The king insulted.... the “Mulberry Palace”.... plot against the Queen
Dowager.... her indictment.... she is degraded.... inception of the
Manchu power.... China summons Korea to her aid.... troops
despatched.... first battle with the Manchus.... Korean
treachery.... Koreans make friends with the Manchus.... the Manchu
court.... a Manchu letter to the king.... its answer.... Manchu
rejoinder.... message to Nanking.... Chinese refugees.... a Korean
renegade.... the Queen intercedes for China.... Chinese victory....
Manchu cruelty.... offices sold.... plot against the king.... king
dethroned.... Queen Dowager reinstated.... reforms.... a thorough
cleaning out.
With the opening of the year 1615 the king further revealed his hatred
of the deposed and degraded queen by publishing broadcast the statement
that she had gone to the grave of his mother and there, by practicing
sorcery against him, had tried to bring evil upon him. This also brought
out a loud protest from all honest men, and banishment followed. Even
the children on the street spoke insultingly of the tyrant saying that
he was afraid of the imps at the Myŭng-ye Palace, but had let his mother
stay there with them though he himself would not go near the place. The
king feared everyone that was honest and upright even though they had
nothing to say. His own cousin, Prince Neung-ch’ang, whose younger
brother afterward became king, was a perfectly peaceable and harmless
man, but the king feared him and could not rest satisfied until he had
gotten his satellites to accuse him of sedition and had suffocated him
in a heated chamber on Kyo-dong Island. About this time a monk, named
Seung-ji; gained the confidence of the superstitious king and induced
him to build the In-gyŭng Palace which is commonly known among
foreigners as the “Mulberry Palace.” To do this, thousands of the houses
of the common people were razed and heavy taxes were levied throughout
the country; and yet there was not enough money. So the king began to
sell the public offices. Some were paid for in gold, others in silver,
others in iron, and still others in wood, stone or salt. The people
derisively called it the _O-hăng_, referring to the “Five Rules of
Conduct” of the Confucian Code. The boys also made up a popular song
which ran as follows, “Did you give gold, or silver, or wood for yours?”
and they put the officials to shame by shouting it at them as they
passed along the street.
Yi I-ch’ŭm, the favorite, could not rest until he had carried out his
master’s wish and had invented some way to destroy the degraded Queen.
Finding no other way to accomplish this, he at last descended to the
following trick. He instructed a man named Hŭ Kyun to write a letter to
the imprisoned queen purporting to be from some party in the country,
proposing a scheme for deposing the king. This letter was thrown over
the wall of the queen’s enclosure and there found by the servants of the
crafty plotter. The king was ready to believe anything against her and
this letter fanned his hatred into flame. Yi I-ch’ŭm followed it up by
joining with scores of others in memorials urging the king to put to
death the hated Queen Dowager. The Prime Minister, Keui Cha-hön, stood
in the way, however, and it became necessary to banish him to the far
north. In the eleventh moon the king finally decided to drive the woman
from Seoul, and made all the officials give their opinion about it in
writing. Nine hundred and thirty officials and a hundred and seventy of
the king’s relatives advised to do so, but the aged Yi Hang-bok with
eight others utterly refused their sanction of the iniquitous plan; and
so these nine men, the last of those upright men who had stood about the
late king, were sent into banishment.
The year thus closed in gloom and the new one opened with a memorial
from the Prime Minister Ha Hyo-san enumerating ten charges against the
Queen Dowager: (1) that she had had the officials do obeisance to the
young prince although the successor to the throne had already been
appointed; (2) when the king was dying she asked him to set aside Prince
Kwang-hă in favor of the young prince; (3) she prevented, as long as
possible, the king from handing over the scepter to Prince Kwang-hă; (4)
she wrote the letters purporting to be from the dying king asking that
the young prince be carefully nurtured; (5) she instigated her father to
conspire against the king; (6) she sacrificed in the palace and prayed
for the death of Prince Kwang-hă; (7) she prayed for the same at the
grave of his mother; (8) she corresponded with outside parties with a
view to raising an insurrection; (9) she sent to the Emperor asking to
have Prince Kwang-ă set aside, (10) she sent to Japan asking that an
army be sent to overthrow the government.
