WORKS BY WM. ELLIOT GRIFFIS
THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE
JAPANESE FAIRY WORLD
COREA, THE HERMIT NATION
MATTHEW CALBRAITH PERRY
COEE A
THE HERMIT NATION
I.— ANCIENT AND MEDLEY AL HISTORY
II.— POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CORE A
III.— MODERN AND RECENT HISTORY
BY
WILLIAM ELLIOT GRIFFIS
LATE OP THE IMPERIAL UNIVERSITY OP TOKIO, JAPAN
AUTHOR OP "THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE"
FOURTH EDITION
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1894
DATE
SEEN BY
PRESERVATION
SERVICES
DEC 2 0 19*1
COPTRIOHT, 1882, 1888, BY
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS.
TO
ALL COREAN PATRIOTS:
WHO SEEK
BY THE AID OP SCIENCE, TRUTH, AND PURE RELIGION,
TO ENLIGHTEN
THEMSELVES AND THEIR FELLOW-COUNTRYMEN,
TO RID
THEIR LAND OP SUPERSTITION, BIGOTRY, DESPOTISM, AND
PRIESTCRAFT— BOTH NATIVE AND FOREIGN—
AND TO PRESERVE
THE INTEGRITY, INDEPENDENCE, AND HONOR, OP THEIR COUNTRY ;
THIS UNWORTHY SKETCH
OP
THEIR PAST HISTORY AND PRESENT CONDITION
IS DEDICATED.
PREFACE TO THE THIED EDITIOK
THE reception of this work, both in the United States and Eu-
rope, as well as ia the East, has been most kindly. From those
btst able to criticise it ' thoroughly, by having made themselves
fa uiliar by travel in the interior of Corea beyond the ports and
capital, have come gratifying words of high appreciation. Of
course errors have been pointed out, and these, wherever proved,
have been corrected in the present edition. The publishers have
al^o generously permitted the introduction of new matter, in the
form of foot-notes, and the addition of a supplementary chapter.
The author returns hearty thanks to Ensign G. C. Foulke and
Lieutenant J. G. Bernadon, United States Navy ; General Lucius
H Foote, Mr. Pierre L. Jouy, Rev. Horace C. Underwood, Dr. H.
N. Allen, Mr. W. G. Aston, Mr. Percival Lowell, Mr. W. R. Carles,
R')v. Henry Loomis, Soh Kwang Pom, Yu Kil Jun, Pien Su, and
the other naval officers, natives, travellers, missionaries, and resi-
de nts in Corea who have aided him with their criticisms, or infor-
mition. He will be grateful if others will point out inaccuracies.
Ha is heartily glad that others have entered the field to awaken in-
terest in the once "hermit nation," which is soon to become, let
u^ hope, civilized, social, and Christian.
W. E. G.
BOSTON, June 30, 1888.
PREFATORY NOTES TO SECOND EDITION.
THE publishers have informed the author of their intention to
issue an edition of the present work in a cheaper form. By their
courtesy, he would improve the opportunity to add a few words of
comment upon our present knowledge of Corea, and upon affairs
in Cho-sen since the treaty was made with the United States.
Concerning the first matter there is little to be said. A con-
siderable number of naval, diplomatic, missionary, and commercial
visitors from America and Europe have visited the Corean capital
and parts adjacent. Few of them have gone beyond beaten
tracks ; and, owing to recent political disorders, thorough research
has as yet hardly begun. We look, however, for results of value
from the presence of the American missionaries and the scientific
commission now in the country. We have not, therefore, made
any addition to our text.
The reception of this work, both in this country and Europe,
has been most kindly. Since its issue, in October, 1882, several
events of interest have occurred, of which we here take note.
The treaty negotiated by Commodore Slmfeldt was duly ratified
by the United States Senate, and on February 26, 1883, Presi-
dent Arthur sent in the name of Lucius H. Foote as minister
plenipotentiary to Corea. The appointment was confirmed on
the following day. General Foote reached -Chi-mul-po, in the
U. S. Steamship Monocacy, May 13th, and the formal ratifications
of the treaty were exchanged in the capital six days later.
The guns of the Monocacy — the same which shelled the Han forts
in 1870 — fired the first salute ever given to the Corean flag.
The king responded by sending to the United States an em-
bassy of eleven persons, led by Min Yong Ik and Hong Yong Sik,
members respectively of the Conservative and Liberal parties.
Their interview with President Arthur was in the parlors of the
PREFATORY NOTES TO SECOND EDITION. ix
Futh Avenue Hotel, New York, on September 17th. All the
Ccreans were dressed in their national costume, which they wore
habitually while in America. After spending some weeks in the
study of American institutions in several cities, part of the embassy
returned home by way of San Francisco, leaving one of their num-
ber at Salem, Mass., to remain as a student ; while Min Yong Ik
and two secretaries embarked on the U. S. Steamship Trenton, and,
afcer visiting Europe, reached Seoul in June, 1884 The author
spent a most profitable and pleasant evening, November 27th, with
the three Coreans before they left New York. Many questions con-
cerning their country were discussed. Mr. Everett Fraser, No. 123
Front Street, New York City, now acts as his Corean majesty's
cc nsul-general in the United States.
On that same evening, November 27, 1883, there was a banquet
in the Corean capital to celebrate the signing of the treaties made
the day before with Great Britain and Germany. Sir Harry Parkes
and Herr Zappe had succeeded in negotiating conventions which
are even more liberal in their provisions than that made with the
United States. The principal foreign adviser of the Corean gov-
ernment since 1882 has been Herr Paul von Mollenforf, whom the
Coreans employed at the suggestion of Li Hung Chang. Italy and
Eussia have also entered into diplomatic relations with Corea.
Cther evidences of the influence of the West upon Corea were the
opening of a telegraph-office at Fusan, February 28, 1884, on the
completion of the submarine electric cable from Nagasaki, the emis-
sion of native silver coins, and the inauguration of light-house and
postal systems.
While everything seemed to promise well for the nascent civili-
zation imported from Christendom, the political situation was one
fraught with danger. The military camps of two rival, almost hos-
tile, nations were upon the soil. A Corean Liberal declares that
the sending of Chinese troops to Corea in 1882 was the work of
two or three Chinese leaders, under the pretext of protecting China
from Kussian invasion. Their real, but secret, purpose was, he de-
clares, to prevent the Coreans from adopting western civilization.
'The seed of the riot [of December 4-6, 1884] was sown by Chi-
i ese barbarism, and ripened by Chinese cruelty."
X PREFATORY NOTES TO SECOND EDITION.
The affair was in its origin a popular demonstration, instigated
by Radical Progressives against Chinese influence as exhibited by
a rapacious and undisciplined soldiery. It took the form of a mur-
derous attack upon the conservative or pro-Chinese ministers of the
court, five or six of whom were slain. During the excitement an
angry mob surrounded the palace, and the king sent for the pro-
tection of the Japanese legation-guards. The Chinese military re-
sented this, moved on the royal residence, and a collision was pre-.
cipitated, in which several tens of men were killed. A bloody battle
ensued, and the Japanese, greatly outnumbered, retreated in good
order to their legation. This building was besieged by the mob,
and finally deserted by the Japanese, who, with all their country-
men, left the city for Chi-mul-po. The legation, which had cost
$80,000, and the army stores were, with much other property in
the city, fired by the rioters. The foreigners in Seoul took refuge
in General Foote's house, and soon afterward left for Chi-mul-po.
Dr. H. N. Allen, the American surgeon, was kept busy for weeks
in attendance upon the victims wounded in the rioting, num-
bering about one hundred. The house of Hong Yong Sik, who
had been beheaded by the Chinese, was by government order
turned into a hospital, or " House of Civilized Virtue," and pat in
charge of Dr. Allen. Ensign George W. Foulk and Lieutenant J.
B. Bernadon, of the U. S. Navy, remained in the legation during
the exodus of foreigners from Seoul, our flag not being lowered at
any time. Mr. Foulk writes under date of June, 1885 : " In
Corea, I used it ["Corea, the Hermit Nation,"] as a field book ;
but in the disturbances of December last, my house was looted by
the mob, and all my effects carried off. The library of the palace
was lost at the same time ; so that I must infer the book you sent
to His Majesty was also lost."
The Corean Government has recently made claim upon that of
Japan for the extradition of the Liberals who had fled to the lat-
ter country — a demand very properly refused. Three of these
refugees arrived in San Francisco, June 11, 1885. Their names are
Pak Yong Ho, a nobleman, and envoy to Japan in 1881 ; So Kwang
Pom, secretary to the embassy to the United States in 1883 ; and
Sai Jai Pil, a graduate of the Tokio Military Academy. All were
PEEFATORY NOTES TO SECOND EDITION. XI
m< Ambers of the Liberal ministry overthrown, in December last,
during the tumult.
Negotiations between China and Japan relative to the affair of
December, 1884, were carried on between the Mikado's Ambassador
Ito and Li Hung Chang, at Tientsin. They resulted in a treaty,
which was formally ratified May 7, 1885. Both powers agreed to
withdraw their troops within four months, and to invite the King
of Corea to have a sufficient military force drilled for the public
security by officers selected from a third power (probably the
United States). The text of the treaty was published May 27th.
The attention of Christian people is now being concentrated
ujon Corea as a missionary field. With commendable promptness
no less than ten American missionaries are, at this writing, either
already in their field, or on the route thither. A number of native
refugees in Japan are under Christian influences, and are earnest
inquirers. Some are pronounced believers, and one Rijiutei is trans-
lalingthe Bible into his native language. Three representative men
are now among us, in our own land, studying our country and the
faith of her people. The Corean character seems to be a happy
medium between the stolid Chinaman and the changeable Japanese.
With the memory of recent martyrdoms, Corea may become Chris-
tian sooner and more thoroughly than Japan, and aid in the mighty
work of evangelizing China. This is the faith held by some who
h&ve studied the three peoples.
The feeling of the progressive men of Corea concerning them-
selves and ourselves finds expression in a recent letter from one of
their number. These sentiments may fitly conclude our introduc-
tory words to an edition of a book designed to 'make our new
treaty-neighbor better known :
"We are the weakest nation in the orient, on account of our
hr.ving been for thousands of years in a hermit condition."
"We are a new-born nation, and but three years of age."
" If we should reckon our national age, in regard to our political
relations to other nations in the world, it would begin from the
treaty that we made with the United States."
SCHENECTADY, N. Y., July 6, 1885.
PREFACE.
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 Kogo, Ojin, and Takenouchi, whose names in Japanese tra-
ditions 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 A.D. 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 produ-
cing 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 Cho-sen, while in the
villages, where dwelt the Eta, or social outcasts, I beheld the de-
scendants of Corean prisoners of war. Everywhere the finger of
tradition pointed westward across the waters to the Asian main-
land, 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 thing"1
PREFACE. Xlll
in the arts, and doctrines and systems in religion were in some way
connected with Corea.
The thought often came to me as I walked within the moss-
gr3wn feudal castle walls — old in story, but then newly given up
to schools of Western science and languages — why should Corea be
seiiled and mysterious, when Japan, once a hermit, had opened her
dcors and come out into the world's market-place ? When would
Corea's awakening come? As one diamond cuts another, why
should not Cho-ka (Japan) open Cho-sen (Corea) ?
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
m iterials for the story of the last of the hermit nations. No mas-
te L* of research in China or Japan having attempted the task, from
wiiat 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? "
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
bofore the Christian era to the present year. As "an honest tale
speeds best, being plainly told," I have made no attempt to em-
bellish the narrative, though I have sought information from
sources from within and without Corea, in maps and charts, coins
ai id pottery, the language and art, notes and narratives of eye-wit-
nosses, pencil-sketches, paintings and photographs, the standard
histories of Japan and China, the testimony of sailor and diploma-
tist, 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
IV Modern History," part TTT., has been greatly abridged, and many
t< >pics of interest have been left untouched.
The bulk of the text was written between the years 1877 and
PREFACE.
1880 ; since vvhich time the literature of the subject has been en-
riched by Ross's "Corea" and " Corean Primer," besides the Gram-
mar 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 ob-
tain much needed data. I have borrowed largely from Ballet's
" Histoire d'Eglise de Coree," especially in the chapters devoted to
Folk-lore, Social Life, and Christianity. In the Bibliography fol-
lowing the Preface is a list of works to which I have been more
or less indebted.
Many friends have assisted me with correspondence, advice, or
help in translation, among whom I must first thank my former stu-
dents, Hasegawa, Hiraii, Haraguchi, Matsui, and Imadatte, 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 Kioto and Tokio, 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 th^
United States Transit of Venus Survey, for four photographs ol
the Corean villages in Russian Manchuria ; Mr. R. Ideura, of Tokio,
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 Stakes 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 informa-
tion, 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
PREFACE.
XV
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 Tokio, Dr. D. B. McCartee, Hon. David Murray, Kev.
J. L. Amerman, and others whose names I need not mention. To
G<m. George W. McCullum, Vice-President, and to Mr. Leopold Lin-
da u, 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
pi ogress of the work.
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
widen he has travelled. With the various reports of many wit-
nesses, in many times and places, before him, he views the whole
subject and reduces the many impressions of detail to unity, cor-
recting one by the other. Travellers usually see but a portion of
the country at one time. The compiler, if able even in part to con-
trol his authorities, and if anything more than a tyro in the art
of literary appraisement, may be able to furnish a hand-book of in-
formation more valuable to the general reader.
In the use of my authorities I have given heed to Bacon's ad-
vice— tasting some, chewing others, and swallowing few. In ancient
history, original authorities have been sought, and for the story of
noodern 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.
Corean and Japanese life, customs, beliefs, and history are often
n (flections one of the other. Much of what is reported from Corea,
which the eye-witnesses themselves do not appear to understand,
i^ perfectly clear to one familiar with Japanese life and history.
China, Corea, and Japan are as links in the same chain of civil-
isation. Corea, like Cyprus between Egypt and Greece, will yet
PREFACE.
supply many missing details to the comparative student of language,
art, science, the development of civilization, and the distribution ol
life on the globe.
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 deter-
mine 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, Koman,
Greek or Eeformed, 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 in-
terest.
W. E. G.
SCHENECTADY, N. Y., October 2, 1883.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
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
iuc.ebted are marked with an asterisk (*) ; those to which slight obligation, if
an;r, is acknowledged with a double asterisk ; and those which he has not
consulted, with a dagger (f). See also under THE COREAN LANGUAGE and
CARTOGRAPHY, in the Appendix.
* 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 A.D.), by a Chinese scholar of
the fifth century, has been translated into English by Mr. Alexander
Wylie, and printed in the Revue de 1'Extreme Orient, 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,
f The Subjugation of Chaou-seen, by A. Wylie. (Atti del IV. Cong. int. degli
Orient, ii., pp. 309-315, 1881.) This fragment is a translation of the 95th
book of the History of the Former Han Dynasty of China.
* Empire de la Chine et la Tartarie Chinoise, par P. du Halde.
* The Kojiki and Nihongi, written in Japan during the eighth century,
throws much light on the early history of Corea.
* Wakan-San-sai Dzuye. Article on Cho-sen in this great Japanese Encyclo-
paedia.
f Tong-Kuk Tong-Kan (General View of the Eastern Kingdom), a native Co«
rean history written in Chinese.
* /jenrin Koku Hoki (Precious Jewels from a Neighboring Country), by
Shiuho. Japan, 1586.
* Oorea, its History, Manners,' and Customs, by John Ross. 1 vol., pp. 404. Il-
lustrations and maps. Paisley, 1880.
*'Che Chinese Reader's Manual, by W. Fred. Mayers. 1 vol., pp. 440. Shang-
hae, 1874. An invaluable epitome of Chinese history, biography, chro-
nology, bibliography, and whatever is of interest to the student of
Chinese literature.
* 55-cho Rekidai Enkaku Zukai. Historical Periods and Changes of the
Japanese Empire, with maps and notes, by Otsuki Toyo.
Xviii BIBLIOGRAPHY.
** San Koku Tsu-ran To-setsu. Mirror of the Three [Tributary] Kingdoms,
Cho-sen, Kiu 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 Cho-sen. Digested
also in Siebold's Archiv.
**Archiv zur Bescriebung von Japan, 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 Nachrichten
uber Korai, Japan's Beziige mit der Koraischen Halbinsel und mit Schina.
** Corea und dessen Einfluss auf die Be volkerung Japans. Zeit. fiir Ethnol-
ogic, Zitzungbericht VIII. p. 78, 1876. P. Kempermann.
** O Dai Ichi Ran. This work, containing the annals of the emperors of Ja-
pan, 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 Lon-
don, 8vo, pp. 460. This work contains many references to Corea and the
relations of the two countries, transcribed from the older history.
** Tableaux Historiques de 1'Asie, depuis la monarchie de Cyrus j usque nos
jours, accompagnes de recherches historiques et ethnographiques, etc.
Par J. Klaproth, Paris, 1826. Avec un atlas in folio. This manual of
the political geography of Asia is very useful, but not too accurate.
f A Heap of Jewels in a Sea of Learning (Gei Kai Shu Jin ; Jap. pron.). A
chapter from this Chinese book treats of Corea.
f Cho-sen Hitsu Go-shin. A collection of conversations with the pen, with a
Corean who could not speak Japanese. By Ishikawa Rokuroku Sanjin,
Yedo.
* The Classical Poetry of the Japanese. By Basil Hall Chamberlain. Lon-
don, 1880.
** An Outline History of Japanese Education, New York, 1876. This mono-
graph, 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, M.D., Boston, 1879.
* Japanese Chronological Tables. By William Bramsen, Tokio, 1880. An in-
valuable 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 ex-
pressed in terms of the Chinese into those of the Gregorian or modern
system.
** History of the Mongols. 3 vols. pp. 1827. London, 1876. By Henry Ho worth.
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 Mon-
golia, and Manchuria, illustrating the Mongol conquests.
f Cho-sen Ki-che. (Memorandum upon Corean Aff airs. ) The Chinese ambassa-
dor 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 Cho-sen and China at that time. Quoted by M. Scherzer, but
not translated.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
* N hon Guaishi. Military History of Japan, by Rai Sanyo. This is the
Japanese standard history. It was published in 1827 in twenty-two vol-
umes. 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
Clio-sen, 1592-97, is outlined.
*Ct.6-sen Seito Shimatsuki. 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 Yama-
zaki Masanagi and Miura Katsuyoshi.
* Illustrated History of the Invasion of Cho-sen. Written by Tsurumine
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 Hideyoshi's invasion. It is copiously
illustrated with first-class wood engravings. It has not been translated.
* CL6-sen Monogatari. A Diary and Narrative of the Japanese Military Opera-
tions in Cho-sen during the Campaign of 1594-97, by Okoji Hidemoto.
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 de-
scribed, 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 Cho-sen by Hideyoshi has been translated into German
by Dr. A. Pfizmaier, under the title Der Feldzug der Japaner gegen Corea,
im Jahre, 1597. 2 vols. Vienna, 1875 : 4to, pp. 98 ; 1876 : 4to, pp. 58.
** C hohitsuroku. 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.
* 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 Hak-
luyt, London, 1600.
* Hideyoshi'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 cam-
paign of 1592-97, as found in Japanese and Corean authors.
** I ettre 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. In Hakluyt.
* Hi stoire de la Religion Chretienne au Japon. Par Leon Pages. 2 vols. ,
text and documents. Paris, 1869.
** Histoire des deux Conquerans Tartares, qui ont subjuge la Chine, par le R.
P. Pierre Joseph D'Orliens.
*Cho-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 Archiv.
XX BIBLIOGRAPHY.
* Narrative of an Unlucky Voyage and Imprisonment in Corea, 1653-16US,
In Astley's and Pinkerton's Voyages. By Hendrik Hamel. s
* Imperial Chinese Atlas, containing maps of China and each of the Provinces,
including Shing-king and the neutral strip.
* Histoire de PEglise de Coree, par Ch. Dallet. 2 vols. 8vo, pp. 982. Paris,
1874. This excellent work contains 192 pages of introduction, full of ac-
curate information concerning the political social life, geography, and
language of Corea, and a history of the introduction and progress of Ro-
man Christianity, and the labors of the French missionaries, from 1784-
1866. It contains also a map and four charts of Corean writing.
* Une Expedition en Coree. In la Tour du Monde for 1873 there is an ar-
ticle 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 excel-
lent descriptive paper by an eye-witness.
* Diary of a Chinese Envoy to Corea (Journal d'une Mission en Coree), by
Koei Ling, Ambassador of his Majesty the Emperor of China, to the court
of Cho-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, Shing-King, ma
Mukden, and through three provinces of Corea to Seoul.
f Many memoirs and special papers prepared by French officers in the expedi-
tion to Corea in 1866 were prepared and read before local societies at
Cherbourg, Lyons, etc.
f Expedition de Coree. Revue maritime et coloniale, February, 1867, pp.
474-481.
f Paris Moniteur, 1866-67.
** Lettre sur la Coree et son Eglise Chretienne. Bulletin de la Societe
Geographique de Lyon, 1876, pp. 278-282, and June, 1870, pp. 417-422,
and map.
** The Corean Martyrs. By Canon Shortland. 1 vol., pp. 115. London. Com-
piled from the letters of the French missionaries.
**Nouvelle Geographic Universelle. 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.
** Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean and Round the World. By
William R. Broughton. 2 vols. 4to, with atlas. London, 1804.
** Voyage Round the World. By Jean FranQois de Gallou de La Perouse.
London, 1799.
** 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.
* 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.
* * 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.)
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
•Vsirrative of the Voyage of H.M.S. 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.
* 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.
* Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States, China, and Japan, 1866-81.
* Report of the Secretary of the Navy to Congress, pp. 275-313. 1872.
* Pi ivate Notes, Charts, and Maps of Officers of the United States Navy who
were in Corea in 1871.
**A Summer Dream of '71. A Story of Corea. By T. G. The Far East.
Shanghae, April, 1878.
*Jcurney through Eastern Mantchooria and Korea. By Walton Grinnell.
Journal American Geographical Society, 1870-71, pp. 283-300.
* Japan and Corea. A valuable monograph in six chapters, by Mr. E. H.
House, in The Tokio Times, 1877.
** On a Collection of Crustacea made in the Corean and Japanese Seas. J.
Muirs, 1879. London Zoological Society's Proceedings (pp. 18-81, pis.
1-113). Reviewed by J. S. Kingsley. Norwich, N. Y. American
Naturalist.
** A Private Trip in Corea. By Frank Cowan, M.D. The Japan Mail, 1880.
f The Leading Men of Japan. By Charles Lanman. Boston, 1882. Contains
a chapter on Corea.
* 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.
* Journals of Japanese Military and Diplomatic Officers who have visited Corea,
and Correspondence of the Japanese newspapers, from Seoul, Fusan, Gen-
san, etc. These have been partly translated for the English press at Yo-
kohama.
* Correspondence, Notes, Editorials, etc. , in the English and French newspa-
pers published in China and Japan.
** Maru-maru Shimbun (Japanese Punch).
* Clio-sen : Its Eight Administrative Divisions. 1 vol. Tokio, Japan, 1882.
* Clio-sen Jijo. A short Account of Corea, its History, Productions, etc. 2
vols. T5ki6, 1875.
* Cho-sen Bunkenroku (Things Seen and Heard concerning Corea). By Sato
Hakushi. 2 vols. Tokio, 1875.
* 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.
** Ueber die Reise der Kais. Corvette Hertha, in besondere nach Corea.
Kramer, Marine Prediger. Zeit. fur Ethnologie, 1873. Verhandlungen,
pp. 49-54.
** A Forbidden Land. By Ernest Oppert. 1 vol. , pp. 349. Illustrations,
charts, etc. New York, 1880.
** Journeys in North China. By Rev. A. Williamson. 2 vols. 16mo. Lon-
don, 1870. Besides a chapter on Corea, this work contains an excellent
map of the country north and east of Cho-sen
** The Middle Kingdom. By S. Wells Williams.
XX11 BIBLIOGRAPHY.
** Consular Reports in the Blue Books of the British Government, especially
the Reports of Mr. McPherson, Consul at Niu-chwang. January, 1866.
* 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.
** The Wild Coasts of Nipon. By Captain H. C. St. John (who surveyed some
parts of Southern Corea in H.B.M.S. Sylvia). See chap, xii., pp. 235-255,
with a map of Corea.
** Darlegun aus der Geschichte und Geographie Coreas. Pfizmaier. 8vo, pp.
56. Vienna, 1874.
f Petermann's Mittheilungen, No. 1, Carte No. 19, 1871.
** Das Konigreich Korea. Von Kloden. Aus alien Welth., x., Nos. 5 u. 6.
f Corea. Geographical Magazine. (S. Mossman.) vi. p. 148, 1877.
f Corea. By Captain Allen Young, Royal Geographical Society. Vol. ix., No.
6, pp. 296-300.
** China, with an Appendix on Corea. By Charles Eden. 1 vol., pp. 281-
322. London. A popular compilation.
** Korea and the Lost Tribes, and Map and Chart of Korea. Text and illus-
trations. The title of this work is sufficient. Even the bibliography of
Corea has a comic side.
** Chi-shima (Kurile Islands) and Russian Invasion. A lecture delivered in
Japanese, before the Tokio 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.
f Bulletin de la Societe Geographique, 1875. Corean villages in the Russian
possessions described.
** Ravensteins, The Russians on the Amoor. London, 1861.
fDie Insel Quelpart. Deutsche Geogr. Blatter, 1879. iii., No. 1, S. 45-46.
j A Trip to Quelpaert. Nautical Magazine, 1870, No. 4, p. 321-325.
** The Edinburgh Review of 1872, and Fortnightly Review of 1875, contain
articles on Corea.
*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.
f La Coree, par M. Paul Tournafond, editor of L'Exploration, a geographical
journal published in Paris, which contains frequent notes on Corea.
f La Coree, ses Ressources, son avenir commercial, par Maurice Jametel.
L'Economiste Frangais, Juillet 23, 1881.
* 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.
Corea, the Last of the Hermit Nations. Sunday Magazine, New York, May, 1878.
Corea and the United States. The Independent, New York, Nov. 17, 1881.
Corea, the Hermit Nation. Bulletin of the American Geographical Society,
New York, 1881, No. 3.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
Chautauqua Text-Books, No. 34. Asiatic History ; China, Corea, Japan. 16mo,
pp. 86. New York, 1881.
Library of Universal Knowledge, articles Corea, Fusan, Gensan, Kang-wa, etc.
New York, 1880.
Cyclopaedia of Political Science, etc., article Corea. Chicago, 1881.
The Corean Origin of Japanese Art. Century Magazine. December, 1882.
By Wm. Elliot Griffis.
ORTHOGRAPHY AND PRONUNCIATION.
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 cir-
cumstances, possible. The Coreans themselves have no uniform system of
spel ling proper names, nor do the French missionaries agree in their render-
ings— as a comparison of their maps and writings shows. Our aim in this
work has been to use as few letters as possible.
Japanese words are all pronounced according to the European method — a as
injatfier, e as in prey, e as in men, i as in machine, o as in bone, u as in tune, u
as ia sun; ai as in aisle, ua as in quarantine, ei as \nfeign, and iu is sounded
as yu ; g is always hard ; and c before a vowel, g soft, I, q, s used as z, x, and
the combinations ph and th are not used. The long vowel, rather diphthong o,
or clw, is marked 0.
The most familiar Chinese names are retained in their usual English form.
Gorean words are transliterated on the same general principles as the Japa-
Aeso, though ears familiar with Corean will find the obscure sound between
o and short u is written with either of these letters, as Chan-yon, or In-chiiin,
or Kiung-sang. Ch may sometimes be used instead ofj; and e where o or a
or v, might more correctly be used, as in Kang-wen, or Wen-chiu. Instead of
the French ou. or ho, we have written W, as in Whang-hai, Kang-wa, rather
than Hoang-hai, Kang-hoa, Kang-ouen, Tai-ouen Kun, etc. ; and in place of
ts we have used ch, as Kwang-chiu rather than Kwang-tsiu, and Wen-chiu
thaa Ouen-tsiu.
MAPS AND PLANS.
Ancestral Seats of the Fuyu Race, .... . . . , - v .25
Sam-han, . . ... . . • • . . . '/ . 30
Ancient Japan and Corea, . . . . . ... . . 56
The Neutral Territory, , . .. . . v. . .. . ;,. -85
The Japanese Military Operations of 1592, . . . . . • . .99
The Campaign in the North, 1592-1593, . . . . . . . 107
The Operations of the Second Invasion, . . 131
Plan of Uru-san Castle, . . '. . ... . . . 138
Home of the Manchlus and their Migrations, 155
The Jesuit Survey of 1709, 165
Ping-an Province, . . . . . . . . . .181
The Yellow Sea Province, 185
The Capital Province, .188
Military Geography of Seoul, . . .190
Chung-chong Province, . . . . . . . . . 194
Chulla-dd, 199
The Province Nearest Japan, ......... 204
Kang-wen Province, .......... 208
Corean Frontier Facing Manchuria and Russia, ..... 210
Southern Part of Ham-kiung, 215
The Missionary's Gateway into Corea, \ . 364
Border Towns of Northern Corea, V . 365
The French Naval and Military Operations, 1866, . . . . \ . 379
Map Illustrating the " General Sherman " Affair, . . . .\.393
Map Illustrating the " China " Affair, V. 400
Map of the American Naval Operations in 1871, . . . j . 415
GENERAL MAP OF COKEA, At end of volume
CONTENTS.
PART I.
ANCIENT AND MEDLEVAL HISTOKY.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
The Corean Peninsula, . . . . . . . . " . 1
CHAPTER II.
The Old Kingdom of Clio-sen, 11
CHAPTER III.
The Fuyu Race and their Migrations, 19
CHAPTER IV.
San -han, or Southern Corea, 30
CHAPTER V.
Epc ch of the Three Kingdoms. — Hiaksai, ...... 35
CHAPTER VI.
Epoch of the Three Kingdoms.— Korai, 40
CHAPTER VIL
Ep«ch of the Three Kingdoms.— Shinra, 45
CHAPTER VIII.
Jaj an and Corea, . . . . . • . . ' • . . .51
xxvi CONTENTS.
CHAPTER IX.
PAGE
Korai, or United Corea, 63
CHAPTER X.
Cathay, Zipangu, and the Mongols, ...... 70
CHAPTER XL
NewCho-sen, 76
CHAPTER XII.
Events Leading to the Japanese Invasion, . . . . . .88
CHAPTER XIII.
The Invasion — On to Seoul, . . ,-••• , <; . . .' . 95
CHAPTER XIV.
The Campaign in the North, . ....... . 104
CHAPTER XV.
The Retreat from Seoul, . . . V , . . > . .115
CHAPTER XVI.
Cespedes, the Christian Chaplain, 121
CHAPTER XVII.
Diplomacy at Kioto and Peking, . 124
CHAPTER XVTQ.
The Second Invasion, 129
CHAPTER- «XIX.
The Siege of TJru-san Castle, 137
CHAPTER XX.
Changes after the Invasion, . .145
CHAPTER XXI.
The Issachar of Eastern Asia, . .154
CHAPTER XXII.
The Dutchmen in Exile, . . 167
CONTENTS. XXV il
PART IL
POLITICAL AND SOCIAL COEEA.
CHAPTER XXIII.
PAGE
The Eight Provinces, . ..,,-.;?.:-. . . . . 179
CHAPTER XXIV.
The King and Royal Palace, ./.;«;.. . . . . 218
CHAPTER XXV.
Political Parties, . . . . . T . -' . . . . . 224
CHAPTER XXVI.
Org mization and Methods of Government, ...... 230
CHAPTER XXVII.
Feudalism, Serfdom, and Society, . . . . . . . . 237
CHAPTER XXVIII.
Soc al Life. — Woman and the Family, . 244
CHAPTER XXIX.
Chid Life, 256
CHAPTER XXX.
Housekeeping, Diet, and Costume, . . . . '; ., . . 262
CHAPTER XXXI.
Mo irning and Burial, 277
CHAPTER XXXII.
Out -door Life. — Characters and Employments, 284
CHAPTER XXXIII.
V Shi manism and Mythical Zoology, ...'.... 300
XXV111 CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
PAGJ?
Legends and Folk-lore, 307
CHAPTER XXXV.
Proverbs and Pithy Sayings, 317
. CHAPTER XXXVI.
J The Corean Tiger, 320
CHAPTER XXXVII.
J Religion, . .326
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
Education and Culture, . . ." 337
PART III.
MODERN AND RECENT HISTORY.
CHAPTER XXXIX.
PAGE
The Beginnings of Christianity— 1784-1794, 347
CHAPTER XL.
Persecution and Martyrdom— 1801-1834, 353
CHAPTER XLI.
The Entrance of the French Missionaries— 1835-1845, . . . .361
CHAPTER XLIL
The Walls of Isolation Sapped, 367
CHAPTER XLI1I.
The French Expedition, 377
CHAPTER XLIV.
American Relations with Corea, 388
I
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XLV.
A Body-Snatching Expedition,
CHAPTER XLVI.
Our Little War with the Heathen, . . . . . . . .403
CHAPTER XLVII.
The Ports Opened to Japanese Commerce, ...... 420
CHAPTER XLVIII.
Tho Year of the Treaties, . ... .433
SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER, 443
APPENDIX.
THE COREAN LANGUAGE, 455
MEASURES, WEIGHTS, MONEY, TIME, CALCULATION, .... 463
CARTOGRAPHY, 468
INDEX, . .469
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
City of Seoul, , . . . Frcmtispiece.
Corean Coin, -^ .10
Coin of Modern Cho-sen, . . '. . .'*.;'.' \ . .18
The Founder of Fuyu Crossing the Sungari River, . . . . .20
Coin of the Sam-han, or the Three Kingdoms, . . . . .34
CoinofKorai, . . . . • . . . v"J '•.;- f. <- :-^ . 69
Two-masted Corean Vessel, . • ' .* "'./•. . 75
The Walls of Seoul, . . .......... • % - - . .79
Magistrate and Servant, . . . . . . . . . ,81
Corean Knight of the Sixteenth Century, 101
Styles of Hair-dressing in Corea, 161
A Pleasure-party on the River, 196
Corean Village in Russian Territory, 211
Table Spread for Festal Occasions, 264
Gentlemen's Garments and Dress Patterns, ...... 275
Thatched House near Seoul, . . . ' 282
Battle-flag Captured by the Americans in 1871, 305
Battle-flag Captured in the Han Forts, 1871, 320
House and Garden of a Noble, . : 355
Breech-loading Cannon of Corean Manufacture, 382
The Entering Wedge of Civilization, 407
I.
ANCIENT AND MEDIAEVAL
HISTORY.
I CO RE A:
THE HERMIT NATION
CHAPTER I.
THE CORE AN PENINSULA.
COKEA, though unknown even by name in Europe until the six-
teenth century, was the subject of description by Arab geogra-
phers 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 mediaeval capitol of China, may often have seen and
talked with the merchants of Bagdad and Damascus. The Corean
term for Mussulmans is hoi-hoi, " round and round " men. Corean
art shows the undoubted influence of Persia.
A very interesting passage in the chronicles of Japan, while
illustrating the sensitive regard of the Japanese for the forms of
etiqaette, shows another point of contact between Corean and
Saracen civilization. It occurs in the Nihon O Dai Ichi Ban, or
"A View of the Imperial Family of Japan." " In the first month
of the sixth year of Tempio Shoho [February, 754 A.D.], the Japan-
ese nobles Ohan no Kornaro and Kibi no Mabi returned from
China, in which country they had left Fujiwara no Seiga. The
f orn ier reported that at the audience which they had of the Em-
peror Gen-sho, on New Year's Day [January 18th], the ambassadors
2 COREA.
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."
Thus the point at issue was settled, by avoiding it, and assign-
ing equal honor to Shinra and Japan.
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.
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 Rich-
thofen in his work on China (p. 575, note) :
" 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 gin-
seng, deerhorn, aloes, camphor, nails, saddles, porcelain, satin,
zimmit (cinnamon?) and galanga (ginger?)."
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.
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.
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.
THE COREAN PENINSULA. 3
The French Jesuits at Peking Gallicized this into Coree. Fol-
lowing the genius of their language, they call it La Coree, just as
they speak of England as L' Angle terre, Germany as L'Allemande,
and America as L'Amerique. Hence has arisen the curious desig-
nation, 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 Cho-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.
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, Cho-sen resembles the outspread wings of a headless
butterfly, the lobes of the wings being toward China, and their tops
toward Japan.
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
COT ered the space filled by the waters joining the Gulf of Pechili
and the Yellow Sea. These waters are so shallow that the eleva-
tion 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 it, great plain, or series of flats elevated but a few feet above tide
water, which becomes nearly impassable during heavy rains.
A marked difference is noted between the east and west coasts
4 • COREA.
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 amaz-
ing number of fertile and inhabited islands and islets rising out
of deep water. They are thus described by the naturalist Arthur
Adams :
" 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 dot-
ting 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 Monas-
tery, and here again, mounting to the skies, the Abbey Peak.
" 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."
The king of Corea may well be called " Sovereign of Ten
Thousand Isles."
Almost the only striking feature of the inland physical geogra-
phy of Cho-sen, heretofore generally known, is that chain of moun-
tains which traverses the peninsula from North to South, not in a
straight line, but in an exceedingly sinuous course, similar to the
THE COREAN PENINSULA. 5
tac dng of a ship when sailing in the eye of the wind. As the
Coreans say, " it winds out and in ninety-nine times."
Striking out from Manchuria it trends eastward to the sea at
Cape Bruat on the 41st parallel, thence it strikes southwest about
eigity miles to the region west of Broughton's Bay (the narrowest
part of Corea), whence it bears westward to the sea at the 37th paral-
lel, or Cape Pelissier, where its angle culminates in the lofty mountain
peaks named by the Kussians 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 south-
west, 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
the r fantastic rock-ruins and perennial greenery, that suggest de-
serted castles and abbeys mantled with ivy, are but the wave-worn
and shattered remnants of this lordly range.
This chief feature in the physical geography of the peninsula de-
termines largely its configuration, climate, river system and water-
shed, political divisions, and natural barriers.. Speaking roughly,
Eastern Corea is a mountainous ridge of which Western Corea is
but the slope.
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 west-
ward slope ten broad streams collect the tribute of their melted
snows to enrich the valleys of five provinces.
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.
Great differences of climate in the same latitude are observed on
opposite sides of this mountain range, which has various local epi-
thets. From their height and the permanence of their winter
covering, the word "white" forms an oft-recurring part of their
names.
The division of the country into eight do, 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 dis-
charge part of their waters into streams emptying beyond their
6 COREA.
boundaries. The Yalu, and the Han — "the river"— are the only
streams whose sources lie beyond their own provinces. In rare in-
stances 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.
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 east-
ern do, 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.
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 ri from the summit of the mountain
the stream divides into two parts ; one is the source of the Yalu
River.
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 prov-
inces.
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
THE COBBAN PENINSULA. 7
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 tor-
rents that blockade the roads and render travelling and transport
next to impossible. Toward the end of September occurs the pe-
riod of tempests and variable winds.
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 com-
mon. 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.
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.
Goats are rare. Sheep are imported from China only for sacri-
ficifd purposes. The dog serves for food as well as for companion-
ship and defence. Of birds, the pheasant, falcon, eagle, crane, and
stork, are common.
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 win-
ter, 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 Manchu-
ria. To form it, four cities and many villages were suppressed
throe centuries ago, and left in ruins. The soil of these solitudes
is very good, the roads easy, and the hills not high.
8 COREA.
For centuries, only the wild beasts, fugitives from justice, and
outlaws from both countries, have inhabited this fertile but forbid-
den 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 pecu-
liar 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.
As this once neutral territory is being gradually obliterated, so
the former lines of palisades and stone walls on the northern bor-
der 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.
The pressure of population in Manchuria upon the Corean bor-
der 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. Al-
ready her millions press upon her neighbors for room.
The clock of history seems once more about to strike, perhaps
to order again another dynasty on the oft-changed throne of China.
From mysterious Mongolia, have gone out in the past the vari-
ous hordes called Tartars, or Tatars, 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.
Cho-sen since acting the hermit policy of ancient Egypt and me-
diaeval China, has preserved two loopholes at Fusan and Ai-chiu,
the former on the sea toward Japan, and the latter in the north-
west, on the Chinese border. What in time of peace is a needle's
THE CORE AN PENINSULA. 9
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
ove-r again arched their sails in the Yellow Sea to furl them again
in Corean Kivers. 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.
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, Cho-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 conquer-
ing 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.
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, dif-
ferent from either. As Ireland is not England or Scotland, neither
is Cho-sen China nor Japan.
In her boasted history of "four thousand years," the little
kingdom has too often been the Ireland of China, so far as misgov-
ernment 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, let-
ters, science, and ethics of continental civilization. As of old, went
forth from Tara's halls to the British Isles and the continent, the
burd 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 Vho brought to Japan the social culture of Cho-
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 civili-
zation of his native country in a book entitled "Precious Jewels
from a Neighbor Country.*
10 COREA.
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 weak-
ness 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.
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 foreign-
ers 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.
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, ethnol-
ogy, 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.
We add a postscript. As our manuscript turns to print, we
hear of the treaty successfully negotiated by Commodore Shufeldt.
Corean Coin — '' Eastern Kingdom, Precious Treasure."
CHAPTER H.
THE OLD KINGDOM OP CHO-SEN.
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 ances-
tral seats were beyond those ever white mountains which buttress
the northern frontier.
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.
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 B.C. 1766, and after a
line of twenty-eight sovereigns, ended in Chow Sin, who died B.C.
11U2. He was an unscrupulous tyrant, and has been called "the
Nero of China."
One of his nobles was Ki Tsze, viscount of Ki (or Latinized,
Kioius). He was a profound scholar and author of important por-
tions of the classic book, entitled the Shu King. He was a coun-
sellor of the tyrant king, and being a man of upright character,
was greatly scandalized at the conduct of his licentious and cruel
master. .
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 him-
self from the realm, while Pi Kan, also a relative of Chow Sin, was
cruelly murdered in the following manner :
The king, mocking the wise counsellor, cried out, "They say
12 COREA.
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 re-
sembled 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.
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 pal-
ace, and ordering it to be set on fire, he perished in the flames.
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.
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 ances-
tor of Confucius." The migration of Ki Tsze and his .followers
took place 1122 B.C.
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
THE OLD KINGDOM OF CHO-SEN. 13
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.
The name conferred by Kishi, the civilizer, upon his new domain
is that now in use by the modern Coreans — Cho-sen or Morning
Calri.
This ancient kingdom of Cho-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.
In addition to the space already named, the fluctuating bound-
aries of this ancient kingdom embraced at later periods much terri-
tory 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 Cho-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 Cho-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
thai its northern border lay along the 42d parallel of latitude.
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 A.D., though they had lost
power long before this time.
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
14 COREA.
1871, entered the Han River with his fleet, hoping to make a treaty,
he was warned off with the repeated answer that V Corea was satis-
fied 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 con-
verts, and of the oft-repeated refusals to open trade with foreign-
ers 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.
In the letter of the king to the Chinese emperor, dated Novem-
ber 25, 1801, the language following the opening sentence is as
given below :
"His Imperial Majesty knows that since the time when the
remnants of the army of the Yin dynasty migrated to the East
[1122 B.C.], 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.
In a royal proclamation against the Christian religion, dated
January 25, 1802, occurs the following sentence :
"The kingdom granted to Ki Tsze has enjoyed great peace dur-
ing four hundred years [since the establishment of the ruling dy-
nasty], in all the extent of its territory of two thousand ri and
more," etc.
These are but specimens from official documents which illus-
trate their pride in antiquity, and the reverence in which their first
law giver is held by the Coreans.
Nevertheless, though Kishi may possibly be called the founder
of ancient Cho-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 Cho-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 king-
dom.
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 Cho-sen history.
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
THE OLD KINGDOM OF CHO-SEN. 15
whether of the same race as the tribes in the outlying islands of
Japan, no means yet in our power can give answer.
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 B.C. -255 A.D.) to be more than
serai-historical, and places the beginning of authentic Chinese his-
tory between 781 and 719 B.C., 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 Cho-sen of Ki Tsze's founding lay in the Sungari valley, and
was extended southward at a later period.
It is not for us to dissect too critically the tradition concerning
tho 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 Cho-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.
We return now to the well-established history of Cho-sen. The
Great Wall of China was built by Cheng, the founder of the Tsin
dynasty (B.C. 255-209), who began the work in 239 A.D. Before
hiB 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 Univer-
sal 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 de-
stroyed by fire. Yet the empire, whose perpetuity he thought to
secure by building a rampart against the barbarians without, and
b} destroying the material for rebellious thought within, fell to
pieces soon after, at his death, when left to the care of a foolish
sou, and China was plunged into bloody anarchy again.
One of these petty kingdoms that arose on the ruins of the em-
pire was that of Yen, which began to encroach upon its eastern
neighbor Cho-sen.
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.
Taking advantage of its weakness, the king of Yen began boldly
and openly to seize upon Cho-sen territory, annexing thousands of
16 CORE A.
square miles to his own domain. By a spasmodic effort, the sue-
cessors 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
Cho-sen for safety and peace.
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 B.C. 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 an-
nexed his kingdom.
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 Cho-sen, pretending, with Gibeoni-
tish craft, that they had come from the far west, and begged to be
received as subjects.
Kijun, the king, like another Joshua, believing their profes-
sions, 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.
In his post at the west, Wei-man played the traitor, and collect-
ing 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 Cho-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.
Wei-man then proclaimed himself King of Cho-sen, 194 B.C. He
set out on a career of conquest and seized several of the neighbor-
ing provinces, and Cho-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.
Two provinces of modern Corea were thus included within Cho-
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 lim-
its of Cho-sen, adding greatly to its prosperity.
During the reign of Yukio (Chinese, Yow Jin), the grandson of
THE OLD KINGDOM OF CHO-SEN. 17
Wei- man, he received a summons ro become vassal to the Chinese
emperor, who sublimely declared that henceforward the eastern
frontier of China should be the Ta-tong River — thus virtually wip-
ing out Cho-sen with a proclamation. In B.C. 109, a Chinese am-
bassador sailed over from China, entered the Ta-tong River, and
visit( d Yukio in his castle. He plead in vain with Yukio to render
homage to his master.
£ evertheless, 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 Cho-sen troops until beyond the Ta-tong River, and then
treac herously put their chief to death. Hurrying back to his mas-
ter, lie glossed over his defeat, and boasted of his perfidious murder.
He vas rewarded with the appointment of the governorship of Liao
Tung.
Smarting at the insult and menace of this act, Yukio, raising an
army, marched to the west and slew the traitor. Having thus un-
furled the standard of defiance against the mighty Han dynasty, he
returned to his castle, and awaited with anxious preparation the
coining of the invading hosts which he knew would be hurled upon
him from China.
The avenging expedition, that was to carry the banners of China
fartl.er toward the sunrise than ever before, was despatched both
by lund. and sea, B.C. 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
Cho-sen men attacked their van and scattered it.
The fleet sailed over from Shantung, and landed a force of
several thousand men on the Corean shore, in February or March,
B.C. 107. Without waiting for the entire army to penetrate the
coui try, Yukio attacked the advance guards and drove them to
the mountains in disorder.
Diplomacy was now tried, and a representative of the emperor
was sent to treat with Yukio. The latter agreed to yield and be-
com 3 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 ene-
mies, and the negotiations ended in failure. As usual, with the
unsuccessful, the Chinaman lost his head.
Recourse was again had to the sword. The Chinese crossed
the Ta-tong River on the north, and defeating the Cho-sen army,
2
18
COREA.
marched to the king's capital, and laid siege to it in conjunction
with the naval forces. In spite of their superior numbers, the in-
vaders 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 Cho-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.
With the planting of the Han banners on the city walls, B.C.
107, the existence of the kingdom of Cho-sen came to an end.
Henceforth, for several centuries, Liao Tung and the land now com-
prised within the two northwestern provinces of Corea, were parts
of China.
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.
Coin of Modern ChO-sen. " Ch6-sen, Current Treasure'
CHAPTER III.
THE FUYU RACE AND THEIR MIGRATION
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
Coiean 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.
Long, long ago, in the kingdom called To-li, or Korai (so pro-
nounced, 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.
The king, on his return, discovered her condition, and made
up his mind to put her to death. Upon her explanation, how-
ever, he agreed to spare her life, but at once lodged her in prison.
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,
bul 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
noioish and train him in the palace. He grew up to be a fair
yoi-th, full of energy, and skilful in archery. He was named
"Light of the East," and the king appointed him Master of his
stables.
One day, while out hunting, the king permitted him to give an
exhibition of his skill. This he did, drawing bow with such un-
erring aim that the royal jealousy was kindled, and he thought of
20
COREA.
nothing but how to compass the destruction of the youth. Know-
ing 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,
The Founder of Fuyu Crossing the Sungari River. (Drawn by G. Hashimoto, Yedo, 1853.)
"Alas ! shall I, who am the child of the Sun, and the grandson
of the Yellow River, be stopped here powerless by this stream."
So saying he shot his arrows at the water.
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
THE FUYU RACE AND THEIR MIGRATIONS. 21
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 compan-
ions stood ready to act as his guides. One of the three was
dressed in a costume made of sea- weeds, a second in hempen gar-
ments, 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 Sun-
gari River and the Shan Alyn, or Ever- White Mountains. It ex-
tended several hundred miles east and west of a
ward through Kirin, the larger half lying on
Fuyu, as described by a Chinese writer
dynasty (25 B.C.-190 A.D.), was a land of
" the five cereals " (wheat, rice, millet, beans^
be raised. The men were tall, muscular, am
generous and courteous to each other. Their arms'
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, feast-
ing, dancing, and singing. With many drinkers there were few
cupw. 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.
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.
In the administration of justice, they were severe and prompt.
They had regular prisons, and fines were part of their legal sys-
tem. 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. Cer-
tain relatives of a criminal were denied burial in a coffin. The
other members of the family of a criminal suffering capital pun-
ishment were sold as slaves. Murderers were buried alive with
their victims.
The Fuyu religion was a worship of Heaven, their greatest
festival being in the eleventh month, when they met joyfully to-
gether, laying aside all grudges and quarrels, and freeing their
prisoners. Before setting out on a military expedition they wor-
22 COREA.
shipped 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.
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.
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 ad-
vanced in social order and political knowledge. Though the Chi-
nese writers classed them among barbarians, they were, in con-
trast with their immediate neighbors, a civilized nation. Indeed,
to account for such a high stage of civilization thus early and so
far fom China, Mr. Ross suggests that the scene of the Ki Tsze's
labors was in Fuyu, rather than in Cho-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 signifi-
cant, as serving to support the conjecture that Ki Tsze founded
Fuyu, that we discern, even in the early history of this vigor-
ous nation, the institution of feudalism. We find a king and no-
bles, 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 or-
ganization ?
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.
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 Man-
churia, a thousand miles away from the seats of Chinese culture,
as early as the Christian era.
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.
The feudal system in China was abolished by Shi Whang Ti,
THE FUYU RACE AND THEIR MIGRATIONS. 23
the first universal Emperor, B.C. 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 feudal-
ism, the existence of serfdom, in fact as well as in form, is proved
by uhe testimony of Dutch and French observers, and of the lan-
guage itself. The richness of Corean speech, in regard to every
phase and degree of servitude, would suffice for a Norman land-
holder in mediseval England, or for a Carolina cotton-planter be-
fore the American civil war.
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 Koko-
rai (or Kao-ku-li), which had Fuyu for its northern and Cho-sen
for its southern neighbor. "The land was two thousand li square,
and contained many great mountains, and deep valleys." There
wa& 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.
Evidently this means that a few families, perhaps five in num-
ber, 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.
A Japanese writer derives the term Kokorai from words se-
lected 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.
Hei-e, 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 Cho-sen. The people of this young state
wej-e 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
24 COREA.
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 embroi-
deries was exhibited.
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.
In the general forms of their social, religious, and political lif e,
the people of Fuyu and Kokorai were identical, or nearly so ;
while both closely resemble the ancient Japanese of Yamato.
The Chinese authors also state that these people were already
in possession of the Confucian classics, and had attained to an un-
usual 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 mi-
kado, consists of Jive provinces, like the Kokorai division, into five
clans or tribes.
At the opening of the Christian era we find the people of Ko-
korai already strong and restless enough to excite attention from
the Chinese court. In 9 A.D. they were recognized as a nation
with their own "kings," and classified with Huentu, one of the
districts of old Cho-sen. One of these kings, in the year 30, sent
tribute to the Chinese emperor. In 50 A. D. Kokorai, by invitation,
sent their warriors to assist the Chinese army against a rebel horde
in the northwest. In A.D. 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 coun-
try, 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
THE FUYU RACE AND THEIR MIGRATIONS.
Fuyu and Manchiu.
26 COREA.
that by 169 A.D. the Kokorai kingdom embraced the whole of the
territory of old Cho-sen, or of Liao Tung, with all the Corean
peninsula north of the, Ta-tong, and even to the Tumen River.
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 Eiver. 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.
Anarchy broke out in China, on the fall of the house of Han,
A.D. 220, and lasted for half a century. That period of Chinese his-
tory, from 221 to 277, is called the "Epoch of the Three King-
doms." 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 re-
sults against the petty kingdoms that rose and fell, one after the
other, on the soil between the Great Wall and the Yalu Biver.
During this time the nation, free from the power and oppression of
China, held her own and compacted her power. In the fifth cen-
tury 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.
Meanwhile, as they multiplied in numbers, the migration of Ko-
korai people, henceforth known as Korai men, set steadily south-
ward. 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 neigh-
bors. 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.
In 589 A.D. 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. Evi-
dently the Chinese emperor meant to throttle the young giant of
the north, while the young giant was equally determined to live.
THE FUYU RACE AND THEIR MIGRATIONS. 27
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 w;ir but of annexation.
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 Eiver, the
goal of the expedition being Ping-an city, the Koraian capital.
The horde started without provisions, and arrived in mid-sum-
mer at the Liao River in want of food. While waiting, during the
hot weather, in this malarious and muddy region, the soldiers died
by tons 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.
Such a frightful loss of life and material did not deter the
next emperor, the infamous Yang (who began the Grand Canal),
froiE following out the scheme of his father, whom he conveni-
ently poisoned while already dying. In spite of the raging fam-
ines and losses by flood, the emperor ordered magazines for the
armies of invasion to be established near the coast, and contin-
gents 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.
This army, one of the greatest ever assembled in China, num-
bered over one million men. Its equipment consisted largely of
banners, gongs, and trumpets. The undisciplined horde began
their march, aiming to reach the Liao Eiver before the hot season
set in. They found the Koraian army ready to dispute their pas-
sage. 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 miscalcula-
ted md the bridges were too short, so that many thousands of the
Chii tese were drowned or killed by the Koraians, at unequal odds,
while fighting on the shore. In two days, however, the bridges
wer< * 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
beir.g splendid garrison fighters. Instead of easy victory the
28 COREA.
Chinese army lay around the city unable, even after several
months' besieging, to breach the walls or weaken the spirit of the
defenders.
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 commissa-
riat 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 vi-
cinity. 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 Chi-
nese general reluctantly ordered a retreat, which began in late
summer, the nearest base of supplies being Liao Tung, four hun-
dred miles away and through an enemy's country.
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 thou-
sands upon thousands.
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.
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
THE FUYU RACE AND THEIR MIGRATIONS. 29
down a formidable rebellion. So cautious were the besieged and
so sulden was the flight of the besiegers, that it was noon before
a Ko :aian 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.
Tie 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,
Yang never gave up his plan of humbling Korai. This project
was ihe cause of the most frightful distress in China, and seeing
no liDpe of saving the country except by the murder of the infa-
mous emperor, coward, drunkard, tyrant, and voluptuary, a band
of co aspirators, headed by Yii Min, put him to death and Korai
had rest.
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
watei's of the Yalu River. They entered into relations with the
Chinese as early as 9 A.D., 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 mean-
time Korai, instead of being crushed by China, grew in area and
numbers until the nation had spread into the peninsula, and over-
run it as far as the Han Eiver.
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.
CHAPTEE IV.
SAM-HAN, OR SOUTHERN COREA.
AT the time of the suppression of Cho-sen and the incorpora-
tion of its territory with the Chinese Empire, B.C. 107, all Corea
F u Y u
Map of Sam-han in Southern Corea.
south of the Ta-tong River was divided into three han, or geo-
graphical divisions. Their exact boundaries are uncertain, but
their general topography may be learned from the map.
