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 acknowledged 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 River, called also the Ap-nok, the former name
referring to its sinuous course, meaning “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 Manchurian side twelve tributaries, which
run down the gorges of the Ever-White Mountains. Each of these streams
is named, beginning westwardly, after the numerals of arithmetic. The
waters of so many valleys on the west, as well as on the north and
east, emptying into the Yalu, make it, in spring and fall, a turbulent
stream, which sinuates like the writhing of a dragon; whence its name.
In the summer, its waters are beautifully clear, and blue or green—the
Coreans having no word to distinguish between these two colors. It
empties by three mouths into the Yellow Sea, its deltas, or islands,
being completely submerged during the melting of the snows. It is
easily navigable for junks to the town of Chan-son, a noted trading
place, sixty miles from the sea. The valley of the Yalu is extremely
fertile, and well wooded, and the scenery is superb. Its navigation was
long interdicted to the Chinese, 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 kingdom, 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 patrols 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 themselves 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 apartment of a building inhabited at
either end by Chinese and Corean 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 mandarin 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 privilege of the two autumn fairs, the Coreans
were mulcted but half the sum, as the gates were then opened by an
underling Manchiu official. The winter fair was but of slight
importance. For the various Chinese goods, and European cottons, the
Coreans 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 natives 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 River, between Chō-sen and Chin, was
respected by the Chinese government until 1875, when Li Hung Chung, on
complaint of the king of Corea, made a descent on the Manchiu outlaws
and squatters 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
incorporated 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 islands 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 Chō-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 has been many times besieged by Chinese and
Japanese armies, and near it many battles have been fought. “The
General Sherman 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 for 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 the
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 inhabitants of
the eight provinces. Those of the two most northern, particularly of
Ping-an, are more violent in temper than the other provincials. Very
few nobles or official dignitaries live among them, hence very few of
the refinements of the capital are to be found there. They are not
overloyal to the reigning dynasty, and are believed to cherish enmity
against it. The government 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 Russian 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 was wholly on
the side of the murderers of the Sherman’s crew.
THE YELLOW-SEA PROVINCE.
All the eight circuits into which Chō-sen is divided are maritime
provinces, but this is the only one which takes its name from the body
of water on which its borders lie, jutting out into the Whang-hai, or
Yellow Sea, its extreme point lies nearest to Shantung promontory in
China. Its coast line exceeds its land frontiers. In the period
anterior to the Christian era, Whang-hai, was occupied by the tribes
called the Mahan, and from the second to the sixth century, by the
kingdom of Hiaksai. It has been the camping-ground of the armies of
many nations. Here, besides the border forays which engaged the troops
of the rival kingdoms, the Japanese, Chinese, Mongols, and Manchius,
have contended for victory again and again. The ravages of war, added
to a somewhat sterile soil, are the causes of Whang-hai being the least
populated province of the eight in the peninsula. From very ancient
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 clothing, row upon row. They amazed the
invading hordes of the Han dynasty, with such incongruous mixture of
wealth and savagery; 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 Coreans, 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 peninsula, the visions of wealth acting as a lure to
the would-be invaders. 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,
preserve 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 abandoned 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 cities of Chifu and Teng Chow,
while further to the east is Tientsin, the seaport of Peking. From the
most ancient times, Chinese armadas have sailed, and invading armies
have embarked for Corea from these ports. Over and over again has the
river Tatong been crowded with fleets of junks, fluttering the
dragon-banners 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
invaders, 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
signals are called “Pong-wa.” At Mok-mie′ san, a mountain south of the
capital, the fire-messages of the three southern provinces are
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, and tribute-bearing ships
have sailed over to Tientsin. The Chinese 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 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 entered “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,
which was visited, in 1816, by Captains Maxwell and Hall, in the ships
Lyra and Alceste. 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. Eastward
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 Wachusett 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
Tōkiō 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 navigable 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 River, 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. Rock,
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, and even from ancient times
Whang-hai’s pears have been celebrated. Splendid yellow varnish, almost
equal to gilding, is also made here. The native varnishers are expert
and tasteful in its use, 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 roads thread the border
of the province and the larger towns, but a great portion of Whang-hai
along its central length, from east to west, seems to be mountainous,
and by no means densely populated. 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 converts, and its soil,
like that of the other provinces, has more than once 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 Seoul folks, to be narrow, stupid, and dull.
