Joseon 6 — Jong, King Injo, and the end of the Ming朝鮮 六

In the fourth month of the third year the people of the country deposed Hon and set up his nephew Jong (倧), prince of Neungyang, who took charge of the affairs of state by the command of the queen of King Sogyeong. The State Council sent a dispatch to the supreme commander and the governor to report it on their behalf, and Wenlong sent a notice of it as well. Yuan Keli, governor of Denglai, said, "If Hon is truly without principle, the queen dowager should be allowed to set it out in full and wait for China to set up another." The memorial was kept in the palace. In the eighth month Queen Kim memorialized asking that Jong be invested, and Lin Yaoyu, minister of Rites, said: "On this deposing and setting up in Joseon, the ministers within and without have poured out their loyalty and their indignation. Some say his guilt should be proclaimed and a punitive force sent. Some say we should not be hasty to punish, but for the time being receive the tribute and look into how it came about. Some say he should be called to account by the great principle and the leaning of the people's feeling observed. Some say Jong should be told to strike the enemy and wash himself clean. In all these views there is something to be taken. But the only one who says that Hon truly went against virtue and that Jong struck down a rebellious subject and serves the court with a red heart is Wenlong alone. That Your Majesty should uphold Heaven and punish the traitor, and hold up the bonds of order, is the right law. Yet let it also be considered that they have always been called respectful and obedient and are quite unlike the other outer peoples. Send again upright and trustworthy ministers to meet with Wenlong, gather the ministers and people openly, and ask them again and again. When the sifting is clear, we shall ask for the sage decision once more." This was reported as allowed. In the twelfth month the Ministry of Rites said again: "Your servants earlier joined the Ministry of War in sending a communication to the governor of Denglai and a dispatch to commander Mao, to send officers to investigate. Now we have received twelve sworn statements sent up from that country, and from the royal kinsmen down to the ministers and people of the eight provinces all call Jong respectful and obedient. Their vassal ministers, too, lead one another in crying out in grief, saying that at such a moment of danger there must be a lord for the country. It is right first to send down a rescript of instruction ordering Jong to take charge of the affairs of state, and at the same time to have him send out troops and gather provisions, and with Wenlong set ambushes and put out surprise forces. When order begins to come by degrees, only then send a high minister to set the rites of investiture right. In that way, in cherishing the small we shall not lose the way of making our borders firm." This was followed. In the fourth month of the fourth year Jong was invested as king of the country.

In the twelfth month of the fifth year Wenlong reported: "Yi Gwal, Han Myeong-ryeon and other traitors of Joseon raised troops at Changseong and drove straight for the royal capital, and were taken by your servant. The remnants, Han Yun, Jeong Mae and others, fled into Jianzhou, and Yun Ui-rip of the left council promised to answer them from within, setting this winter for a great invasion of Joseon. Your servant has already sent word to the king to guard against it, and has moved the host at Cheolsan for the time being to Unjong Island for firewood and fuel." Wu Zhiwang, governor of Denglai, memorialized: "Commander Mao has since the fifth month been building quarters at Sumi, which is the place called Unjong Island. Now in the tenth month he has moved soldiers, people and traders over to fill it, and the land of Cheolsan is empty. So the several provinces of Joseon suspect him of crowding close upon them, and have gone so far as to spread troops to keep him off. The revolt of Yi Gwal and the rest, and the inward answering of Yun Ui-rip, which the commander speaks of, your servants too have faintly heard, but we dare not believe it at once. To believe it would only make the suspicion of the Joseon people heavier. Not to believe it, we fear, would leave a trouble for later." The Ministry of War said, "What holds the enemy state in check is Joseon. What links Joseon to us is the garrison of Mao. What guides the garrison of Mao is the governor of Denglai. Now the governor and the commander are at odds, so that the commander has come to be at odds with the vassal state. This is greatly against our interest." The emperor then charged the commander and the governor to be of one mind, and left Han Yun, Yun Ui-rip and the rest for Joseon to deal with itself. Jong also asked that the people of Liaodong be gathered up and settled in the central land. The Ministry of War said, "The going or staying of the people of Liao rests with Wenlong. So long as Wenlong does not leave for a single day, the people of Liao will not leave for a single day. The people of Joseon may drive them onto the islands, but they cannot drive them off the islands. The commander should be ordered to comb out all the people of Liao and move them to the islands, and the governor of Denglai should set a term for shipping grain to Joseon and give relief in measure, to provide the means for farming and grazing." The emperor held this to be right.