SAM-HAN, OB SOUTHERN COREA. 31
MA-HAN AND BEN-HAN.
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.
Bound numbers, however, in ancient records are worth little for
critical purposes.
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.
After the overthrow of his family and kingdom by the traitor
Wei-man, Kijun, the king of old Cho-sen escaped to the sea and
fled south toward the archipelago. He had with him a number
of Ms 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 hun-
dred 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.
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 bare-
headed, 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 magatama, 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
til] the man, unable longer to endure it, cried out to have it taken
off
32 CORBA.
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.
Among the edible products of Ma-han were fowls with tails five
feet in length. These "hens with tails a yard long" were evi-
dently 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 num-
bers. The flavor improves by cooking.
As Kijun's government was one of vigor, his subjects advanced
in civilization, the Hiaksai people gradually extended their au-
thority and influence. The clan names in time faded away or be-
came 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 han.
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.
Its relations with Japan were, in the main, friendly, the island-
ers 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.
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 moun-
tain 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.
SAM-HAN, OR SOUTHERN COREA. 33
This name Shin (China or Chinese), which points to the origin
of tae 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.
Between the years 29 and 70 A.D., according to the Japanese
histories, an 'envoy from Shinra arrived in Japan, and after an
aud.ence had of the mikado, presented him with mirrors, swords,
jadt , and other works of skill and art. In this we have a hint as
to tae origin of Japanese decorative art. It is evident from these
gifts, as well as from the reports of Chinese historians concern-
ing the refined manners, the hereditary aristocracy, and the for-
tified strongholds of the Shinra people, that their grade of civili-
zation 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.
How long the Chinese colonists who settled in Shin-han pre-
served their language and customs is not known. Though these
were lost after a few generations, yet it is evident that their influ-
ence 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 smelt-
ing and working iron, and used this metal as money. They car-
ried on trade with the other han, 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
3
34 COBEA.
American savages, of flattening the heads of newly born infants, is
noted among the Shin-han people.
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 distin-
guish 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 Kome, Shiriaki, and Kudara, the Chinese terms being
Kaoli, Sinlo, and Pe-tsi.
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.
Coin of the Sam-han or the Three Kingdoms. " Sam-han, Current Treasure."
CHAPTER Y.
EPOCH OF THE THREE KINGDOMS.— HI AKSAL
THE history of the peninsular states from the time in which it is
firnt known until the tenth century, is that of almost continuous
crvil war or border fighting. The boundaries of the rival king-
do oas changed from time to time as raid and reprisal, victory or
defeat, turned the scale of war. A series of maps of the penin-
sula expressing the political situation during each century or
half-century would show many variations of boundaries, and re-
semble those of Great Britain when the various native and con-
tinental tribes were struggling for its mastery. Something like
an attempt to depict these changes in the political geography of
tho peninsula has been made by the Japanese historian, Otsuki
Toyo, in his work entitled "Historical Periods and Changes of the
Japanese Empire."
Yet though our narrative, through excessive brevity, seems to be
only a picture of war, we must not forget that Hiaksai, once low-
est 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 A.D.
Ko-ken was appointed a teacher or master of Chinese literature,
and enthusiastic scholars gathered at the court. Buddhism fol-
lowed with its educational influences, becoming a focus of light
and culture. As early as 372 A.D. an apostle of northern Buddh-
ism had penetrated into Liao Tung, and perhaps across the
Yalu. In 384 A.D. the missionary Marananda, a Thibetan, for-
ms illy 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 Hi-
aksai, so that its influences were felt as far as Japan. The first
36 COREA.
teacher of Chinese letters and ethics in Nippon was a Corean
named Wani, as was also the first missionary who carried the im-
ages 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.
Hiaksai came into collision with Kokorai as early as 345 A.D.,
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 reputa-
tion 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 Shin-
ra, which had become a vassal of the Tang emperors of China.
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
Kin-yin River, the Chinese marched at once to the capital of Hi-
aksai 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 ab-
sorbed in the Chinese empire. For a time Hiaksai, like a fly
snapped up by an angry dog, is lost in China.
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 Hosho (Fung), the youthful son of the late king,
then a hostage and pupil at the mikado's court, might be invested
EPOCH OF THE THREE KINGDOMS.— HI AKSAI. 37
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 Hosho was proclaimed king.
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.
For even among the men of Hiaksai there was no unity of pur-
pose. Fuku-shin had put the priest-leader to death, which arbi-
trary act so excited the suspicions of the king that he in turn
ordered his general to be beheaded. He then sent to Japan, ap-
pealing 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 ar-
rived and encamped near the mouth of the Han River, prepara-
tory 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 ap-
peared 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
ve&sels 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. Hosho, 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 ex-
tinct. The sites of cities became the habitations of tigers, and
on<;e fertile fields were soon overgrown. Large portions of Hiak-
sai became a wilderness.
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.
The fragments of the beaten Japanese army gradually returned
to their native country or settled in Southern Corea. Thousands
38 CORE^..
of the people of Hiaksai, detesting the idea of living as slaves oi
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 Kuanto, or Eastern Japan. These colonies of Coreans founded
potteries, and their descendants, mingled by blood with the Japan-
ese, follow the trade of their ancestors.
In 710 another body of Hiaksai people, dissatisfied with the
poverty of the country and tempted by the offers of the Japan-
ese, formed a colony numbering 1,800 persons and emigrated
to Japan. They were settled in Musashi, the province in which
Tokio, the modern capital, is situated. Various other emi-
grations 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 in-
vasion 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 awaken-
ing of the Japanese intellect, and the first beginnings of the litera-
ture 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 trace-
able to this influx of the scholars of Hiaksai, which being de-
stroyed by China, lived again in Japan. Even the pronunciation
of the Chinese characters as taught by the Hiaksai teachers re-
mains to this day. One of them, the nun Homio, a learned lady,
made her system so popular among the scholars that even an im-
perial proclamation against it could not banish it. She established
her school in Tsushima, A.D. 655, and there taught that system of
[Chinese] pronunciation [Go-on] which still holds sway in Japan,
among the ecclesiastical literati, in opposition to the Kan-on 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 mediaeval South-
ern China (Nanking). Corea and Japan having phonetic alpha-
bets have preserved and stereotyped the ancient Chinese pronun-
ciation 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.
Hiaksai had given Buddhism to Japan as early as 552 A.D., but
EPOCH OF THE THREE KINGDOMS. — HIAKSAL 39
opposition had prevented its spread, the temple was set on fire,
and the images of Buddha thrown in the river. In 684 one
Say£ki brought another image of Buddha from Corea, and Umako,
son af Iname, 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 Buddhism1 grew apace.
The country toward the sunrise was then a new land to the
peninsulars, just as "the West" is to us, or Australia is to Eng-
land ; and Japan made these fugitives welcome. In their train
came industry, learning, and skill, enriching the island kingdom
witt the best infusion of blood and culture.
J3jaksai was the first of the three kingdoms that was weak-
ened by civil war and then fell a victim to Chinese lust of con-
quest.
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 A.D., when the invading hordes of the Tang dynasty
had been driven out of the peninsula with such awful slaughter
by ihe Koraians.
1 There are colossal stone images at Pe-chiu (Pha-jin) in the capital prov-
ince and at Un-jin in Chung-chong Do. The former, discovered by Lieuten-
ant -T. G. Bernadon, U.S.N. , 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 Do 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
stati.es may perhaps be discovered elsewhere. Coreans call such figures mi-
ryek (stone men, as the Chinese characters given in the French-Corean dic-
tionary read), or mtriok, from the Chinese Mi~le, or Buddha. (In Japanese,
the Buddha to come is Miroku-butsu — a verbal coincidence.) Professor Terrien
de Lacouperie has written upon this theme with great learning. Besides the
lop-oars, 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 ^et two slabs of stone joined by a central column, suggesting both the cere-
monial cap of ancient Chinese ritual and the Indian pagoda-like umbrella.
These miriok 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 monas-
teri( s and temples.
CHAPTEK VI.
EPOCH OF THE THREE KINGDOMS.— KORAI.
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 re-
ceived 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.
Korai having been divided into five provinces, or circuits,
named respectively the Home, North, South, East, and West divi-
sions, extended from the Sea of Japan to the Liao River, and en-
joyed a brief spell of peace, except always on the southern border ;
for the chronic state of Korai and Shinra was that of mutual hos-
tility. On the north, beyond the Tumen Eiver, was the kingdom
of Pu-hai, with which Korai was at peace, and Japan was in inti-
mate relations, and China at jealous hostility.
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
EPOCH OF THE THREE KINGDOMS— KORAL 41
spurred him on to wade through slaughter to conquest and re-
venge. He waited only for a pretext.
This time the destinies of the Eastern Kingdom were pro-
foundly influenced by the character of the feudalism brought into
it from ancient times, and which was one of the characteristic insti-
tutions of the Fuyu race.
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 con-
tingencies these noble land-holders were scarcely less powerful
than the king himself.
In 641 one of these liegemen, whose ambition the king had in
vain attempted to curb and even to put to death, revenged him-
self 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 nlly of China. The minister paid his tribute loyally, but re-
fused to acknowledge the right of China to interfere in Corean
politics. The tribute was then sent back with insult, and war be-
ing 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 an-
nals, since the " Chinese wars " have been numbered by the score.
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 em-
peror 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 clas-
sics, as in the Hebrew scriptures. He professed to be marching
simply to vindicate the honor of majesty and to punish the regi-
cide 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
42 COREA.
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.
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 him-
self, 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 lead-
ers were made prisoners and marched into China.
After so crushing a loss in men and material, one might expect
instant surrender of the besieged city. So far from this, the gar-
rison redoubled the energy of their defence. In this we see a
striking trait of the Corean military character which has been no-
ticed from the era of the Tangs, and before it, down to Admiral
Eodgers. Chinese, Japanese, French, and Americans have experi-
enced 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 fight-
ing. But put the same men behind walls, bring them to bay, and
the timid stag amazes the hounds. Their whole nature seems re-
inforced. 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 dis-
EPOCH OF THE THREE KINGDOMS— KORAI. 43
armed 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.
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 a?id over again foiled their mighty foe and finally secured
their independence, was to shut themselves up in their well-pro-
visioned cities and castles, and not only beat off but starve away
their foes. In their state of feudalism, when every city and strate-
gic tovm of importance was well fortified, this was easily accom-
plished. 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.
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.
Hungrily they turned their faces toward China.
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 impassa-
ble oceans of worse than Virginia mud, cold winds, and snow
storim destroyed thousands of the Chinese on their weary home-
ward march over the mountain passes and quagmires of Liao
Tung. The net results of the campaign were great glory to Korai ;
44 COREA.
and besides the loss of ten cities, 70,000 of her sons were captives
in China, and 40,000 lay in battle graves.
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.
After a few years of peace, his successor found occasion for
war, and, in 660 A.D., despatched the expedition which crushed
Hiaksai, the ally of Korai, and worried, without humbling, the lat-
ter 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.
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 com-
manders, 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, rul-
ing over 700 years.
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 king-
doms, and the sole dominant state now supreme in the peninsula
was Shinra, an outline of whose history we shall proceed to give.
CHAPTER YII.
EPOCH OF THE THREE KINGDOMS.— SHINR A.
Shinra becomes first known to us from Japanese tradi-
tion, her place in the peninsula is in the southeast, comprising por-
tions Df the modern provinces of Kang-wen and Kiung-sang. The
peoplo in this warm and fertile part of the peninsula had very
probably sent many colonies of settlers over to the Japanese Isl-
ands, 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
Kiusbiu originally had been. The Yamato tribe, which gradually
became paramount in Japan, were probably immigrants of old Ko-
korai 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," trouble-
some, 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 A.D., to march against them was, that
these people in Kiushiu wrould not acknowledge his authority.
His vife, 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,
whicL she did at the date said to be 202 A.D. She set sail from
HizeD, and reached the Asian mainland probably at the harbor of
Fusai . Unable to resist so well-appointed a force, the king of
Shinr i submitted and became the declared vassal of Japan. En-
voys from Hiaksai and another of the petty kingdoms also came
to the Japanese camp and made friends with the invaders. After
46 COREA.
a two months' stay, the victorious fleet, richly laden with precious
gifts and spoil, returned.
How much of truth there is in this narrative of Jingu it is diffi-
cult 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, in-
terrupted 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.
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
dependant, war broke out between the two states as soon as Shinra
assumed perfect independence. Korai and Hiaksai leagued them-
selves 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 Japan-
ese. Indeed, from a tributary point of view, it seems question-
able whether her alliances with China were of any benefit to her.
In times of peace, however, the blessings of education and civiliza-
tion 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
EPOCH OF THE THREE KINGDOMS— SHINRA. 47
the case during the Tang era (618-905 A.D.), when the mutual re-
lations between China and Shinra were closest, and arts, letters,
and customs were borrowed most liberally by the pupil state.
Ever 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 repre-
sents to the Corean mind, as to the student of Kathayan his-
tory, one of the most brilliant epochs known to this longest-lived
of empires. What the names of Plantagenet and Tudor repre-
sent to an Anglo-Saxon mind, the terms Tang and Sung are to a
Corean.
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 Choc-
taws and Coreans have the only two perfect alphabets in the
world. It is agreed by natives of Cho-sen that their most pro-
found 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 "alpha-
bets " in the world. It expresses the sounds of the Corean lan-
guage far better than the kata-kana of Japan expresses Japanese.
Chul-chong seems to have invented the Nido syllabary by giving a
phor.etic 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 st raight 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 per-
haps suggested by the Corean.
48 COREA.
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.
Certainly, however, we may gather that the Tang era was one
of learning and literary progress in Corea, as in Japan — all coun-
tries 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 A.D., 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 flourish-
ing 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 conlmerce, as
has been shown before.
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, Per-
EPOCH OF THE THREE KINGDOMS-SHINRA. 49
sia, and China, until the ruthless Japanese torch laid them in
ashe^s in 1596.
The generation of Corean people during the seventh century,
wher the Chinese hordes desolated large portions of the penin-
sula 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
tern i ted, or her Chinese master commanded, her into an invasion
of the kingdom of Pu-hai beyond her northern border, 733 A.D.
Her armies crossed the Tumen, but met with such spirited resist-
ance that only half of them returned. Shinra's desire of con-
quest in that direction was appeased, and for two centuries the
land had rest from blood.
Until Shinra fell, in 934 A.D., 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, hav-
ing ceased to be her pupils in civilization during times of peace,
as in time of war they were her conquerors, turned their atten-
tion to Nanking, receiving directly therefrom the arts and sci-
ences, 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
aftei 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
ship^ from Buzen province, and again, in 893, that a fleet of fifty
junks, manned by these Corean rovers, was driven off from Tsus-
hima by the Japanese troops, with the loss of three hundred slain.
Another descent of "foreign pirates," most probably Coreans,
upon Ed Island, in 1019, is recorded, the strangers being beaten
off by reinforcements from the mainland. The very existence of
theso marauders is, perhaps, a good indication that the power of
the Shinra government was falling into decay, and that lawless-
ness within the kingdom was preparing the way for some mighty
hand to not only seize the existing state, but to unite all Corea
50 COREA.
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.
Despite the modern official name of the kingdom, Cho-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. Cho-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 geo-
graphical 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 Cho-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 heav-
en 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 A.D., was
the sunshine of the Ming emperor's favor. In both instances the name Cho-
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.
CHAPTEK YIH.
JAPAN AND COREA.
Ii is as nearly impossible to write the history of Corea and ex-
clude Japan, as to tell the story of mediaeval England and leave
out France. Not alone does the finger of sober history point di-
rectly 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
shade >ws of the Ever- White Mountains. The first settler of Japan,
like him of Fuyu, crosses the water upright upon the back of a
fish, ftnd 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.
T3ie mischievous Susanoo, so famous in the pre-historic legends,
told in the Kojiki, half scamp, half benefactor, who planted all
Japar with trees, brought the seeds from which they grew from
Cores. His rescue of the maiden doomed to be devoured by the
eight headed dragon (emblem of water, and symbolical of the sea
and livers) 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 front-
ing Japan. In Kioto, on Gi-on Street, there is a temple which
tradition declares was "founded in 656 A.D. by a Corean envoy in
honoi of Susanoo, to whom the name of Go-dzu Tenno (Heavenly
King of Go-dzu) was given, because he was originally worshipped
in Gc-dzu Mountain in Corea."
52 COREA.
Dogs are not held in any honor in Japan, as they were an-
ciently in Kokorai. Except the silk-haired, pug-nosed, and large-
eyed chin, 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 inu — are en-
throned.
The ama-inu, 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 re-
minder of the divinity of his person and throne, it is possible that
the ama-inu 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 dis-
tinct from the "dogs of Fo," or the "lions" that flank the gate-
ways 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, serv-
ing as legs or supports to the golden chair, on which His Majesty
sits, two dogs sitting on their haunches, and upright on their fore-
legs. 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 for-
gotten 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 dis-
honored among the vulgar in Japan, placed beneath the mikado's
throne.
[_VThe Japanese laid claim to Corea from the second century
until the 27th of February, 1876. On that day the mikado's min-
ister plenipotentiary signed the treaty, recognizing Cho-sen as an
independent nation. Through all the seventeen centuries which,
according to their annals, elapsed since their armies first com-
pelled the vassalage of their neighbor, the Japanese regarded the
states of Corea as tributary. Time and again they enforced their
JAPAN AND CORE A. 53
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 dol-
lars in treasure. The mainspring of the " Satsuma rebellion " of
1877 was the official act of friendship by treaty, and the refusal of
the Tokio Government to make war on Corea.
j^TjYom about the beginning of the Christian era until the fif-
teenth century the relations between the two nations were very
close and active. Alternate peace and war, mutual assistance given,
and embassies ^nt 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
seemK 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.
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 B.C.), a boat filled with people from
the west appeared off the southern point of Cho-shiu, near the
modern town of Shimonoseki. 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 them-
selves from Amana Sankan (Amana of the Three Han or King-
dom*-,) in Southern Corea. They unpacked their treasures of finely
wrought goods, and their leader made offerings to the mikado
Sujii . These immigrants remained five years in Echizen, not
far from the city of Fukui, till 28 B.C. Before leaving Japan,
they presented themselves in the capital for a farewell audience.
The mikado Mimaki, having died three years before, the visi-
tors were requested on their return to call their country Mimana,
54 COREA.
after their patron, as a memorial of their stay in Japan. To
this they assented, and on their return named their district
Mimana.
Some traditions state that the first Corean envoy had a horn
growing out of his forehead, and that since his time, and on ac-
count of it, the bay near which he dwelt was named Tsunaga (Horn
Bay) now corrupted into Tsuruga.
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 de-
lineated in native art.
Six years later an envoy from Shinra arrived, also bringing pre-
sents to the mikado. These consisted of mirrors, jade stone,
swords, and other precious articles, then common in Corea but
doubtless new in Japan.
According to the tradition of the Kojiki (Book of Ancient Le-
gends) the fourteenth mikado, Chiu-ai (A.D. 192-200) was holding
his court at Tsuruga in Echizen, in A.D. 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
Kogo, 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.
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.
All being ready, the doughty queen regent set sail from the
coast of Hizen, in Japan, in the tenth month A.D. 202, and beached
the fleet safely on the coast of Shinra. The King of Shinra, accus-
tomed 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
JAPAN AND CORE A. 55
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 Westmin-
ster Abbey.
The followers of Jingu evidently expected a rich booty, but
after MO peaceful a conquest the empress ordered that no looting
should be allowed, and no spoil taken except the treasures consti-
tuting 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 pic-
tures, works of elegance and art, mirrors, jade, gold, silver, and
silk fabrics.
Preparations were now made to conquer Hiaksai also, when
Jingu was surprised to receive the voluntary submission and offers
of tribute of this country.
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 ft 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 tradi-
tion, such as her controlling the waves and drowning the Shinra
army by the jewels of the ebbing and the flowing tide,1 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 d( dicated to Jingu, one especially famous is near Hiogo, 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.
Ai the time when the faint, dim light of trustworthy tradition
dawne, we find the people inhabiting the Japanese archipelago to
be roughly divided, as to their political status, into four classes.
In the central province around Kioto ruled a kingly house —
1 The story, told in full in the Heike Monogatori, is given in English in
"Japanese Fairy World."
56
COREA.
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.
To the north and east stretched the little known and less civil-
ized region, peopled by tribes of kindred blood and speech, who
Map of Ancient Japan and Corea.
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-to, or region east (to) of
the barrier (kuan) at Ozaka ; or poetically Adzuma.
Still further north, on the main island and in Yezo, lived the
Ainos or Ebisu, probably the aborigines of the soil — the straight-
eyed men whose descendants still live in Yezo and the Kuriles.
JAPAN AND COREA. 57
The northern and eastern tribes were first conquered and thor-
oughly subdued by the Yamato tribes, after which all the far north
was overrun and the Ainos subjugated.
In the extreme south of the main island of Japan and in Kiu-
shiu. then called Kumaso by the Yamato people, lived a number
of tribes of perhaps the same ethnic stock as the Yamato Japan-
ese, but further removed. Their progenitors had probably de-
seen led 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 conti-
nent— the peninsulars were constantly coming and mingling with
the : slanders.
The allegiance of the Kiushiu tribes to the royal house of Ya-
mato was of a very loose kind. The history of these early centu-
ries, 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.
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 insti-
gated them to "revolt," while adventurers from the Corean main-
land came over in large numbers and joined the "rebels," who
were, in one sense, their own compatriots.
f 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 tlie 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 ms late as 1874, 1875, and 1877, lay at the root of three civil
wars.)
401 these expeditions, sometimes national, sometimes filibuster-
ing, served to drain the resources of Japan, though many impulses
to development and higher civilization were thus gained, espe-
cially in the earlier centuries. It seemed, until 1877, almost im-
possible to eradicate from the military mind of Japan the convic-
tion that to surrender Corea was cowardice and a stain on the
national honor. But time will show3 as it showed centuries ago
58 COREA.
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.
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 A.D., 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 as-
tonishment 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.
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 rebel-
lion. 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 vas-
sals refused to discharge their dues, they again felt the iron hand
of Japan in war. During the reign of Yuriaki, the twenty-second
mikado (A.D. 457-477), the three states failed to pay tribute. A
Japanese army landed in Corea, and conquering Hiaksai, com-
pelled her to return to her duty. The campaign was less suc-
cessful 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 expe-
ditions had to be despatched to inflict chastisement and compel
payment.
The gallant but vain succor given by the Japanese to Hiaksai
during the war with the Chinese, in the sixth century, which re-
sulted 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 Sate-hiko
and Kasi-wade. 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, Sayo-
JAPAN AND COREA. 59
hitae, 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 weathern-worn 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 Sayohime
the symbol of devoted love, but from this incident the famous
author Bakin constructed his romance of "The Great Stone Spirit
of Matsura."
Kasiwad6, 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 condi-
tion Ids camp was invaded by a tiger, which carried off and de-
voure 1 his son, a lad of tender age. Kasiwade 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 finish-
ing him with his sabre, he skinned the brute and sent home the
trophy. From olden times Cho-sen is known to Japanese chil-
dren 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.
Ah the imperial court of Japan looked upon Shinra and Hiak-
sai 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
sever; d centuries afterward. Kara Kuni, the country of Kara
(a corruption of Korai ?), as they now call China, was then ap-
plied 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 Ihemaro, the soldier-prince, who died at Iki
Island on the voyage over, and that on the death of the Corean
nun tliguwan, have been put into English verse by Mr. Cham-
berlain (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
60 COREA.
springs of Arima, near Kobe ; and the elegy was written by the.,
daughter. One stanza describes her life in the new country.
" And here with aliens thou didst choose to dwell,
Year in, year out, in deepest sympathy ;
And here thou builtest thee a holy cell,
And so the peaceful years went gliding by."
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 Nagato or Choshiu. One of his de-
scendants welcomed Francis Xavier, and aided his work by gifts of
ground and the privilege of preaching. Many of the temples in
Kioto 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 Per-
sian 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 liter-
ary and missionary influences upon Japan.
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 cen-
tury, so earnestly did they borrow the culture of the west, that is
of Corea and China, a thousand years ago.
The many thousands of Coreans, who, during the first ten centu- *
ries 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 Totomi and Suruga revolted,
JAPAN AND COREA. 61
many of the Japanese, seized the rice in the store-houses,
7 and put to sea to escape. The people of Musashi and Sagami pur-
sued and attacked them, putting many of them to death.
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 la ids or in villages granted them, and were put on political and
social equality with the mikado's subjects. They founded indus-
tries intermarried with the natives, and their identity has been
lost .n the general body of the Japanese people.
With the prisoners taken in war, and with the laborers im-
pressed 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 ac-
cursed 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, lan-
guage, and general appearance, it is not possible to distinguish
then 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.
From the ninth century onward to the sixteenth, the relations
of the two countries seem to be unimportant. Japan was engaged
in c onquering northward the barbarians of her main island and
Yez o. Her intercourse, both political and religious, grew to be
so direct with the court of China, that Corea, in the Japanese
annils, sinks out of sight except at rare intervals. Nihon in-
creased in wealth and civilization while Cho-sen remained station-
ary or retrograded. In the nineteenth century the awakened Sun-
rise 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.
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
rule rs of the race now inhabiting Nihon reached it from their an-
eesn-al seats around the Sungari and the Ever- White Mountains.
62 COREA.
True, it is not absolutely certain whether the homeland of the mi-
kado'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 Co-
reans 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.
CHAPTEK IX.
KORAI, OB UNITED COREA.
fertile and well-watered region drained by the Amur Kiver
and its tributaries, stretching from the Pacific Ocean to Lake Bai-
kal, covers the ancestral seats of many nations, and is perhaps the
home of nations yet to arise. It may be likened to a great inter-
mittent geyser-spring which, at intervals, overflows with terrific
forco 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 num-
bers, 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.
A tribe inhabiting one of the ravines or rich river flats of the
Surigari region increases in wealth and numbers. A powerful
chksf leads them to war and victory. Tribes and lands are an-
nexed. 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 le-
gions beyond the frontiers, the goal is reached. The Middle
Kingdom is conquered and a new dynasty sits on the Dragon
64 COREA.
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.
Thus we see the original land embracing the Amur and Sun-
gari valleys has had its periods of power and decay, of historical
and unhistorical life. Unity and movement make history, disin-
tegration 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.
In spite of the associations of hoary antiquity that clustei
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 Asia-
tic 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 coun-
tries are the symbols of petrifaction, politically they are as the
kaleidoscope. From this law of continuous political mutation,
Corea has not been free.
In one of these epochs of historical movement, at the opening
of the eighth century, there arose the kingdom of Puhai, the capi-
tal of which was the present city of Kirin. Its northern bounda-
ries 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 A.D. This kingdom was continually on bad
terms with China, and the Tang emperors for nearly a century at-
tempted 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 peace-
ful and pleasant nature, and the correspondence and other docu-
ments of the visiting embassies to the mikado's court are still pre-
served in Japan.
KORAI, OR UNITED COREA. 65
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 A.D.,
stretcl ed from west of Lake Baikal to the Pacific Ocean. In the
early part of the tenth century this Puhai kingdom, whose age
was sc ircely two centuries, melted away again into tribes and vil-
lages, each with its chief. The country being without political
unity returned to unhistorical obscurity, as part of the Kitan em-
pire. Without crossing the Tumen, to enter China by way of
Corea, the Kitans marched at once around the Ever- White Moun-
tains and down the Liao Tung valley into China.
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 emi-
gration set into Northern Corea, which again became populous,
cultivated, and rich. With increasing prosperity better govern-
ment ^vas desired. The worthlessness of the rulers and the pros-
pect of a successful revolution tempted the ambition of a Buddh-
ist monk named Kung-wo who, in 912 A.D., 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.
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. Dur-
ing all the time of Chinese occupancy, or Shinra supremacy, his
famil} had kept alive their spirit, traditions, and claims. Think
ing h( could rule better than a priest, Wang put the ex-monk to
death and proclaimed himself the true sovereign of Korai. All
this ^ ent 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 Kai-
chow the capitals of his kingdom, and resolved to take full advan-
tage of his opportunity to conquer the entire peninsula and unite
all its parts under his sceptre.
Circumstances made this an easy task. With China passive,
Shinr i weak, through long absorption in luxury and the arts of
G6 COREA.
peace, and with most part of the population of the peninsula of
Korain 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
phoanix 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.
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 repre-
senting the three kingdoms of Corea from 201 to 655 A.D., by the
Japanese scholar Otsuki Toyo. 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 Eiver, or to the 37th
parallel. Later, Shinra, in 593, and again in 655, backed by Chi-
nese 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 Kiver. 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 pres-
tige of their ancient freedom and greatness.
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 A.D. 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
KORAI, OR UNITED COREA. 67
great numbers. To furnish revenues for the support of these,
tracts of land were set apart as permanent endowment. The four
centi ries of the house of Korai are the palmy days of Corean
Buddhism.
From China, which at this time was enjoying that era of liter-
ary splendor, for which the Sung dynasty was noted, there came
an impulse both to scholastic activity and to something approach-
ing popular education.
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 mould-
ing and casting, is not distinctly mentioned in Corea until the year
1420, and the invention and use of the Unmun, a true native al-
phabet, 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 im-
prove ment on it.
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).
Korai soon came into collision with theKitans in the following
main er. The royal line of united Corea traced their descent di-
rectly from the ancient kings of Kokorai, and therefore claimed
relationship with the princes of Puhai. On the strength of this
clain;, the Koraian king asserted his right to the whole of Liao
Tung, which had been formerly held by Puhai. The Kitans, hav-
ing natters of greater importance to attend to at the time, allowed
its temporary occupation by Korai troops. Nevertheless the king
68 COREA.
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 em-
bassy 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 terri-
tory west of the Yalu Kiver.
Palladius has pointed out the interesting fact that a little vil-
lage 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 ter-
ritory west of the Yalu.
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 Niijun 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.
Henceforth the boundaries of Corea remained stationary, and
have never extended beyond the limits with which the western
world is familiar.
An era of peace and prosperity set in, and a thriving trade
sprang up between the Niijun and Korai. The two nations, ce-
mented in friendship through a common fear of the Kitans, grew
apace in numbers and prosperity.
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 wan-
derers 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 (A.D. 1125), when it gave
way to the Kin empire, which held Mongolia and still more terri-
tory than the Kitans possessed within what is now China proper.
This Kin empire was founded by the expansion of the Nujun,
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
KORAI, OB UNITED COREA. 69
Goldea Dominion. During its existence Corea was not troubled
by he]1 great neighbor, and for two hundred years enjoyed peace
within her borders. Her commerce now nourished 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 mag-
netic 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.
The Arabs, who about this time were also trading with the
Corea:is, and had lived in their country, soon afterward introduced
this slent 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.
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 path-
finder 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.
Coin of Korai. " Ko-ka " (Name of Year-Period). "Current Money."
CHAPTER X.
CATHAY, ZIPANGU, AND THE MONGOLS.
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 Tatars. 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 Eussian colonists and
its waters are navigated by whole fleets of ships and steamers. It
lies 1,280 feet above the sea.
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 highlauders 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.
For a century the power of these nomads was steadily grow-
CATHAY, ZIPANGU, AND THE MONGOLS. 71
ing, 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 A.D.).
Who was Genghis Khan ? A Japanese writer, who is also a
travel er in Corea and China, has written in English a thesis which
shows, with strong probability, at least, that this unifier of Asia was
Gen-Ghike, or Yoshitsune. This Japanese hero, born in 1159, was
the fit Id-marshal of the army of the Minamoto who annihilated the
Taira family.1 In 1189, having fled from his jealous brother, Yori-
tomo, he reached Yezo and thence crossed, it is believed, to Man-
chum,. His was probably the greatest military mind which Japan
ever produced.
That Yoshitsune and Genghis Khan were one person is argued
by Mi. Suyematz,2 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, nomen-
clature 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 wonder-
ful personality, this marvellous intellect, was of Japanese origin.
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 tidi'1-wave of conquest that swept over Asia, and flung its last
drops of spray alike over Japan, India, and Russia. Among the na-
tions completely overrun and overwhelmed by the Mongol hordes
was Corea.
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 G( nghis Khan and proclaimed himself the ruler of an empire.
He nc w set before himself the task of subduing the Kitans and ab-
sorbing their land and people, preparatory to the conquest of
Chin&. 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 ~vork, though not done in a day, was nearly completed before
1 The Mikado's Empire, Chapters XIII. and XIV.
2 The Identity of the Great Conqueror, Genghis Khan, with the Japanese
Hero Yoshitsune, by K. Suyematz of Japan. London, 1879.
72 COREA.
a generation passed.1 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 coun-
try, captured forty of the principal towns, received the humiliation
of the king, who had fled to Kang-wa Island, and began the aboli-
tion 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 con-
querors, 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.
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.
About this time began a brilliant half century of intercourse
between Europe and Cathay, which has been studied and illustra-
ted 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 narra-
tives, 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 Annoy, were but a few among many merchants
and travellers. Embassies from the Popes and the Khan ex-
changed courtesies at Avignon and Cambaluc (Peking). Christian
churches were established in Peking and other cities by the Fran-
ciscan monks. The various Europeans who have saved their own
names and a few others from oblivion, and have left us a roman-
tic, but in the main a truthful, picture of mediaeval 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
1 See Howorth's History of the Mongols, London, 1876.
CATHAY, ZIPANGU, AND THE MONGOLS. 73
of central Asia embraced the creed of Islam, bigotry closed the
highway into Europe, and communications ceased. Cathay, Zi-
pangu, and Corea again sunk from the eyes of Europe into the
night of historic darkness.
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.
Othe : 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 isl-
and of Tin. 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.
Evidently desirous of conquering Japan by diplomacy, the
great Khan despatched an embassy which reached, not the mi-
kado's, but only the sho-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 Tokio, and paid no
attention to the Khan's threatening letters. So irritated were the
brave islanders that when another ambassador from the Khan ar-
rived, 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.
I Ipon hearing this, Khublai began the preparation of the mighti-
est 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 en-
gines of war were the catapults which the Polos had taught them
to make. They set sail in the autumn of 1281.
From the very first the enterprise miscarried. The general-in-
chiei' fell sick and the command devolved on a subordinate, who
had no plan of operation. The various divisions of the force be-
came separated. It is probable that the majority of them never
74 COREA.
reached the mainland of Japan. The Mongol and Corean contin-
gent 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.
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
like 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 raid;
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.
The centuries following the Mongol invasion were periods of
anarchy and civil war in Japan, and the central government au-
thority 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 peo-
ple. 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.
The fire-signals which, in the old days of " the Three King-
doms," 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.
All this evil experience with the piratical Japanese of the mid-
dle ages has left its impress on the language of the Coreans.
From this period, perhaps even long before it, date those worda
CATHAY, ZIPANGU, AND THE MONGOLS.
75
of sin ster omen of which we give but one or two examples which
have ihe prefix wai (Japan) in them. A wai-kol, a huge, fierce man,
of gigantic aspect, with a bad head, though perhaps with good
heart, a kind of ogre, is a Japanese kol or creature. A destructive
wind 3r typhoon is a Japanese wind. As western Christendom for
centu-ies uttered their fears of the Norse pirates, " From the fury
of the Northmen, Good Lord, deliver us," so the Korai people,
Two-Masted Corean Vessel (from a Photograph taken in 1871).
along the coast, for many generations offered up constant petition
to th( ir gods for protection against these Northmen of the Pacific.
This chronic danger from Japanese pirates, which Korai and
Chosen endured for a period nearly as extended as that of Eng-
land from the Northmen, is one of the causes that have contribu-
ted 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-
civilised whose wretched boats scarcely go beyond tide-water.
CHAPTER XL
NEW CHO-SEN.
IT will be remembered that the first Chinese settler and civ-
ilizer of Corea, Ki Tsze, gave it the name of Cho-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 emo-
tions— Cho-sen, or Morning Calm.
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 A.D. 934 until A.D. 1392, when the ancient name of
Cho-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. Cho-
sen is still the official and popular designation of the country.
This name is at once the oldest and the newest.
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 un-
accompanied 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, Ei 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.
One day, while in the woods, his favorite bird, in pursuing its
NEW CHO-SEN. 77
quarry, flew so far ahead that it was lost to the sight of its master.
Haste) ling after it the young man espied a shrine at the roadside
into AA hich he saw his hawk fly. Entering, he found within a her-
mit pi lest. Awed and abashed at the weird presence of the white-
beardod 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.
Betaka yourself at once to the capital."
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 t3 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.
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
cruellies 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, how-
ever, refused to follow the counsel of his father-in-law or to reform
abuse s. He thus daily increased the odium in which he was held
by 1m subjects.
Such was the state of affairs toward the end of the fourteenth
century, when everything was ripe for revolution.
Ii China, great events, destined to influence "the little king-
dom,' were taking place. The Mongol dynasty, even after the
breaking up of the empire founded by Genghis Khan, still held
the d -agon throne ; but during the later years of their reign, when
harassed by enemies at home, Corea was neglected and her tribute
rema ned unpaid. A spasmodic attempt to resubdue the lapsed
vassa;, and make Corea a Mongol castle of refuge from impending
dooir, 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.
Their envoys being sent to Corea demanded pledges of vassal-
age. The king neglected, finally refused, and ordered fresh levies
to be made to resist the impending invasion of the Chinese. In
78 COREA.
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 :
" 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."
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 mediae-
val history.
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, disin-
heritance ; 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 continu-
ance of sacrifice to them. This Corean and Chinese method of
clapping the extinguisher upon a whole dynasty was no sooner or-
dered than duly executed.
Ni Taijo was now made king, to the great delight of the peo-
ple. 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
Cho-sen was revived, and at the petitioner's request conferred upon
the country by the emperor, who profited by this occasion to en-
force upon the Coreans his calendar and chronology — the recep-
tion of these being in itself alone tantamount to a sufficient de-
claration of fealty. Friendship being now fully established with
the Mings, the king of Cho-sen sent a number of youths, sons of
his nobles, to Nanking to study in the imperial Chinese college.
NEW CHO-SEN.
79
The dynasty thus established is still the reigning family in
Corea, though the direct line came to an end in 1864. The Co-
reans in their treaty with Japan, in 1876, dated the document ac-
cording to the 484th year of Cho-sen, reckoning from the acces-
sion 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,
The Walls of Seoul (from a Photograph, 1876).
situ ited on the Han River, about fifty miles from its mouth. The
kin<;- 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
arcl ters and over the streams were built arches of stone. He or-
gan ized 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 seoul or capital (pro-
80 COREA.
nounced by the Chinese king, as in Nanking and Peking, and the
Japanese Ho, as in Kioto and Tokio). He also re-divided the
kingdom into eight do or provinces. This division still maintains.
The names, formed each of two Chinese characters joined to that
of do (circuit or province), and approximate meanings are given
below.1 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 situa-
tion. 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 em-
perors is most manifest.
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 incor-
porated 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 discov-
ered by the magistrates to be existing among the people, it was
put under the band of extirpation, and its followers thought
worthy of death.
1 Beginning at the most northern and eastern, and following the sea line
south around up to the northeast, they are :
COREAN. JAPANESE. ENGLISH.
1. Ham-kiung, or Kan-kid do. Perfect Mirror, or Complete View Province.
2. Kang-wen, or Ko-gen do. Bay Meadow Province.
3. Kiung-sang, or Kei-sho d5. Respectful Congratulation Province.
4. Julia, or Zen-ra d5. Completed Network Province.
5. Chung-chong, or Chiu-sei do. Serene Loyalty Province.
6. Kiung-kei, or Kei-ki do. The Capital Circuit, or Home Province.
7. Whang-hai, or Ko-kai do. Yellow Sea Province.
8. Ping-an, or Hei-an do Peace and Quiet Province.
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 writ-
ten, and as they are heard to-day in Cho-sen. The modern Coreans use the
modern Chinese sounds of the characters, while the Japanese cling to the an-
cient 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 do, Tsiku-shaku tai for Chiu-sei do,
Keku-shaku tai for Kei-ki do, etc.
NEW CHO-SEN.
81
Magistrate and Servant.
82 COREA.
Whatever may have been the motive for supplanting Buddh*
ism, whether from sincere conviction of the paramount truth of
the ancient ethics, or a desire to closely imitate the Middle King-
dom 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. AH observ-
ers 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.
One great measure that tended to strengthen and make popu-
lar the new religious establishment, to weaken the old faith, to
give strength and unity to the new government, to foster educa-
tion 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.
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 appear-
ance 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.
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 pre-
valent 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.
To the house of Ni belongs also the greater honor of abolish-
NEW CHO-SEN. 83
ing at least two cruel customs which had their roots in supersti-
tion. 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. Ko-rai-chang, though
not fully known in its details, was the habit of burying old men
alive. In-chei 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 fre-
quent ; nor was Buddhism able to utterly abolish them. In the
latter case, they choked the victims to death, and then threw them
into ihe sea. The island of Chansan was especially noted as the
place of propitiation to the gods of the sea.
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 Sin-mun-ko, 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 coun-
tryim n.
Siei-jong, who succeeded to the throne on the death of his
father, Hetai-jong, enjoyed a long reign of thirty-two years, during
whict the fortifications of the capital were added to and strength-
ened. 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, Cho-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 w.ir," Mun-jong, his son, succeeded to royal power. As usual
84 COREA.
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 Cho-
sen." According to this writer, the military frontier of Corea at
that time was at the Eastern Mountain Barrier, a few miles north-
west of the present Border Gate. Palladius, the Eussian writer,
also states that, during the Ming dynasty, three grades of for-
tresses were erected on the territory between the Great Wall and
the Yalu Eiver, " to guard against the attacks of the Coreans."
It is more in accordance with the facts to suppose that the Chi-
nese 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 popu-
lous, 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 inhabi-
tants westward, there was a population of 300,000 souls. The de-
population of this large area of fertile soil was simply a Chinese
measure of military necessity, which compelled her friendly ally
Cho-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.
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, in-
vented by themselves, got into the hands of these daring island-
ers. The wounded eagle that felt the shaft, which had been feath-
ered 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
NEW CHO-SEN.
85
up the rivers. In 1523, they landed even at Ningpo, and in the
fight the chief mandarin of the city was killed.
Yet, with the exception of incursions of these pirates, Cho-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
The Neutral Tenitory (from a Chinese Atlas).
1540 and 1546 four arrivals of " black ships " from Portugal, are
knovm to have called at points in Japan. It was from these the
Japa aese 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.
Now came back to Europe accounts of China and Japan — which
were found to be the old Kathay, and Zipangu of Polo and the Fran-
86 COREA.
ciscans — and of " Coria," wliicli 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 un-
willing 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 re-
mained uncircumnavigated until our own and Nordenskold's day.
The other attempts to discover a northwest passage to China
around the imaginary cape, in wvhich 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 Fro-
bisher — of the American continent from the Hudson River to
Greenland, but the way to China lay still around Africa.
From Japan, the only possibility of danger during these two cen-
turies 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 Cho-sen far more than the presents she
gave. From China there was nothing to fear.
At first the new dynasty sent ships, embassies, and presents
regularly to Japan, which were duly received, yet not at the mi-
kado's palace in Kioto, but at the sho- gun's court at Kamakura,
twelve miles from the site of the modern Japanese capital, Tokio.
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 daimios. One of
these petty rulers held Tsushima, and traded at a settlement on
the Corean coast called Fusan, by means of which some inter-
course was kept up between the two countries. The Japanese
government had always made use of Tsushima in its communica-
tions 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,
NEW CHO-SEN. 87
owin^ 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 Kioto, 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 con-
cerning 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
reigi. of the king Chung-jong (1506-1544) captured Tsushima and
several other Japanese islands, formerly tributary to Corea. What-
ever fraction of truth there may be in this assertion, it is certain
that Japan afterward took ample revenge on the score both of
iiegloct and of reprisal.
So, under the idea that peace was to last forever, and the morn-
ing (aim never to know an evening storm, the nation relaxed all
vigil: mce. Expecting no danger from the east, the military re-
sour* 3es were neglected, the army was disorganized, and the cas-
tles 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 irk-
some ;. The militia system was changed for the worse. The en-
rollel 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 holi-
day 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 them-
selves no concern, leaving the matter to the army officials, who
drew pay as though in actual war. They, in turn, devoted them-
selvc-s to dissipation, carousing, and sensual indulgence. It was
whil.3 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.
CHAPTEE XII.
EVENTS LEADING TO THE JAPANESE INVASION.
\
CHINA and Japan are to each other as England and the Unitetl
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 tempera-
ment 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 eachx>ther,
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 be-
hind 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 occiden-
tal 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 mem-
ory 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.
To conquer or humble their mighty neighbor, to cross tlieir
slender swords of divine temper with the clumsy blades of the
continental braves, has been the ambition of more than one Ja-
panese captain. But Hideyoshi alone is the one hero in Japanese
annals who actually made the attempt.
As the Mongol conquerors issuing from China had usad_C£tc£a
as their point of departure to invade Japan, so Hideyoshi resolved
to make the peninsula the road for his armies into China. . After
EVENTS LEADING TO THE JAPANESE INVASION. 89
two centuries of anarchy in Japan, he followed up the work which
Nobunaga had begun until the proudest daimio had felt the
weight of his arm, and the empire was at peace.
-^ Yet, although receiving homage and congratulations from his
feudal vassals, once proud princes, Hideyoshi was irritated that
Cho sen, which he, with all Japanese, held to be a tributary prov-
ince, 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. <^
On the 31st day of July, 1585, Hideyoshi was made Kuam-
bafci, 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 Kioto, and proclaimed holiday
throughout the empire. This feast was graced by the presence
of liis highest feudatories, lords, and captains, court nobles and
palace ladies in their richest robes. Among others was one Yasu-
hiro, a retainer of the lord of Tsushima. Hideyoshi's memory
had been refreshed by his having had read to him, from the an-
cient chronicles, the account of Jingu Kogo's conquests in the
second century. He announced to his captains that, though Cho-
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.
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 ccmmand 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 ho-
tels 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
coniuct, so different from that of previous envoys, greatly sur-
prised 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, accus-
tomed to constant war under Hideyoshi's gourd-banner, rode
calmly on his horse, and, amid the lines of lances drawn up as a
gujird of honor, spoke to his followers in a loud voice, telling them
90 COREA.
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 lan-
guage, 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, creden-
tials 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 re-
tailed 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 pro-
fligacy among them had sapped the vigor of the men.
To the offensive conduct of the envoy was added the irritation
produced by the language of Hideyoshi's summons ; for in his let-
ter 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 Co-
reans, pleading the flimsy excuse of the difficulty of the voyage,
refused to send an embassy to Japan.
Hideyoshi 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 daimios of Tsushima, had served as
envoys to Cho-sen, and had enjoyed a monopoly of the lucrative
commerce, and even held office under the Corean government.
Reflecting on these things, Hideyoshi commanded Yasuhiro and
all his family to be put to death.
He then despatched a second envoy, named Yoshitoshi, himself
the daimio of Tsu Island, who took with him a favorite retainer,
EVENTS LEADING TO THE JAPANESE INVASION. 91
and i. priest, named Gensho, as his secretary. They reached Seoul
in sa::ety, and, after the formal banquet, demanded the despatch
of ar envoy to Japan. The Corean dignitaries did not reply at
once, but unofficially sent word, through the landlord of the hotel,
that "hey 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 S(ioul. These traitors, after confessing their crime, were led
out by the executioners and their heads knocked off. Meanwhile,
havir g tranquillized "all under Heaven" (Japan), even to Yezo and
the Amos, and finding nothing " within the four seas " worth cap-
turing, Hideyoshi cast his eyes southward to the little kingdom
well named Riu Kiu, or the Sleepy Dragon without horns. The
peop.e 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 Tametomo, 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
whicji 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 Kiu Kiu a silver seal,
and it name for his country, which meant " hanging balls," a refer-
ence to the fact that their island chain hung like a string of tas-
sels on the skirt of China. Another of their ancient native
namc-s was Okinawa, or " long rope," which stretches as a cable
between Japan and Formosa. Sugar and rice are the chief pro-
ducts. Hideyoshi, wishing to possess this group of isles as an ally
agaii st 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.
The young king, fearing the wrath of the mighty lord of Nip-
pon, sent a priest as his envoy, and a vessel laden with tribute
92 COREA.
offerings. Arriving in the presence of the august parvenu, the
priest found himself most graciously received. Hideyoshi entered
into a personal conversation with the bonze, and set forth the
benefits of Eiu 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 re-
turned to Eiu Kiu and gave the information to the king, the latter
immediately despatched a vessel to China to inform the. govern-
ment of the designs of Japan.
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 Kioto
during the summer of 1590. At this time Hideyoshi was absent
in Eastern Japan, not far from the modern city of Tokio, besieging
Odawara Castle and reducing " the second Hojo " family to sub-
mission. Arriving at Kioto 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.
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 com-
pelled to get out and walk. As usual, their band of musicians ac-
companied them.
They report Hideyoshi 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 de-
I livered the king's letter, which was addressed to Hideyoshi on
I 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 Euler, or
Emperor — the Mikado of Japan, or the Emperor of China — is
addressed). The letter contained the usual commonplaces of
EVENTS LEADING TO THE JAPANESE INVASION. 93
friendly greeting, the names of the envoys, and a reference to the
list of accompanying presents.
Tl.e presents — spoken of in the usual terms of Oriental mock
modesty — consisted of two ponies and fifteen falcons, with harness
for bi:d and beast, rolls of silk, precious drugs, ink, paper, pens,
and bventy magnificent tiger-skins. The interview over, Hideyoshi
wishe 1 the envoys to go home at once. This they declined to do,
but, leaving Kioto, 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 tins consumed time, which was just what Hideyoshi wished.
Some years before this, some Portuguese trading ships had
lande 1 at the island of Tane, off the south of Japan. The Japan-
ese, f )r the first time, saw Europeans and heard their unintelli-
gible 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 vcmit thunder and lightning, and emitting an awful smell,"
were presented to Shimadzu, the daimio of Satsuma, who gave
them to Hideyoshi. Among the presents, made in return to Cho-
sen, -yere several of these new weapons made by Japanese. They
were most probably sent as a hint, like that of the Pequot's offer-
ing c f the arrows wrapped in snake-skin. With them were phea-
sants, stands of swords and spears, books, rolls of paper, and four
hundred gold koban (a coin worth about $5.00).
With the returning embassy, Hideyoshi sent the priest and a
form 3r colleague of Yoshitoshi to Seoul. They were instructed to
ask i be king to assist Hideyoshi to renew peaceful relations be-
twee i Japan and China. These, owing to the long continued
piratical invasions from Japan, during the anarchy of the Ashi-
kaga had been suspended for some years past.
The peaceful influences of Christianity's teachings now came
beta een these two pagan nations, in the mind and person of Yoshi-
tosh , who had professed the faith of Jesus as taught by the JRoman
Catbolic missionaries from Portugal, then in Japan. Be this as it
may Yoshitoshi, who had been in Seoul, and lived in Tsushima,
T well acquainted with the military resources of the three
94 COREA.
countries, knew that war would result in ruin to Cho-sen, while,
in measuring their swords with China, the Japanese were at fear-
ful 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 de-
sired. But all was in vain. He received only a letter containing
a defiant reply to his master's bullying letter. In sadness he re-
turned to Kioto, and reported his ill-success. Surprised and en-
raged at the indifference of the Coreans, Hideyoshi 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.
Hideyoshi, during this year, nominally resigned the office of
Kuambaku, in favor of his son, and, according to usage, took the
title of Taiko, by which name (Taiko Sanaa) 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 gro-
tesque account of Hideyoshi, one of whose many names they read
as Ping-syew-kye. They call him " the man under a tree," in re-
ference to his early nickname of Kinomoto. He is also dubbed
"King of Taiko." The Jesuit missionaries speak of him in their
letters as Quabacundono (His Lordship the Kuambaku), or by one
of his personal names, Faxiba (Hashiba).
The Coreans were now in a strait. Though under the protec-
torate 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 inva-
sion of China ? They finally resolved upon the latter course, and
despatched a courier to Peking. About the same time the mes-
senger from Kiu Kiu had landed, and was on his way with the
same tidings. The Eiukiuan reached Peking first, and the Corean
arrived only to confirm the news. Yet, in spite of such overwhelm-
ing evidence of the designs of Japan, the colossal " tortoise " could,
at first, scarce believe " the bee " would attempt to sting.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE INVASION— ON TO SEOUL.
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 mdebted, 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 Taiko's meas-
ures for invasion, and adds that the expenses therefor greatly
burdened the " ethniques " or daimios 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.
The land and naval forces assembled at Nagoya, in Hizen, now
calle d Karatsu, and famous for being the chief place for the manu-
facture of Hizen porcelain. Here a superb castle was built, while
hugo inns or resting-places were erected all along the road from
Kioto. 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 Taiko's body-
guard ; the remainder were sailors, servants, camp followers, etc.
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 for-
eigi enemies, or on a large scale. Taiko 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 can-
96 COREA.
non, the immense fleet hoisted sail and, under a fresh breeze, bore
away to the west.
Their swelling sails, made of long sections of canvass laced
together, vertically, at their edges, from stem to boom (thus dif-
fering from the Chinese, which are laced horizontally), were in-
scribed with immense crests and the heraldic devices of feudal-
ism, 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
cloisonne 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 sashi-mono, 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, " NAMU MIYO HO RENGE KIO"
(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 invaders commissariat for man and horse. Trans-
port junks, with cargoes of flints, arrows, ball, powder, wax can-
dles, ship and camp stores, " not forgetting a single thing," sailed
soon after, as well as the craft containing horses for the cavalry.
Taiko 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 ex-
pedition, 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
THE INVASION— ON TO SEOUL. 97
of ag«. He was a favorite of. Taiko, 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 drug-
gists n Japan use as a shop sign. In this he followed the example
of his august chief, who, despising the brocade banners of the im-
perial generals, stuck a gourd on a pole for his colors. For every
victory he added another gourd, until his immense cluster con-
tainec 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 — impetu-
ous attack and close following up of victory.
Konishi was a Christian, an ardent convert to the faith of the
Jesuit fathers, by whom he had been baptized in 1584. Tn their
writings, they call him " Don Austin " — a contraction of Augustine.
Other Christian lords or daimios, 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.
Kato Kiyomasa was a noble, whose castle seat was at Kumamoto
in Hio o. From his youth he had been trained to war, and had a
reputation for fierce bravery. It is said that Kato suggested to
Taiko 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 " vir ter execrandus " 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 ex-
pressly for Kato's division. The silk pennon, said to have been
Inscribed by Nichiren himself and worn by Kato during the in-
vasion, is now in Tokio, owned by Katsu Awa, and is six centuries
old.
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 s ich as to inspire his own troops with the highest enthu-
siasm, and the army sailed away fully confident of victory.
7
98 COREA.
What were the objects of Taiko in making this war? Evi-
dently his original thought was to invade and humble China.
Then followed the determination to conquer Cho-sen. Ambition
may have led him to rival Ojin Tenno, 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 Taiko a David, and his
best generals Uriahs — though Coligny, slain twenty years before,
might have served for a more modern illustration.
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 Taiko's
mind, leading him to neglect the proper support of the expedition
and thus to bring about a gigantic failure.
Finally, we must mention the theory of a Japanese friend, Mr.
Egi Takato, who held that Taiko, having whole armies of unem-
ployed 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.
The Coreans, by their own acknowledgment, were poorly pre-
pared 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 pro-
clamation 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 re-
sponded 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 Taiko to the king. There was little or no military organiza-
tion, except on paper, while the naval defences were in a sad
plight. However, they began to enroll and drill, to lay up stores
THE INVASION— ON TO SEOUL.
99
Map of the Japanese Military Operations of 1592.
100 COREA,
of fish and grain for the army, to build ships, to repair their walls,
and even to manufacture rude firearms.
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 garri-
.soned 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 surren-
dered. 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 di-
vision, leaving Tong-nai, marched up the Nak-tong valley to
Shang-chiu.
Kato's division, delayed by a storm, arrived next day. Land-
ing immediately, he saw with chagrin the pennons of his rival fly-
ing 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 garri-
soned, they were to make their way to the capital.
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 spear-
heads, 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 ex-
THE INVASION— ON TO SEOUL.