The king feigned to be very loath to believe all these charges and to
act upon them; he called heaven to witness that the very thought of it
was terrible to him and averred that he would rather be banished to some
distant shore than even to mention such a thing. But after a great deal
of urging he was prevailed upon, and said he could no longer be deaf to
the entreaties of his subjects and the welfare of the country. So he
took away her title of Tă-bi and decreed that she should be called
Sŭ-gung “West Palace,” and that she should receive no part of the
government revenue, that officials should no more do homage to her, that
her marriage certificate be burned and that all her wedding garments be
taken from her. He determined also that in the event of her death no one
should assume mourning, that her name should be inscribed in no
ancestral temple, and that she should be shut up in her own apartments
and strictly guarded.
And now there appeared in the northwest a cloud which was destined to
overspread the whole of Korea, and China as well. Norach‘i was chief of
the Manchu tribes. He was from the wild tribe of Kön-ju which, as we
have seen, was broken up by a Korean military expedition. His
grandfather’s name was Kyu-sang and his father’s name was Hapsiri. These
had both been put to death by a Chinese general, A-t‘ă, and to the
unquenchable hatred caused by this must be ascribed the terrible
reprisals the young Norach‘i made on China, where his descendants occupy
the imperial throne to this day. At the time of his father’s death he
had fled eastward beyond the reach of China’s arm but gradually gaining
power he crept slowly westward again until he had a footing on the great
Manchu plains. But he was not yet ready to carry out his plans against
China, and when the Mongol, Hapuigeukosip, entered the great wall and
overthrew the Chinese general Yu Pu, Norach‘i caught him and sent his
head to Nanking. The Emperor was pleased at this and gave him the rank
of “Dragon Tiger General.” Having thus disarmed suspicion, the hardy
northman began gathering and training troops until there stood about him
10,000 skillful archers. Some years before this he had killed his
younger brother for fear of complications and now in the year of the
events of which we are writing he had overcome the three great Chinese
generals Yi Yong-bang, Chang Seung-yun and Yang Yö-gwi. The ruling
dynasty of the Ming in China became well aware of the gravity of the
situation and saw that it was necessary to square themselves for a
desperate fight with the great Manchu leader. The first act of the
Emperor was to send a summons to the King of Korea ordering him to send
generals and troops at once to join the Chinese forces against Norach‘i.
The king responded by sending a man to find out the exact state of
affairs, whether China was weak or strong and whether it would pay to
help her in the coming struggle. This was paying China back in kind for
her delay in sending aid when the Japanese invaded the peninsula, but
Korea was thoroughly loyal to the Ming power. She may be criticised in
many ways but there was never shown a deeper loyalty or devotion than
Korea showed the Mings during the years of struggle against the Manchus,
a devotion that always worked against her own selfish interests.
The Chinese general Yang Ho sent back to the king and said, “When we ask
for aid do you merely send a spy to find out how matters stand? This war
is as much in your interests as ours, so you had best send an army at
once to form a junction with us in Liao-tung.” However little stomach
the king had for the war this appeal was too strong to be set aside.
Even this base king could not overlook the tremendous obligation under
which Korea lay on account of aid rendered by China against the
Japanese. He therefore appointed generals Kang Hong-rip and Kim Kyöng-sŭ
as first and second in command and under them three other generals,
Chŭng Ho-sŭ, Yi Chung-nam and Chŭng Eung-jŭng. These men were put in
command of 20,000 troops drawn from the five provinces of P‘yŭng-an,
Ham-gyŭng, Kyŭng-keui, Ch‘ung-ch‘ŭng and Chul-la, and they were ordered
to the northern border. This was toward the close of the year, but
before its end the Chinese sent a messenger to hurry forward the Korean
troops, as it was intended to make a grand demonstration with the
opening of the new year.
In the first month of 1619 the troops went forward to the seat of war.
It was in the middle of winter and most of the soldiers were going from
a comparatively warm climate into the rigors of a semi-arctic region.
