p> -<p>Ninchi, <a href="#pb68" class="pageref">68</a> -</p> -<p>Ningpo, <a href="#pb69" class="pageref">69</a>, <a href="#pb84" class="pageref">84</a> -</p> -<p>Nin-sen. <i>See In-chiŭn.</i> -</p> -<p>Nippon Machi, <a href="#pb164" class="pageref">164</a> -</p> -<p>Ni Taijo, <a href="#pb76" class="pageref">76</a>, <a href="#pb78" class="pageref">78</a>, <a href="#pb79" class="pageref">79</a> -</p> -<p>Nose, the history of a, <a href="#pb311" class="pageref">311</a> -</p> -<p>Noses, <a href="#pb171" class="pageref">171</a>, <a href="#pb317" class="pageref">317</a> -</p> -<p>Nuns, <a href="#pb59" class="pageref">59</a>, <a href="#pb335" class="pageref">335</a> -</p> -<p>Nye, Hon. Gideon, <a href="#pb389" class="pageref">389</a> -</p> -<p>Ogawuchi, <a href="#pb133" class="pageref">133</a>, <a href="#pb139" class="pageref">139</a>–144 -</p> -<p>Ojin, <a href="#pb55" class="pageref">55</a> -</p> -<p>Oppert, Ernest, <a href="#pb375" class="pageref">375</a>, <a href="#pb392" class="pageref">392</a> -</p> -<p>Ouen-san. <i>See Gensan.</i> -</p> -<p>Pagodas, <a href="#pb32" class="pageref">32</a>, <a href="#pb383" class="pageref">383</a> -</p> -<p>Pak Yong Hio, <a href="#pb464" class="pageref">464</a>, <a href="#pb481" class="pageref">481</a> -</p> -<p>Palladius, <a href="#pb68" class="pageref">68</a>, <a href="#pb83" class="pageref">83</a>, <a href="#pb237" class="pageref">237</a> -</p> -<p>Paper, <a href="#pb153" class="pageref">153</a>, <a href="#pb263" class="pageref">263</a>, <a href="#pb265" class="pageref">265</a> -</p> -<p>Parkes, Sir Harry, <a href="#pb435" class="pageref">435</a>, <a href="#pb461" class="pageref">461</a> -</p> -<p>Patriotism, <a href="#pb451" class="pageref">451</a>, <a href="#pb479" class="pageref">479</a> -</p> -<p>Pears, <a href="#pb32" class="pageref">32</a>, <a href="#pb268" class="pageref">268</a> -</p> -<p>Peasantry, <a href="#pb447" class="pageref">447</a> -</p> -<p>Persecuting nations, <a href="#pb472" class="pageref">472</a> -</p> -<p>Petitions to the king, <a href="#pb82" class="pageref">82</a>, <a href="#pb222" class="pageref">222</a>, <a href="#pb431" class="pageref">431</a>, <a href="#pb474" class="pageref">474</a> -</p> -<p>Petsi. <i>See Hiaksai.</i> -</p> -<p>Pheasants, <a href="#pb32" class="pageref">32</a>, <a href="#pb60" class="pageref">60</a> -</p> -<p>Philosophy, <a href="#pb472" class="pageref">472</a>, <a href="#pb473" class="pageref">473</a> -</p> -<p>Phœnix, <a href="#pb304" class="pageref">304</a> -</p> -<p>Phonetic writing, <a href="#pb38" class="pageref">38</a>, <a href="#pb47" class="pageref">47</a>, <a href="#pb48" class="pageref">48</a> -</p> -<p>Ping-an city, <a href="#pb21" class="pageref">21</a>, <a href="#pb65" class="pageref">65</a>, <a href="#pb105" class="pageref">105</a>, <a href="#pb106" class="pageref">106</a>, <a href="#pb109" class="pageref">109</a>, <a href="#pb112" class="pageref">112</a>, <a href="#pb182" class="pageref">182</a>, <a href="#pb183" class="pageref">183</a>, <a href="#pb392" class="pageref">392</a>–395, <a href="#pb477" class="pageref">477</a>, <a href="#pb478" class="pageref">478</a> -</p> -<p>Ping-an Province, <a href="#pb179" class="pageref">179</a>–183 -</p> -<p>Pipes, <a href="#pb253" class="pageref">253</a>, <a href="#pb369" class="pageref">369</a> -</p> -<p>Poetry, <a href="#pb59" class="pageref">59</a>, <a href="#pb297" class="pageref">297</a>, <a href="#pb344" class="pageref">344</a> -</p> -<p>Political parties, <a href="#pb224" class="pageref">224</a>–229, <a href="#pb356" class="pageref">356</a>, <a href="#pb362" class="pageref">362</a>, <a href="#pb429" class="pageref">429</a> -</p> -<p>Polo, Marco, <a href="#pb72" class="pageref">72</a>, <a href="#pb73" class="pageref">73</a> -</p> -<p>Polo, game of, <a href="#pb427" class="pageref">427</a> -</p> -<p>Population, <a href="#pb281" class="pageref">281</a>, <a href="#pb448" class="pageref">448</a> -</p> -<p>Porcelain, <a href="#pb2" class="pageref">2</a>, <a href="#pb264" class="pageref">264</a> -</p> -<p>Port Arthur, <a href="#pb478" class="pageref">478</a>, <a href="#pb495" class="pageref">495</a>, <a href="#pb496" class="pageref">496</a> -</p> -<p>Port Hamilton, <a href="#pb469" class="pageref">469</a> -</p> -<p>Port Lazareff, <a href="#pb214" class="pageref">214</a> -</p> -<p>Portuguese, <a href="#pb2" class="pageref">2</a>, <a href="#pb84" class="pageref">84</a>, <a href="#pb354" class="pageref">354</a> -</p> -<p>Postal Service, <a href="#pb452" class="pageref">452</a> -</p> -<p>Potters, <a href="#pb146" class="pageref">146</a>, <a href="#pb174" class="pageref">174</a>, <a href="#pb359" class="pageref">359</a> -</p> -<p>Pratt, Hon. Zadoc, <a href="#pb390" class="pageref">390</a> -</p> -<p>Prefectures, <a href="#pb480" class="pageref">480</a> -</p> -<p>Primogeniture, <a href="#pb260" class="pageref">260</a> -</p> -<p>Prince Jerome Gulf, <a href="#pb194" class="pageref">194</a>, <a href="#pb398" class="pageref">398</a> -</p> -<p>Printing, <a href="#pb67" class="pageref">67</a>, <a href="#pb369" class="pageref">369</a> -</p> -<p>Proverbs, <a href="#pb317" class="pageref">317</a>–319 -</p> -<p>Provinces, <a href="#pb80" class="pageref">80</a>, <a href="#pb179" class="pageref">179</a>–217 -</p> -<p>Puhai, <a href="#pb64" class="pageref">64</a>, <a href="#pb65" class="pageref">65</a> -</p> -<p>Pung-sui, <a href="#pb278" class="pageref">278</a>, <a href="#pb279" class="pageref">279</a>, <a href="#pb328" class="pageref">328</a> -</p> -<p>Queen Min, <a href="#pb421" class="pageref">421</a>, <a