Chapter XI.
Sin-don’s pride.... Mongol Emperor’s plan of escape to Koryŭ.... Mongol Empire falls.... Japanese envoy snubbed.... an imperial letter from the Ming court.... ill treatment of Japanese envoy bears fruit.... more trouble in Quelpart.... census and revenue.... Gen. Yi promoted.... Koryŭ adopts Ming dress and coiffure.... Gen. Yi makes a campaign across the Yalu.... the Japanese come north of the capital.... Sin-don is overthrown.... popular belief regarding him.... trouble from three sources at the same time.... a Mongol messenger.... the Japanese burn Han-yang.... a new favorite.... a laughing-stock.... Chöng Mong-ju an envoy to Nanking.... plans for a navy.... useless army.... Ming Emperor demands horses.... Quelpart rebels defeated.... king assassinated.... Ming Emperor refuses to ratify the succession.... Mongols favored at the Koryŭ court.... a supernatural proof.... Japanese repulsed.... Japanese deny their responsibility for the action of corsairs.
The year 1367 saw no diminution of the symptoms that proclaimed the deep-seated disease that was eating at the vitals of Koryŭ. Sin-don even dared to flout the emperor by scornfully casting aside an imperial missive containing a notification of his elevation to an honorary position. The king continued to abase himself by performing menial duties in Buddhistic ceremonies at his favorite monastery. Sin-don added to his other claims the power of geomancy and said the king must move the capital to P‘yŭng-yang. He was sent to look over the site with a view to a removal thither, but a storm of hail frightened him out of the project. Returning to Song-do he refused to see the king for four days, urging as his excuse the fatigue of the journey. His encroachments continued to such a point that at last he took no care to appear before the king in the proper court dress but came in the ordinary dress of the Koryŭ gentleman, and he ordered the historians not to mention the fact in the annals.
The Mongol horse-breeders still ruffled it in high style on the island of Quelpart where they even saw fit to drive out the prefect sent by the king. For this reason an expedition was fitted out against them and they were soon brought to terms. They however appealed to the emperor. As it happened the Mongol emperor was at this time in desperate straits and foresaw the impossibility of long holding Peking against the Ming forces. He therefore formed the plan of escaping to the island of Quelpart and there finding asylum. For this purpose he sent large store of treasure and of other necessaries to this place. At the same time he sent an envoy to the court at Song-do relinquishing all claim to the island. In this way he apparently hoped to gain the good will of Koryŭ, of which he feared he would soon stand in need. The king, not knowing the emperor’s design, feared that this was a device by which to raise trouble and he hastened to send an envoy declaring that the expeditions to Quelpart were not in reference to the Mongols there but in order to dislodge a band of Japanese freebooters. The former prefects had always treated the people of Quelpart harshly and had exacted large sums from them on any and every pretext; but the prefect now sent was determined to show the people a different kind of rule. He even carried jars of water from the mainland rather than drink the water of Quelpart. So at least the records affirm. Naturally the people idolized him.
The year 1368 opened, the year which beheld the demolition of the Mongol empire. It had risen less than a century before and had increased with marvelous rapidity until it threatened the whole eastern hemisphere. Its decadence had been as rapid and as terrible as its rise. The Mongols were peculiarly unfit to resist the seductions of the more refined civilizations which they encountered. The Ming forces drove the Mongol court from Peking and the dethroned emperor betook himself northward into the desert to the town of Sa-mak.
This year also witnessed the arrival of a friendly embassy from Japan bearing gifts to the king. Here was Koryŭ’s great opportunity to secure the coöperation of the Japanese government in the work of putting down the pirates who were harrying the shores of the peninsula. Proper treatment of this envoy and a little diplomacy would have saved Koryŭ untold suffering, but the low-born but all-powerful favorite, Sin-don, took advantage of the occasion to make an exhibition of his own importance and he snubbed the envoy so effectually that the latter immediately returned to Japan. The foolish favorite went so far as to withhold proper food from him and his suite, and addressed them in low forms of speech. The same year, at his instigation, the whole system of national examinations was done away with.
A FORM OF SEPULTURE.