They bear an ill name for avarice, bad faith, and a love of lying quite
unusual even among 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 royal
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 are formed, which are bare at
low water, but are flooded in time of rain, or at the melting of the
spring snows. The tides rise to the height of twenty or thirty feet,
creating violent eddies and currents, in which the management of ships
is a matter of great difficulty. 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 of the violence, coldness, and rapidity of the currents of
Han River (called Salt or Salée 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 distant
province of Kang-wen, nearly the whole breadth of the peninsula from
the mouth. Almost the entire area of this province of the
river-sources, including the western watershed of the mountain range
that walls the eastern coast, is drained by the tributaries 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 formed, rendering
navigation, and especially warlike naval operations, 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 Chō-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 Kiō,
instead of saying Kiōto. Seoul is 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 Taö,” which is the name of the
province. The city proper lies distant nearly a league from the river
bank, but has suburbs, extending down to the sand-flats. A pamphlet
lately published in the city gives it 30,723 houses, which, allowing
five in a house, would give a population of over 150,000 souls. The
natural advantages of Seoul are excellent. On the north a high range of
the Ho Mountain rises like a wall, to the east towers the Ridge of
Barriers, the mighty flood of the Han rolls to the south, a bight of
which washes the western suburb.
The scenery from the capital is magnificent, and those walking along
the city walls, as they rise over the hill-crests and bend into the
valleys, can feast their eyes on the luxuriant verdure and glorious
mountain views for which this country is noted. The walls of the city
are of crenellated masonry of varying height, averaging about twenty
feet, with arched stone bridges spanning the watercourses, as seen in
the reproduced photograph on page 79. The streets are narrow and
tortuous. The king’s castle is in the northern 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 Chō-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 obtained, 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 or 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
fishermen, who pay their taxes in fish. Another large stream which
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 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 Taikō
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 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 strongholds. 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-five feet is obtained. None of them would
offer serious difficulty to an 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 the mouth of the Han River,
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-chiŭn, situated on Imperatrice Gulf, is the port 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 Chinese 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 River 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 hermits
live, who are regarded as sacred. Their defenceless position offers
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 highways of the kingdom converge upon its
chief city. In it also Christianity has witnessed its grandest triumphs
and bloodiest defeats. Over and over again the seed of the church has
been planted in the blood 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 authority 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 dynasty with Chō-sen, or Corea, as we now know it, was
established. The capital cities in succession from Hiaksai to Chō-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) Mountain. Fertile flats and valleys abound.
The peninsula of Nai-po (within the waters), in the northwestern
corner, is often called the “Granary of the Kingdom.” Most of the rice
of the Nai-po, and the 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 divided from the other by little walls or barriers of earth,
while in this region, and in Chulla, the farmers more frequently make
great reservoirs or ponds, in which water is stored for use in dry
weather. The mountains are the great reservoirs of moisture, for in all
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 open boats. On this
account the native Christians and French missionaries have often chosen
this province as their gate of entry into the “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 first 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 Christianity still smoulder
here, and will again burst into flame at the first fanning of favorable
events. The three great highways from Fusan 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
province. 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 in 1663,
and one of the cities of which Hamel speaks, Kon-sio (Kong-Chiu), is
the capital and residence of the provincial governor.
The bays and islands, which have been visited by foreign navigators,
retain their names on European or Japanese charts. Some of these are
not very complimentary, as Deception Bay, Insult Island, and False
River. 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 Rover and the Emperor,
with the author of “A Forbidden 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.
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, shrouding all landmarks
for hours. The tides and currents are very strong, rising in some
places even as high as sixty feet. The international 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 Regent, was planned to take advantage of a certain “nick of
time.” The river emptying 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 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
burglar-proof masonry of Corean tombs, the scheme failed. The narrative
of this remarkable expedition is given in a certain book on Corea, and
in the proceedings of the United States Consular Court at Shanghae,
China, for the year 1867.
The flora is a brilliant feature of the summer landscape. Tiger-lilies
and showy compositæ, asters, cactus plants, cruciferæ, labiatæ, 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, kingfishers, wrens,
spoonbills, quail, curlew, titmouse, have been noticed. The
ever-present black crows contrast with the snowy heron, 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 archipelago and the peninsula alike, are almost virgin soil
to the student of natural history and the man of science will yet, in
this secluded nook of creation, solve many an interesting problem
concerning the procession of life on the globe. So far as known, the
Coreans seem far behind the Japanese in the study and classification 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 fishing-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 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 ornamental 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, 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.
CHULLA, OR COMPLETE NETWORK.