href="#pb438" class="pageref">438</a>, <a href="#pb480" class="pageref">480</a>–482 -</p> -<p>Quelpart, <a href="#pb4" class="pageref">4</a>, <a href="#pb200" class="pageref">200</a>, <a href="#pb370" class="pageref">370</a>, <a href="#pb428" class="pageref">428</a> -</p> -<p>Railways, <a href="#pb448" class="pageref">448</a>, <a href="#pb486" class="pageref">486</a>, <a href="#pb496" class="pageref">496</a> -</p> -<p>Rain, <a href="#pb306" class="pageref">306</a>, <a href="#pb359" class="pageref">359</a>, <a href="#pb437" class="pageref">437</a>, <a href="#pb439" class="pageref">439</a> -</p> -<p>Religion, <a href="#pb326" class="pageref">326</a>–335 -</p> -<p>Revenge, <a href="#pb227" class="pageref">227</a> -</p> -<p>Revenue, <a href="#pb454" class="pageref">454</a> -</p> -<p>Rice, <a href="#pb268" class="pageref">268</a>, <a href="#pb298" class="pageref">298</a>, <a href="#pb437" class="pageref">437</a>, <a href="#pb444" class="pageref">444</a> -</p> -<p>Riots, <a href="#pb438" class="pageref">438</a>, <a href="#pb467" class="pageref">467</a> -</p> -<p>Richthofen, <a href="#pb2" class="pageref">2</a> -</p> -<p>Ridel, Bishop, <a href="#pb372" class="pageref">372</a>, <a href="#pb375" class="pageref">375</a>, <a href="#pb378" class="pageref">378</a>, <a href="#pb413" class="pageref">413</a> -</p> -<p>Rin Yin River, <a href="#pb104" class="pageref">104</a>, <a href="#pb105" class="pageref">105</a>, <a href="#pb190" class="pageref">190</a> -</p> -<p>Ri Seiki. <i>See Ni Taijo.</i> -<span class="pageNum" id="pb525">[<a href="#pb525">525</a>]</span></p> -<p>Riu Kiu, <a href="#pb91" class="pageref">91</a>, <a href="#pb146" class="pageref">146</a>, <a href="#pb426" class="pageref">426</a> -</p> -<p>Roads, <a href="#pb202" class="pageref">202</a>, <a href="#pb284" class="pageref">284</a>, <a href="#pb413" class="pageref">413</a> -</p> -<p>Rodgers, Admiral John, <a href="#pb13" class="pageref">13</a>, <a href="#pb403" class="pageref">403</a>–406, <a href="#pb408" class="pageref">408</a>, <a href="#pb418" class="pageref">418</a> -</p> -<p>Rona, The, <a href="#pb375" class="pageref">375</a> -</p> -<p>Ross, Rev. John, <a href="#pb22" class="pageref">22</a> -</p> -<p>Roze, Admiral, <a href="#pb376" class="pageref">376</a>–386 -</p> -<p>Roze Island, <a href="#pb379" class="pageref">379</a>, <a href="#pb439" class="pageref">439</a> -</p> -<p>Russians, <a href="#pb162" class="pageref">162</a>, <a href="#pb163" class="pageref">163</a>, <a href="#pb205" class="pageref">205</a>, <a href="#pb210" class="pageref">210</a>, <a href="#pb371" class="pageref">371</a>, <a href="#pb428" class="pageref">428</a>, <a href="#pb469" class="pageref">469</a>, <a href="#pb484" class="pageref">484</a>, <a href="#pb487" class="pageref">487</a>, <a href="#pb488" class="pageref">488</a>, <a href="#pb492" class="pageref">492</a>, <a href="#pb494" class="pageref">494</a>–496 -</p> -<p>Sacrifices, <a href="#pb329" class="pageref">329</a>, <a href="#pb454" class="pageref">454</a> -</p> -<p>Saghalin, <a href="#pb492" class="pageref">492</a> -</p> -<p>Saigo, <a href="#pb420" class="pageref">420</a>, <a href="#pb425" class="pageref">425</a> -</p> -<p>Sam-han, <a href="#pb30" class="pageref">30</a>, <a href="#pb34" class="pageref">34</a>, <a href="#pb487" class="pageref">487</a> -</p> -<p>Sanskrit, <a href="#pb334" class="pageref">334</a> -</p> -<p>Sargent, Senator, <a href="#pb428" class="pageref">428</a> -</p> -<p>Saris, <a href="#pb147" class="pageref">147</a> -</p> -<p>Satéhiko, <a href="#pb59" class="pageref">59</a> -</p> -<p>Schall, Adam, <a href="#pb160" class="pageref">160</a> -</p> -<p>Schools, <a href="#pb343" class="pageref">343</a> -</p> -<p>Seal of state, <a href="#pb218" class="pageref">218</a>, <a href="#pb373" class="pageref">373</a> -</p> -<p>Seoul, <a href="#pb79" class="pageref">79</a>, <a href="#pb85" class="pageref">85</a>, <a href="#pb104" class="pageref">104</a>, <a href="#pb115" class="pageref">115</a>, <a href="#pb158" class="pageref">158</a>, <a href="#pb163" class="pageref">163</a>, <a href="#pb164" class="pageref">164</a>, <a href="#pb189" class="pageref">189</a>–190, <a href="#pb220" class="pageref">220</a>, <a href="#pb223" class="pageref">223</a>, <a href="#pb341" class="pageref">341</a>, <a href="#pb436" class="pageref">436</a>–441, <a href="#pb485" class="pageref">485</a>, <a href="#pb486" class="pageref">486</a> -</p> -<p>Seoul-Fusan railway, <a href="#pb449" class="pageref">449</a>, <a href="#pb496" class="pageref">496</a> -</p> -<p>Serfdom, <a href="#pb23" class="pageref">23</a>, <a href="#pb237" class="pageref">237</a>–243 -</p> -<p>Serpents, <a href="#pb305" class="pageref">305</a> -</p> -<p>Shamanism, <a href="#pb326" class="pageref">326</a> -</p> -<p>Shang-chiu, <a href="#pb102" class="pageref">102</a>, <a href="#pb164" class="pageref">164</a>, <a href="#pb203" class="pageref">203</a> -</p> -<p>Shang-ti, <a href="#pb327" class="pageref">327</a> -</p> -<p>Shangtung, <a href="#pb2" class="pageref">2</a>, <a href="#pb3" class="pageref">3</a>, <a href="#pb74" class="pageref">74</a> -</p> -<p>Shan-yan mountains, <a href="#pb213" class="pageref">213</a> -</p> -<p>Shaw, Captain Samuel, <a href="#pb389" class="pageref">389</a> -</p> -<p>Shimonoséki, <a href="#pb53" class="pageref">53</a>, <a href="#pb420" class="pageref">420</a>, <a href="#pb440" class="pageref">440</a>, <a href="#pb478" class="pageref">478</a> -</p> -<p>Shing-king, <a href="#pb3" class="pageref">3</a>, <a href="#pb180" class="pageref">180</a>, <a href="#pb353" class="pageref">353</a>, <a href="#pb361" class="pageref">361</a>, <a href="#pb364" class="pageref">364</a>, <a href="#pb421" class="pageref">421</a> -</p> -<p>Shin-han, <a href="#pb32" class="pageref">32</a>, <a href="#pb33" class="pageref">33</a> -</p> -<p>Shinra, <a href="#pb33" class="pageref">33</a>, <a href="#pb45" class="pageref">45</a>–49, <a href="#pb135" class="pageref">135</a> -</p> -<p>Shoes, <a href="#pb276" class="pageref">276</a> -</p> -<p>Shufeldt, Com. R. W., <a href="#pb186" class="pageref">186</a>, <a href="#pb428" class="pageref">428</a>, <a href="#pb435" class="pageref">435</a>, <a href="#pb459" class="pageref">459</a> -</p> -<p>Singing-girls, <a href="#pb90" class="pageref">90</a>, <a href="#pb291" class="pageref">291</a> -</p> -<p>Sinlo. <i>See Shinra.