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 [[180]]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 [[181]]the privilege of the two autumn fairs, the Coreans were mulcted but half the sum, as the gates were then opened by an underling Manchiu official. The winter fair was but of slight importance. For the various Chinese goods, and European cottons, the Coreans [[182]]bartered their furs, hides, gold dust, ginseng, and the mulberry paper used by Chinese tailors for linings, and for windows.
Map of Ping-an Province.
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 [[183]]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.