The Chinese Gen. Yang Ho was advancing upon the Manchu position by four
different roads. The whole army rendezvoused at Sim-ha in Liao-tung not
far from the Korean border town of Eui-ju. The combined forces were led
by four generals, Yang Ho, Yu Chŭng, Kyo Il-geui and the Korean Kang
Hong-rip. Meeting a smallÖö body of five hundred Manchu troops they
drove them back into the hills with considerable slaughter, and fondly
supposed that all the Manchus could be put to flight as easily. In this
preliminary skirmish the Koreans took a leading part, and one general
was killed and another was wounded in the hand. The next day the whole
force advanced to a place called Pu-go. The right and left flanks of the
army were composed of Chinese and the center was held by Gen. Kang
Hong-rip with his Korean troops. Suddenly, almost without warning, ten
thousand Manchu horsemen swept down upon the right flank. The
impetuosity of the charge carried everything before it, and almost
instantly the whole right wing was thrown into confusion and took to
precipitate flight, in which both Gen. Yu Chŭng and Gen. Yang Ho were
killed. Then the Manchu chief Kwi Yŭng-ga with 30,000 men came across
the Ka-hap Pass and fell upon the left flank, and that too was routed in
short order. The center under Gen. Kang had not yet been attacked and
stood unmoved by, and not unlikely unconscious of, the terrible
destruction being meted out to their allies to the right and left. Now,
Gen. Kang had been instructed by the king to watch the turn of events
and if the Chinese could not hold their own to go over to the Manchus
and make friends with them. This indeed does not look much like loyalty
to China, but it must be remembered that we are dealing now not with the
Korean sentiment as a whole but with the wretch who occupied the throne
at the moment, and who had no more real loyalty toward China than he had
love for his own country.
Gen. Kang followed his instructions and sent to the Manchu leader and
said, “We are not enemies. There is no cause for hostilities between us.
We have been forced into this unpleasant position against our wills. As
the Chinese showed us favors during the Japanese invasion we have had to
make some show of interest in order to reciprocate the favor, but as
things have turned out we should be glad to make friends with you.”
The Manchu chieftain was willing enough to come to this agreement and so
the whole Korean contingent went over _en masse_ to the Manchus. Gen.
Yang was brought before Norach‘i to make his obeisance. That powerful
man was seated upon a throne, clothed in yellow silk, and on either side
were many young women with jewelled pendants in their ears. Gen. Kang
was told to stand some distance away and bow, but he said that in his
own country his rank was sufficiently high to warrant a nearer approach.
So he was led nearer. He then made only a slight genuflection. This did
not please the choleric Norach‘i and the general was compelled to make a
proper obeisance. Gen. Kim Kyöng-sŭ likewise went through this
humiliating ceremony.
It appears that Gen. Kang had decided that it was to his interests to
join himself permanently to the Manchus, for when soon after this Gen.
Kim tried to despatch a letter to the king, giving a carefully detailed
account of the Manchus and their strength, the letter was intercepted by
Gen. Kang who gave it to Norach‘i and advised that Gen. Kim be killed.
This was immediately done.
Three months later the Manchu chief sent a letter to the Korean king,
couched in the following terms, “I have seven causes for hating the Ming
dynasty and it is impossible for me to keep my hands off them. Now you
and I are not enemies. To be sure you have injured us more or less in
the past, but we will waive all that. It will be necessary for you
however to break off all connection with China and stop aiding her in
any way.” Gen. Kang also wrote at the same time saying, “The Manchus are
training all their youth to war, and soon they will have the whole of
Liao-tung.” When the king received these letters he referred them to the
governor of P’yŭng-an Province to answer. The answer ran as follows,
“For two hundred years both you and we have been the subjects of the
Ming power and now that trouble has arisen between you and the
authorities at Nanking it will be bad for you and us as well. China is
like a parent to us and how can we refuse to aid her? We cannot listen
to your demand and abstain from helping her. If you will make peace with
us and clearly define our boundaries and abstain from conquest, China
will not be only glad but will reward us both with gifts.” To this the
Manchu replied, “If you think that China will give presents you have
been grievously deceived by her. They are all liars and cheats and I
hate them. Put away this idea and stand shoulder to shoulder with us. We
must take an oath and sacrifice a white horse to heaven and a black
bullock to the earth. After that I will send back all your generals and
soldiers. Let there be no more weapons used between us, but only
horse-whips.” This latter refers to friendly intercourse by means of
horses. Gen. Kang also wrote, “Norach’i has taken Puk-kwan and Gen. Kim
T’ă-sŭk is dead. Păk Yang-go has surrendered. Norach’i has joined the
Mongol forces to his own and is advancing on Yo-gwang. His two sons
Mangoda and Hongtasi advise him to first seize Liao-tung. Every day
there are long debates to discuss whether it were better to strike
Liao-tung or Korea first. This is a secret but I am sure of what I say.
