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 [[188]]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.
Map of the Capital Province.
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 [[189]]properly a common noun, but by popular use has become a proper name, which, in English, may be correctly written with a capital initial. According to the locality whence they come, the natives pronounce the name Say´-ool, Shay´-ool, or Say´-oor. The city is often spoken of as “the king’s residence,” and on foreign maps is marked “King-ki 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 [[190]]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.
Military Geography of Seoul.
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 [[191]]river banks, crowning most of the commanding headlands, or points of vantage. Over these the stars and stripes floated for three days, in 1871, when the American forces captured these 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 [[192]]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.