In the tenth month of the sixth year Jong sent up a memorial.

"The favor with which the imperial court has covered and sheltered this small country has been as though we were within its own borders. Not long ago the country fell to a dark and disordered ruler, who secretly dealt with the enemy state; and august Heaven was moved to anger and sent down the stripping away of his mandate. From the first days when I took charge of the state in trust I did not dare to sit at ease. At once I named the vassal minister Jang Man commander in chief with Yi Gwal as his second, gave over to them the picked troops of the country, had them advance and encamp at Yeongbyeon, and follow the orders of the garrison of Mao in everything while awaiting the day for a joint attack. But Gwal, with heavy forces in his grasp, secretly nursed a covetous design, and at last, with Myeong-ryeon, prefect of Guseong, raised troops in revolt within and drove straight against the capital. Man gathered the remaining troops and followed close behind them, and together with the government troops around the capital caught them front and back and attacked, and the rebels all gave up their heads. Yet the war stores of the western border and the stockpiles of the several garrisons were spent to the last in this fighting.

The garrison of Mao, after the whole of Liao had sunk away, crossed east with a lone army and lodged upon the sea, gathering the people of Liao, several hundred thousand of them first and last, and this too is something the small country looks to and leans upon. Yet with troubles many on our borders, the soil poor and the people needy, we supply the military needs of our own country within and help feed the garrison troops without. What grain grows has its limit, and the issuing of it is truly hard. The people of Liao, driven by hunger, scatter through the villages, the strong seizing and the weak begging. The soldiers and people of the small country cannot bear the harrying, and abandon their home towns and move into the interior, while the people of Liao follow their food and come in after them. From Changseong and Uiju southward and from Anju and Sukcheon northward, six or seven in ten are newcomers and three or four are the native folk. Some time ago I set out this state of things in full, and I see that the Ministry of War has reported back and the disposition is already settled. How should I dare to trespass on it again.

As for Han Yun and his younger brother Dam, they are son and nephew of the traitor Myeong-ryeon, and fled and hid themselves, and from there drew in others and came raiding. Since the rebels had already turned against the country and gone, the command over them no longer rests with me. Yun Ui-rip once served as a minister of one of the ministries and was never of the State Council. In a past year he was appointed escort officer to the garrison of Mao, and being unequal to the charge was stripped of office and went home, and there was no matter of resentment or revolt. The garrison of Mao relied on what Wang Zhongbao and others complained of, and there is no substance in it at all. I think there must be some slanderous and crooked minister who has deceived the supreme commander and the governor and is selling his scheme to set us against each other.

Commander Mao has long held his garrison beyond the sea, and I have gone about with him for nearly ten years. Though the food has run dry and both sides are hard pressed alike, the warmth of our good faith has truly not lessened in the least. And his move to Sumi was only to protect the heavy baggage and to go where firewood is near. To advance once and fall back once is the common business of soldiers. Though false talk buzzed thick, I paid it no mind. But I have seen in the communications of the ministry and the governor such words as 'we fear he crowds close upon them,' and 'they drive off his people, they drive off his commander,' and even 'they spread troops to keep him off, the vassal state is of two minds.' It would seem the state of things beyond the sea is not yet fully understood. My asking that the people of Liao be combed out and sent over came of my strength not being enough to save them, and was not at all out of any thought that they crowd close upon us. I am at this moment of one mind and one strength with the garrison of Mao, to build merit and repay my lord. How should I dare hold so much as a hair's breadth of a suspicious or guarded thought?"

The emperor replied: "The king is in accord with the eastern garrison and holds the central court in love and reverence, and the sincerity of his loyalty and constancy runs over beyond his words. The garrison army has long hung there, and the people of Joseon and of Liao live mixed together. The guest stays long and the host is worn, what is born is little and the eaters are many. Without the king's words I would have failed to see clearly, sitting here, what lies ten thousand li away. Yet commander Mao is to the central court an army that holds the enemy in check, and to the king's country he is as the lips to the teeth. As for the hauling of fodder over the sea, I have already ordered the ministry concerned to plan it out and set a term for shipping supplies. As for the border people who have fled the troubles, I have also ordered commander Mao to give his whole mind to dealing with them, so that they are not a burden to the king a second time. Words falsely passed along are not worth taking to heart. Join your strength and make your minds one, and let the king apply himself."