Early in 1369 the first envoy, Sŭl Sa, from the Ming court arrived in Song-do. He was the bearer of an imperial letter which read as follows[follows]:-
“After the Sung dynasty lost its power, a hundred years passed by without its recovering from the blow, but heaven hated the drunkenness and licentiousness of the Mongols and now after eighteen years of war the fruition of our labors has been reached. At first we entered the Mongol army and there beheld the evils of the Mongol reign. Then with heaven’s help we went to the west, to Han-ju and overcame its king Chin U-ryang. Then we raised the standard of revolt against the Mongols. In the east we overcame the rebel Chang Sa-sŭng and in the south the Min-wŏl kingdom. In the north the Ho-in fell before us and now all the people of China call us emperor. The name of our dynasty is Ming and the name of this auspicious year is Hong-mu. We call upon you now as in duty bound to render allegiance to us. In times past you were very intimate with us for it was your desire to better the condition of your people thereby.”
Such was the importance of this embassy that the king went out in person to meet it. Splendid gifts were offered which, however, the envoy declined.
In accordance with the summons contained in this letter the king formally put away the Mongol calendar and assumed that of the Mings instead. An envoy was immediately sent to the Ming court to offer congratulations and perform the duties of a vassal. The emperor responded graciously by sending back to Koryŭ all citizens of that kingdom who had been held in semi-durance by the Mongols.
The criminal neglect of opportunity in driving away the friendly Japanese envoy now began to bear its bitter fruit. Many Japanese had from time to time settled peacefully in southern Koryŭ and the king had given them a place to live at Nam-hă in Kyŭng-sang Province. They now broke their oath of fealty to the government, rose in open revolt and began ravaging the country right and left.
As the emperor of the Mongols had fled away north and his scheme for taking refuge in Quelpart had come to naught we would suppose the Mongol horse-breeders in that island would act with considerable circumspection; but on the other hand they kept up a continual disturbance, revolting and surrendering again in quick succession much to the annoyance of the central government.
In the latter part of the year 1369 the government again took a census of the arable land of the peninsula in order to make a re-estimate of the revenue to be received. This indicates that there had been a certain degree of prosperity in spite of all untoward circumstances and that the margin of cultivation had moved at least a little way up the hill-sides, and that waste land had been reclaimed. It is only by inferences from chance statements like this that we get an occasional imperfect glimpse of the condition of the common people. Oriental histories have not been written with reference to the common people.
The king had now handed over to Sin-don the whole care of public business and he was virtually the ruler of the land. Gen. Yi T‘ă-jo had shown his wisdom in staying as far as possible from the capital and in not crossing the path of the dangerous favorite. He was now appointed general-in-chief of all the north-eastern territory and at the same time Gen. Yi Im-in was appointed to a similar position in the north-west. There was some fear lest fugitive Mongols might cross the border and seek refuge in Koryŭ territory. The chief business of the army there was to guard all the approaches and see to it that such fugitives were strictly excluded. In the following year, 1370, Gen. Yi T‘ă-jo even crossed the Yalu, probably in the vicinity of the present Sam-su, into what was then Yŭ-jin territory, and took 2000 bullocks and 100 horses, but gave them all to the people to be used in cultivating the fields.
Now that the Ming dynasty was firmly established the emperor turned his attention to Korea. He began by investing the king anew with the insignia of royalty and presenting him with a complete outfit of clothes of the style of the Ming dynasty. He also gave musical instruments and the Ming calendar. The important law was promulgated that after a man had passed the civil examinations in Koryŭ he should go to Nanking and there undergo further examination. The king received all the emperor’s gifts[gifts] and commands with complacency and soon the Ming dress was adopted throughout by the official class and more gradually by the common people. It is the style of dress in vogue in Korea today, whereas the Chinese themselves adopted later the dress of their Manchu conquerors[conquerors]. In this respect the Koreans today are really more Chinese than[than] the Chinese themselves.
