Joseon 1 — The end of Goryeo and the name Joseon朝鮮 一

Joseon is the country where Gija was enfeoffed. Before the Han it was called Joseon. It was first held by Wiman, a man of Yan, and Emperor Wu of Han subdued it and set up four commanderies: Jinbeon, Imdun, Nangnang and Hyeondo. At the end of Han a man of Buyeo of the Go house took that land and changed the name of the country to Goryeo, also called Goguryeo. He lived at Pyongyang, which is Nangnang. Later the country was broken by Tang and moved east. In the time of the Later Tang of the Five Dynasties, Wang Geon took the place of the Go house, absorbed the lands of Silla and Baekje, and moved his seat to Songak, which he called the Eastern Capital, while Pyongyang was made the Western Capital. That country borders the Khitan on the north, the Jurchen on the west, and Japan on the south. In the Zhiyuan years of Yuan the Western Capital came under direct rule, the Dongning Route Command was set up, and Jabiryeong was made the boundary.

When the Ming arose, the one who ruled as king in Goryeo was Wang Jeon (王顓), King Gongmin. In the first year after Taizu ascended the throne he sent an envoy with a letter under the imperial seal. In the second year he sent back the displaced people of that country. Jeon presented a memorial of congratulation and local products, and asked for investiture. The emperor sent Xie Si, gentleman of the imperial seals, bearing an edict, a golden seal and a patent, to invest Jeon as king of Goryeo, and granted him a calendar and brocades. That autumn Jeon sent Seong Yu-deuk, minister of General Affairs, and Kim Gap-ryang, grand general of the Cheonu Guard, to present a memorial of thanks and to congratulate the emperor on his birthday. They also asked for the pattern of the sacrificial robes (祭服), and the emperor ordered the Ministry of Works to make them and bestow them. When Yu-deuk and the others took their leave to go home, the emperor asked them at his ease, "What does the king do in his country? Are the walls kept up? Are the weapons sharp? Are the palaces grand?" They bowed their heads and said, "We are subjects by the waves of the Eastern Sea. We know only how to revere the Buddha, and have had no leisure for anything else." So he sent a letter to instruct him. "In old times kings and dukes set up defenses, and never put away their soldiers. The people take food as their heaven, and a state must have a place from which its orders go out. Now there are people but no walls. On what will they lean? If the defenses are not kept up, awe slackens. If the land is not plowed, the people are pinched for food. And if there are dwellings but no hall for government, there is no way to show dignity. In these several things I do not approve at all. The great affairs of a state lie in sacrifice and in war. If these two are left out and one serves the Buddha alone to seek blessing, the case of Emperor Wu of Liang may stand as a clear mirror. The king's country touches the Khitan and the Jurchen on the north and the Wa on the south. Let the king keep in mind the way of guarding it." He then granted the Six Classics, the Four Books and the Tongjian. From this time tribute came often, and at the New Year and on the imperial birthday envoys were sent to offer congratulation. Year by year it became the rule.

In the first month of the third year he ordered an envoy to go and sacrifice to the mountains and rivers of that country. In the same year the edict on the examinations was promulgated in Goryeo. Jeon presented a memorial of thanks and local products, and handed over as well the golden seal that Yuan had given. The Central Secretariat said, "The tribute envoys (貢使) of Goryeo bring in many private goods and sell them. They should be taxed. They also carry many goods of China out of the country, and it would be well to forbid it." Neither was allowed. In the fifth year he memorialized asking to send sons of his house into the Imperial Academy. The emperor said, "Entering the school is truly a fine thing, but the sea crossing is far. Do not force those who do not wish it." The tribute envoys Hong Sa-beom, Jeong Mong-ju and more than a hundred and fifty others were coming to the capital when they met a gale, and thirty-nine were drowned. Sa-beom was among them. The emperor pitied them, and sent Yan'andali, a former privy councillor of Yuan, to tell them not to bring tribute so often. Yet Jeon sent Kang In-yu, assistant executive of the Chancellery, once more to present horses, and his New Year envoy Kim Seo and the others had already arrived before him. The emperor sent them all back. He said to the ministers of the Central Secretariat, "The tribute of Goryeo is frequent. It already wears out their people, and in crossing the sea there is again the fear of drowning. They should follow the old rite of the feudal lords and send an embassy once in three years. Let the tribute be only what their land bears, and let it not run to excess. Make my meaning clearly known."