</i> -</p> -<p>Slavery. <i>See Serfdom.</i> -</p> -<p>Snow, <a href="#pb6" class="pageref">6</a>, <a href="#pb207" class="pageref">207</a>, <a href="#pb324" class="pageref">324</a> -</p> -<p>Songchin, <a href="#pb455" class="pageref">455</a>, <a href="#pb456" class="pageref">456</a> -</p> -<p>Sorceresses, <a href="#pb445" class="pageref">445</a>, <a href="#pb446" class="pageref">446</a>, <a href="#pb462" class="pageref">462</a> -</p> -<p>Sorio. <i>See Nippon Machi and Fusan.</i> -</p> -<p>Spear, Rev. Wm., <a href="#pb389" class="pageref">389</a> -</p> -<p>Spelling, <a href="#pb338" class="pageref">338</a> -</p> -<p>Spies, <a href="#pb122" class="pageref">122</a> -</p> -<p>Spirits of the air, <a href="#pb327" class="pageref">327</a> -</p> -<p>Stockbridge, <a href="#pb388" class="pageref">388</a> -</p> -<p>Straits of Corea, <a href="#pb174" class="pageref">174</a>, <a href="#pb494" class="pageref">494</a> -</p> -<p>Straw men, <a href="#pb383" class="pageref">383</a> -</p> -<p>Students sent abroad, <a href="#pb459" class="pageref">459</a> -</p> -<p>Succession to throne, <a href="#pb223" class="pageref">223</a> -</p> -<p>Sungari River, <a href="#pb20" class="pageref">20</a>, <a href="#pb371" class="pageref">371</a> -</p> -<p>Sunto, <a href="#pb66" class="pageref">66</a>, <a href="#pb77" class="pageref">77</a>. <i>See Kai-seng.</i> -</p> -<p>Superstitions, <a href="#pb445" class="pageref">445</a>, <a href="#pb470" class="pageref">470</a> -</p> -<p>Surprise, The, <a href="#pb391" class="pageref">391</a> -</p> -<p>Susanoö, <a href="#pb51" class="pageref">51</a> -</p> -<p>Suyematz, Mr. K., <a href="#pb71" class="pageref">71</a> -</p> -<p>Swords, <a href="#pb116" class="pageref">116</a>, <a href="#pb149" class="pageref">149</a>, <a href="#pb382" class="pageref">382</a> -</p> -<p>Syllabary, <a href="#pb67" class="pageref">67</a>, <a href="#pb338" class="pageref">338</a>. <i>See Alphabet.</i> -</p> -<p>Tablets, <a href="#pb460" class="pageref">460</a>, <a href="#pb489" class="pageref">489</a> -</p> -<p>Tai-in, or Tai-on Kun. <i>See Tai-wen Kun.</i> -</p> -<p>Taiko Sama. <i>See Hidéyoshi.</i> -</p> -<p>Tai-wen Kun, <a href="#pb230" class="pageref">230</a>, <a href="#pb373" class="pageref">373</a>, <a href="#pb380" class="pageref">380</a>, <a href="#pb420" class="pageref">420</a>, <a href="#pb437" class="pageref">437</a>, <a href="#pb458" class="pageref">458</a>, <a href="#pb459" class="pageref">459</a>, <a href="#pb467" class="pageref">467</a>, <a href="#pb476" class="pageref">476</a>, <a href="#pb482" class="pageref">482</a> -</p> -<p>Tang Dynasty, <a href="#pb36" class="pageref">36</a>, <a href="#pb37" class="pageref">37</a>, <a href="#pb47" class="pageref">47</a> -</p> -<p>Taxation, <a href="#pb447" class="pageref">447</a> -</p> -<p>Tea, <a href="#pb267" class="pageref">267</a>, <a href="#pb389" class="pageref">389</a> -</p> -<p>Telegraphs, <a href="#pb461" class="pageref">461</a> -</p> -<p>Temples, <a href="#pb331" class="pageref">331</a>, <a href="#pb334" class="pageref">334</a>, <a href="#pb336" class="pageref">336</a>, <a href="#pb485" class="pageref">485</a> -</p> -<p>Theatre, <a href="#pb291" class="pageref">291</a> -</p> -<p>“The” Corea, <a href="#pb3" class="pageref">3</a> -</p> -<p>Thibet, <a href="#pb2" class="pageref">2</a>, <a href="#pb318" class="pageref">318</a> -</p> -<p>Thomas, Rev., <a href="#pb391" class="pageref">391</a> -</p> -<p>Throne, <a href="#pb52" class="pageref">52</a>, <a href="#pb219" class="pageref">219</a> -</p> -<p>Timber concession, <a href="#pb490" class="pageref">490</a>, <a href="#pb494" class="pageref">494</a> -</p> -<p>Tien-tsin massacre, <a href="#pb386" class="pageref">386</a>, <a href="#pb418" class="pageref">418</a> -</p> -<p>Tigers, <a href="#pb59" class="pageref">59</a>, <a href="#pb135" class="pageref">135</a>, <a href="#pb301" class="pageref">301</a>, <a href="#pb320" class="pageref">320</a>–325, <a href="#pb455" class="pageref">455</a> -</p> -<p>Tobacco, <a href="#pb151" class="pageref">151</a>, <a href="#pb152" class="pageref">152</a>, <a href="#pb366" class="pageref">366</a> -</p> -<p>Togo, Admiral, <a href="#pb476" class="pageref">476</a>, <a href="#pb495" class="pageref">495</a> -</p> -<p>Tōkiō, <a href="#pb420" class="pageref">420</a>, <a href="#pb424" class="pageref">424</a>, <a href="#pb427" class="pageref">427</a>, <a href="#pb440" class="pageref">440</a>, <a href="#pb461" class="pageref">461</a> -</p> -<p>Tombs, <a href="#pb279" class="pageref">279</a>, <a href="#pb297" class="pageref">297</a>, <a href="#pb392" class="pageref">392</a>, <a href="#pb396" class="pageref">396</a>, <a href="#pb399" class="pageref">399</a> -</p> -<p>Tong-haks, <a href="#pb445" class="pageref">445</a>, <a href="#pb473" class="pageref">473</a>–475, <a href="#pb480" class="pageref">480</a> -</p> -<p>Tong Nai, <a href="#pb100" class="pageref">100</a>, <a href="#pb203" class="pageref">203</a>, <a href="#pb371" class="pageref">371</a>, <a href="#pb428" class="pageref">428</a> -</p> -<p>Torai fu. <i>See Tong Nai.