In the third month of the seventh year the Ministry of War sent up a dispatch from Wenlong: "The officials and people of Goryeo called in the enemy to attack Cheolsan. A thousand of our soldiers were hurt, sixty thousand Goryeo soldiers were killed, more than a million measures of grain were burned, and the enemy have now moved their troops to attack Goryeo." The emperor charged Wenlong to watch for his chance and go to their support. Li Song, governor of Denglai, memorialized: "Han Yun and the other rebellious ministers of Joseon led the enemy into Anju. The military commissioner Nam I-heung burned himself to death, and Wang Sangui, regional military commissioner of the Chinese relief force, and the rest all fell in battle." Then he memorialized again: "Uiju and Gwaksan and the fortress of Neunghan are all broken, Pyongyang and Hwangju collapsed of themselves without a fight, and the enemy troops have come straight to Junghwa. Their roving horse go in and out between Hwangju and Bongsan, and a part has turned toward Unjong to attack and plunder commander Mao. The king and his gentry and people have moved to Ganghwa to escape the trouble." At that time the troops of the Great Qing brought down every place they came to, and the walled towns of Joseon broke and fled at the mere sight of them. So an envoy was sent to instruct Jong, and Jong offered his submission, and the army was then brought home. In the ninth month Jong memorialized on the state of the country after the fighting. At that time Xizong had died and the Zhuanglie emperor had come to the throne, and he encouraged Jong with a generous edict.

In the second year of Chongzhen the two tribute missions a year were changed to one. Before this, the road through Liaodong was blocked, and the tribute envoys had taken their road by Dengzhou and Laizhou for more than ten years already. After Yuan Chonghuan became supreme commander he proposed changing it to Juehua, and as the way went round about and ran into danger, that country asked again and again to have the old road back. Now they sent Jeong Du-won, minister of Revenue, who came by the sea to Dengzhou and sent a letter to Sun Yuanhua, governor of Denglai, entrusting him with setting out the request. Yuanhua had an officer see him off and duly reported it by memorial. The emperor held that since there was a settled order for the sea road, changing the way came near to suiting their own convenience, and did not allow it. In the sixth month of that year the supreme commander Yuan Chonghuan killed Mao Wenlong, general who pacified Liao and left chief military commissioner, at Shuangdao.

In the sixth month of the sixth year Jong sent a letter to the regional commander Huang Long, saying, "Kong Youde and Geng Zhongming, old commanders of Wenlong, have led twenty thousand soldiers over in submission to the Great Qing, and have demanded grain from Joseon. This country, because Youde and the rest were in past days a trouble to it while they were on Pido, has not answered them." Long reported it.

In the first month of the tenth year Emperor Taizong Wen led a campaign against Joseon in person, calling it to account for breaking the covenant and helping the Ming, and the walled towns all collapsed. Joseon reported the emergency, and the regional commander Chen Hongfan was ordered to muster the fleets of the several garrisons and hurry to its aid. In the third month Hongfan memorialized that the officers and men had put to sea. A few days later Yan Jizu, governor of Shandong, memorialized that the vassal state had lost its hold, that Ganghwa was already broken, the crown prince taken and the king come out and surrendered, and that they were now fitting out ships and warships on a great scale and coming to attack Pido and Cheolsan, and their edge was very keen. He asked that a rescript go at once to Shen Shikui and Chen Hongfan, the two regional commanders, making the firm holding of Pido their first duty. The emperor held that Jizu had failed to plan with the others and set matters right and save them, and reproved him sharply. Before long Pido too was broken by the troops of the Great Qing, and Joseon was thereupon cut off, and in not many years the Ming also fell.

Joseon was called a vassal state under the Ming, yet it was no different from within the borders. So its tribute missions came one after another and the gifts bestowed on it were frequent, more than could well be written down. Only what bears on order and disorder has been set out in this chapter. As for the country's land and climate and its products, these are fully recorded in the earlier histories and are not set down again here.