This province, the most southern of the eight, is also the warmest and
most fertile. It is nearest to Shang-hae, and to the 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 Alceste and
Lyra, in 1816, “the Corean archipelago” was absolutely unknown in
Europe, and was not even marked on Chinese charts. In the map of the
empire, prepared by the Jesuits at Peking 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 thirty-five islets.
Stretching far away to the north and to the south, were groups of dark
blue islets, rising mistily from the surface of the water. The sea was
covered with 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
innumerable 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 and split into
numerous ribbon-like branches, others are round and finger-shaped, some
cylindrical, and others like hollow tubes. Though some have dense white
foliations, hard or horny, others are loose and flexible, and await
only the hand of the diver. The Corean toilet requisites perhaps do not
include these useful articles, which lie waste in the sea. The
coral-beds are also very splendid in their living tints of green, blue,
violet, and yellow, and appear, as you look down upon them through the
clear transparent 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 storehouse 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 Dō, for instance, is formed by uniting
the initial syllables of the largest cities, Whang-chiu and Hai-chiu.
In the case of Chulla-Dō, 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. [8]
The soil of Chulla is rich and well cultivated, and large quantities of
rice and grain are shipped to the capital. The wide valleys afford
juicy pasture for the herds of cattle that furnish the beef diet which
the Coreans crave more than the Japanese. The visiting 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 the scene of a famous siege and battle between
the allied Coreans and Chinese and the Japanese besiegers, during the
second invasion, 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 prisoners, 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 earthen 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-dō, and a large number of towns, especially 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. Fortified 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 innumerable conical mountains,
topped in many instances by extinct volcanic 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 Auckland, 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 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 Quelpart has
long been used as a place for the banishment of convicts, the islanders
are rude and unpolished. They raise excellent 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-coverings is the wonder of strangers. Immense
droves of horses and cattle are reared, and one of the outlying islands
is called Bullock 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 central 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 of his voyage, with a sketch of the mountain thus born out of
the sea. 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 dō, or the Province of Respectful Congratulation, is nearest
to Japan, and consists chiefly of the valleys drained by the Nak-tong
River 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 historical associations with Japan,
in ancient, mediæval, and modern times. Between the court of Kion-chiu,
the capital of Shinra, and that of Kiōto, from the third to the tenth
century, the relations of war and peace, letters, and religion were
continuous and fruitful. When the national capital was fixed at Sunto,
and later at 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 mountains
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 Chō-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 the 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 districts, 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 successfully 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 prevailing 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 daimiō of Tsushima. It lies
in latitude 35° 6′ north, and longitude 129° 1′ east from Greenwich,
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 scenery, the
background of the main land being mountainous and the bay studded with
green islands. The large island in front of the settlement, to the
southward, called Tetsuyé, or the Isle of Enchanting 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 days, 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 Chinese 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, between them and the
relieving forces, ten thousand men were slain.
Foreign navigators have sprinkled their names along the shore. Cape
Clonard and Unkoffsky Bay are near the thirty-sixth parallel. Chō-san
harbor was named by Captain Broughton, who on asking the name of the
place in 1797, received the reply “Chō-san,” which is the name of the
kingdom instead of the harbor. Other names of limited recognition are
found on charts made in Europe. Many inhabited islands lie off the
coast, some of which are used as 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, having few or no rivers or important harbors. The one
exception is at the mouth of the Nak-tong River, opposite Tsushima.
This is the gateway into the province, and the point most vulnerable
from Japan. The river after draining the whole of Kiung-sang, widens
into a bay, around which are populous cities and towns, the port of
Fusan and the two great roads to Seoul. Tsushima (the Twin 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 the becalmed or
storm-stayed junks which, with fair wind and weather, can make the run
between the two countries in a single day.
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 Russian
designs on Tsushima.
A Japanese writer reports that the Kiung-sang people are rather more
simple in their habits, less corrupted in their manners, 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 faithfully transmitted from
father to son, for many generations, in the same families. Studious
habits prevail, and literature flourishes. Often the young men, after
toiling during the day, give the evening to reading and conversation,
for which admirable practice the native 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 scholastic 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 this 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, and lies
between Ham-kiung and Kiung-sang. Its name means River Meadow. Within
its area are found the sources of “the river” 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 River, 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 province 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 eastern
division having seventeen. The official census gives the number 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 Phœnix, 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 juniper 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 surrounding waters. The Japanese obtained the timber for the public
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 prove that the
superb and inspiring scenery of their peninsula is fully appreciated by
themselves. Not only are picnics and pleasure 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 influence 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 Americans, 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, descant 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. Beginning at the south, and taking them in
order toward the north, they are the following:
1. The house on Uru-chin, a town below the thirty-seventh parallel of
latitude. The inn is called “The House of the Emerging 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 a gem in the sea. The view
of the rising sun, the tints of sky, river, waves, land, and mountains
form a vision of gorgeous magnificence.