With the opening of 1371 Gen. Yi led an army across the Yalu and attacked Ol-ja Fortress. The whole territory between the Yalu and the Great Wall was at this time held by the Yŭ-jin people or by offshoots of the Mongol power. The Ming emperor had as yet made no attempt to take it and therefore this expedition of Koryŭ’s was not looked upon as an act of bad faith by China. Just before the attack on Ol-ja began, there came over to the Koryŭ forces a general who, formerly a Koryŭ citizen, had long been in the Mongol service. His name was Yi In-bok. Gen. Yi sent him to Song-do where the king elevated him to a high position. A bridge had been thrown across the Yalu and the army had crossed in safety, but a tremendous thunder storm threw the army into confusion, for they feared it was a warning voice from a deity who was angered by this invasion of trans-Yalu territory. With great presence of mind one of the leaders shouted that it was a good sign for it meant that the heavenly dragon was shaking things up a bit as a presage of their victory. Their fears were thus allayed and the attack upon the fortress was successful. Gen. Yi then led his forces toward the Liao Fortress but cautiously left all the camp baggage three days in the rear and advanced, with seven days rations in hand. The advance guard of 3000 reached the fortress and began the assault before the main body came up. When the garrison saw the full army approach they were in despair but their commander was determined to make a fight. As he stood on the wall and in person refused Gen. Yi’s terms it is said that the latter drew his bow and let fly an arrow which sped so true that it struck off the commander’s helmet, whereupon Gen. Yi shouted, “If you do not surrender I will hit your face next time.” The commander thereupon surrendered. So Gen. Yi took the place and having dismantled it and burned all the supplies, started on the return march. Provisions ran low, and it was found necessary to kill the beasts of burden. They were in some danger from the detachments of the enemy who hung upon their rear but they were kept at a respectful distance by an ingenious strategem of Gen. Yi’s, for wherever he made a camp he compelled the soldiers to make elaborate preparations even to the extent of erecting separate cattle sheds and water closets. The enemy finding these in the deserted camps deemed that the army must be in fine condition and so dared not attack them. Thus the whole army got safely back to An-ju.
As the Japanese pirates, emboldened by the impunity with which they could ravage Korea, now came even north of the capital and attacked Hă-ju the capital of Whang-hă Province, and also burned forty Koryŭ boats, Gen. Yi was detailed to go and drive them away, which he speedily did.
The royal favorite was now nearing the catastrophe toward which his criminally corrupt course inevitably led. He was well known to all but the king whom he had infatuated. But now he began to see that the end was not far off. He knew that soon the king too would discover his knavery. For this cause he determined to use the little power he had left in an attempt to overthrow the government. What the plan was we are not told but it was nipped in the bud, for the king discovered it and arrested some of his accomplices and by means of torture learned the whole truth about the man whom he had before considered too good for this world. The revulsion of feeling was complete. He first banished Sin-don to Su-wŭn and then at the urgent advice of the whole court sent an executioner to make way with him. The messenger of death bore a letter with him in which the king said, “I promised never to move against you but I never anticipated such actions as those of which you have been guilty. You have (1) rebelled, (2) you have numerous children, though a monk and unmarried, (3) you have built yourself a palace in my capital. These things I did not agree to.” So Sin-don and his two sons perished.
It is said of Sin-don that he was mortally afraid of hunting-dogs and that in his feasts he insisted upon having the flesh of black fowls and white horses to eat. For these reasons the people said that he was not a man but a fox in disguise; for Korean lore affirms that if any animal drinks of water that has lain for twenty years in a human skull it will have the power to assume at will any form of man or beast. But the peculiar condition is added that if a hunting-dog looks such a man in the face he will be compelled to resume his original shape.
With the opening of 1372 troubles multiplied. Nap T‘ap-chul, a Mongol chieftain at large, together with Ko-gan, led a mixed army of Mongol and Yŭ-jin adventurers across the Yalu and began to harry the northern border. Gen. Chi Yun was sent to put down the presumptuous robbers. At the same time the Quelpart horse-breeders again revolted and when the king, at the command of the emperor, sent a man to bring horses as tribute to China the insurrectionists put him to death. But the common people of Quelpart formed a sort of militia and put down the insurrection themselves. The Japanese also made trouble, for they now began again to ravage the eastern coast, and struck as high north as An-byŭn, and Ham-ju, now Ham-heung. They also carried on operations at Nam-han near Seoul, but in both instances were driven off.