They are making great numbers of ladders and I am sure they are
intending to invade Korea first.”
This letter troubled the King, for it interfered with his own personal
comfort. So he sent a swift messenger to Nanking begging the Emperor to
send a large force to “guard your eastern territory” which meant that
the king wanted China to stand between him and this Manchurian scourge.
The relatives of Gen. Kang were kept informed by him of the state of
affairs in the north, and they sent large sums of money to Norach’i to
buy him off and prevent him from invading Korea; and it may be that it
was this, at least in part, that delayed it for some time. The king’s
messengers found the road to Nanking blocked by the Manchus and so had
to turn back. The king thereupon sent envoys one after another by boat,
but as the Koreans were poor sailors, they failed to land at the right
place and fell into the hands of the Manchus or were wrecked by storms.
The Manchus now, in 1621, held the whole of Liao-tung and the Chinese
residents were fleeing in all directions. Thousands of them crossed into
Korea and many crossed over to the islands of Ok-kang and In-san near
the mouth of the Yalu River and there, huddled together in wretchedness
and want, bewailed their pitiable condition.
The prefect of Eui-ju implored the king to forward troops to hold the
Manchus in check and the Chinese Gen. Wang wrote the king demanding a
contingent of Korean troops to oppose the wild horde that threatened the
Ming power. But the king was utterly incompetent, and all Seoul was in a
ferment. The king thought only of himself, and looked to it that a
comfortable place was arranged for him on the island of Kang-wha, in
case it should become necessary for him to leave Seoul. In the early
summer a Korean named Yi Yöng-bang, who had gone over to the Manchus
body and soul, and had become son-in-law to Norach’i, took a body of
Manchu cavalry, crossed over to the islands of Ok-kang and In-san and
massacred all the Chinese refugees he could lay hands on. This again
struck terror to the heart of the king, and it threw Seoul into a fever
of excitement. The king collected nine thousand troops from the southern
provinces and stationed them at Su-wŭn, but there was no one whom he
could appoint general-in-chief; so he had to recall from banishment Han
Chun-gyŭm and confer this honor upon him. Han Myŭng-yŭn was made second
in command. He was a man of low extraction but had acquired a certain
amount of fame in the Japanese invasion.
In the following year, 1622, the Manchus entered China and were
everywhere victorious. They wanted to make a treaty with Korea, but the
king could decide neither one way nor the other. His envoys had not
reached China and he had no word from the Emperor. The queen
memorialized the king in the native script and said, “Those northern
savages want to make peace with us, not because of any feeling of
friendship for us but because they think they cannot handle China and
Korea both at once. So they do this to keep us quiet until they finish
with China. The king should make up his mind one way or the other and
act. Think of what the Chinese did for us during the late invasion! We
were on the very edge of destruction and they succored us. Both king and
people should be of one mind and hasten to send soldiers to oppose this
common enemy. Even if we do not succeed we shall have clear consciences,
for we shall know that we have done what we could to aid China in the
hour of her distress.” In the third moon a letter arrived from the
Manchu headquarters which read as follows, “You say that you are the
child and China is the parent. Well, I am now striking your parent, but
you seem not to be able to help her. There is no use in trying to do
so.” In answer to this grim pleasantry the craven king sent an envoy
with gifts to the Manchu camp, but the gifts and envoy were both spurned
with insults.