In the sixth year Jeon sent Gap-ryang and others to present fifty horses. Two were lost on the road, and Gap-ryang reported it. When the horses were handed over he made up the number with his own. The emperor hated the lack of good faith and refused them. In the seventh year he sent Ju Ui, commander of the gate guards, and Jeong Bi and others with tribute. In a memorial they asked to bring tribute once a year, and asked that the tribute road (貢路) go overland by way of Dingliao (定遼) so that they need not cross the sea. But the tribute goods were labeled as sent to the Court of the Imperial Treasury. The Central Secretariat said, "In the time of Yuan there was a Court of the Imperial Treasury, but this dynasty has never had one. The wording touches on bad faith." The emperor ordered the tribute refused. In that year Jeon was killed by Yi In-in, the powerful chief minister. Jeon had no son, and had taken as his own son U (禑), the son of his favorite Sin Don. So In-in set U on the throne.

In the eighth year U sent Choe Won, head of the Office of the Royal Genealogy, to announce the death. He said that earlier the tribute envoy Kim Ui had killed the court envoy Cai Bin, and that the heir king (嗣王) U had now already put Ui to death and confiscated his house. The emperor suspected a trick. He held Won there and sent an envoy to sacrifice and offer condolence. In the tenth year an envoy came to ask a posthumous name for the former king Jeon. The emperor said, "Jeon was killed long ago, and only now do they ask a posthumous name. They mean to borrow the command of our court to soothe their people, and to cover the traces of the regicide as well. It cannot be allowed. Send back the envoy held here before." So Won was released and sent home. That summer Ju Ui was sent again with horses and local products, but they were refused and not accepted. In winter an envoy was sent again to congratulate the New Year of the coming year. The emperor said, "Jeon, king of Goryeo, was killed, and a treacherous minister has stolen his command. By the principle of the Spring and Autumn Annals a rebellious minister must be put to death. What more is there to say? Only, the envoys before and since all say they were sent by the heir king. Let the Central Secretariat send someone to ask what the heir king is like and where the orders of the state lie. If the orders are as before and the heir king is not a prisoner, then let them do as the former king (前王) said: a yearly tribute of a thousand horses, and next year a hundred catties of gold, ten thousand taels of silver, a hundred good horses and ten thousand bolts of fine cloth. Let them also send back every one of the people of Liaodong they are holding. Then I shall see that the throne is true and the orders are carried out, and I shall have no doubt. If not, the traitor who killed his lord must be punished without pardon."

In the fourth month of the eleventh year U had Ui come with tribute again. In the twelfth year Pan Jing, Ye Wang and the other commanders guarding Liaodong were ordered by edict to keep the border defenses in careful order. That winter U sent Yi Mu-bang and others with tribute, and it was refused as not being according to the agreement. In the thirteenth year Liaodong sent the Goryeo envoy Ui on to the capital, and the emperor gave an order to Jing and the others. "Goryeo killed its lord, and killed a court envoy as well. Before this it asked hard to bring tribute, and then failed to keep the term. Now it sends Ui with empty words to dress up its deceit. In days to come it will surely be a trouble on the border. From now on cut off those who come, and have no dealings with them." Ui was therefore held at the capital. In the sixteenth year tribute came and was refused, and the Ministry of Rites was ordered to reprove them for letting the tribute term pass and for the insolence of their vassal ministers (陪臣), and to say that if they truly wished to follow the agreement they should bring with it as well the goods they had failed to send in the five years of breaking it. In the sixth month of the seventeenth year U sent Choe Yeon, director of the Office of Horses, and Kim Jin-ui, minister of Rites, to present two thousand horses. They said that gold was not produced in their land, and asked to send horses in its place, and that all the rest would be as agreed. Tang Shengzong, the commander guarding Liaodong, asked it on their behalf, and the emperor allowed it. But the request for Jeon's posthumous name and for the hereditary title of king was still not granted.

In the first month of the eighteenth year the tribute envoys arrived. The emperor instructed the ministers of rites. "Goryeo has asked many times for terms, and I have often not granted them, yet their asking does not stop. So I demanded a yearly tribute to test whether they were sincere or false, not in order to grow rich by it. Now that they have heeded the command, the number of tribute goods should be lessened. Let there be one audience in three years, with fifty horses. Let it be presented at the New Year of the twenty-first year." In the seventh month U presented a memorial asking to inherit the title, and asking a posthumous name for the former king. U was invested as king of Goryeo, and the former king Jeon was granted the posthumous name Gongmin (恭愍).

In the second month of the nineteenth year an envoy presented ten thousand bolts of cloth and a thousand horses. In the ninth month a memorial of congratulation came with local products. After this the tribute always went beyond the fixed amount, and it never once waited three years. In winter an edict sent Gao Jianu, assistant commander, to buy horses in Goryeo with silks and cloth. In the third month of the twentieth year Gao Jianu returned and laid out the memorial of Goryeo about the price of the horses, and the emperor ordered by edict that they be repaid in full. Before this, when fighting broke out at Liaoyang and Shenyang at the end of Yuan, the people fled the disorder and moved into Goryeo. Now, taking the chance of the horse buying, the emperor had them sought out, and more than three hundred of the displaced people of Liao and Shen were brought back. In the twelfth month the Ministry of Revenue was ordered to send a dispatch to the king of Goryeo. "The land north of Cheollyeong, east and west, which in former days belonged to Kaiyuan, is under Liaodong. The land south of Cheollyeong, which in former days belonged to Goryeo, is under that country. Let each keep its own borders straight and not trespass."