</i> -</p> -<p>Tortoise, <a href="#pb218" class="pageref">218</a>, <a href="#pb303" class="pageref">303</a> -</p> -<p>Torture, <a href="#pb234" class="pageref">234</a>, <a href="#pb352" class="pageref">352</a>, <a href="#pb375" class="pageref">375</a> -</p> -<p>Translations into Corean, <a href="#pb349" class="pageref">349</a>, <a href="#pb430" class="pageref">430</a> -</p> -<p>Tribute, <a href="#pb58" class="pageref">58</a>, <a href="#pb159" class="pageref">159</a>, <a href="#pb160" class="pageref">160</a> -</p> -<p>Tsuruga, <a href="#pb53" class="pageref">53</a>, <a href="#pb54" class="pageref">54</a> -</p> -<p>Tsushima, <a href="#pb85" class="pageref">85</a>, <a href="#pb86" class="pageref">86</a>, <a href="#pb150" class="pageref">150</a>, <a href="#pb151" class="pageref">151</a>, <a href="#pb164" class="pageref">164</a>, <a href="#pb205" class="pageref">205</a>, <a href="#pb492" class="pageref">492</a> -</p> -<p>Tycoon, <a href="#pb149" class="pageref">149</a>, <a href="#pb380" class="pageref">380</a> -</p> -<p>Types, <a href="#pb67" class="pageref">67</a>, <a href="#pb434" class="pageref">434</a> -</p> -<p>Unmun, <a href="#pb67" class="pageref">67</a> -</p> -<p>Unyo Kuan, <a href="#pb422" class="pageref">422</a> -</p> -<p>Uru-san, <a href="#pb137" class="pageref">137</a>–144 -</p> -<p>Varnish, <a href="#pb189" class="pageref">189</a> -</p> -<p>Vettor Pisani, The, <a href="#pb428" class="pageref">428</a> -</p> -<p>Village idols, <a href="#pb285" class="pageref">285</a> -</p> -<p>Vincent, <a href="#pb122" class="pageref">122</a>, <a href="#pb123" class="pageref">123</a> -</p> -<p>Vladivostok, <a href="#pb495" class="pageref">495</a> -</p> -<p>Von Brandt, Minister, <a href="#pb405" class="pageref">405</a> -</p> -<p>Von Siebold, <a href="#pb150" class="pageref">150</a> -<span class="pageNum" id="pb526">[<a href="#pb526">526</a>]</span></p> -<p>Wall of stakes, <a href="#pb84" class="pageref">84</a>, <a href="#pb182" class="pageref">182</a> -</p> -<p>Wang-ken, <a href="#pb65" class="pageref">65</a> -</p> -<p>Weigatz, <a href="#pb85" class="pageref">85</a> -</p> -<p>Wei-man, <a href="#pb16" class="pageref">16</a> -</p> -<p>Whales, <a href="#pb215" class="pageref">215</a>, <a href="#pb488" class="pageref">488</a> -</p> -<p>Whang-hai, <a href="#pb183" class="pageref">183</a>–187 -</p> -<p>Whang-ti, <a href="#pb41" class="pageref">41</a>, <a href="#pb92" class="pageref">92</a>, <a href="#pb159" class="pageref">159</a>, <a href="#pb423" class="pageref">423</a> -</p> -<p>Wiju, <a href="#pb491" class="pageref">491</a>, <a href="#pb495" class="pageref">495</a> -</p> -<p>Williams, Hon. S. Wells, <a href="#pb394" class="pageref">394</a>, <a href="#pb403" class="pageref">403</a><span id="xd31e11392"></span> -</p> -<p>Wishes, the three, <a href="#pb310" class="pageref">310</a> -</p> -<p>Wood-cutters, <a href="#pb180" class="pageref">180</a>, <a href="#pb494" class="pageref">494</a> -</p> -<p>Xavier, <a href="#pb60" class="pageref">60</a> -</p> -<p>Yalu River, <a href="#pb179" class="pageref">179</a>, <a href="#pb485" class="pageref">485</a>, <a href="#pb495" class="pageref">495</a> -</p> -<p>Yangban, <a href="#pb443" class="pageref">443</a>, <a href="#pb450" class="pageref">450</a> -</p> -<p>Yasuhiro, <a href="#pb89" class="pageref">89</a>, <a href="#pb90" class="pageref">90</a> -</p> -<p>Yedo, <a href="#pb151" class="pageref">151</a><span class="corr" id="xd31e11444" title="Source: ,">.</span> <i>See Tōkiō.</i> -</p> -<p>Yongampo, <a href="#pb455" class="pageref">455</a>, <a href="#pb490" class="pageref">490</a> -</p> -<p>Yoshitsuné, <a href="#pb71" class="pageref">71</a>, <a href="#pb164" class="pageref">164</a> -</p> -<p>Yuan Shi Kai, <a href="#pb461" class="pageref">461</a>, <a href="#pb465" class="pageref">465</a>–468, <a href="#pb469" class="pageref">469</a>, <a href="#pb470" class="pageref">470</a>, <a href="#pb471" class="pageref">471</a>, <a href="#pb475" class="pageref">475</a> -</p> -<p>Yule, Colonel H., <a href="#pb72" class="pageref">72</a> -</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="transcriberNote"> -<h2 class="main">Colophon</h2> -<h3 class="main">Availability</h3> -<p class="first">This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project -Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at <a class="seclink xd31e40" title="External link" href="https://www.gutenberg.org/">www.gutenberg.org</a>. -</p> -<p>This eBook is produced by the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at <a class="seclink xd31e40" title="External link" href="https://www.pgdp.net/">www.pgdp.net</a>. -</p> -<p>The map at the end of the volume was missing from the available scan-set, and is thus -omitted from this ebook. -</p> -<h3 class="main">Metadata</h3> -<table class="colophonMetadata" summary="Metadata"> -<tr> -<td><b>Title:</b></td> -<td>Corea, the hermit nation</td> -<td></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td><b>Author:</b></td> -<td>William Elliot Griffis (1843–1928)</td> -<td><a href="https://viaf.org/viaf/62346855/" class="seclink">Info</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td><b>Language:</b></td> -<td>English</td> -<td></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td><b>Original publication date:</b></td> -<td>1911</td> -<td></td> -</tr> -</table> -<h3 class="main">Revision History</h3> -<ul> -<li>2021-11-03 Started. -</li> -</ul> -<h3 class="main">External References</h3> -<p>This Project Gutenberg eBook contains external references. These links may not work -for you.