101
treriely formidable to look at, but being so heavy as to be un-
wieidly at close quarters, they did little execution. Many of their
suits of armor were handsomely inlaid, made of iron and leather,
Corean Knight of the Sixteenth Century.
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,
102 CORBA.
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 inva-
ders 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.
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
THE INVASION— ON TO SEOUL. 103
Japanese had lost but 100 killed and 400 wounded. After such a
victory, "Konishi determined to conquer all Corea by himself."
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."
Str, lining every nerve, Kato pressed forward so rapidly that the
twc 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
briliant pageant of the Japanese army, in magnificent array of
gay silk and glittering armor, was lost on the empty streets of
deserted Seoul.
When Taiko 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."
CHAPTER XIV.
THE CAMPAIGN IN THE NORTH.
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 cour-
tiers their king, while the people fled to the mountains. His Ma-
jesty 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 prep-
arations for flight, which began June 9th, that no food was pro-
vided 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 uncom-
fortable, 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 aban-
doned to the enemy. Tortured with hunger and fatigue, the
wretched party floundered on.
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
THE CAMPAIGN IN THE NORTH. 105
of the river. Another motive for this incendiary act was to de-
prive their pursuers of ready materials to ferry themselves across
the liver. It was not until near midnight that the miserable fugi-
tives, tortured with hunger and almost dead with fatigue, entered
the city. Though feeling safe for the moment, since the Japanese
pursaers could not cross the river without boats or rafts, most of
the king's household were doomed still to suffer the pangs of hun-
ger. The soldiers had stolen the food provided for the party, and
the l;ing 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.
The king ordered his scattered forces to rally at the Kin-yin
River, and, on its northern bank, to make a determined stand.
Kato and Konishi, remaining but a short time in the capital,
united their divisions and pressed forward to the north. Reach-
ing 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.
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.
The great need of the Japanese was floating material ; next to
this, their object was to discover the fords of the river. On
106 COREA.
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.
Delay made the Japanese less vigilant. The Corean command-
ers, noticing this, planned to surprise their enemy by a night
attack. Owing to bad management and delay, the various detach-
ments did not assemble on the opposite side of the river until
near daylight. Then forming, they charged furiously upon Ko-
nishi's camp, and, taking his men by surprise, carried off hundreds
of prisoners and horses, the cavalry suffering worse than the infan-
try. Kuroda's division came gallantly to their support, and drove
the Coreans back to the river. By this time it was broad day-
light, 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.
The news of the fall of Ping-an City utterly demoralized the
Coreans, so that, horses being still numerous, the courtiers de-
serted 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 them-
selves 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." Taiko 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."
The Japanese soldiers felt so elated over their victory that they
THE CAMPAIGN IN THE NORTH.
107
expected immediate orders to march into China. With this pur-
pose : n 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 ar-
mies, and a general war between these rival nations might have
Map illustrating the Campaign in the North, 1592-93.
turned the current of Asiatic history. This, however, was not to
be. ( Korean valor, with the aid of gunpowder and improved naval
construction, prevented this, and kept three hundred miles of dis-
tance, in a mountainous country, between the Japanese and their
base of supplies.
Oriental rhetoric might describe the situation in this wise : the
eastern dragon of invasion flew across the sea in winged ships, and
108 COREA.
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.
In cool western phrase, sinister, but significant, Konishi was
soon afterward obliged to " make a change of base." The bril-
liant 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 Cho-sen people set to work to improve the archi-
tecture 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.
Lively fighting began, but this time the Coreans seemed invul-
nerable. 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 artil-
lery 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.
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 spe-
cial 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 sol-
diers to act as a body-guard to the Corean king. These braves
crossed the frontier ; but while on their way to Ping-an, heard oi
the fall of the city, and, facing about, marched back into Liao
Tung. The king and the fragments of his court now sent courier
THE CAMPAIGN IN THE NORTH. 109
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
marcted rapidly into Corea. Early in August the Japanese pick-
ets fiist 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.
The Chinese seemed confident of success, and moved to the
attack on Ping-an with neither wariness nor fear. Having in-
vested, the city, they began the assault on August 27th. The
Japanese allowed them to enter the city and become entan-
gled in its narrow lanes. They then attacked them from ad-
vantageous positions, which they had occupied previously, assail-
ing them with showers of arrows, and charging them with their
long lances. One body of the Ming soldiers attempted to scale
the will of a part of the fortifications, which seemed to have been
negleoted by the Japanese, when near the top, the whole face of
the ct .stle being covered with climbing men, the garrison, rushing
from their hiding-places, tumbled over or speared their enemies,
who fall down and into the mass of their comrades below. Those
not k lied by thrusts or the fall, were shot by the gunners on the
rampurts, and the Chinese now received into their bosoms a
show( r of lead, against which their armor of hide and iron was of
slight avail. In this fight the Ming commander was slain. The
rout ( >f the Chinese army was so complete, that the fugitives never
ceased their retreat until safely over the border, and into China.
The government at Peking now began to understand the power
of th( enemy with whom they had to deal. An army of 40,000
men ^VSLS 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
Japai ese pirates had carried off a Chinaman to Japan, where he
was k ept captive for many years. Returning to China, he made
the a3quaintance of Chin Ikei, and gave him much information
conce rning the country and people of his captivity. Chin Ikei was
evide itly a mercenary adventurer, who could talk Japanese, and
hoped for honors and promotion by acting as a go-between. He
had 10 commission or any real authority. The Chinese seem to
have used him only as a cat's-paw.
110 COREA.
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 Gensho. 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 ter-
ritory 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.
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 Kiyo-
masa, 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 re-
puted 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 for-
ests, 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. Nabeshima'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 peo-
ple. Immediately the Japanese reverently uncovered their heads
THE CAMPAIGN IN THE NORTH. HI
and, kneeling on the strand, gazed long and lovingly with home-
sick hearts — a scene often portrayed in Japanese decorative art.
Thus the year 1592 drew near its close ; the Japanese, neces-
sarily 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, Ei Jo Sho), 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
Liac Tung in winter, especially over the mountain passes, was a
severe one, and the horses are said to have sweated blood. Evi-
dently the expectation of the leader was to drive out the inva-
ders and annex the country to China. When the Corean moun-
tains 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 iron tier, he arrived at Sun-an. It was then near the last of Janu-
ary, 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,
tirea of desolate Cho-sen, longed for peace and home. The treach-
erous Chinamen received the Japanese with apparent cordiality,
and feasted them until they were well drunk. Then the unsuspi-
cious Japanese were set upon while their swords were undrawn in
their scabbards. All were killed except two or three. Accord-
ing to another account, they fell into an ambuscade, and fought
so bravely that only three were taken alive. From the survivors
Kon ishi first learned of the presence of the Ming army. The pre-
text, afterward given by the lying Chinaman, was that the inter-
preters misunderstood each other, and began a quarrel. The
gravity of the situation was now apparent. A Chinese army, of
112 COREA.
whose numbers the Japanese were ignorant, menaced them in
front, while all around them the natives were gathering in num-
bers 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 cf
affairs, the faces of the soldiers wore a dispirited air.
Konishi's alternative lay between the risk of a battle and re-
treat to Kai-seng. He was not long in resolving on the former
course, for, in six days afterward, the Ming host, gay with gleam-
ing 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 moun-
tainous 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.
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 num-
bers 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.
Konishi had despatched a courier to Otomo, the Japanese offi-
cer 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 dis-
ease, 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 de-
serted 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.
THE CAMPAIGN IN THE NORTH. 113
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 com-
mander, 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 tt.e 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.
In the flush of success, Li-yu-sung, the Ming commander, sent
an envoy with a haughty summons of surrender to Kato and Na-
beshima. 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 Kie-chiu, then
threatened by the enemy.
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 Eichosun, says a Japanese author, in-
vented bombs, or shin-ten-rai (literally, heaven-shaking thunder),
containing poison. Going secretly to the foot of the castle, he dis-
chargcd 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, th-i powder in the ball exploded. The report shook heaven and
earth. The ball was rent into a thousand pieces, which scattered
like si ars. 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 after-
ward thrown in, which finally compelled the evacuation of the castle.
From the above account it seems that the Coreans actually in-
ventel bombs similar to the modern iron shells. They may have
been fired from a heavy wooden cannon, a sort of howitzer, made
8
114 COREA.
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 proba-
bly 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 proba-
bly a thin shell of iron, loaded only with gunpowder, which, like the
Chinese mixture, contains an excess of sulphur. The military cus-
toms 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.
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.
Kato and Nabeshimahad 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, hold-
ing on abreast of logs, forded or floated over the most impetuous
torrents, while the cavalry kept the Coreans at bay. Though an-
noyed by attacks of guerilla parties on their flanks, the Japanese
succeeded in reaching Seoul without serious loss.
By the retreat of the Japanese armies, and their concentration
in Seoul, the four northern provinces, comprising half the king-
dom, were virtually lost to them. At the fall of Ping-an the war
found its pivot, for the Japanese never again retrieved their for-
tunes in Cho-sen.
CHAPTEE XY.
THE RETREAT FROM SEOUL.
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 tbrty miles northwest of Seoul.
In ahe 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 an ay to move against the capital.
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 I e 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 sisxes, 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 mur-
dered. Only a few lusty men, to be used as laborers and burden-
bearers, were spared.
Yeiijs after, the memory of this frightful and inhuman slaugh-
ter, burdening the conscience of many a Japanese soldier, drove
him a penitent suppliant into the monasteries. There, exiled from
the wo dd, with shaven head and priestly robe, he spent his days
116 COREA.
in fasting, vigils, and prayers for pardon, seeking to obtain Nir-
vana with the Eternal Buddha.
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 Kobayekawa,
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, Kobayekawa leading the third, or main body of ten
thousand men, the others having only three thousand each. In the J
battle that ensued the Japanese were at first unable to hold their
ground against the overwhelming forces of their enemies. The Chi-
nese 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, Kobayekawa, 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 en-
gaged, 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 Japan-
ese 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.
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 ken (two-edged, short falchion), and Tcatana (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 cav-
alry, and then unhorsing them, either by thrust or grapple. One
general of high rank was pulled off his steed and killed.
The Japanese leaders were in their best spirits, as well as in
THE RETREAT FROM SEOUL. 117
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.
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.
The Chinese suffered heavily in officers, and their first taste of
war in the field with such veterans as the soldiers of Taiko 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 loiable to follow up the victory, if victory it may be called.
A sim.'H force, however, pressed forward and occupied Kai-jo,
while the main body prepared to pass a miserable winter in the
desolate capital.
The Corean stronghold of An-am was also assaulted. This cas-
tle 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 garri-
son, v ith huge masses of rock and timber piled near the ledge,
stood ready to hurl these upon the invaders.
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
showc r 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 en-
tered garrisoned the castle, and decorated it with their streamers.
118 COREA.
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 peti-
tioned their government for food, but none was to be had. Thou-
sands 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.
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 Japan-
ese camp, and thousands of the home-sick soldiers died inglori-
ously. 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 :
1. Peace between the three countries.
2. Japan to remain in possession of the three southern prov-
inces of Cho-sen.
3. Corea to send tribute to Japan as heretofore.
4. Hideyoshi to be recognized as King of Corea. The three
other articles drawn up were not made public, but the acknowl-
edgment of Taiko as the equal of the Emperor of China was evi-
dently 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.
THE RETREAT FROM SEOUL. 119
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 Kioto, wrote
to Taiko, 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 eqt.al.
Scholarship and literature were not at a very high premium at
that t:me among the Japanese military men. The martial virtues
and ac complishments occupied the time and thoughts of the war-
riors 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 bcnzes 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 Taiko 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.
In both camps there were those who bitterly opposed any
peace short of that which the sword decided. The Corean gen-
erals < hafed 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
cripplad and demoralized, victory would certainly follow a well-
plannod attack in force. Within the camp of the invaders Achil-
les ai d Agamemnon were as far as ever from harmony. Kato
sullen ty refused to entertain the idea of peace, partly because
Konisai proposed it, but mainly because, if the two princes were
given up, his achievements would be brought to naught, and
all tho glory of the war would redound to his rival. Only af-
ter the earnest representation by his friends of the empty gran-
aries, and the danger of impending starvation, the great sickness
amonij the troops, and the fearful loss of horses, was he in-
120 CORE A.
duced to agree with the other commanders that Seoul should be
evacuated.
Meanwhile, the allies were advancing toward the capital.
On May 22, 1593, the Japanese, with due precautions, evacua-
ted 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 Kiver, the Chinese had
lost by the sword and disease twenty thousand men.
CHAPTER XYI.
CESPEDES, THE CHRISTIAN CHAPLAIN.
THE aspect of affairs had now changed from that of a trium-
phal march through Corea into China and to Peking, to long and
tedious camp life, with uncertain fortunes in the field, which prom-
ised 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 him-
self and his fellow-believers the presence and ministrations of one
of the European friars to act as chaplain. He therefore sent, prob-
ably when at or near Fusan, a message to the superior of the
Mission in Japan, asking for a priest.
Toward the end of 1593, the Vice-Provengal of the Company of
the Jesuits despatched Father Gregorio de Cespedes and a Japan-
ese convert named "Foucan Eion " to the army in Cho-sen. They
left Japan and spent the winter in Tsushima, the domain of Yoshi-
toshi, 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 Ku-
magaye), 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, preach-
ing 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, com-
foried 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
glaring 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."
122 COREA.
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 fanati-
cal zeal for the Buddhist faith. Being in Japan he denounced the
foreign priest to Taiko, 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 Taiko
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 emissa-
ries, and that their aim was at temporal power. These suspicions,
as every student of Japan knows, were more than well founded.
Besides accusing Cespedes, Kato insinuated that Konishi him-
self was leading the conspiracy. The cry of cho-teki (rebel, or
enemy of the mikado) in Japan is enough to blacken the character
of the bravest man and greatest favorite. Treason against the mi-
kado being the supreme crime, Konishi found it necessary to
return to Kioto, present himself before Taiko, and cleanse his repu-
tation even from suspicion. This the lull in the active operations,
occasioned by the negotiations of Chin Ikei, enabled him to do.
Immediately sending back the priest, he shortly afterward
crossed the straits, and, meeting Taiko, succeeded in fully ingrati-
ating himself and allaying all suspicion.
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
Kioto. 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 cate-
chising Japanese and his numerous fellow Coreans at Nagasaki.
When about thirty-three years old, the Jesuits, wishing to estab-
lish a mission in Corea, proposed to send him to his native land as
missionary ; but not being able, on account of the persecution
CESPEDES, THE CHRISTIAN CHAPLAIN. 123
then raging in Japan, lie was chosen by the Father Provencal 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 Poking, to set on the throne that family which is still the ruling
dynasty of the Middle Kingdom. Vincent was recalled to Japan
in 1( 20, where, in the persecutions under lyemitsu, the third To-
kuga^va sho-gun, he fell a victim to his fidelity, and was martyr-
ized in 1625, at the age of about forty-four.
Warned of the dangers of patronizing the now proscribed relig-
ion, there was no farther return of zeal on Konishi's part, or that
of the other Christian princes, and no farther opportunity was
giver to plant the seeds of the faith in the desolated land.
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 inter-
preter at the confessional — a fact which goes to prove the close
affinity of the two languages.
Others, of gentle blood and scholarly attainments, rose to posi-
tions of honor and eminence under the government, or in the
hous<3holds of the daimios. Many Corean lads were adopted by
the returned soldiers or kept as servants. When the bloody per-
secutions broke out, by which many thousand Japanese found
deatli in the hundred forms of torture which hate and malice in-
ventod, 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 in-
trod action was postponed by Providence until two centuries later.
CHAPTEE XYIL
DIPLOMACY AT KIOTO AND PEKING.
THE Chinese ambassadors, with whom was Chin Ikei, set sail
from Fusan, and reached Nagoya, in Hizen, on June 22d. Taiko
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 am-
bassadors were delighted, both with the lovely scenery and the
attentions paid them, and so remained until August.
Little, however, came of this mission. Taiko 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 Cho-sen to tell the news and get the credit of having se-
cured 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.
Yet Taiko, though willing to be at peace with China, did not
intend to spare unhappy Cho-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.
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
fcheir foes, they were routed with frightful carnage. Kato led
DIPLOMACY AT KIOTO AND PEKING. 125
the besieging force, eager to make speedy capture so as to irritate
the Coreans and prevent the peace he feared.
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 Kame-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 crush-
ing 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
wero 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.
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 pre-
paring to go back to Seoul. The Chinese government appointed
fresh commissioners of war, and ordered the formation of a new
and larger army.
The immediate advance of the invaders on the capital was ex-
pected, but Kato, having obeyed Taiko's orders, left a garrison in
the castle and fell back on Fusan.
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 Man-
churia, 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
luD of hostilities, negotiations were carried on at Peking and
Kioto, as well as between the hostile camps. The pen took the
place of the matchlock, and the ink-stone furnished the ammuni-
tion.
A son was born to Taiko, and named Hideyori. A great pag-
eant, in honor of the infant, was given at the newly built and
126 COREA.
splendid castle of Fushimi, near Kioto, 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.
On his arrival, he requested to see Konishi, who, however,
evaded him, excusing himself on the plea of expecting to hear
from Taiko, after which he promised to hold an interview. Ko-
nishi then departed for Japan, taking Chin Ikei with him. On
his return he still avoided the Chinese envoy, for he had no defin-
ite orders, and the other generals refused to act without direct
word from their master in Kioto. Meanwhile Chin Ikei, consumed
with jealousy, and angry at the Peking mandarins for ignoring
him and withholding official recognition and honors, planned re-
venge against Eishosei ; for Chin Ikei believed himself to have
done great things for Cho-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 Taiko did not wish to be made King of Cho-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.
The reports started by Chin Ikei, coming to the ears of Risho-
sei, 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.
Audience was duly given with pomp and grandeur in the gor-
geous 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 Taiko and his officers.
Formalities over, the Ming emperor's letter was delivered to
DIPLOMACY AT KIOTO AND PEKING. 127
Taiko, who at once placed it in the hands of three of the most
learn ed priests, experts in the Chinese language, and ordered them
to translate its contents literally.
To Konishi, then at Kioto, 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
Taiko. 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 sho-gun (1403-
1425) was referred to; and the gist of this last imperial letter
was " We, the Emperor of China, appoint you, Taiko, to be the
King of Japan" (Nippon O). In other words, the mighty Kuam-
baku of Japan was insulted by being treated no better than one
of t]ie Ashikaga generals !
This was the mouse that was born from so great a mountain
of diplomacy. The rage of Taiko 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.
The Chinese embassy, dismissed in disgrace, returned in Janu-
ary, 1596, and made known their humiliation at Peking ; while
the King of Corea, who had been living in Seoul during the ne-
gotiations, appealed at once for speedy aid against the impending
invasion. Hideyoshi again applied himself with renewed vigor to
raising and drilling a new army, and obtaining ships and sup-
plies. 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,
wit] i their divisions, sailed away for Fusan, January 7, 1597, and
joined the army under Konishi and Kato.
The new levies from China, which had been waiting under
arirs, crossed the Yalu and entered from the west at about the
sane time. Marching down through Ping-an and Seoul, a divi-
sioi of ten thousand garrisoned the castle of Nan-on, in Chulla.
Th( Coreans, meanwhile, fitted out a fleet, under the command of
Geukai, expecting a second victory on the water.
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
128 COREA.
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 re-
ceiving from China the high post and honors which his ambition
coveted, was in a strait. Taiko 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."
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 vic-
tim, 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 " moun-
tain 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.
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.
CHAPTEE XYIIL
THE SECOND INVASION.
TIIE 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
beforo, Konishi and Kato Kiyomasa were the two field command-
ers, while Hideaki, a noble lad, sixteen years old, was the nomi-
nal commander-in-chief.
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 ac-
comn odating a maximum of fighting men. They were two hun-
dred ;md fifty or three hundred feet in length, with huge sterns, hav-
ing enormous rudders, the tillers of which were worked by eight
men. Their high, flat prows were hideously carved and painted to
repre sent 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
groui,d. 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 wind-
lasses, shot iron-headed darts and bolts six feet long and four in-
ches fchick. On some of the ships towers were erected, in which
cannc n, missile-engines, and mus*keteers were stationed, to shoot
out fi -e-arrows, stones, and balls. At close quarters the space at
the b >ws — about one-third of the deck — was free for the move-
ments 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
130 CORE A.
of the long Corean trumpets, and the gay fluttering of thousands
of silken flags and streamers made brilliant defiance.
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 can-
non, 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 hun-
dred 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.
Endeavors were made to strengthen the garrison at Nan-on,
but the Japanese general, Kato Yoshiakira, meeting the reinforce-
ments 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 com-
mand in the fleet up the Sem River, in Chulla province, and land-
ing, 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 Chi-
nese and Coreans, the reinforcements in the province, and on their
way, numbered 20,000 more, while in the north was another Chi-
nese corps of 20,000.
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.
THE SECOND INVASION.
131
Nan-on castle was of rectangular form, enclosing a space nearly
two miles square, as each side was nine thousand feet long. Its
Map of the Operations of the Second Invasion.
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
132 CORE A.
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.
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.
The weak points, at which no enemy was expected, and for
which preparations for defence were few, were on the east and
west.
No effect being produced during the first two days, either by
bullets or fire-arrows, Konishi, on the third, sent large detach-
ments 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 sol-
diers 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 Avail which, being over twenty feet high, was but slightly
guarded, and began to build a platform of the sheaves. Four Ja-
panese, reaching the top by climbing, raised the war-cry, and one
of the towers being set on fire by their arrows, the work was dis-
covered. 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
THE SECOND INVASION. 133
Cor sans and Chinese, who could not escape, were slain by thou*
sands.
.imong 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 Hachi-
man, the god of war and Buddha of the Eight Banners, he flung
do^Ti his bloody sword, put his red palms together, and bowing
his head, prayed devoutly toward his adored Japan. His devo-
tions ended, he sliced off the noses from the heads of the two
enemies he had slain, wrapped them in paper, twisted the pack-
age to his girdle, and sprang forward to meet, with but three men,
the charge of fifty horsemen. The first sweep of the Japanese
sab::e 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
roso red and clear. Ogawuchi slew, with his own hand, Keku-
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.
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
the ^e ghastly trophies, or " glory-signs," was three thousand seven
hui dred and twenty-six. The ears and noses of the slain were
the i sheared off, and with the commander's head, were packed
wit>i salt and quick lime in casks, and sent to Japan to form the
greit ear-tomb now in Kioto, the horrible monument of a most
unrighteous war.
A map of the castle and town, -with the list of the most meri-
torous among the victors, was duly sent back to Taiko. Then
the walls and towers, granaries, and barracks were destroyed.
This work occupied two days.
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 Jap-
134 COREA.
anese remained here ten days, levelling the fortress with fire and
hammer.
As the cold weather was approaching, the Japanese command-
ers, after council, resolved at once to march to the capital. Kat-
suyoshi and Kiyomasa had joined them, and the advance north-
ward was at once began. By October 19th they were within
seventeen miles of Seoul.1
The successes on land, brilliant though they were, were bal-
anced by the defeat of the Japanese navy off the southern coast.
The Chinese admiral Bishinshin, 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 ves-
sels that the Japanese fleet was destroyed or driven away.
This event may be said to have decided the fate of the cam-
paign. 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 neces-
sary even at the moment of victory.
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 end-
ing the war by a brief and decisive campaign. The Japanese gen-
erals at Koran, by means of their spies and advance parties, kept
themselves well informed of the movements of the enemy. At a
1 Their line of march, as shown in the Japanese histories, was to Sen-ken,
October llth ; 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 Jar
panese and old Corean pronunciation.
THE SECOND INVASION. 135
skirmish at Chin-zen the Chinese advance guard was defeated
with heavy loss, but the Japanese at once began their retreat.
Shislrda and Ota, who were further east, learning of the over-
whelming odds against them, fell back into Uru-san, which was
already manned by a detachment of Kato's corps.
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 re-
quired much nerve and valor. Besides the tiger steaks, which they
ate, much fresh meat was furnished by the numerous crane, pheas-
ants, ind " the ten thousand things different from those in Japan,"
which they made use of to eke out their scanty rations.
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.
This turning their backs on Seoul was, in reality, the begin-
ning of their march homeward. The invaders, therefore, enriched
them selves with the spoil of houses and temples as they moved
toward the coast — gold and silver brocades, rolls of silk, paint-
ings, 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 no-
ticed large dressed stone columns of an octagonal form, with in-
scri] itions 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.
The Japanese were impressed with the size and grandeur of
the buildings in this old seat of the civilization and learning of
Shii ra 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 radia-
136 COREA.
ted 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, be-
ginning 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.
The next morning, turning their backs on the gray waste of
ashes, they resumed their march. Kokio, Kunoi, Sin-ne 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.
Thence through Yei-tan, they came to Keku-shiu, another
famous old seat of Shinra' s ancient grandeur. The beautiful situa-
tion 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 clus-
tered 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.
After camping at Kiran, they reached the sea-coast, at Uru-san,
November 18th.
CHAPTER XIX.
THE SIEGE OF URU-SAN CASTLE.
THE Japanese now took up the spade as their immediate wea-
pon 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,
gateis huts, and engines, a party of two thousand axemen and la-
borers, guarded by twenty-eight mounted pickets and three hun-
dred matchlock men, with seven flags, went daily into the forest.
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.
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 tJiree gates. The inner defences were in three parts, or maru.
The third maru, 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.
The war operations, which had hitherto covered large spaces
of the country, now found the pivot at this place situated in Ki'ung-
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 iaapetuous charge, in entering the castle.
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
138
COREA.
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.
A Japanese captain commanded one of the advance pickets,
nun una us! tmn nnn nml
1!
1§' ft
rmn rrrm rrrm ^^^
S i
1 Q Ni
d
San
a
u
rmn rmn (
g
o
w
I
1
onm am tun
1
— G 1
c
I
S
-^~~ '»' IT TD> GT TEf' ,i ^^^ I
Plan of Uru-san Castle. — Explanation: Hon, First Enclosure; Ni, Second; San, Third; G, Gates;
inns Bodies of Troops.
which had their quarters in the cloisters of Ankokuji (Temple of
the Peaceful Country). One night a board, inscribed with Chi-
nese characters, was set up before the gate of the camp. The sol-
diers, seeing it in the morning, but unable to read Chinese, car-
THE SIEGE OF URU-SAN CASTLE. 139
ried 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 se-
cretly absconded to Fusan. The truth was, that an overwhelm-
ing Ming army was now in front of them and their purpose to in-
vest tte castle was thus published. The entire Japanese forces
were r ow gathered close under the walls, or inside the castle, and
the sertinels were doubled.
On the morning of January 30th the Ming army suddenly as-
saulted 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 dis-
tance, they suddenly found themselves encircled by a mighty host
By their black and yellow standards, and their excellent tactics,
the Japanese officers saw that they were Ming soldiers. The dust
raised by the horse's of the oncoming enemy seemed to the garri-
son 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 as-
sault. Some of the bravest leaders of the garrison fell outside,
but nc sooner were the gates locked than Katsuyoshi, without ex-
tractiEg the two arrows from his wounds, or stanching the blood,
posted the defenders on the walls in position. Ogawuchi had per-
formed 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.
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 ar, eighteen thousand three hundred and sixty men, which
left them but a garrison of five thousand fighting men. A large
numbor of non-combatants, including many of the friendly people
of the neighborhood, had crowded into the fortifications, and had
to be t'ed.
Food growing scarcer, and danger increasing, Asano sent word
140 COREA.
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.
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 awiul 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.
Night fell upon the work of blood, but at early morn, the
enemy waked the garrison with showers of arrows, and with lad-
ders 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.
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
THE SIEGE OF URU-SAN CASTLE. 141,
vexed at not having been able to take it by one assault, tried ne-
gotiation. In fact, they were suffering from lack of provisions.
The Japanese sent back a defiant answer, and some of them prof-
ited 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 num-
ber 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.
The next day, February 6th, was one of quiet, but it was in-
tensely 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 suf-
fering, the Japanese jested with each other, poured out mutual
components, and kept light hearts and defiant spirits.
A C3uncil 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.
Wtile the lull or truce was in force, the Chinese were, accord-
ing to Ogawuchi, plotting to entrap the Japanese leaders. This
they learned from one Okomoto, a native of Japan, who had lived
long i:i 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 th( Japanese leaders to come out of their citadel, leave their
horses and weapons at a certain place, and go to the altar to
swear oefore Heaven to keep the peace. Then the Chinese were
to suriound and make prisoners of the Japanese. Okomoto' s soul
recoiled at the perfidy. Going by night to the side of the castle
near t je hills, he was admitted in the citadel, and exposing the
plot, gave warning of the danger. A profound impression was
produi :ed on the grateful leaders, who immediately made a plan to
show 1 heir 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 te had never forgotten his wife or children ; though he saw
them often in his dreams, yet " the winds brought him no news."
OE the following morning a Chinese ofiicer, coming to the foot
of the wall, made signs with his standard, and offered the same
142 COREA.
terms in detail which Okomoto had exposed. The Japanese lead*
ers excused themselves on the plea of sickness, and the parley
came to nothing.
Yet the sufferings of the Japanese were growing hourly se-
verer. 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 unprom-
ising 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.
Tidings of the straits of the dwindling garrison at Uru-san hav-
ing reached the other Japanese commanders, Nabeshima and Ku-
roda, they marched to the relief of their compatriots. One of the
Chinese generals, Eijobai, leaving camp, set out to attack them.
The foiled Chinese commander-in-chief, angry at the refusal of
the Japanese to come to his camp, ordered a fresh attack on the cas-
tle. 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 de-
fenders 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
THE SIEGE OF URU-SAN CASTLE. 143
rear, and a bloody combat was raging. At about the same time
the flaet, laden with provisions, was on its way and near the starv-
ing garrison.
Next morning the keen eyes of their commander noticed flocks
of wi~ d birds descending on the Chinese camp. The careful scru-
tiny of the actions of wild fowl formed a part of the military edu-
cation of all Japanese, and they inferred at once that the camp was
empt^ 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 de-
serted Ming camp, they came up with the forces of Kuroda and
Nabeshima, who had gained a great victory over the allies. In
this battle of the river plain of Gisen, February 9, 1598, the Jap-
anese < 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 Kioto.
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 re-
action of the fearful strain coming at once upon them, they found
theD Lselves 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.
According to orders given, the number of the dead lying on
the 'xozen 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.
]n the camp of the allies, crimination and recrimination were
goii g on, the Coreans angry at being foiled before Uru-san, and the
144 COREA.
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 Chi-
nese commander-in-chief was cashiered in disgrace.
On May 10th the soldiers of the garrison, now relieved, left for
their homes in Japan.
Thus ended the siege of Uru-san, after lasting an entire year.
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 skir-
mishes 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,
Hideyoshi fell sick and died, September 9, 1598, at the age of
sixty-three. Almost his last words were, " Recall all my troops
from Cho-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.
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 Kioto. Ogawuchi reckons the number of Co-
rean 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.
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.
CHAPTER XX.
CHANGES AFTER THE INVASION.
THE war over, and peace again in the land, the fugitives re-
turne'l to their homes and the farmers to their fields. The whole
country was desolate, the scars of war were everywhere visible,
and tie curse of poverty was universal. From the king and court,
in the royal city, of which fire had left little but ashes, and of
whicl: 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
whicl the war had bred. Kind nature, however, ceased not her
bountiful stores, and from the ever-ready and ever-full treasuries
of th( ocean, fed the stricken land.
The war was a fruitful cause of national changes in Corean cus-
toms and institutions. The first was the more thorough organiza-
tion of the military, the rebuilding and strengthening of old cas-
Hes, !ind the erection of new ones ; though, like most measures of
the g :>vernment, 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
head* [uarters were at points in Kiung-sang. Among the literary
fruits of the leisure now afforded was the narrative, in Chinese, of
the e /ents leading to the war with the Japanese, written by a high
digni tary of the court, and covering the period from about 1586 to
1598. This is, perhaps, the only book reprinted in Japan, which gives
the C orean 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 ^vriter is difficult for an ordinary Japanese to read. The book
(Cho'iitsuroku) contains a curious map of the eight provinces.
10
146 CORE A.
In Japan the energies of the returned warriors were fully em-
ployed at home after their withdrawal from Corea. The adher-
ents of Taiko and those of lyeyasu, the rising man, came to blows,
and at the great battle of Sekigahara, in October, 1600, lyeyasu
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.
Konishi, being a Christian, and unable, from conscientious
scruples, to commit suicide by hara kiri, 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 Kiu 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 em-
pire. When retiring from Cho-sen, in 1597, the daimio and gen-
eral Nabeshima 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 found-
ing these industries in his own domain, he became the prime
author of that delight of the aesthetic world, "old Satsuma faience."
Other daimios, in whose domains were potteries, likewise trans-
ported skilled workers in clay, who afterward brought fame and
money to their masters. On the other hand, lyeyasu sent back the
Corean prisoners in Japan to their own homes.
The spoil brought back from the peninsular campaign — wea-
pons, flags, brocades, porcelains, carvings, pictures, and manu-
scripts 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 authen-
tic 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
Tokio, from the heirs or descendants of the veterans of Taiko. In
CHANGES AFTER THE INVASION. 147
Kioto, besides the Ear-monument, the Hall of the Founder, in one
of tho great Buddhist temples, rebuilt by the widow of Taiko,
was ceiled with the choice wood of the war junk built for the
hero.
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.
In England, a project was formed to establish a trading-sta-
tion ii 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 fur-
nished by the daimio, Saris and his company of seventeen Eng-
lishmen set out to visit the lyeyasu 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, "Core, Core,
Cocore Ware " (Oh you Coreans, Coreans, you Kokorai men), taunt-
ing 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 I he incident shows clearly that the Japanese urchins and
common people had not forgotten the reputed perfidy of the Co-
reans, while they also supposed that any foreigner, not a Portu-
guese, 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."
Nothing was done by Saris, so far as is known, to explore or
open Oorea to Western commerce, although the last one of the eight
clauses of the articles of license to trade, given him by lyeyasii,
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 un-
148 COREA.
derstand Corea and Kiu Kiu as being land belonging to, but out-
side of " civilized " Nippon.
After leaving Nagasaki, and calling at Bantam, Saris took in a
load of pepper, and sailed for England, reaching Plymouth Sep-
tember 27, 1614.
An attempt was also made by the Dominican order of friars to
establish a mission in Corea. Vincent (Caun), the ward of Ko-
nishi, 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 fur-
nace, 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.
The exact relations of "the conquering and the vassal state,"
as the Japanese would say, that is, of Nihon and Cho-sen, were not
definitely fixed, nor the menace of war withdrawn, until the last
of the line of Taiko died, and the- family became extinct by the
death of Hideyori, the son of Taiko, in 1612.
There is not a particle of evidence that the conquerors ever ex-
acted an annual tribute of "thirty human hides," as stated by a
recent French writer. While lyeyasii had his hands full in Japan,
he paid little attention to the country which Taiko had used as a
cockpit for the Christians. lyeyasii dealt with the Jesuit, the
Christian, and the foreigner, in a manner different from, and for
obvious reasons with success greater than, that of Taiko. He uni-
fied Japan, re-established the dual system of mikado and sho-gun,
with two capitals and two centres of authority, Kioto and Yedo.
He cleared the ground for his grandson lyemitsu, who at once
summoned the Coreans to renew tributary relations and pay horn-
CHANGES AFTER THE INVASIOK 149
age to him at Yedo. Magnifying his authority, he sent, in 1623,
a letier 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 lyeyasu.
The title "Tycoon," too, was intended to overawe the Coreans,
as being even higher than the title Koku 0 (king of a [tributary]
country), which their sovereign and the Ashikaga line of rulers
held by patents from the Emperor of China, and which Taiko had
sconlully refused.
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 Deshima, and
described by Kaempfer, Thunberg, and others. A sketch by a Yedo
artist has depicted the gorgeous scene in the castle of the " Ty-
coon " 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 Kioto, the
haughty ruler received from the Corean envoy the symbol of vas-
salag e — a gohei or wand on which strips of white paper are hung.
Then followed the official banquet.
Since the invasion, Fusan, as before, had been held and garri-
soned by the retainers of the daimio of Tsushima. At this port
all the commerce between the two nations took place. The inter-
change of commodities was established on an amicable basis. Jap-
aneso swords, military equipments, works of art, and raw prod-
ucts were exchanged for Corean merchandise. Having felt the
pow( r 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 No-
vember, 1692, tells us that the Japanese imported from Fusan
scare- e 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."
From an American or British point of view, there was little
tradi $ done between the two countries, but on the strength of even
150 COREA.
this small amount, Earl Eussell, in 1862, tried to get Great Britain
included as a co-trader between Japan and Corea. He was not suc-
cessful. Provision was also made for those who might be cast, by
the perils of the sea, upon the shore of either country. At the ex-
pense of the Yedo government a Gho-sen Yashiki (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 un-
fortunates were mostly fishermen, who, in some cases, had their
wives and children with them. It was from such that Siebold ob-
tained the materials for his notes, vocabulary, and sketches in the
Corean department of his great Archiv.
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, substi-
tute pleasing fiction to gratify the popular taste. The subjoined
note of explanation, given by Pallet, 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 es-
tablished 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.
This is a good specimen of Corean varnish-work carried into
CHANGES AFTER THE INVASION. 151
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.
"Set, 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 per-
sons. With imperturbable effrontery they devastated the treasury
of their "Tycoon." To receive an appointment on the embassy to
Yedc 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 merry-
making in the capital, leisurely made their jaunt back again. For
nearly a century the Yedo government appeared to relish the sen-
sation 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
Yedc to impress the embassy from Seoul, who were to arrive next
year, with the serene glory of the sho-gun lyenobu. From a pa-
vilion near by the embassy's quarters, the Tycoon himself was a
speciator of the feats of archery, on horseback, in which the Co-
reans excelled. The intolerable expense at last compelled the
Yedc 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 daimios, who were allowed by the "Tycoon " a stipend
in geld kobans for this purpose.
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
testii aony of all visitors, and the rich vocabulary of terms relating
to tl.e culture, curing, and preparation of tobacco show that the
crop that is yearly raised from the soil merely for purposes of
wasto in smoke is very large. In the personal equipment of every
152 CORE A.
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 lux-
ury or ornament, but as a necessity.
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 cot-
ton 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 pro-
tection against storm and rain. The vegetable fibres were bleached
to give whiteness. Cotton now began to be generally cultivated
and woven.
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.
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 pre-
cious 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.
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 ques-
tioning 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
CHANGES AFTER THE INVASION. 153
soutfc 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
Islan-l.
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 Jong civil wars of the middle ages. The fact that it had
become extinct is shown in a verse of poetry composed by a court
noblf in 1248. " The cotton-seed, that was planted by the foreigner
and r ot by the natives, has died away." In another Japanese book,
written about 1570, it is stated that cotton had again been intro-
duced and planted in the southern provinces.
Tlie Portuguese, trading at Nagasaki, made cotton wool a fa-
miliar object to the Japanese soldiers. While the army was in
Core.- 1 a European ship, driven far out of her course and much
damaged by the storm, anchored off Yokohama. Being kindly
treatod while refitting, the captain, among other gifts to the
daimio 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 gen-
eral comfort by this one article of wear and use can hardly be es-
timai ed. Not only as wool and fibre, but in the oil from its seeds,
the nation added largely to the sum of its blessings.
Paper, from silk and hemp, rice stalk fibres, mulberry bark,
and other such raw material, had long been made by the Chinese,
but h 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 thick-
nessc s of it make a kind of armor which the troops wear. It will
resist a musket-ball, but not a rifle-bullet.
CHAPTER XXL
THE ISSACHAR OF EASTERN ASIA.
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 01 hills form its buttresses,
while, at intervals, lofty peaks rise as towers. These are all over-
topped 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.
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.
"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 mis-
sionaries. They were thenceforth adopted into the Buddhist pan-
theon, 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 Man-
chius, the ancestors of the ruling dynasty of China, the wearers of
the world-famous hair tails, took their name.
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
ISSACHAR OF EASTERN ASIA.
155
Home of the Manchius, and Their Migrations.
156 CORE A.
the c Golden Family Stem,' and which is the family name of the em-
perors 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."
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 de-
fied 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 Cho-sen by the Japanese veterans was
one of the causes of the weakness and fall of the Ming dynasty.
To repress the rising power in the north, and to smother the
life of the young nation, the Peking government resorted to bar-
barous cruelties and stern coercion, in which bloodshed was con-
tinual. 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 de-
serted land, to keep back the restless cavalry raiders from the north.
Thus the foundation of the neutral strip of fifty miles was uncon-
sciously 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.)
Unable to meet these cotton-armored raiders in the field, the
Ming emperor ordered, and in 1615 consummated, the assassina-
tion 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.
THE ISSACHAR OF EASTERN ASIA. 157
China had now again to face an invasion greater than the Jap-
anese, for this time a whole nation was behind it. Calling on
her vassal, the Eastern Kingdom, to send an army of twenty thou-
sand men, she ordered them to join the imperial army at Hing-
king. This city, now called Yen-den, lies about seventy miles
west oi the Yalu Kiver, 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 thai of their enemy. This was in 1619.
Th<3 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
Coreaiis against the Japanese, yet it might hereafter be better to
remair. 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 Chi-
nese 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,
prepaied 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 Kiver, followed in succession the cities
lining the high road to Ping-an. Thence, over the Tatong River,
they p :essed on to Seoul, the Coreans everywhere flying before them.
Thousands of dwellings and magazines of provisions were given to
the fla tnes, and their trail was one of blood and ashes. Among the
slain were two Hollanders, who were captives in the country.
H€ retofore a line of strong palisades had separated Corea from
Mancl luria, 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
embai go in masonry, has gradually fallen into decay.
158 COREA.
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 Cho-sen again exchanged masters, the king not
only acknowledging from the Manchiu sovereign the right of in-
vestiture, but also direct authority over his person, that is, the
relation of master and subject.
The Coreans now waited to see whether events were likely to
modify their new relations, so reluctantly entered into, for the Chi-
nese 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, an-
nulled the treaty.
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 bag-
gage-wagons. Entering the peninsula, both at Ai-chiu and by the
northern pass, they reached Seoul, and, after severe fighting, en-
tered 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.
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 wor-
shipped together before Heaven, and the altar erected to Heaven's
honor. A memorial stone, erected near this sacred place, com-
memorates the clemency of the Manchiu conqueror.
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 chas-
tise a tribe that had rebelled against their conquerors. A picked
body of their matchlock men was also admitted into the Manchiu
service.
After the evacuation of Corea, the victors marched into China,
where bloody, civil war was already raging. The imperial army
THE ISSACHAR OF EASTERN ASIA. 159
was brdly 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 Tatar (vassal) was now a "Tartar." The
son of their late king was set upon the dragon-throne and pro-
claimed the Whang Ti, the Son of Heaven, and the Lord of the
Middle; Kingdom and all her vassals. The following tribute was
fixed for Cho-sen to pay annually :
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 de-
corated 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.
When, as it happened the very next year, the sho-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.
Twice, within a single generation, had the little peninsula been
devasiated 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."
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
peoplo in the Middle Kingdom were compelled to shave the fore-
front 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 fash-
ion, i,nd the Chinaman's pride at home and abroad. Even in
160 CORE A.
foreign lands, they cling to this mark of their loyalty as to life
and country. The object of the recent queue-cutting plots, fo-
mented 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.
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.
The Corean king hastened to send congratulations to the em-
peror, 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 house-
hold. 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 per-
centage paid for license to trade, than a symbol of vassalage.
Nevertheless, the Coreans of the seventeenth and eighteenth cen-
turies 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 Man-
chius. In 1695, the king of Cho-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 hon-
ors. Yet to encourage patriotism it was permitted, by royal de-
cree, to the descendants of the minister who refused, at the Talu
River, to allow the Manchius to cross, and who thereby lost hit
life, to erect to his memory a monumental gate, a mark of high
honor only rarely granted.
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
THE ISSACHAR OF EASTERN ASIA.
161
11
162 CORE A.
of Mathematicians. Nevertheless, in the troubles preceding the
peace, many upright men lost their lives, and hundreds of schol-
ars who hated the Tatar 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 Koku-
senya (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.
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 con-
cerning 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 " China Ulustrata," 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, en-
titled " De Bello inter Tartaros et Seniensis " (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 Lon-
don, Donay, and Madrid. The English title is " Bellum Tartari-
cum ; or, the Conquest of the Great and Most Eenowned Empire
of China by the Invasion of the [Manchiu] Tartars," London, 1654,
octavo.
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 Kussians,
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
THE ISSACHAR OF EASTERN ASIA. 163
till they had added to the Czar's domain a portion of the earth's
surf a ce as large as the United States, and half of Europe. Once on
the steppes, there began that long dueHbetween Cossack and Tar-
tar, which never ended until the boundaries of Russia touched
those i 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.
The} 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.
Ii 1645, a party of Japanese traversed Cho-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" (Cho-sen Monogatari). Tak6uchi Tosaemon and his son,
Tozo, and shipmaster Kunida Hisosaemon, 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 \?rews num-
bered fifty-eight men, they set sail for the north on a trading voy-
age. Off the island of Sado a fearful storm broke upon them,
which, after fifteen days, drove them on the mountain coast of
Tart; try, where they landed, May 12th, to refit and get fresh water.
At first the people treated them peacefully, trading off their gin-
seng for the sake, 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.
The Japanese were entertained in magnificent style in one of the
roya] houses with banquets, numerous servants, presents, and the at-
tend; ince of an officer, named Kan-shun, who took them around the
city ! jid 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
164 CORBA.
to reach home. Leaving Seoul, February 12th, they passed through
a large city, where, at sunset and sunrise, they heard the trum-
peters 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 ob-
ject lesson in history for the young. The merchants kept in their
houses a picture of the famous Tao-jo-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.
In passing along the Nak-tong Kiver, they witnessed the an-
nual 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 Nippon-machi, 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 daimio
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 th^ir homes in Echizen. One of their number wrote out
an account of his adventures.
Among other interesting facts, he states that he saw, hanging
in the palace at Peking, a portrait of Yoshitsune, 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 in«
teresting.
Mr. Leon Pages, in his " Histoire de la Religion Chretienne
au Japon," says that these men referred 'to above found estab-
lished in the capital a Japanese commercial factory, but with the
very severe restrictions similar to those imposed upon the Hollan-
ders at Deshima. This is evidently a mistake. There was no trad-
ing mart in the capital, but there was, and had been, one at
Fusan, which still exists in most flourishing condition.
The Manchius, from the first, showed themselves "the most
improvable race in Asia." In 1707, under the patronage of the
THE ISSACHAR OF EASTERN ASIA.
165
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 re-
duced, 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 Oorean 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
Dulch, Japanese, French, and American travellers, who give the
300 Jf.
Map illustrating the Jesuit Survey of 1709.
ven acular pronunciation. To French genius and labor, from first
to l^st, we owe most of what is known in Europe concerning the
seel ided nation. The Jesuits' map is accurate as regards the lati-
tud< ; and longitude of many places, but lacking in true coast lines.
'While making their surveys, the party of missionaries, whose
assignment of the work was to Eastern Manchuria, caught some-
thing like a Pisgah glimpse of the country which, before a century
elapsed, was to become a land of promise to French Christianity. In
1701), 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
166 COREA.
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.
The Coreans could not understand the Tartar or Chinese com-
panions of the Frenchmen, but, at Hun-chun, they found interpre-
ters, 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.
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 Co-
rea'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.
CHAPTER XXII.
THE DUTCHMEN IN EXILE.
THE old saw which tells us that "truth is stranger than fic-
tion " receives many a new and unexpected confirmation when-
ever a traveller -into strange countries comes back to tell his tale.
Ma: :co Polo was denominated " Signor Milliano " (Lord Millions)
by iiis 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 be-
lieved, as a college professor of. belles lettres, 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
Beilin and Philadelphia, while their skeletons are commonplaces
in our museums. Even Stanley's African discoveries were, at first,
dis< -redited.
The first European travellers in Corea, who lived to tell their
tak at home, met the same fate as Polo, Pinto, Du Chaillu, and
Stailey. The narratives were long doubted, and by some set down
as pure fiction. Like the Indian braves that listen to Bed Cloud
anc Spotted Tail, who, in the lodges of the plains, recount the
wonders of Washington and civilization, the hearers are sure that
the/ have taken "bad medicine." Later reports or personal ex-
per.ence, however, corroborate the first accounts, and by the very
con unonplaceness of simple truth the first reports are robbed alike
of i ovelty and suspicion.
The first known entrance of any number of Europeans into
Coi ea was that of Hollanders, belonging to the crew of the Dutch
shi}> Hollandra, which was driven ashore in 1627. In those days
168 COREA.
the Dutch were pushing their adventurous progress in the east-
ern 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.
A big, blue-eyed, red-bearded, robust Dutchman, named John
Wetterree, whose native town was Eip, in North Holland, volun-
teered on board the Dutch ship Hollandra 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.
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
Wetterree 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 orna-
ment. After the Japanese invasions a spasm of enterprise in the
way of fortification, architecture, and development of their mili-
tary 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 " Southern-
ers," or "Southern savages." Later on, after learning new les-
sons in geography, they called them "Westerners," or "Bar-
barians from the West."
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 Co-
reans of that day considered their western " devil " a piece of prop-
erty 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
THE DUTCHMEN IN EXILE. 169
Texel River. Perhaps the boy Wetterree had seen and talked
,with the doughty Briton on the wharves of the Dutch port.
Adams served the Japanese as interpreter, state adviser, ship ar-
chitect, 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.
The magnates of Seoul probably desired to have a like facto-
tum, and this explains why Wetterree 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 thd wars, and Wetterree 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 :
In January, 1653, the Dutch ship Sparwehr (Sparrowhawk)
left Texel Island, bound for Nagasaki. Among the crew was
Hendrik Hamel, the supercargo, who afterward became the his-
torian 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 Chi-
nese ' 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 o} 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 irst 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 fi ing. The liquor casks were speedily emptied into the gullets
of th< • wreckers, and the result was a very noisy set of heathen.
The old leader, however, evidently determined to draw the line
between virtue and vice somewhere. He had several of the thieves
seize* I and spanked on the spot, while others were bambooed on
the soles of their feet, one so severely that his toes dropped off.
170 COREA.
On October 29th the survivors were brought by the officials
to be examined by the interpreter Wetterree. The huge noses,
the red beards and white faces were at once recognized by the
lone exile as belonging to his own countrymen. Wetterree 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.
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.
It is evident that the European body has an odor entirely dis-
tinct from a Mongolian. The Abbe Hue states that even when
travelling through Thibet and China, in disguise, the dogs con-
tinually barked at him and almost betrayed him, even at night. In
travelling, and especially when living in the Japanese city of Fu-
kui, the writer had the same experience. In walking through the
city streets at night, even when many hundred yards off, the Jap-
anese 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.
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).
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 Coeree
for Corea, and Tyocen-koeck for Cho-sen kokii, and is probably the
first. European to mention Quelpart Island, on which the ship was
wrecked.
The first city on the mainland to which they came was Heynam
(Hai-nain), in the extreme southwest of Chulla. This was about the
last of May. Thence they marched to Jeham, spending the night
THE DUTCHMEN IN EXILE. 171
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 H-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 villa-
gers 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 do) 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.
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 Lnd red-bearded foreigners. They must have appeared to
the natives as Punch looks to English children. The women were
even riore anxious than the men to get a good look. Every one
was especially curious to see the Dutchmen drink, for it was gen-
erally believed that they tucked their noses up over their ears
when i hey drank. The size and prominence of the nasal organ of
a Caucasian first strikes a Turanian with awe and fear. Thou-
sands of people no doubt learned, for the first time, that the west-
ern "devils" were men after all, and ate decent food and not
earths orms 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 1 ttle fun. It was too good a show not to see how the ani-
mals c mid perform. The Dutchmen laughed, sang, danced, leaped,
and wont through miscellaneous performances for His Majesty's
benefit. For this they were rewarded with choice drink and
refres] iments. 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 com-
172 COREA.
manded 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 t
be able to talk in the " Coresian " language.
The ignorance and narrowness of the Coreans were almost in-
credible. 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 _j
countries you tell us of at once?" Thinking the foreigners told :
exaggerated lies, they fancied that the " countries " were only -I
counties and the " cities " villages. To them Corea was very near -]
the centre of the earth, which was China.
The cold was very severe. In November the river was frozen
over, and three hundred loaded horses passed over it on the ice.
After they had been in Seoul three years, the "Tartar" (Man-
chiu) 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 con-
ceal the fact that foreigners were drilling the royal troops. The
suspicions of the new rulers at Peking were easily roused.
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.
In June there was another shipwreck off Quelpart Island, and
Wetterree 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.
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
THE DUTCHMEN IN EXILE. 173
them back into Chulla, allowing them each fifty pounds of rice a
month i'or their support.
They set out from Seoul in March, 1657, on horseback, passing
through the same towns as on their former journey. Beaching
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.
Hamel learned many of the ideas of the natives. They repre-
sented 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.
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 suc-
ceeded his father,, reigning from 1658 to 1676.
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, how-
ever, followed, and the innocent comets gradually shrivelled up
out of sight, without shaking out of their fiery hair either pesti-
lence or war.
Th( 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
themse Ives on the small fry. These are the herring which arrive
off the coast of Whang-hai, and feed on the banks and shoals dur-
ing th( season. The catching of them affords lucrative employ-
ment to hundreds of junks from North China.
174 COREA.
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), be-
tween 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 Bur-
roughs, 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 dis-
covered 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.
These marine studies of the captives, coupled with the fact that
they had before attempted to escape, may have aroused the suspi-
cions 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 Jap-
anese at Fusan, nor the latter of them.
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 pos-
sessed 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 any-
thing, that the poor governor lost his place and suffered punish-
ment. 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 quon-
dam improvers of the ceramic art of Corea were again set to work
at pulling up grass and other menial duties about the official resi*
dence.
THE DUTCHMEN IN EXILE. 175
As the years passed on, the poor exiles were in pitiful straits.
Their clothing had been worn to tatters, and they were reduced
even io 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 joba
to earn a pittance, especially at making arrows. The next year,
1664, vvas 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.
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.
In the latter part of August, or early in September, 1667, as the
fourteenth year of their captivity was drawing to a close, the gov-
ernor fell sick. The Dutchmen, taking time by the forelock, im-
mediately, as soon as dark, on the night of September 4th, climbed
the city wall, and reaching the seaside succeeded, after some par-
leying 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.
They steered directly southeast, and on the 6th found them-
selves in a current off the Goto Islands. They succeeded in land-
ing, ai id 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.
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 tl eir countrymen at D6shima. The annual ship from Batavia
was then just about to return, and in the nick of time the waifs
176 COREA.
got on board, reached Batavia November 20th, sailed for Holland
December 28th, and on July 20, 1668, stepped ashore at home.
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.
The French translator indulges in skepticism concerning
Ham el's narrative, questioning especially his geographical state-
ments. Before a map of Corea, with the native sounds even but
approximated, it will be seen that Ham el's story is a piece ot
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.
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.
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 ship-
wrecked men have pined in captivity, and dying lonely in a
strange land have been put in unmarked graves.
At this point, we bring to an end our sketch of the ancient
and mediaeval history of Corea. Until the introduction of Chris-
tianity 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 his-
tory flowed into the stream of the world's history.
II.
POLITICAL AND SOCIAL
CORE A.
POLITICAL AND SOCIAL COEEA.
CHAPTER XXIII.
THE EIGHT PROVINCES.
PING-AN, OR THE PACIFIC.
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 acknowl-
edged 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 Eiver, called also
the Ap-nok, the former name referring to its sinuous course, mean-
ing " dragon's windings," and the latter after its deep green color.
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 Manchu-
rian tdde twelve tributaries, which run down the gorges of the
Ever- White Mountains. Each of these streams is named, begin-
ning vestwardly, after the numerals of arithmetic. The waters of
so m;iny valleys on the west, as well as on the north and east,
emptying into the Yalu, make it, in spring and fall, a turbulent
streai i, which sinuates like the writhing of a dragon ; whence its
name In the summer, its waters are beautifully clear, and blue
or gr< en — the Coreans having no word to distinguish between
these two colors. It empties by three mouths into the Yellow
Sea, i os deltas, or islands, being completely submerged during the
melting of the snows. It is easily navigable for junks to the town
of Ch m-son, a noted trading place, sixty miles from the sea. The
180 COREA.
valley of the Yalu is extremely fertile, and well wooded, and the
scenery is superb. Its navigation was long interdicted to the Chi-
nese, 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.
