Joseon 3 — The disputed lineage and the Imjin War朝鮮 三

In the beginning, when Seong-gye set himself up, he and the chief minister Yi In-in were of different families. Yet in the Yongle years the prayer text sent down for the sacrifices to the seas and the mountains called Seong-gye the son of In-in, and the Ancestral Instructions (祖訓) also recorded that Seong-gye, son of In-in, had changed his name to Dan. Later Seong-gye's son Bangwon memorialized in explanation, and Taizong allowed it to be corrected. But now, when the Collected Statutes of the Great Ming (大明會典) was being compiled, the words of the Ancestral Instructions were still set under the entry for the kingdom of Joseon. The tribute envoys bought a copy and brought it home, and Yeok sent up a memorial that set out the line of descent (世系) in full, explained that his forebears had done no regicide, and begged that it be corrected. The Ministry of Rites deliberated: "The Collected Statutes records the institutions of this dynasty in detail, and where foreign countries are concerned it leaves out whatever is doubtful. Moreover Seong-gye gained the kingdom at the command of the imperial founder, and that he is not descended from In-in can be proved by the edict of Taizong. His request should be granted." The edict said, "It may be so."

In the winter of the fifteenth year an officer of the inner palace was ordered to invest Yeok's son Ho (峼) as crown prince. Yeok was given gold, silk, pearls and jade, and was made to gather rare things and boys and girls and send them up. In the sixteenth year Shizong ascended the throne, and the officers of rites said: "The Son of Heaven has just taken the throne. He should set right the dignity of China and cut off the beginnings of any slighting of the outer lands. Let Yeok be told that this was not the intent of the court, let the palace servants be called back, and let nothing be sought or taken." The emperor followed this.

In the eighth month of the second year of Jiajing, Wa captives (倭夷) that had been taken were presented, and with them eight men of China who had been carried off were sent back. White silver, brocade and ramie were given in return.

In the eighth month of the eighth year the vassal minister Yu Bu said: "Yi Dan, the founder of our kingdom (國祖), was a man of Jeonju in this country. Han (翰), his ancestor in the twenty-eighth generation, served Silla and became Minister of Works. When Silla fell, Geung-hyu, his descendant in the sixth generation, went into Goryeo. Ansa, his descendant in the thirteenth generation, served Yuan and became darughachi of the chiliarchy of Nanjing. At the end of Yuan, when war broke out, Ansa's great-grandson Ja-chun fled the troubles with his son Seong-gye and moved east. In the sinchuk year of Zhizheng, the tenth year of King Gongmin, the Red Turban bandits entered the borders. Seong-gye struck them and gained merit and was given a post in the military ranks, though his name was not yet known. King Gongmin had no heir, and secretly reared U, the son of his favored minister Sin Don, as his own son; in his later years he was killed by his favorite Hong Ryun and the palace servant Choe Man-saeng. The powerful minister Yi In-in cut down Ryun and Man-saeng, set up U, and raised Seong-gye to be Chancellor. U sent Seong-gye to invade Liaodong, but Seong-gye would not obey and turned his troops back. U in fear yielded the throne to his son Chang; Chang was cast out as bearing a false surname, and Yo, Prince Jeongchang, a descendant of the house of Wang, was set up in his stead, and In-in was banished beyond the borders. When Yo too proved lawless, the people of the country upheld Seong-gye and asked the Gao Emperor to set him up as king. He changed his name to Dan, and kept Yo in a separate residence to the end of his days; in truth there was never any regicide. In the Yongle and the Zhengde years this was memorialized again and again and each time granted, yet to this day it has not been corrected. Now that the Collected Statutes is being compiled anew, I beg that it be cleared and made bright." By edict it was sent to the Bureau of History (史館) to be put into the compilation.

In the second month of the eighteenth year Ruizong was enshrined in the Grand Temple, and the rite of joint offering at the Hall of Light was completed. Yeok sent up a memorial of congratulation. The emperor went in person to the Fengtian Gate to receive his envoy, and a banquet was given at the Ministry of Rites.