</p> -<h3 class="main">Corrections</h3> -<p>The following corrections have been applied to the text:</p> -<table class="correctionTable" summary="Overview of corrections applied to the text."> -<tr> -<th>Page</th> -<th>Source</th> -<th>Correction</th> -<th>Edit distance</th> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e247">ix</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">thing</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">things</td> -<td class="bottom">1</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e329">xvi</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">Bescriebung</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">Beschreibung</td> -<td class="bottom">3</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e335">xvi</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">uber</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">über</td> -<td class="bottom">1 / 0</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e414">xviii</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">Shing-King</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">Shing-king</td> -<td class="bottom">1</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e495">xx</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">Darlegun</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">Darlegung</td> -<td class="bottom">1</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e1507">3</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">L’Allemande</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">L’Allemagne</td> -<td class="bottom">2</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e1510">3</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">L’Amerique</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">L’Amérique</td> -<td class="bottom">1 / 0</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e1568">9</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">’</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">”</td> -<td class="bottom">1</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e2034">46</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">dependant</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">dependent</td> -<td class="bottom">1</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e2188">59</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">weathern-worn</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">weather-worn</td> -<td class="bottom">1</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e2251">66</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">Korain</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">Koraian</td> -<td class="bottom">1</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e2341">74</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">ike</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">like</td> -<td class="bottom">1</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e2554">86</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">Nordensköld’s</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">Nordenskjöld’s</td> -<td class="bottom">1</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e2634">96</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">invaders</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">invaders’</td> -<td class="bottom">1</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e2672">101</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd31e3845">237</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd31e4367">283</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">.</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">,</td> -<td class="bottom">1</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e2955">139</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd31e3432">196</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd31e3514">206</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd31e4628">299</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd31e4717">307</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd31e6171">428</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom"> -[<i>Not in source</i>] -</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">.</td> -<td class="bottom">1</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e3147">164</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">Chretienne</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">Chrétienne</td> -<td class="bottom">1 / 0</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e3179">167</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd31e3192">168</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">Hollandra</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">Hollandia</td> -<td class="bottom">1</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e3186">168</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd31e3197">168</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd31e3204">169</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd31e3209">169</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd31e3212">169</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd31e3226">170</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd31e3229">170</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd31e3256">172</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">Wetterree</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">Weltevree</td> -<td