The town nearest the frontier, and the gateway of the king-
dom, 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 pa-
trols and guard-houses picketed the river along a length of over a
hundred miles.
Nevertheless, most of the French missionaries have entered
the mysterious peninsula through this loophole, disguising them-
selves 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.
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."
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 apart-
ment of a building inhabited at either end by Chinese and Coreau
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 manda-
rin of Fung-wang Chang, the nearest Chinese town, who came in
person to open the gates of the building for the spring fair. For
THE EIGHT PROVINCES.
181
the privilege of the two autumn fairs, the Coreans were mulcted
but half the sum, as the gates were then opened by an underling
JK.CW.
Map of Ping-an Province.
Man( hiu official. The winter fair was but of slight importance.
For 1 he various Chinese goods, and European cottons, the Coreans
182 COREA.
bartered their furs, hides, gold dust, ginseng, and the mulberry
paper used by Chinese tailors for linings, and for windows.
Ping-an has the reputation of being very rich in mineral and
metallic wealth. Gold and silver by report abound, but the na-
tives 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 Kiver,
between Cho-sen and Chin, was respected by the Chinese gov-
ernment until 1875, when Li Hung Chung, on complaint of the
king of Corea, made a descent on the Manchiu outlaws and squat-
ters 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 incor-
porated 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 isl-
ands 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 Cho-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
THE EIGHT PROVINCES. 183
has; been many times besieged by Chinese and Japanese armies,
and near it many battles have been fought. " The General Sher-
man 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
foi the arrest of the murderers, surveyed the inlet, to which he
gave the name of " Shenandoah."
By official enumeration, Ping-an contains 293,400 houses, and
tho muster-rolls give 174,538 as the number of men capable of
military duty. The governor resides at Ping-an.
There is considerable diversity of character between the in-
habitants of the eight provinces. Those of the two most north-
ern, particularly of Ping-an, are more violent in temper than the
other provincials. Very few nobles or official dignitaries live
an.ong them, hence very few of the refinements of the capital are
to be found there. They are not over loyal to the reigning dy-
nasty, and are believed to cherish enmity against it. The govern-
ment 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 Eussian 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
WES wholly on the side of the murderers of the Sherman's crew.
THE YELLOW-SEA PROVINCE.
All the eight circuits into which Cho-sen is divided are mari-
tii le provinces, but this is the only one which takes its name from
th 3 body of water on which its borders lie, jutting out into the
Whang-hai, or Yellow Sea, its extreme point lies neatest to Shan-
tuig promontory in China. Its coast line exceeds its land fron-
tif rs. In the period anterior to the Christian era, Whang-hai, was
oc3upied by the tribes called the Mahan, and from the second to
th-3 sixth century, by the kingdom of Hiaksai. It has been the
ca nping-ground of the armies of many nations. Here, besides
th 3 border forays which engaged the troops of the rival kingdoms,
th3 Japanese, Chinese, Mongols, and Manchius, have contended
184 COREA.
for victory again and again. The ravages of war, added to a some-
what sterile soil, are the causes of Whang-hai being the least
populated province of the eight in the peninsula. From very an-
cient 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 cloth-
ing, row upon row. They amazed the invading hordes of the
Han dynasty, with such incongruous mixture of wealth and sav-
agery ; 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 Co-
reans, 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 penin-
sula, the visions of wealth acting as a lure to the would-be inva-
ders. 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, pre-
serve 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.
More valuable to the modern people than the now almost aban-
doned 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
THE EIGHT PROVINCES.
185
cities of Chifu and Teng Chow, while further to the east is Tien-
tsin, the seaport of Peking. From the most ancient times, Chi-
nes? armadas have sailed, and invading armies have embarked for
Corea from these ports. Over and over again has the river Ta-
ton^ been crowded with fleets of junks, fluttering the dragon-ban-
ners 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 inva-
ders, 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
Map of the Yellow-sea Province.
signals are called "Pong-wa." At Mok-mie' san, a mountain south
of the capital, the fire-messages of the three southern provinces
arc 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,
an< I tribute-bearing ships have sailed over to Tientsin. The Chi-
nese 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
186 COREA.
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 en-
tered "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, wThich was visited,
in 1816, by Captains Maxwell and Hall, in the ships Lyra and Al-
ceste. 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. East-
ward from this island cluster is a large bay and inlet near the head
of which is the fortified city of Chan-yon.
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 Wachu-
sett 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 Tokio 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 navi-
gable 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 Eiver, now, as of old,
a famous boundary line.
. Though Whang-hai is not reckoned rich, being only the sixth
in order of the eight circuits, yet there are several products of
importance. Kock, 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,
THE EIGHT PROVINCES. 187
and even from ancient times Whang-hai' s pears have been cele-
brated. Splendid yellow varnish, almost equal to gilding, is also
made here. The native varnishers are expert and tasteful in its
us 3, 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.
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
roids thread the border of the province and the larger towns, but
a ,*reat portion of Whang-hai along its central length, from east
to west, seems to be mountainous, and by no means densely
pc pulated. There are, in all, twenty-eight cities with magistrates.
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 con-
verts, and its soil, like* that of the other provinces, has more than
or ce 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
S( oul folks, to be narrow, stupid, and dull. They bear an ill
n? me for avarice, bad faith, and a love of lying quite unusual even
anong Coreans. The official enumeration of houses and men fit
for military duty, is 103,200 of the former and 87,170 of the
latter.
KIUNG-KEI, OR THE CAPITAL PROVINCE.
Kiung-kei, the smallest of the eight circuits, is politically the
rcyal 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
ai e formed, which are bare at low water, but are flooded in time
ol rain, or at the melting of the spring snows. The tides rise to
tl e height of twenty or thirty feet, creating violent eddies and
ci irrents, in which the management of ships is a matter of great
d mculty. 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
188
COREA.
of the violence, coldness, and rapidity of the currents of Han
River (called Salt or Salee 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 dis-
tant province of Kang-wen, nearly the whole breadth of the penin-
sula from the mouth. Almost the entire area of this province of
the river-sources, including the western watershed of the moun-
tain range that walls the eastern coast, is drained by the tributa-
ries 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
Map of the Capital Province.
formed, rendering navigation, and especially warlike naval opera-
tions, 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 Cho-sen, the Han has many local names.
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 Kio, instead of saying Kioto. Seoul is
THE EIGHT PROVINCES. 189
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 Say'-ool, Shay'-ool, or Say'-oor. The city is
often spoken of as " the king's residence," and on foreign maps is
marked "King-ki Tao," which is the name of the province. The
city proper lies distant nearly a league from the river bank, but
lias suburbs, extending down to the sand-flats. A pamphlet lately
published in the city gives it 30,723 houses, which, allowing five
~n a house, would give a population of over 150,000 souls. The
: latural advantages of Seoul are excellent. On the north a high
:.*ange of the Ho Mountain rises like a wall, to the east towers tho
Ridge of Barriers, the mighty flood of the Han rolls to the south,
-i bight of which washes the western suburb.
The scenery from the capital is magnificent, and those walking
;ilong the city walls, as they rise over the hill-crests and bend into
~he valleys, can feast their eyes on the luxuriant verdure and glori-
ous mountain views for which this country is noted. The walls of
*the city are of crenellated masonry of varying height, averaging
ibout twenty feet, with arched stone bridges spanning the water-
courses, as seen in the reproduced photograph on page 79. The
streets are narrow and tortuous. The king's castle is in the north-
ern 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 Cho-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 ob-
tained, 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
ir 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 fisher-
men, who pay their taxes in fish. Another large stream which
190
COREA.
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.
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
Military Geography of Seoul.
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 Taiko 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
THE EIGHT PROVINCES. 191
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 strong-
holds. 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-
fiv.e feet is obtained. None of them would offer serious difficulty
to a» attacking force possessing modern artillery.
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
th«3 mouth of the Han Kiver, 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-chiun, situated on Imperatrice Gulf, is the
pert 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 Chi-
nese 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 Kiver
is avoided.
Most of the islands lying off the coast are well wooded ; many
are inhabited, and on a number of them shrines are erected, and
h( rmits live, who are regarded as sacred. Their defenceless posi-
tion offer 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 high-
wiys of the kingdom converge upon its chief city. In it also
C'oristianity has witnessed its grandest triumphs and bloodiest
192 COREA.
defeats. Over and over again the seed of the church has been
planted in the biood of its martyrs. Ka-pion, east of Seoul, is the
cradle of the faith, the home of its first convert.
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 kam-sa, or governor, lives
at the capital, but outside of the walls, as he has little or no au-
thority 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 A.D. 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 dy-
nasty with Cho-sen, or Corea, as we now know it, was established.
The capital cities in succession from Hiaksai to Cho-sen were,
Kwang-chiu, Sunto, and Han-yang.
CHUNG-CHONG, OR SERENE LOYALTY.
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) Moun-
tain. Fertile flats and valleys abound. The peninsula of Nai-po
THE EIGHT PROVINCES. 193
(within the waters), in the northwestern corner, is often called
the "Granary of the Kingdom." Most of the rice of the Nai-po,
and -he 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 di-
vided from the other by little walls or barriers of earth, while in
this region, and in Chulla, the farmers more frequently make
greal reservoirs or ponds, in which water is stored for use in dry
weat'ier. The mountains are the great reservoirs of moisture, for
in al 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 oj: en boats. On this account the native Christians and French
missionaries have often chosen this province as their gate of entry
into ~;he "land of martyrs."
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 Jirst 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 Chris-
tianiiy still smoulder here, and will again burst into flame at the
first fanning of favorable events. The three great highways from
Fusa:i 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 prov-
ince. 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 n 1663, and one of the cities of which Hamel speaks, Kon-
sio (Kong-Chiu), is the capital and residence of the provincial
gover nor.
TJIG bays and islands, which have been visited by foreign navi-
gator <, retain their names on European or Japanese charts. Some
13
194
COREA.
of these are not very complimentary, as Deception Bay, Insult
Island, and False Eiver. 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 Eover and the Emperor, with the author of "A For-
bidden 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.
Map of Chung-chong Province.
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, shroud-
ing all landmarks for hours. The tides and currents are very
strong, rising in some places even as high as sixty feet. The in-
ternational 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 Eegent, was planned
to take advantage of a certain "nick of time." The river empty-
ing 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
THE EIGHT PROVINCES. 195
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 bur-
glar-proof masonry of Corean tombs, the scheme failed. The nar-
rative of this remarkable expedition is given in a certain book on
Corea, and in the proceedings of the United States Consular Court
at Saanghae, China, for the year 1867.
The flora is a brilliant feature of the summer landscape.
Tiger-lilies and showy composite, asters, cactus plants, cruciferse,
labiatse, 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, king-
fishers, wrens, spoonbills, quail, curlew, titmouse, have been no-
ticed. The ever-present black crows contrast with the snowy
her 011, 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 archi-
pelago and the peninsula alike, are almost virgin soil to the stu-
dent of natural history and the man of science will yet, in this
secluded nook of creation, solve many an interesting problem con-
cerning the procession of life on the globe. So far as known, the
Core; ins seem far behind the Japanese in the study and classifica-
tion of animate nature.
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
fishiLg-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
196 COREA.
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 orna-
mental 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,
A Pleasure-party on the River.
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 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.
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.
THE EIGHT PROVINCES. 197
CHULLA, OB COMPLETE NETWOEK.
Tliis province, the most southern of the eight, is also the
warmest and most fertile. It is nearest to Shang-hae, and to thie
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.
Until the voyage of Captains Maxwell and Basil Hall, in the
Alces:e and Lyra, in 1816, "the Corean archipelago" was abso-
lutely unknown in Europe, and was not even marked on Chinese
charts. In the map of the empire, prepared by the Jesuits at
Pekirg 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
thirtj-five islets. Stretching far away to the north and to the
south, were groups of dark blue islets, rising mistily from the sur-
face )f the water. "The sea was covered wifh 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.
On these islands, as Arthur Adams tells us, the seals sport, the
spoonbill, quail, curlew, titmouse, wagtail, teal, crane and innu-
merable 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 a id split into numerous ribbon-like branches, others are round
and f nger-shaped, some cylindrical, and others like hollow tubes.
Though some have dense white foliations, hard or horny, others
are Ic ose and flexible, and await only the hand of the diver. The
Core* .n toilet requisites perhaps do not include these useful arti-
cles, which lie waste in the sea. The coral-beds are also very
splendid in their living tints of green, blue, violet, and yellow,
198 COREA.
and appear, as you look down upon them through the clear trans,
parent 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 store-
house of marine food is found in this archipelago.
The eight provinces take their names from their two chief cities,
as Mr. Carles has shown. Whang Hai Do, for instance, is formed
by uniting the initial syllables of the largest cities, Whang-chiu and
Hai-chiu. In the case of Chulla-Do, 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.1
The soil of Chulla is rich and well cultivated, and large quan-
tities of rice and grain are shipped to the capital. The wide val-
leys afford juicy pasture for the herds of cattle that furnish the beef
diet which the Coreans crave more than the Japanese. The visit-
ing 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.
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
1 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
Japanese art and legend refer often to alligators.
THE EIGHT PROVINCES.
199
the Bcene of a famous siege and battle between the allied Coreans
and Chinese and the Japanese besiegers, during the second inva-
Map of Chul!a-d5.
sion 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 prison-
200 COREA.
ers, 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 earthern jars for holding water and grains,
common to Corean households, and large enough to hold one of
the forty thieves of Arabian Nights story.
Through the labors of the French missionaries, Christianity
has penetrated into Chulla-do, and -a large number of towns, espe-
cially 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.
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. Forti-
fied 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.
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 innumer-
able conical mountains, topped in many instances by extinct vol-
canic 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 Auck-
land, 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.
THE EIGHT PROVINCES. 201
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
Q lelpart has long been used as a place for the banishment of
convicts, the islanders are rude and unpolished. They raise excel-
lent 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-
cc verings is the wonder of strangers. Immense droves of horses
and cattle are reared, and one of the outlying islands is called
Bollock Island. This island has been known from ancient times,
when it formed an independent kingdom, known as Tam-na.
About 100 A.D., it is recorded that the inhabitants sent tribute to
one of the states on the main land. The origin of the high c0n-
tral 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 ri 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
oi his voyage, with a sketch of the mountain thus born out of the
s<.>a. It is noticeable that this account coincides with the ideas of
navigators, who have studied the mountain, and speculated on its
origin.
KIUNG-SANG, OR RESPECTFUL CONGRATULATION.
Kiung-sang do, or the Province of Respectful Congratulation,
ie nearest to Japan, and consists chiefly of the valleys drained by
the Nak-tong Eiver 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 his-
torical associations with Japan, in ancient, mediaeval, and modern
t mes. Between the court of Kion-chiu, the capital of Shinra, and
iliat of Kioto, from the third to the tenth century, the relations
cf war and peace, letters, and religion were continuous and fruit-
f iL When the national capital was fixed at Sunto, and later at
CORE A.
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 moun-
tains 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 Cho-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 the1 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 dis-
tricts, 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 success-
fully 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 prevail-
ing 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 daimio of Tsushima. It lies
in latitude 35° 6' north, and longitude 129° 1' east from Green-
wich, 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.
The approach to the port up the bay is through very fine scen-
ery, the background of the main land being mountainous and the
THE EIGHT PROVINCES. 203
bay studded with green islands. The large island in front of the
settlement, to the southward, called Tetsuye, or the Isle of En-
chanting 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 (Jays, 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 Chi-
nese 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, be-
tween them and the relieving forces, ten thousand men were slain.
Foreign navigators have sprinkled their names along the shore.
C.ipe Clonard and Unkoffsky Bay are near the thirty-sixth parallel.
Ciio-san harbor was named by Captain Broughton, who on asking
the name of the place in 1797, received the reply "Cho-san,"
which is the name of the kingdom instead of the harbor. Other
nj tines of limited recognition are found on charts made in Europe.
Many inhabited islands lie off the coast, some of which are used
ae 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, hav-
ing few or no rivers or important harbors. The one exception is
ai the mouth of the Nak-tong Kiver, opposite Tsushima. This is
tl e gateway into the province, and the point most vulnerable from
J;>;pan. The river after draining the whole of Kiung-sang, widens
into a bay, around which are populous cities and towns, the port
ot Fusan and the two great roads to Seoul. Tsushima (the Twin
204
COREA.
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
Map of the Province nearest Japan.
THE EIGHT PROVINCES. 205
the becalmed or storm-stayed junks which, with fair wind and
•v\eather, can make the run between the two countries in a single
diy.
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 Eussian designs on Tsushima.
A Japanese writer reports that the Kiung-sang people are
r ither more simple in their habits, less corrupted in their man-
ners, 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 faith-
f illy transmitted from father to son, for many generations, in the
s ime families. Studious habits prevail, and literature flourishes.
Often the young men, after toiling during the day, give the even-
ing to reading and conversation, for which admirable practice the
rative 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 scholas-
tic and missionary influences of the Buddha doctrine in Corea,
and, though burned by the Japanese in 1597, its influence still
survives.
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
i his province, belong chiefly to the Nam In party.
KANG-WEN, THE RIVER-MEADOW PROVINCE.
Kang-wen fronts Japan from the middle of the eastern coast,
f,nd lies between Ham-kiung and Kiung-sang. Its name means
1 liver Meadow. Within its area are found the sources of " the
liver" 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 Kiver,
206 COREA.
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 prov-
ince 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 east-
ern division having seventeen. The official census gives the num-
ber of houses at 93,000, and of men capable of bearing arms;
44,000.
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 Phrenix, 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 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 jumper 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 sur-
rounding waters. The Japanese obtained the timber for the pub-
lic and other buildings at their new settlement at Gensan from
this island.
The Land of Morning Calm is, by all accounts of travellers, a
land of beauty, and the customs and literature of the people
THE EIGHT PROVINCES. 207
prove that the superb and inspiring scenery of their peninsula is
i'ully appreciated by themselves. Not only are picnics and pleas-
ire 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 in-
."luence 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 Ameri-
cans, 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, de-
scant 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. Begin-
ning at the south, and taking them in order toward the north,
they are the following :
1. The house on Uru-chih, a town below the thirty-seventh
parallel of latitude. The inn is called " The House of the Emer-
ging 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
i gem in the sea. The view of the rising sun, the tints of sky,
river, waves, land, and mountains form a vision of gorgeous mag-
aificence.
2. Hion-hai (Tranquil Sea). Out in the sea, in front of this
village, are many small islands. When the moon rises, they seem
>:o be floating in a sea of molten silver. The finest effect is en-
joyed just before the orb is fully above the horizon. In many of
'he 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."
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,
203
COREA.
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.
Map of Kang-wen Province.
4 From an elevation near the town of Kan-nun, or Bay Hill,
one may obtain a pretty view of the groves and shrubbery grow-
ing 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.
5. Beneath the mound at An-an the river flows tranquilly,
tinted by the setting sun. The sunsets at this place are of ex-
quisite beauty.
6. At the old castle town of Kan-nun, there is a room named
THE EIGHT PROVINCES. 209
" Tie Chamber between the Strong Fortress and the Tender Ver-
dure." 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.
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 moon-
light effects. The fishers' boats gliding to and fro over the gleam-
ing waters delight the eye.
8. At Tsu-sen is the " Kock-loving Chamber.'* Here, among
son e 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 au-
tun n, literary parties visit the chamber dedicated to those who
lov( the rocks. There, abandoning themselves to literary revels,
they compose poems, hold scholarly reunions, or ramble about in
search of health or pleasure.
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 gov-
ernment, "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 excep-
tional 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.
Str Dng men shoulder six hundred pounds of copper, or two bales
of white rice (260 pounds each. ) The women of this province are
sai< I to be the most beautiful in Corea. Even from ancient times,
lovoly damsels from this part of the peninsula, sent to the harem
of the Chinese emperor, were greatly admired. Christianity has
ma le little progress in Kang-wen, only a few towns in the south-
ern part being marked with a cross on the French missionary map.
In ~he most ancient times the Chinhan tribes occupied this por-
tion of Corea. From the Christian era, until the tenth century,
it vas alternately held by Kokorai, or Korai, and by Shinra.
14
210
COREA.
HAM-KIUNG, OB COMPLETE VIEW.
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 Cho-sen were Chinese subjects. Now she
has the European within rifle-shot of her shores. Only the Tu-
men Eiver 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,
Corean frontier facing Manchun'a and Russia.
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 demand-
ing and obtaining that vast and fertile territory lying south of the
Amur Eiver, and between the Qulf 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 Rus-
sian government at once encouraged emigration, placed steamers
built in New York on the Usuri River and Lake Hanka, laid out
THE EIGHT PROVINCES.
211
212 COREA.
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 Primorskaia, 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."
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 rav-
enous " 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 moun-
tainous 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 perse-
cuted 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 Primorskaia, 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 pro-
tection. Their houses are built of stout timbers, wattled with
THE EIGHT PROVINCES. 213
care, 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 de-
tached from the house, and consists of a hollow tree. Under the
warned 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 va-
riety of uses, and a few sheets dressed with oil, serve as windows.
Some of the Eussian 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
the in an education in English. Through the Kussian possessions,
the Corean liberal, Kin Binshio, 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
Tokid were enabled to construct and publish so valuable a map
of Corea, the accuracy of which astonishes his fellow-country-
men. 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 Chris-
tiaaity. In this work the priests and schoolmasters have had con-
siderable success. There are but few Coreans north of the Tumen
wfco cannot read and write, and the young men employed as
clerks are good linguists. A number of them are fishermen, liv-
ing near the coast. Most of the converts to the Greek church
ar( gathered at Vladivostok.
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,
214: COREA.
and have given descriptions and measurements of them. One for-
tification was found to cover six acres, with walls over thirty feet
in height, protected by a moat and two outer ditches, with gate-
ways 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 knowl-
edge of strategic skill possessed by their ancient builders.
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 le-
gendary 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, twenty-five hundred 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.
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.
Twenty-four rivers water and drain this mountainous province.
The coast of Ham-kiung down to the fortieth parallel is devoid
THE EIGHT PROVINCES.
215
of any important harbors. A glance at a foreign chart shows that
numerous French, Eussian, 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 Brough-
ton'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 popu-
lous and fertile portion of the province. Port Lazareff, east of
Southern part of Ham-kiung.
Yon-fun, near the mouth of the Dungan Kiver, and west of
Virginie Bay, is well known. A large Japanese army under Kato
occupied this territory during the year 1592.
By the recent treaty with Japan, the port of Gensan, front-
ing 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 aUowed to Japanese merchants
210 CORE A.
for general travel, or free movement, is the old castle-town of To-
kugen. The tomb of the founder of the reigning dynasty of Cho-
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 " Else of the Dragon." One
of the high roads of the kingdom traverses the strip of land skirt-
ing the sea from north to south throughout the province, touch-
ing 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 for-
ests are populated chiefly by -tigers and other beasts of prey.
In the current scouring the coast of Harn-kiung swim unnum-
bered 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 crea-
tures 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 shipwrekced Dutch-
men. Since the present year, Japanese whale-hunters have been
engaged by Coreans to improve their methods of catching this
huge sea-mammal.
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 pur-
poses the province is divided into divisions, the northern and the
southern. There are fifteen walled cities.
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 Chi-
nese merchants bartered tea, rice, pipes, gold, and furs for the
Corean ginseng, hides, and household implements. Furs of a
THE EIGHT PROVINCES. 217
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,
a] id 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.
The nearest town beyond the frontier, at which the Chinese
merchants were wont to assemble, is Hun-chun.1 This loophole of
eatrance 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.
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 Cho-sen, which
comprehended Liao Tung and that part of the peninsula between
t '.lie 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 WTii. These were both conquered by Kokorai,
vhich held dominion until the seventh century, when it was
crushed by the Chinese emperors of the Han dynasty, and the
lind 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 Cho-sen, the founders of
\ oth states being sprung from this region and of the hardy race
i ihabiting it. From very ancient times, the boundaries of this
I Tovince, being almost entirely natural and consisting of mountain,
i iver, and sea, have remained unchanged.
1 Hun-chun is in Chinese Manchuria. The Russian possessions south of Vic-
i jria Bay extend but a few miles from the mouth of the Tumen.
CHAPTER XXIV.
THE KING AND ROYAL PALACE.
THE title of majesty in Cho-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 em-
blems of regal power. His throne has riong 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 Cho-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 re-
galia are sent to Kang-wa Island for safety. Ridel wrote in 1866 :
" 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."
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
THE KING AND ROYAL PALACE. 213
alone it is applied. At his death, three cups of rice are set out in
the households in memoriam. This ceremony must not be imi-
tated 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
griphic sign must be temporarily changed, though the pronuncia-
tion 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.
The sovereign's person is hedged round with a divinity that has
an antipathy to iron. This metal must ne^er 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
nrist touch him, and if by accident this is done, the individual
m ist 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 out-
side 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
Cliinese envoy is always escorted by soldiers bearing the three em-
blems, 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
o^ er eighty years of age, are feasted at the expense of the gov-
ernment. 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.
220 CORBA.
The Koyal Castle contains over three acres (15,202 square yards),
surrounded by a wall twenty feet high, and a moat the width of
which varies from fifty feet to somewhat 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 resi-
dence of the king and is so called because situated on level land.
The Western palace is used for the reception of the Chinese am-
bassadors. The gates of the outer city proper, and inner city, or
palace, are named in high-sounding phrase, such as " Beneficent
Beception," " 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 Eeserved for the South," — "the south" here evidently re-
ferring to the imperial favor, or the good graces, of the emperor.
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 Jap-
anese 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 artis-
tic 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,
THE KING AND ROYAL PALACE. 221
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
ot ler things the ancient history of Corea in sixty volumes. What
WLS 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
pliced in a handsome casket made of copper, which was in its
turn enclosed in a box of wood painted red, with chased orna-
inonts in gilt copper. These square tablets formed a volume of a
dczen 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."
A custom, similar to the old "curfew" of England prevails in
the capital. A bell in the castle is struck at sunset, after which
m,ile 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 A.M. 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
A.M., twenty at four A.M., and ten at six A.M. 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.
There are several noted holidays, on which the curfew law is
suspended, and the people are allowed to be out freely at night.
Tjiese are the first and the last day of the year, the fourteenth and
filteenth day of the first month, and the fifteenth of August.
Even under a despotism there are means by which the people
w n and enjoy a certain measure of liberty. The monarch hears
tl e complaints of his subjects. Close communication between the
pjlace 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
sj ies all over the country. An E-sa, or commissioner, who is to
222 COREA.
be sent to a distant province to ascertain the popular feeling, or
to report the conduct of certain officers, is also called " The Mes-
senger 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 des-
tination, 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 yashi 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 dis-
guise, and unknown. This system corresponds almost exactly to
that of the ometsuke (eye-appliers), for many centuries in use in
Japan, but abolished by the mikado's government at the revolu-
tion of 1868. It was by means of these E-sa or spies that many
of the Corean Christians of rank were marked for destruction.
The system, though abominable in free countries, is yet an excel-
lent medium between the throne and the subject, and serves as a
wholesome check on official rapine and cruelty.
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 cortege is moving.
All doors must ts 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 proces-
sion 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
THE KING AND ROYAL PALACE. 223
-no one knows except the highest ministers. They must never be
turned round, but have a door to open at both ends. The music
ufc.ed 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 neccessary to convey an
Older 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 at-
tached, is shot from one end of the line to the other.
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
cliild of a concubine becomes king when the queen is childless,
wlu'ch, in Corean eyes, is virtually the case when she has daugh-
ters 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 kun, princes, or king's son only, and not
successors in the royal line. They are not styled wang, or
kings, but only kun, or princes, in the official light. One of
these four Icun, degraded from the throne, was banished after
eleven years, and another was served in like manner after
fourteen years, reign. The heir to the throne holds the rank
of wang (Japanese 0), king, while the younger sons are kun,
princes. From 1392 to 1882, the average reign of the twenty
sovereigns of Corea who received investiture is very nearly six-
teen and a half years.
CHAPTER XXV.
POLITICAL PARTIES.
DURING the past three centuries the nobles have been steadily
gaining political power, or rather we might say have been regain-
ing 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.
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 " West-
ern." 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
POLITICAL PARTIES. 225
noble named Yun, who belonged to the Western party, having
died, the young man composed an epitaph. His tutor, an influen-
tial man of letters, not liking the production of his pupil, pro-
posed another. Unable to agree upon the proper text, a lively con-
troversy 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
froe translation of the correlative terms sho and no, would be
" Old Corea " and "Young Corea," or Conservative and Progres-
sive, or radical. There were now four political parties.
The Shi-seik, 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 Tuhil-
poki, 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
tliD winning side.
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
th-3 United States. Nominally the prime purpose of each faction
is to advance the interests of the country. Actual and very power-
ful motives have reference to the spoils of office. Each party en-
deavors 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
stf.te 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
an! the Court or royal party. The former supported in this case
one who proved the successful candidate, a brother of the king ;
tho latter party urged the claims of an expected heir to the reign-
ing 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 sen V assassins to
weylay or overtake the courier, who was murdered before he had
cr< >ssed the frontier.
15
226 COREA.
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 abolish-
ing many of the legal tortures until then practised, especially the
branding of criminals. Yet personally he was cruel and unscrupu-
lous. 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.
Stung by these reports, he began, as soon as he was made sov-
ereign, to send to the block numbers of the opposite party whom
he knew to be his enemies. Some years after, his eldest son hav-
ing 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 Si-pai party, to pro-
claim general amnesty, and to follow out a frank policy of recon-
ciliation. 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 ponder-
ous 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 smoth-
ered. 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 ques-
tion is still a burning one. The king's defenders, to this day de-
cline to rehabilitate the character of the smothered prince. The
others demand that historic justice be done. Though other ques-
tions have since arisen, of more immediate moment, this particu-
lar 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 Borneo and Juliet may woo and wed without let or dan-
ger. In general, it may be said that the Piek-pai are radical and
fiery, the Si-pai are conservative and conciliatory.
Cheng-chong, who ruled from 1776 to 1800, a wise, moderate,
and prudent prince, and a friend of learning, favored the men of
POLITICAL PARTIES. 227
merit among the Southern Si-pai, and is also noted for having
revised the code of laws.
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
e mite their rivals hip and thigh, and prevent their getting appoint-
ments. Hence the continual quarrels and the plots, which often
result in the death of one or other of the leaders. Assassination
und murderous attacks are among the means employed, while
1 o 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
oursed with elements of permanent disturbance like those in
mediaeval Scotland or Italy. As each of the noble families have
:nany 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
ihorns. The Southern and No-ron parties have always been the
most numerous, powerful, and obstinate. Between them mar-
riages 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
•:o his son or his nearest relative his demand for vengeance. Often
ihis 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
^ake off until revenge is had. The kinsman, thus clad with ven-
geance as with a garment, must wear it, it may be until he dies,
ind 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 gen-
erations. 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.
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 reli-
gion, 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.
228 COREA.
The pretext of accusation most often employed by the rival
factions is that of conspiracy against the life of the king. Peti-
tions and false evidence are multiplied and bribery of the court
ministers is attempted. If, as is often the case, the first petition-
ers 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.
It is no wonder that a Corean liberal visiting in Tokio, in
1882, declared to a Japanese officer his conviction that Corea's
dfficulties 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 lover to am-
bition and revenge, as well as to affection and philanthropy.
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 at-
tendance. 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.
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 pow-
POLITICAL PARTIES. 229
erful 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 con-
trol 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. Cho-sen is repre-
sented 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 peo-
ple by their rapacity, but they curtail the royal prerogative. The
nation is suffering from a congestion, verging upon a dropsical
condition of over-officialism.
The disease of Corea's near neighbor, old Japan, was like-
wise 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 re-
moval of the sho-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 gov-
ernment. 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 an-
cestors, but because it will rest broad-based upon the peoples'
will. So in Cho-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 cf feudalism. Already, to ac-
complish 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 Ob-
structionists, or Radical and Conservative, have formed for the solu-
tion of the problems thrust upon them by the nineteenth century.
CHAPTER XXYI.
ORGANIZATION AND METHODS OP GOVERNMENT.
NEXT in authority to the king are the three chong or high min-
isters. 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 "Foun-
dation-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 Eegent 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.
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 chong or ministers forming the Supreme Council.
In the six departments, the heads are called pan-cho, and these are
assisted by two other associates, the cham-pan, or substitutes, and
the cham-e, or counsellor. These four grades and twenty-one
dignitaries constitute the royal council of dai-jin (great ministers),
though the actual authority is in the supreme council of the three
chong. 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 Cho-po, is issued for information on official matters.
The general cast and method of procedure in the court and gov-
ernment is copied after the great model in Peking.
ORGANIZATION AND METHODS OF GOVERNMENT. 231
Each of the eight provinces is under the direction of a Icam-sa,
or governor. The cities are divided into six classes (yin, mu,fu,
ki, ling, and hilu), 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.
From the sovereign to the beggar, the gate, both figura-
tr'ely and actually, is very prominent in the public economy and
in family relationships. A great deal of etiquette is visible in the
gs.tes. At the entrance to the royal palace are, or were formerly,
two huge effigies, in wood, of horses, painted red. Only high
ofacials 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 magis-
trate 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
cc me 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,
tbe 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 eti-
quette has so tapered off that the lord of the mansion walks only
tc the piazza. In front of a magistrate's office, at the gateway, are
ranged the symbols of authority, such as spears and tridents.
Tlie 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
olfice. The porters who close them at sunset and open them at
d;iwn execute a salvo on their trumpets, often lasting a quarter
oi an hour. This acoustic devastation, so distressing to foreign
etxs, is considered good music to the native tympanum.
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
tl.e 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 yup, or bows with the head
ai id hands bent together, have been made, wine is sipped or
232 COREA.
drunk three or five times, and then follows what the Coreans call
music.
The sumptuary laws of the kingdom are peculiar, at many points
amusing to occidentals. To commit pern-ram is to violate these
curious regulations. What may be worn, or sat upon, is solemnly
dictated by law. Nobles sit on the kan-kio, 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 in-
tended to be such. At entertainments for the aged, in time of
rich harvests, local feasts, archery tournaments, and on public occa-
sions, 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.
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.
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 H-san, or large banner or standard in the form of an um-
brella, is borne at the head of the line. To attempt to cross one
of their processions is to be seized and punished, and anyone re-
fusing 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 vocab-
ulary 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 Cho-sen.
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
ORGANIZATION AND METHODS OF GOVERNMENT. 233
— equivalent to being burned in effigy — is made by a pretended
boiling in oil. Good and upright magistrates are often remem-
bered by mok-pi, or inscribed columns of wood, erected on the
public road by the grateful people. In many instances, this testi-
monial takes the form of sculptured stone. A number of, the pub-
lic highways are thus adorned. These, with the tol-pi, or monu-
mental bourne, which marks distances or points out the paths to
pJaces of resort, are interesting features of travel in the peninusla,
and more pleasant to the horseman than the posts near temples
and offices on which one may read "Dismount." At the funeral
oi great dignitaries of the realm, a life-sized figure of a horse,
made of bamboo, dragged before the coffin, is burned along with
tl.e clothes of the deceased, and the ashes laid beside his remains.
As the magistrates are literary men, their official residences
oi ten receive poetic or suggestive names, which, in most cases, re-
flect the natural scenery surrounding them. "Little Flowery
House," "Eising Cloud," "Sun-greeting," "Sheet of Resplen-
dent Water," "Water- that- slides-as-straight-as-a- sword Dwelling,"
" G-ate of Lapis-lazuli," " Mansion near the Whirlpool," are some
oi these names, while, into the composition of others, the Morn-
ing-star, the Heaven-touching, the Cave-spirit, and the Changing-
cloud Mountain, or the Falling-snow Cataract may enter. Passion-
ately 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."
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 prov-
ir ces. 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.
The rule of the local authorities is very minute in all its rami-
fieations. 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
234 COREA.
must " show their tickets" on demand. For the people, this cer-
tificate 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 can-
not 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 ho-pai, or passport.
The actual workings of Corean justice will be better under-
stood 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 re-
bellion, and charges against high dignitaries, are tried in the
capital before a special tribunal instituted by the king.
The two classes of assistants to the magistrate, who are called
respectively Tiai-seiTc and a-chen, act as constables or sheriffs,
police messengers, and jailers. French writers term them " pre-
torians" and "satellites." These men have practically the admin-
istration of justice, and the details and spirit of local authority are
in their power. The hai-seik, 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 a-chen, who are the inferior police, jailers, and torturers,
are from the very lowest classes, and usually of brutal life and
temper.
The vocabulary of torture is sufficiently copioiis to stamp Cho-
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 punish-
ments 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
ORGANIZATION AND METHODS OF GOVERNMENT.
of torture was to tie the four limbs of a man to the horns of as
man y 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 in-
crease the pain. The chief of the lictors, or public spanker, is
called sin-kid. 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
gaol3rs. The method of correction is quite characteristic of pa-
ternal 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.
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.
Undoubtedly the severity of the Corean code has been miti-
gated 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
thiet' might be trampled to death. The acme of cruelty was pro-
ducod, 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 trans-
gression, while the drum is beaten as he walks through the streets.
Amid many improvements on the old barbarous system of aggra-
vate ig the misery of the condemned, there still survive's a dis-
grac eful form of capital punishment, in which the cruelty takes on
the air of savage refinement. The cho-reni-to-ta appears only in
236 COREA.
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 exe-
cuted near Seoul were all put to death in this barbarous manner.
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 faith-
fully, by retiring from office for months, is an incredible iniquity.
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 Cho-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 ehown 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.
Official life has its sunshine and shadows in this land as else-'
where, but perhaps one of the hardest tasks before the Corean
ruling classes of this and the next generation is the duty of dili-
gently 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, Cho-sen
13 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.
CHAPTEE XXYII.
FEUDALISM, SERFDOM, AND SOCIETY.
IT is remarked by Palladius that the Fuyu race, the ancestors
of the modern Coreans, was the first to emerge from the desert
undor feudal forms of organization. The various migrations of
new nations rising out of northern and eastern Asia were west-
ward, and were held together under monarchical systems of govern-
ment. 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 Man-
churia, and through the peninsula, crossed toward Nippon, or
Sunrise, and settled Japan, maintained their feudalism until,
thro igh 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,
uiid( r succeeding military regents, it grew to be the tree over-
spreading the empire. It was finally uprooted and destroyed only
by the revolution of 1868, and the later victories of united Japan's
impc rial armies, at an awful sacrifice of life and treasure.
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
hist( ry, lands were held on the tenure of military service, and in
war time, or on the accession of a new dynasty, rewards were
mad 3 by parcelling out the soil to the followers of the victor.
ProT ision for a constant state of servitude among one class of the
polii ical body was made by the custom of making serfs of crimi-
nals or their kindred. A nucleus of slavery being once formed,
238 COREA.
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 ameliora-
tion 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.
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.
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 com-
moner. The nobles are usually the serf-proprietors or slave-hold-
ers, 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 chong-nom.
A free man may marry a female slave, in which case he is termed
a pi-pu. 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 pal-sin, and he speaks of his
former master as ku-siang. 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 Co-
rean ear, as to the American in the long-ago days of "before the
war." A pan-no is a bondsman trying to escape, and to attempt
chiu-ro is to hunt the fugitive and bring him back. The in-chang
is the public slave of the village. Yet such a thing as the bonds-
man'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 min-
FEUDALISM, SERFDOM, AND SOCIETY. 239
ions of a noble is too frequently witnessed in Corea. " TeJc-pun-
ai' ("By your favor," equivalent to "Let me live, I pray you")
is i 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 devel-
oped among the serfs of the old barons or landed proprietors who
ha^e longest occupied their hereditary possessions, and who keep
up a petty court within their castles or semi-fortified mansions.
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
arc 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
ed icated become slaves, but their offspring are born free. The
sei f dom 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,
ar<; assigned a house apart, and bound only to a fixed amount of
labor. Although the master has the power of life and death over
hu slaves, the right is rarely exercised unjustly, and the mission-
aries report that there were few cases of excessive cruelty prac-
tised. An unjust master could be cited before the tribunals, and
thu 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,
ha re placed themselves under the protection of a master known to
be a kind man, and thus have purchased ease and comfort at the
sa- ;rifice of liberty.
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 Ui-ro-ui-pi shall fall upon his wife and children, who at once
become the slaves of the judge. These unfortunates do not have
240 COREA.
the privilege of honorably serving the magistrate, but usually pass
their existence in waiting on the menials in the various depart-
ments 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 mod-
ern 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.
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.
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 daimios of Japan, and were very numerous. The whole coun-
try 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 peo-
ple, 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 com-
prise but a small portion of the soil.
As in medieval 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 acces-
sion of the present royal house in 1392, the old Korai nobility
FEUDALISM, SERFDOM, AND SOCIETY. 241
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 exclu-
sive 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 ten-
antry 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 cen-
tral government. Under peace, with wealth, intelligence, combi-
nation, 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 ac-
counts 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 common-
wealth is into three classes — nobles, common people, and serfs or
sla^ es.
Speaking generally, the peculiar institution of Cho-sen is 'serf-
dom rather than slavery, and is the inheritence of feudalism ; yet,
as llussia has had her Alexander, America her Lincoln, and Japan
her Mutsuhito, we may hope to see some great liberator yet arise
in the "Land of Morning Calm."
Under absolute despotisms, as most Asiatic governments are,
it ia 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
tax< s and obey. Their political influence is nothing. In Cho-sen,
according to law, any person of the common people may compete
at t le public examinations for civil or military employment, but,
in i oint of fact, his degree is often worthless, for he is not likely
to receive office by it. In a country where might and wealth
mal.-e right, and human beings are politically naught, being but
beasts of burden or ciphers without a unit, how do the people
16
242 COREA.
protect themselves and gain any liberty ? How does it come to
pass that serfs may win their way to social freedom ?
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, cor-
porations, 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. Some-
times, 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 mem-
bers or apprentices may be admitted by paying their rate and
submitting to the rules of the guild. In the higher grades of so-
ciety we see the same spirit of association. The temple attend-
ants, 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 con-
tributes. 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 competi-
tion of English-speaking countries, will find in Cho-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, dis-
charges 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.
FEUDALISM, SERFDOM, AND SOCIETY. 243
One of the most powerful and best organized guilds is that of
tbe porters. The interior commerce of the country being almost
ei.tirely on the backs of men and pack-horses, these people have
tbe 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 por-
ters 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.
Taey speak a conventional language, easily understood among
th emselves, and are very profuse in their salutations to each other.
Tliey have very severe rules for the government of their guild,
aiid crimes among them are punished with death, at the order of
th eir 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,
ttey "strike" in a body and retire from the district. This puts
a stop to all travel and business, until these grievances are settled
01 submission to their own terms is made.
Owing to the fact that the country at large is so lacking in the
stops 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 pedlers 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 bat-
taions which figured prominently in the affair of December 4-6,
1£87, were recruited.
CHAPTEE XXVIII.
SOCIAL LIFE.— WOMAN AND THE FAMILY.
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 child-
hood 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 name-
less. 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 magis-
trate, 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.
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.
SOCIAL LIFE.— WOMAN AND THE FAMILY. 245
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
tLe male sex appear. These customs, continued from childhood
tc 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 them-
selves in the odter rooms, and the women receive their parents
ar d friends in the interior apartments. The same custom, based
upon the same prejudice, hinders the common people in their mo-
ments 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 ad-
dress her with the most ceremonious reserve. After their mar-
riage, the women are inaccessible. They are nearly always con-
fined 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 pro-
du 3es the very results it is intended to avoid. If a bold villain
or too eager paramour should succeed in penetrating secretly
th( 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
sin pie fact that a man had entered her chamber. Every Corean
husband is a Csesar in this respect. If, however, the affair remains
a secret, her reputation is saved.
There is, however, another side. Though counting for noth-
ing in society, and nearly so in their family, they are surrounded
by a certain sort of exterior respect. They are always addressed
in 1 he formulas of honorific language. The men always step aside
in 1 he street to allow a woman to pass, even though she be of the
246 COREA.
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 en-
ticed outside, where he may be legally arrested. When a pedler
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 neigh-
bors, 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.
Marriage in Cho-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 so-
ciety. 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
SOCIAL LIFE.— WOMAN AND THE FAMILY. 247
the scalp. According to old traditions, men ought never to clip
a single hair ; but in the capital the young gallants, in order to
idd to their personal attractions— with a dash of fashionable defi-
ince — 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
"jraids to swell their coiffures to fashionable bulk. They make up
TWO large tresses, which are rolled to the back and top of the
3 lead, and secured by a long pin of silver or copper. The common
people roll their plaits around their heads, like a turban, and
fhave the front of the scalp. Young persons who insist on re-
maining single, or bachelors arrived at a certain or uncertain age,
i nd who have not yet found a wife, secretly cut off their hair, or
£.;et it done by fraud, in order to pass for married folks and avoid
l>eing treated as children. Such a custom, however, is a gross
\iolation of morals and etiquette. (See illustration, page 161.)
On the evening before the wedding, the young lady who is to
I e married invites one of her friends to change her virginal coif-
f ire to that of a married woman.
The bridegroom-to-be also invites one of his acquaintance to
"do up" his hair in manly style. The persons appointed to per-
form 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 brides-
n aid and groomsman of other countries.
On the marriage-day, in the house of the groom, a platform is
s( t up and richly adorned with decorative woven stuffs. Parents,
friends, and acquaintances assemble in a crowd. The couple to
bo married — who may never have seen or spoken to each other —
ai e brought in and take their places on the platform, face to face.
T lere 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
biide to the female, the groom to the male apartments, where
fe isting and amusement, after fashions in vogue in Cho-sen, take
pi ice. The expense of a wedding is considerable, and the bride-
gr Dom must be unstinting in his hospitality. Any failure in this
particular may subject him to unpleasant practical jokes.
On her wedding-day, the young bride must preserve absolute
silence, both on the marriage platform and in the nuptial cham-
be •. Etiquette requires this at least among the nobility. Though
248 COREA.
overwhelmed with questions and compliments, silence is her duty.
She must rest mute and impassive as a statue. She seats herseli
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 them-
selves in a peeping position to listen or look through the win-
dows, 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 :
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 hus-
band, 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 Co-
rean 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.
From the language, and from Japanese sources, we obtain
some side-lights on the nuptial ceremony and married life. In
Corean phrase hon-sang (the wedding and the funeral) are the
two great events of life. Many are the terms relating to mar-
riage, 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
SOCIAL LIFE.— WOMAN AND THE FAMILY. 249
Hrear their locks ta-rai, 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. Ater the chung-mai, or middle-man, has arranged the
] natch, and the day is appointed for the han-sa, 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 sym-
bolic figure at the wedding is a goose, which, in Corean eyes, is
the emblem of conjugal fidelity. Sometimes this mok-an 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
;md 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
j^room. The groom then bows four times to the bride. Other
symbolic emblems are the fantastic shapes of straw (otsuka) pre-
sented 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
oridesmaids standing beside the couple pour the liquid and pass
for exchange the one little " cup of the wine of mutual joy," sev-
eral times filled and emptied.
Then begins the wedding-feast, when the guests drink and
make merry. The important document certifying the fact of wed-
lock is called the hon-se-chi, and is signed by both parties. When
the woman is unable to write, she makes " her mark " (siu-pon)
by spreading out her hand and tracing with a pencil the exact
profile of palm, wrist, and fingers. Sometimes the groom, in ad-
dition to his four prostrations, which are significant of fidelity to
the bride, gives to his father-in-law a written oath of constancy to
lis daughter. Faithfulness is, however, a typical feminine, rather
~han masculine, virtue in the hermit nation. The pong-kang, a
rdnd of wild canary bird, is held up to the wife as her model of
conjugal fidelity. Another large bird, somewhat exceeding a duck
i.n size, and called the ching-kiong, is said never to remate after
250 COREA.
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 rino-s
on the ring finger. Sixty years, or a cycle, completes the ideal
length of marital life, and "a golden wedding" is then celebrated.
Among the most peculiar of women's rights in Cho-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 A.M. To transgress this law of pem-ya 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.
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 :
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
SOCIAL LIFE.— WOMAN AND THE FAMILY. 251
was good-looking, well-formed, intelligent, highly educated, and
amiable in manners. Bitterly regretting the loss of so accom-
plished a son-in-law, he determined to repair the evil. He secretly
ordered that, instead of his niece, his daughter should be intro-
duced 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.
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 confi-
dence, the latter revealed to him all that had happened. He told
of the diviners' reports concerning him, and the successive substi-
tutions of niece for daughter and daughter for niece.
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
•>vas jeered at both for his lack of address and his bad faith.
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
( tivorces her, he may not marry another woman while his former
•vvife is living, but he is free to take as many concubines as he can
f-upport. It is sufficient that a man is able to prove that he has
had intimate relations with a maiden or a widow; she then be-
comes 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 —
< >bligatory on the woman — is not required of the husband, and a
^vife 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
252 COREA.
her to a species of widowhood, while he spends his hours of relax-
ation 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 railery.
Habituated from infancy to such a yoke, and regarding them-
selves as of an inferior race, most women submit to their lot with
exemplary resignation. Having no idea of progress, or of an in-
fraction 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 in-
cessantly 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.
Women of tact and energy make themselves respected and con-
quer 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 :
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. Never-
theless, 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,
SOCIAL LIFE.— WOMAN AND THE FAMILY. 253
und appeared to be as slightly favored with gifts of mind as of
body.
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
f>nd paid no further attention to his new relatives.
The deserted wife, who was a person of a great deal of intelli-
gence, resigned herself to her isolation and remained in her
lather'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
lie 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 an-
nounced 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,
I ut, according to etiquette, no one appeared surprised.
Finally the lady called together the household slaves and said
to them, in a severe tone, "What house is this? I am your mis-
tress, 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 de-
manded. " 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."
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.
Some hours after, seeing that neither of the men appeared, she
254 COREA.
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 them-
selves before her, much embarrassed, and blundered out some ex-
cuses. "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 re-
turned 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 con-
ducted 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 admira-
ble, 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.
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 ex-
ample, 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.
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 exami-
SOCIAL LIFE.— WOMAN AND THE FAMILY. 255
nations, and from admittance to any official employment. Even
to the present day such children are looked upon as illegitimate.
Among a people so passionate as Coreans, grave social disor-
ders result from such a custom. The young noble widows who
cannot remarry become, in most cases, secretly or openly the con-
eubines of those who wish to support them. The others who
strive to live chastely are rudely exposed to the inroads of pas-
fdon. 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
jiid of hired bandits. When they become victims of violence,
rJiere 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 gate-
way, column, or temple, intended to be a monument of their hero-
ism 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 per-
sons ; and it was with difficulty that they could be made to com-
prehend the Christian doctrine concerning suicide.
The usual method of self-destruction is ja-mun, or cutting the
1 hroat, or opening the abdomen with a sword. In this the Coreans
are like the Japanese, neck-cutting or piercing being the feminine,
nnd hara-kiri (belly-cutting) the masculine, method of ending life
lit one's own hands.
Among the common people, second marriages are forbidden
neither by law nor custom, but wealthy families endeavor to imi-
1ate the nobles in this custom as in others. Among the poor,
necessity knows no law. The men must have their food pre-
pared for them, and women cannot, and do not willingly die of
iamine when a husband offers himself. Hence second marriages
r.mong the lowly are quite frequent.
Most of the facts stated in this chapter are drawn from Dai-
let's "History of the [Koman Catholic] Church in Corea." Mak-
ing due allowance for the statements of celibate priests, who are
{liens in religion, nationality, and civilization, the picture of the
social life of Cho-sen is that of abominable heathenism.
. CHAPTEE XXIX.
CHILD LIFE.
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
(sam-sin-hang), 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 to-tak, to-tak — 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 iheja-pak, ja-pak, is described to the neigh-
bors. 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 tan-ji — cutting his fin-
ger 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.
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 jack-
ets, 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
CHILD LIFE. 257
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 trum-
pet to his mouth. Official life is mirrored in the tasselled um-
brella, 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 chil-
dren'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'
g;ime of grace-hoop, though often taking a longer time. Ko-
s< ttes or pin wheels of paper are made and fastened on the end
oi sticks. Running before the breeze, the miniature windmills
aiford hilarious delight.
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.
Soe-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 for-
feit 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
hew to hold their prizes after many a nab and pinch, which bring
infantile tears and squalls. One of the common playthings of
Ccrean children, the "baby's rattle," is the dried leathery egg of
tho skate, which with a few pebbles inside makes the infant, if not
ite parents, happy with the din.
Besides a game of patting and dabbling in the water — chal^pak,
chal-pak — boys amuse themselves by fishing with hook and line or
net. One method is to catch fish by means of the yek-kui. This
is a plant of peppery taste, which poisons or stupefies the fish that
bii e the tempting tip, making them easy prey. More serious in-
door games played by women and children are pa-tok, or back-
17
258 COREA.
gammon ; sang-pi-yen, dominoes ; siu-tu-chen, game of eighty
cards ; and chang-keui, 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 re-
passing upon the ifttle 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 Spin-
ning Maiden) are in conjunction in the milky way 1 (or the River of
Heaven), and wishes made at this time are supposed to come true.
Chu-pul, 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 shrub-
bery 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.
At school, the pupils study according to the method all over
Asia, that is, out loud, and noisily. This kang-siong, 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 ku-ku ("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 exam-
iner ; 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
1 See " The Meeting of the Star Lovers," in Japanese Fairy World.
CHILD LIFE.
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.
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
i^ 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.
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
Jupan, 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 speak-
ing 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 sick-
ly, 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.
The practice of adoption is common, as it is abnormally so
in all countries where ancestral worship is prevalent and underlies
260 COREA.
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. Daugh-
ters are not adopted, because they cannot accomplish the pre-
scribed 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 neces-
sity, the government may be appealed to, and, in case of need,
forces acceptance of the duty. In this manner, as in the patri-
archal age of biblical history, a man may be coerced into " rais-
ing up seed" to defunct ancestors.
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 diffi-
cult 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 a
priori without the facts at hand. The iron fetters of Asiatic in-
stitutions cannot suppress human nature.
Primogeniture is the rigid rule. Younger sons, at the time of
their marriage, or at other important periods of life, receive pater-
nal 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 mem-
bers 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 whicb
individuals of it cannot pay, holding the sodality responsible for
the indivdual. To this they submit without complaint or protest
CHILD LIFE. 261
Instead of the family being a unit, as in the west, it is only
th(i fragment of a clan, a segment in the great circle of kindred.
The number of terms expressing relationship is vastly greater and
rniich more complex than in English. One is amazed at the ex-
uberance of the national vocabulary in this respect. The Coreans
arc 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. Mar-
riage 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 pu, or
Gentile name, to indicate the place whence the family originally
came. In the case of two persons wishing to marry, if this pu is
the same, they are in the eyes of the law relatives, and marriage
is forbidden. If the pu 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 pu, 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 fol-
lowed by a surname ; or only the word so-pang, junior, sang-wen,
senior, lord, sir, etc.
Male adults usually have three personal names, that given in
childhood, the common proper name, and the common legal name,
wh:le 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 mi-
kado's government in 1872, and now spares as much trouble to
tongue, tpyes, and pens, as a reform in our alphabet and spelling
would save the English-speaking world. As in Nippon, a Corean
fere ale 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 distin-
guishing individual names, and among them nicknames are very
con imon. Corean etiquette forbids that the name of father, mother,
or uncle be used in conversation, or even pronounced aloud.
CHAPTER XXX.
HOUSEKEEPING, DIET, AND COSTUME.
COREAN architecture is in a very primitive condition. The cas*
ties, fortifications, temples, monasteries and public buildings can-
not 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 regu-
lar streets, but scattered here and there. Even in the cities and
capital the streets are narrow and tortuous.
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 neatnesss.
A low wall of uncemented stone, five or six feet high, sur-
rounds the dwelling, and when kept in repair gives an air of neat-
ness and imposing solidity to the estate. Often a pretty rampart
of flat bamboo or rushes, plaited in the herring-bone pattern, sur-
mounts 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.
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.
HOUSEKEEPING, DIET, AND COSTUME. 263
The foundations are laid on stone set in the earth, and the
flcor 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 iloor 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.
The kang is characteristic of the human dwelling in north-
eastern Asia. It is a kind of tubular oven, in which human
beings, instead of potatoes, are baked. It is as though we should
m ike 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
wr.rm 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 kotatsu of Japan.