In the winter of the twenty-third year Yeok died. In the first month of the twenty-fourth year the notice of his death came, and the posthumous name Gonghui (恭僖) was bestowed, and by edict his son Ho, King Injong, was set up. Ho died before the year was out, and the posthumous name Yeongjeong (榮靖) was bestowed. In the ninth month Hwan (峘), King Myeongjong, the younger brother of Ho and acting ruler of the kingdom, sent an envoy to give thanks for the sacrifice and the posthumous name, and at the same time asked to succeed to the investiture. By edict it was allowed.

In the twenty-fifth year Hwan sent an envoy to bring more than six hundred foreign men (番人) who had drifted on the sea to the border, and gold and silk were given him. In the first month of the twenty-sixth year Hwan said in a dispatch: "In former days no man of Fujian ever crossed the sea and came to this country. But of those who set out to trade with Japan and were driven off by the wind, more than a thousand have been taken here, first and last. All of them carried weapons and goods, so that even the firearms of China have fallen to the Wa. We fear this may open the way to war." The edict said: "Of late the lawless people of the coast have broken the ban, and in Fujian worst of all. Again and again they are seized by foreign countries, to the injury of the dignity of the state. Let the officials of the sea routes (海道) be looked into and reported on by the touring censor. And let silver and silk be given to the king, to make his loyalty known."

In the winter of the thirty-first year, saying that the instruments of music given in the Hongwu and Yongle years had worn out and could no longer be used, he memorialized for pitch-pipes (律管), and begged further that officers of music be sent to the capital to be taught. It was allowed.

In the fifth month of the thirty-fifth year four Wa ships, beaten back from Zhejiang and Zhili, drifted into Joseon territory. Hwan sent troops, who struck them and killed them all, and he took more than thirty men — men of China who had been captured, and men who had helped the rebels — and presented them, offering at the same time his congratulations on the winter solstice. The emperor sent down a letter under seal, praising and instructing him. In the eleventh month of the thirty-eighth year he memorialized: "In the fifth month of this year Wa raiders came to the coast with twenty-five ships. Your servant ordered his general Yi Tak and others to cut them down, and they killed almost all of them and recovered more than three hundred people of China, Chen Chun and the rest. From among these we picked out sixteen men, Chen De and the rest, who had dealt with the Wa and gone before them as guides, and we present them all beneath the palace gate." Again a rescript came down in encouragement, with rich gifts of silver and silk, and gifts to Tak and the others in due measure.

In the ninth month of the forty-second year Hwan again sent up a letter explaining that his forebears were not descended from Yi In-in. This compiling of the Collected Statutes had already put the matter right, but he begged that the names of his first ancestor Dan and of Dan's father Ja-chun be entered as well, and the emperor ordered that they be recorded in an appendix to the Collected Statutes.

In the sixth month of the first year of Longqing an officer was sent to proclaim the edict of accession. At that time the emperor was about to go to the Grand Academy, and the envoy who had come begged to stay and observe the rite (觀禮). It was allowed. In the winter of that year Hwan died. The posthumous name Gongheon (恭憲) was bestowed, and his nephew Yeon (昖), King Seonjo, was ordered to succeed to the investiture.

In the first month of the first year of Wanli the rites were completed for offering the honorific posthumous title of Muzong and the honorary titles of the two palaces. Yeon sent up a memorial of congratulation and presented local products and horses. At that time Yeon had asked again and again for the gift of the Collected Statutes of the Great Ming, to clear the wrong done to his ancestor King Gangheon, Dan. In the first month of the sixteenth year the Collected Statutes was finished, and as it happened the tribute envoy Yu Hong was in the capital; he asked that the book be given him and the earlier command thus carried through, and it was allowed. In the eleventh month of the seventeenth year the vassal minister Gi Chim and others came to offer congratulations at the winter solstice, and reported that in the sixth month of that year a ship of the Great Ryukyu kingdom had met the wind and come to their coast, and that the men and women aboard should all be sent up to the capital. They were given papers and let go home.