It is said that at this time the king was given over to sodomy and that he had a “school” of boys at the palace to cater to his unnatural passions. The people were deeply indignant and talk ran very high, but the person of the king was sacred, and his acts were not to be accounted for; so he went his evil way unchecked, each step bringing him nearer the overthrow of the dynasty which was now not far away.
Late in the year the king sent a present of fifty horses to the Ming emperor.
No sooner had the spring of 1373 opened than the remnant of the Mongols in the north sent to the king and said “We are about to raise a mighty force to overthrow the Ming empire, and you must cooperate with us in this work.” The messenger who brought this unwelcome summons was promptly clapped into prison, but later at the advice of the courtiers he was liberated and sent back home.
It would be well-nigh impossible to describe each successive expedition of the Japanese to the shores of Koryŭ, but at this time one of unusual importance occurred. The marauders ascended the Han River in their small boats and made a swift attack on Han-yang the site of the present capital of Korea. Before leaving they burned it to the ground. The slaughter was terrific and the whole country and especially the capital was thrown into a state of unusual solicitude. The Japanese, loaded down with booty, made their way to the island of Kyo-dong just outside the island of Kang-wha, and proceeded to kill and plunder there.
The boy whom the king had called his son but who was in reality an illegitimate son of Sin-don, was named Mo-ri-no, but now as he had gained his majority he was given the name of U and the rank of Kang-neung-gun, or “Prince who is near to the king.” As Sin-don was dead the king made Kim Heung-gyŭng his favorite and pander. Gen. Kŭl Săng was put in charge of the defensive operations against the Japanese but as he failed to cashier one of his lieutenants who had suffered defeat at the hands of the Japanese the testy king took off his unoffending head. Gen. Ch‘oe Yŭng was then put in charge and ordered to fit out a fleet to oppose the marauders. He was at the same time made criminal judge, but he committed so many ludicrous mistakes and made such a travesty of justice that he became a general laughing stock.
As the Ming capital was at Nanking the sending of envoys was a difficult matter, for they were obliged to go by boat, and in those days, and with the craft at their command, anything but coastwise sailing was exceedingly dangerous. So when the Koryŭ envoy Chöng Mong-ju, one of the few great men of the Koryŭ dynasty, arrived at the emperor’s court, the latter ordered that thereafter envoys should come but once in three years. In reply to this the king said that if desired the envoy could be sent overland; but this the emperor forbade because of the danger from the remnants of the Mongol power.
The eventful year 1374 now came in. Gen. Yi Hyŭn told the king that without a navy Koryŭ would never be able to cope with Japanese pirates. He showed the king a plan for a navy which he had drawn up. His majesty was pleased with it and ordered it carried out, but the general affirmed that a navy never could be made out of landsmen and that a certain number of islanders should be selected and taught naval tactics for five years. In order to do this he urged that a large part of the useless army be disbanded. To all of this the royal assent was given. The quality of the army may be judged from the action of the troops sent south to Kyŭng-sang Province to oppose a band of Japanese. They ravaged and looted as badly as the Japanese themselves. And when at last the two forces did meet the Koryŭ troops were routed with a loss of 5,000 men. Meanwhile the Japanese were working their will in Whang-hă Province, north and west of the capital, and as to the details of it even the annals give up in despair and say the details were so harrowing that it was impossible to describe them.
The emperor of China was determined to obtain 2,000 of the celebrated horses bred on the island of Quelpart and after repeated demands the king sent to that island to procure them. The Mongol horse-breeders still had the business in hand and were led by four men who said, “We are Mongols, why should we furnish the Ming emperor with horses?” So they gave only 300 animals. The emperor insisted upon having the full 2,000 and the king reluctantly proceeded to extremities. A fleet of 300 boats was fitted out and 25,000 men were carried across the straits. On the way a gale of wind was encountered and many of the boats were swamped, but the following morning the survivors, still a large number, arrived at Myŭng-wŭl, or “Bright Moon,” Harbor where they found 3,000 men drawn up to oppose their landing. When the battle was joined the enemy was defeated and chased thirty li but they again rallied in the southern part of the island at Ho-do where they made a stand. There they were surrounded and compelled to surrender. The leader, T‘ap-chi was cut in two at the waist and many others committed suicide. Several hundreds others who refused to surrender were cut down. To the credit of the officers who led the expedition be it said that wherever they went the people were protected and lawless acts were strictly forbidden.