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
w*.nt of the necessities of life.
Bed-clothes are of silk, wadded cotton, thick paper, and tiger,
wolf, or dog skins, the latter often sewn in large sheets like a car-
pet. Comfort, cleanliness, and luxury make the l?ed of the noble
OD 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. Cush-
ions or bags of rice-chaff form the pillows of the rich. The poor
mm 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."
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 ang-pak, or large earthen jars, for holding rice,
b&rley, 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 furni-
tu re is the rule. Coreans, like the Japanese, sit, not cross-legged,
COREA.
but on their heels. Among the well-to-do, dog-skins, or kat-tei,
cover the floor for a carpet, or splendid tiger-skins serve" as rugs.
Matting is common, the best being in the south.
As in Japan, the meals are served on the floor on low sang, or
little tables, one for each guest, sometimes one for a couple. The
best table service is of porcelain, and the ordinary sort of earthen-
ware 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.
Table Spread for Festal Occasions.
The climax of sesthetic taste occurs when a set of historic porce-
lain 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.
The walls range in quality of decoration from plain mud to col-
ored plaster and paper. The Corean wall-paper is of all grades,
sometimes as soft as silk, or as thick as canvas. Sa-peik is a favor-
ite reddish earth or mortar which serves to rough-cast in rich
color tones the walls of a room.
Pictures are not common ; the artistic sense being satisfied
HOUSEKEEPING, DIET, AND COSTUME. 265
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
01- autograph scrap of Yung, Hong, or O, the three most renowned
men of Cho-sen, is reckoned more than a golden manuscript on
aiure paper.
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 win-
dows. In every part of a Corean house, paper plays an important
and useful part.
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
tb e common people. Even with the nobles, it is rather a curiosity.
The windows being made of oiled or thin paper, glass is not a ne-
cessity. This fact will explain the eagerness of the people to pos-
sess specimens of this transparent novelty. Even old porter and
ale bottles, which sailors have thrown away, are eagerly picked up,
b( gged, bought, or stolen. An old medicine-vial, among the Co-
re ans, 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 expedi-
tion 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 sli ding-door,
acd thus gaze on the outer world through this " loophole of re-
troat." This not only saves him from the disagreeable necessity
of punching a finger-hole through the paper to satisfy his curi-
osity, but gives him the advantage of not being seen, and of keep-
ing out the draft. When a whole pane has been secured, it is
hrrd to state whether happiness or pride reigns uppermost in the
oT/ner's bosom.
266 COREA.
Candlesticks are either tall and upright, resting on the floor
in the Japanese style, or dish-lamps of common oil are used.
Mint 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. Phos-
phorus matches, imported from Japan, are called by a word signi-
fying ' ' fire-sprite, " " will-of -the-wisp, ' ' or ignis-fatuus.
Usually in a gentlemen's house there is an ante-room or vesti-
bule, 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 West-
ern 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 to-
bacco or some other luxury. Short eave-curtains and longer dra-
pery at the side, give an air of inviting comfort to these free
and easy quarters, where news and gossip are exchanged. These
oi-tiang, or outer apartments, are for strangers and men only,
and women are never expected or allowed to be present.
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 par-
ties resort, the Coreans most heartily enjoying out-door festivity,
in places which sky, water, and foliage make beautiful to tne eye.
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 nip, 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 Co-
rean households is the alcohol spirit.
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 gen-
eral their beverages are sufliciently 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 im-
HOUSEKEEPING, DIET, AND COSTUME. 267
pressed 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 wor-
ship 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 Koko-
rai. No sooner were the ports of modern Cho-sen open to com-
merce than the Chinese established liquor-stores, while European
wines, brandies, whiskeys, and gins have entered to vary the Co-
rean's liquid diet and increase the national drunkenness.
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 oi
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 gin-
seng, orange-peel, or ginger serve for festal purposes, and honey
when these fail ; but the word " tea," or cha, serves the Corean, as
it does the typical Irishman, for a variety of infusions and decoc-
tions. 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.
The staple diet has in it much more of meat and fat than that
of the Japanese. The latter acknowledge that the average Coreau
can eat twice as much as himself. Beef, pork, fowls, venison, fish,
an I game are consumed without much waste in rejected material.
Nearly everything edible about an animal is a tidbit, and a curi-
ous piece of cookery, symbolical of a generous feast, is often found
at the board of a liberal host. This tang-talk (which often be-
comes the "town -talk") is a chicken baked and served with its
festhers, 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."
Fish are often eaten raw from tail to head, especially if small,
with only a little seasoning. Ho-hoi, or fish-bone salad, is a deli-
ca< y. 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.
268 COREA.
The state dinner, given to the Japanese after the treaty, con-
sisted 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 ; macca-
roni 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. Judg-
ing 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 re-
taining the perfect shape of each grain by itself. Other well-
known dishes are barley, millet, beans, taro (potato cooked in a
variety of ways), lily-bulbs, sea- weeds, acorns, dai-kon (radishes),
turnips, and potatoes. Maccaroni 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.
All kinds of condiments, mustard, vinegar, pepper, and a va-
riety 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. Opan, or midday rice, is the dinner. Tai-
sik 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 palata-
ble way of remembering the dead is by the yum-pok, or drinking
of sacrificial wine. The Coreans understand the preservative vir-
tues 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
HOUSEKEEPING, DIET, AND COSTUME. 269
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
tie Refrigerator."
One striking fault of the Coreans at the table is their
veracity, and to this trait of their character Japanese, French,
Batch, 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 differ-
er ce 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 gorg-
ing when it is physically impossible for the child to swell up
more. A Corean is always ready to eat; he attacks whatever he
moets 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. Eat-
ing matches are common. When an ox is slaughtered, and the
beef is served up, a heaping bowl of the steaming mess does not
abrm 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
friits, 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 prodi-
gality in victuals is, however, not common, and for one feast there
an 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 circum-
270 COREA.
stances, 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 fas-
tidious in their eating nor painstaking in their cooking. Nothing
goes to waste. All is grist that comes to the mill in their mouths.
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 pep-
per 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.
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 immer-
sion, the natives are not usually found under water. The Japa-
nese 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 Japa-
nese, 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. Per-
haps soap factories will come in the future.
The men are very proud of their beards, and the elders very
particular in keeping them white and clean. The lords of crea-
tion 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 Co-
HOUSEKEEPING, DIET, AND COSTUME. 271
rean billingsgate there are numerous terms of opprobrium for a
short beard. Europeans are contemptuously termed "short-
ly airs" — 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
tlieir beard and parings of their nails, in order that all that be-
longs to them may be duly placed in their coffin at death.
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 con-
querors, 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
soalp, using pins or not as they please.
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
v^ry 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 Japa-
nese 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.
A'nong the court ladies and female musicians the styles of
cc iffure are various ; some being very pretty, with loops, bands,
w.wes, and "bangs," as the illustration on page 161 shows.
Corea is decidedly the land of big hats. From their amplitude
these head-coverings might well be called "roofs," or, at least,
" imbrellas." Their diameter is so great that the human head
ei- cased in one of them seems but as a hub in a cart-wheel. They
272 COREA.
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, per-
haps, 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 penin-
sula, becomes very useful as ballast to the head-sail. Corean
magnates, cast away at sea, would not lack material for ship's can-
vas. 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 kat or kat-si.
The usual material is bamboo, split to the fineness of a thread,
and woven so as to resemble horse-hair. The fabric is then var-
nished 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 pro-
tection for the back and shoulders, which these umbrella-like
hats furnish. In heavy rain, the kat-no 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
HOUSEKEEPING, DIET, AND COSTUME. 273
Ted. I; isCorean 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.
A variety of materials is employed by other classes. Soldiers
weur large black or brown felt hats, resembling Mexican som-
breros, which are adorned with red horse-hair or a peacock's
feather, swung on a swivel button.
Suspended from the sides, over the ears and around the neck,
are strings of round balls of blue porcelain, cornelian, amber, or
whfct resembles kauri gum. Sometimes these ornaments are tubu-
lar, reminding one of the millinery of a cardinal's hat.
For the common people, plaited straw or rushes of varied
shades serve for summer, while in winter shaggy caps of lynx,
wolf, bear, or deer-skin are common,- made into Havelock, Astrac-
han, 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.
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
rubrum. It is a crown or helmet, which, eschewing brim, rises in
altitude to the proportions of a mitre. Without ear strings 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
loft}- curving folds or volutes set in it. On another are designs
from the pa-kwa, or sixty-four mystic diagrams, which are sup-
pose d to be sacred symbols of the Confucian philosophy, and of
which fortune-tellers make great use.
The wardrobe of the gentry consists of the ceremonial and the
hou^e 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 em-
broidered with the stork or phoenix 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 re-
duci ig the labor of the wives and mothers who ply the needle,
which in Corea has an "ear" instead of an "eye." Strings and
girdJes, and the shifting of the main weight of the clothing to the
shoulders, take the place of these convenient, but fugitive, ad-
junc's to the Western costume. There are few tailors' shops, the
worn an of each household making the family outfit
18
274 COREA.
Soldiers in full dress wear a sleeveless, open surcoat i'or dis-
play. 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 ap-
parel 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 win-
ter. The rule is tightness and economy for the working, ampli-
tude and richness of material for the affluent, 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 pun, or white powder, on their faces, and employ
various other cosmetics, which are kept in their kiong-tai, or mir-
ror toilet-stands ; in which also may be their so-hak, or book con-
taining rules of politeness.
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.
Plenty of starch in summer, and no stint of cotton in winter,
are the needs of the Corean. His white dress makes his com-
plexion look darker than it really is. The monotonous dazzle of
bleached garments is relieved by the violet robes of the magis-
trate, 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.
HOUSEKEEPING, DIET, AND COSTUME.
275
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
aro 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.
Fans are also a mark of rank, being made of various materials,
Gentlemen's Garments and Dress Patterns.
especially silk or cloth, stretched on a frame. The fan is an in-
Btnonent of etiquette. To hide the face with one is an act of
politeness. The man in mourning must have no other kind than
thai in which the pin or rivet is of cow's horn. Oiled paper fans
sene 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.
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.
276 COREA.
I
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.
Canes are carried by men of the literary or official class when
in mourning. These tall staves, which, from the decks of Euro-
pean vessels sailing along the coast, have often looked like spears,
are the sang-chang, or smooth bamboo staves, expressive of cere-
monial grief, and nothing more.
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.
Foot-gear is either of native or of Chinese make. The laborer
contents himself with sandals woven from rice-straw, which usu-
ally 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
I Chinese is unknown in Cho-sen, as in Japan.
CHAPTER XXXI.
MOURNING AND BURIAL.
THE fashion of mourning, the proper place and time to shed
toars and express grief according to regulations, are rigidly pre-
scribed 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
•vseep 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,
pitched, and as much soiled as possible. The girdle must be of
twisted straw and silk, made into a rope of the thickness of the
\rnst. 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
tfuble 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 " ai-ko " if for a parent. For other rela-
tives he groans out " oi, oi." According to the noise and length
o:f the groans and weeping, so will the good opinion of the public
b 3. The lamentations over, the mourner retires, doffs the mourn-
ii g 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
ii tervals 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
278 COBEA.
before the grave, and watched there for years, thus winning a
high reputation for filial piety.
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.
Though cremation, or "burying in the fire," is known in
Cho-sen, the most usual form of disposing of the dead is by
inhumation. Children are wrapped up in the clothes and bed-
ding in which they die, and are thus buried. As unmarried per-
sons 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 Koss' "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.
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 sa-jen, 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.
The selection of a proper site for a tomb is a matter of pro-
found solicitude, time, and money ; for the geomancers must be
consulted with a fee. The pung-sui 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 "moun-
tain " enters into terms relating to burial, most interments are
on the hillsides. If these are not done properly, trouble will
MOURNING AND BURIAL. 279
arise, and the bones must then be dug up, collected, and re-
buried, often at heavy expense. Thousands of professional cheats
and self-duped people live by working upon the feelings of the
bereaved through this superstition.
The tombs of the poor consist only of the grave and a low
mound of earth. These mounds, subjected to the forces of na-
ture, and often trampled upon by cattle, disappear after the lapse
of a few years, and oblivion settles over the spot.
With the richer class monuments are of stone, sometimes
neat or even imposing, sometimes grotesque. Some, as the pi-
popi, 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 man-tu, " 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 monu-
ment, 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
caning in Corean grave-yards is so rude as to be almost indis-
tinguishable.
Mourning is of many degrees and lengths, and is betokened
by dress, abstinence from food and business, visits to the tomb,
off* wrings, 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 addi-
tio i to the mourning-hat, betoken the uniform of woe.
When noblemen don the peaked hat, which covers the face as
we 1 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 tr«Mjk. The Jesuits were not
280 COREA.
slow to see the wonderful shelter promised for them, and availed
themselves of it at once and always.
The royal sepulchres within the peninsula have attracted more
than one unlawful descent upon the shores of Cho-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.
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 me-
morial buildings over them, and that the fear of their violation
by foreign or native outlaws has been for centuries ever be-
fore the Corean people. That these fears have too often been
justified, we shall find when we read of that memorable year,
A.D. 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.
The voluble Corean envoys when in Tokio, 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."
From the view-point of political economy, this lavish expense
of time, energy, money, and intellect upon corpses and super-
stition is beneficial. Without knowing of Malthus or his theories,
the Cho-senese have hit upon a capital method of limiting popu-
lation, and keeping the country in a state of chronic poverty.
MOURNING AND BURIAL. 281
The question has been asked the writer, "How can a people, pent
n a little mountainous peninsula like Corea, exist for centuries
without overpopulating their territory?"
Wars, famine, pestilence, ordinary poverty answer the question
m part. The absurd and rigorous rules of mourning, requiring
frightful expense, postponement of marriage to young people —
H'ho even when betrothed must mourn three years for parents and
^a-andparents, actual and expected, the impoverishing of the peo-
ple, and the frequent hindrances to marriage at the proper season,
^erve to keep down population. This fact is an often chosen sub-
ject 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
<;Grammaire Coreene," which is intended to show the sympathy
cf the king Cheng-chong (1776 to 1800) with his subjects. It is
entitled " A Trait of Eoyal Solicitude."
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 re-
mained only two of them, who were talking together.
"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?"
"Yes, truly," said the other; "you have no longer either wife,
children, or house. How is this ? "
" 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 grand-
fither died, and it became necessary to wait three years. Hardly
h id 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.
T bese three years finished, behold my mother-in-law who was to
b'j died, and three years passed away. Finally, I had the misfor-
tune to lose my poor mother, which required me to wait again
tlree years. And so, three times four — a dozen years — have
el ipsed, during which we have waited the one for the other. By
tils 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
282
COREA.
the ceremonies of marriage have not been made, they may cer*
tainly 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.
"Seeing this, I have no more wished even to dream at night.
Thatched House near Seoul. (From a photograph, 1876.)
I am not yet married. You may understand, then, why I have
neither wife, children, nor home."
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
MOURNING AND BURIAL. 283
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 set-
tled herself to wait for me. She served this to me every time I
cane e 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
wahed. In this position she was dead.
•' At sight of this my grief was without bounds. Having no
desire to contract a new union, I have never re-married."
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 :
' All the other scholars have gone to their homes to spend
New Year's. Why have not you two gone also?" They an-
swered, "Your servants having no house to go to, remained
hero."
'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 dwell-
ing ? 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
havt3 neither wife, child, nor family."
The story being exactly like that which he had heard before,
the king cried out, " Too bad ! "
Then addressing the other, he put this question : "And you,
how is it that you are reduced to this condition ?" He answered .
" My story is almost the same."
' What do you wish ? Speak ! " replied the king.
' The circumstances being such and such, I am at this mo-
meet without wife and without food. That is my condition."
.U there was in all this nothing different from the preceding,
the king, struck with compassion, bestowed upon them imme-
diately lucrative offices.
3f 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.
CHAPTER XXXII.
OUT-DOOR LIFE.— CHARACTERS AND EMPLOYMENTS.
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 Do, 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 bor-
dering 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 Muk-
den. 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.
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 Eiver basin, crosses the moun-
tains 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.
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 Kiver.
The roads of the second class are eight or nine feet wide, and
without side ditches. They ramify through all the provinces, but
OUT-DOOR LIFE.— CHARACTERS AND EMPLOYMENTS. 283
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.
The third class roads, which are nothing more than bridle-
paths, or trails, connect the villages.
The hilly nature of the country, together with the Asiatic
apr thy 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.
Stcne bridges, built with arches, are sometimes seen over streams
noi usually inundated, but few of the wooden bridges are over
one; hundred and eighty feet long.
In one respect the roads are well attended to. The distances
are well marked. At every n is a small, and at every three ri a
lar^e mound, surmounted with an inscribed post or " mile-stone,"
called chang-sung. They are two, six, and even ten feet in length.
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 termini of the
Romans. When of stone, they are called pio-sek, 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 mur-
derer Chang-sung. The author of " A Forbidden Land " mistook
these for "village idols," and was surprised to find the boys in
sone cases sacrilegiously kicking about some that had rotted
do'vn or fallen. The " gods of the roads " may, however, have
the ir effiges, which are worshipped or profaned.
All distances in every direction are measured from the front
gat e of the magistrates' offices, the standard of all being the palace
at Seoul. Not the least interesting sights to the traveller are the
me morial stones set up and inscribed with a view to commemo-
rai e local or national worthies, or the events of war, famine, or
ph lanthropy. The Coreans are "idolaters of letters," and the
er( ction of memorial tablets or columns occasionally becomes a
286 COKEA.
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.
"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."
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 grow-
ing 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 Tokaido Hizakurige (Leg-hair,
i.e., " Shanks' mare," on the East Sea Koad). 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 off-
spring. 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.
OUT-DOOR LIFE.— CHARACTERS AND EMPLOYMENTS. 287
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 on1 racquettes or snow-
shoes. These are in shape like a battledore, and are several feet
long. At regular distances are yek, or relays or offices, at which
sit clerks or managers under government auspices, with hered-
itary 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.
All these throughout a certain district, of which there are sev-
eral in each province, are under the direction of the Tsal-peng, or
Director of Posts. Kiung-sang, the province having the greatest
number of roads, has also the best equipment in the way of post-
oificers, relays, and horses. The following table from DaUet shows
the equipment of the eight provinces :
Post Superin-
tendente.
Belays.
Horses.
Kiung-Kei
6
47
449
Chunef-chonsr. .
5
62
761
Chulla
6
53
506
Kiung-sang
11
115
1,700
Kang-wen
4
78
447
Wang hei .
3
28
396
Ham-kiung
3
58
792
Piner-an
2
30
311
40
471
5,362
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
sinaller 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
irms. The Coreans have been so often represented, or rather mis-
288 COREA.
represented, as inhospitable, fierce, and rude by foreigners, that
to give an inside view of them as seen through information gath-
ered 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 way-
side, 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.
The great virtue of the Coreans is their innate respect for and
daily practice of the laws of human brotherhood. Mutual assist-
ance and generous hospitality among themselves are distinctive
national traits. In all the important events of life, such as mar-
riages 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, cany messages to friends and rela-
tives 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.
When fire, flood, or other accident destroys the house of one
of their number, neighbors make it a duty to lend a hand to re-
build. 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.
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 nour-
ishment 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 preparatons. His stick, his pipe,
some clothes in a packet hung from his shoulder, some cash in
OUT-DOOR LIFE.— CHARACTERS AND EMPLOYMENTS. 289
his purse, if lie has one, and his outfit is complete. At night,
inste id of going to a hotel with its attendant expense, he enters
gome 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.
A3 may be imagined, such a system is prolific in breeding beg-
gars, tramps, blackmailers, and lazy louts, who "sponge" upon
the benevolently disposed. Ricji families are often bored by these
self-iivited parasites, who eat with unblushing cheek at their
table * 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 play-
ers, astrologers, etc., likewise avail themselves of the opportu-
nities, 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.
Corea is full of Micawbers, men who are as prodigal as avar\-
cious 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
crystid, 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 li ght upon some treasure not yet dug up or to invent
some new means of making money. People forever waiting for
somerhing 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.
S1 rolling companies of mountebanks, players and musicians, in
numbers of five, six, or more, abound in Cho-sen. They wander
up and down through the eight circuits, and, in spring and sum-
19
290 COREA.
mer, 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 peo-
ple. 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 fete day, a marriage or a social com-
pany, 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 pang-tang, a kind of "profes-
sional diner-out," is so desirable that several are taken along by
the ambassadors to China to amuse them on their long and tedi-
ous journey, especially at nights. The chang-pu are character-
comedians, who serenade the baccalaureates that have passed suc-
cessfully 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.
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 luxu-
OUT-DOOR LIFE.— CHARACTERS AND EMPLOYMENTS. 291
riant black hair is bound with skill and grace, her skin is whit-
ened by artificial cosmetics as far as possible, and with powder,
paint, and pomatum, she spends much of her life before the look-
ing-glass, studying in youth to increase, and in womanhood to
regain, 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 iiis friends in social gathering, may employ
from two to twenty geishas (as the Japanese call them). Most Co-
rean 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
th(;y 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 pantomine 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.
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 roles. The his-
trionic artist pitches his tabernacle of four posts in some popular
str( et 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 gin-
gery water to refresh his palate, complete his outfit.
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
292 COREA.
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 pit-
eous 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 begin-
ners, 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 habitu6s 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 ".con-
tinued 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.
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, how-
ever, 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
OUT-DOOR LIFE.— CHARACTERS AND EMPLOYMENTS. 293
Tokio, 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 an-
tiquity would secure his renown. The various stringed musical
instruments known are the kemunko, a kind of large guitar ; the
kavyakko, mandolin ; the ko-siul, 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. Ambas-
sadors and other high officers at home, and when on duty to
foreign countries, are accompanied by a band of musicians. La-
borers 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
moat 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.
The chief out-door manly sport in Corea is, by excellence, that
of .irchery. 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 tfkill 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 daimios
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
Seoil, usually in the first month, there are some lively tussles
294 COREA.
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.
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 simliar 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 develop-
ing, 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 theii
noble game.
OUT-DOOR LIFE.— CHARACTERS AND EMPLOYMENTS. 295
Gambling and betting are fearfully common habits in Corea,
and kite-flying gives abundant occasion for money to change
hards. The two months of the winter, during which the north
wir d 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,
whon 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.
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 dig-
nity. 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 pres-
ence 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.
In pagan lands, where a Sabbath, or anything like it, is utterly
uknown alike to the weary laborer, the wealthy, and the men of
leisure, some compensation is afforded by the national and relig-
iouH holidays. These in Corea consist chiefly of the festal occa-
sions observed in China, the feasts appropriate to the seasons,
planting, and harvest, the Buddhist saints' anniversaries, the
king's birthday, and the new year.
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 gath-
ering 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
occTirring after the entire revolution of the cycle is a very solemn
event to a sexagenarian, and the festival commemorative of it is
296 COREA.
called Wan-kap. 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 rejoic-
ings, 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 econo-
mize, 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 birth-
day 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.
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 su-
preme. All debts must be paid and accounts squared up, absen-
tees must return, and children away from home must rejoin the
OUT-DOOR LIFE. -CHARACTERS AND EMPLOYMENTS. 297
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 pris-
oners. All work, except that of festal preparation, ought to cease
d iring 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.
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 pros-
trations. 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.
The tenth day of the second month is the great house-cleaning
d;iy of the year, when mats are taken up and shaken, the pots,
kottles, and jars scoured, and the clothing renovated.
Tomb-cleaning day occurs in the third month. On this occa-
sion 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.
The third day of the third month comes in spring, and is the
great May-clay 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.
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.
298 COREA.
The fifth day of the fifth month is a great festival day, on
which the king presents fans to his courtiers.
On the fifteenth day of the seventh month occurs the cere-
mony of distributing seed. The king gives to his officials one
hundred kinds of seed for the crops of the next year.
On the fifteenth day of the eighth month sacrifices are offered
at the graves of ancestors and broken tombs are repaired.
The chrysanthemum festival is one of much popular interest.
Among the most brilliant flowers of the peninsula are the chry-
santhemums, which are cultivated with great pride and care by
gentlemen and nobles. The flower is brought to unusual perfec-
tion 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.
The article chiefly used for pastry among oblique-eyed human-
ity is what the Japanese call mochi, 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 cere-
monial 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.
The fourteenth day of the first month a person who is en-
tering 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. What-
ever 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.
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 Cho-sen. In the beginning of each
OUT-DOOR LIFE.— CHARACTERS AND EMPLOYMENTS. 299
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 " Lon-
gevity 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 ven-
tures, etc., must be taken during these years, which are ended
with a feast, or, what is more economical, a sigh of relief.
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
mtianwhile 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.
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. Espe-
cially 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 tradi-
tions.
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 Cho-sen- A Japanese correspondent
of the Tokio Hochi Shimlun, writing from Seoul, states that a cen-
sus made last year (1881) shows that there are 3,480,911 bousea
and 16,227,885 persons in the kingdom.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
SHAMANISM AND MYTHICAL ZOOLOGY.
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, de-
struction, 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 por-
tents and appearances. Chief among these mythic creatures are
the phoenix, the kirin, the dragon, besides a variety of demons of
various sizes, colors, habits, and character. Much of the my-
thology of Cho-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, phoanix, tortoise, and kirin.
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 attril>
SHAMANISM AND MYTHICAL ZOOLOGY. 3Q1
utes to him the powers of flying, of emitting fire and hurling
lightning. He is the symbol of strength and ubiquity, the stand-
ard of comparison with all dangers and dreadful forces, and
the paragon of human courage. On the war-flags this animal is
printed or embroidered in every posture, asleep, leaping, erect,
cc uchant, 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 super-
natural beings. In ancient time he was worshipped.
The riong, or dragon, whose figure, as depicted in Corean art,
is perhaps nothing more than a highly idealized form of an ex-
tiict geological species of saurian, is one of the four supernatural
01 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
oi 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.
It is this terrific manifestation of movement and power which
the Corean artist loves to depict — always in connection with
w.iter, 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,
tie blue dragon being the guardian of the East.
Another cycle of popular notions and artistic ideas is sug-
gested by its change of bulk, for this omnipotent monster "be-
cc mes 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
P -otean shapes are but the varied ideal expression of the many
forms and forces of water. Moisture in its fertilizing or destruc-
ti ,re aspects — from the silent dew to the roaring tempest, from the
tr ickling of a rill to the tidal wave that engulphs cities — blessed,
terrible, gentle, irresistible, is symbolized by the dragon. The
fi notions of the celestial dragon are to guard the mansions of the
g' >4s in heaven, so that they do not fall ; of the spiritual, to cause
302 COREA.
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 mor-
tals. 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 Cho-
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 heal-
ing and power. Whoever possesses these jewels will be invincible,
and the power of his descendants endure.
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
Cho-sen, and by his rival the mikado of Japan. Hence the sig-
nificance 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 appointemnt to " come up higher."
SHAMANISM AND MYTHICAL ZOOLOGY. 303
The kirin (kilin or lin) is another of the four supernatural
(Teatures of Chinese philosophy and mythology, believed in by
ihe Coreans, and depicted in Corean art especially as a sym-
bol 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
< lements of all things, viz. : water, fire, wood, metal, earth. It
is considered the noblest form of the animal creation. Its appear-
ance on the earth is ever regarded as a happy omen, as the har-
binger of good government and the birth of good rulers. Hence
the wealth of association to the Oriental mind in the kirin. The
i aale beast is called ki and the female rin or lin. The two words
combined form the general term kirin.
The tortoise is the centre of a great circle of pleasing supersti-
tions, 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 sig-
nification. In Chinese legend a divine tortoise emerged from the
Yellow Kiver, 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 embodi-
ment 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
s dd 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
\\ aters, 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
Cho-sen, has the form of a tortoise. The phoenix is also repre-
sented as standing upon a tortoise. Closely connected with the
Hindoo idea of the world resting on an elephant which stands on
304 COREA.
a tortoise, is the Chinese idea of " supporting the earth with the
feet of a tortoise." A common idea in Cho-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.
The phoenix (fung-wang or howo), 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
fung, or ho, and the female ivang, or wo, hence the generic name
fung-wang or howo. 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 won-
drously 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.
Another symbol often used is the Chinese lion, with marvel-
lously curled hair and mane. Every tuft is a mass of fanciful ring-
lets, and the beast is so pictured as to make a masterpiece of
ugliness and terror. The dog of the breed called ngao, 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 Bud-
dha, usually associated with Chinese-Buddhist art, is believed to
be of Corean origin. Jacquemart calls it the " Dog of Corea."
Other mythical creatures that have their existence in the Co-
rean imagination are in the form of fishes and serpents. The in-e
(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 cap-
tured. 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.
SHAMANISM AND MYTHICAL ZOOLOGY.
305
One of them inquired whether such a creature was known in
Europe, and the Jesuit friar, producing a book, showed an engrav-
ing 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.
The i-sium, a colossal marine creature, is purely imaginary,
like the " earthquake-fish " of the Japanese, which causes the con-
tinent 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 Cho-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 house-
holds. The epkuron-gi (a pure Cor-
ean 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 llessing. They are treated like
pets. In their heads they are be-
lieved 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 glisten-
ing gem, called ya-kang-chiu, which
nam<; 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 p irsuing 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.
Their fear of the serpent is the basis of their worship, and tho
30
Battle-flag Captured by the Americans
in 1871.
306 COREA.
average Corean does not fail to take due precaution to guard
against its sting. In addition to the ordinary osa or black snake,
there is the venomous viper, salmo, which " kills its mother at
birth." Its bite is considered exceedingly dangerous. The tai-
mang is a great serpent. The flower called kiuk-sa-wa (snake-
bane), or Eye of India, is believed by Coreans to keep away the
reptiles, and hence is highly valued.
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.
Another creature to whom wings rightfully belong is the gin-sai.
This fabulous bird is capable of diffusing so venomous an influ-
ence that even its shadow poisons food.
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.
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.
It will be seen at once what a soil the demagogue has for sow-
ing 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
CHAPTEE XXXIV.
LEGENDS AND FOLK-LORE.
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 lan-
guage that grew in the same mental sunlight with our own. In
eating fruit that grows on familiar intellectual soil, we may some-
times 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.
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.
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 lan-
guage, 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.
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 Language gives as yet little clue to a
common origin ; art and symbol seem at the other pole, and in
308 COREA.
psychology the difference at present seems total and irrecon-
cilable.
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 they believe to have hap-
pened, 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.
According to Corean tradition, the origin of their country and
people is thus outlined :
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 Cho-sen (Morn-
ing Calm). This took place in the time of Tang Ti Yao (2356
B.C.). 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 B.C.), when
they were established in Mount Asstak. His descendants reigned
in Cho-sen more than one thousand years, but nothing more is
known of them after the period covered by their reign. Then fol-
lowed the occupation of the country by the Chinese noble Ki Tsze.
The mythical origin and founding of Shinra is thus told in the
local legends of the place. After the invasion of Cho-sen, by the
Chinese emperor, many of the original inhabitants fled and scat-
tered over the east coast. They made settlements on the moun-
tains, 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
LEGENDS AND FOLK-LOBE. 309
sounds, but instead of a horse he found an egg of extraordinary
size, shaped like a gourd. Carefully breaking it open, he discov-
ered 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.
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 knowl-
edge 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.
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
310 COREA.
the line, the people of the country, then called Shin-han, changed
the name of their country to Shinra.
In the " Grammaire Coreene " there are a number of speci-
mens of folk-lore given in Corean and French, from which we
extract a few of the most characteristic. The first one is an illus-
tration of our universal human nature.
THE THREE WISHES.
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 bra-
zier, and sitting in their room face to face they warmed themselves a moment
in silence, when the good old man thus spoke :
" 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."
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.
" You are right, do so," replied the husband.
And both prostrating themselves, prayed fervently to the Deity, when sud-
denly an angel appeared.
"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.
The old man made this proposition: "If we ask riches, freedom from
sickness, or long life—"
"No," said the old woman, " we should not enjoy these things properly if
we do not have a child. What pleasure will it be ? "
"Hold ! I have not asked. What shall I do ? If he had only said four
things at the good moment ! Why did he say only three ? 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."
Breaking off their conversation, both sat plunged in reverie. At the mo-
ment 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."
She spoke, and there was three feet of food placed by her side.
The husband, beside himself with rage, screamed out —
" 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."
Immediately the pudding made a leap and attached itself to the old dame's
nose.
LEGENDS AND FOLK-LORE. 311
At this the husband cried out, "Hello! Angry as I am, I have also by
mj 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.
"Alas! " said the woman in tears, "if this is always to remain hanging
here, how can I live .? "
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
thi 5 sausage, and then drawing it out at length, it will be only more beautiful
to .see."
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 .ive long, as for me, I should like to kill myself."
Saying; this she took a cord and went to strangle herself at the end of a
be* m. The husband, struck with fear, and touched with compassion, hastened
to set her free.
"Stop, "said he, "there remains one wish to us. Have your own way
about it."
"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."
She had hardly finished speaking when the sausage fell plump to the
gro and, and out of the midst of the heaven an angry voice was heard :
"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. "
The two old folks spitted the pudding, ate it, and from this night they
abstained from foolish wishes.
On the morrow, agreeably to their supreme ambition, which was to have a
bal>y, 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.
The following illustrates official shrewdness and rapacity :
THE HISTORY OF A NOSE.
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 with-
out discovering any means to get out of the affair, he bethought himself of a
str: tagem. So, addressing the jailer, he said :
" Helloa ! you there, you'll do well to let me go free a little while."
" Helloa ! " answered the jailer, " what wretched talk ! After I have set free
a n an who ought to be put to death to-morrow or day after to-morrow, what
shall /do?"
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
chi dren, my house, all I have, all my relations and friends being here, where
312 COfcEA.
shall I fly ? If you set me at liberty for some moments not only will I not ab-
scond but there will be found means for preserving my life safely. Do so. "
As he thus besought him eagerly, the jailer, struck with compassion,
could not do otherwise than let him go.
So at midnight he presented himself before the door of the room where
the governor slept, and thus addressed him.
" Are you asleep ? Is your excellency sleeping ? "
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 gov-
ernor asked.
"Who are you?"
"Your servant," answered the officer.
" A scoundrel who is at the point of being executed, how is it you are here ? "
"If I may be allowed to enter to salute you," said the officer, "I have
something particular to say to you. "
"Oh, well, come in and speak."
The officer entering, approached, sat down, and said :
"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 govern-
ment. Let me then live."
" If it ought to be so I wish you well in the matter."
" Your servant will come again, then, to-morrow, during the night, to see
you."
"Do as you will."
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 represent-
ing a human nose. He immediately besought the governor to please put his
seal upon the sketch.
Agreeing to the proposal the governor imposed his seal.
The officer now associated three companions who were in the plot, and they
all assembled upon the coast of the Eastern Sea, where theyfound 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 pre-
pared to sup. Addressing their host they put this question :
"What is the name of the village which is just behind us? Whose is the
largest house?"
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."
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,
"As we have a secret affair to treat of, let us go into another room," said
the officer.
LEGENDS AND FOLK-LOBE. 313
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 de-
clared 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 com-
m mded by the Court, where they have said to us, putting in our hand this
sketch of the nose. '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
th s. We demand to see him, and wherever he may be we shall not depart till
we have cut it off."
The son cried out: " Perhaps they do say such things ! "
"Who dare oppose the government business? Hurry, hurry, strike it off
an I we'll go."
The son fell into a study and reflected.
" 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 im-
po.ssible. 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
wi:l go away without taking my father's nose."
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
f at ler, 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
no&e which we shall present to the king."
He accepted with thanks a sum equal to many times ten thousand strings
of i <ash, for which he gave a receipt, told the sender of the money such a day,
such a place, and on leaving offered this recommendation :
"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
brioed not to cut it off, we shall be arrested and put to death, they will cer-
tainly cut off your father's nose and take your money also. Pray then be care-
ful not to divulge this secret. " Upon this they took their leave.
Overjoyed at not having his parent's nose amputated, but believing that the
kin? on being informed would send again on this business, the son dared let
no me 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."
The story here told explains itself. Cheng-chong was the Har-
ouu al Easchid of Corea.
AN INSTANCE OF KOYAL SOLICITUDE.
There was in Cho-sen a king called His Majesty Cheng-chong, who was eel'
ebn ted in all the kingdom for his goodness. One night, disguised as a coun-
tryman, and accompanied only by a single companion, he started out from the
mid st of the capital to make a circuit in order to inform himself of the temper
of h is subjects, and to become himself acquainted with the details of their life.
314 COREA,
Arrived at a certain point he looked in the window. There was a miser*
able 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 :
" Is the proprietor of the house at home ? "
Hearing this voice the man in mourning made his appearance. His Majesty
saluting him said :
" We have never before met."
" 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 ? "
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."
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."
" No, not at all. I acknowledge that it is not becoming to pry into the af-
fairs of others, but this is such an extraordinary case I beg of you give me
some light on the matter."
"Alas!" said the man in mourning, "why is the gentleman so eager to
know other people's matters ? "
Cheng-chong replied, " It is important that I should be somewhat informed. "
" 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 :
" ' 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 con-
sole him, my wife said to him, ' Do not weep,' and she danced. I, also, al-
though in mourning, joined in with my wife. One danced, the other sang.
This made my old father smile, and perhaps gave him solace. There I that is
why we behaved so. Do not think it strange, and go away."
Listening to this narrative the king was impressed with such a marked su-
preme 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 ? "
LEGENDS AND FOLK-LORE. 315
"What examination to-morrow ? " asked the man.
"Why, certainly," said Cheiig-chong, "to-morrow there will be an examin-
at on. By all means don't fail to be there."
The man responded, " But I have not heard it said that there is to be an
ex animation. "
"Whether you have heard or not," said the king, "prepare to compete,
aad present yourself. As I shall also present myself to-morrow I shall give
you a stall in the enclosure."
Having thus spoken he took his leave, returned to the palace and awaited
tha stroke of the great clock-bell.
No sooner did he hear the vibration of the mighty gong than he immedi-
ately 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 ? "
The poor householder on his part made this reflection, "Although I knew
no:hing about it, this man knows perfectly," and he started out.
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
mtn in mourning, the dance of a nun, the tears of an old man."
Of all the students not one could derive the sense of such a subject.
This man alone knew it perfectly well, because he had had experience of
these 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 mis-
tat e, gave the degree of doctor and sent for him to come to him.
When they were in each other's presence the king said :
" Do you know me? It is I who yesterday recommended you to present
yourself at the examination. Lift up your head and look."
Fixing his gaze attentively, the man recognized who he was — in effect the
same person — and manifested his feelings in appropriate actions of gratitude.
" Go quickly," said the king to him, " go find your old father and wife."
Forthwith, with high appointment to office joined to magnificent treat-
ment, the king recompensed the filial piety of the son and daughter-in-law.
The royal renown has been handed down from generation to generation.
In "ruth, beyond the goodness of the king, the reward bestowed upon the filial
devotion of these two married people is known to every one.
Evidently the following is a story told by metropolitans to show
up the bumpkins of the provinces :
THE PRODIGIOUS EFFECTS OF A LOOKING-GLASS.
V young noble of Kiung-sang province was going on a journey to Seoul.
Jus ; as he was about to depart, his wife called him.
' 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
brii g me one."
316 CORE A.
" Is it dear or cheap? " asked the husband.
" 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.
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:
' ' 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? "
The amazed husband looked in the mirror, and at the side of his wife per-
ceived a man. Unable to contain his wrath which made his face first dark
and then blue, he uttered piercing cries.
" Is this the conduct for the wife of a noble. You have brought a libertine
here," cried he.
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.
11 Do not be vexed," said she, and looking in the mirror she saw a woman.
At once she broke out into a laugh.
"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.
Astonished, she called her husband and said to him
" 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."
The venerable gentleman having entered the room perceived in the mirror
an aged man.
" Hello ! the puppy of the teacher Tsoi has come to collect his fees and I
have not a penny. That is not very nice."
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 :
"A new officer has arrived, why have I lost my place? Get ready men
and horses for him. "
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.
CHAPTEE XXXY.
PROVERBS AND PITHY SAYINGS.
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
wiedom, 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.
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
no^e of the father" — that feature of the French priest's face
being looked upon with awe as the seat of wisdom.
Between the rivals, Japan and China, Corea probably sees ter-
se!:' 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."
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."
" One stick to ten blind men," is something very precious.
"The cock of the village in a splendid city mansion," is the
bumpkin in the capital.
"To have a cake in each hand," is to know not which to eat
first — to be in a quandary.
" A volcano under the snow," is a man of amiable manners
wh-> conceals a \iolent temper.
318 CORE A.
"The treasure which always circulates without an obstacle," is
" cash," or sapeks.
"An apricot-blossom in the snow," is said when something
rare and marvellous happens.
"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.
"As difficult as the roads of Thibet," is evidently a reminis-
cence derived from the ancient Buddhist missionaries who came
from that region.
" To put on a silk dress to travel at night," is to do a good
action and not have it known.
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
lu from yu." This last refers to two Corean letters, jot and
tittle.
"As opposed as fire and water."
" A buckskin man," is a man of no will or backbone.
" To have a big hand," means to be liberal.
"A great blue sea," refers to something very difficult, with no
end to it and no way out of it.
A man who is " not known in all the eight coasts," is an utter
stranger.
A very sick person is " a man who holds disease in his arms."
"A bag of diseases," is a chronic patient.
" Who can tell in seeing a crow flying whether it be male or
female?" is a question referring to the impossible.
The numeral 10,000 (man) 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. Man-nin are 10,000 peo-
ple— all the people in the universe.
" To lose one's hands," is to make a fiasco.
A comet is an "arrow star."
" A hundred battles make a veteran."
Almost as poetical as the Greek " anarithma gelasma" (unnum-
bered laughings) is this Corean description of the sea — "Ten
thousand flashings of blue waves."
PROVERBS AND PITHY SAYINGS. 319
" To lose both at a time," is a proverb founded on a native
love-story.
"When a raven flies from a pear-tree, a pear falls" — appear-
ances are deceitful, don't hazard a guess.
" 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."
Mosquitoes are lively and jubilantly hungry in Cho-sen, yet it
does not do to fight them with heavy weapons or " seize a sabre
to kill a mosquito."
A very poor man is thus described : "He eats only nine times
in i, 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 Jias extinguished his fire ;" for "he looks to the four winds
and finds no friend."
"The right and left are different," is said of a hypocrite who
does not speak as he thinks.
When a man is not very bright he "has mist before his
eyes ;" or he "carries his wits under his arms ;" or has "hid-
den his soul under his arm-pits," or he " goes to the east and
goes to the west when he is bothered."
Like Beaconsfield's dictum — " Critics are men who have failed
in literature and art," is this Corean echo, "Good critic, bad
worker."
"On entering a village to know its usages," is our "When in
Rome do as the Romans do."
" To destroy jade and gravel together," refers to indiscrimi-
nato destruction.
"Without wind and without cloud," describes a serene life.
"Go to sea," is a provincial malediction heavier than a tinker's,
and worse than " Go to grass."
•'I am I, and another is another," is a formula of selfish, and
Corean for "e#o et non ego" "I and not I."
' A poor horse has always a thick tail "—talent and capacity
are badly located.
The large number of morals pointed and tales adorned by the
tiger are referred to elsewhere.
CHAPTEE XXXVI.
THE CO RE AN TIGER.
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 jun-
gles and along the river
bottoms, the Corean "king
of the mountains " is seen
oftenest in the snow and
forests of the north, rang-
ing as far as the fiftieth
parallel.
Both actually and ideal-
•
of power and fierceness.
The flag of the tiger-hunt-
ers, 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. 1
Jl X
Battle-flag Captured in the Han Forts, 1871.
1 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.
THE COREAN TIGER. 321
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
dre aded pern 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 edel-
weiss of other mountain lands. On the floors of the better class
of bouses 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
era lies, which are unknown. The soft hair of these natural rugs is
often a finger long. Curious toys are made of the fur.
The most prized articles among the tribute offerings (in these
days, rather a "bonus" or bribe, than a tax or humiliation) pre-
sented at the court of Peking, as of old at Kioto 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
blank bars are, however, of equal magnificence with the tropical
product, and the tail seems to be rather longer. Some idea of the
gre.it numbers and awful ravages of these huge J elides 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 Chi-
neso army on their soil, whether as invaders or allies : " After the
Chiiese, the tigers.'" As a single man can create the gigantic
spectre of the Brocken, so in the national literature this one ani-
mal 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
livii.g 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
21
322 COREA.
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.
"A broken-backed tiger" describes impotent and raging malice.
" To give wings to a tiger," is to add shrewdness to force.
"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."
"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 maing-ho, which means an unusually .fero-
cious tiger or " man-eater."
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 kal-pem, 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 tu-e', tu-e, is believed to
act as a charm, and is often raised by villagers at night.
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.
The hunters who are familiar with every habit, trait of charac-
ter, and physical detail of the species, carefully distinguish his
parts and varieties. Ho-rang-i is the generic name for the fell*
iigris. Kal-pem is a mature fellow in full claw, scratchy and
THE COBBAN TIGER. 323
ferocious. Maing-ho is a large one of unusual size and in the full
rampancy of his vigor. Mil-pal 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. Pi-ho is one agile in turning tail to escape, rather than in
showing teeth to fight — the term being sometimes applied to the
leopard. San-tol is a huge fellow that makes annual visits to one
place, making his lightning strike more than once in the same
spot. Siyo-ho is a little, and hal-pem 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
Cho-sen vocabulary.
Tiger-shooting is not a favorite sport among the nobles or
young bloods. Hunting in general is considered a servile occu-
pation. Nobles, except those of a few poor families in the north-
ern provinces, never practise it as sport. Yet it is free to all.
There are no game laws, no proscription of arms, no game pre-
serves, no seasons interdicted.
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 ani-
mal, when not immedately killed, leaps right upon his enemy and
easily makes him his prey. When a tiger has caused great rav-
ages in a district, the local magistrate calls together all the
professional hunters and organizes a hunt in the mountains. In
sucl cases, the chase is usually, and of intent, without results ; for
the ttkin 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
bont s stripped and boiled make various medicines.
The number of human lives lost, and the value of property
324 COREA.
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. Earely, how-
ever, 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.
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 moun-
tains. 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 es-
cape, 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 sel-mai, or racquettes, are of slightly
curved elastic board, well fitted with loops and thongs. With
dogs, trained to the work, the san-chang (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 mo&t Japa-
nese children, the nearest country west of them has no other asso-
ciation in their minds than as a land of tigers. At Gensan, the
THE COREAN TIGER. 325
merchants from Tokio 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 Eed Riding
Hood to a whiskered man-eater was not a very pleasant expe-
rience, though a possible one at any time. A tiger ten feet long
car, 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
Co3-ean emblem of power is not attractive sport. The tiger is
more apt to hunt the man, for elephants are not at hand to fur-
nish, 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.
Few experiences tend more to develop all the manly virtues
than facing a tiger on foot in his native wilds. The Coreans know
thitf, 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 Eoze's
expedition of 1866. Underrating their enemy, the Frenchmen, in
attempting to storm a fortified monastery garrisoned by the hunt-
ers 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.
CHAPTER XXXYII.
RELIGION.
A CAREFUL study of the common names applied to the moun-
tains, 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.
Even a casual examination of the mountain, river, and other
local names of places in Corea will give one a tolerably clear out-
line 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 cast-
aways, 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 na-
ture, 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 spir-
its of heaven and earth, of mountains and rivers and caves, of the
RELIGION. 327
moining star, is still reflected in the names of these natural ob-
jects and still continues, in due form, as of old, along with the
sacrifices of sheep and oxen.
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 sanc-
tification, 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-
war g-tang, dedicated to the god of the mountain. The pilgrims
cany a pebble from the foot of the mountain to the top. These
pilgrims are among those held in reputation for piety.
The other popular gods are very numerous. The mok-sin, the
genii of the trees, the god of rain and of the harvest, are all pro-
pitiated, but the robust Corean, blessed with a good appetite,
especially honors Cho-an-nim, the tutelary genius of the kitchen.
To a Corean, the air is far from being empty. It is thickly
inhabited with spirits and invisbile creatures. Some of these fig-
ments 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 Zoology. 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
falk 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
soiverers are social outcasts, and reckoned the lowest of humanity.
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
praters, accompanied with tumultuous celebration by the popu-
lace . The chief sacrifices are to heaven, earth, and to the King
or Emperor of Heaven l (Shang Ti of the Chinese).
1 This word, pronounced in a slightly different way in Corean, is the term
whi :h Dr. James Legge, in his " Religions of China," and many missionaries
of Reformed Christianity, translate God (Jehovah, Theos), but which the Ro-
mai Catholic missionaries are forbidden to use. Dr. Legge holds that Shang
328 COREA.
The various superstitions concerning the direction of evil, the
auspicious or the ill-omened lay of the land, the site for the build-
ing 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 vocab-
ulary relating to these pretenders and all their works is very pro-
fuse. 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 cyclopaedia of ideas relating to nature, and bears nearly the
same relation to natural philosophy as astrology does to astron-
omy. Its ideas color every-day speech, besides having a rich ter-
minology for the advanced student of its mysteries.
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.
The Corean cult of ancestor-worship seems to present no fea-
tures which are radically distinct from the Chinese. Public cele-
brations 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.
Confucianism, or the Chinese system of ethics, is, briefly stated,
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).
RELIGION. 329
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.
TLe cardinal virtues inculcated, or "The Five Constituents of
WDrth," or constant virtues displayed, according to the teachings
of Confucius, by the perfect man are : 1, Benevolence ; 2, Upright-
ness of Mind ; 3, Propriety of Demeanor ; 4, Knowledge or En-
lightenment ; 5, Good Faith ; or, Affection, Justice, Deference,
Wisdom, Confidence.
With the ethics of the Chinese came their philosophy, which is
based on the dual system of the universe, and of which in Corean,
yum-yang (positive and negative, active and passive, or male and
female) is the expression. All things in heaven, earth, and man
art the result of the interaction of the yum (male or active prin-
ciple) and the yang (female or passive principle). Even the
metals and minerals in the earth are believed to be produced
through the yum-yang, and to grow like plants or animals.
The Confucian ethics, suiting well a state of feudalism, and
being ever acceptable to the possessors of authority, found con-
genial soil in the peninsla, 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
livo 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 ad-
he} -ence 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).
Official sacrifices are regulated by the government and are
offi-red up publicly at the national festivals. Something of the
regulated subordination in vogue among the Chinese prevails in
Ch >-sen when ancestors are honored. High officials may sacrifice
to rhree ancestors, the gentry only to father and grandfather, and
the common people to father only. In every province, capital, and
city ranked as Tai-mu-kan, there are buildings containing statues
330 COREA.
of Confucius and his thirty-two disciples, which are maintained
at the public expense.
Confucianism overspreads the whole peninsula, but during the
prevalence of Buddhism, from the fourth to the fourteenth cen-
tury, 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 Cho-sen, long ago reaching the point of bigotry, intolerance,
and persecution. Taoism seems to be little studied.
In Corean mouths Buddha becomes Pul, and his " way " or
doctrine Pul-to or Pul-chie. 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, A.D.). The missionary-
work had been accomplished, the reigning dynasty were pro-
fessors 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 tem-
ples 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.
Until the fifteenth or sixteenth century the Japanese Buddhists
looked to the "Treasure-land of the West," as they termed Cho-
sen, for spiritual and even pecuniary aid in their ecclesiastical
enterprises. The special features of many renowned Japanese tem-
ples, libraries, collections of books, images, altar furniture, etc.,
are of Corean origin. This is especially noticeable in the old seats
of the faith in Kioto. 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 Sanetomo fron,
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.
RELIGION. 331
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 moun-
tains, 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 impos-
ing gateway is usually built at some distance before the temple,
with massive curved roof of tiles, and flanked by a wall of ma-
somy 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 occa-
sionally 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.
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 artis-
tic treatment of this, the central figure of their pantheon, the
image-carvers of the different countries do not greatly vary, ad-
hering 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 lot us flower — the symbol orf eternity — with the petals around the
base and seed-holes open, is the same.
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
hav( been renamed and accepted by the Buddhists " as avatars or
inca -.'nations of Buddha to these countries before the advent of
the teachers of " the time religion." There are also saints and
332 COREA.
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 Cho-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 revolv-
ing thunder-clouds. On the battle-flags captured by the Amer-
ican 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.
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 Budd-
ha 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 prev-
alence 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.
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 Cho-
sen and Nihon — the history of Buddhism has a decidedly mili-
RELIGION. 333
tary cast. During the first centuries of its sway in the peninsula
the ablest intellects were fed and the ablest men were developed
by i:, so that it was the most potent factor in Corea's civilization.
Over and over again have the politcial and social revolutions been
led by Buddhist priests, who have proved agitators and warriors
as well as recluses and students. Possessing themselves of learn-
ing, 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-
pate d priest has ever been a standard character in the glimpses
of Corean history which we are allowed to catch.
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
nobies won from the pleasures of the palace to the seclusion of
the cloisters, and even of Corean quesns renouncing the bed of
thei? 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 monas-
teries but even to change the fortune of war by the valor of their
exploits and the power of their commisariat. 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 tai-sa being the abbot. The
jun<j are mendicant and travelling bonzes, who solicit alms and
coni ributions for the erection and maintenance of the temples and
monastic establishments. The military bonzes (siung kun) act as
garrisons, and make, keep in order, and are trained to use, weapons.
Mar y 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 abdica-
tion. In time of war they serve to shelter refugees. It was
in attacking one of these strongholds, on. Kang-wa Island, in
186* ), that the French marines were repulsed with such fearful
loss
Many temples throughout the country have been erected by
the old kings of Korai or by noblemen as memorials of events,
or a s proofs of their devotion. The building of one of these at
greid expense and the endowment of others from government
334 COREA.
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 eccle-
siastical 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 Eu-
ropean 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 com-
pany of monks does not number over ten, twenty, or thirty, re-
spectively, in the three grades of temples. Hamel tells us that
they live well and are jolly fellows, though his opinion was some-
what 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" per-
fumery, seemed very much in vogue. He bears witness to their
enjoyment in natural scenery, and the delightful situation of the
famous temples.
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 so-
RELIGION. 335
ciety 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 pul-tatta, 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.
In the nunneries are two kinds of female devotees, those who
shave the head and those who keep their locks. The po-sal 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.
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
Che-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 ma-
terialistic spirit, the frequency of Chinese conquests, and perhaps
the presence of an indigenous religion even more strongly marked
than that of Shinto in Japan, were probably the potent reasons
why Buddhism never secured so strong a hold on the Corean in-
tellect 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 3-fceformed 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 Kioto, in 1878, to study the
336 COREA.
reformed Buddhism, and who later returned to preach among his
own people. In 1880 five more young Coreans entered the Shin
theological school in Kioto, 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.
So thoroughly saturated is the Corean mind with Chinese philosophy
(p. 829) 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 re-
puted 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 con-
tinuous straight line, symbol of the yum principle, corresponds to light,
heaven, masculinity, etc. The broken line symbolizes the yang 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.
Professor Terrien de Lacouperie sees in the Pak-wa a link between Baby-
lonia and China, a very ancient system of phonetics or syllabary explaining
the pronunciation of the old Babylonian characters and their Chinese deriva-
tives. 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 un-
conscious irony of the Virginia advertisers, the new Corean flag was first pub-
lished 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.
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
EDUCATION AND CULTURE.
COEEA received her culture from China,* and gave it freely to
Jap in. If we may believe the doubtful story of Ki Tsze, then the
Coreans have possessed letters and writing, or, what is the equiva-
lenl 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 B.C. The legend of Jingu
brii ging back books and manuscrpts from Shinra is more prob-
abk ; while the coming of Wani from Hiaksai, to teach the Chi-
nese 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 A.D. 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 appoint-
mei t of Hanken as master of Chinese literature. This is said to
havo 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 Eiver.
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 eth-
ical doctrines seem in every case to have penetrated the nations
suri ounding the Middle Kingdom, and formed the basis of courtly
and aristocratic education.
Buddhism furnished the popular or democratic element, which
brought learning to the lower strata of society. Neophytes were
338 COREA.
usually taken from the humbler classes, and thus culture was
diffused. Even the idols, pictures, and scrolls, with the explana-
tions and preaching in the vernacular, served to instruct the peo-
ple 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.