In the eleventh month of the nineteenth year it was reported that the Wa chieftain, the kanpaku Hideyoshi, was giving out that he would invade in the third month of the coming year, and by edict the Ministry of War was told to tighten the coastal defenses again. This Hideyoshi was a man of Satsuma province. At first he followed Nobunaga, the kanpaku of the Wa; and when Nobunaga was killed by one of his own men, Hideyoshi took over Nobunaga's troops, called himself kanpaku, and forced more than sixty provinces to surrender. Joseon and the island of Tsushima in Japan look across at each other, and Wa people were always coming and going to trade. In the fifth month of the summer of the twentieth year Hideyoshi sent out his chief commanders Konishi Yukinaga, Katō Kiyomasa and the rest, who led a fleet up to the fort at Busan and crossed the Imjin River in secret. Joseon had long been at peace and its troops were unpracticed in war, and Yeon was sunk in drink and had let the defenses slacken; so when the island barbarians suddenly rose, the men of Joseon broke and fled at the mere sight of them. Yeon abandoned the royal city, left his second son Hon (琿) to take charge of the affairs of state, and fled to Pyeongyang. Soon he fled again to Uiju, and wished to be taken into the empire (內屬). In the seventh month the Ministry of War advised that he hold the strong points and wait for the imperial army, and call the whole country to arms in the king's cause and so seek to win the land back. But by that time the Wa had entered the royal capital, broken open the tombs, seized the princes and the vassal ministers, and plundered the treasuries, and nearly all of the eight provinces had fallen; morning or evening they would cross the Amnok, and the envoys begging for relief followed one another on the road. The court judged that Joseon was the hedge of the empire and must be fought for. The messenger Xue Pan was sent to instruct Yeon in the great duty of restoration, and word was spread abroad that a great army of a hundred thousand was about to arrive. Yet the Wa had already reached Pyeongyang, and the king of Joseon and his ministers, more pressed than ever, went out to take refuge at Aeju. Shi Ru and other mobile corps commanders led troops to Pyeongyang and died fighting. Zu Chengxun, an assistant regional commander, led troops across the Amnok to their relief and barely escaped with his life.

The court of China (中朝) was shaken, and Song Yingchang was made supreme commander. In the eighth month the Wa entered Pungdeok and the districts near it. Shi Xing, the minister of War, could find no plan, and it was proposed to send someone to spy them out; at this Shen Weijing, a man of Jiaxing, answered the call. This Weijing was a good-for-nothing of the marketplace. At that time Hideyoshi was staying at Tsushima, and had set Yukinaga and his other generals to hold the strong points in support. Weijing came to Pyeongyang and bore himself with the lowest courtesy, and Yukinaga deceived him, saying: "If the Heavenly Court will be so good as to hold its troops and not move, we shall go back before long. Let the Daedong River be the boundary, and all west of Pyeongyang shall belong to Joseon." Weijing reported this. The court judged that the treachery of the Wa could not be trusted, and urged Yingchang and the rest to advance. But Xing was quite taken in by Weijing, and memorialized to make him a mobile corps commander and send him to the front, and asked besides for gold to sow division with. In the twelfth month Li Rusong was made commander of the eastern expedition. In the first month of the next year Rusong urged on his generals, advanced and gave battle, and won a great victory at Pyeongyang; and Yukinaga crossed the Daedong River and fled back to Yongsan. The four provinces that had been lost, Hwanghae, Pyeongan, Gyeonggi and Gangwon, were all recovered, and Kiyomasa too fled back to the royal capital. Rusong, following up his victory, galloped with light horse to Byeokjegwan, was beaten, and fell back to camp at Gaeseong. The matter is given in full in the life of Rusong.