The Chinese general Mo Mun-nyŭng fled from Liao-tung by boat and landed
at Yong-ch’ŭn in Korea. Finding there many Chinese fugitives, and among
them not a few soldiers, he organized a little army and marched against
the Manchus. In his first fight he was quite successful, coming from the
field with the head of the Manchu general, T’ung Yang-jöng. He then made
his headquarters at Ch’ŭl-san. With the approach of winter the Manchus
crossed the Ya-lu in force and he was outnumbered and had to flee. He
sent a letter to the king saying, “I am now here in your territory with
a small force, let us unite and drive back this Manchu horde.” But
nothing came of it.
The Manchus were exceedingly cruel toward their captives. Having
collected a large number they made them sit down in rows and then the
Manchu braves went along the line and shot arrows into their victims. If
the wound was not instantly mortal the victim was compelled to pluck out
the arrow with his own hands and give it back to his executioner.
Meanwhile Korea was going from bad to worse. For many years all official
positions had been sold to the highest bidder. Governors and generals
paid 30,000 cash, prefects 20,000 and clerks paid 3,000. No office could
be procured without an immediate cash payment. The price put upon the
office of Prime Minister was so great that for many years no one could
afford to take it, and so the place remained vacant, perhaps to the
benefit of the people. The king was ruled by a favorite concubine and
she made use of her power to enrich her relatives and those attached to
her. She and other concubines sent men to the country to peddle offices.
Half the money they kept themselves and the other half went to the
pockets of the concubines. Such was the desperate condition of affairs
when the year 1622 came in; and we must now record the downfall of this
wretched parody of a king.
A man by the name of Yi Kwi had desired for a long time to find some way
of ridding the land of the desperate tyrant, and at last he found five
men who were willing to engage with him in the good cause. They were Sim
Kyöng-jin, Sim Keui-wŭn, Kim Cha-jŭm, Ch‘oe Myŭng-gil, Kim Nyu. After
thinking the matter over and discussing it, they decided that if their
plan succeeded they would put on the throne the grandson of Sŭn-jo
Tă-wang. Kim Nyu was made the leader in this plot. Collecting money they
fitted out a small but select body of soldiers and put Gen. Yi Heung-ip
at their head, and the day for the event was set. But one of the men
connected with the plot turned traitor and told the king the whole plan.
The conspirators learned of it immediately and decided to carry out
their program in spite of all. As it happened, the king was in a drunken
carouse at the time this interesting bit of information was given him
and he forgot all about it. That very night the band of conspirators met
at the appointed rendezvous beyond the Peking Pass. But there was
trouble, because some soldiers who were expected from Chang-dan had not
yet arrived; so a swift messenger was sent to find them. They were met
twenty _li_ out and hurried forward. Yi Kwal, with several other
generals, went to meet these troops beyond the pass and lead them into
the city. They found several hundred soldiers ready for the enterprise;
but a man named Chang Yu came in haste from the city and said, “The king
has been told. The government troops are coming out to seize us.” Yi Kwi
seized Yi Kwal by the hand and said, “Kim Nyu who was to lead us has not
arrived and you must be our leader.” So he consented. He gave each
soldier a piece of paper to fasten to the back of his collar so that
they would be able to recognize each other and not be thrown into
confusion. At the last moment Kim Nyu arrived and then there was a
quarrel between him and Yi Kwal as to the leadership; but as day was
about to dawn they let Kim Nyu take charge.
Having heard that the government troops were coming out of the West Gate
they hastened around the mountain and entered the Northwest Gate. When
the government troops learned by the great noise and tumult in the city
that they had been outwitted, they returned only to find the
insurrectionary troops before the palace. They had cut their way through
the gates with axes and were setting fire to everything inside. As they
entered the king’s apartments he slipped out the back door and scaling
the back wall found refuge in a monk’s room. From that place he made his
way to the house of one An Kuk-sin where he secured a suit of mourner’s
clothes and then went to the house of a physician, Chöng Nam-su. This
man however informed the new government as to his whereabouts and he was
seized. This occurred in the year 1622.
Prince Neung-yang, the nephew of the deposed king, was elevated to the
royal position and crowds of people came and bowed to him as he sat in
state before the palace. His posthumous title is In-jo Tă-wang.