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 Nido ; 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, 1 some of which accurately represented Corean sounds. The
true alphabet of the Coreans, called Unmun (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 "Grammaire Coreene" 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 Un-
mun, 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 cul-
ture 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
1 Dr. D. Bethune McCartee, a well-known American scholar, writing on
Riu Kin, 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."
EDUCATION AND CULTURE. 339
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, Cho-
sen possesses no literature worthy of the name. Only in rare cases
are native books translated into either Chinese or Japanese.
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 vddely practised as in Japan, and reading and writing con-
stitute education. From the fifth to the seventeenth century the
Core an youth of gentle blood went to Nanking to receive or com-
plete 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.
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 Keform " was established in Cho-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 pro-
motion. 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.
Corean culture resembles that in mediaeval Europe. It is
extn ,-vernacular. It is in Latin — the Latin of Eastern Asia — the
classic tongue of the oldest of living empires. This literary instru-
ment, of the learned is not the speech of the modern Chinamen, but
the ( ondensed, vivid, artificial diction of the books, which the Chi-
nese cannot and never did speak, and which to be fully understood
must be read by the eye of the mind. The accomplished scholar
of S( oul who writes a polished essay in classic style packs his sen-
tences with quotable felicities, choice phrases, references to his-
tory, 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
L
340 COREA.
perfect unity. This is the acme of style. So in the Corean mind,
the wise saws and ancient instances, the gnomic wisdom, quota*
tions 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, litera-
ture, and history are neglected. The Corean child begins his
education by learning by voice, eye, and pen, the simple and beau-
tiful 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. Spell-
ing is nearly an unknown art, as the vowel changes and require-
ments 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 ordi-
nary 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 char-
acters 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 re-
lating 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.
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
EDUCATION AND CULTURE. 341
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. Edu-
cation at first consists entirely of reading, writing, and memoriz-
ing. Etiquette is also rigidly attended to, but arithmetic, mathe-
matics, and science receive but slight attention.
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 lite-
rary 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 cut-door life in Corea. The young men living in the same dis-
trict or town go together. They go afoot, taking their servants
with them. Pluming themselves upon the fact that they are sum-
moned to the capital at the royal behest, they often make a roy-
stering, noisy, and insolent gang, and conduct themselves very
muc h as they please. The rustics and villagers gladly speed their
parting. At the capital they scatter, putting up wherever accom-
modations in inns or at the houses of relatives permit.
Though young bachelors form the majority at these examina-
tions, 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.
On the appointed day, the several thousand or more competi-
tors 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
342 COREA.
sleeping, according to the inclination or habit of each. The ex-
amination consists of essays, and oral and written answers to ques-
tions. 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.
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, re-
ceiving 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."
One of the parents or friends of the new graduate, an " alum-
nus," 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 gradu-
ate 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 or-
der 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.
The three degrees, corresponding somewhat to our B.A., M.A.,
and Ph.D., are cho-si, chin-sa, kiup-chiei.- 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
EDUCATION AND CULTURE. 343
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 high-
est 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 pro-
vince, or of a great city. Properly, the place of a lt doctor " is in
Seoul. The usual term of office is two years.
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 cf gentle blood, and has political influence, he may rise to lucra-
tive office and honors, but if from the common people, he usually
gets no more than his title, or remains a private or petty officer.
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.
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 privi-
leges 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.
There are eight distinct departments of special knowledge. The
Corps of Interpreters include students and masters of the Chinese,
Msnchiu, Mongol, and Japanese languages. These attend the em-
bassy 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 lan-
gu iges, as in Tokio and Peking.
The School of Astronomy, geoscopy, and the choice of fortunate
da/s 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,
344 COREA.
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 instruc-
tion of judges, and as a court of appeals. The School of Mathe-
matics or Accounts assists the Treasury Department, audits ac-
counts, 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.
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 edu-
cation worthy of a name. The present condition of Cho-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.
Paganism and superstition, Confucianism and Buddhism, hav-
ing taken root in Cho-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.
III.
MODERN AND RECENT
HISTORY.
MODEEI^ A:NX> EECENT HISTOEY.
CHAPTER XXXIX.
THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY— 1784-1794
k
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,
bul grew up from chance seed wafted from the little garden of the
chi rch in Peking.
The soil upon which the exotic germ first lighted was in the
mind of a student well-named by his father, "Stonewall," on ac-
count of his character in choosing a literary career, instead of the
heieditary profession which his family wished him to adopt. Dur-
ing the winter of 1777, Stonewall was invited to form one of a
pai ty of students who were to spend a season of literary dalliance
in company with the famous Confucian professor, Kwem.
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,
ma bhematics, and religion just brought from Peking. These were
tra Qslations of the writings, or original compositions in Chinese of
th( Jesuits in the imperial capital. Among these publications were
soi ae tracts on the Christian and Roman Catholic Religion, treating
of the Existence of God, Divine Providence, the Immortality of the
So il, the Conduct of Life, the Seven Capital Sins, and the Seven
348 COREA.
Contrary Virtues. Surprised and delighted, they resolved to attain,
if possible, to a full understanding of the new doctrines.
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.
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.
Senghuni himself became a docile pupil, and was, with the con-
sent of his father, baptized. With the hope that he would become
the first stone of the church in Cho-sen, he was named Peter.1
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.
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.
It is interesting to note the choice of baptismal names. As
Stonewall had been the forerunner, he was named John the Bap-
tist. 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,
1 The equipment of this first native missionary propagandist of Roman Chris-
tianity in Corea, deserves notice, as it brings out in sharp contrast the differ-
ing methods of Roman and Reformed Christianity. The convert brought
back numerous tracts, didactic and polemic treatises, catechisms and com-
mentaries, 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 Scrip-
tures, was sent for the feeding of hungry souls.
THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY— 1784-1794. 349
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 Chris-
tians, who were stigmatized as " foreigner-Coreans."
A counterblast soon followed. The first, and as they were des-
tine d 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 dis-
cussion which followed, Senghuni came off victor. The pagan
cha npions retired from the conflict uttering memorable and pro-
phetic 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 pro-
fess it. What are you going to do about it ? "
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 his-
tory of Roman Christianity in Corea, Nai-po has ever been" a nur-
sery of fervent confessors and illustrious martyrs. A second con-
veri of the Kwem brothers laid the foundations of the faith in
Chi.Ha. At the capital, a learned interpreter, on becoming a be-
liever, multiplied with his own facile pen copies of the books
broight 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.
Thus from small beginnings, but rapidly, were the Christian
idej.s 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,
The mas 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
aga nst Christianity. In it all parents and relatives were entreated
to I reak off all relations with the Christians. The names of the
leac ers 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
350 COREA.
Stonewall lapsed, the work went on in Nai-po, and in 1787, l per-
secution slackened.
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, con-
firmed, 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 con-
fessionals. For ordinary faults confessed by the kneeling penitents
alms were ordered, but for graver derelictions the priests ad-
ministered one or two smart blows on the legs — a mild imitation of
the national punishment, which so suggests Western methods of
nursery discipline.
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 re-
signed 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 Koinan
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.
The Christians at Seoul graciously submitted to the Episcopal
rebuke and explanation, giving them the right only to baptize, yet
1 It was during the summer of this year, 1787, that La Perouse sailed
along the eastern coast of Cho-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 govern-
ment 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.
THE BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY— 1784-1794. 351
they yearned to receive the sacraments. Inflamed by the accounts
of Paul, who pictured before them the ritual splendors, in the
Pekmg 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
shoi Id 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
catecihism of vexed questions of discipline and faith which had be-
gun to disturb the little church.
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 im-
possible. 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.
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
fourdation 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 pub-
lic tiial, at which, for the first time, a clear and systematic presen-
tation of Christian doctrine and the Eoman 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 find-
352 COREA.
ing of the local tribunal. On December 8, 1791, the two Chris-
tians, after publicly refusing to recant, and reading aloud the sen-
tence 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.
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, un-
til 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.
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.1
1 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 un-
known, 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.
CHAPTER XL.
PERSECUTION AND MARTYRDOM— 1801-1834.
THE first attempt of a foreign missionary to enter the hermit
kingdom from the west was made in February, 1791. Jean dos
Remedies, a Portuguese priest from Macao, offered himself, was ac-
cepted, 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.
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.
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
visago 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 ac-
count of the vigilance of the sentinels. This he did among his fel-
low Christians in Shing-king, and on the night of December 23,
1794, crossed the Yalu, reached Seoul in safety, and at once began
his l& bors. 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
23
354 COREA.
tried to pass himself off as the Chinaman — were seized and tor*
tured. 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.
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 pro-
posed that the King of Portugal should send an embassy to
the King of Cho-sen to obtain a treaty of friendship, and allow
the residence of physicians, astronomers, and scientific men in
Corea.
Though no Portuguese envoy was sent out to treat with the
court of Seoul/ 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.'2 One of the natives who vis-
ited the ship was suspected by the government and arrested ;
though the English visitors were ignorant of the existence of Chris-
tians in Corea, and the local magistrates were equally uninformed
as to the difference in religion and nationality between Britons and
Portuguese.
The four political parties into which the Corean nobility was at
this time divided, as described in Chapter XXV., were ranged into
1 " 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.
2 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.
PERSECUTION AND MARTYRDOM.
355
356 COBEA.
two general groups, the Si-pai and the Piek-pai, " the govern,
ment " 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 in-
cluded the Nam-in, or " Southern " wing, in which were the Chris-
tian nobles, while all their enemies belonged to the Piek-pai.
So long as the king lived, the sword of persecution slept in its scab-
bard, but in 1800 1 the king died, and was succeeded by his son,
Suncho, a boy still under the care of his grandmother. This lady
at once assumed the conduct of national affairs,2 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 Prin-
cipal 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.9 The Church Calendar was also seized.
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 endan-
ger longer the lives of his friends, voluntarily surrendered himself,
1 See page 226.
2 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 Cho-sen ; as in Old Japan
the mikado was thus screened from the vulgar, and even noble, gaze dur-
ing state councils. Whoever, therefore, is "behind the curtain," is on the
throne.
3 This highly logical conclusion was reached by pondering upon the doc-
trine 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
Cho-sen. To this day, most of the pagans accept the magistrates' decision as a
complete epitome of the gospel of Christ.
PERSECUTION AND MARTYRDOM. 357
and received the death-stroke, May 31, 1801, at the age of thirty-
two. His hostess, Colombe, thrown in prison herself, while await-
ing 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 snown 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.
From a letter written on silk in sympathetic ink to the Bishop
of Peking by Alexander Wang, and, with the aid of treachery, de-
ciphered 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 thou-
sand soldiers to conquer Corea ! l 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
Corea a 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.
It now devolved upon the king of Cho-sen to explain to his
suzerain the execution of a Chinese subject. In a letter full of
Confucian orthodoxy, he declares that Cho-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, bar-
barous, 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 to-
gether like a cord." The plan to conquer "the Little King-
pallet, vol. i., p. 205.
358 COREA.
dom at the comer of the earth" by myriads of men and ves-
sels from Europe is detailed, with an apology for the execution of
Jacques, not as a Chinese subject, but as chief conspirator. Dal-
let 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."
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, hun-
ger, and cold at home, was deplorable, under the stress of political
as well as religious hatred.
The first exchange of Muscovite and Corean courtesies took
place in 1808, when several of the commissioners from Seoul
were in Peking.1 Presents were mutually given, which in
both cases were products of the then widely separated coun-
tries, which were destined within fifty years to be next-door
neighbors.
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 spir-
itual 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 Borne, but the bishop
of neither ciij 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-po-
litical persecution broke out for a while in Kang-wen and Kiung-
sang.
In 1817, the king and court were terrified by the appearance off
1 Timkowski's Travels of the Russian Mission through Mongolia to China,
and Residence in Peking, London, 1827.
PERSECUTION AND MARTYRDOM. 359
the west coast of the British ' vessels Alceste and Lyra. They sus-
pected that the good captain and jolly surgeon, who have given us
suet 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.
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, 2 they
were; troubled by a report that the sho-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 con-
vert, which led to information given in spite, a severe persecution
broke out, lasting three months.
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 mar-
kets for the fabrics of England and India. On board was a Prus-
sian 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 re-
fused. A few of the more intelligent natives risked their heads,
and accepted various gifts, among which were Chinese translations
1 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
Chii a. The ship did not visit or approach Corean shores.
2 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 tl'.e so-called conspiracy fled to sea with his companions/
360 CORE A.
of European works on geography and mathematics. Mr. Gutzlaff
could discover no trace of Christianity1 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 Prot-
estant, after being nearly a month among the Coreans, left their
shores, fully impressed with their need of soap and bibles.
The year 1834 closed the first half century of Corean Chris-
tianity.
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 pow-
erful European nations then under Bourbon rule, the Corean Chris-
tians, following the ethics of their teachers, played the part of trait-
ors 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."
1 While off the island of Wen-san, according to Ballet, 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, re-
tired in all haste without ever returning the salute, and made no further visits
to the ships."
CHAPTEE XLI.
THE ENTRANCE OF THE FRENCH MISSIONARIES— 1835-1845.
THE French Kevolution, and the wars of Napoleon following,
which distracted all Europe for a period of over twenty years, com-
pjetely disorganized the missionary operations of the Holy See
and French Eoman Catholic Church. On the restoration of the
Bourbons, and the strengthening of the papal throne by foreign
foiyonets, 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
bo under the care of the Society of Foreign Missions of Paris.
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 Eiver 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. Eesting several hours, they slid out
a£rain 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 pem-
kiong (violation of the frontier), wrote to his friends in Paris.
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
362 COREA.
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 resi-
dence under the shadow of the king's palace.
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 persecu-
tion, 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. Hun-
dreds 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 ob-
tained 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 con-
demned to die under the sword, September 21, 1839.
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
ENTRANCE OF THE FRENCH MISSIONARIES. 363
butchers relieved the agony of their victims by the decapitating
blc w. 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.
On the day after the burial, three Christians attempted to re-
move 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
th(' 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.
Thus died the first European missionaries who entered "the
forbidden land." As in the old fable of the lion's den, the foot-
prints all pointed one way.
With the foreign leaders there perished no less than one
huadred and thirty of their converts, seventy by decapitation, and
the others by strangulation, torture, or the result of their wounds.1
In November, 1839, a new edict in the vernacular was posted up
all over the country. Six bitter years passed before the Christians
agidn had a foreign pastor.
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
Fr-mch, 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
tht south of Japan, which would be valuable for strategic and com-
mc rcial purposes, and to make treaties of trade and friendship with
Jaj >an, and especially with Corea.
1 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
obi ged 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.
Th> ; chief informer, who had hoped for reward in high office, obtained only a
mil .or 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.
364
COREA.
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 Erig-
one, 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,
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 execu-
The Missionary's Gateway into Corea.
tion, 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 ap-
plied 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.
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 Chris-
tians, having been duly instructed, had arrived at Kion-wen a
ENTRANCE OF THE FRENCH MISSIONARIES.
365
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.
Since 1839, the government had tripled its vigilance, and
doubled the guards on the frontier. No one could pass the gate
Border Towns of Northern Corea.
at Ai-chiu who had not a passport stamped with the chief inspec-
tor'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 Decem-
ber, 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 ques-
tioaers, and so returned. At the Border Gate, Ferreol, after seeing
thd caravan pass, ordered Andrew Kim to enter alone, while he
rei urned 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.
As soon as resources and opportunity would permit, Andrew
collected a crew of eleven fellow-believers, only four of whom had
eve r seen the sea, and none of whom knew their destination, and
equipped with but a single compass, put to sea in a rude fishing-
bo it, April 24, 1845. Despite the storms and baffling winds, this un-
couth mass of firewood, which the Chinese sailors jeeringly dubbed
" the Shoe," reached Shanghae in June. Andrew Kim, never before
366 COREA.
at sea except as a passenger, had brought this uncalked, deckless,
and unseaworthy scow across the entire breadth of the Yellow Sea.
After the ordeal of the mandarin's questions,1 and visits and
kindly hospitality from the British naval officers and consul, he
reached his French friends at the Roman Catholic mission.
The beacon fires were now blazing on Quelpart, and from head-
land to headland on the mainland, telegraphing the news of " foreign
ships " to Seoul. From June 25th until the end of July, Cap-
tain Edward Belcher,2 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.
Bishop Ferreol came up from Macao to Shanghae, and on Sun-
day, August 17th, Andrew Kim was ordained to the priesthood.
On September 1st, with Ferreol and Marie Antoine Nicholas Dave-
luy, another French priest, he set sail in "the Shoe," now chris-
tened the " Raphael," and turned toward the land of martyrdom.
It was like Greatheart approaching Giant Despair's Castle.
The voyage was safely, though tediously, made past Quelpart,
and through the labyrinth of islands off Chulla. On October 12tL,
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.
1 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 vio-
lating his country's laws at Al-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."
2 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 sur-
vey-marks, stakes, and whitewashed stones were carefully set up when washed
away by the Istorm, or disturbed by cattle. The Coreans, however, drove their
beeves well away from the Englishmen, who longed for fresh meat,
CHAPTER XLII.
THE WALLS OF ISOLATION SAPPED.
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 Man-
emu officers, reprimanded, and sent back to Mukden.
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 her-
ring 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 en-
abled 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 cap-
tain 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.
The object of this visit was to hold a conference with the king's
ministers, and demand satisfaction for the murder of Imbert
CLastan 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.
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
368 COREA.
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 communicat-
ing with the western barbarians," and the full programme of cruelty
was earned out. Four women and four men were put to death in
the persecution which followed.
Maistre and Thomas Tsoi went to Macao and there found the
French fiigates La Gloire and La Victorieuse, ready to sail north
for an answer to Captain Cecile's letter. Gladly welcomed by Cap-
tain 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 ves-
sels became total wrecks. The largest of the La Gloire's boats was
at once sent to Shanghae for assistance, and the six hun'dred 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.
The Corean government, fearing 1 further visits of the outside
barbarians, sent an answer to Admiral Cecile, directing it to Cap-
tain Pierre at Macao, by way of Peking.2 They explained why they
treated Frenchmen shipwrecked kindly ; but sent Frenchmen dis-
guised to execution.3 When Admiral Cecile reached Paris in
1 These were the first official relations of France with Corea ; or, as a native
would say, between Tai-pep-kuk and Cho-sen ; the expression for France
being Tai-pep, and for a Frenchman — curiously enough — Pepin.
2 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 north-
ern 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 jest-
ingly called the foreign vessels " The authorities down the River."
3 For changing their name and garments, sleeping by day, going abroad at
night, associating with rebels, criminals and villains, and entering the king-
THE WALLS OF ISOLATION SAPPED.
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 ejects 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.
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 w ly of Shanghae, they then went into Shing-king, and in De-
cember 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-ch: u, 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 circu-
lated. 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 reciaim 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-do, by way of Kokun Island, even while
the fire-signals were blazing on the headlands on account of the
presence of Russian ships.1
dom cl andestinely, the missionaries were put to death. ; and no comparison
could 1 >e drawn to mitigate their sentence between them and innocent ship-
wrecked men.
1 Other nations besides France now began to learn something of the twin
hermit-s of the East. Cho-sen and Nippon. During 1852, the Russian frigate
Pallas sailed along the east coast up to the Tumen River, making no landing,
but ke« ping at a distance of from two to five miles from the shore in order to
avoid shoals and rocks. The object t>f the Pallas was to trace and map the
shore ine. 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 Fu-
san to the Tumen was known with some accuracy, and mapped out with Euro-
24
370 COREA.
Ferreol, worn out with his labors, after lying paralytic for many
months, died February 3, 1853 ; but in March, 1854, Janson, mak-
ing 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.
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 se-
clusion. The American flag, however, was not yet seen in Corean
waters, though the court of Seoul were kept informed of Perry's
movements.
A fresh reinforcement of missionaries to storm the citadel of
paganism, Bishop Simeon, Francois Berneux, with two young
priests, Michel Alexandre Petitnicholas and Charles Antoine
Pourthie, set sail from Shanghae in a junk, and, after many adven-
tures, arrived at Seoul via Whang-hai, while Feron (of later buc-
caneering 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 conse-
crated 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 Eoman Catholic population of
Corea in 1857 was reckoned at 16,500.
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 her-
mit nation ?
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
pean 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.
Pallas and Virginie ! The names are suggestive of the maiden diplomatic
victory of General Ignatieff, of whom more anon.
THE WALLS OF ISOLATION SAPPED. 371
Chinese emperor fled into Shing-king, toward Corea. The news
produced a lively effect in Cho-sen, especially at court.1
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
Chi la and the allies, granting freedom of trade and religion, were
soon read in Corea, causing intense alarm.
But the after-clap of news, that turned the first storm of excite-
ment 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
eithor Great Britain or Cho-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
Pact! ic, 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.
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 ?
The results to Corean Christianity were that, in less than a de-
1 A noble of high rank presented to the council of ministers a memorial,
setting forth the dangers that then menaced Cho-sen, and urging that extraor-
dinary 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 Cho-sen, that the frontier should be
streng^ened 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, ne ir Fusan, and the western strongholds of Nam-an, Pu-pion, and In-chiun
(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.)
372 COREA.
cade, thousands of natives had fled their country and were settled in
the Kussian villages.
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 rein-
forced 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.
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 coun-
tries on either side ; but under protest from Yedo, backed by Brit-
ish 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 sho-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.
One new missionary and two returned native students entered
THE WALLS OP ISOLATION SAPPED. 373
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 Cho,
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 Cho 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 oi
the Great Court — a rare title given to a noble when his son is
made king) and became actual r.egent. 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.
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 fu-
neral 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.
The year 1866 is phenomenal in Corean history. It seemed as
if the governments and outlaws alike, of many nations, had conspired
to piorce or breach the walls of isolation at many points. Russians,
Frenchmen, Englishmen, Americans, Germans, authorized and un-
authorized, landed to trade, rob, kill, or, what was equally ob-
noxicus to the regent and his court, to make treaties.
Ii. January the Russians, in a war-vessel, again appeared in
Brou^hton'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 re-
sponse was made, that Corea was a vassal of China, and could not
374 COREA.
treat with any other nation without permission of that Power, and
that a special ambassador charged with the matter would be im«
mediately despatched to Peking, etc.
The advent of the double-headed eagle was the signal foi
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 for-
eign 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 un-
leashed. Berneux was seized on February 23d, and brought to
trial successively before three tribunals, the last being the highest
of the realm.
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. Forth-
with the official made up his mind that the Frenchman was a man
THE WALLS OF ISOLATION SAPPED. 375
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
cluo, paddle, and pointed sticks thrust into his flesh, was cast
into a common dungeon, where, in a few days, he was joined by
throe of his fellow missionaries with several converts, faithful to
their teachers even in the hour of death.
All suffered the fierce and savage beatings, and on March 8fch
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 earned out, after
which the four heads were presented for inspection.
One day afterward, two other French missionaries and their
twelve students for the priesthood were led captives into Seoul,
mariied with the red cord and yellow caps betokening prisoners soon
to die. With like tortures, and the same shameful details of execu-
tion, they suffered death on March llth. 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 Dave-
luy, the barbarity of the proceeding was increased by the sordid ex-
ecutioner, 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.
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
cruis ng off the Nai-po, Ridel sent a letter begging for help. This
ship vas the Rona, Captain Morrison, belonging to a British firm in
Chin: i, 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
376 COREA.
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.
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 no-
ble calling.
In the foregoing story of papal Christianity in Cho-sen, which
we have drawn from Pallet — a Roman Catholic writer — we have
the spectacle of a brave band of men, mostly secular priests edu-
cated 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 mission-
aries in Corea, whether of the Greek, Roman, or Reformed branch,
will teach Christianity with more of the moral purity inculcated
by its Founder.
CHAPTER XLIII.
THE FRENCH EXPEDITION.
THE preliminaries of the French expedition to Corea in 1866
may be gathered from the letters which passed between the French
charge d'affairs at Peking and Prince Kung, the Chinese premier,
as published in the United States Diplomatic Correspondence,
1867-68. l 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.
"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. "
1 July 13, 1866.
M. DE BELLONET TO PKINCE KUNG.
SIB : 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.
[n 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.
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
fore es 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.
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
378 COREA.
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.
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 ex-
amined the western entrance one month before, the despatch-boat
Deroulede 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, check-
ered into a thousand squares of tiny rice-fields, all well irrigated,
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 de-
clare now that we do not recognize any authority whatever of the Chinese
government over the kingdom of Corea.
I have, etc.,
H. DE BELLONET.
His Imperial Highness, Prince Kung.
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
llth, again addressed the Chinese statesman. In this missive occurs the follow-
ing: "As for the fate of the former king of Corea, it is now subject to the
decision of the Emperor, my august Sovereign."
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 Manchiu 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.
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 de-
liverers, ... we shall inaugurate the reign of order, justice, and pros-
perity."
THE FRENCH EXPEDITION.
379
tlid 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 fright-
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Map of French Naval and Military Operations, 1866.
ened 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.
On the 23d the Deroulede and Tardif, leaving the Primauguet
at Boisee (Woody) Island, moved up the Han Eiver to the capital,
the Corean pilots at the bow, and Ridel with the men at the wheel.
380 COREA.
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 hiUs environing the city and every point of
view were white with gazing thousands, who for the first time saw
a vessel moving under steam.
The ships remained abreast of the city several days, the officers
taking soundings and measurements, computing heights and mak-
ing plans. M. Ridel went on shore in hopes of finding a Christian
and hearing some news, but none dared to approach him.
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.
Returning to Boisee Island, having surveyed the river, two con-
verts 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, Octo-
ber 3d.
Tai-wen kun, now thoroughly alarmed, began to stir up the coun-
try to defense. The military forces in every province were called
out. Every scrap of iron was collected, and the forges and black-
smith 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 ob-
struct it. Through the Japanese at Fusan, and the daimio 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 foreign-
ers on one hand, and of the " mikado-reverencers " on the other,
could not then, had it been right to do so, afford any military as-
sistance against the French, with whom a treaty had been made.
Instead of this, two commissioners were appointed to go to Seoul,
and recommend that Cho-sen open her ports to foreign com-
merce, as Japan had done, and thus choose peace instead of war
THE FRENCH EXPEDITION. 381
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 sho-gunate was abolished, and Corea was for the time utterly
forgotten.
The object of the French expedition and the blockade of the
Salee (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
de ^patched the fleet and made war on his own responsibility. The
squadron which sailed October llth, to distribute thrones and de-
capitate prime ministers, consisted of the frigate Guerriere, the
coiTettes Laplace and Primauguet, the despatch-vessels DerouMe
and Kien-chan, and the gunboats Tardif and Lebrethon, with 600
solliers, including a detachment of 400 marines from the camp at
Yokohama.
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.
On October 13th the admiral cast anchor off Boisee Island.
Tho next day the gunboats steamed up the river, landing the ma-
rines 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 roconnoissance was made in force, toward Kang-hoa (Kang-wa),
duiing which a small fort, mounting two guns, was captured.
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.
The royal residence, for pleasure in summer, and refuge in war-
time, was beautifully situated on a wooded hill, from which a glori-
ous view of the island, sea, and mainland was visible. The
fert le 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 in-
vaders. Kang-wa was well named " The Flower of the River."
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 " Vive I'Empe-
382 COREA.
reur." The hot fire of the jingals checked them not a moment.
Beaching the wall, they set up the scaling ladders, and in a few mo-
ments hundreds of Frenchmen were inside, shooting down the fly-
ing 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 victors hands. About eighty
bronze and iron cannon, mostly of very small calibre, over six thou-
sand matchlocks, and the official archives of the city were found and
made trophies of.
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 dol-
lars, 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
Breech-loading Cannon of Corean Manufacture.
breastplates, beautifully wrought, but very heavy and clumsy, were
found.
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 pol
icy,
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, op-
posite Kang-wa Island, whence the high road runs direct to the
THE FRENCH EXPEDITION. 383
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.
As the marines were disembarking, the Coreans, poured in a
leavy 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.
Toward evening a party of Coreans defiled at the foot of the plain
in gallant array, evidently elated with supposed victory. Suddenly,
a 5 they came within range, the French ships opened on them with
s'lell, which exploded among them.
Terrified at such unknown war missiles, they broke and fled to
the hill-tops, where, to their surprise, they were again enveloped in a
si lower 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.
Weak njen 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 cen-
tury. 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.
Meanwhile the invaded nation was roused to a white heat of
wi ath. The furnace of persecution and the forges of the armorers
wt re alike heated to their utmost. Earnest hands plied with rival-
ling 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 im-
mediately executed.
On October 19th, Ni, the Corean general commanding, had sent
tho 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
de.ith — a sentiment well worthy of a state of savagery.
The French admiral, with equal national bombast, but in direct
384 COREA.
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.
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.
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 ]^e 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.
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-
THE FRENCH EXPEDITION. 385
two. 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 Cho-
sen. Perhaps some native poet improvised a poem contrasting
the. patriotic nag with the steed of Kanko, which led a hungry
army home.
It being madness or annihilation for eighty Frenchmen to at-
tempt 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 mourn-
ful march began. The stronger men carried their severely injured
comrades on their shoulders with brotherly kindness. The un-
wcunded 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 vic-
tory 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 presenti-
ment of failure.
There was gloom in the camp that night and at headquarters.
Tb'3 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.
The next morning, to the surprise of all, and the anger of
many, orders were given to embark. The work on the fortifica-
tions 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 I his day gloat over it as a disgraceful retreat,
A. huge bronze bell, from one of the temples in Kangvwa, which
had been transported half way to the camp, was abandoned. The
Coieans 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 Boisee 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
25
386 COREA.
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 cf
the expedition was a great surprise to the fleet at Boisee Island.
On his return to China, the admiral found, to his mortification, that
his government did not approve of the headlong venture of Bel-
lonet. l
In the palace at Seoul, the resolve was made to exterminate Chris-
tianity, 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
Cho-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.
1 The results of this expedition were disastrous all over the East. Happen-
ing 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. "
THE FRENCH EXPEDITION. 387
In spite of foreign invaders and war's alarms, one peaceful event
during this same year, and shortly after the French fleet had gone
hway, 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,1 a daughter of one of the noble families, was
duly married. Popular report credits the young queen with abili-
ties not inferior to those of her royal husband.
According to custom, the Chinese emperor sent an ambassador,
one Koei-ling, a mandarin of high rank, to bear the imperial con-
gratulations 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
Lie in the land of Morning Calm, and afford a delightful contrast
t3 the grim visage of war, with which events in Corea during the
lust decade have unhappily made us too familiar.
1 The Min or Ming family is largely Chinese in blood and origin, and, be-
sides 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 popula-
tion 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
t( 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
vory 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.
CHAPTER XLIY.
AMERICAN RELATIONS WITH COREA.
AMERICA became a commercial rival to Cho-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. Gin-
seng, the most precious drug in the Chinese pharmacopeia, had been
for ages brought from Manchuria and the neighboring peninsula,
where, on the mountains, the oldest and richest roots are found.
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.
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.
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.
AMERICAN RELATIONS WITH COREA. 389
Henceforth a steady stream of ginseng — now found in limitless
cuantities in the Ohio and Mississippi valleys — poured into China.
Though far inferior to the best article, it (Aralia quinquefolia) is
sufficiently like it in taste and real or imaginary qualities to rival
tae root of Cho-sen, which is not of the very highest grade.
Less than a generation had passed from the time that the west-
ern end of Massachusetts had any influence on Corea or China, be-
fore there was brought from the far East an herb that influenced the
colony at her other end, far otherwise than commercially. Mas-
sachusetts 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 fol-
lowed.
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 Can-
ton 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 en-
tirely 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."
Animated by the spirit of independence, and a laudable ambi-
tion, 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." '
It was ginseng and tea — an exchange of the materials for drink,
a barter of tonics— that brought the Americans and Chinese, and
fin; illy the Americans and Coreans together.
The Honorable Gideon Nye, of China, from whose article in " The Far
Ease" these facts are drawn concerning the first consul of the United
Sta1 es 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 first 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 In-
dian pupils bought with it.
390 COREA.
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.
The idea now began to dawn upon some minds that it was high
time that Japan and Corea should be opened to American com-
merce.
The first public man who gave this idea official expression was
the Honorable Zadoc Pratt, then member of the House of Rep-
resentatives 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 proposi-
tion for the extension of American commerce by the despatch of a
mission to Japan and Corea as follows :
"It is hereby recommended that immediate measures be taken
for effecting commercial arrangements with the empire of Japan
and the kingdom of Corea," etc. (Congressional Globe, vol. xiv., p.
294).
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.
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
Coreae, which Josephus mentions, or that province of India which
bears the same name.
The commerce which sprang up, not only between our country
and China and Japan, but also that carried on in American vessels be-
tween 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 ques-
tion 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.
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.
AMERICAN RELATIONS WITH CORE A. 391
On June 24, 1866, the American schooner Surprise was wrecked
of- the coast (of Whang-hai ?). The approach of any foreign vessel
was especially dangerous at this time, as the crews might be mis-
ta len for Frenchmen and killed by the people from patriotic im-
pulses. Nevertheless Captain McCaslin and his men with their
Chinese cook, after being first well catechised by the local mag-
istrate, 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 Muk-
den, they got to Niu-chwang and to the United States consul. A
gold watch was voted by Congress to the Rev. Pere Gillie for his
kindness to these men while in Mukden.
From a passage in one of the letters of the Corean Government,
we gather that the crew of still another American ship were hos-
pitably treated after shipwreck, but of the circumstances we are
igr orant. Of the General Sherman affair more is known.
The General Sherman was an American schooner, owned by a
Mi. Preston, who was making a voyage for health. She was con-
signed to Messrs. Meadows & Co., a British firm in Tien-tsin, and
reached that port July, 1866. After delivery of her cargo, an ar-
rar gement 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.
Leaving Tien-tsin July 29th, the vessel touched at Chifu, and
took on board Mr. Hogarth, a young Englishman, and a Chinese
shroff,1 familiar with Corean money. The complement of the ves-
sel was now five white foreigners, and nineteen Malay and Chinese
sailors. The owner, Preston, the master, Page, and the mate, Wil-
sor, were Americans. The Eev. 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.2
These shroffs are experts in handling money. They can detect counter-
feits by the touch, and, with incredible celerity, can reckon amounts to thou-
san<,ths of a cent on the abacus. One or more of them are found in nearly
eve? y one of the banks and hongs in Eurasian ports.
'•• Some weeks before, he had offered to penetrate the peninsula as mission-
ary md agent of the Scottish National Bible Society. The Coreans who had
392 COREA.
From the first the character of the expedition was suspected,
because the men were rather too heavily armed for a peaceful trad-
ing voyage. It was believed in China that the royal coffins in the
tombs of Ping-an, wherein more than one dynasty of Cho-sen lay
buried, were of solid gold ; and it was broadly hinted that the ex-
pedition had something to do with these.
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 re-
turned to the river's mouth, and sailed back to Chifu, where he was
met and questioned by the firm of Meadows & Co.
No further direct intelligence was ever received from the un-
fortunate party.
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 for-
eigner— 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.
According to one report, the hatches of the schooner were fas-
tened 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.
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 gov-
ernor of Kang-wa, and valuable charts were made by Captain
James. One month later, in September, the French war-vessels
made their appearance.
The U. S. steamship Wachusett, despatched by Admiral Rowan
to inquire into the Sherman affair, reached Chifu January 14,
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.
AMERICAN RELATIONS WITH COREA.
393
1867, and is said to have taken on board the Chinese pilot of the
General Sherman, and the Rev. Mr. Corbett, an American mission-
ary, to act as interpreter. Leaving Chifu January 21st, they cast
anohor, January 23d, at the mouth of the large inlet opposite Sir
James Hall group, which indents Whang-hai province. This estu-
ary they erroneously supposed to be the Ta Tong River leading to
Piug-an city, whereas they were half a degree too far south, as the
churt made by themselves shows.
A letter was despatched, through the official of Cow Island, near
Map Illustrating the " General Sherman " Affair.
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 capi-
tal of the province. Five days elapsed before the answer arrived,
during which the surveying boats were busy. Many natives were
met md spoken to, who all told one story, that the Sherman's crew
were murdered by the people, and not by official instigation.1
1 A broad streak of light was thrown upon at least one possible cause of the
Shern tan tragedy, by the statement of the natives that Chinese pirates fre-
quent y descend on the coast and kill and rob the Coreans. During the pre-
394 COREA.
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 Shu-
feldt possessed his soul in patience.
To the polished American's eye, the Corean's manner was
haughty and imperious. He was utterly beyond the reach of rea-
son 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.
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 pos-
sible." Commander Shufeldt, bound by his orders, could do
nothing more, and being compelled also by stress of weather, came
away.
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.
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. Com-
vious year, several natives had been killed by Chinese pirates near the Wachu-
sett's anchorage. As ten of the crew of the Sherman were Canton Chinamen,
it is probable that the very sight of them on an armed vessel would inflame
the Coreans to take their long-waited for revenge.
AMERICAN RELATIONS WITH COUEA. 395
mander Febiger, in the U. S. steamship Shenandoah, besides sur-
veying the "Ping Yang Inlet," learned this version of the affair :
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."
A man on board, whom they spoke of as "Tony,1 a French-
man, ' 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
nre-ai-ms and cannon ; they set adrift fire-rafts, and even made a
hand to-hand fight with pikes, knives, and swords. The foreigners
fougl t desperately, but the Coreans overpowered them. Finally,
the ship, having caught fire, blew up with a terrific report.
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 re-
membering the kindness shown to the crew of the Surprise, few of
the uaprejudiced will believe that the General Sherman's crew were
murdered without cause.
In 1884, Lieutenant J. B. Bernadon, U.S.N.. made a journey from Seoul
to Pin^ -an, and, being able to speak Corean, learned the following from native
Christians. The Sherman, arriving during the heavy midsiimmer 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
careen >d over, which being seen from the city walls a fleet of boats set out
with 1 ostile 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.
CHAPTEE XLY.
A BODY-SNATCHING EXPEDITION.
EARLY in May, 1867, the foreign settlement at Shanghae was
thrown into excitement by the report of the return of an unsuccess-
ful piratical expedition from Corea. The ennui 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 arch-
itecture, antiquities, customs, and costumes in the mysterious pen-
insula. The pleasures of wheelbarrow rides, and visits to the bub-
bling springs, now palled before the pending trial at the United
States consular court.
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 rela-
tions. 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. Iri
plain English, it was said to be a piratical and body-snatching de-
scent upon the grave-yards of Cho-sen, to dig up royal remains,
not for the purpose of dissection, nor in the interests of science or
of archaeology, but for the sake of money, which money was to be
extorted from the regent and court of Seoul.
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 Mycenae, and Di Cesnola sifting the dust of Kurium for
its golden treasures. Even the night picture of resurrectionists,
A BODY-SNATCHING EXPEDITION. 397
emptying graves in a Scotch kirk-yard for subjects to sell at a
poun I sterling apiece, has few elements of humor about it.
But to conceive of civilized "Christians," or Israelites, charter-
ing 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 created more laughter than frowns or tears. It was thought
that t le sign under which the ship sailed, instead of being the flag
of the North German Confederation, should have been the three
golde;i balls, such as hang above a pawnbroker's windows.
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 stand-
ard of communication in Eastern Asia either by sound or sight.
It was he also who furnished the cash for the expedition, the com-
mander-in-chief of which was one Oppert, a North German
subject ; the guide was a French Jesuit priest named Farout (evi-
dently a fictitious name) who spoke Corean, having been in the
country as a missionary. These three were the leaders of the ex-
pedition.
Bel ore going, the American had told Consul Seward that his
object was to take a Corean embassy to Europe, to negociate trea-
ties, 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 pedler, who had several
times penetrated into Corea, and by whom the Corean " commis-
sioners, ' 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 alivo.
Readers of our narrative will smile at discovering the poor
398 COBEA.
fishermen who brought their bishop across the Yellow Sea in their
boat thus transformed into " ambassadors."
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.
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 :
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 comple-
ment of the ship was eight Europeans, twenty Malays from Ma-
nilla, 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 expedi-
tion, which was to negotiate " treaties," embark an embassy to travel
round the globe, and introduce the Hermit Nation to the world.
The "fleet" left Shanghae April 30, 1867, and steamed to Na-
gasaki ; 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 P.M. on Friday, May 8th. The next day at 10 A.M. 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 com-
manding. 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 weap-
ons, and given their orders. Four men carried spades or coal
shovels to exhume the bones and treasure.
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
A BODY-SNATCHING EXPEDITION. 399
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.
Reaching the burial-place [nearTotta-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 ?
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 per-
haps not a little swearing, compelled to give up their task.
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.
Further proceedings of the expedition are known only in out-
line. 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.
The expedition remained in Corea ten days, returning to Shang-
hae after two weeks' absence.
In the foregoing trial it is most evident that many details were
concealed. The quantity of truth divulged was probably in pro-
portion 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.
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
then to ransom."
Whether any great amount of treasure is ever buried with the
sovereigns or grandees of Cho-sen is not known to us. Certain it
4CO
COREA.
is that the national sentiment is that of horror against the distur-
bance 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
Map Illustrating the " China " Affair.
ready to look upon the flag and ships of the United States when
they came in 1871.
NOTE. — Nearly every word of the above was written in December, 1877, the
information having been derived from the United States Diplomatic Correspon-
dence. At that time we suspected that " Farout " was the fictitious name of
Feron, the French Roman Catholic missionary, who had escaped the persecu-
tions of 1866. It seems that three countries and three religions were repre-
sented in this body-snatching expedition, which was of a truly international
character.
In March, 1880, there was published in London and New York the
English translation of " Ein Verschlossenes Land," a work printed in Germany.
As we read " A Forbidden Land: Voyages to the Corea," it dawned upon us
A BODY-SNATCHING EXPEDITION. 401
that the author was none other than "the needy Hamburgh trader," "the
Jev-ish pedler," 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 Run, or regent. The project was first suggested to
hint by the French priest, who, as the author takes pains to tell us, was not a
Jes lit, 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 :
" If the project I am going to lay before you (i.e.j to rob the grave) will at
firsi sight appear to you strange and out of the common, remember that a great
ain, can never be gained by small means, and that. we must look at this affair
from another point of view than that which may be taken by narrow-minded
people."
The details of the landing, march [to near Totta-san?], excavation, and re-
treat are duly narrated, the blame of failure being laid upon one unlucky
wight who was " the only disreputable character we had with us!"
After leaving Prince Jerome Gulf, the China proceeded up the Han River
to Tricault Island (see map, page 379), "about twenty minutes' steam below
Kai g-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
intr aders. " While holding a parley near the wall of a town on Tricault Island,
"tie 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 tiie 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.
After a review of this book (in The Nation of April 7, 1880), which the author
issued after his imprisonment, the following note appeared in the same paper
of April 21st:
OPPERT'S COREAN OUTRAGE.
To t'le Editor of The Nation :
SIR : 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
Man laman. 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
402 COREA.
impossible, but in the minds of those informed on the subject, the wicked-
ness 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.
A. A. HAYES, Jr.
NEW YORK, April 15, 1880.
CHAPTEE XLYI.
"OUR LITTLE WAR WITH THE HEATHEN."
THE representations made to the Department of State at Wash-
ington 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 un-
dertake the difficult enterprise.
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 Kear-AdmiralJohn Rodgers, Com-
mander-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 i.ith him and not with the admiral.1
There was at this time, all over the far East, a feeling of uncer-
1 Mr. Low, who had served one term in Congress and as governor -of Cali-
fornia 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 Cho-sen was as
unkm wn to him as Thibet or Anam, and from the first he had scarcely one ray
of hoj e in tne success of the mission.
404 COREA.
tainty 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 behead-
ing 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 mur-
derous animosity were almost ready to burst. The air was filled
with alarms, even while the American fleet was preparing * for Corea.
Kear- Admiral Kodgers,8 who had taken command, and relieved
Admiral Kowan, August 20, 1869, began his preparations with vigor.
In a consultation held at Peking during November, 1870, be-
tween 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 Kites 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.
Meanwhile the German minister to Japan (now in Peking),
1 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 rot-
ten 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. Ad-
miral 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.
2 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.
"OUR LITTLE WAR WITH THE HEATHEN." 405
Heir 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 sub-
ject for his officiousness, and a rebuff to the Kaiser's envoy were
the only results of his mission. After sauntering about a little,
Heir Von Brandt, who arrived June 1, 1878, left June 2d, and the
era of commercial relations between the Central European Empire1
and Cho-sen was postponed.
During the year 1870, Bishop Kidel, who had gone back to
France, returned to China and prepared to rejoin his converts.
Having communicated with them, they awaited his coming with anxi-
ety, and we shall hear of them on board of the flag-ship Colorado.
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 mod-
esty one cannot fail to read in his letter more of an expectation to
redress wrongs than to conciliate hostility.
1 The first appearance of the flag of North Germany in Corean waters was
at th 3 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
— wl ile, or shortly before, the American fleet were in the Han Kiver— 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
part} 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 for-
eigners had landed to bring away the crew of the Chusan, when the China-
men, 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
Ring love brought away for them whatever was worth saving from the Chusan.
Agaii t the Corean policy of kindness toward the shipwrecked was illustrated.
The t wo foreigners— a Scotchman and a Maltese— had been well fed and kindly
treat* d.
406 COREA.
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.
The fleet made rendezvous at Nagasaki, in Kiushiu — that divi-
sion of Japan whence warlike expeditions to Cho-sen have sailed
from the days of Jingu to those of Taiko, and from Taiko to Eodgers.
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."
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 Ferrieres Islands on the 19th, and, after a delay of
fogs, Isle Eugenie on the 23d.
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 armanent 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 Kiver. 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 Kodgers named the place of anchor-
age 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.
Next morning the Palos and four steam-launches were put under
the command of Captain Homer C. Blake, to examine the channel be-
yond Boisee Island. Four days were peaceably spent in this service,
"OUR LITTLE WAR WITH THE HEATHEN."
407
a ^afe 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,"
an I " Interview " re-
turned in faultless
Chinese. It was an-
nounced that the
fleet would remain
for some time.
On the follow-
ing day, May 30th,
the fleet anchored
between the Isles
Bcdsee and Guerri-
6ro. A stiff breeze
had blown away the
fogs and revealed
the verdure and the
features of a land-
scape which struck
all with admiration
for its luxuriant
beauty. Approach-
ing the squadron in
a j unk, some natives
made signs of friend-
ship, and came on
board without hesi-
tation. They bore
a missive acknowl-
edging the receipt
of the Americans'
The Entering Wedge of Civilization.
letter, and announcing that three nobles had been appointed by
tho regent for conference. These junk-men were merely messen-
gers, 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 vis-
ages. They stood for their photographs on deck, and some fine
408 COREA.
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 Every Saturday, a
Boston illustrated newspaper, was told in the stereotyped photo-
grapher'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.
Strange coincidence ! Strange medley of the significant sym-
bols 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 Every Saturday, on the front page
of which is a picture of Charles Sumner, the champion of human-
ity, and of the principle that "nations must act as individuals/'
with like moral responsibility !
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.
" 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 ques-
tions asked, and naturally so, since they had no authority whatever *
to say " yes " or " no " to any proposition of the Americans.
1 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.
These Coreans had no right to say either ' ' yes " or " no " to any proposition of
the Americans. Had they committed themselves to anything definite, degra-
dation, 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
"OUR LITTLE WAR WITH THE HEATHEN." 409
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.
" To all this they (the Coreans) made no reply which could in-
dicate dissent." [Certainly not ! They had no power to nod their
he£,ds, or say either " yes " or " no." ] " So, believing that we might
coriinue our surveys while further diplomatic negotiations were
pending, an expedition was sent to examine and survey the Salee
[Han] Kiver."1
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 re-
marked : "In ten minutes we shall have a row."
Exactly at noon of June 2d, the four steam-launches proceeded
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 mat-
ter of fact, such a course was urged by Captain H. S. Blake.
In such an emergency, patience, kindness, tact, the absence of any burn-
ing 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
rath 3r than valor. Even if it had been possible to inflict ten times the dam-
age 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
upot the visit of the great American fleet would be a savage thirst for need-
less ^engeance, a sordid greed of gain, and the justification of robbers and in-
vade rs. In spite of all the slaughter of their countrymen, they would read in
the withdrawal of their armies, defeat, and defeat only.
1 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
treac lerous 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
word j 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 nn;ke reply."
410 COBEA.
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.
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 Ime of forts and flut-
tering 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 oppo-
site 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 Conde) 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.)
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 impos-
sible to escape. "Were the Coreans going to fire ? If so, why not
now ? Immediately ? Now is their opportunity. The vessels are
abreast the forts.
The Corean commander was one moment too late. From the
parapet under the great flag a signal gun was fired. In an in-
stant 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.
"OUR LITTLE WAR WITH THE HEATHEN." 411
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
C onfederates, declared he could remember nothing so sharp as this.
The fire was promptly returned by the steam-launch howitzers,
The Palos and Monocacy, which had forged ahead, turned back,
a:id " Old Blake came round the point a-flying, and let drive all
the guns of the Palos at them. The consequence was that they
k.eked 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 every-
thing in them was silenced, the squadron returned down the river,
S€ nding their explosive compliments into the forts and redoubts as
th ey passed. All were quiet and deserted, however, but the com-
mander's flag was still flying unharmed and neglected. Strange
to say, out of the entire fleet only one of our men was wounded
an d 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
lite those battles which statistics reveal to us, in which it requires
a T on of lead to kill a man.
However, it was determined by the chief representatives of the
civil and naval powers to resent the insult offered to our " flag " in
tho "unprovoked" attack on our vessels, "should no apology or
satisfactory explanation be offered for the hostile action of the
Ccrean government."
Ten days were now allowed to pass before further action was
taken. They were ten days of inaction, except preparation for
fui ther fight and some correspondence with the local magistrate.
What a pity these ten days had not been spent before, and not
aft 3r, 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
spi led, murder. But not so thought the powers that be.
412 COREA.
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 an-
chor. The total force detailed for the work of punishing the Co-
reans 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.
The squadron proceeded up the river at 10 o'clock, on the
morning of the 10th of June, two steam-launches moving in ad-
vance 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 approach-
ing, 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.
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 tear-
ing off the legs of their trousers in their efforts to advance. The
howitzers sank to their axles in the heavy ooze.
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 de-
molition 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.
Our men lay down to sleep under the stars. All was quiet
that Saturday night, except the chatting round the camp-fires and
"OUR LITTLE WAR WITH THE HEATHEN." 413
the croaking of the Corean frogs, as the men cleaned themselves
ani prepared for their Sunday work. Toward midnight a body of
wLite-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
frcin 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.
While at the anchorage off Boisee 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, Eidel, 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.
Next day was Sunday. The reveille was sounded in the camps,
breakfast eaten, and blankets rolled up. Company C and the pion-
eers were sent into the fort to complete its destruction, by burning
up the rice, dried fish, and huts still standing.
The march began at 7 A.M. The sun rolled up in a cloudless
sky and the weather was very warm. It was a rough road, if, in-
deed, 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.
Tie marines led the advance. The next line of fortifications, the
" middle fort,'' was soon entered. The guns were found loaded, as
thoy had been deserted as soon as the fort was made a target by
tin; Monocacy, every one of whose shots told. The work of dis-
mantling was here thoroughly done. The sixty brass pieces of ar-
tillery, all of them insignificant breech-loaders of two-inch bore,
were tumbled into the river, and the fort appropriately named
" Fort Monocacy."
The difficult march was resumed under a blazing sun and in
steaming heat. A succession of steep hills lay before them. Sap-
pers and miners, with picks, shovels, and axes, went ahead levelling
ani widening the road, cutting bushes and filling hollows. The
414 COREA.
guns had to be hauled up and lowered down the steep places by
means of ropes. Large masses of white coats and black heads hov-
ered 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.
A detachment of five howitzers and three companies were de-
tailed 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.
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 cidadel.
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 hav-
ing rested awhile after their forced march, during which several
had been overcome by heat and sunstroke, now formed for a
charge.
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 an-
nihilate 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.
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
OUR LITTLE WAR WITH THE HEATHEN.
415
others, was held by the tiger-hunters, who, if they flinched before
the onemy, were to be put to death by their own people.
(X
Map of the American Naval Operations in 1871.
All being ready, our men rose up with a yell and rushed for
the r< doubt, officers in front. A storm of jingal balls rained OTer
416 COREA.
their heads, but their dash up the hill was so rapid that the gar-
rison 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-
chillmg 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 con-
tested 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.
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-Com-
mander 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.
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 car-
bine 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 Til-
ton and two marines. Meanwhile a desperate fight went on out-
side 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
"OUR LITTLE WAR WITH THE HEATHEN." 417
flying backs, mowing them down in swaths. Moving at full speed,
many were shot like rabbits, falling heels over head. At the same
tine 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.
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
011 war as a pastime." It was one from which humanity loves to
avort her gaze. Two hundred and forty-three corpses in their
wl ite garments lay in and around the citadel. Many of them were
clcthed in thick cotton armor, wadded to nine thicknesses, which
no \v smouldered away. A sickening stench of roasted flesh filled
th<> 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
tliLn 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.
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
woL'ks, was mortally wounded, and died soon after. One lands-
ma a of the Colorado and one marine of the Benicia were killed.
Fit e men were severely, and five slightly, wounded.
The other two forts below the citadel being open to the rear
f ro n the main work were easily entered, no regular resistance
being offered. The results of the forty-eight hours on shore, eigh-
tee i of which were spent in the field, were the capture of five forts
— probably the strongest in the kingdom— fifty flags, four hundred
anc . eighty-one pieces of artillery, chiefly jingals, and a large num-
bei 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 car-
rie( I on and made as thorough as fire, axe, and shovel could make
27
418 COREA.
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.
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 furi-
ous 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.
Later in the day, Dennis Hendrin (or Hanrahan) and Seth Allen,
the two men slain in the fight, were buried on Boisee Island, and
the first American graves rose on Corean soil. At 5.45 P.M. McKee
breathed his last.1
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 ? "
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.
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 Boisee 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 New York Herald styled it, attracted slight notice in the United
States. A few columns of news and comment from the metropoli-
tan press, a page or two of woodcuts in an illustrated newspaper,
the ringing of a chime of jests on going up Salt River (Salee), and
1 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 em-
blems— 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.
"OUR LITTLE WAR WITH THE HEATHEN." 419
the usual transmission of official documents, summed up the tran-
sient impression on the American public.
In China the expedition was looked upon as a failure and a de-
feat. The popular Corean idea was, that the Americans had come
to avenge the death of pirates and robbers, and, after several bat-
tle s, had been so surely defeated that they dare not attempt the
task of chastisement again. To the Tai-wen Kun the whole matter
wr.s cause for personal glorification. The tiger-hunters and the con-
servative 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,
tho listener's reply, delivered with angry toss of the head and a
sn ip of the fingers, was : *' What care we for your foreign inven-
ticns? Even our boys laugh at all your weapons."
CHAPTER XLVIL
THE PORTS OPENED TO JAPANESE COMMERCE.
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.
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 re-
moved to Tokio, 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 govern-
ment to resume ancient friendship and vassalage.
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 bat-
tie, they nourished their wrath to keep it warm.
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 Shimonoseki Indemnity loan. Financial
ruin, and a collision with China might result, if war were declared.
THE PORTS OPENED TO JAPANESE COMMERCE. 421
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 humilia-
tion of Corea. "The eagle, even though starving, refuses to eat
grain;" nor would anything less than Corean blood satisfy the
Japanese veterans.
In 1873, the young king of Corea attained his majority. His
father, Tai-wen Kun, by the act of the king backed by Queen Cho,
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 minis-
ters, 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 re-
instated 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.
The neutral belt of land long inhabited by deer and tiger, or
^raversed by occasional parties of ginseng-hunters, had within the
kst few decades been overspread with squatters, and infested by
Ittanchiu brigands and Corean outlaws. The depredations of these
border ruffians both across the Yalu, and on the Chinese settle-
ments— 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 "
I y allowing the surveyor and plowman to enter the no longer de-
l atable land. In 1877, the governor of Shing-king proposing, the
I 'eking Government shifted the eastern frontier of the empire
t venty leagues nearer the rising sun, on the plea that " the width
of the tract left uncultivated was of less moment than the efficiency
o" border regulations." By this act the borders of China and
Corea touched, and were written in Yalu water. The last vestige
o' insulation was removed, and the shocks of change now became
n ore frequent and alarming. By contact with the living world,
ct >matose Corea was to be galvanized into new life.