The king had now reached the moment of his fate. The blood of many innocent men was on his hands and he was destined to a violent death himself. He was stabbed by one of his most trusted eunuchs while in a drunken sleep. The king’s mother was the first to discover the crime and with great presence of mind she concealed the fact and hastily summoning two of the courtiers consulted with them as to the best means of discovering the murderer. As it happened the eunuch was detected by the blood with which his clothes were stained. Put to the torture he confessed the crime and indicated his accomplice. The cause of his act was as follows. One of the king’s concubines was with child. When the eunuch informed the king the latter was very glad and asked who the father might be. The eunuch replied that one Hong Mun, one of the king’s favorites, was the father. The king said that he would bring about the death of this Hong so that no one should ever know that the child was not a genuine prince. The eunuch knew that this meant his own death too, for he also was privy to the fact. So he hastened to Hung Mun and they together matured the plan for the assassination.
U, the supposed son of the king, now ascended the throne. His posthumous title is Sin-u. An envoy was sent to Nanking to announce the fact, but the emperor refused to ratify his accession to the throne. The reason may have been because he was not satisfied as to the manner of the late king’s demise, or it may be that someone had intimated to him that the successor was of doubtful legitimacy; and now to add to the difficulties[difficulties] of the situation the Ming envoy on his way home with 200 tribute horses was waylaid by Korean renegades who stole the horses and escaped to the far north. When news of this reached Nanking the Korean envoy there hastened to make good his escape.
A conference was now held at the Koryŭ capital and as the breach with the Ming power seemed beyond remedy it was decided to make advances to the Mongols who still lingered in the north; but at the earnest desire of Chöng Mong-ju this decision was reversed and an envoy was sent to Nanking to explain matters as best he could. The eunuch and his accomplice who had killed the king were now executed and notice of the fact was sent to the Chinese court.
There was great dissatisfaction among the Koryŭ officials for they all knew that the king was a mere usurper and it was again suggested that approaches be made to the Mongols. About this time also a Mongol envoy came demanding to know whose son the present king was. They wanted to put the king of Mukden on the throne, as he was of course favorable to the Mongols. A great and acrimonious dispute now arose between the Mongol and Ming factions in the Koryŭ court. But the Mongol sympathizers carried the day. This, however, came to nothing for when news came that the king of Mukden and many Koryŭ renegades were advancing in force on the Koryŭ frontier to take by force what the officials had decided to give unasked, there was a great revulsion of feeling and troops were sent to hold them in check. This was in 1376, and while this was in progress the Japanese were carrying fire and sword through[through] the south without let or hindrance.
Pan-ya the real mother of the king came forward and claimed her position as such, but another of the former king’s concubines, Han, had always passed as the boy’s mother and she was now loath to give up the advantages which the position afforded. For this reason she secured the arrest and imprisonment of Pan-yu. It was decided that she must die and she was carried to the water’s edge and was about to be thrown in when she exclaimed, “When I die one of the palace gates will fall as a sign of my innocence and the truth of my claim.” The story runs that when she sank beneath the water this came true and all knew, too late, that she was indeed the mother of the king.
The Japanese now made their appearance again in Ch‘ung-Ch‘ŭng Province and took the town of Kong-ju. The Korean forces under Gen. Pak In-gye were there routed but not till their leader had been thrown from his horse and killed. Then an army under Gen. Ch‘oé Yŭng met them at Hong-san. The general rushed forward ahead of his men to attack the marauders and was wounded by an arrow in the mouth but he did not retire from the fight. The result was a glorious victory for the Koryŭ forces. The Japanese were almost annihilated.
Some time before this the king had sent an envoy Na Heung-yu to Japan to ask the interference of the Japanese Government against the pirates, and the reply was now brought by the hand of a Japanese monk Yang Yu. It said. “The pirates all live in western Japan in a place called Ku-ju and they are rebels against us and have been for twenty years. So we are not at fault because of the harm they have done you. We are about to send an expedition against them and if we take Ku-ju we swear that we will put an end to the piracy.” But the pirates in the meantime ravaged Kang-wha and large portions of Chŭl-la Province.