2. Hion-hai (Tranquil Sea). Out in the sea, in front of this village,
are many small islands. When the moon rises, they seem to be floating
in a sea of molten silver. The finest effect is enjoyed just before the
orb is fully above the horizon. In many of the 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, 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.
4. From an elevation near the town of Kan-nun, or Bay Hill, one may
obtain a pretty view of the groves and shrubbery growing 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 exquisite beauty.
6. At the old castle town of Kan-nun, there is a room named “The
Chamber between the Strong Fortress and the Tender Verdure.” 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 moonlight effects. The fishers’
boats gliding to and fro over the gleaming waters delight the eye.
8. At Tsu-sen is the “Rock-loving Chamber.” Here, among some 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 autumn, literary parties visit the
chamber dedicated to those who love 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 government, “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 exceptional 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. Strong men shoulder six hundred pounds of copper, or two
bales of white rice (260 pounds each). The women of this province are
said to be the most beautiful in Corea. Even from ancient times, lovely
damsels from this part of the peninsula, sent to the harem of the
Chinese emperor, were greatly admired. Christianity has made little
progress in Kang-wen, only a few towns in the southern part being
marked with a cross on the French missionary map. In the most ancient
times the Chinhan tribes occupied this portion of Corea. From the
Christian era, until the tenth century, it was alternately held by
Kokorai, or Korai, and by Shinra.
HAM-KIUNG, OR 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 Chō-sen were Chinese subjects. Now she has the European
within rifle-shot of her shores. Only the Tumen River 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, 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
demanding and obtaining that vast and fertile territory lying south of
the Amur River, and between the Gulf 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 Russian government at
once encouraged emigration, placed steamers built in New York on the
Usuri River and Lake Hanka, laid out 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 Primorskaïa, 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 ravenous” 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 mountainous 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 persecuted 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 Primorskaïa, 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 protection. Their houses are built of stout timbers,
wattled with cane, 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 detached from
the house, and consists of a hollow tree. Under the warmed 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 variety of uses, and a few sheets dressed with oil,
serve as windows.
Some of the Russian 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 them an education in English.
Through the Russian possessions, the Corean liberal, Kin Rinshio, 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 Tōkiō were enabled to construct and publish so valuable a
map of Corea, the accuracy of which astonishes his fellow-countrymen.
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 Christianity. In this work the
priests and schoolmasters have had considerable success. There are but
few Coreans north of the Tumen who cannot read and write, and the young
men employed as clerks are good linguists. A number of them are
fishermen, living near the coast. Most of the converts to the Greek
church are 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, and have given descriptions and measurements
of them. One fortification was found to cover six acres, with walls
over thirty feet in height, protected by a moat and two outer ditches,
with gateways 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 knowledge 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 legendary
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, over
eight thousand 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 of any important
harbors. A glance at a foreign chart shows that numerous French,
Russian, 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 Broughton’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 populous and fertile portion of the province. Port Lazareff, east
of Yon-fun, near the mouth of the Dungan River, 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, fronting 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 allowed to Japanese merchants for general travel, or free
movement, is the old castle-town of Tokugen. The tomb of the founder of
the reigning dynasty of Chō-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 “Rise of
the Dragon.” One of the high roads of the kingdom traverses the strip
of land skirting the sea from north to south throughout the province,
touching 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 forests are
populated chiefly by tigers and other beasts of prey.
In the current scouring the coast of Ham-kiung swim unnumbered 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 creatures 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 shipwrecked Dutchmen. 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 purposes 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 Chinese merchants bartered
tea, rice, pipes, gold, and furs for the Corean ginseng, hides, and
household implements. Furs of a 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, and 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. [9] This loophole of entrance 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 Chō-sen, which comprehended Liao
Tung and that part of the peninsula between the 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 Whi. These were
both conquered by Kokorai, which held dominion until the seventh
century, when it was crushed by the Chinese emperors of the Han
dynasty, and the land 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 Chō-sen, the founders of
both states being sprung from this region and of the hardy race
inhabiting it. From very ancient times, the boundaries of this
province, being almost entirely natural and consisting of mountain,
river, and sea, have remained unchanged.