Nevertheless the hostile spirit of the official classes, who tyran-
nize the little country, was shown in the refusal to receive envoys of
422 COREA.
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.
Since 1868 the Japanese navy, modelled after the British, and
consisting of American and European iron-dads and war vessels,
has been manned by crews uniformed in foreign style. On Septem-
ber 19, 1875, some sailors of the Unyo Kuan, which had been cruis-
ing off the mouth of the Han Kiver, 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.
The news of "the Kokwa [Kang-wa] affair" brought the wav-
ering 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 Eiver, to make, if pos-
sible, 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 Inouye Bunda
of the State Department, and Kin Kinshio, the Corean liberal.
General Kuroda sailed January 6, 1876, amid salvos of the artil-
lery 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 recom-
mendation that a treaty be made with the Japanese. The temper
of the young king had been manifested long before this by his re-
buking 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 her-
self 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.
THE PORTS OPENED TO JAPANESE COMMERCE. 423
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
piraded two miles to the treaty-house, on Kang-wa Island, where
two high commissioners from Seoul, Ji Shinken and In Jisho, aged
respectively sixty-five and fifty, awaited him.
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.1 Ten days for consultation at the capital were
then asked for and granted, at the end of which time, the two com-
nissioners returned, declaring the impossibility of obtaining the
royal signature. The Japanese at once embarked on their ships
ii disgust. They returned only after satisfactory assurances ; and
on February 27th the treaty, in which Cho-sen was recognized as
an independent nation, was signed and attested. The Japanese
then made presents, mostly of western manufacture, and after be-
ir.g feasted, returned March 1st. Mr. Inouye Bunda then pro-
ceeded to Europe, visiting, on his way, the Centennial Exposition
at Philadelphia, at which also, it is said, were one or more Corean
visitors.
The first Corean Embassy, which since the twelfth century had
been accredited to the mikado's court, sailed in May, 1876, from Fu-
san in a Japanese steamer, landing at Yokohama May 29th, at 8 A.M.
Two Neptune-like braves with the symbols of power— huge iron
1 The Japanese refused to have the Mikado designated by any title but that of
Whang Ti (Japanese Kotei) showing that he was peer to the Emperor of China ;
while the Coreans would not, in the same document, have their sovereign written
d( wn as Wang (Japanese O) 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,
ai d two equal and favorite Sons of Heaven.
The commissioners from Seoul attempted to avoid the dilemma by having
th 3 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
th 3 Mikado of Japan, and the Hap-mun of Cho-sen inserted at the beginning ;
and, in every necessary place thereafter, "the government" of Dai Nippon
(Great Japan), or of Dai Cho-sen (Great Corea) ; this also failed. Finally,
ne ither 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 " Gov-
er iments."
424 COKEA.
tridents — led the procession, in which was a band of twenty per*
formers 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 jin-riki-shas, and the
Japanese military and civil escort completed the display. They
breakfasted at the town hall, and by railroad and steam-cars reached
Tokio. 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
f ollowing 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 communi-
cation with them, were firmly rejected by the Coreans, who started
homeward June 28th. The official diary, or report by -the ambas-
sador 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.
During the autumn of this year, 1876, and later on, in follow-
ing years, the British war-vessels, Sylvia and Swinger, were engaged
in surveying portions of the coast of Kiung-sang province. Cap-
tain 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 attache of the British
Legation in Tokio was sent to Fusan to thank the authorities for
their kind treatment of the crew.
The Japanese found it was not wise to hasten in taking advan-
tage 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
THE PORTS OPENED TO JAPANESE COMMERCE. 425
guarded enclosure. Going out to witness the celebration, they
were met with a shower of stones, and found the road block-
aded. 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.
Saigo, of Satsuma, dissatisfied with the peaceful results of Ku-
roda's mission, and the " brain victory" over the Coreans, organ-
ized, during 1877, "The Satsuma Kebellion," 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, an.d with a
broader outlook to the future. A more vigorous policy with Cho-
sen was at once inaugurated.
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 Com-
merce, 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 Japan-
ese and Corean newspaper, Cho-sen Shimpo, restaurants, places
of amusements of various grades of morality, and a variety of es-
tablishments 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 Tokio
and Ozaka. Great trouble from the lack of a gold and silver cur-
rei cy has been experienced, as only the copper and iron sapeks, or
' cj ,sh,' are in circulation. In Corean political economy to let gold
go out of the country is to sell the kingdom ; and so many rogues
ha-e attempted the sale of brass or gilt nuggets that an assaying
office at the consulate has been provided. The government of
Tokio 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 koban, the
426 COREA.
mountains to be well packed with auriferous quartz, and the rivers
to run with golden sands.
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 Gen-
san, June 7th, the British man-of-war, Pegasus, came, and saw, but
did not conquer.
After six years of mutual contact at Fusan, the Coreans, though
finding the Japanese as troublesome as the latter discovered for-
eigners 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.
The exports are gold dust, silver, ox hides and bones, beche-de-
mer, fish, rice, raw silk, fans, cotton, and bamboo paper, gin-
seng, 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.
Even Eiu Kiu has seen the benefits of trade, and five mer-
chants from what is now the Okinawa ken of the mikado's empire
— formerly the Loo Choo island kingdom — came to Tokio in Feb-
ruary, 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.
Gensan (Corean, Won-san) was opened May 1, 1880. In a fer-
tile 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 pub-
lic 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 Tokio merchants,
taller, stouter, and better looking than those of Fusan. One
twenty-sixth of the goods sold was Japanese, the rest, mostly cot-
THE PORTS OPENED TO JAPANESE COMMERCE. 427
ton goods and ' notions/ were American and European. The busy
seasDn 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 Cho-
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
wero fair, and the first anniversary of the opening of the port was
celebrated in grand style. Besides dinners and day fire works, the
polioe played the ancient national game of polo, to the great amuse-
ment 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
lane, 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 dis-
turb 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."
To regulate some points of the treaty, and if possible postpone
the opening of the new port of In-chiun (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 re-
mained in Tokio until September 8th. Perfect courtesy was every-
where shown them, as they visited schools and factories, and
stucied Japan's modern enginery of war and peace. The general
attit ude of the Toki5 press and populace was that of condescend-
ing familiarity, of generous hospitality mildly flavored with con-
tem pt, and tempered by a very uncertain hope that these people
might develop into good pupils — and customers.
Oho-sen did not lack attentions from the outside world — Russia,
428 COREA.
England, France, Italy, and the United States— during the year
1880. Whether missionaries of the Holy Synod of Russia at-
tempted 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 de-
clined. The Italian war-vessel Vettor Pisani, having on board H.
E. H. the Duke of Genoa, arrived off Fusan, August 1, 1880, at
1 P.M — a few hours after the Corean embassy had left for Japan.
One survivor of the Italian ship, Bianca Portia, wrecked near Quel-
part 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 negociations with the Corean s would succeed
better without Japanese aid, and congratulating himself upon hav-
ing been more successful than the previous attempts by the Brit-
ish, and especially by the French (Captain Fourmier, of the Lynx)
and American (Commodore Shufeldt) diplomatic agents, whose let-
ters were returned unread.
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. Enter-
ing 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
THE PORTS OPENED TO JAPANESE COMMERCE. 429
pay rnd comfort to possible future benefit — would have anything to
do \\ith 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 sover-
eign was " not King of Korai" but "King of Cho-sen." Under the
circumstances, the American could do nothing more than with-
draw, 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
scoffor among nations at western alliances," and her prow home-
ward
The Corean embassy, failing in their attempts to have the Jap-
anese go slowly, Hanabusa, the mikado's envoy at Seoul, now vigor-
ously urged the opening of the third port, and, after much discus-
sion, In-chiiin,1 twenty-five miles from Seoul, was selected ; in De-
cember, 1880, Hanabusa and his suite, crossing the frozen rivers,
went thither, and selected the ground for the Japanese concession.
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, Bui Shoshoko, Ri Saiwo,
and other high dignitaries, besides Kin Giokin and Jo Kohan, for-
mer ( nvoys to Japan. The leader of the Conservatives was the Tai-
wen-kun, father of the king and late regent. The neutrals clus-
tered around Kin Koshiu.
Paysically speaking, the Coreans see the sun rise over Japan
and set over China, but morally, and in rhetoric, their sun of pros-
perity 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 c ther side urged the adoption of Japanese methods and mate-
rials. The pro-Chinese gentry imitated the Peking mandarins in
1 T iis fu 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 iieans Two Rivers. The rise and fall of the tides here is very great,
someti mes amounting to a difference of twenty -nine feet ; and in winter the
shore- vater is frozen. Large vessels cannot anchor within a mile of the shore.
The p >rt Chi-mul-po is at some distance from the city.
430 COREA.
details of dress, household decoration, and culture ; while all theii
books conveying Western science must be read from Chinese trans-
lations. 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 awak-
ening life.
About this time, early in 1881, a remarkable document, com-
posed 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 Cho-sen, and pointed out
her proper attitude to each of them. From Kussia, 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.
About the same time, Li Hung Chang, China's liberal states-
man, 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 em-
bassies to Japan returned full of enthusiasm for Western civiliza-
tion. It soon became evident that the king and many of his ad-
visers 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 Tokio, had any authority to make a treaty with Corea. While
the way was thus made ready, the representations of Messrs. Bing-
THE PORTS OPENED TO JAPANESE COMMERCE. 431
hain 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 ex-
perience 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.
The Government at Washington responded to the suggestion,
and in the spring of 1881, Commodore Shufeldt was sent by the
Stato Department to Peking as naval attache to the Legation, so as
to be near the American Minister and be ready with his experi-
ence, should a further attempt "to bring together the strange
Stat< s of the Extreme Sea " be made.
Shortly after the presentation of Kwo-in-ken's memorial in
Seoul, a party of thirty-four prominent men of the civilization
part}', led by Gio 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.
The proposition to open a port so near the capital to the Japa-
nese, and to treat with the Americans, was not left unchallenged.
The ultra-Confucianists, headed by Ni Mansun, stood ready to op-
pose it with word and weapon. In swelling Corean rhetoric, this
bigoted patriot from Chung-chong proved to his own satisfaction
that ;ill the nations except China and Corea were uncivilized, and
that the presence of foreigners would pollute the holy land. Gath-
ering 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-chiun should not be opened, the two
Bin should be deposed, and all innovations should cease.
The popular form of the dread of foreigners was shown in dele-
gatio is 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
resuli s of Western blight and poison upon the country which had
ever been the object of the special favor of the sprits.
432 COREA.
Another party of two thousand literary men, fanatical patriots,
had assembled at Cho-rio to go up to Seoul to overawe the pro-
gressive 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 Cho-sen as inaccessible as Hades.
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 Tokid to
examine modern civilization in its manifold phases. Unlike Peter
the Great, some of these reformers began with themselves, cloth-
ing mind and body with the nineteenth century. Dropping the
garments of picturesque mediaevalism, 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.
Gio Inchiu l 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.
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 fire-
arms, 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 dis-
crimination 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."
1 In this and the following chapter the names of Corean noblemen have
been given in their Japanese form, i.e., Bin for Min, etc., but in the Supple-
mentary Chapter according to Corean pronunciation.
CHAPTER XLVm.
THE YEAR OF THE TREATIES.
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 lirst believed to have political significance, and the tension of
the public mind was not relaxed until it was shown that the fire
wahs the result of pure accident.
The spirit of progress made advance, but discussion reached
fevor-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 argu-
meat by proposing an alliance with foreigners in order to check-
mate the designs of Japan.
An event not unlocked for increased the power of the progres-
sionists. 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
cocspirators were exiled, and the ringleaders were sentenced to
be broken alive on the wheel, the revolutions of which tore off
hai ds and feet in succession. Six of those doomed to death were
spared, through the intercession of a minister, and one, the king's
con sin, who delivered himself up, was pardoned l?y his sovereign on
the ground of the prisoner's insanity. The Progressionists had
nov.T the upper hand, and early in the spring Gio Inchiu and Biosen
loft on a mission to Tientsin, to acquaint the Americans and Chinese
wit i the information that the Corean government was ready to
make treaties, and that the proper officer would be at In-chiun to
sig i the compact and complete the negotiations.
Meanwhile the reforms in military affairs were begun with en-
38
434 COREA.
ergy. 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 Tokio 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 Tokio, which, combining
the merits of the best-known military fire-arm, contained improve-
ments 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 Na-
gasaki that they had come to raise a money loan. Nevertheless,
they proceeded to Kioto and Tokid. 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.
Affairs had so shaped themselves that even to outsiders it be-
came 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 Tokio
it became certain that, unless he made all haste to In-chifm, the
American commodore would have his treaty signed and be of!
without even waiting for a call. Hastily bidding his friends
good-by, he left in the Japanese steamer, Iwaki Kuan, and ar-
rived 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.
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. Ac-
companied 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 negotia-
tions were concluded, and a treaty with the United States was, after
repeated failures, secured by the gallant officer who, by this act
THE YEAR OF THE TREATIES. 435
of successful diplomacy, closed a long and brilliant professional
career. 1
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
Aitericans, 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-chiiin. The American
ernoy was so worn out with anxiety and toil by his efforts to have
Corea opened under Chinese auspices, that on landing at San Fran-
cisco, he retired to the naval hospital at Mare's Island to recover
his exhausted strength.
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 accom-
plished. 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.
The British minister at Tokio, Sir Harry Parkes, who had left no
stone unturned to secure a personal interview with the ambassador
1 Commodore R. W. Shufeldt was born in Dutchess County, New York, in
182JL', 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 Is-
land 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
or the civil war, he was occupied in his civil duties, at one time going to Mex-
ico < n 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 com-
man ding the Wachusett visited Corea. In 1870 he organized a party for the
surv ey of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, his report being made the basis of Cap-
tain 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.
436 COREA.
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-
chiun. Leaving his large fleet in Japanese waters, Admiral Willes
left Nagasaki in the Vigilant, May 27th, while Mr. William G. As-
ton, 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-
chiun 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.
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-chiun, officers were de-
spatched to Shanghae to sail for Gensan and Fusan, and select land
for public buildings.
During the present year the Japanese legation in Seoul has
numbered about forty persons, including secretaries, interpreters,
military officers, policemen, students, and servants. Notwith-
standing 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.
The light-hearted Japanese seemed to suspect no imminent dan-
ger, although the old fanatic and tyrant Tai-wen Kun was still alive
and plotting. To insure perfect secrecy for his plans, it is said
THE YEAR OF THE TREATIES. 437
that he employed two or three mutes to wait on him, and act as
hi 3 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 West-
ern 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 peo-
ple against foreigners. Stone monuments had been set up on the
hi^h roads and market-places which bore this inscription — "The
"Western barbarians will come to invade our soil, there are but two
alternatives for Cho-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 progres-
sive views, Tai-wen Kun would sneeringly dare them to remove
those anti-foreign monuments.
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 oppor-
tunity, 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-chiun, the usual rainfall was
withheld, the wells dried up, and in the consequent drouth, the
rice crop was threatened with total failure. The diviners, sorcer
ert, 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 dis-
affected, as some say on account of arrearages of wages, or as
otl ers 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
faiJure of the rice-harvest, the soldiers' rations were cut down, and
th( y were deprived of this choice cereal for food. Among the first
Co.'ean officers killed was the superintendent of the rice store-
houses, which were pillaged by the hungry mob.
On July 23d, while the king was out in the open air praying
438 COREA.
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.
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 dis-
turbance, and at two o'clock P.M. 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 lega-
tion informed them that the mob had destroyed the houses of
the two ministers Bin, and were attacking three Japanese stu-
dents. 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
P.M. 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 shoot-
ing down the incendiaries when they could see them. It was now
THE YEAR OF THE TREATIES. 439
about ten o'clock, and the ruffians having thrown up barricades to
he n in their victims and to shield their cowardly carcases while
shooting, the Japanese fired the remaining buildings, and armed
on y 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.
Hanabusa now resolved to cross the river with his party and
make his way to In-chiun. Turning their backs on the flames, they
an ived at the river and, on the ferryman refusing to convey them
acioss, 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-chiun at
3 P.M. 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.
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 Jap-
ant se 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.
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 Eoze
Islrnd for safety. About midnight, having procured a junk, they
pui to sea, toward Nanyo Bay, where they knew the British gunboat
440 COREA.
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 A.M., 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
Shimonoseki. " 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
Tokio.
Without hesitation, the Japanese government ordered the army
to assemble at Shinonoseki and Tsushima, with naval forces to co-
operate. Hanabusa and his suite were sent back, escorted by a mili-
tary 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 foreign-
ers, and to ascribe the recent riot to a sudden uprising of the un-
paid soldiery, which the government had not force at hand to sup-
press. Two Corean officers coming on board the Flying Fish,
August 10th, informed Captain Hoskyn that ^the soldiery, dissatis-
fied with the unfair treatment of their superiors, had incited the
peasantry to rebellion ; that by orders of Tai-wen Kun, who bit-
terly 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.
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 hav-
ing 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
Klin'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.
THE YEAR OF THE TREATIES. 441
The following telegram to the New York Tribune of October 2d,
summarizes the news from Yokohama up to September 13th :
The Corean Government pledged itself to the following conditions : To ar-
rest 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 pro-
vide proper accommodations for them ; to send an apology by a special em-
bassy 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.
While this was going on the Chinese envoy, who had remained inactive
whh his escort until August 25th, suddenly called up the full body of his
trcops, 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
an 1 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 des-
tination. Whatever was the object of this proceeding, it must have been dic-
tatod by Li Hung Chang, the Chinese Viceroy at Tien-tsin, who seems to
ha ye quite abandoned his demeanor of calm stolidity during these active Co-
rean 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
ov<>r Corea's rulers, which Li Hung Chang has been straining for throughout.
During the recent prospect of trouble with Corea, the Japanese Govern-
m< nt received offers of military service from twenty thousand volunteers, and
of money gifts to the value of 200,000 yen.
At this stage of affairs, when Corea ceases to be a "hermit na-
tion, "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
" iier right arm of defense," and " her gloved hand " — the one to
fo :ce back the ravenous Muscovite, the other to warn off the ambi-
tious Japanese. Whether the Middle Kingdom has deliberately
ctosen the Land of Morning Calm to affront and humiliate "the
nc ighbor 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 em'
442 COREA.
pire 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.
SUPPLEMENT AE Y CHAPTER.
COREA IN 1888.
COREA for ages has been the pupil of China. Manners, cus-
toms, writing, culture, and nearly everything that makes up civili-
zation have been borrowed from or enforced by China. The very-
fact of the map is Chinese, and the names of the kingdom, capital,
and provinces bear witness to the desire for "the sunshine of
China." The people have been taught to believe that their coun-
try is the " little house " of " the Great Country," while those who
subsist upon the public treasury look to Peking very much as a
plant turns to the sun for its very existence.
Of patriotism in its highest sense there is, as yet, little in the
kingdom. With the people in general there is the anxiety to pay
taxes, win the favor of the local magistrates, and escape the clutches
of the law. With the underlings and retainers of the nobles and
official class, there is the personal tie of interest and loyalty. With
masters and rulers there is a pitiful fear of " the Great Country,"
China, and a desire to keep things as they are, mixed with impo-
tenl dread of changes to come. Of pure love of country, of will-
ingness to make sacrifice for their native land — that is almost a
nevf thought, as yet nourished by a few far-seeing patriots. It is,
however, a sentiment in which the Corean people are being edu-
cated, especially in this year of Our Lord the 1888th.
This preponderating influence of China is the main-spring in
the intricate machinery of Corean politics. The power behind the
throne resides in the various families whose graduated degrees of
friendship, rivalry, or hostility, and whose consequent lines of pol-
icy, depend upon their stricter or looser construction of Chinese
dog-nas. There are Confucian fanatics and time-servers of the
mer in power at Peking and Tientsin, who ever wait attentive to the
becl: and nod from China and hasten to obey. There are, also,
men who have drunk at other fountains of thought, entered new
wor;ds of knowledge, and seen the light of modern science, of
Chr stianity, of Western civilization in lands beyond sea.
444 CORBA.
The numbers of enlightened men are increasing who believe in
Corea for the Coreans, in the reform of hoary abuses and of cruel
and oppressive customs, in the reduction of the shamefully large
and lazy official class who grind down the people, in political and
religious toleration, in stimulating industry — in a word, in national
progress. Though to their demands there is ever the defiant an-
swer of vigilant conservatism, yet steady advance seems to be made
toward the goal.
Even within the two broadly defined parties there are factional
and family differences, which only the continued pressure of for-
eign influence and the power of increasing light will force to dis-
appear. Against the craft of the Min clan (p. 387) the other
noble families, Ni, So, Kim, Hong, etc., have been able to make
headway only by adroit combination. In 1875 the two noblemen
Kim Ok Kiun and So Kwang Pom secretly left Corea and went to
Japan, being the first men of rank in recent times to travel in lands
beyond China. On their return they sought the king and boldly
told him what they had seen. Other noblemen followed their ex-
ample, but the brother-in-law of the king, Pak Hong Hio, was the
first who, at risk of reputation and life, openly advocated the adop-
tion of Western civilization. In 1882, Kim and So, in earnest con-
sideration of the opening of their country to modern ideas, took
long walks nightly into the country, lest walls that have ears should
betray them, and endeavored to persuade Min Yong Ik to join
them and also win over his powerful Min relatives to a liberal pol-
icy. When this came to the ears of the Tai Wen Kun, the young
men were forthwith charged with intent to introduce Christianity,
and the two Liberals narrowly escaped being put to death by the
old regent, who had already shed the blood of thousands.
The men of the Min class held aloof from treaty negotiations
with the United States, until China gave the nod. When at last
Li Hung Chang advised Corea to treat with Admiral Shufeldt, the
Min nobles obeyed, and exhibited so much energy in the matter
as to seem to foreigners to be leaders of the party of progress.
How far they were actuated by motives of patriotism, apart from
fear of Russia and servility to China, is not for a foreigner to
judge. It is certain, however, that when the Min people favored
the treaty, in which the old regent saw only an open door for the
official admission of Christianity, he felt it his duty at once to plan
for the overthrow both of the Mins and of the treaty. Like a
crouching tiger, he awaited his opportunity.
COREA IN 1888. 445
This came in July, 1882. When, on account of the short rice
crop, the soldiers' rations were cut down by Min Thai Ho, father of
Min Yong Ik, the artful politician directed their revolt against this
pro -Chinese family, and after destroying, as he imagined, the
queen, and the leading men of the Min clan, he seized the govern-
ment himself, for a few days enjoying full lease of power.
When the news of the usurpation reached China and Japan,
there were at Tientsin three Corean nobles, Cho Yong Ha, Kim
Yun Sik, and O-Yun Chung ; and in Tokio, Kim Ok Kiun and So
Kwrng Pom. The former, notified by telegram from the Chinese
consul at Nagasaki of the movements of the Japanese, obtained a
Chinese naval and military force, and the ships of these two for-
eign nations met at Chimulpo. Before either the Chinese or Jap-
anese troops were disembarked the two groups of Corean noble-
men had a conference, and, after a long and warm discussion, it
was agreed to submit the question, whether the Chinese should
land and proceed to Seoul, to the king himself. Accordingly Kim
Ok Kiun in disguise penetrated the capital, but only to find the
roy;d person in possession of his old and chief enemy Tai Wen
Kun, his friends driven away, and approach to the palace impos-
sible. On learning the failure of Kim's mission, the Chinese force
at once landed, marched to Seoul, abducted the regent, built forts
to command the river against the Japanese, and established their
camp inside the walls. A Chinese commissioner arrived in Octo-
ber, who had general charge of this force of three thousand men.
Thi? act of China gave her a new lien on Corea. Min Thai Ho,
whc had been supposed to be mortally wounded, recovered, and
resumed office. Min Yong Ik, who after fleeing to the mountains
shave.d his head and in disguise of a bonze had fled to Japan, re-
turned smiling after temporary defeat. The queen, for whom a
pals ce-maid had suffered vicarious death, re-entered the capital and
pakce on October 9, 1882. The star of the Mins was again in
the ascendant.
The Japanese began the erection of another costly Legation
building, furnished in European style, and a military barracks to
shelter the military guard of two hundred men, most of whom were
froci Sendai and many of them deer-hunters and crack shots. In-
ducing shop-keepers, mechanics, and their families, there were
abo it four hundred of the Mikado's subjects in the city. By good
discipline and the great care exercised by the officers in both the
Chi lese and Japanese camps, collision between the soldiers of thesje
446 COREA.
two rival and almost hostile nations, which nearly three centuries
before had made Corea their battle-ground, was for a time avoided.
The Corean Government, naturally solicitous at the situation,
made preparations to replace the foreign soldiery by organizing
four battalions of native troops for the defence of the capital. To
provide officers for these, they sent fourteen young men, mostly
members of Progressive families, to study in the military school in
Tokio, while to the same city went a number of Corean artisans to
learn modern crafts and methods, with the idea of introducing new
industries in Corea. Meanwhile, the native troops in the capital
province were placed under Chinese instructors introduced by the
Min leaders. This was the general situation of affairs in Corea
until the autumn of 1884.
The treaty negotiated by Commodore Shufeldt was promptly
ratified by the Senate of the United States, and on February 26th
President Chester D. Arthur sent in the name of General Lucius
H. Foote as minister to Corea. From Japan he reached Chimul-
po, May 13th, in the U.S.S.S. Monocacy, and the formal ratifications
of the treaty were exchanged in the capital, May 19th. The same
guns, served by some of the same sailors that in 1871 had shelled the
Han forts, saluted peacefully the Corean flag. The American min-
ister, keeping clear of the various native factions, dealt as directly as
possible with the sovereign, and made an earnest plea for toleration
of religion, a promise to proclaim which he secured from the king.
Prompt response to American courtesy was made by the despatch
of a special mission of eleven persons, headed bv Min Yong Ik
and Hong Yong Sik, who arrived at San Francisco, September 2d.
President Arthur being absent from Washington, they proceeded
to New York, where, in the parlors of the Fifth Avenue Hotel, the
Chief Magistrate of the Republic gave audience to these gorgeously
apparelled Oriental strangers. After a three months' stay in the
eastern cities, Hong Yong Sik and others returned home by way
of San Francisco. On the evening of November 27th, at the Vic-
toria Hotel, the writer spent an agreeable evening with Min Yong
Ik, So Kwang Pom, and Pien Su, the two latter gentlemen being
well versed in Japanese. Though many questions were answered,
and a number of subjects discussed, nothing could be learned of
Corean Christianity or of Hendrik Hamel.1 A few days later, on
' At that time the author was engaged in annotating Hamel's narrative,
which is given in full in "Corea, Without and Within," Philadelphia, 1884.
Mr. Percival Lowell, the Secretary of the Corean Special Mission, returned
CORE A IN 1888. 447
the U.S.S.S. Trenton, with ensign G. C. Foulke and Lieutenant
Beraadon, U.S.N., naval attaches to the American Legation in Seoul,
they returned homeward by way of Europe and the Suez Canal.
On that evening, November 27th, there was a banquet at the
English Language School in Seoul to celebrate the signiog, the
clay before, of the treaties with Great Britain and the German
Empire. The cavalry escort of the British minister, Sir Harry
Paikes, who had negotiated a more liberal treaty than that made
by Admiral Willes and rejected by Earl Granville and Mr. Glad-
stone, and the band of the man-of-war Leipsic, lent gayety to the
capital, which now began to be the settled residence of foreigners
from Christendom.
On New Year's Day, January 28, 1884, the king gave audience
to the envoys of China, Japan, and the United States. On Febru-
ary 28th the submarine electric cable between Nagasaki and Fu-
san was completed, and messages sent from Corea into the outside
world. Hong Yong Sik was appointed Postmaster, to organize a
national postal system, stamps for which were engraved in Tokio.
From this base of supplies many of the novelties of the "Western
world poured in, and the people, long insulated from other nations,
were now moved with new currents from the life beyond their bor-
ders Treaties were made with Eussia and Italy, June 25 and 26,
1884. Later on, telegraph lines connecting Seoul with Peking,
and with Fusan, were completed.
in June, 1884, Min Yong Ik and So KwongPom, the first Coreans
to go round the world, reached home, followed by Kim Ok Kiun
and the Tokio students from Japan. After an enthusiastic re-
ception of the returned envoys and the American officers of the
Tre iton, in SSoul, the public opinion in favor of progress was
greatly stimulated. Min Yong Ik was made Vice-President of the
Foreign Office, and So Kwong Pom and Pien Su elevated in rank.
The Chinese military instructors were dismissed by the king, and
Herr P. G. von Mollendorf resigned his position as foreign ad-
viser. A model farm sown with American seeds, and for which
California live stock was ordered, Edison electric lights, American
rifles and Gatling guns, Japanese artisans to establish potteries,
with Hong Yong Sik, and as the guest of the king spent a winter in Seoul,
the literary fruits of which is the charming volume " Cho-son, the Land of
Mori ing Calm," in which the proper names are transliterated according to As-
ton's "Manual of Korean Geographical and other Proper Names Romanized,"
Yokohama, 1883.
448 COREA.
paper factories, and other industries, gave indications of the new
path of national progress upon which Corea had entered.
Min Yong Ik while abroad had passed for an enlightened man,
susceptible to modern ideas and in favor of further opening Corea
to commerce ; yet profound devotion, on shipboard, to the Chinese
classics, while his two countrymen were improving every moment
to acquire science and a knowledge of the world, boded ill for the
future. Having been home but a few weeks, and falling under the
influence of his clan, he came to open rupture with Hong Yong
Sik. Resigning from the Foreign Office, he assumed command of
the right Palace Guard Battalion, and restored Chinese drill-mas-
ters, the military students from Japan being left to gain their sup-
port as subordinates in the proposed Postal Department. By au-
tumn the late envoy to the United States had surrounded himself
with Chinese and pro-Chinese Conservatives, the progressive men
had been hampered in their action, and the revenues for the prom-
ised enterprises and industries had been diverted to warlike prep-
arations that looked as if Corea, as a vassal, was to help China
against France in the Tonquin complication. Already one- half of
the Chinese troops had been called away because needed, while
Chinese merchants and adventurers had greatly multiplied in
Corea. It seemed to the progressive men as if their country, the
beginning of whose independence they had looked for in the
American treaty, was to fall hopelessly into the hands of the Chi-
nese. Added to their fears was the local irritation caused by the
insolent behavior of the newly created and ill-disciplined native
troops. These braves were recruited almost wholly from the
guilds of pedlers and hucksters. Owing to the lack of the shops
so common in other countries, the place of which is supplied by
the many fairs held in various towns and villages, this class of petty
traders numbers, in the whole country, nearly two hundred thou-
sand able-bodied men. Of the corps of five thousand five hundred
soldiers, three thousand were armed with Martini-Peabody rifles.
At the end of October, 1884, the situation in Seoul was alarm-
ing. A state of hostility existed between the leaders of the two
political parties, one of which had at their call a rabble of rapa-
cious militia eager to try their new tools upon their hereditary
enemies the Japanese, while the other knew full well the sterling
quality of the little body of Japanese infantry, withal crafty enough
to secure the employment of them for their own purposes. Fifteen
hundred Chinese soldiers were still in the camp, under General Yuen.
COREA IN 1888. 449
In such a situation, the government being in the hands of their
rivals and committed to the pro-Chinese policy which they de-
testc d, the Liberals felt that their heads were likely to remain on
their shoulders only so long as it pleased their enemies to bring
no charge against them. Under such circumstances, what could
they do? How move a vote of censure upon the ministers in
power ? How save their own lives ?
In old Asiatic nations, semi-civilized and without representa-
tive institutions, revolutions and outbreaks must be expected when
a ch inge of policy is decided upon. Where the means of expres-
sion of public opinion are lacking, assassination seems to be the
only resource to men who have no hope of moving by reason those
in office and power. What in England would be accomplished
simply by a peaceful change of ministry, or in the United States
by a presidential election, must be accomplished in Corea by riot
and bloodshed. Dynamite in Russia and the keen sword in old
Japan were the means chosen. Let us see how the Corean Liber-
als attempted, when beset and thwarted, to save their own lives,
and reverse the policy of the government.
On October 25th one of the Liberal leaders intimated to an
American that, " for the sake of Corea," about ten of the prominent
Conservatives " would have to be killed." The idea was to remove
their rivals out of the way by removing their heads, seize the gov-
ernrient, inaugurate new schemes of progress, open new ports, and
otherwise commit Corea to the same path as that upon which
Japan had entered. They supposed that the Treaty Powers would
condone and approve their actions, make further favorable treaties,
and loan money for national improvements. Further, they claim
to have had the royal sanction.
The autumn passed and the moment seemed ripe for the plot.
China, pressed by France, had withdrawn half her troops from
Seoul, and Japan, with the view to strengthen her influence in the
peninsula, had a few days befor6 remitted $400,000 of the indem-
nity exacted for the riot of 1882. The time to strike a blow for
Corean independence, and to break the shackles of China forever,
seemed to have come.
To a banquet, given on the evening of December 4th, to cele-
brate the inauguration of the postal service, the foreign envoys and
seve ral high officers of the government were invited. When nearly
over an alarm of fire broke out, and Min Yong Ik, going out to
look, was set upon by assassins, but instead of being killed as was
29
450 COREA.
intended was only wounded. Thereupon the Liberal leaders hast-
ened to the palace, and, assuring the king that he was in great
danger, sent in his name to Mr. Takezoye for the Japanese Lega-
tion guard. At the same time the Conservative leaders were sum-
moned, as they supposed, by the king ; as fast as they stepped out
of their sedan-chairs at the palace-gates, they were relieved of
their heads. Meanwhile the Japanese infantry commanded the
inner gates of the palace, and during the next day the new minis-
ters of Government, Kim Ok Kiun, Hong Yong Sik, Pak Hong Hio
So Kwong Pom, and others, prepared edicts to be issued by the
king reforming ancient abuses and customs, and instituting new
and radical measures of national policy.
All day during December 5th the city was in a state of com-
motion, but, despite the surging crowds, no actual outbreak oc-
curred. On the morning of the 6th the cry was raised, "Death to
the Japanese," and then began a wild revelry of outrage, butchery,
and incendiarism, in which the new militia were conspicuous.
The white foreigners in Seoul, nine in number, of whom three were
ladies, had gathered at the American Legation, which, under Lieu-
tenant Bernadon's directions, was put in a state of defence. In
it twenty-two Japanese, who had escaped bullets, stones, and
knives, found refuge. In the afternoon of the 6th the Chinese
troops, six hundred strong, commanded by General Yuen, and
backed by three thousand Coreans, moved upon the palace, to
drive out the Japanese. With superb discipline and finest skill
Captain Murakami and his little band drove off their assailants, and,
through the narrow streets, reached the Legation at 8 P.M., after
forty-eight hours' absence. The score of soldiers left behind, aided
by the hundred or so of civilians who had gathered within, had
successfully defended the inclosure from the mob. Provisions
being exhausted, the Japanese, with admirable coolness, discipline,
and success, began the march to the sea on the afternoon of the,
7th. Despite hostile soldiery with rifles and cannon, armed men
firing from roof and wall, barred city gates, and a mob following
them to the Han River, they crossed, with their wounded, at 5.30
P.M. Reaching Chimulpo on the morning of the 8th, they were
fed by the sailors of the men-of-war, while a Japanese steamer car-
ried the news to Nagasaki.1
1 The details of this outbreak, and especially of the military movements of
the Japanese, are set forth with graphic power and rare literary skill by Mr.
Percival Lowell in his article, " A Korean Coup d'Etat," in the Atlantic
CORE A IN 1888. 451
The short-lived Liberal Government came to an end after an
existence of less than forty-eight hours. Hong Yong Sik, refusing
to leave the king, was taken with him to the Chinese camp, and
there beheaded. The other conspirators fled to Japan, whence they
were demanded by the Corean Ministerial Council, which demand
was by the Japanese promptly refused. The torture and trial of
twelve persons implicated in the affair of December 4th was con-
cluded, January 27, 1885, and eleven were executed in the usual
barbarous manner. Their bodies were chopped in pieces and the
flesh and bones distributed in fragments through the streets of the
city. The refugees, except Kim Ok Kiun, reached America.
Count Inouye, of Japan, and Kim Hong Chip, of Corea, on Jan-
uary 9th, and Inouye and Li Hung Chang, of China, on May 7th,
concluded conventions by which the late troubles were settled. The
chief points in the diplomacy were the payment of indemnity by
Corea to Japan, and a joint agreement between China and Japan
to withdraw their troops. Both camps were emptied on the 20th,
and on the 21st the troops left Chimulpo for their respective coun-
tries. On October 5, 1885, the Tai Wen Kun, now sixty-eight years
old, but fresh as a man of fifty, returned from China, and re-entered
Seoul under a guard of Chinese warriors, and many thousands of
Cor^ans.
The affair of December was, in its origin, an anti-Chinese up-
rising of radical Progressives, but in its ending an anti-Japanese
demDnstration. About three hundred lives were lost by battle and
murder and sudden death. The Japanese riflemen firing low, and
mostly while lying down, picked off their enemies with remarkable
skill The conduct of the American minister, General L. H. Foote,
duriag this trying occasion, was most admirable, and the Lega-
tion, which sheltered all the foreigners and many Japanese, was
kept open and the flag was never lowered.
Divine Providence, through these unpromising circumstances,
opered a gate for the entrance of Western science and Reformed
Christianity. Dr. Henry N. Allen, a missionary physician from
Ohic, having arrived in Seoul in September, was at once called
upoi to attend upon Min Yong Ik and the wounded Chinese sol-
diers The superiority of modern methods being at once manifest,
Montily for November, 1886. See also the luminous "Report of Informa-
tion,' &c., by Ensign G. C. Foulke, U.S.N., in "Foreign Relations of the
United States," for 1885 (p. 335), to which the present chapter is much in-
debte 1.
452 COREA.
many natives sought medical aid of Dr. Allen. Unable to attend
to them all, application was made for a hospital, and the govern-
ment set apart the dwelling occupied by Hong Yong Sik, and,
naming it the "House of Civilized Virtue," established, April 10,
1885, a hospital. Assisted by other Americans, Dr. J. W. Heron
and Eev. H. C. Underwood, the work has continued, and the first
year's report is a most interesting document, affording a wide view
into the sanitary condition of the people.1 Following this was the
arrival of American missionaries of the Presbyterian and Metho-
dist Churches, and, later, of three young men, Messrs. D. A. Bunker,
G. W. Gilmore, and H. B. Hulbert, engaged by the Corean Gov-
ernment as teachers to begin an educational system for the king-
dom. The school, with thirty-five sons of noble families, opened
September 23, 1885. An American lady physician, Miss Ellers,
now Mrs. Bunker, has waited upon the queen' and royal ladies.
In the colony of Americans in Seoul, July 22, 1886, twenty-three
colleges or professional schools were represented, showing the
high character and cultivation of the Americans representing us in
Corea. A union Christian church was organized early in 1887,
meeting for worship at the Legation of the United States by invi-
tation of the American minister, Captain William H. Parker.
The first native Christian convert to Reformed Christianity was
baptized by the Rev. Horace C. Underwood, on the second Sun-
day in July, 1886, and the first native Christian church in Corea,
according to the Presbyterian polity, was organized by the same
missionary in 1887. It had in May, 1888, forty members. The
Methodist missionaries, Rev. William B. Scran ton, M.D., and Rev.
H. G. Appenzeller, have established a private hospital, and schools
for boys and girls. A fine brick building for a college hall was
dedicated by Bishop H. W. Warren as "America's gift to Corea."
1 From this report we learn that " fifty per cent, of the deaths in Korea
are from small-pox." Syphilis is an " almost omnipresent disease," 760
cases being treated in one year. Pediculi and tape-worm, wounds from ar-
rows and stones, abscesses, skin-diseases, scrofula, dropsy, and indigestion are
very common. Malaria is the most general cause of disease. Beriberi, mela-
nosis, distoma, and filaria exist. The patients respond readily to medicine,
but, owing to their meat diet and strong drink, do not do as well after surgical
operations as the Chinese and Japanese. Of the cases treated, there were of
fever 1,147 ; digestion, etc., 2,032 ; circulation, 114 ; respiration, 476 ; nervous
system, 833 ; genito-urinary organs, 1,902 ; eyes, 629 ; ear, 318 ; bones and
tendons, 105 ; malformations, 37 ; skin, 845 j of women, 67 ; in all, 10,460,
with 394 dispensary operations.
COREA IN 1888. 453
With the increasing mastery of the language, a committee for the
translation of the Bible into Corean was formed in Seoul, in March,
1 S88. With orphanages, Sunday-schools, Christian woman's work
iii the home, and an open Bible, a new phase of Christianity, novel
yet primitive, opens in Corea.
Of the Roman form of the faith there are, besides a bishop, a
d Dzen or more French priests in Seoul, who no longer need to live
ii. disguise, but have come forth to the light, and to begin the
erection of a cathedral in the capital. A treaty with France was
negotiated in the summer of 1886, and ratified May 30, 1887. A
strenuous effort was made to secure toleration of religion and the
right to openly preach and proselyte, which the Corean Govern-
ment as strenuously refused.
While it is to be hoped that Christian teachers, of whatever
form of the faith, will proceed in the work of proselyting with wis-
dom, and while temporary interruptions or reactions through
governmental interference may occur, yet the work cannot perma-
nently be hindered. Corea will find that the Treaty Powers will
cl iss her civilization as unworthy of recognition, if persecution is
allowed. Wise toleration is the surest proof that barbarism has
past and enlightened civilization begun.
Americans have thus far been chosen as advisers and assistants
of the nation which has latest of all entered into the world's broth-
erhood. Three military officers to organize her army, naval offi-
cers to inaugurate a navy, commissioners of customs, and a coun-
sellor in the Foreign Office are among these. The latter position,
most difficult and delicate, has been held by Judge O. N. Denny.
Surrounded by powerful and ambitious nations, Corea needs the
wisest advice. On April 14, 1885, the British Government, "in view
of eventualities" with Russia, ordered the "temporary occupa-
tion " of Port Hamilton in the Nam How group of islands, about
th rty-five miles from the northeast end of Quelpaert. Despite
all offers of gold, and all diplomatic pressure, the Corean Govern-
m( nt protested against this seizure of territory, and, after volumi-
nous correspondence and the assurance that Russia would not
occupy any part of Corea, the British flag was hauled down, Febru-
ary 27, 1887.
The Port Hamilton episode was valuable to Corea, because it
im iiretjtly taught her to look no longer to China for light and help,
an 1 this for reasons which cannot here be given in detail ; and she
novv resolve'd to appeal to the world to determine her political
454 COREA.
status. Renouncing the idea of the suzerainty of China over Corea,
the king and government sent embassies to Japan, Europe, and
the United States, to establish permanent legations. This move-
ment was opposed by the Chinese, and especially by the minister
Yuen, in an active, impudent, and even a villainous manner. Yuen,
who led the Chinese troops during the fighting of December 4th,
and who had escorted the Tai Wen Kun to Corea, is believed to
have plotted to dethrone the king and set up another son of the
Tai Wen Kun, as a pro-Chinese partisan, on the throne. Expect-
ing to make use of the Corean military, whom he had drilled in per-
son, his plot was exposed by Min Yong Ik. After continued efforts
to hamper the government in progressive measures, Yuen suc-
ceeded only in hastening the decision of the Corean Government
to despatch the embassies ; an act which was nothing less than
Corea's declaration of independence of China. Under the " favored
nation " clause, the United States and the other treaty powers have
equal rights with China ; and Russia and the United States, at least,
have insisted upon exercising them. The right to make a treaty
carries with it the right of legation abroad. To checkmate any
design of China to prevent the departure of the envoys, or to con-
vert her nominal authority into assertion of sovereignty or suze-
rainty, the Hon. Hugh N. Densmore, our minister, by the orders
of the United States Government, invited the embassy to take pas-
sage from Chimulpo in the U.S.S.S. Omaha, which was done. In
charge of Dr. H. N. Allen, Pak Chung Yang, a noble of the second
rank, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the
King of Corea, arrived in Washington and had audience of Presi-
dent Cleveland, in January, 1888. Chio Sin He, of equal rank, re-
sides in Europe, and another minister in Tokio.
Is not this year 1888 of the Christian era, and Chu-sen and of
the reigning dynasty the four hundred and ninty-seventh, the year
of Corea's independence ? On whatever points Progressive and Con-
servative differ, they have united upon the determination to assert
and maintain national freedom, and the King is their leader. It
may be that in the very weakness of the little kingdom lies her real
strength, and that in the interest of peace and harmony Russia and
England as well as China and Japan will unite to maintain her in-
tegrity. The worn-out dogmas of Chinese statecraft must pass
away, as have the obsolete notions of despotism in Europe, and
Corea be allowed to work out her career as a sovereign state, in the
line pointed out by progressive Japan and democratic 'America.
APPENDIX.
THE COREAN LANGUAGE.
ALTHOUGH the Chinese language, writing, and literature form the basis of
ed ication and culture in Cho-sen, yet the native language is distinct in genius
an 1 structure from the Chinese, having little in common with it. The latter
is monosyllabic, while the Corean is polysyllabic, as is the Japanese, which
the Corean closely resembles. No other language is so nearly affiliated to the
Japanese as the Corean. Both are of the " agglutinative" type, using that
term in a general and not too strict sense. There are few true inflections, and
the attempt to reduce the verbal forms to the classifications suited to the Indo-
European languages is the source of much confusion in the grammars and
die tionaries which Europeans have thus far attempted to make.
Belonging to the polysyllabic branch of that great division of the family
of speech, variously termed Turanian, Altaic, or Mongol, the following seem
to be its chief characteristics, as shown byDallet: 1. The words themselves
do not contain inflections which serve to distinguish sex in living things and
gender in the case of abstract nouns. 2. There are no declensions proper,
expressing number, person, and case. The ' ' prepositions " are post-positions,
which are always distinct and separable from the noun, and the plural is
formed by adding a special word jointed to the noun. 3. True adjectives are
rare, being rather verbal and noun-like. 4. The genuine pronouns of the
first and second person do not exist, the third person serving for " I " and
" thou," certain particles expressing the idea of relation. 5. In place of the
conplex conjugation of the verb, the various shades of meaning are secured
by agglutinating or tacking on special particles. While some have no passive
voi ce, all have what may be called a negative voice. Finally, the word which
goT erns is placed invariably after the word which it governs, instead of the
001 trary, as with us. These are the fundamental principles of Corean syntax.
The honorific element forms almost a complete language, yet one of cere-
mcny rather than of syntax, though construction as well as vocabulary is
aff - 'cted by the desire to express the relation of inferior to superior, and vice
vet ?a, by means of speech. The difference in the forms of language between
pe< pie and magistrate, convert and priest, servant and master, etc., are more
tlun that between "high" and " low" German.
The local variations in dialect are considerable, and the speech of the
456 APPENDIX.
capital and of the provinces is quite different. In Southern and Southeastern
Cho-sen, it is vepy much like the Japanese, and, word-for-word, particle-for-
particle translations of Japanese into Corean, and Corean into Japanese, are
possible. The Japanese manuscript manuals of the interpreters at Fusan, and
translations of the New Testament into the two tongues show this. In the
northern provinces the divergence from modern Japanese is more marked.
Mr. Boss's Corean Primer, made with the aid of a northern native, shows his
dialect to he somewhat different from that of Kiung-sang. The accent or pro-
nunciation also differs in Seoul and the provinces. The high style is that of
the former, and the Sa-7iito-ri is the provincial.
The similarity of Corean to Japanese has been shown by Mr. W. G. Aston,
who gives lists of roots and particles identical, or nearly so, in both languages.
The Corean is characterized by more vowel changes, and a strange system of
euphony, remarked also by Ross and Ridel, prevails. Neither I nor r is liked
at the beginning of a word, and the use of honorific terms, such as auxiliary
verbs, particles, etc., is a feature common to hoth languages. The most con-
vincing resemblances are those which occur between pronouns, particles, and
grammatical terminations. These particles and terminations represent punc-
tuation, emphasis, declension, and conjugation. Many of the sentences in
Ross's primer are expressed on exactly the same principles of grammatical
construction in Japanese. A very practical fact, which throws light on the
question, is that the Corean prisoners in Nagasaki during the invasion of
1592-97 easily learned Japanese so as to be fully understood at the confes-
sionals of the Roman Catholic priests. The points of unlikeness are differences
in euphony. Every syllable in Japanese ends with a vowel, which is not the
case in Corean ; while in Corean the vowel of one syllable exercises a modify-
ing influence on the vowel of the preceding syllable to an extent unknown in
Japanese ; and the spelling is in a state of confusion which is in sad contrast
to the regularity of the Japanese.
Dallet has also noticed the curious fact of the resemblance between Corean
grammar and that of the Dravidian languages in Southern India. In many
cases the rules are not only similar but identical. The Rev. Nathan Brown,
formerly of Assam, now of Japan, points out the same analogy between the
Burmese and the Japanese.
The number of Chinese words in the Corean vocabulary is very large, as
might be inferred from the fact that nearly all learning is in that language,
which is the basis of culture. Yet this infusion of foreign words so largely
outnumbering the native, in no way affects the syntax. The Chinese vocables
are borrowed, just as we transfer Greek and Latin terms into English, even
when terms in our native speech suffice. In Ridel's dictionary most of the
words have the asterisk prefixed, denoting their Chinese origin. They repre-
sent those verbal additions, mostly names of things, or expressions of ideas,
which have steadily flowed into the language sine« the time of the Tang
dynasty, when the influence of Chinese culture began to prevail, while the
particles, or " hooks and eyes of language," have remained native.
The Chinese characters constitute the true writing, or "great letters," in
opposition to the vulgar script, which is the women's or children's writing.
As the pronunciation of the Chinese characters has several times changed in
China, so also in the peninsula. Japanese books show that in Hiaksai and
APPENDIX. 457
in Shinra, in Korai from ninth to fourteenth centuries, and in Cho-sen since
tl e Manchiu dynasty, there has been in each period a different pronunciation
oi the characters. The cause of this is that the literary men of the various
epochs have endeavored to conform to the contemporaneous standard of
China, just as Frenchmen of culture in the colonies wish to speak with the
Parisian accent of their time. Evidently there must be preserved in old
Corean books, or perhaps by the conservative Buddhist priests, the old phonetic
style of the fourth and fifth centuries, or of the era of Korai, as in Russia the
pi iests keep alive the ancient pronunciation of the liturgy.
The Corean alphabet, one of the most simple and perfect in the world, con-
sists of twenty-five letters, eleven vowels, and fourteen consonants, and classi-
fi( d according to the organs of speech. They are made with easy strokes, in
wiich straight lines, circles, and dots or twirls only are used. According to
Mr. Aston's classification they are :
Vowels.
A, YA, it, YU, O, YO ; U, YU, I, EU, A.
E, E, E'.
Consonants.
Labials, P, PH, M.
Dentals, T, TH, N, L.
Palatals, CH, CHH, S.
Gutturals, K, KH.
Laryngeals (?) H, NG final.
" The above arrangement makes it clear that the inventor of the alphabet
"hid classified the sounds of the language according to the organs of speech by
which they are formed. A common element (which I have called the base)
is traceable through all the letters of each class." — Aston. A work on the
Cc rean language, upon which Mr. Aston is engaged, will be arranged accord-
ing to this system. The pronunciation given above is provisional merely.
There is also a syllabary in which these letters are associated in their pos-
sil »le combinations, one hundred and ninety-nine in all, and which the Corean
children learn by rote, not analyzing or separating the letters. Thus, mo is
learned by sight, and sound as one character, though composed of m and o ;
ju ;t as an English child would learn to read and recognize by the eye the word
cat without analyzing each letter.
Thus with one alphabet two distinct systems of writing, both phonetic,
ni-fo and unmun, exist side by side. The Coreans use the Chinese charac-
ters only as ideo-grams, or, as Mr. Chamberlain more properly has called them,
loj:o-grams.
As in Japan, so in Corea, three styles of language prevail, and are used
as follows: 1. Pure Chinese, without any admixture of Corean, in books and
wi itings on science, history, and government, and in the theses of the stu-
de ats and literary men. 2. In the books composed in the Corean language,
th •) vernacular syntax serves as the framework for the vocabulary, which is
lai gely Chinese. Works on education, text-books, and the various literary
pr >ducts contain a mixture of both languages, or side-by-side translations of
th j Chinese, or Asiatic Latin, into Corean. 3. The Corean book style of com-
458 APPENDIX.
position differs from the conversational in being more grammatical and refined,
and in the luxuriant use of terminations and idioms, turns of speech, and
tricks of language, not known in conversation. The epistolary style differs
from the idiom of book and conversation ; containing many polite formulas
and expressions used only in letters. Finally, every one in Corea speaks Co-
rean, and not Chinese, the quality of the language varying with the culture of
the speaker, the women using the larger proportion of pure Corean words,
the men, especially pedants, employing a vocabulary having in it more terms
of Chinese origin.
STUDY BY EUROPEANS.
Until the present century the Corean language was like the scroll in Reve-
lation, sealed with seven seals. Hamel and his fellow-captives in the seven-
teenth century left no memorials of the strange speech acquired by them.
Witsen and Broughton, and the other navigators noted only a few words.
Klaproth, who made, or pretended to make, all Asia, with her thousand
tongues, his domain of knowledge, was perhaps the first to collect together
the scraps of Corean in the vocabularies gathered by European voyagers, or
found in Chinese and Japanese books. He published in his "Asia Polyglotta,"
in 1823, several hundred Corean words in all ways of spelling. In 1832 he
translated the Japanese author, Rin Shihei's (Rinsifee) book, " San Kokf Tsou
Ran To Sets," which the latter had published at Yedo in 1786. With this work,
"General Introduction to the Three Kingdoms" (Cho-sen, Yezo, and Riu Riu),
Klaproth published the Corean alphabet, under the auspices of the Oriental
Translation Fund. Dr. Franz Siebold, living at Nagasaki, and meeting with
numerous shipwrecked Coreans, was perhaps the first European scholar to
learn the language from the natives. He collected a mjuch larger vocabulary
than Klaproth, studied the grammar, and in 1833 published "The Thousand-
Character Classic," with a corresponding word-for-word translation into Ger-
man and Japanese. In 1835 the English scholar, W. H. Medhurst made a
translation into English of a native Corean comparative dictionary of Chinese,
Corean, and Japanese. In this very useful work about four thousand words
are defined. The next year, the first French missionary penetrated into Cho-
sen. It is possible that he had a copy of Medhurst's work with him. In 1838
Siebold at Batavia had printed the Lui Ho, in which the Chinese words are
accompanied at the sides by the Corean pronunciation and definition. In the
appendix the Japanese translation and pronunciation of a number of the
Chinese words are given, and in separate columns the comparative Chinese,
German, and Corean vocabulary of one thousand five hundred and twelve
words in Roman characters, with, however, no grammatical notes of explana-
tion. In Captain Belcher's "Voyage of H.M.S. Samarang," London, 1848,
there is a collection of several hundred Corean words with English and other
equivalents. See also the Chinese Repository for Nov., 1832, pp. 276-279.
To the French missionaries belongs the honor of exploring the peninsula,
and of removing the seals of the language. The first systematic attempts at
making an apparatus for the study of Corean were lost in fire and persecution.
Daveluy worked for several years on a Chinese Corean-Latin dictionary ;
Pomrthie had composed a similar work, while Petitnicolas had made a Latin-
Corean dictionary, which, when completed, was to contain from thirty thousand
APPENDIX. 459
to one hundred thousand words. Besides these the missionaries were to com-
pose a grammar by their joint labor. They toiled through many years while
busy with their religious labors, their design being to keep a copy of each of
the books at the mission, while the manuscripts were sent to France to be
pr: nted ; but in the persecution of 1866 all the fruits of their industry were
burned or destroyed.
In the Journal Asiatique, for April, 1864, M. Leon de Rosny, at Paris,
prnted a paper entitled " Apergu de la Langue Coreene," from data furnished
by his co-laborers in Corea, and especially from the manuscript of Bishop
Hi lei. M. Charles Dallet, in his " Histoire de 1'Eglise de Corae "(pp. Ixxvii.-
xo.v., Paris, 1874), compiled a most valuable sketch of the language, giving
also four charts containing the script and square forms of the alphabet, the
opming lines of "The Thousand-Character Classic," the Invocation to the
Vi -gin, and the Lord's Prayer in the running hand, with French translation.