At first, when Rusong swore in his army, he wished to behead Weijing, and stopped only at the words of his staff officer Li Yingshi. Now that he had been beaten his spirit was low; Yingchang too was in haste for success, and the Wa, short of food, had a mind to go home. Out of this arose the talk of investiture and tribute. Yingchang got hold of the letter the Wa had sent back to Weijing, and thereupon ordered the mobile corps commander Zhou Hongmo to go with Weijing and tell the Wa that if they gave up the royal capital and sent back the princes, they would be let go home as agreed. And the Wa did abandon the royal city and slip away in the fourth month. At that the old lands of Joseon for more than a thousand li south of the Han River were settled again, and the Ministry of War said that the king should be sent back to his country to hold it, and that the troops of the several garrisons, long worn out beyond the sea, would best be withdrawn in turn. By edict it was allowed. Yingchang memorialized: "Busan lies at the southern edge of the sea, yet it is still Joseon territory. If the Wa watch for the withdrawal and burst in to invade again, Joseon cannot hold out, and all that has been gained will be thrown away. The best plan now is to detach troops to help hold it; and even if withdrawal is decided on, we should wait a little, and leave a measured force on guard when the Wa have all gone home." The Board decided to leave five thousand troops of Jiang and Zhe, posted in detachments at the strong points, and Yeon was told to gather and drill his own forces and not to lean on help from outside. Presently Shen Weijing came back from Busan and came with a Wa envoy to ask for terms. Yet the Wa at once raided Haman and Jinju, pressed upon Jeolla, gave out that they would take back everything south of the Han River, and proposed the royal capital and the Han River as the boundary. Rusong, reckoning that Jeolla was rich land and that the prefecture of Namwon was its throat, ordered his generals to divide and hold the strong points. Presently the Wa did attack at several points, and the Ming troops took heads and captives at each. Zhang Fuzhi, supervising secretary for war, and Zhao Yao, censor in chief of Liaodong, both said that the offer of submission and tribute must not be lightly accepted. In the seventh month the Wa moved from Busan to Seosaengpo and sent back the princes and the vassal ministers.

By then the troops had long been out in the open, and when word of a withdrawal got about they could hardly be held much longer. Yingchang asked that Liu Ting's Sichuan troops and the southern troops of Wu Weizhong, Luo Shangzhi and the rest be kept and joined with the troops of Ji and Liao, making sixteen thousand in all, and that Ting be allowed to post them about Daegu in Gyeongsang, with a monthly pay of fifty thousand taels supplied by the two boards of Revenue and War. Before this, what had been paid out of the privy purse for the costs of the war already ran to a million. The ministers of the court said that to empty the inside in order to fill the outside was no lasting plan, and asked that Ting be ordered to drill the Sichuan troops left behind and that Joseon itself provide their supplies. So by edict the troops of Weizhong and the rest were withdrawn, and only Ting's troops were left on guard; and the crown prince of Joseon, Jin (珒), Prince Imhae, was told to reside in Jeolla and Gyeongsang, and Gu Yangqian was made supreme commander.

In the ninth month Yeon, saying that the three capitals were recovered and the borders of his realm made anew, sent up a memorial of thanks. Yet even then the Wa still held Busan, and Shi Xing was more single-minded than ever for a settlement. In the ninth month Zeng Weifang, a secretary in the Ministry of War, said: "The kanpaku's great host has already gone back, and only Yukinaga stays and waits. He knows that our troops have not withdrawn, and so does not dare add one more arrow. If he would go back, report to the kanpaku and come again in force, the winds are against him and the deep winter cold is bitter. So he will go whether we settle or not. When Shen Weijing talked of a settlement in the Wa camp before, Haman and Jinju fell one after the other; if we mean to lean on a settlement and hope they will not attack next year, then to hurry the settlement is only to hurry their coming. So they will come whether we settle or not. Joseon should be made to hold itself: to mourn its dead and comfort its orphans, to drill troops and store grain, and so seek strength of its own." The emperor held this to be right, and the rescript sent down to Yeon upon it was most earnest.