His first act was to send a chair to bring back the queen dowager, from
the Myŭng-ye Palace; but she, thinking that it might perhaps be a trick
on the part of the wicked king, refused to go. She said, “The king
himself must come and take me out.” So he came and showed her that the
good news was indeed true. She sat on the throne just as she had done in
the days of King Sŭn-jo, and when the new king came in he prostrated
himself before her and wept; but she said, “Do not weep; this is a day
of deliverance, and you should rather rejoice.” Then they brought in the
depraved and fallen creature who had tried to play at king but had made
a lamentable failure. The queen dowager exclaimed, “This arch-traitor
and bloody man has come, and he must be judged here and now or I cannot
leave this place. For ten years I have been imprisoned here. Day before
yesterday I dreamed that the aged king Sŭn-jo came and said, ‘In a few
days you will be delivered.’” The eunuchs brought the royal seals and
the insignia of royalty and gave them to the newly appointed king. He
banished the deposed king to Kang-wha and his son to Kyo-dong Island. He
then gave posthumous honors to Princes Im-hă, Neung-chang, Yŭn-heung,
Pu-wön and Yöng-ch‘ang whom the tyrant had caused to be murdered. He
also called the queen dowager’s mother from exile on the island of
Quelpart.
He found the government in a profoundly wretched condition and he
forthwith began a systematic house-cleaning. He appointed new ministers
to the six departments and a proclamation was sent to the eight
provinces saying that every prefect who had bought his place should be
driven from office and that all the land that had been stolen from the
people should be returned to them; also that every prefectural clerk
should pay up the arrears of revenue which he had withheld from the
government. He drew up a company of soldiers at Chong-no, the center of
the city, and there executed the former favorite Yi I-ch‘ŭm and
seventeen other men who had aided and abetted the deposed king in his
monstrosities. Sixty more were banished to distant places where they
were confined in small enclosures surrounded with brier hedges, and
their food was handed them through small holes in the hedges. Pang Yŭp,
the governor of P‘yŭng-an Province, and two others in the country, were
executed by special messengers sent down to the country for the purpose.
This Pang Yŭp was a most desperate villain. As he had something of a
body-guard, resistance was anticipated, but the special messenger of
death managed to draw off the guard on some pretext or other and then
the work was done swiftly and surely. This governor was so detested by
the people that they cut his body into small pieces and each man carried
away a small piece “to remember him by.”
The king made Yi Kwi General-in-chief, conferred upon his father the
title of Prince Chong-wŭn and upon his mother that of Pu-pu-in and gave
her a palace to live in where the government hospital now stands. He
drove out from the palace all vile women, all musical instruments, and
he burned at Chong-no the wooden semblance of a mountain which the
former king had caused to be made and which was always carried in his
procession. This “mountain” was covered with growing shrubs and
flowering plants. He made Gen. Chang Man commander of all the provincial
forces, with his headquarters at P’yŭng-yang. He beheaded the brother of
the deposed queen and also the prefect who had suffocated the young
prince at Kang-wha. Spies were sent throughout the country to ascertain
the actual state of affairs.
This king was a deadly enemy of Buddhism, and he it was who ordered that
no monk should set foot inside the gates of Seoul. The law was
promulgated that whenever a common person entered the gates of Seoul he
must dismount from his horse. Sacrifices were offered by the king in
person at the tomb of Ki-ja and at the blood-marked stone at Song-do,
the spot where Chöng Mong-ju had been murdered when the dynasty was
founded. It was decreed that revenue should be collected to the extent
of a tithe of the grain, which was much less than before, but was
collected more regularly. We cannot but sympathize with the wife of the
son of the deposed king, who had been banished to Kyo-dong Island. She
followed him into exile and attempted to secure his escape by digging
with her own tender hands a tunnel seventy feet long. She had no other
implement than a piece of iron resembling a common fire-poker. At the
very moment of his escape the plot was discovered and the poor wife
hanged herself out of grief and disappointment. When the king heard of
this he ordered that honorable burial be given her remains and he put
the young man out of misery by administering poison. That same year the
deposed queen died and the king gave her the burial honors of a
princess. She had been a devoted Buddhist and had endowed many
monasteries with wooden or clay images. But she was not happy as queen
and prayed that when, according to the Buddhist doctrine, she should
take on another life it might not be that of a queen.