Dallet's sketch is, in reality, a small Corean grammar, and is very valuable to
th«? student. Mr. Addison Van Name, of Yale College Library, at a meeting
of the American Oriental Society in November, 1875, presented a digest of Dal-
let's grammar in connection with the presentation, from Dr. S. Wells Williams,
of a proclamation issued by the Corean government in 1839, in Chinese and
Corean, forbidding the promulgation of Christianity. Dr. Williams made a
further gift of a military order captured at Kang-wa.
After Bishop Ridel's second visit and imprisonment in Corea, he came to
Japan, and with his co-laborers succeeded by 1881 in completing a dictionary
an 1 grammar, both beautifully printed on the press of ISEclio du Japan, at
Yokohama. The " Dictionnaire Coraen-Franqais," contains six hundred and
ninety-five pages octavo, with valuable preface ; six hundred and fifteen
pa^es are devoted to definitions, with the word defined in (1) Corean letters,
(2) Roman letters (French), (3) Chinese equivalent characters, and the full ex-
planation of the word in French. The grammatical and geographical appen-
du es, and a clear, well-shaded map, add to the value of this superb work.
The " Grammaire Coreenne " contains in all, three hundred and thirty-four
pa^es, uniform in size with the dictionary. The introduction is devoted to a
comparison of the Corean with the Chinese language (instead of with the Jap-
anese), and to the letters, writing, pronunciation, formation of words, alpha-
bets, and syllabary. After the grammar proper, of one hundred and ninety-two
pa ;es, there are ninety-three pages devoted to graduated exercises in Corean
conversations, and twenty-one amusing and characteristic specimens of folk-
lore, in Corean writing with French translation. Both these works have been
ab.y reviewed in Tfie Chrysanthemum (Yokohama, Japan) for May and Sep-
tember, 1881, by Mr. W. Gr. Aston, to whom the compiler is much indebted.
The systematic study of Corean was begun by several English-speaking
scl .olars in North China during the last two decades. Dr. S. Wells Williams
ha 5 not yet printed the results of his studies. The Rev. Mr. Thomas, mission-
ary agent of the National Bible Society of Scotland, had learned Corean in
Sh ing-king, and from the natives while visiting the coast of Whang-hai in a
CL inese junk. He perished in the General Sherman slaughter. In 1873 the
lamented and accomplished author of "The Chinese Reader's Hand-book"— a
jn< nument of his brilliant and patient scholarship— began the study of Corean,
an 1 was, at the time of his death, March 24, 1876, engaged upon a grammar.
460 APPENDIX.
which was to be comparative with Japanese, Manchin, and Turkish. During
three winters he had studied assiduously with a member of the embassy. He
intended also to add a sketch of Corean history, but his work is lost to us by his
untimely death. In Manchuria, the little group of missionaries of the United
Presbyterian Church of Scotland, Messrs. Mclntyre and John Ross, frequently
meeting Coreans in the embassy to China at Mukden, Niu-chwang, and the towns
of Shing-king, began the study of their language several years ago. The fruits
of Mr. Mclntyre's labors are several chapters of notes on the Corean, or perhaps
rather Sinico-Corean, in the China Review during 1881 and 1882. Mr. Ross, V
of Niu-chwang, in 1877-78 published through the Shanghae Presbyterian
Mission Press a " Corean Eiimer " — a handy manual of eighty-nine pages of
lessons " on all ordinary subjects." The words are given in Corean characters,
under which is their pronunciation in Roman letters, and the interpretation
in English according to the idiom of the country, viz., "nom., obj., verb,
negative." In his general work on Corea, also, Mr. Ross gives a sketch of
the language and grammar.
Mr. W. G. Aston, formerly interpreter and translator at the British Lega-
tion in Tokio, Japan, vice-consul at Hiogo, and author of the " Grammars of
the Written and Spoken Language of Japan," has for some years devoted him-
self to the study of. Corean, and his work bids fair to be the most satisfactory
to all English-speaking people, and we think to Europeans in general. To
him belongs the credit or first pointing out the substantial historic unity of
the two nations, Corean and Japanese, and of demonstrating the close family
likeness of their speech. His method is simple and scientific, and his ability
unquestioned. His published papers on. the subject are, as far as known to
the writer, as follows : 1. "A Paper on the Corean Language," in the Journal
of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain, 1876 (?) 2. " Books on Korean,"
T7i3 Japan Mail, January 28, 1878, in which the accessible works extant on
the subject, including the Japanese manuscript manuals used by the inter-
preters at Fusan, are noticed, and the relations of Corean with Japanese are dis-
cussed. 3. "Review of the Dictionnaire Coreen-Frangais, and of the Gram-
maire Coreenne," in T.lc Chrysanthemum, May and September, 1881. 4.
"Proposed Arrangement of the Korean Alphabet," vol. iv., p. 58, " Transac-
tions o" the Asiatic Society of Japan." In this last paper Mr. Aston informs us
that he is preparing a vocabulary of Corean to be arranged on the system set
forth in his paper, an announcement which English-speaking students will hail
with pleasure. Mr. Aston visited Cho-sen about the time of Admiral Willes'
treaty-making, in June, 1882, and remained for some weeks on board the
British surveying ship Flying Fish, improving his familiarity with the living
speech of the natives. Messrs. Ernest Satow, and Basil Hall Chamberlain, the
former of the British Legation in Japan, and the latter an English gentleman
in Tokio, are also scholars in Corean.
We add the titles of works in Russian merely to show what has been done
in that language. They were furnished us in French by Count Osten-Sacken
of the Foreign Office at St. Petersburg. 1. " Essay towards a Russo-Corean
Dictionary," by M. Poutzillo. This dictionary contains three or four thousand
Russian, words with their definitions in Corean. 2. " Some Remarks of the
Archimandrite Palladius upon Poutzillo's Dictionary," "Bulletin of the Im-
perial Society of Geography, St. Petersburg, 1875."
APPENDIX. 461
At this wilting (September, 1882), the New Testament has been translated
irto Corean— the joint work of Messrs. Ross and Mclntyre, the Scotch mis-
si raaries at Mukden and Niu-chwang. It was translated, revised, and printed
from metal type in Shing-king, and before July, 1882, a number of copies had
boen circulated inside the peninsula, while one thousand copies were being
pucked for Japan, to enter Corea by way of that country. This version ought
to be a first-rate one, the translator having good models in Chinese to follow,
and four or more Corean assistants, who are also scholars in Chinese. How
far the pure native language has been employed and cultivated remains to be
seen. From the Academy we learn that the "Pilgrim's Progress" has been
done into Corean by a native named Tsway. Two books written by Americans
huve also been translated: "The Peep of Day," direct from Burns' Chinese
version, and Dr. Martin's "Evidences of Christianity," now a text-book in
th ree kingdoms.
Nearly all the books still in print mentioned in this chapter may be ob-
tained of Messrs. Kelly & Co., booksellers, at Yokohama or Shanghae.
COREAN LITERATURE.
The contact of the race from the Manchurian valleys with an old civiliza-
tion like that of China, furnished the Korai people with such perfect literary
models that the study of their own tongue has been sadly neglected, instead
oi being loyally developed. This is even more the case in Cho*sen than in
Nippon, where the Japanese intellect has flowered in a respectable native
lit erature, in spite of the contempt in which the vernacular was long held
through the spirit of pedantry developed by study of the Chinese. The Co-
re ans show a low opinion of their native tongue by calling it Yuk-tam, or sot-
tish words without meaning, and utterly insufficient to express ideas. Hence
th e poverty of the native literature. History, which constitutes its first divi-
sion, is almost entirely composed in the Chinese, and hence is accessible only
to students. Ridel mentions the titles of a few works in the Corean-French
Dictionary, but there is no present evidence that these were read by the
missionaries. Hamel states that it was a custom when historical records or
important documents were written, to have them transcribed and copies de-
pi 'Sited in various parts of the kingdom to guard against loss by fire. A few
pi imers or manuals of history are printed in the vulgar writing for the use of
w )inen, children, and the unlearned. Books on etiquette or ritual are com-
mon. They relate to marriage, burial, mourning, and the multifarious duties
wliich death— almost more than life— requires in Chinese Asia. The greater
pi,rt of one of these manuals has been translated by Mr. Ross in his " Corea "
(Paisley, 1880), which is full of interesting matter, showing how important is
tl e undertaker's work. The study of geography, local and historical, is culti-
vated. Maps and works on local geography are from time to time issued.
Si >me of this work is done in the Government Bureau of Design at Seoul. The
C >rean maps thus far seen by the writer are rude, but serviceable, and equal
ir any of those in old Japan. Some of them have found their way to Europe.
P >etry is of two kinds, one style consisting of songs, punning descriptions,
f i nny sayings with rhythm and a certain number of syllables or feet ; and the
other based on the Chinese model. The "pung-wel>" or favorite sor*. is of a
462 APPENDIX.
light, idyllic character, and, as its name indicates, deals largely with wind and
moon. The bamboo swaying gracefully in the breeze, the moonlit sea, or
landscape, and the1 varying phases of nature are treated of in verse. " Poetry
parties " go out to look at fine scenery, or meet, writing materials in hand,
and wine-cups close by. This writing stanzas for diversion is among the stand-
ard means of literary and social enjoyment. The Chinese authors do not
enjoy exclusive monopoly of the Corean world of readers, for some of the
Japanese writers, notably Arai Hakuseki, and the Yedo scholars of the eigh-
teenth century, who wrote mainly in classic Chinese, are also held in high re-
pute. The Corean language has never, except in rare instances, been studied
in Japan except by interpreters at Fusan, or in Kioto, Yedo, or Nagasaki ; and
the library of Japanese works treating of the language or people is a small
one. Since the treaty of 1876 some attention has been paid to its acquisition,
at which the Coreans must feel nattered. It is now studied by Japanese at
Nagasaki, Kioto, and Tokio under the auspices of the government, and of the
Buddhists, and as a means of culture, since in addition to private students the
Society for Promoting Oriental Literature in 1881 engaged a Corean named
Konseioi to teach a class of twenty Japanese gentlemen. In Corea some of
the best modern treatises on the various arts and sciences have been trans-
lated, or are in process of translation, from Japanese and Chinese versions.
Japanese believers in Shintd have long waged a controversy with Buddhist
writers concerning the origin of an alphabet found not in books or literature,
but on scrolls kept in temples. These characters are called Shin-ji, "god-
letters," or Shm-dai-ji, " letters of the age of the gods," and great antiquity is
claimed for them by the Shintoists. They are in their various forms identi-
cal, or nearly so, with the Corean alphabet. The Buddhists claim that the
so-called god-letters were brought over from Corea at a period much later than
is held by Shinto scholars. No inscriptions or literary monuments in the
Shin-ji can be discovered in Japan, and foreign critics — Hepburn, Aston, and
many others — agree with the Buddhist opinion that the Shin-ji are late impor-
tations from Cho-sen. Mr. Satow in his paper on " Pure Shinto " speaks of the
' ' unmistakable identity " of the two syllabaries, referring the origin of the
Corean alphabet to the fifteenth century. Mr. P. Kempermann, in the Mitt-
heilungen der DeutscJien GeseUeschaft fur Natur-und Volkerkunde Osta»ien'Sj
November, 1877, takes a somewhat different view, believing that these charac-
ters (which are printed with his paper) were the common property of the race
which inhabited Southern Japan and Corea in very ancient times. Dr. D. B.
McCartee takes the view that "the kata-kana syllabic symbols were adopted
as a substitute for the Jin-dai-ji [or Shin-ji] as simpler and much easier to be
learned." Until some literary fragments composed in the Shin-ji be dis-
covered in Japan, the question has no practical importance. The opening of
the Corean peninsula to foreign scholars may, however, result in discoveries
in literary archaeology that will throw light upon the settling of the Japanese
archipelago, and the prehistoric condition of Corea. The critical and analytical
study of the Kcyiki and other ancient monuments of Japanese literature, by
Messrs. Satow and Chamberlain, seems already scattering the darkness that
has hitherto hung over the history of the two countries east of China, before
it was known to the writers of the Middle Kingdom. It may be mentioned as
a curious fact that a Shinto writer, as late as 1871, published the whole of the
APPENDIX. 463
Kojiki, in "that clumsy variety of the Korean alphabetic writing which
some Japanese authors -. . . . have supposed to be characters of a peculiar age
aid sanctity used by the ancient gods and heroes of their country."
MEASURES, WEIGHTS, MONEY, TIME, CALCULATION.
MEASURES: Long Measure. — The unit of linear measure in Corea is the
j<i, which is one-third of the pal or arm. It corresponds roughly to our foot,
b it its length varies both in the capital and provinces according to the sub-
stance measured. The cloth ja or foot at Seoul is .52 metre (20.5 inches), that
for silk, .42 metre (16.5 inches), and that for cordage a little less than .37
n etre (14.5 inches). The in-chek, or foot for measuring the height of men, is
fourteen thicknesses of the finger. For the measurement of timber, trees, and
li.mber the foot in use is still longer. In every instance, however, the ja is
subdivided as follows : 1 ja = 10 chi or inches ; 1 chi = 10 pun or lines. To
measure height or depth, the kil, " the measure of a man," that is, of an adult
m ale Corean's stature, is taken as the unit.
The pal, or arm, is used to compute length. For road measures the ri, or
league, is the most common, and the " mile-stones," in the form of huge gro-
tesque human figures, are found at intervals on the roads, inscribed in Chinese
characters with the number of ri to and from certain places. One ri equals a
lit tie over 4 kilometres (2. 5 miles) ; but this ri is not of uniform length through-
out the eight provinces, being longer as the distance from the capital increases ;
200 ri in the farthest provinces may equal 240 or 250 of Seoul ri. Ma-liang
is an indefinite expression for less than one ri.
Cubic Measure. — The measures of capacity have their unit in the hop, or
handful : 10 hop = 1 toi ; 10 toi = 1 mal, or bushel ; 20 mal = 1 siem, or sack.
The mal is a measure in the form of a polyhedron, with a square base, having
four trapezoid sides, of which the top, smaller than the base, serves for an ori-
fice. There are two kinds of mal, the smallest of which is less than half the
sixe of the larger, and at Seoul has the following dimensions: Base, .27 (8.85
inches) a side; top, .25 (8.2 inches) aside; depth, .13 (4.26 inches) a side.
Fi fteen of these lesser mal make a hui, which is the government measure for
th>3 grain assessments or taxes.
Liquid Measure. — Spirits for drinking purposes are measured by the chong-
ja, or "little cup," which, according to the popular idea, ought to hold 10,000
grains of millet. The unit for measuring rice-wine and other liquids is the
jan, or cup, or a little less than two-fifths of a litre, or 24.4 cubic inches.
Square Measure. — Measures of arable land are based on the amount of rice
or other grain sown upon it. The names are made by adding the measure of
capacity tojik. The siem-jik-i comprises an area measure of earth on which a
sie m or sack of grain may be sown ; the ma-jik-i, that on which is sown a
bu shel ; the toi-jik-i, that on which is sown a toi, and the hop-jik-i, on which is
so-vn a handful of seed.
WEIGHTS. — The Corean scale for weighing is like the Japanese and Chinese
lever, which we call the Roman balance or miniature steelyard. The best are
im ported from China. The unit of weight is the kiun or pound, which is
divided like our own into ounces or niang, sixteen of which make a kiun or
464 APPENDIX.
pound : 1 niang = 10 ton ; I ton = 10 pun ; 1 pun = 1 rt. The weight of
the niang at Seoul is about 38 grammes, or 1.2 ounce.
MONEY. —The nip or pun (Chinese sapek) is the only money coined in
Corea, and looks like the Chinese " cash," being perforated with square holes
for stringing. Hence the term " strings of cash." 100 Corean sapek = 1 franc,
or 10 pence, or 19 cents ; 10 pun = 1 ton ; 10 ton = 1 niang ; 10 niang = 1 kan.
For commercial purposes gold and silver in bars, nuggets, or dust are used by
weight. The old valuation was 1 tael or ounce of gold = 8.50 taels in silver ;
1 tael or ounce of silver = 670, 640, or 630 cash, according to the varying rates
of exchange. In some parts of the kingdom money is rarely used, barter tak-
ing the place of metal coins, grain being the most usual standard. The
" cash " (nip or sapek) are made of an alloy of copper and tin, zinc or lead, or
of iron. They are strung on cords of plaited straw, a few dozen of which
make a load for a man, and the payment of a heavy debt requiring a yoke of
oxen to transport the money. The coins are of various issues and chronological
periods. The characters "Sam-han," or "Three Kingdoms," " Korai," and
" Cho-sen" are stamped on their face, with such legends as " Used for Public
Benefit," " Treasury Department," "Enrich the People," "Current Money,"
or "Circulating Treasure," on the reverse face. On some of the coins the
chronological period or the mint-master's name is stamped. It is said that
even these miserable " cash " have at times bean debased by the government.
The common rate of interest in the country is very high, often reaching 100
per cent. It is a rule of the Christians not to charge or receive over 20 per
cent.
SIDEREAL MEASURE. — Magnetic compasses are usually of Chinese manu-
facture and importation, but are not in general use for junk navigation, the
Corean boatmen rarely venturing out of sight of land, except perhaps when
sailing to and from Quelpart Island. They are, however, used by travellers,
and very largely by the geomancers, who pretend with their aid to locate aus-
piciously the graves and tombs. The native name for the magnetic needle
is ji-nam-jul, which — reversing our conception — means the "iron south-
pointer," or " indicator of the south." The needle or arrow is set in a round
box, on the circle of which twenty-four cyclic characters are printed. Besides
the four cardinal points, N., S., E., W., the subdivisions E. S., E. N., W. S.,
W.N., instead of our S. E., N. E., S. W., N. W., are used. .
TIME MEASURE : Days and Hours. — The Corean division and measurement
of the time is based on the Chinese system. Receiving the calendar from
Peking annually, they make use of it with slight modifications. The solar
day is divided into twelve hours or si, and each hour into eight Jceik, each keik
into fifteen pun. A Corean hour is equivalent to two of ours, a keik to our
quarter of an hour, and a pun to our minute. The hours of the day, instead
of being expressed by numerals, as with us, are distinguished by adding the
name of some animal corresponding to the sign of the zodiac to the word si or
hour ; as Ho-si, hour of the tiger ; or Yang-si, sheep hour ; Riong-si, dragon
hour, etc.
The Coreans rarely, if at all, possess clocks or watches, though one of the
first things a "civilized " native now seeks to possess is a watch. The common
divisions of time are gauged by the sight, ear, and hunger— cock-crowing,
breakfast-time, dinner-time, the evening-star, supper-time, etc. A little be-
APPENDIX. 465
fore such and such an hour, and the beginning, middle, and end of an hour
are noted, but fractions are neglected, and it is doubtful whether foreigners
coming from countries where seconds are split could make a native laborer
comprehend anything less than a half hour.
Weeks. — The division into weeks is unknown, the days being counted
from the age of the moon. The native Christians have, however, coined ver-
nacular terms for the church week-days.
Months. — The months are reckoned as "small" or "large," /.<?., of twenty-
nine or thirty days, according to the lunation. The eighth and twenty-third
day^ of the moon are spoken of as " little water," or " little tide," and " much
wattr," "great tide," respectively. The first ten days of the month are
named by prefixing clw (first or beginning) to the cardinal number ; as cho-il (first
day), cho-i (second day), etc., either to the pure Corean or China-Corean words.
Spec ial terms for the first and last day, fifth day, twentieth and twenty-first
days, and full moon are in use. A peculiar terminology is employed by
the country people to designate the age of cattle, horses, etc.
Years. — Each year is divided into twelve months, which are named by their
numbers, first, second, etc., except that the twelfth is designated as last, the
eleventh, next to last, etc.
During the period of the lunar cycle, that is, nineteen solar years, in order
to synchronize the civil year computation with the solar year, they intercalate
seven months called yun-wd, usually a little after each three years.
Reasons. — Four seasons are recognized as the greater year division. They
are Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter. These seasons are not, however, reck-
oned as beginning and ending exactly at the two solstices and two equinoxes,
but these pivots of the seasons are conceived as being exactly in the middle of
the seasons in which they occur. To further aid the distribution of the labor
of tilling the soil, the four seasons of the year are further divided, each into
six g roups of fifteen days, as follows : Beginning of Spring, February 5th ;
Abundance of Rain, February 21st; Awakening of the Insects, March 6th;
Division of Spring, March 21st (Equinox) ; Clear Shining, April 6th ; Seed
Rain April 22d ; Summer begins May 7th; Little Plenty, May 22d; Trans-
planting of the Rice, June 7th ; Height of Summer, June 22d (Solstice) ; Lit-
tle Heat, July 8th ; Great Heat, July 23d ; Autumn begins August 9th ; End
of Hi at, August 24th ; White Dew, September 9th ; Division of Autumn, Sep-
tember 24th (Equinox) ; Cold Dew, October 9th ; Fall of Hoar Frost, October
24th Winter begins November 8th ; Little Snow, November 23d ; Great
Sno\v , December 8th ; Full Winter, December 22d (Solstice) ; Little Cold, Jan-
uary 3th ; Great Cold, January 21st. New-Year's Day begins at the end of
Janu iry or early in February.
T'te Sexagenary Circle. — The Chinese, Corean, and Japanese chronological
systei a of measuring years is not Buddhist or Confucian. It is not fixed by
some great event, but runs in cycles of sixty years, each beginning from the
year 3637 before Christ. The seventy-fifth cycle, ending February 7, 1863,
comp etes a period of four thousand five hundred years. The tables of sexa-
genar y cyclic characters are made up by -joining the selected ten cyclic charac-
ters 13 the twelve hour characters, according to the Chinese philosophical
ideas of the five elements, and the twelve elements or zodiac signs. The cycle
of tei series is made from the five elements, Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water,
30
466 APPENDIX.
which are doubled by distinguishing each of them (according to the dualism
of passive and active) as male and female. The table of sixty signs is given
in Chinese or Corean almanacs, and in the " GrammaireCoreene." This year,
1882, is the eighteenth year of the seventy-sixth or Water Cycle, masculine ;
the year of the ox ; or in Corean, Im-o.
ARITHMETIC AND CALCULATION.— The Corean system of notation is, like
that of China and Japan, decimal. As with the ancient Romans and Hebrews,
among whom alphabetical letters were used for figures, as well as among
Europeans, until the simple Arabic figures took their places, the Corean nu-
merals are names rather than numbers. They do not express quantities in
figures. Having no Chinese character for zero, or decimals, a special name-
term is used, to express ten, twenty, hundred, thousand, etc. Thus they write
7, 10, 5, for 75 ; 8, 100, 46, for 846 ; 1,000, 700, 60, 4, for 1764. The places of
units, tens, hundreds, etc., which we imagine in computation, they do not
conceive, but write out.
Owing to the fact that two series of number names, pure Corean and
Chinese-Corean, are in use, some confusion takes place in ordinary conversa-
tion, though when writing is employed all is clear. One help to easy under-
standing is found in the fact that the Corean numerals by contraction and
euphony become monosyllables, while the Chinese are polysyllables. The
vernacular speech possesses numerals only up to one hundred, the multiples
above that number being Chinese. "Ten thousand " is a term for the ex-
pression of what is indefinite, and is more an expression of rhetoric than of
mathematics. In like manner " 100,000 strings," or " 100,000 strings of cash,"
mean simply very much money.
Ordinary calculations are made by sticks, pebbles, coins, or most accurately
on the abacus or frame of sliding balls. By sticks thus, j || |j|, called Kaji
san. By coins, 0 00 0000. A stick or circle over the lower line counts five.
1 3 9
Another system of enumeration is called "a thousand sideways, a hundred
up, ten down, joined all on end," thus: = ||||=z|||[|r= 3,425. This method
is less used than the first, and the abacus more than either.
It appears from the researches of Sinologists that the abacus, or numeral-
frame, now in use in Asia from Russia to Japan, was not known in China
until the fourteenth century. It seems to have been brought by the Persians
and Arabs, during the period of the Mongol conquests, when the highway
through Central Asia was open. From Cathay the abacus was introduced in
Corea and Japan. The su-pan or numeral frame is of various sizes, from the
tiny pocket-piece to that for the shop-counter, which may be a foot or two in
length. A hollow box is divided parallel to its length at about three-fourths
of its width by a cross partition from end to end. The top of this bar is
usually faced with bone or ivory, on which the Chinese characters signifying
1,000, 100, 10, units, and decimal places are marked. Above the central
dividing-bar are from fifteen to twenty-five sticks pinned through at right
angles to the frame, on which slide beads, balls, or rounded pieces of wood,
seed, or ivory. Each of these top balls count five, though usually only one
of the two is used. Beneath are the same number of pins, on which slide five
beads, each counting one. The accountant picking up the su-pan first, runs
his third finger along the top row of under balls, to get a clean slate for his
APPENDIX. 467
count. He then pushes up as many of the balls as are needed for the moment,
clicking them against the cross-bar as fast as one strikes the keys of a piano.
An expert man handles the balls so fast that they seem to fly, while the
rattling noise seems to delight his ear. The result is then read off. In using
the su-pan a certain amount of mental arithmetic is very necessary. The
mu'.tiplication-table, up to nine times nine, must be known ; and for higher
operations tables specially made for the su-pan process are learned. With
this instrument the skilled Corean can add, subtract, multiply, and divide,
work fractions and decimals, and extract the square and cube roots. In ad-
dition, only two quantities can he added up at a time ; after the first sum is
known others may be added in succession as fast as the last result is read off.
In places where the sum of two integers exceeds ten, a subtraction process is
used ; and so in performing operations in multiplication, division is, or may
be, }ften performed. Thus, the use of the four fundamental rules of arith-
met.c does not proceed in simple logical order, as with us. It is, however,
greatly assisted by special tables easily used, and in spite of its apparent com-
plexity, a nimble-fingered Corean will work out problems in money-changing
and the four rules more rapidly than an expert using the Arabic numerals
with pen and pencil.
CARTOGRAPHY.
Until the middle of the seventeenth century, Corea was believed by Euro-
peans to be an island. In a map of the travels of William of Rubruk (Guil-
launae Rubruquis), who made a journey to the Mongol court in 1248, Corea
appeirs as an island northwest of Japan. A map of the Chinese empire,
brought to England in 1588, expresses the same idea, " Chau-sin " (Cho-
sen) being surrounded by water. On the charts of the world made by
Mercator, Ortelius, and Sanson, and on Abbeville's map, Utrecht, 1681,
"Corey " is likewise represented as an island. In the Dutch bibles of the
seventeenth century, containing maps of the world, "Coria" is still insular,
but Quelpart appears. In 1707 the great map of the Chinese empire, based
upon the surveys made by the Jesuit missionaries in Peking, was made under
the Emperor Kang-hi's patronage. This work, " of which the glory is due
chiefly to French mathematicians," contained a detailed map of Corea, which,
though inexact on the coasts, locates many of the chief cities with astonishing
accuracy. It was copied from a map kept in the palace at Seoul, and brought
to Peking by an ambassador of the famous Manchiu Emperor, especially for
the use of the imperial cartographers. After the appearance of the Jesuits'
map i n. Europe, the peninsular character of the country was shown on ordinary
maps, and the former errors corrected ; but the names of provinces, cities, and
towns were spelled according to the Peking pronunciation of the Chinese char-
acters used to express them, and not according to the Corean pronunciation.
Other maps of Corea are found in the works of Titsingh, Siebold, and D'An-
ville, md one in Klaproth's "San Kokf Tsou Ran To Setsu," which is the re-
produ 3tion of a rude Japanese sketch. So far as known, the first map of
Cho-st n made by a native Corean, with the geographical names transliterated
according to the native pronunciation, was that made by Andrew Kim, which
is now in the geographical cabinet of the Imperial Library in Paris. A re-
duced copy of this map was published in the Bulletin de Societe GeograpMque,
468 APPENDIX.
in 1849, and from this, with the aid of French charts, Ballet made the maf
which accompanies his History of the Church in Corea, published in 1874.
A native map, captured by the French at Kang-wa, in 1866, has also been trans-
lated by Messrs. Ridel, Feron, and Calais, and published in the Bulletin de
Societe Geographique on a scale of 8 x 5 inches. It was found that in the
original chart the latitude of places was accurately calculated, but the errors
in longitude were numerous. The Bulletin for February, 1867, contains a map
of the mouth of the Han River. In the Corean-French dictionary by Ridel,
Yokohama, 1881, is a finely executed map of "Tyo-sien," 12 x 18 - inches,
which is very full and clear, and is the best French map of Cho-sen. A chart
of the Corean archipelago, corrected in 1874, has been issued by the French
Marine Depot in Paris, in one sheet. British charts of various portions of the
coast are also available ; but except in the vicinity of Fusan, Gensan, the
mouth of the Han River, and a few such well-known localities, the coast has
been slightly surveyed. The charts of the British Admiralty, and of Mr.
John Imray, of London, are every year increasing in number and value.
In addition to the German atlases of Steiler and others, there is in Peter-
mann's Mittheilungen, 1871, No. 1, Carte No. 19, a map of Cho-sen, and in
Prof. J. J. Rein's Japan, vol. i., "Natur und Volk des Mikadoreiches," a
sketch of the peninsula, showing the ancient division into three kingdoms.
The Japanese have thus far produced the best cartographic apparatus for
the study of the marine and inland geography of the peninsula. In addition
to some good monographs on the physical and descriptive geography of Ch5-sen,
which have been recently published, most of the Japanese works mentioned
in the Bibliography contain maps which, though worthless in mathematical
accuracy, are valuable for the study of historic topography. Within the last
decade maps of Cho-sen have been constructed according to the principles of
sidereal science by the Departments of War and Education in Tokio, and a
valuable series of charts and sketches have been issued by the Hydrographic
Office of the Naval Department. Skilled mathematicians working with abun-
dant data from Corean and Japanese books, manuscripts, notes, and maps, with
assistance derived from European surveys, and, above all, aided by Corean
scholars, notably Kin Rinshio, have produced an excellent map of Cho-sen,
50 x 40 inches, which has pleased and surprised the natives by its accuracy
and fulness. A school-map of China, Corea, and Japan, on the Mercator pro-
jection, published by the Department of Education (size 52 x 34 inches), and
the series of charts of points on the coast surveyed by Japanese men-of-war,
have been before us in the preparation of this work. We have had also a
small Corean map, but have been unable to procure one of native manufacture
in eight sheets, of which we have heard. In addition to the material found
in the atlases for the study of Manchuria and the Russian possessions, there is
a good map of Shing-king, in Scherzer's "Journal d'une Mission in Coree,"
and in Williamson's "Travels in North China," and of Russian Asia in Ho-
worth's " History of the Mongols," the latter by Ravenstein. In the large
maps made expressly for this work, the writer has not thought it wise to encum-
ber the surface with too many names ; and only those have been added which
are familiar or famous, or likely to be so. Only a few of the foreign names
have been set down, as many of these are unknown to the Coreans, and are but
of partial recognition among foreigners. See also the Bibliography.
INDEX.
ABACUS, 466, 467
Aborigines, 11, 34
Adams, Arthur, 4
Adams, Will, 168, 169
Adoption, 259, 260
Agriculture, 198, 298, 465
Ai-chiu, 8, 180, 348, 364, 365
Alligators, 198
Alphabets, 38, 47, 67, 457
Amana, 31
American Relations with Corea, 388-
419, 428, 429, 431, 434, 435
An-ari, 117
Ancestor-worship, 78, 328, 351
Ancestral tablets, 78, 351
AngeU, Hon. J. B., 430
Arabs in Corea, 1, 2, 48, 69
Archtry, 151, 293, 164
Archipelago of Corea, 4
Architecture, 135, 136, 262
Area >f Corea, 3
Armor, 58, 101, 102, 125, 153
Arms. 58, 101, 102, 140. See &word.
Art, 1, 33, 48, 220, 331, 264, 300-304,
330
Ashikaga, 85, 86, 127, 830
Aston Mr. W. G., 338,457, 460
Austi; i, Don. See EonisM.
BAIJI See Hiaksai.
Barbara Taylor, The, 424
Bears. 294
Beds, 263
Belcher, Captain Edward, 368
Bellonet, Mons., 377, 386
Berneux,- Bishop, 372-373
Bianca Portia, The, 428
Bingham, Hon. »T., 430
Birds, 7, 195
Blake, Com. Homer C. , 409, 412
Boats, 75, 195, 365, 368
Bombs, 112, 372
Books, 67, 220, 461
Border Gate, 83, 158, 180, 364
Bridges, 258, 285
Broughton, Captain, 203, 214
Buddhism, 35, 39, 66, 67, 80, 81, 96,
154, 330-334, 337-338
Buddhist priests, 36, 65, 332-333
Burial, 278-279
CARD playing, 295, 369
Caricatures, 228-29
Cattle, 7, 198, 201, 354, 364
Ceramic art, 149, 200, 264
Cespedes, 121-124
Chamberlain, Mr. Basil Hall, 59, 457
Chimulpo, 429, 439
China, the, 396-402
Chin-chiu, 124, 125
Chin Ikei, 109, 118, 124, 128
Cholera, 309
Chosan harbor, 203
Christianity, 93, 121-123, 124-128,
347-376, 413, 442
Chulla-do, 197-201
470
INDEX.
Chrysanthemum, 298
Climate, 5, 6, 172
Clocks, 136, 344
Coins, 10, 18, 34, 69, 425
Comets, 173, 175
Compass. See Magnetic Needle.
Confucianism, 80, 81, 327-330, 344,
347
Coreans in China, 44, 48, 160, 432
Coreans in Japan, 38, 39, 60, 61, 423,
427, 432
Coreans in Kussia, 212-213, 220
Coria, 85
Costume, 81, 273-276
Cowan, Dr. Frank, 427
Coxinga, 162
Cremation, 278
DAGELET Island, 110, 206
Dan Kun, 12, 308
Dictionaries, 459
Diet, 267, 268
Dinners, 268
Dogs, 52, 54, 267, 304
Dragon, 301, 302
Don Austin. See KonisM.
Dutch. See Hollanders.
EDUCATION, 337-344
Ear-monument, 133, 144
Edwards, Rev. Jonathan, 388
Eiman. See Wei-man.
Embassies from Japan, 1, 58, 89-93
Embassies to Japan, 60, 82, 85, 92,
126, 149, 423, 427, 432
Etas, 61, 118, 334
Ethics, 329, 360, 376
Examinations for Civil Service, 339,
341-343
FAIRS, 166, 181, 215, 364-365
Falcons, 76, 323
Fans, 275, 298
Famine, 58, 118
Fauna, 7, 195, 197, 198, 206
Feng-shuey. See Pung-sui,
Feron, the priest, 370, 376
Festivals, 295-299
Feudalism, 22, 23, 41, 43, 237-241
Fire-arms, 84, 93, 102, 112
Fire-signals, 74, 185, 350, 369
Fish, 215, 257, 267, 270
Flags, 320, 332, 368
Flora, 195, 381
Flying Fish, H.B.M.S., 440, 460
Folk-lore, 281-283, 308-316
France, 363-364, 368, 426, 436
Franciscans, 72
French, 165, 368, 361-386, 458-459
Frois, Louis, 95
Frontiers, 82, 83, 361, 383, 421
Froez. See Frois.
Fuku-shin, 37
Funerals, 278, 373
Fusan, 8, 85, 100, 149, 150, 164, 202,
203, 354, 371, 425-426
Fuyu people, 19, 21-24, 29
GAMBLING, 295
Genghis Khan, 71. See Yosliiteune.
General Sherman, The, 183, 380
Gensan, 214, 426, 427
Gillie, Rev., 391
Ginger, 2, 267
Ginseng, 2, 163, 388, 389
Glass, 265, 391, 426
Gold, 2, 182, 289, 388, 425, 427
Grammars, 458-460
Gutzlaff, 194, 359
HACHIMAN, 133
Hair-dressing, 159, 160, 270-271
Haimi, 375
Hall, Captain Basil, 186, 197
Hanabusa, 429, 438-440
Han dynasty, 16, 19
Han River, 187, 188, 367, 378, 380
Han Yang. See Seoul.
Hats, 271, 272
Hayes, Mr. A. A., Jr., 402
Head-dresses, 159, 273
Hiaksai, 26, 35-39
INDEX.
471
Hideyori, 125
Hideyoshi, 87, 88-94,96, 98, 144, 148
Hoang-hai. See Whang-Mi.
Hollanders, 157, 162, 167-176
Homio, 38
Horses, 7, 198, 201, 332, 385
Hosho, 36, 37
Hoskyn, Captain, 440
Hospitality, 288, 368, 391, 405
Houses, 31, 33, 262, 265, 282, 355
Housekeeping, 262-270
Human sacrifices, 82
Hunters, 294, 323
lea, 6, 268
Ig latieff, General, 370, 371
Iki Island, 72
In bert, Bishop, 362
In-chiun, 429, 431, 434, 436, 439
Inouye Bunda, 422, 423
Ireland, 9
Iron, 218, 380
Islands, 191, 197, 200, 201, 203
Italians, 428
lyeyasu, 146, 148
JAPANESE, 24, 75, 163
Japanese pirates, 74, 84, 91, 92
Jesuits, 162, 165, 376, 401
Jingu Kogo, 45, 54, 89
Jinsen. See Jn-chiun.
JuLla-do. See ChuUa-do.
KAICHOW, 65
Ks ng-hoa. See Kang-wa.
Kang-wa Island, 72, 191, 372, 381,
410, 423
Kaokuli. See Kokorai.
Karakuni, 59
Kadwade, 58, 59
Kato Kiyomasa, 96, 97, 103, 105, 110,
113, 114
Kl ordadbeh, 2
Kl ublai Khan, 73
King-ki-tao. See Seoul.
Kioto, 92, 330
Kirin, 303
Kishi. See Ki Tsse.
Kitans, 67, 68
Ki Tsze, 11, 12-15, 76, 362
Kiushiu, 57, 406
Klaproth, 458
Kokorai, 23-26, 56
Kokun Island, 368, 369
Kokwa. See Kang-wa.
Kondera. See Kuroda.
Konishi Yukinaga, 96, 97, 102, 103,
105, 109, 111, 112, 119, 127, 146
Korai, 19, 26-29, 34, 65-69, 76, 429
Kudara. See Hiaksai.
Kung, Prince, 377
Kuroda, 97, 106
Kuroda Kiyotaku, 422
LAKE Baikal, 65, 67
Lake Hanka, 65
Language, 51, 123, 455-463
La Perouse, 174, 350
Lazareff Port, 214, 428
Liao Tung, 42, 74, 180. See Sliing*
king.
Liquors, 266, 463
Literary examinations, 81, 339, 341-
343
Literary style, 34
Li Hung Chang, 182, 421, 430, 441
Li-yu-son, 111, 117, 156
Loo Choo. See Riu Kiu.
Looking-glass, story of a, 315
Lotus, 136, 331
Low, F. F., Minister, 403-405, 408
MAGNETIC needle, 69, 84
Ma-han, 31, 32
Manchius, 154-160, 367, 421
Manchuria, 8, 83, 371
Manchusri, 154
McCartee, Dr. D. B., 338
McCaslin, Captain, 391
472
INDEX.
Mclntyre, 460, 461
McKee, Lieut., 416, 418
Maps, 162, 165, 367, 467, 468
Mayers, Mr. W. F., 459
Meals, 264
Measures, 463-465
Medhurst, Mr. W. H., 458
Military character, 42, 43, 325, 416
Mile-stones, 285, 463
Ming dynasty, 77, 78, 81, 83, 85,
156
Monasteries, 333, 384
Mongols, 70-75
Mongolia, 8
Monocacy, U. S. S., 406-409, 412-
414
Monuments, 160, 279, 437
Mori Arinori, 422
Mountains, 5, 189, 203, 206
Mourning, 277-282
Music, 292, 293, 424
Musselmans. See Arabs.
NAGASAKI, 123, 149, 150, 162, 175,
205, 370, 398, 408, 440
Nai-po, 193, 349, 352, 375
Nak-tong River, 5, 164, 202, 203
Names, 165, 261, 348
Nanking, 40, 48, 69
Nan-on, 130-133
Nature, 207, 340, 378
Naval battles, 108, 129, 130, 134
Neutral Strip, 7, 8, 84, 156, 182, 421
New Year's Day, 1, 111, 297
Nido syllabary, 47, 67
Niijun. See NincM.
Ninchi, 68
Ningpo, 69, 84
Nin-sen. See In-chiun.
Nippon Machi, 164
Ni Taijo, 76, 78, 79 -
Nose, the history of a, 311
Noses, 171, 317
Nuns, 59, 335
Nye, Hon. Gideon, 389
OGAWUCHI, 133, 139-144
Ojin, 55
Oppert, Ernest, 375, 392
Ouen-sau. See Gensan.
PAGODAS, 32, 383
Palladius, 68, 83, 237
Paper, 153, 263, 265
Parkes, Sir Harry, 435
Pears, 32, 268
Petitions to the king, 82, 222, 431
Petsi. See Hiaksai.
Pheasants, 32, 60
Phoenix, 304
Phonetic writing, 38, 47, 48, 457
Ping-an city, 21, 65, 105, 106, 109,
112, 182, 183, 392-395
Ping-an province, 179-183
Pipes, 253, 369
Poetry, 59, 297, 344, 461
Political parties, 224-229, 356, 362, 429
Polo, Marco, 72, 73
Polo, game of, 427
Population, 281
Porcelain, 2, 264
Port Lazareff, 214
Portuguese, 2, 84, 354
Potters, 146, 174, 359
Pratt, Hon. Zadoc, 390
Primogeniture, 260
Prince Jerome Gulf, 194, 398
Printing, 67, 369, 461
Proverbs, 317-319
Provinces, 80, 179-217
Puhai, 64, 65
Pung-sui, 278, 279, 328.
QUEEN Min, 421, 438
Quelpart, 4, 200, 370, 428
RAIN, 306, 359, 437, 439
Religion, 326-335
Revenge, 227
Rice, 268, 298, 437
Richthofen, 2
INDEX.
473
Ridel, Bishop, 372, 375, 378, 413, 459
Kin Yin River, 104, 105, 190
Ri Seiki. See Ni Taijo.
Riu Kin, 91, 146, 426
Roads, 202, 284, 413, 463
Rogers, Admiral John, 13, 403-406,
408, 418
Rona, the, 375
Ross, Rev. John, 2J, 456, 460, 461
Roze, Admiral, 376-386
Roze Island, 379, 439
Russians, 162, 163, 205, 210, 371, 428
SACRIFICES, 329
Saigo, 420, 425
Sam-han, 30, 34
Sanskrit, 334
Sargent, Senator, 428
Saris, 147
Satehiko, 59
Schall, Adam, 160
Schools, 343
Seal of state, 218, 373
Seoul, 79, 85, 104, 115, 158, 163, 164,
189-190, 220, 223, 341, 436-441
Serfdom, 23, 237-243
Serpents, 305
Shamanism, 326
Shang-chiu, 102, 164, 203
Shang-ti, 327
Shantung, 2, 3, 74
Shan-yan mountains, 213
Shaw, Capt. Samuel, 389
Shimonoseki, 53, 420, 440
Shing-king, 3, 180, 353, 361, 364, 421
Shin-nan, 32, 33
Shinra, 33, 45-49, 135
Shoes, 276
Shufeldt, Com. R. W., 186, 428, 435
Singing-girls, 90, 291
Sinlo. See Shinra.
Slavery. See Serfdom.
Snow, 6, 207, 324
Sorio. See Nippon Macki, and Fusan.
Spear, Rev. Wm., 389
Spelling, 338
Spies, 122
Spirits of the air, 327
Stockbridge, 388
Straw men, 383
Succession to throne, 223
Sungari River, 20, 371
Sunto, 66, 77. See Kai-seng.
Surprise, the, 391
Susanoo, 51
Suyematz, Mr. K., 71
Swords, 116, 149, 382
Syllabary, 67, 338. See Alphabet.
TAI-IN, or Tai-on Kun. See Tai Wen
Kun.
Taiko Sama. See Hideyoshi.
Tai-wen Kun, 230, 373, 380, 420, 437
Tang dynasty, 36, 37, 47
Tea, 267, 389
Temples, 331, 334, 336
Theatre, 291
"The"Corea, 3
Thibet, 2, 318
Thomas, Rev., 391
Throne, 52, 219
Tien-tsin massacre, 386, 418
Tigers, 59, 135, 301, 320-325
Tobacco, 151, 152, 366
Tokio, 420, 424, 427, 440
Tombs, 279, 297, 392, 396, 399
Tong Nai, 100, 203, 371, 428
Torai f u. See Tong Nai.
Tortoise, 218, 303
Torture, 234, 352, 375
Translations into Corean, 349, 430, 461
Tribute, 58, 159, 160
Tsuruga, 53, 54
Tsushima, 85, 86, 150, 151, 164, 205
Tycoon, 149, 380
Types, 67, 434, 461
UNMUN, 67, 457
Unyo Kuan, 422
Uru-san, 137-144
474
INDEX.
VARNISH, 189
Vettor Pisani, The, 428
Village idols, 285
Vincent, 122, 123
Von Brandt, Minister, 405
VonSiebold, 150,458
WALL of stakes, 84, 182
Wang-ken, 65
Weigatz, 85
Wei-man, 16
Whales, 215
Whang-hai, 183-187
Whang-ti, 41, 92, 159, 423
Williams, Hon. S. Wells, 394, 403, 459
Wishes, the three, 310
XAVIER, 60
YASUHIRO, 89, 90
Yedo, 151. See Tokio.
Yoshitoshi, 93
Yoshitsune, 71, 164
Yule, Colonel H., 72
A NOTEWORTHY BOOK.
OUR ARCTIC PROVINCE.
ALASKA AND THE SEAL ISLANDS.
By HENRY W. ELLIOTT.
Illustrated by Drawings from Nature, by the Author, and Haps.
One Volume, 8vo, $4.5O.
Mr. Elliott has for many years been connected with the Smithsonian
Cnstitution at Washington. A scientist and a naturalist, his book on
Alaska, besides being of the utmost interest to the general reader, is of
^reat value and importance as a contribution to scientific research. The
author has spent six or seven years in studying Alaska and its people,
travelling from the most southerly point of the province to the most
northerly, along the coast, and among the islands extending 300 miles to
the west. His treatment of the seal interests is particularly full, and of
especial moment in view of the fact that the contract between the United
States and the Alaska Seal Company, which supplies the world with seal'
fskins, will soon lapse, and the subject is certain to come up prominently in
Government affairs. The natives and the Alaskan life Mr. Elliott writes
of as one who knows his subject intimately. The illustrations, of which
there are about a hundred, are engraved from the author's original draw-
ings and water-color paintings.
There has scarcely been a book published on Arctic travel so vivid
Philadelphia and picturesque in treatment, and so clear and definite in the infor-
Record. mation which it furnishes, as this work by Mr. Elliott. . . . It is
an effective and really wonderful record of travel and exploration.
Other books may still be written about Alaska, but it is not easy to
N. Y. Journal understand how any of them can exceed this one in interest, or in
if Commerce. any way shake its authority as an accurate guide to "Our Arctic
Province."
A book that is a work ; not a sportsman's pastime, but a scientist's
Boston Literary treatise ; not a history, not a mere description, not a narrative of ad-
World. venture ; but a carefully studied, thoroughly assimilated, intelligently
written, attractively illustrated exposition of Alaska.
Nothing so complete and satisfactory has ever before appeared in
< Chicago print in this country as this absorbingly interesting and minutely
i {erald. accurate account of the great Alaskan Seal Islands, and the book must
now be regarded as the standard authority on u Our Arctic Province."
- v , Few books on Alaska contain so much that has real value and pbsi-
' Tim. f tive interest as this- Ifc is an accumulation of very vital facts about
that country set forth in an exact and yet attractive manner.
A standard, comprehensive work, whose scientific accuracy is be-
,. yond question, and whose graphic descriptions and vital interpreta-
£> OS tOft .' /• ,1 . , „{• » 1 1 „ 'U^IJ 4.U~ . ~*i^1,t.....;*U *. . ,--. ~f U;»-» rf nf tVk A
'traveller.
tions of the resources of Alaska hold the reader with something of the
charm of a romance. . . . The book is certainly one of the most
valuable contributions to contemporary literature.
Quo YGARS in U>G JUDGLG,
The Experiences of a Hunter and Naturalist in India,
Ceylon, the Malay Peninsula, and Borneo.
By WILLIAM T. HORNADAY,
Chief Taxidermist U. S. National Museum.
vol., 8vo, pp, xxii. 512, two folding maps and 51 illustrations. Price, $3,00.
THE EXPEDITION AND ITS OBJECT.
THE author relates the experiences of a hunter and naturalist in India,
Ceylon, the Malay Peninsula, and Borneo ; and certainly no richer
hunting-ground could be found anywhere else in the world. Mr.
Hornaday is chief taxidermist in the United States National Museum.
He was formerly connected with Professor Ward's Natural Science
Museum of Rochester, N. Y., and his expedition to the East was in the
interests of that establishment. While his book is in some respects like
such works as those which Du Chaillu and Sir Samuel W. Baker have
written to delight and interest a multitude of readers, he has imparted a
vast amount of information, a large part of which is new and of the great-
est moment to the naturalist.
Mr. Hornaday started from New York in 1876. From England he
went finally south to India, arriving at Bombay ; he went across country
to Benares ; from here he made an expedition to the north to Cawnpore
and Agra. From Benares he worked his way to Calcutta, journeyed down
the Bay of Bengal to Madras ; southward again, he made a complete cir-
cuit of Ceylon, than to the Malay Peninsula, and finally to Borneo, where
his adventures with the orangutan were met, ending his two years of fruit-
ful and entirely successful search. The illustrations are many, and most
of them are taken from Mr. Hornaday's own sketches. Though it may
seem to be stating much, it certainly may be truly said that a more inter-
esting book of travel and adventures was never published.
"Decidedly the most interesting and instructive book of travel and adventure in
the East Indies it has ever been our good fortune to read." — Baltimore News.
" An entertaining volume. . . . The author has proved his ability to write a
good book of travel" — Morning Post (London).
" To the naturalist, Mr. Hornaday's book cannot but be as deeply interesting as
to the sportsman and traveller. ... It deserved to be distinguished from among
the mass of books of sporting adventure.** — Melbourne Argus.
" One of the most entertaining and instructive books of its kind that has been
published." — San Francisco Post.
"The most remarkable book ever produced upon th<* subject
of Arctic explorations."— JOURNAL OF COMMERCE.
THREE YEARS OF ARCTIC SERVICE.
AN ACCOUNT OF THE
LADY FRANKLIN BAY EXPEDITION OF 1881-84,
AND THB ATTAINMENT OP THE
FARTHEST NORTH.
The first full and authorized account of the most Important and
successful Arctic Exploration ever made.
MAGNIFICENTLY ILLUSTRATED
WITH
OVER ISO ENGRAVINGS, MAPS, AND CHARTS.
By Lieutenant A. W. GREELY, U.S.A.,
Commanding the Expedition.
This book contains Lieutenant Greely's story of an expedition which reached the most northerly
] >oint ever attained ; and of an experience that stands alone in Arctic annals. Apart from the narrative
cf extraordinary suffering and final rescue which appears here, the fact that no one else ever passed
the same length of time so far within the Arctic circle gives to the account the value and interest of
c bservations absolutely new. Lieutenant Greely's training, attainments, and above all the long study
c f Arctic matters and the Polar question which first led him to seek this service, all qualified him to
i lake and to record these observations; and his book will be found to give his experience with a simple
( irectness that makes the story the more absorbing, and with no detention of the reader over useless
( omment.
TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION.
T-WO •VOXiTJadOSSS- T. A :R,GKB Q,TJ A TCTO.
PRICES AND STYLES OF BINDING.
t'xtra Cloth, per volume, . . . $5 00 I Half Morocco, Gilt, per volume, . . $8 00
Xheep, Marbled Edges, per volume, . 6 00 \ Full Morocco, Gilt, per volume, . . 10 00
SOLD ONLY BY SUBSCRIPTION THROUGH AUTHORIZED AGENTS.
Delivered to any part of the United States free of charge.
THE RESCUE OF GREELY.
— BY—
Commander W. S. SCHLEY, U. S. N., and Prof. J. RUSSELL SOLEY, U. S. N.
WITH MAPS AND NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS.
\ Vol., 8vo, New Edition, $2.OO.
Now that the story of the relief of Greely and his party is fully told, it rums out to be one of the
i lost stirring and absorbing chapters in Arctic annals. The two disastrous attempts made in previous
T ears, to the disappointment of the whole people, were enough to show that the rescue was not a
i latter of simply sailing up to Cape Sabine and back; there was some reason besides "luck" why
t .vo expeditions ended in disaster, and why the Navy finally accomplished what had been twice tried
The simplicity and modesty of Captain Schley's and Mr. Soley's narrative do not hide from any
> eader what this reason really was.
"THE ONE BOOK ON CHINA.'
THE MIDDLE KINGDOM.
fc Survey of the Geography, Government, Literature, Social Life, Arts and History
of the Chinese Empire and its Inhabitants.
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS AND A NEW MAP OF THE EMPIRE.
By S. WELLS WILLIAMS, LL.D.,
Professor of the Chinese Language and Literature at Yale College; Author of Tonic and
Syllabic Dictionaries of the Chinese Language.
Two Volumes, 8vo. Price, $9.00.
The wonderful advance in the arts of civilization and intellectual development made by China
during the thirty-five years since this book was first written, and especially the new basis upon which
its foreign relations have been established and the events that are even now occurring in this connec-
tion, render the publication of this revised edition unusually important.
" All this vast mass of new and trustworthy information concerning the ' Middle Kingdom,' Dr.
Williams has gathered together and condensed with praiseworthy diligence and ability, and the result
is an encyclopaedia of China the value of which cannot be overestimated. ... An exceedingly com-
plete and accurate account of the most interesting country in the world." — London Saturday Review.
"The revised edition of the 'Middle Kingdom' is the most ambitious and the best executed work,
typographically speaking, that has issued for a long time from American presses. From a literary
standpoint it must be regarded as the best general work on China extant, and therefore as indispens-
able to the reader who wishes to obtain a comprehensive view of the wonderful country and people it
treats of." — N. Y. Tribune.
COREA: THE HERMIT NATION.
By WILLIAM ELLIOT GRIFFIS,
AUTHOR OF "THK MIKADO'S EMPIRE," AND LATE OF THE IMPERIAL UNIVERSITY, TOKIO, JAPAN.
1 Vol., 8vo, with numerous maps and illustrations, new edition, $2.50.
"The work bears witness to a vast amount of well-directed labor; and while it is clothed with a
rare charm for the general reader, whose curiosity regarding a long-isolated nation will for the first
time be satisfied, it is also sure of a respectful and grateful reception from the stu ~ent of history, eth-
nology, and philology. The discussion, indeed, of the Corean language in an appendix is the first
essay on the subject which has seemed to us at once explicit, intelligible, and trustworthy."
— New York Sun.
EAST OF THE JORDAN.
A Record of Travel and Observation in the Countries of Moab, Gilead, and Bashan,
during the years 1875-1877.
By SELAH MERRILL, Archaeologist of the American Palestine Exploration Society.
With, illustrations and a map. 1 Vol., 8vo, new edition, 83. OO.
No other American is so much at home in the East Jordan country as Mr. Merrill, and there does
not exist in any other language so much fresh and valuable information respecting it. The illustra-
tions which embellish the book are fresh and original, and the style of the narrative is graphic and
entertaining. The work is exceedingly interesting as an account of exploration in this field, rich in
historic associations.
BRAZIL: THE AMAZONS AND THE COAST.
By HERBERT H. SMITH.
Illustrated from sketches by J. Wells Champney and others. 1 Vol., 8uo., extra cloth, $5.00.
"In this book Mr. Smith, an American, who has lived and travelled for the greater part of eight
years in Brazil, gives so excellent an account of that country that we cannot regret this addition to the
already extensive literature of the subject. The book is a very successful attempt to present a com-
prehensive picture, drawn both from the experience of the author and from that of previous Brazilian
and foreign writers, of the present state of Brazil." — London Academy.
TURKISTAN.
Notes of a Journey, in 1873, in the Russian Province of Turkistan, the Khanates of
Khokan and Bokhara, and Provinces of Kuldaja.
With a Chapter showing Russian Progress in Central Asia during the last ten years.
By EUGENE SCHUYLER.
New Edition. With many illustrations*. 9 Vols., 8vo, S5.0O.
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