In the fourth month of the twenty-first year U said in a memorial that the land of Cheollyeong had truly been held by his house for generations, and begged that it be left as of old. The emperor said, "Goryeo from of old took the Amnok River as its boundary. Now it dresses up its words with Cheollyeong. The falsehood is plain. Tell them my words, so that they keep to their station and raise no cause for a quarrel."

In the eighth month Jin Gyeong, a chiliarch of Goryeo, came over and surrendered. He said, "In the fourth month of this year U meant to raid Liaodong, and had Choe Yeong, the chief military councillor, and Yi Seong-gye put the troops in order at the Western Capital. Seong-gye had Jin Gyeong camp at Aeju, but the grain did not keep up and he drew the army back. The king was angry and killed Seong-gye's son. Seong-gye turned his troops about, struck the royal city and broke it, and shut up the king and Yeong." Gyeong surrendered because he feared the harm would reach him. The emperor ordered Liaodong to keep strict guard and to send men to spy the matter out. In the tenth month U asked to yield the throne to his son Chang (昌). The emperor said, "I heard before that their king was shut up. This must be Seong-gye's plan. Let us wait a while and watch how it changes."

In the twenty-second year Chang, acting head of the state, memorialized asking to come to court, and the emperor did not allow it. In that year Seong-gye deposed Chang and set up Yo (瑤), the Prince of Jeongchang, who was King Gongyang. In the first month of the twenty-third year an envoy came to report it. In the third month of the twenty-fourth year an edict ordered horses to be bought in Goryeo. In the eighth month Yo, acting head of the state, presented fifteen hundred of the horses bought. The emperor said, "The lord and ministers of the Three Han have been at odds and in disorder for twenty-four years now. Now King Yo has succeeded and ascended the throne, and he is an offshoot of the house of Wang. It is fitting to send an envoy to comfort him." In the twelfth month Yo sent his son Seok (奭) to congratulate the New Year of the coming year. Before Seok had gone home, Seong-gye set himself up and took the country, and Yo went out to live at Wonju. The house of Wang had handed down the state from the Five Dynasties for several hundred years, and here it was cut off.

In the ninth month of the twenty-fifth year Jo Ban, administrator of the Security Council of Goryeo, and others came bearing the memorial of the state deliberative council. "Since King Gongmin of this country died there has been no heir. The powerful minister Yi In-in put Sin Don's son U in charge of the state. He was dark and cruel and loved killing, and went so far as to raise an army to invade the border. The great general Yi Seong-gye held that it could not be done and turned the army back. U, burdened with guilt and afraid, yielded the throne to his son Chang. The people of the country would not follow him, and they asked Lady An, the queen of King Gongmin, to choose Yo of the royal kin to take charge of the state. Four years have now passed. He is dark and perverse and trusts slander, and has harmed the old and meritorious. His son Seok is dull and without sense. The people of the country say that Yo is not fit to hold the altars of the land. Now, by Lady An's command, Yo has been sent back to his private house. Among the descendants of the house of Wang there is none who can bear what the people look for, and the hearts of men within and without all hang upon Seong-gye. Your servants, together with the people of the country and the elders, have raised Seong-gye up to take charge of the state. May the sage king grant his consent." The emperor held that Goryeo lay off in an eastern corner and was not for China to govern, and had the Ministry of Rites send word. "If you can indeed follow the way of heaven and meet the hearts of men, and open no quarrel on the border, then the coming and going of envoys will truly be your country's good fortune. What have I to blame?" In winter Seong-gye heard of the death of the imperial crown prince, and sent an envoy with a memorial of condolence, asking at the same time to change the name of the country. The emperor ordered that the old name be kept: Joseon (朝鮮).

In the second month of the twenty-sixth year an envoy presented more than nine thousand eight hundred horses, and more than nineteen thousand seven hundred bolts of silk and cotton cloth were ordered carried over to repay them. In the sixth month a memorial of thanks came with horses and local products, and the golden seal of the former King Gongmin was handed up as well. He asked to change his own name to Dan (旦), and it was allowed. In that month the Liaodong Regional Military Commission reported that the country of Joseon had drawn more than five hundred Jurchen into crossing the Amnok River in secret, meaning to raid. An envoy was therefore sent with an edict of instruction, setting out fortune and misfortune. When Dan received the edict he was in dread. He laid out his apology, sent up tribute, and put in chains and sent to Liaodong more than three hundred and eighty soldiers and commoners who had fled.