class="bottom">2</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e3189">168</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">Rip</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">De Rijp</td> -<td class="bottom">4</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e3217">169</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">Sparwehr</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">Sperwer</td> -<td class="bottom">2</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e3334">183</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">over loyal</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">overloyal</td> -<td class="bottom">1</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e3395">191</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">offer</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">offers</td> -<td class="bottom">1</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e3412">193</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom"> -[<i>Not in source</i>] -</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">(</td> -<td class="bottom">1</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e3467">200</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">earthern</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">earthen</td> -<td class="bottom">1</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e3541">209</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">.)</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">).</td> -<td class="bottom">2</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e3586">216</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">shipwrekced</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">shipwrecked</td> -<td class="bottom">2</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e3655">223</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">neccessary</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">necessary</td> -<td class="bottom">1</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e3668">223</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">years,</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">years’</td> -<td class="bottom">1</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e3722">228</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">dfficulties</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">difficulties</td> -<td class="bottom">1</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e3797">233</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">peninusla</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">peninsula</td> -<td class="bottom">2</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e3888">241</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">inheritence</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">inheritance</td> -<td class="bottom">1</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e3901">243</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">pedlers</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">peddlers</td> -<td class="bottom">1</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e3918">246</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd31e5827">397</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd31e5881">401</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">pedler</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">peddler</td> -<td class="bottom">1</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e3942">249</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">Ater</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">After</td> -<td class="bottom">1</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e3984">252</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">railery</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">raillery</td> -<td class="bottom">1</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e4083">260</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">indivdual</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">individual</td> -<td class="bottom">1</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e4104">261</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">tpyes</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">types</td> -<td class="bottom">2</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e4115">262</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">neatnesss</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">neatness</td> -<td class="bottom">1</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e4165">266</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">gentlemen’s</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">gentleman’s</td> -<td class="bottom">1</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e4195">268</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">maccaroni</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">macaroni</td> -<td class="bottom">1</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e4202">268</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">Maccaroni</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">Macaroni</td> -<td