In spite of the failure of the plan of invasion, the emperor could not believe that Japan was serious in daring to oppose his will and so sent another envoy demanding that the Japanese sovereign come to Peking and do obeisance. We may well imagine with what ridicule this proposition must have been received in the capital of the hardy islanders.
Chapter VIII.
A Queen huntress.... general tax.... a jealous Queen.... tribute.... a thrifty Queen.... lack of filial piety.... a termagant.... Mongol influence at its zenith.... second invasion planned.... corrupt court.... preparations for the invasion.... expedition sets sail.... difficulties .... terrible catastrophe.... survivors.... retreat.... new preparations.... the plan given up.... corruption.... famine in China.... northern cannibals.... at last driven back.... a son’s rebuke.... Timur Khan makes changes.... king abdicates.... family difficulties.... an abject king.... new slave law.... king goes to Peking.... Ch‘ung-sŭn ascends the throne.... a disgusted courtier.... a kingless country.... eunuchs elevated.... reconstruction.... king of Mukden.... pander to the Mongol court.... king’s father banished.... silver coin.
The sporting proclivities of the Mongol queen of Koryŭ were an object of wonder and disgust to the people, for she was accustomed to accompany the king in his expeditions and was as good a horseman as any in the rout. It may well be imagined that the finances of the country were in bad shape, and it was found necessary to reconstruct the revenue laws to meet the constantly recurring deficit. For the first time in the history a general tax was levied on all the people, high and low alike. Hitherto taxes had been levied only on the better class of people. This tax was called the hop‘o which means “house linen,” for the tax was levied in linen cloth. This shows that although coin circulated, barter was as yet the main method of interchange of commodities.
The custom of dressing in white must be a fairly ancient one for we learn that at this time the government ordered the use of blue instead of white, as blue is the color that corresponds to east. The birth of a son to the king’s Mongol consort was the signal for great rejoicings and festivities. Everyone offered congratulations, even the discarded queen.
It is said that the king paid some attention to this former queen and that it aroused the fierce jealousy of the Mongol queen. She declared that she would write and complain to the emperor that she was being ill treated. She was dissuaded from this by the earnest entreaties of the officials. At the same time a further concession was made to the Mongolizing tendency by changing the names of official grades to those in use among the Mongols.
The emperor had not given up his plan of subduing Japan, and for this purpose he began the preparation of boats in the south of Korea, calling upon the Koreans to supply all the requisites. But this was not the only use to which he put his Koryŭ vassal, for he also demanded women and pearls; the former were taken from the men and the latter from the women; and both were sent to the Mongol court.
The Mongol queen of Koryŭ was a thrifty woman and let no small scruples stand in the way of the procuring of pin-money. She took a golden pagoda from one of the monasteries and melted it down. The bullion found a ready market. She also went into the ginseng raising business on her own account, taking people’s fields by force and marketed the crop of ginseng in Nanking, where it brought a good price. She thus turned an “honest” penny. But it all went against the aristocratic tendencies of the king. That the queen was not without a touch of superstition is shown by the fact that she desisted from accompanying the king to the grave of Wang-gön when told that the spirit of the founder of the dynasty was a strong one and that if she went she might be attacked by some dangerous disease.
When some one hinted to the queen that the former queen was plotting against her life she promptly had her seized and put to the torture, and it would have cost her her life had not the officials interfered and won the inquisitors over to clemency. But her oppression of the people went on unchecked and she sequestered so much of their property that hundreds of people were driven into actual mendicancy. Even when news of her mother’s death reached her she stopped feasting but a short time, to shed a few conventional tears, and then resumed her revels. This was perhaps her greatest offence in the eyes of the people of Koryŭ. But her affection for her husband was very real for we learn that when he was taken sick and she was told that it was on account of her lavish use of money, she stopped building, sent away her falcons and restored a gold pagoda to the monastery from which she had taken it. She had ideas of her own as to the proper treatment of women by the sterner sex, for when the king preceded her in one of the processions she turned back and refused to go. The king went back to pacify her but she struck him with a rod and gave him a round scolding. She was meanwhile doing a stroke of business in sea-otter skins. She kept a large number of men hunting these valuable animals, but when she found they were “squeezing” half the catch she imprisoned the offenders.
It was not till 1279 that all the officials, high and low, military and civil, had adopted the Mongol coiffure and dress. It was now that the Mongol influence was at its zenith in the peninsula. In this year the whole royal family made a journey to Peking and it was the signal for a grand festival at that capital. It put an end once for all to the suspicions entertained by the emperor relative to the loyalty of the king of Koryŭ. The busybodies therefore found their occupation gone. On their return the queen resumed building operations, seized over 300 of the people’s houses and had a thousand men at work erecting a palace.