class="bottom">1</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e4256">274</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd31e11392">526</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">,</td> -<td class="width40 bottom"> -[<i>Deleted</i>] -</td> -<td class="bottom">1</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e4340">281</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd31e4750">310</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd31e5231">338</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">Coréene</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">Coréenne</td> -<td class="bottom">1</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e4403">285</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">effiges</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">effigies</td> -<td class="bottom">1</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e4532">288</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">preparatons</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">preparations</td> -<td class="bottom">1</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e4554">291</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">pantomine</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">pantomime</td> -<td class="bottom">1</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e4578">294</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">simliar</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">similar</td> -<td class="bottom">2</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e4586">295</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">uknown</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">unknown</td> -<td class="bottom">1</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e4632">299</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">Shimlun</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">Shimbun</td> -<td class="bottom">1</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e4653">302</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">appointemnt</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">appointment</td> -<td class="bottom">2</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e4831">313</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">.</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">:</td> -<td class="bottom">1</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e5011">321</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">’</td> -<td class="width40 bottom"> -[<i>Deleted</i>] -</td> -<td class="bottom">1</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e5057">323</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">immedately</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">immediately</td> -<td class="bottom">1</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e5091">327</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">invisbile</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">invisible</td> -<td class="bottom">2</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e5122">329</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">peninsla</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">peninsula</td> -<td class="bottom">1</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e5160">333</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">politcial</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">political</td> -<td class="bottom">2</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e5166">333</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">commisariat</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">commissariat</td> -<td class="bottom">1</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e5654">382</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">victors</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">victors’</td> -<td class="bottom">1</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e5819">397</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom"> -[<i>Not in source</i>] -</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">,</td> -<td class="bottom">1</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e5824">397</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">negociate</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">negotiate</td> -<td class="bottom">1</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e5839">398</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">Manilla</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">Manila</td> -<td class="bottom">1</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e5960">406</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">armanent</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">armament</td> -<td class="bottom">1</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e5973">407</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">Guerriére</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">Guerrière</td> -<td class="bottom">1 / 0</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e6042">414</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">cidadel</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">citadel</td> -<td class="bottom">1</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e6106">421</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">Cho</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">Chō</td> -<td class="bottom">1 / 0</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e6173">428</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">negociations</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">negotiations</td> -<td class="bottom">1</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e6203">431</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">sprits</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">spirits</td> -<td class="bottom">1</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e6281">440</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">Shinonoséki</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">Shimonoséki</td> -<td class="bottom">1</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e6338">449</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">valley</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">value</td> -<td class="bottom">2</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e6539">478</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">Shimonoseki</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">Shimonoséki</td> -<td class="bottom">1 / 0</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e6549">479</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">Cho-sen</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">Chō-sen</td> -<td class="bottom">1 / 0</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e6709">499</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">Pedlers’</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">Peddlers’</td> -<td class="bottom">1</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e6717">500</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">cl ques</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">cliques</td> -<td class="bottom">1</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e6800">508</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">pharmacopæia</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">pharmacopœia</td> -<td class="bottom">1</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e7259">521</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">Berneaux</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">Berneux</td> -<td class="bottom">1</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e7853">522</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">Coxingo</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">Coxinga</td> -<td class="bottom">1</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e8806">523</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">In-chiūn</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">In-chiŭn</td> -<td class="bottom">1 / 0</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e8889">523</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">Iyéyasu</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">Iyéyasŭ</td> -<td class="bottom">1 / 0</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e8967">523</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">In-chiǔn</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">In-chiŭn</td> -<td class="bottom">1 / 0</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e9079">523</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">Kiōtō</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">Kiōto</td> -<td class="bottom">1 / 0</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e9296">523</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">Lamsdorf</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">Lamsdorff</td> -<td class="bottom">1</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e9604">524</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">Mollendorf</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">Möllendorf</td> -<td class="bottom">1 / 0</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd31e11444">526</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">,</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">.</td> -<td class="bottom">1</td> -</tr> -</table> -<h3 class="main">Abbreviations</h3> -<p>Overview of abbreviations used.</p> -<table class="abbreviationtable" summary="Overview of abbreviations used."> -<tr> -<th>Abbreviation</th> -<th>Expansion</th> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="bottom">B.A.</td> -<td class="bottom"> -[<i>Expansion not available</i>] -</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="bottom">H.B.M.S.</td> -<td class="bottom">Her Britannic Majesty’s Ship</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="bottom">H.M.S.</td> -<td class="bottom">Her Majesty’s Ship</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="bottom">M.A.</td> -<td class="bottom"> -[<i>Expansion not available</i>] -</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="bottom">M.D.</td> -<td class="bottom">Medicinae Doctor</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="bottom">Ph.D.</td> -<td class="bottom"> -[<i>Expansion not available</i>] -</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="bottom">U.S.N.</td> -<td class="bottom">United States Navy</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="bottom">U.S.Ss.</td> -<td class="bottom">United States Steamship</td> -</tr> -</table> -</div> -</div> -<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK COREA ***</div> -<div style='text-align:left'> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old 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